WorldWideScience

Sample records for on-line matrix removal

  1. Sequential injection on-line matrix removal and trace metal preconcentration using a PTFE beads packed column as demonstrated for the determination of cadmium by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

    2002-01-01

    A sequential injection (SI) on-line matrix removal and trace metal preconcentration procedure by using a novel microcolumn packed with PTFE beads is described, and demonstrated for trace cadmium analysis with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The analyte...

  2. Definition of a matrix of the generalized parameters asymmetrical multiphase transmission lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suslov V.M.

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Idle time, without introduction of wave characteristics, algorithm of definition of a matrix of the generalized parameters asymmetrical multiphase transmission lines is offered. Definition of a matrix of parameters is based on a matrix primary specific of parameters of line and simple iterative procedure. The amount of iterations of iterative procedure is determined by a set error of performance of the resulted matrix ratio between separate blocks of a determined matrix. The given error is connected by close image of with a margin error determined matrix.

  3. Risk-based equipment removal guide for on-line maintenance at PSE ampersand G

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knoll, A.; Smith, C.; Pollock, J.

    1995-01-01

    On-line maintenance plays an important role in achieving safe and reliable power generation in a nuclear power plant. However, maintenance, if not properly planned and performed, may also be an important contributor to plant risk. Therefore, plant-specific procedures are needed for equipment removal from service to enhance the benefits of on-line maintenance and minimize the risks involved. The problem is to identify and implement the most effective on-line maintenance policy in the form of a proceduralized guide to assure plant safety under various operation and maintenance constraints. This paper presents a methodology to develop plant-specific on-line maintenance strategies and acceptance criteria using a multivariate safety approach based on risk assessment. Based on plant-specific data as modeled in the individual plant evaluation (IPE) and the updated probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), the risk-based methodology is currently being applied to the development of proceduralized equipment removal guides at Hope Creek and Salem units 1 and 2 of Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE ampersand G)

  4. Invalid-point removal based on epipolar constraint in the structured-light method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Zhaoshuai; Wang, Zhao; Huang, Junhui; Xing, Chao; Gao, Jianmin

    2018-06-01

    In structured-light measurement, there unavoidably exist many invalid points caused by shadows, image noise and ambient light. According to the property of the epipolar constraint, because the retrieved phase of the invalid point is inaccurate, the corresponding projector image coordinate (PIC) will not satisfy the epipolar constraint. Based on this fact, a new invalid-point removal method based on the epipolar constraint is proposed in this paper. First, the fundamental matrix of the measurement system is calculated, which will be used for calculating the epipolar line. Then, according to the retrieved phase map of the captured fringes, the PICs of each pixel are retrieved. Subsequently, the epipolar line in the projector image plane of each pixel is obtained using the fundamental matrix. The distance between the corresponding PIC and the epipolar line of a pixel is defined as the invalidation criterion, which quantifies the satisfaction degree of the epipolar constraint. Finally, all pixels with a distance larger than a certain threshold are removed as invalid points. Experiments verified that the method is easy to implement and demonstrates better performance than state-of-the-art measurement systems.

  5. Vascular Canals in Permanent Hyaline Cartilage: Development, Corrosion of Nonmineralized Cartilage Matrix, and Removal of Matrix Degradation Products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabner, Simone; Häusler, Gabriele; Böck, Peter

    2017-06-01

    Core areas in voluminous pieces of permanent cartilage are metabolically supplied via vascular canals (VCs). We studied cartilage corrosion and removal of matrix degradation products during the development of VCs in nose and rib cartilage of piglets. Conventional staining methods were used for glycosaminoglycans, immunohistochemistry was performed to demonstrate collagens types I and II, laminin, Ki-67, von Willebrand factor, VEGF, macrophage marker MAC387, S-100 protein, MMPs -2,-9,-13,-14, and their inhibitors TIMP1 and TIMP2. VCs derived from connective tissue buds that bulged into cartilage matrix ("perichondrial papillae", PPs). Matrix was corroded at the tips of PPs or resulting VCs. Connective tissue stromata in PPs and VCs comprised an axial afferent blood vessel, peripherally located wide capillaries, fibroblasts, newly synthesized matrix, and residues of corroded cartilage matrix (collagen type II, acidic proteoglycans). Multinucleated chondroclasts were absent, and monocytes/macrophages were not seen outside the blood vessels. Vanishing acidity characterized areas of extracellular matrix degradation ("preresorptive layers"), from where the dismantled matrix components diffused out. Leached-out material stained in an identical manner to intact cartilage matrix. It was detected in the stroma and inside capillaries and associated downstream veins. We conclude that the delicate VCs are excavated by endothelial sprouts and fibroblasts, whilst chondroclasts are specialized to remove high volumes of mineralized cartilage. VCs leading into permanent cartilage can be formed by corrosion or inclusion, but most VCs comprise segments that have developed in either of these ways. Anat Rec, 300:1067-1082, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Polyakov lines in Yang-Mills matrix models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Austing, Peter; Wheater, John F.; Vernizzi, Graziano

    2003-01-01

    We study the Polyakov line in Yang-Mills matrix models, which include the IKKT model of IIB string theory. For the gauge group SU(2) we give the exact formulae in the form of integral representations which are convenient for finding the asymptotic behaviour. For the SU(N) bosonic models we prove upper bounds which decay as a power law at large momentum p. We argue that these capture the full asymptotic behaviour. We also indicate how to extend the results to some correlation functions of Polyakov lines. (author)

  7. Furosemide removal in constructed wetlands: Comparative efficiency of LECA and Cork granulates as support matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machado, A I; Dordio, A; Fragoso, R; Leitão, A E; Duarte, E

    2017-12-01

    The removal efficiency of LECA and cork granulates as support matrix for pharmaceuticals active compounds in a constructed wetland system was investigated using the diuretic drug Furosemide. Kinetics studies were performed testing three different concentrations of Furosemide in an ultrapure water matrix, along seven days. LECA achieved higher removal values compared to cork granulates. However, cork granulates presented a higher removal in the first 24 h of contact time compared to the other adsorbent. The kinetic studies showed that LECA and cork granulates have different adsorption behaviours for Furosemide which is controlled by different adsorption mechanisms. Both materials showed good removal efficiencies and a combination of the two should be further explored in order to applied both materials as support matrix to cope with different furosemide concentrations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Radioactive liquid wastes lines removal project at Los Alamos (1981-1986)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elder, J.C.; Cox, E.J.; Hohner, D.P.; Valentine, A.M.

    1986-09-01

    This report describes the abandoned liquid waste lines removal operations conducted at Los Alamos in the period 1981 to 1986. Particular emphasis has been placed on as-left conditions, that is, on the location of sections of waste lines or contaminated soil which were left in place on the basis of ALARA decisions. Contaminated items were left when interfering utilities, roads, structures, or great depth made complete removal not cost effective or not safe. Left items were either not highly contaminated or they were not near the surface. Total cost of the project was $4.2 million. Approximately 5800 m 3 of contaminated waste was placed in the Solid Waste Management Site at TA-54 Area G. The project accomplished the removal of approximately 34,500 ft (6.5 miles) of abandoned waste lines under carefully controlled conditions. Procedures for excavation, waste disposal, personnel protection, and radiation monitoring are described. Environmental monitoring criteria and methods for determining acceptable levels of contamination in soils and on surfaces are discussed

  9. Resilient organizations: matrix model and service line management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westphal, Judith A

    2005-09-01

    Resilient organizations modify structures to meet the demands of the marketplace. The author describes a structure that enables multihospital organizations to innovate and rapidly adapt to changes. Service line management within a matrix model is an evolving organizational structure for complex systems in which nurses are pivotal members.

  10. Expression pattern of matrix metalloproteinases in human gynecological cancer cell lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schröpfer, Andrea; Kammerer, Ulrike; Kapp, Michaela; Dietl, Johannes; Feix, Sonja; Anacker, Jelena

    2010-01-01

    Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in the degradation of protein components of the extracellular matrix and thus play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. Their expression is related to the progression of gynecological cancers (e.g. endometrial, cervical or ovarian carcinoma). In this study we investigated the expression pattern of the 23 MMPs, currently known in humans, in different gynecological cancer cell lines. In total, cell lines from three endometrium carcinomas (Ishikawa, HEC-1-A, AN3 CA), three cervical carcinomas (HeLa, Caski, SiHa), three chorioncarcinomas (JEG, JAR, BeWo), two ovarian cancers (BG-1, OAW-42) and one teratocarcinoma (PA-1) were examined. The expression of MMPs was analyzed by RT-PCR, Western blot and gelatin zymography. We demonstrated that the cell lines examined can constitutively express a wide variety of MMPs on mRNA and protein level. While MMP-2, -11, -14 and -24 were widely expressed, no expression was seen for MMP-12, -16, -20, -25, -26, -27 in any of the cell lines. A broad range of 16 MMPs could be found in the PA1 cells and thus this cell line could be used as a positive control for general MMP experiments. While the three cervical cancer cell lines expressed 10-14 different MMPs, the median expression in endometrial and choriocarcinoma cells was 7 different enzymes. The two investigated ovarian cancer cell lines showed a distinctive difference in the number of expressed MMPs (2 vs. 10). Ishikawa, Caski, OAW-42 and BeWo cell lines could be the best choice for all future experiments on MMP regulation and their role in endometrial, cervical, ovarian or choriocarcinoma development, whereas the teratocarcinoma cell line PA1 could be used as a positive control for general MMP experiments

  11. Mixed Matrix Composite Membranes Containing POSS Molecules for Carbon Dioxide Removal Application

    KAUST Repository

    Rini, Eki Listya

    2011-05-10

    CO2 removal by membrane processes is considerably potential for several applications such as natural gas and synthesis gas purification, enhanced oil recovery application, and carbon dioxide capture in combat against global warming. Dense polymeric membranes are commonly utilized for these type of gas separation applications. Nevertheless, the intrinsic properties of dense polymeric membranes, which commonly characterize by the low gas permeability versus high gas selectivity trade–off or vice versa, is less desirable. In order to meet the increased demand of CO2 removal, a strategy to improve the gas separation performance of a polymeric membrane is investigated in this study. With this regard, mixed matrix membranes in which inorganic non porous fillers are incorporated into a polymeric matrix were prepared to achieve the aforementioned objective. The mixed matrix membranes were prepared from Pebax® block copolymers and PEG POSS® molecules. These hybrid membranes were formed as both dense and multilayer composite membranes. The dense transparent membranes with well–dispersed fillers could be obtained by variation of the solvent mixture. The DSC analyses showed that incorporation of PEG POSS® into Pebax® matrix altered the thermal properties of the matrix. The multilayer composite membranes were then prepared from a PTMSP gutter layer deposited on a PAN porous support and an adjacent hybrid Pebax®/PEG POSS® as the top layer. These hybrid multilayer composite membranes exhibited an enhanced CO2 selectiv4 ity by a factor of two relative to the pure Pebax®. In these hybrid systems, the CO2 separation was presumably enhanced by the high ether oxides content from PEG POSS® that has high affinities for CO2. For particular composition of Pebax® and PEG POSS® concentrations, the PTMSP gutter layer harnessed the CO2 selectivity without losing the CO2 permeation rate. At the same time, these membrane, however, suffered severe adhesion between the gutter layer

  12. The Relaxation Matrix for Symmetric Tops with Inversion Symmetry. I. Effects of Line Coupling on Self-Broadened v (sub 1) and Pure Rotational Bands of NH3

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Q.; Boulet, C.

    2016-01-01

    The Robert-Bonamy formalism has been commonly used to calculate half-widths and shifts of spectral lines for decades. This formalism is based on several approximations. Among them, two have not been fully addressed: the isolated line approximation and the neglect of coupling between the translational and internal motions. Recently, we have shown that the isolated line approximation is not necessary in developing semi-classical line shape theories. Based on this progress, we have been able to develop a new formalism that enables not only to reduce uncertainties on calculated half-widths and shifts, but also to model line mixing effects on spectra starting from the knowledge of the intermolecular potential. In our previous studies, the new formalism had been applied to linear and asymmetric-top molecules. In the present study, the method has been extended to symmetric-top molecules with inversion symmetry. As expected, the inversion splitting induces a complete failure of the isolated line approximation. We have calculated the complex relaxation matrices of selfbroadened NH3. The half-widths and shifts in the ?1 and the pure rotational bands are reported in the present paper. When compared with measurements, the calculated half-widths match the experimental data very well, since the inapplicable isolated line approximation has been removed. With respect to the shifts, only qualitative results are obtained and discussed. Calculated off-diagonal elements of the relaxation matrix and a comparison with the observed line mixing effects are reported in the companion paper (Paper II).

  13. 8 CFR 241.9 - Notice to transportation line of alien's removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Notice to transportation line of alien's removal. 241.9 Section 241.9 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS APPREHENSION AND DETENTION OF ALIENS ORDERED REMOVED Post-hearing Detention and Removal § 241.9...

  14. Effects of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor doxycycline and CD147 antagonist peptide-9 on gallbladder carcinoma cell lines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Shihang; Liu, Chao; Liu, Xinjiang; He, Yanxin; Shen, Dongfang; Luo, Qiankun; Dong, Yuxi; Dong, Haifeng; Pang, Zhigang

    2017-10-01

    Gallbladder carcinoma is the most common and aggressive malignancy of the biliary tree and highly expresses CD147, which is closely related to disease prognosis in a variety of human cancers. Doxycycline exhibited anti-tumor properties in many cancer cells. CD147 antagonist peptide-9 is a polypeptide and can specifically bind to CD147. The effect of these two drugs on gallbladder cancer cells has not been studied. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of doxycycline and antagonist peptide-9 on gallbladder carcinoma cells and the possible mechanism of inhibition on cancer cell of doxycycline. To investigate the effects of doxycycline and antagonist peptide-9 on gallbladder carcinoma cells (GBC-SD and SGC-996), cell proliferation, CD147 expression, and early-stage apoptosis rate were measured after treated with doxycycline. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 activities were measured after treated with different concentrations of doxycycline, antagonist peptide-9, and their combination. The results demonstrated that doxycycline inhibited cell proliferation, reduced CD147 expression level, and induced an early-stage apoptosis response in GBC-SD and SGC-996 cells. The matrix metalloproteinase-2 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 activities were inhibited by antagonist peptide-9 and doxycycline, and the inhibitory effects were enhanced by combined drugs in gallbladder carcinoma cell lines. Taken together, doxycycline showed inhibitory effects on gallbladder carcinoma cell lines and reduced the expression of CD147, and this may be the mechanism by which doxycycline inhibits cancer cells. This study provides new information and tries to implement the design of adjuvant therapy method for gallbladder carcinoma.

  15. Matrix-assisted peptide synthesis on nanoparticles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khandadash, Raz; Machtey, Victoria; Weiss, Aryeh; Byk, Gerardo

    2014-09-01

    We report a new method for multistep peptide synthesis on polymeric nanoparticles of differing sizes. Polymeric nanoparticles were functionalized via their temporary embedment into a magnetic inorganic matrix that allows multistep peptide synthesis. The matrix is removed at the end of the process for obtaining nanoparticles functionalized with peptides. The matrix-assisted synthesis on nanoparticles was proved by generating various biologically relevant peptides. Copyright © 2014 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  16. In-line coagulation prior to UF of treated domestic wastewater - foulants removal, fouling control and phosphorus removal

    KAUST Repository

    Zheng, Xing; Plume, Stephan; Ernst, Mathias; Croue, Jean-Philippe; Jekel, Martin R.

    2012-01-01

    The present work investigated fouling control and phosphorus removal by applying in-line coagulation prior to ultrafiltration (UF) of treated domestic wastewater. Experiments were conducted in both lab- and pilot-scale under close to neutral pH condition. Lab-scale foulant removal tests showed that increasing the dosage of FeCl3, AlCl3 and polymeric aluminum chloride (PACl) can improve biopolymer removal. Specifically, PACl reduced preferentially the proteinaceous fraction of biopolymer while the other two coagulants showed no significant preference. The filterability of water samples was improved after coagulation, which is contributed to biopolymer removal and the formation of larger particles. Pilot UF experiments demonstrated that in-line coagulation improved the performance of UF to a large extent. Within 0.037-0.148mmol Me3+/L dosage range, adding more FeCl3 and AlCl3 slowed down the development of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) correspondingly, while changing PACl dosage showed little effect on the variation of TMP increase rate. Further investigations indicated that PACl related precipitates contributed to more irreversible fouling than that which the monomeric coagulants made. Fouling control is thus considered as a co-effect determined by foulant removal efficiency, fouling layer structure and the adherence of hydrolysis products/precipitates onto the membrane. With respect to phosphorus removal, dosing FeCl3 and AlCl3 achieved higher removal efficiency than using PACl. Based on lab- and pilot-scale results, dosing FeCl3 and AlCl3 at a relative dosage of over 2.5mol Me3+ per mol total phosphorus (TP) in feedwater is necessarily required to keep the TP concentration under 50μg/L in UF permeate. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

  17. In-line coagulation prior to UF of treated domestic wastewater - foulants removal, fouling control and phosphorus removal

    KAUST Repository

    Zheng, Xing

    2012-06-01

    The present work investigated fouling control and phosphorus removal by applying in-line coagulation prior to ultrafiltration (UF) of treated domestic wastewater. Experiments were conducted in both lab- and pilot-scale under close to neutral pH condition. Lab-scale foulant removal tests showed that increasing the dosage of FeCl3, AlCl3 and polymeric aluminum chloride (PACl) can improve biopolymer removal. Specifically, PACl reduced preferentially the proteinaceous fraction of biopolymer while the other two coagulants showed no significant preference. The filterability of water samples was improved after coagulation, which is contributed to biopolymer removal and the formation of larger particles. Pilot UF experiments demonstrated that in-line coagulation improved the performance of UF to a large extent. Within 0.037-0.148mmol Me3+/L dosage range, adding more FeCl3 and AlCl3 slowed down the development of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) correspondingly, while changing PACl dosage showed little effect on the variation of TMP increase rate. Further investigations indicated that PACl related precipitates contributed to more irreversible fouling than that which the monomeric coagulants made. Fouling control is thus considered as a co-effect determined by foulant removal efficiency, fouling layer structure and the adherence of hydrolysis products/precipitates onto the membrane. With respect to phosphorus removal, dosing FeCl3 and AlCl3 achieved higher removal efficiency than using PACl. Based on lab- and pilot-scale results, dosing FeCl3 and AlCl3 at a relative dosage of over 2.5mol Me3+ per mol total phosphorus (TP) in feedwater is necessarily required to keep the TP concentration under 50μg/L in UF permeate. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

  18. Factorization of J-unitary matrix polynomials on the line and a Schur algorithm for generalized Nevanlinna functions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Alpay, D.; Dijksma, A.; Langer, H.

    2004-01-01

    We prove that a 2 × 2 matrix polynomial which is J-unitary on the real line can be written as a product of normalized elementary J-unitary factors and a J-unitary constant. In the second part we give an algorithm for this factorization using an analog of the Schur transformation.

  19. Complete removal of uranyl nitrate from tissue matrix using supercritical fluid extraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, R.; Sivaraman, N.; Senthil Vadivu, E.; Srinivasan, T.G.; Vasudeva Rao, P.R.

    2003-01-01

    The removal of uranyl nitrate from tissue matrix has been studied with supercritical carbon dioxide modified with methanol alone as well as complexing reagents dissolved in methanol. A systematic study of various complexing agents led to the development of an extraction procedure for the quantitative recovery of uranium from tissue matrix with supercritical carbon dioxide modified with methanol containing small quantities of acetylacetone. The drying time and temperature employed in loading of uranyl nitrate onto tissue paper were found to influence the extraction efficiency significantly

  20. Teeth in the Line of Fracture: To Retain or Remove?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samson, Jimson; John, Reena; Jayakumar, Shalini

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to analyze mandibular fracture site, relationship of the fracture line to the periodontium, vitality of teeth, displacement of the fracture segments and their implications, and determine whether to retain or remove the teeth in the fracture line. Fifty patients with 62 fractures were involved in this study. An electric pulp tester was used to measure the pulpal response. The degree of fracture displacement and the relationship of the fracture line to the periodontium were evaluated using panoramic radiographs. Fractures of the parasymphysis region constituted a majority of 60.87% in the gross displacement category. Four of 50 patients showed no response presurgically and minimal response postoperatively on pulp vitality testing. Patients with teeth in the fracture line showing no response on pulp vitality testing should be advised extraction to avoid further complications. PMID:22132255

  1. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry determination of perfluoroalkyl acids in environmental solid extracts after phospholipid removal and on-line turbulent flow chromatography purification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazzoni, M; Polesello, S; Rusconi, M; Valsecchi, S

    2016-07-01

    An on-line TFC (Turbulent Flow Chromatography) clean up procedures coupled with UHPLC-MS/MS (Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) multi-residue method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 8 perfluroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA, from 5 to 12 carbon atoms) and 3 perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSA, from 4 to 8 carbon atoms) in environmental solid matrices. Fast sample preparation procedure was based on a sonication-assisted extraction with acetonitrile. Phospholipids in biological samples were fully removed by an off-line SPE purification before injection, using HybridSPE(®) Phospholipid Ultra cartridges. The development of the on-line TFC clean-up procedure regarded the choice of the stationary phase, the optimization of the mobile phase composition, flow rate and injected volume. The validation of the optimized method included the evaluation of matrix effects, accuracy and reproducibility. Signal suppression in the analysis of fortified extracts ranged from 1 to 60%, and this problem was overcome by using isotopic dilution. Since no certified reference materials were available for PFAS in these matrices, accuracy was evaluated by recoveries on spiked clam samples which were 98-133% for PFCAs and 40-60% for PFSAs. MLDs and MLQs ranged from 0.03 to 0.3ngg(-1) wet weight and from 0.1 to 0.9ngg(-1) wet weight respectively. Repeatability (intra-day precision) and reproducibility (inter-day precision) showed RSD from 3 to 13% and from 4 to 27% respectively. Validated on-line TFC/UHPLC-MS/MS method has been applied for the determination of perfluoroalkyl acids in different solid matrices (sediment, fish, bivalves and bird yolk). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. New insights into the effects of support matrix on the removal of organic micro-pollutants and the microbial community in constructed wetlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Liang; Lyu, Tao; Ramírez Vargas, Carlos Andrés; Arias, Carlos A; Carvalho, Pedro N; Brix, Hans

    2018-09-01

    Constructed wetlands (CWs) are an eco-friendly and cost-effective technology to remove organic micro-pollutants (OMPs) from wastewater. The support matrix is an important component in CWs as it has a primary role in the growth and development of plants and microbes. However, the roles of the support matrix in CWs in removing OMPs have not been systematically studied. Therefore, in this study, six common materials (sand, zeolite, blast iron slag, petcoke, polonite and crushed autoclaved aerated concrete (CAAC)) as support matrixes were firstly investigated by batch tests to explore their adsorption capacities to selected OMPs (ibuprofen, iohexol, tebuconazole and imazalil). Results showed that the adsorption capacities of the materials were low (at the level of μg/g) compared to well-known sorbents (at the level of mg/g), such as activated carbon and carbon nanotubes. Columns packed with the six materials, respectively, were then built up to study the effects of different materials on microbial community. In the medium-term study (66 days), the removal of four OMPs in all the columns increased by 2-58% from day 25 to day 66, and was mainly attributed to microbial degradation. Furthermore, Community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) analysis indicates that material presence shaped the microbial community metabolic function not only in the interstitial water but also in the biofilm. Overall, all the findings demonstrate that although the adsorption capacities of the common materials are low, they may be a driver to improve the removal of OMPs by altering microbial community function in CWs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. NRN, Removal-Diffusion for Squares and Cylindrical Geometry with Energy Transfer Matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olson, G.

    1981-01-01

    A - Nature of physical problem solved: A system of programmes using the NRN shield design method. NRN consists of the following programmes: 1) Data preparation programme NECO. 2) Multigroup removal programmes REBOX for box geometry and REMC for spherical and cylindrical geometries. 3) Multigroup diffusion - and slowing down programme NEDI. B - Method of solution: The NRN method presents a new approach in the formulation of removal-diffusion theory. The removal cross section is redefined and the slowing down between the multi-group diffusion equations is treated with a complete energy-transfer matrix rather than in an age theory approximation. CDC 3400 version was offered by Tesperhude (Gesellschaft fuer Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt MBH., Germany)

  4. A dented LH2 recirculation line is removed from Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-01-01

    In the Payload Changeout Room, Launch Pad 39B, United Space Alliance and NASA workers look at the replacement main propulsion system liquid hydrogen recirculation line (left) to be installed in Shuttle Discovery's aft compartment. At right is the dented line that has been removed. The 12-inch-long dent was discovered during routine aft compartment inspections Tuesday, Dec. 7. The line recirculates hydrogen from the Shuttle main engines back to the external tank during prelaunch engine conditioning. The line is being replaced and managers expect the replacement work to take about 3 days, followed by system retests and final aft compartment close-outs. Preliminary assessments reflect a launch date of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-103 no earlier than Dec. 16. STS-103 is the third servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.

  5. Can the identification of an idle line facilitate its removal? A comparison between a proposed guideline and clinical practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kara, Areeba; Johnson, Cynthia S; Murray, Michelle; Dillon, Jill; Hui, Siu L

    2016-07-01

    There are 250,000 cases of central line-associated blood stream infections in the United States annually, some of which may be prevented by the removal of lines that are no longer needed. To test the performance of criteria to identify an idle line as a guideline to facilitate its removal. Patients with central lines on the wards were identified. Criteria for justified use were defined. If none were met, the line was considered "idle." We proposed the guideline that a line may be removed the day following the first idle day and compared actual practice with our proposed guideline. One hundred twenty-six lines in 126 patients were observed. Eighty-three (65.9%) were peripherally inserted central catheters. Twenty-seven percent (n= 34) were placed for antibiotics. Seventy-six patients had lines removed prior to discharge. In these patients, the line was in place for 522 days, of which 32.7% were idle. The most common reasons to justify the line included parenteral antibiotics and meeting systemic inflammatory response (SIRS) criteria. In 11 (14.5%) patients, the line was removed prior to the proposed guideline. Most (n = 36, 47.4%) line removals were observed to be in accordance with our guideline. In another 29 (38.2%), line removal was delayed compared to our guideline. Idle days are common. Central line days may be reduced by the consistent daily reevaluation of a line's justification using defined criteria. The practice of routine central line placement for prolonged antibiotics and the inclusion of SIRS criteria to justify the line may need to be reevaluated. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:489-493. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.

  6. Nonleachable Imidazolium-Incorporated Composite for Disruption of Bacterial Clustering, Exopolysaccharide-Matrix Assembly, and Enhanced Biofilm Removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Geelsu; Koltisko, Bernard; Jin, Xiaoming; Koo, Hyun

    2017-11-08

    Surface-grown bacteria and production of an extracellular polymeric matrix modulate the assembly of highly cohesive and firmly attached biofilms, making them difficult to remove from solid surfaces. Inhibition of cell growth and inactivation of matrix-producing bacteria can impair biofilm formation and facilitate removal. Here, we developed a novel nonleachable antibacterial composite with potent antibiofilm activity by directly incorporating polymerizable imidazolium-containing resin (antibacterial resin with carbonate linkage; ABR-C) into a methacrylate-based scaffold (ABR-modified composite; ABR-MC) using an efficient yet simplified chemistry. Low-dose inclusion of imidazolium moiety (∼2 wt %) resulted in bioactivity with minimal cytotoxicity without compromising mechanical integrity of the restorative material. The antibiofilm properties of ABR-MC were assessed using an exopolysaccharide-matrix-producing (EPS-matrix-producing) oral pathogen (Streptococcus mutans) in an experimental biofilm model. Using high-resolution confocal fluorescence imaging and biophysical methods, we observed remarkable disruption of bacterial accumulation and defective 3D matrix structure on the surface of ABR-MC. Specifically, the antibacterial composite impaired the ability of S. mutans to form organized bacterial clusters on the surface, resulting in altered biofilm architecture with sparse cell accumulation and reduced amounts of EPS matrix (versus control composite). Biofilm topology analyses on the control composite revealed a highly organized and weblike EPS structure that tethers the bacterial clusters to each other and to the surface, forming a highly cohesive unit. In contrast, such a structured matrix was absent on the surface of ABR-MC with mostly sparse and amorphous EPS, indicating disruption in the biofilm physical stability. Consistent with lack of structural organization, the defective biofilm on the surface of ABR-MC was readily detached when subjected to low shear

  7. Matrix removal in state of the art sample preparation methods for serum by charged aerosol detection and metabolomics-based LC-MS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schimek, Denise; Francesconi, Kevin A; Mautner, Anton; Libiseller, Gunnar; Raml, Reingard; Magnes, Christoph

    2016-04-07

    Investigations into sample preparation procedures usually focus on analyte recovery with no information provided about the fate of other components of the sample (matrix). For many analyses, however, and particularly those using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), quantitative measurements are greatly influenced by sample matrix. Using the example of the drug amitriptyline and three of its metabolites in serum, we performed a comprehensive investigation of nine commonly used sample clean-up procedures in terms of their suitability for preparing serum samples. We were monitoring the undesired matrix compounds using a combination of charged aerosol detection (CAD), LC-CAD, and a metabolomics-based LC-MS/MS approach. In this way, we compared analyte recovery of protein precipitation-, liquid-liquid-, solid-phase- and hybrid solid-phase extraction methods. Although all methods provided acceptable recoveries, the highest recovery was obtained by protein precipitation with acetonitrile/formic acid (amitriptyline 113%, nortriptyline 92%, 10-hydroxyamitriptyline 89%, and amitriptyline N-oxide 96%). The quantification of matrix removal by LC-CAD showed that the solid phase extraction method (SPE) provided the lowest remaining matrix load (48-123 μg mL(-1)), which is a 10-40 fold better matrix clean-up than the precipitation- or hybrid solid phase extraction methods. The metabolomics profiles of eleven compound classes, comprising 70 matrix compounds showed the trends of compound class removal for each sample preparation strategy. The collective data set of analyte recovery, matrix removal and matrix compound profile was used to assess the effectiveness of each sample preparation method. The best performance in matrix clean-up and practical handling of small sample volumes was showed by the SPE techniques, particularly HLB SPE. CAD proved to be an effective tool for revealing the considerable differences between the sample preparation methods. This detector can

  8. Preparation and characterization of polysulfone/zeolite mixed matrix membranes for removal of low-concentration ammonia from aquaculture wastewater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moradihamedani, Pourya; Abdullah, Abdul Halim

    2018-01-01

    Removal of low-concentration ammonia (1-10 ppm) from aquaculture wastewater was investigated via polysulfone (PSf)/zeolite mixed matrix membrane. PSf/zeolite mixed matrix membranes with different weight ratios (90/10, 80/20, 70/30 and 60/40 wt.%) were prepared and characterized. Results indicate that PSf/zeolite (80/20) was the most efficient membrane for removal of low-concentration ammonia. The ammonia elimination by PSf/zeolite (80/20) from aqueous solution for 10, 7, 5, 3 and 1 ppm of ammonia was 100%, 99%, 98.8%, 96% and 95% respectively. The recorded results revealed that pure water flux declined in higher loading of zeolite in the membrane matrix due to surface pore blockage caused by zeolite particles. On the other hand, ammonia elimination from water was decreased in higher contents of zeolite because of formation of cavities and macrovoids in the membrane substructure.

  9. Removal of power line interference of space bearing vibration signal based on the morphological filter and blind source separation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Shaojiang; Sun, Dihua; Xu, Xiangyang; Tang, Baoping

    2017-06-01

    Aiming at the problem that it is difficult to extract the feature information from the space bearing vibration signal because of different noise, for example the running trend information, high-frequency noise and especially the existence of lot of power line interference (50Hz) and its octave ingredients of the running space simulated equipment in the ground. This article proposed a combination method to eliminate them. Firstly, the EMD is used to remove the running trend item information of the signal, the running trend that affect the signal processing accuracy is eliminated. Then the morphological filter is used to eliminate high-frequency noise. Finally, the components and characteristics of the power line interference are researched, based on the characteristics of the interference, the revised blind source separation model is used to remove the power line interferences. Through analysis of simulation and practical application, results suggest that the proposed method can effectively eliminate those noise.

  10. Arsenic removal with composite iron matrix filters in Bangladesh: a field and laboratory study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neumann, Anke; Kaegi, Ralf; Voegelin, Andreas; Hussam, Abul; Munir, Abul K M; Hug, Stephan J

    2013-05-07

    The main arsenic mitigation measures in Bangladesh, well-switching and deep tube wells, have reduced As exposure, but water treatment is important where As-free water is not available. Zero-valent iron (ZVI) based SONO household filters, developed in Bangladesh, remove As by corrosion of locally available inexpensive surplus iron and sand filtration in two buckets. We investigated As removal in SONO filters in the field and laboratory, covering a range of typical groundwater concentrations (in mg/L) of As (0.14-0.96), Fe (0-17), P (0-4.4), Ca (45-162), and Mn (0-2.8). Depending on influent Fe(II) concentrations, 20-80% As was removed in the top sand layer, but As removal to safe levels occurred in the ZVI-layer of the first bucket. Residual As, Fe, and Mn were removed after re-aeration in the sand of the second bucket. New and over 8-year-old filters removed As to iron matrix (CIM) of newer filters and predominantly magnetite in older filters. As mass balances indicated that users filtered less than reported volumes of water, pointing to the need for more educational efforts. All tested SONO filters provided safe drinking water without replacement for up to over 8 years of use.

  11. Gauge dependence of world lines and invariance of the S-matrix in relativistic classical mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Molotkov, V.V.; Todorov, I.T.

    1980-07-01

    The notion of world lines is studied in the constraint Hamiltonian formulation of relativistic point particle dynamics. The particle world lines are shown to depend in general (in the presence of interaction) on the choice of the equal-time hyperplane (the only exception being the elastic scattering of rigid balls). However, the relative motion of a two-particle system and the (classical) S-matrix are indepent of this choice. (author)

  12. Power-line Interference Removal from ECG in Case of Power-line Frequency Variations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Todor Stoyanov

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available The original version of the most successful approach for power-line (PL interference removal from ECG, called subtraction procedure, is based on linear segment detection in the signal and hardware synchronised analogue-to-digital conversion to cope with the PL frequency variations. However, this is not feasible for battery supplied devices and some computer-aided ECG systems. Recent improvements of the procedure apply software measurement of the frequency variations that allow a re-sampling of the contaminated signal with the rated PL frequency followed by interference removal and back re-sampling for restoration of the original time intervals. This study deals with a more accurate software frequency measurement and introduces a notch filtration as alternative to the procedure when no linear segments are encountered for long time, e.g. in cases of ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia. The result obtained with large PL frequency variations demonstrate very small errors, usually in the range of ± 20 μV for the subtraction procedure and ± 60 μV for the notch filtration, the last values strongly depending on the frequency contents of the QRS complexes.

  13. The augmented lagrange multipliers method for matrix completion from corrupted samplings with application to mixed Gaussian-impulse noise removal.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan Meng

    Full Text Available This paper studies the problem of the restoration of images corrupted by mixed Gaussian-impulse noise. In recent years, low-rank matrix reconstruction has become a research hotspot in many scientific and engineering domains such as machine learning, image processing, computer vision and bioinformatics, which mainly involves the problem of matrix completion and robust principal component analysis, namely recovering a low-rank matrix from an incomplete but accurate sampling subset of its entries and from an observed data matrix with an unknown fraction of its entries being arbitrarily corrupted, respectively. Inspired by these ideas, we consider the problem of recovering a low-rank matrix from an incomplete sampling subset of its entries with an unknown fraction of the samplings contaminated by arbitrary errors, which is defined as the problem of matrix completion from corrupted samplings and modeled as a convex optimization problem that minimizes a combination of the nuclear norm and the l(1-norm in this paper. Meanwhile, we put forward a novel and effective algorithm called augmented Lagrange multipliers to exactly solve the problem. For mixed Gaussian-impulse noise removal, we regard it as the problem of matrix completion from corrupted samplings, and restore the noisy image following an impulse-detecting procedure. Compared with some existing methods for mixed noise removal, the recovery quality performance of our method is dominant if images possess low-rank features such as geometrically regular textures and similar structured contents; especially when the density of impulse noise is relatively high and the variance of Gaussian noise is small, our method can outperform the traditional methods significantly not only in the simultaneous removal of Gaussian noise and impulse noise, and the restoration ability for a low-rank image matrix, but also in the preservation of textures and details in the image.

  14. Microbial Community Profile of a Lead Service Line Removed from a Drinking Water Distribution System▿

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Colin; Tancos, Matthew; Lytle, Darren A.

    2011-01-01

    A corroded lead service line was removed from a drinking water distribution system, and the microbial community was profiled using 16S rRNA gene techniques. This is the first report of the characterization of a biofilm on the surface of a corroded lead drinking water service line. The majority of phylotypes have been linked to heavy-metal-contaminated environments. PMID:21652741

  15. Removal of Stationary Sinusoidal Noise from Random Vibration Signals.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Johnson, Brian; Cap, Jerome S.

    2018-02-01

    In random vibration environments, sinusoidal line noise may appear in the vibration signal and can affect analysis of the resulting data. We studied two methods which remove stationary sine tones from random noise: a matrix inversion algorithm and a chirp-z transform algorithm. In addition, we developed new methods to determine the frequency of the tonal noise. The results show that both of the removal methods can eliminate sine tones in prefabricated random vibration data when the sine-to-random ratio is at least 0.25. For smaller ratios down to 0.02 only the matrix inversion technique can remove the tones, but the metrics to evaluate its effectiveness also degrade. We also found that using fast Fourier transforms best identified the tonal noise, and determined that band-pass-filtering the signals prior to the process improved sine removal. When applied to actual vibration test data, the methods were not as effective at removing harmonic tones, which we believe to be a result of mixed-phase sinusoidal noise.

  16. On-line removal of volatile fatty acids from CELSS anaerobic bioreactor via nanofiltration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colon, Guillermo

    1995-01-01

    The CELSS (controlled ecological life support system) resource recovery system, which is a waste processing system, uses aerobic and anaerobic bioreactors to recover plants nutrients and secondary foods from the inedible biomass. The anaerobic degradation of the inedible biomass by means of culture of rumen bacteria,generates organic compounds such as volatile fatty acids (acetic, propionic, butyric, VFA) and ammonia. The presence of VFA in the bioreactor medium at fairly low concentrations decreases the microbial population's metabolic reactions due to end-product inhibition. Technologies to remove VFA continuously from the bioreactor are of high interest. Several candidate technologies were analyzed, such as organic solvent liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption and/or ion exchange, dialysis, electrodialysis, and pressure driven membrane separation processes. The proposed technique for the on-line removal of VFA from the anaerobic bioreactor was a nanofiltration membrane recycle bioreactor. In order to establish the nanofiltration process performance variables before coupling it to the bioreactor, a series of experiments were carried out using a 10,000 MWCO tubular ceramic membrane module. The variables studied were the bioreactor slurry permeation characteristics, such as, the permeate flux, VFA and the nutrient removal rates as a function of applied transmembrane pressure, fluid recirculation velocity, suspended matter concentration, and process operating time. Results indicate that the permeate flux, VFA and nutrients removal rates are directly proportional to the fluid recirculation velocity in the range between 0.6 to 1.0 m/s, applied pressure when these are low than 1.5 bar, and inversely proportional to the total suspended solids concentration in the range between 23,466 to 34,880. At applied pressure higher than 1.5 bar the flux is not more linearly dependent due to concentration polarization and fouling effects over the membrange surface. It was also found

  17. On-line removal of volatile fatty acids from CELSS anaerobic bioreactor via nanofiltration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colon, G; Sager, J C

    2001-01-01

    The CELSS resource recovery system, which is a waste-processing system, uses aerobic and anaerobic bioreactors to recover plants nutrients and secondary foods from the inedible biomass. The anaerobic degradation of the inedible biomass, by means of culture of rumen bacteria, generates organic compounds such as volatile fatty acids (VFA) (acetic, propionic, butyric) and ammonia. The presence of VFA in the bioreactor medium at fairly low concentrations decreases the microbial population's metabolic reactions due to end-product inhibition. Technologies to remove VFA continuously from the bioreactor are of high interest. Several candidate technologies were analyzed, such as organic solvent liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption and/or ion exchange, dialysis, electrodialysis, and pressure-driven membrane separation processes. The proposed technique for the on-line removal of VFA from the anaerobic bioreactor was a nanofiltration membrane recycle bioreactor. In order to establish the nanofiltration process performance variables before coupling it to the bioreactor, a series of experiments was carried out using a 10,000 molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) tubular ceramic membrane module. The variables studied were the bioreactor slurry permeation characteristics, such as: the permeate flux, VFA and nutrient removal rates as a function of applied transmembrane pressure, fluid recirculation velocity, suspended matter concentration, and process operating time. Results indicated that the permeate flux, VFA, and nutrients removal rates are directly proportional to the fluid recirculation velocity in the range between 0.6 and 1.0 m/s, applied pressure when these are lower than 1.5 bar, and inversely proportional to the total suspended solids concentration in the range between 23,466 and 34,880 mg/L. At applied pressure higher than 1.5 bar the flux is not more linearly dependent due to concentration polarization and fouling effects over the membrane surface. It was also found that the

  18. PES-Kaolin Mixed Matrix Membranes for Arsenic Removal from Water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marino, Tiziana; Russo, Francesca; Rezzouk, Lina; Bouzid, Abderrazak; Figoli, Alberto

    2017-09-30

    The aim of this work was the fabrication and the characterization of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for arsenic (As) removal from water. Membrane separation was combined with an adsorption process by incorporating the kaolin (KT2) Algerian natural clay in polymeric membranes. The effects of casting solution composition was explored using different amounts of polyethersufone (PES) as a polymer, polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP K17) and polyethylene glycol (PEG 200) as pore former agents, N -methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent, and kaolin. Membranes were prepared by coupling Non-solvent Induced Phase Separation and Vapour Induced Phase Separation (NIPS and VIPS, respectively). The influence of the exposure time to controlled humid air and temperature was also investigated. The MMMs obtained were characterized in terms of morphology, pore size, porosity, thickness, contact angle and pure water permeability. Adsorption membrane-based tests were carried out in order to assess the applicability of the membranes produced for As removal from contaminated water. Among the investigated kaolin concentrations (ranging from 0 wt % to 5 wt %), a content of 1.25 wt % led to the MMM with the most promising performance.

  19. On-line adaptive line frequency noise cancellation from a nuclear power measuring channel

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qadir Javed

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available On-line software for adaptively canceling 50 Hz line frequency noise has been designed and tested at Pakistan Research Reactor 1. Line frequency noise causes much problem in weak signals acquisition. Sometimes this noise is so dominant that original signal is totally corrupted. Although notch filter can be used for eliminating this noise, but if signal of interest is in close vicinity of 50 Hz, then original signal is also attenuated and hence overall performance is degraded. Adaptive noise removal is a technique which could be employed for removing line frequency without degrading the desired signal. In this paper line frequency noise has been eliminated on-line from a nuclear power measuring channel. The adaptive LMS algorithm has been used to cancel 50 Hz noise. The algorithm has been implemented in labVIEW with NI 6024 data acquisition card. The quality of the acquired signal has been improved much as can be seen in experimental results.

  20. New low-flux mixed matrix membranes that offer superior removal of protein-bound toxins from human plasma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavlenko, Denys; van Geffen, Esmée; van Steenbergen, Mies J.; Glorieux, Griet; Vanholder, Raymond; Gerritsen, Karin G. F.; Stamatialis, Dimitrios

    2016-10-01

    Hemodialysis is a widely available and well-established treatment for patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). However, although life-sustaining, patient mortality rates are very high. Several recent studies corroborated the link between dialysis patients’ outcomes and elevated levels of protein-bound uremic toxins (PBUT) that are poorly removed by conventional hemodialysis. Therefore, new treatments are needed to improve their removal. Recently, our group showed that the combination of dialysis and adsorption on one membrane, the mixed matrix membrane (MMM), can effectively remove those toxins from human plasma. However, these first MMMs were rather large in diameter and their mass transport characteristics needed improvement before application in the clinical setting. Therefore, in this study we developed a new generation of MMMs that have a smaller diameter and optimized characteristics offering superior ability in removing the PBUT indoxyl sulfate (IS) and p-cresyl sulfate (pCS) in comparison to first generation MMMs (30 and 125% respectively), as well as, a commercial dialysis membrane (more than 100% better removal).

  1. Multi-class multi-residue analysis of veterinary drugs in meat using enhanced matrix removal lipid cleanup and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Limian; Lucas, Derick; Long, David; Richter, Bruce; Stevens, Joan

    2018-05-11

    This study presents the development and validation of a quantitation method for the analysis of multi-class, multi-residue veterinary drugs using lipid removal cleanup cartridges, enhanced matrix removal lipid (EMR-Lipid), for different meat matrices by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry detection. Meat samples were extracted using a two-step solid-liquid extraction followed by pass-through sample cleanup. The method was optimized based on the buffer and solvent composition, solvent additive additions, and EMR-Lipid cartridge cleanup. The developed method was then validated in five meat matrices, porcine muscle, bovine muscle, bovine liver, bovine kidney and chicken liver to evaluate the method performance characteristics, such as absolute recoveries and precision at three spiking levels, calibration curve linearity, limit of quantitation (LOQ) and matrix effect. The results showed that >90% of veterinary drug analytes achieved satisfactory recovery results of 60-120%. Over 97% analytes achieved excellent reproducibility results (relative standard deviation (RSD) meat matrices. The matrix co-extractive removal efficiency by weight provided by EMR-lipid cartridge cleanup was 42-58% in samples. The post column infusion study showed that the matrix ion suppression was reduced for samples with the EMR-Lipid cartridge cleanup. The reduced matrix ion suppression effect was also confirmed with 30%) for all tested veterinary drugs in all of meat matrices. The results showed that the two-step solid-liquid extraction provides efficient extraction for the entire spectrum of veterinary drugs, including the difficult classes such as tetracyclines, beta-lactams etc. EMR-Lipid cartridges after extraction provided efficient sample cleanup with easy streamlined protocol and minimal impacts on analytes recovery, improving method reliability and consistency. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Nondestructive analysis of lithographic patterns with natural line edge roughness from Mueller matrix ellipsometric data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, Xiuguo; Shi, Yating; Jiang, Hao [State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074 (China); Zhang, Chuanwei [State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074 (China); Wuhan Eoptics Technology Co. Ltd., Wuhan, Hubei 430075 (China); Liu, Shiyuan, E-mail: shyliu@hust.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074 (China); Wuhan Eoptics Technology Co. Ltd., Wuhan, Hubei 430075 (China)

    2016-12-01

    Highlights: • MME is applied to characterize lithographic patterns with natural LER. • A computationally efficient approach based on EMA is proposed to model LER. • Both theoretical and experimental results verify the effective modeling approach. • The comparison between MME and SEM results reveals the potential of this technique. - Abstract: Mueller matrix ellipsometry (MME) is applied to characterize lithographic patterns with natural line edge roughness (LER). A computationally efficient approach based on effective medium approximation is proposed to model the effects of LER in MME measurements. We present both the theoretical and experimental results on lithographic patterns with realistic LER which demonstrate that MME in combination with the proposed effective modeling method is capable of quantifying LER amplitudes. Quantitative comparisons between the MME and scanning electron microscopy measured results also reveal the strong potential of this technique for in-line nondestructive line roughness monitoring.

  3. Sulfur removal from fuel using zeolites/polyimide mixed matrix membrane adsorbents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Ligang; Wang, Andong; Dong, Meimei; Zhang, Yuzhong; He, Benqiao; Li, Hong

    2012-01-01

    Graphical abstract: Membrane adsorption process is proposed for sulfur removal. Three-dimensional network structure is key to fulfill adsorption function of MMMs, which adsorption/desorption behavior is markedly related with binding force with sulfur molecules. Highlights: ► Membrane adsorption process is proposed for sulfur removal. ► Three-dimensional network structure of MMMs is key to fulfill adsorption function. ► Adsorption/desorption behavior is markedly related with binding force. - Abstract: A novel membrane adsorption process was proposed for the sulfur removal from fuels. The mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) adsorbents composed of polyimide (PI) and various Y zeolites were prepared. By the detailed characterization of FT-IR, morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of MMMs adsorbents, combining the adsorption and desorption behavior research, the process–structure–function relationship was discussed. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images show that the functional particles are incorporated into the three-dimensional network structure. MMMs adsorbents with 40% of zeolites content possess better physical properties, which was confirmed by mechanical strength and thermo stability analysis. Influence factors including post-treatment, content of incorporated zeolites, adsorption time, temperature, initial sulfur concentration as well as sulfur species on the adsorption performance of MMMs adsorbents have been evaluated. At 4 wt.% zeolites content, adsorption capacity for NaY/PI, AgY/PI and CeY/PI MMMs adsorbents come to 2.0, 7.5 and 7.9 mg S/g, respectively. And the regeneration results suggest that the corresponding spent membranes can recover about 98%, 90% and 70% of the desulfurization capacity, respectively. The distinct adsorption and desorption behavior of MMMs adsorbents with various functional zeolites was markedly related with their various binding force and binding mode with sulfur compounds.

  4. Plasma-related matrix effects in inductively coupled plasma--atomic emission spectrometry by group I and group II matrix-elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chan, George C.-Y.; Chan, W.-T.

    2003-01-01

    The effects of Na, K, Ca and Ba matrices on the plasma excitation conditions in inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) were studied. Normalized relative intensity was used to indicate the extent of the plasma-related matrix effects. The group I matrices have no effects on the plasma excitation conditions. In contrast, the group II matrices depress the normalized relative intensities of some spectral lines. Specifically, the Group II matrices have no effects on the normalized relative intensity of atomic lines of low upper energy level (soft lines), but reduce the normalized relative intensity of some ionic lines and atomic lines of high energy level (hard lines). The Group II matrices seem to shift the Saha balance of the analytes only; no shift in the Boltzmann balance was observed experimentally. Moreover, for some ionic lines with sum of ionization and excitation potentials close to the ionization potential of argon (15.75 eV), the matrix effect is smaller than other ionic lines of the same element. The reduced matrix effects may be attributed qualitatively to charge transfer excitation mechanism of these ionic lines. Charge transfer reaction renders ionic emission lines from the quasi-resonant levels similar in characteristics of atomic lines. The contribution of charge transfer relative to excitation by other non-specific excitation mechanisms (via Saha balance and Boltzmann balance) determines the degree of atomic behavior of a quasi-resonant level. A significant conclusion of this study is that plasma-related matrix effect depends strongly on the excitation mechanism of a spectral line. Since, in general, more than one excitation mechanism may contribute to the overall excitation of an emission line, the observed matrix effects reflect the sum of the effects due to individual excitation mechanisms. Excitation mechanisms, in addition to the often-used total excitation energy, should be considered in matrix effect studies

  5. Cross Talk Analysis on Multiple Coupled Transmission Lines; (The calculation of transfer functions on multiple coupled tansmission lines in an inhomogeneous dielectric medium)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalby, Arne Brejning

    1994-01-01

    A flow graph relating voltages and the forward and reflected propagation modes (¿ TEM) on multiple coupled transmission lines in an inhomogeneous dielectric medium is presented. This flow graph directy gives the different transfer functions, including S-parameters, in matrix form needed to calcul......A flow graph relating voltages and the forward and reflected propagation modes (¿ TEM) on multiple coupled transmission lines in an inhomogeneous dielectric medium is presented. This flow graph directy gives the different transfer functions, including S-parameters, in matrix form needed...

  6. Theoretical Studies of Spectroscopic Line Mixing in Remote Sensing Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Q.

    2015-12-01

    The phenomenon of collisional transfer of intensity due to line mixing has an increasing importance for atmospheric monitoring. From a theoretical point of view, all relevant information about the collisional processes is contained in the relaxation matrix where the diagonal elements give half-widths and shifts, and the off-diagonal elements correspond to line interferences. For simple systems such as those consisting of diatom-atom or diatom-diatom, accurate fully quantum calculations based on interaction potentials are feasible. However, fully quantum calculations become unrealistic for more complex systems. On the other hand, the semi-classical Robert-Bonamy (RB) formalism, which has been widely used to calculate half-widths and shifts for decades, fails in calculating the off-diagonal matrix elements. As a result, in order to simulate atmospheric spectra where the effects from line mixing are important, semi-empirical fitting or scaling laws such as the ECS and IOS models are commonly used. Recently, while scrutinizing the development of the RB formalism, we have found that these authors applied the isolated line approximation in their evaluating matrix elements of the Liouville scattering operator given in exponential form. Since the criterion of this assumption is so stringent, it is not valid for many systems of interest in atmospheric applications. Furthermore, it is this assumption that blocks the possibility to calculate the whole relaxation matrix at all. By eliminating this unjustified application, and accurately evaluating matrix elements of the exponential operators, we have developed a more capable formalism. With this new formalism, we are now able not only to reduce uncertainties for calculated half-widths and shifts, but also to remove a once insurmountable obstacle to calculate the whole relaxation matrix. This implies that we can address the line mixing with the semi-classical theory based on interaction potentials between molecular absorber and

  7. PROJECT-SPECIFIC TYPE A VERIFICATION FOR THE HIGH FLUX BEAM REACTOR UNDERGROUND UTILITIES REMOVAL PHASE 2 D/F WASTE LINE REMOVAL, BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY UPTON, NEW YORK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weaver, P.C.

    2010-01-01

    Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) has reviewed the project documentation and data for the High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR) Underground Utilities removal Phase 2; the D/F Waste Line removal at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York. The Brookhaven Survey Group (BSG) has completed removal and performed the final status survey (FSS) of the D/F Waste Line that provided the conduit for pumping waste from Building 750 to Building 801. Sample results have been submitted as required to demonstrate that the cleanup goals of 15 mrem/yr above background to a resident in 50 years have been met. Four rounds of sampling, from pre-excavation to final status survey (FSS), were performed as specified in the Field Sampling Plan (FSP) (BNL 2010a). It is the policy of the US Departmental of Energy (DOE) to perform independent verifications of decontamination and decomissioning activities conducted at DOE facilities. ORISE has been designated as the organization responsible for this task at the HFBR. ORISE together with DOE determined that a Type A verification of the D/F Waste Line was appropriate based on its method of construction and upon the minimal potential for residual radioactivity in the area. The removal of underground utilities is being performed in three stages in the process to decommission the HFBR facility and support structures. Phase 2 of this project included the grouting and removal of 1100 feet of 2-inch pipe and 640 feet of 4-inch pipe that served as the D/F Waste Line. Based on the pre-excavation sample results of the soil overburden, the potential for contamination of the soil surrounding the pipe is minimal (BNL 2010a). ORISE reviewed the BNL FSP and identified comments for consideration (ORISE 2010). BNL prepared a revised FSP that addressed each ORISE comment adequately (BNL 2010a). ORISE referred to the revised Phase 2 D/F Waste Line removal FSP FSS data to conduct the Type A verification and determine whether the intent odf

  8. The removal of blockage from a BWR bottom head drain line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McGough, M.S.

    1990-01-01

    Low flow through the 2-inch schedule 160 bottom head drain line at Carolina Power and Light's Brunswick Unit 2 indicated that the line was probably plugged. Since this low flow condition had existed since startup, it was suspected that the plug consisted of construction debris. However, the makeup of the plug was unknown, and the suspected location was inaccessible for nondestructive examination techniques. Evaluation of techniques possible, both from the vessel ID and from outside the vessel resulted in the selection of a hot-tapping device and a self-propelled high-pressure water lance which was inserted in the trapped line from the undervessel area. Removal of the plug was complicated by undervessel space restrictions, dose rates, and the torturous path of elbows and horizontal and vertical pipe runs which had to be negotiated with the water lance. This paper describes the technique applied to this problem

  9. Phenols removal by immobilized tyrosinase reactor in on-line high performance liquid chromatography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Girelli, Anna Maria; Mattei, Enrico; Messina, Antonella

    2006-01-01

    The development of an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) based on tyrosinase immobilized on aminopropyl-controlled pore glass (AP-CPG) for the removal of phenols from model aqueous solutions was reported. To elucidate the influence of the substrate nature, the apparent (V ' max , K ' m ) and the inherent (V max , K m ) Michaelis-Menten constants were determined by Lineweaver-Burk method and the external diffusional contributions on measured enzyme activities were removed by a graphical method. The dephenolization process was realized by recycling the phenol solutions through the bioreactor connected to a chitosan trap in order to remove the colored quinone-type products of the tyrosinase reactions. The results indicated that a complete removal of phenol derivatives in the range of 150-300min, with the exception of 60% removal for phenol reached in 400min, was obtained. The observed sequence: cresol>4-methylcathecol>catechol>4-Cl-phenol-bar phenol was in accordance to the V ' max /K ' m values

  10. Matrigel Basement Membrane Matrix influences expression of microRNAs in cancer cell lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Price, Karina J.; Tsykin, Anna; Giles, Keith M.; Sladic, Rosemary T.; Epis, Michael R.; Ganss, Ruth; Goodall, Gregory J.; Leedman, Peter J.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Matrigel alters cancer cell line miRNA expression relative to culture on plastic. ► Many identified Matrigel-regulated miRNAs are implicated in cancer. ► miR-1290, -210, -32 and -29b represent a Matrigel-induced miRNA signature. ► miR-32 down-regulates Integrin alpha 5 (ITGA5) mRNA. -- Abstract: Matrigel is a medium rich in extracellular matrix (ECM) components used for three-dimensional cell culture and is known to alter cellular phenotypes and gene expression. microRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression and have roles in cancer. While miRNA profiles of numerous cell lines cultured on plastic have been reported, the influence of Matrigel-based culture on cancer cell miRNA expression is largely unknown. This study investigated the influence of Matrigel on the expression of miRNAs that might facilitate ECM-associated cancer cell growth. We performed miRNA profiling by microarray using two colon cancer cell lines (SW480 and SW620), identifying significant differential expression of miRNAs between cells cultured in Matrigel and on plastic. Many of these miRNAs have previously been implicated in cancer-related processes. A common Matrigel-induced miRNA signature comprised of up-regulated miR-1290 and miR-210 and down-regulated miR-29b and miR-32 was identified using RT-qPCR across five epithelial cancer cell lines (SW480, SW620, HT-29, A549 and MDA-MB-231). Experimental modulation of these miRNAs altered expression of their known target mRNAs involved in cell adhesion, proliferation and invasion, in colon cancer cell lines. Furthermore, ITGA5 was identified as a novel putative target of miR-32 that may facilitate cancer cell interactions with the ECM. We propose that culture of cancer cell lines in Matrigel more accurately recapitulates miRNA expression and function in cancer than culture on plastic and thus is a valuable approach to the in vitro study of miRNAs.

  11. Phenols removal by immobilized tyrosinase reactor in on-line high performance liquid chromatography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Girelli, Anna Maria [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Roma ' La Sapienza' , P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome (Italy)]. E-mail: annamaria.girelli@uniroma1.it; Mattei, Enrico [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Roma ' La Sapienza' , P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome (Italy); Messina, Antonella [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Roma ' La Sapienza' , P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome (Italy)

    2006-11-24

    The development of an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) based on tyrosinase immobilized on aminopropyl-controlled pore glass (AP-CPG) for the removal of phenols from model aqueous solutions was reported. To elucidate the influence of the substrate nature, the apparent (V{sup '}{sub max}, K{sup '}{sub m}) and the inherent (V{sub max}, K{sub m}) Michaelis-Menten constants were determined by Lineweaver-Burk method and the external diffusional contributions on measured enzyme activities were removed by a graphical method. The dephenolization process was realized by recycling the phenol solutions through the bioreactor connected to a chitosan trap in order to remove the colored quinone-type products of the tyrosinase reactions. The results indicated that a complete removal of phenol derivatives in the range of 150-300min, with the exception of 60% removal for phenol reached in 400min, was obtained. The observed sequence: cresol>4-methylcathecol>catechol>4-Cl-phenol-bar phenol was in accordance to the V{sup '}{sub max}/K{sup '}{sub m} values.

  12. Power Line Interference Removal from Electrocardiogram Using a Simplified Lattice Based Adaptive IIR Notch Filter

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Dhillon, Santpal

    2001-01-01

    ...) notch filter with a simplified adaptation algorithm for removal of power line frequency from ECG signals, The performance of this filter is better as compared to a second order infinite impulse response (IIR...

  13. On-line analysis of water contamination by organic compounds; On-line-Analytik der Wasserverschmutzung durch organische Substanzen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wagt, R. van der; Vos, F. de [Skalar Analytical (Netherlands); Babichenko, S.; Poryvkina, L. [Institute of Ecology, Tallinn (Estonia)

    1999-08-01

    In many environmental applications decomposing the mixture of substances in the water into its various chemical ingredients, for subsequent analysis, is a very complicated task. The most productive approach to on-line diagnosis is to treat the object as an integral spectroscopic sample, characterized by certain specific Spectral Fluorescent Signatures (SFS). The SFS are recorded as a matrix of fluorescent intensity of organic compounds in water, in co-ordinates of excitation and emission spectra, providing a three-dimensional spectrum. Spectral windows of SFS are defined by fluorescent characteristics of basic groups of organic substances in the water sample. The novel Skalar Fluo Imager, based on this principle, is intended for the analysis of organic compounds in natural, domestic, and technological waters in an on-line mode. (orig.) [German] In vielen Umweltschutzanwendungen stellt die Auftrennung eines Substanzgemisches zum Zweck der Analyse eine sehr komplizierte Aufgabe dar. Ein erfolgversprechender Ansatz fuer eine on-line-Diagnostik besteht darin, das Objekt als integrale Spektroskopieprobe zu betrachten, die durch bestimmte spezifische Spektral-Fluoreszenz-Signaturen (SFS) charakterisiert wird. Diese werden als Fluoreszenz-Intensitaets-Matrix organischer Verbindungen in Wasser dargestellt, mit Anregungs- und Emissionsspektren als weiteren Koordinaten, wodurch ein dreidimensionales Spektrum entsteht. Spektrale Fenster der SFS sind definiert als Fluoreszenzcharakteristika von Funktionsgruppen organischer Substanzen in der Wasserprobe. Der auf diesem Prinzip basierende Skalar Fluo Imager ist fuer die on-line-Analyse organischer Bestandteile in natuerlichen, Haus- und technischen Waessern gedacht. (orig.)

  14. Matrix Methods for Solving Hartree-Fock Equations in Atomic Structure Calculations and Line Broadening

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Gomez

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Atomic structure of N-electron atoms is often determined by solving the Hartree-Fock equations, which are a set of integro-differential equations. The integral part of the Hartree-Fock equations treats electron exchange, but the Hartree-Fock equations are not often treated as an integro-differential equation. The exchange term is often approximated as an inhomogeneous or an effective potential so that the Hartree-Fock equations become a set of ordinary differential equations (which can be solved using the usual shooting methods. Because the Hartree-Fock equations are an iterative-refinement method, the inhomogeneous term relies on the previous guess of the wavefunction. In addition, there are numerical complications associated with solving inhomogeneous differential equations. This work uses matrix methods to solve the Hartree-Fock equations as an integro-differential equation. It is well known that a derivative operator can be expressed as a matrix made of finite-difference coefficients; energy eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be obtained by using linear-algebra packages. The integral (exchange part of the Hartree-Fock equation can be approximated as a sum and written as a matrix. The Hartree-Fock equations can be solved as a matrix that is the sum of the differential and integral matrices. We compare calculations using this method against experiment and standard atomic structure calculations. This matrix method can also be used to solve for free-electron wavefunctions, thus improving how the atoms and free electrons interact. This technique is important for spectral line broadening in two ways: it improves the atomic structure calculations, and it improves the motion of the plasma electrons that collide with the atom.

  15. Design of an optimized biomixture for the degradation of carbofuran based on pesticide removal and toxicity reduction of the matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chin-Pampillo, Juan Salvador; Ruiz-Hidalgo, Karla; Masís-Mora, Mario; Carazo-Rojas, Elizabeth; Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Carlos E

    2015-12-01

    Pesticide biopurification systems contain a biologically active matrix (biomixture) responsible for the accelerated elimination of pesticides in wastewaters derived from pest control in crop fields. Biomixtures have been typically prepared using the volumetric composition 50:25:25 (lignocellulosic substrate/humic component/soil); nonetheless, formal composition optimization has not been performed so far. Carbofuran is an insecticide/nematicide of high toxicity widely employed in developing countries. Therefore, the composition of a highly efficient biomixture (composed of coconut fiber, compost, and soil, FCS) for the removal of carbofuran was optimized by means of a central composite design and response surface methodology. The volumetric content of soil and the ratio coconut fiber/compost were used as the design variables. The performance of the biomixture was assayed by considering the elimination of carbofuran, the mineralization of (14)C-carbofuran, and the residual toxicity of the matrix, as response variables. Based on the models, the optimal volumetric composition of the FCS biomixture consists of 45:13:42 (coconut fiber/compost/soil), which resulted in minimal residual toxicity and ∼99% carbofuran elimination after 3 days. This optimized biomixture considerably differs from the standard 50:25:25 composition, which remarks the importance of assessing the performance of newly developed biomixtures during the design of biopurification systems.

  16. Structural damage diagnosis based on on-line recursive stochastic subspace identification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loh, Chin-Hsiung; Weng, Jian-Huang; Liu, Yi-Cheng; Lin, Pei-Yang; Huang, Shieh-Kung

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a recursive stochastic subspace identification (RSSI) technique for on-line and almost real-time structural damage diagnosis using output-only measurements. Through RSSI the time-varying natural frequencies of a system can be identified. To reduce the computation time in conducting LQ decomposition in RSSI, the Givens rotation as well as the matrix operation appending a new data set are derived. The relationship between the size of the Hankel matrix and the data length in each shifting moving window is examined so as to extract the time-varying features of the system without loss of generality and to establish on-line and almost real-time system identification. The result from the RSSI technique can also be applied to structural damage diagnosis. Off-line data-driven stochastic subspace identification was used first to establish the system matrix from the measurements of an undamaged (reference) case. Then the RSSI technique incorporating a Kalman estimator is used to extract the dynamic characteristics of the system through continuous monitoring data. The predicted residual error is defined as a damage feature and through the outlier statistics provides an indicator of damage. Verification of the proposed identification algorithm by using the bridge scouring test data and white noise response data of a reinforced concrete frame structure is conducted

  17. Partition calculation for zero-order and conjugate image removal in digital in-line holography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Lihong; Wang, Hui; Li, Yong; Jin, Hongzhen

    2012-01-16

    Conventional digital in-line holography requires at least two phase-shifting holograms to reconstruct an original object without zero-order and conjugate image noise. We present a novel approach in which only one in-line hologram and two intensity values (namely the object wave intensity and the reference wave intensity) are required. First, by subtracting the two intensity values the zero-order diffraction can be completely eliminated. Then, an algorithm, called partition calculation, is proposed to numerically remove the conjugate image. A preliminary experimental result is given to confirm the proposed method. The method can simplify the procedure of phase-shifting digital holography and improve the practical feasibility for digital in-line holography.

  18. The Probability of Detection in the Telephone Line of Device of the Unauthorized Removal of Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. V. Svintsov

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The article discusses the theory of quantitative description of the possible presence in the telephone line devices unauthorized removal of information, investigated with the help of probability theory.

  19. Casein gene expression in mouse mammary epithelial cell lines: Dependence upon extracellular matrix and cell type

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Medina, D.; Oborn, C.J.; Li, M.L.; Bissell, M.J.

    1987-01-01

    The COMMA-D mammary cell line exhibits mammary-specific functional differentiation under appropriate conditions in cell culture. The cytologically heterogeneous COMMA-D parental line and the clonal lines DB-1, TA-5, and FA-1 derived from the COMMA-D parent were examined for similar properties of functional differentiation. In monolayer cell culture, the cell lines DB-1, TA-5, FA-1, and MA-4 were examined for expression of mammary-specific and epithelial-specific proteins by an indirect immunofluorescence assay. The clonal cell lines were relatively homogeneous in their respective staining properties and seemed to represent three subpopulations found in the heterogeneous parental COMMA-D lines. None of the four clonal lines appeared to represent myoepithelial cells. The cell lines were examined for expression of β-casein mRNA in the presence or absence of prolactin. The inducibility of β-casein in the COMMA-D cell line was further enhanced by a reconstituted basement membrane preparation enriched in laminin, collagen IV, and proteoglycans. These results support the hypothesis that the functional response of inducible mammary cell populations is a result of interaction among hormones, multiple extracellular matrix components, and specific cell types

  20. Redesigning Triangular Dense Matrix Computations on GPUs

    KAUST Repository

    Charara, Ali

    2016-08-09

    A new implementation of the triangular matrix-matrix multiplication (TRMM) and the triangular solve (TRSM) kernels are described on GPU hardware accelerators. Although part of the Level 3 BLAS family, these highly computationally intensive kernels fail to achieve the percentage of the theoretical peak performance on GPUs that one would expect when running kernels with similar surface-to-volume ratio on hardware accelerators, i.e., the standard matrix-matrix multiplication (GEMM). The authors propose adopting a recursive formulation, which enriches the TRMM and TRSM inner structures with GEMM calls and, therefore, reduces memory traffic while increasing the level of concurrency. The new implementation enables efficient use of the GPU memory hierarchy and mitigates the latency overhead, to run at the speed of the higher cache levels. Performance comparisons show up to eightfold and twofold speedups for large dense matrix sizes, against the existing state-of-the-art TRMM and TRSM implementations from NVIDIA cuBLAS, respectively, across various GPU generations. Once integrated into high-level Cholesky-based dense linear algebra algorithms, the performance impact on the overall applications demonstrates up to fourfold and twofold speedups, against the equivalent native implementations, linked with cuBLAS TRMM and TRSM kernels, respectively. The new TRMM/TRSM kernel implementations are part of the open-source KBLAS software library (http://ecrc.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Res-kblas.aspx) and are lined up for integration into the NVIDIA cuBLAS library in the upcoming v8.0 release.

  1. Recurrence quantity analysis based on matrix eigenvalues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Pengbo; Shang, Pengjian

    2018-06-01

    Recurrence plots is a powerful tool for visualization and analysis of dynamical systems. Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), based on point density and diagonal and vertical line structures in the recurrence plots, is considered to be alternative measures to quantify the complexity of dynamical systems. In this paper, we present a new measure based on recurrence matrix to quantify the dynamical properties of a given system. Matrix eigenvalues can reflect the basic characteristics of the complex systems, so we show the properties of the system by exploring the eigenvalues of the recurrence matrix. Considering that Shannon entropy has been defined as a complexity measure, we propose the definition of entropy of matrix eigenvalues (EOME) as a new RQA measure. We confirm that EOME can be used as a metric to quantify the behavior changes of the system. As a given dynamical system changes from a non-chaotic to a chaotic regime, the EOME will increase as well. The bigger EOME values imply higher complexity and lower predictability. We also study the effect of some factors on EOME,including data length, recurrence threshold, the embedding dimension, and additional noise. Finally, we demonstrate an application in physiology. The advantage of this measure lies in a high sensitivity and simple computation.

  2. Spider Vein Removal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spider veins: How are they removed? I have spider veins on my legs. What options are available ... M.D. Several options are available to remove spider veins — thin red lines or weblike networks of ...

  3. Benzotriazole removal on post-Cu CMP cleaning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang Jiying; Liu Yuling; Sun Ming; Fan Shiyan; Li Yan

    2015-01-01

    This work investigates systematically the effect of FA/O II chelating agent and FA/O I surfactant in alkaline cleaning solutions on benzotriazole (BTA) removal during post-Cu CMP cleaning in GLSI under the condition of static etching. The best detergent formulation for BTA removal can be determined by optimization of the experiments of single factor and compound cleaning solution, which has been further confirmed experimentally by contact angle (CA) measurements. The resulting solution with the best formulation has been measured for the actual production line, and the results demonstrate that the obtained cleaning solution can effectively and efficiently remove BTA, CuO and abrasive SiO 2 without basically causing interfacial corrosion. This work demonstrates the possibility of developing a simple, low-cost and environmentally-friendly cleaning solution to effectively solve the issues of BTA removal on post-Cu CMP cleaning in a multi-layered copper wafer. (paper)

  4. Experience with on-line diagnostics for bushings and current transformers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brusetti, R.

    2004-02-01

    The application of on-line diagnostic techniques is advocated as an alternative, under certain conditions, for the conventional off-line power factor test used to evaluate the condition of bushings and current transformers. Bushings which are tied to critical system apparatus or which cannot be readily removed from service are considered to be excellent candidates for on-line diagnostics. A case history involving 138-KV bushings is used to demonstrate the value of the on-line diagnostic system which, by taking into account power factor capacitance values along with the rate of change, not only detected the high power factor associated with the bushings, but allowed the high power factor bushings to continue operating with a known problem for over a year. With conventional testing, bushings that exhibited this level of power factor would typically be removed from service. 4 refs., 3 figs.

  5. Selective removal of heavy metals from metal-bearing wastewater in a cascade line reactor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavlović, Jelena; Stopić, Srećko; Friedrich, Bernd; Kamberović, Zeljko

    2007-11-01

    This paper is a part of the research work on 'Integrated treatment of industrial wastes towards prevention of regional water resources contamination - INTREAT' the project. It addresses the environmental pollution problems associated with solid and liquid waste/effluents produced by sulfide ore mining and metallurgical activities in the Copper Mining and Smelting Complex Bor (RTB-BOR), Serbia. However, since the minimum solubility for the different metals usually found in the polluted water occurs at different pH values and the hydroxide precipitates are amphoteric in nature, selective removal of mixed metals could be achieved as the multiple stage precipitation. For this reason, acid mine water had to be treated in multiple stages in a continuous precipitation system-cascade line reactor. All experiments were performed using synthetic metal-bearing effluent with chemical a composition similar to the effluent from open pit, Copper Mining and Smelting Complex Bor (RTB-BOR). That effluent is characterized by low pH (1.78) due to the content of sulfuric acid and heavy metals, such as Cu, Fe, Ni, Mn, Zn with concentrations of 76.680, 26.130, 0.113, 11.490, 1.020 mg/dm3, respectively. The cascade line reactor is equipped with the following components: for feeding of effluents, for injection of the precipitation agent, for pH measurements and control, and for removal of the process gases. The precipitation agent was 1M NaOH. In each of the three reactors, a changing of pH and temperature was observed. In order to verify. efficiency of heavy metals removal, chemical analyses of samples taken at different pH was done using AES-ICP. Consumption of NaOH in reactors was 370 cm3, 40 cm3 and 80 cm3, respectively. Total time of the experiment was 4 h including feeding of the first reactor. The time necessary to achieve the defined pH value was 25 min for the first reactor and 13 min for both second and third reactors. Taking into account the complete process in the cascade line

  6. Simplified microstrip discontinuity modeling using the transmission line matrix method interfaced to microwave CAD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, James H.; Apel, Thomas R.

    1990-07-01

    A technique for modeling microstrip discontinuities is presented which is derived from the transmission line matrix method of solving three-dimensional electromagnetic problems. In this technique the microstrip patch under investigation is divided into an integer number of square and half-square (triangle) subsections. An equivalent lumped-element model is calculated for each subsection. These individual models are then interconnected as dictated by the geometry of the patch. The matrix of lumped elements is then solved using either of two microwave CAD software interfaces with each port properly defined. Closed-form expressions for the lumped-element representation of the individual subsections is presented and experimentally verified through the X-band frequency range. A model demonstrating the use of symmetry and block construction of a circuit element is discussed, along with computer program development and CAD software interface.

  7. Lining seam elimination algorithm and surface crack detection in concrete tunnel lining

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qu, Zhong; Bai, Ling; An, Shi-Quan; Ju, Fang-Rong; Liu, Ling

    2016-11-01

    Due to the particularity of the surface of concrete tunnel lining and the diversity of detection environments such as uneven illumination, smudges, localized rock falls, water leakage, and the inherent seams of the lining structure, existing crack detection algorithms cannot detect real cracks accurately. This paper proposed an algorithm that combines lining seam elimination with the improved percolation detection algorithm based on grid cell analysis for surface crack detection in concrete tunnel lining. First, check the characteristics of pixels within the overlapping grid to remove the background noise and generate the percolation seed map (PSM). Second, cracks are detected based on the PSM by the accelerated percolation algorithm so that the fracture unit areas can be scanned and connected. Finally, the real surface cracks in concrete tunnel lining can be obtained by removing the lining seam and performing percolation denoising. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can accurately, quickly, and effectively detect the real surface cracks. Furthermore, it can fill the gap in the existing concrete tunnel lining surface crack detection by removing the lining seam.

  8. Removal of Gross Air Embolization from Cardiopulmonary Bypass Circuits with Integrated Arterial Line Filters: A Comparison of Circuit Designs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reagor, James A; Holt, David W

    2016-03-01

    Advances in technology, the desire to minimize blood product transfusions, and concerns relating to inflammatory mediators have lead many practitioners and manufacturers to minimize cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP) circuit designs. The oxygenator and arterial line filter (ALF) have been integrated into one device as a method of attaining a reduction in prime volume and surface area. The instructions for use of a currently available oxygenator with integrated ALF recommends incorporating a recirculation line distal to the oxygenator. However, according to an unscientific survey, 70% of respondents utilize CPB circuits incorporating integrated ALFs without a path of recirculation distal to the oxygenator outlet. Considering this circuit design, the ability to quickly remove a gross air bolus in the blood path distal to the oxygenator may be compromised. This in vitro study was designed to determine if the time required to remove a gross air bolus from a CPB circuit without a path of recirculation distal to the oxygenator will be significantly longer than that of a circuit with a path of recirculation distal to the oxygenator. A significant difference was found in the mean time required to remove a gross air bolus between the circuit designs (p = .0003). Additionally, There was found to be a statistically significant difference in the mean time required to remove a gross air bolus between Trial 1 and Trials 4 (p = .015) and 5 (p =.014) irrespective of the circuit design. Under the parameters of this study, a recirculation line distal to an oxygenator with an integrated ALF significantly decreases the time it takes to remove an air bolus from the CPB circuit and may be safer for clinical use than the same circuit without a recirculation line.

  9. Benzotriazole removal on post-Cu CMP cleaning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiying, Tang; Yuling, Liu; Ming, Sun; Shiyan, Fan; Yan, Li

    2015-06-01

    This work investigates systematically the effect of FA/O II chelating agent and FA/O I surfactant in alkaline cleaning solutions on benzotriazole (BTA) removal during post-Cu CMP cleaning in GLSI under the condition of static etching. The best detergent formulation for BTA removal can be determined by optimization of the experiments of single factor and compound cleaning solution, which has been further confirmed experimentally by contact angle (CA) measurements. The resulting solution with the best formulation has been measured for the actual production line, and the results demonstrate that the obtained cleaning solution can effectively and efficiently remove BTA, CuO and abrasive SiO2 without basically causing interfacial corrosion. This work demonstrates the possibility of developing a simple, low-cost and environmentally-friendly cleaning solution to effectively solve the issues of BTA removal on post-Cu CMP cleaning in a multi-layered copper wafer. Project supported by the Major National Science and Technology Special Projects (No. 2009ZX02308).

  10. MOFwich: Sandwiched Metal-Organic Framework-Containing Mixed Matrix Composites for Chemical Warfare Agent Removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Gregory W; Lu, Annie X; Hall, Morgan G; Browe, Matthew A; Tovar, Trenton; Epps, Thomas H

    2018-02-28

    This work describes a new strategy for fabricating mixed matrix composites containing layered metal-organic framework (MOF)/polymer films as functional barriers for chemical warfare agent protection. Through the use of mechanically robust polymers as the top and bottom encasing layers, a high-MOF-loading, high-performance-core layer can be sandwiched within. We term this multifunctional composite "MOFwich". We found that the use of elastomeric encasing layers enabled core layer reformation after breakage, an important feature for composites and membranes alike. The incorporation of MOFs into the core layer led to enhanced removal of chemical warfare agents while simultaneously promoting moisture vapor transport through the composite, showcasing the promise of these composites for protection applications.

  11. Buttressing staples with cholecyst-derived extracellular matrix (CEM) reinforces staple lines in an ex vivo peristaltic inflation model.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Burugapalli, Krishna

    2008-11-01

    Staple line leakage and bleeding are the most common problems associated with the use of surgical staplers for gastrointestinal resection and anastomotic procedures. These complications can be reduced by reinforcing the staple lines with buttressing materials. The current study reports the potential use of cholecyst-derived extracellular matrix (CEM) in non-crosslinked (NCEM) and crosslinked (XCEM) forms, and compares their mechanical performance with clinically available buttress materials [small intestinal submucosa (SIS) and bovine pericardium (BP)] in an ex vivo small intestine model.

  12. On the remarkable spectrum of a non-Hermitian random matrix model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holz, D E; Orland, H; Zee, A

    2003-01-01

    A non-Hermitian random matrix model proposed a few years ago has a remarkably intricate spectrum. Various attempts have been made to understand the spectrum, but even its dimension is not known. Using the Dyson-Schmidt equation, we show that the spectrum consists of a non-denumerable set of lines in the complex plane. Each line is the support of the spectrum of a periodic Hamiltonian, obtained by the infinite repetition of any finite sequence of the disorder variables. Our approach is based on the 'theory of words'. We make a complete study of all four-letter words. The spectrum is complicated because our matrix contains everything that will ever be written in the history of the universe, including this particular paper

  13. Mjollnir Rotational Line Scan Diagnostics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-05-19

    using long cavity. M8 Removable Pellicle Beam Splitter for He-Ne Lineup Beam. Removed before HF or DF laser is turned on. 27 A 27 * A r of the chopper...three probe laser lines, however three lines were sequentially measured to verify the diagnostic equipment. Two of the three lines have been monitored

  14. ON-LINE NONLINEAR CHROMATICITY CORRECTION USING OFF-MOMENTUM TUNE RESPONSE MATRIX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LUO, Y.; FISCHER, W.; MALISKY, N.; TEPIKIAN, S.; TROBJEVIC, D.

    2007-01-01

    In this article, we propose a method for the online nonlinear chromaticity correction at store in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). With 8 arc sextupole families in each RHIC ring, the nonlinear chromaticities can be minimized online by matching the off-momentum tunes onto the wanted tunes given by the linear chromaticities. The Newton method is used for this multi-dimensional nonlinear optimization, where the off-momentum tune response matrix with respect to sextupole strength changes is adopted. The off-momentum tune response matrix can be calculated with the online accelerator optics model or directly measured with the real beam. In this article, the correction algorithm for the RHIC is presented. Simulations are also carried out to verify the method. The preliminary results from the beam experiments taken place in the RHIC 2007 Au run are reviewed

  15. Effects of aeration and natural zeolite on ammonium removal during the treatment of sewage by mesocosm-scale constructed wetlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Araya, F; Vera, I; Sáez, K; Vidal, G

    2016-01-01

    The objective was to evaluate the effects of intermittent artificial aeration cycles and natural zeolite as a support medium, in addition to the contribution of plants (Schoenoplectus californicus) on NH4(+)-N removal during sewage treatment by Constructed Wetlands (CW). Two lines of Mesocosm Constructed Wetland (MCW) were installed: (a) gravel line (i.e. G-Line) and (b) zeolite line (i.e. Z-Line). Aeration increased the NH4(+)-N removal efficiency by 20-45% in the G-Line. Natural zeolite increased the NH4(+)-N removal efficiency by up to 60% in the Z-Line. Plants contributed 15-30% of the NH4(+)-N removal efficiency and no difference between the G-Line and the Z-Line. Conversely, the NH4(+)-N removal rate was shown to only increase with the use of natural zeolite. However, the MCW with natural zeolite, the NH4(+)-N removal rate showed a direct relationship only with the NH4(+)-N influent concentration. Additionally, relationship between the oxygen, energy and area regarding the NH4(+)-N removal efficiency was established for 2.5-12.5 gO2/(kWh-m(2)) in the G-Line and 0.1-2.6 gO2/(kWh-m(2)) in the Z-Line. Finally, it was established that a combination of natural zeolite as a support medium and the aeration strategy in a single CW could regenerate the zeolite's adsorption sites and maintain a given NH4(+)-N removal efficiency over time.

  16. Response matrix properties and convergence implications for an interface-current nodal formulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, W.S.

    1995-01-01

    An analytic study was performed of the properties and the associated convergence implications of the response matrix equations derived via the widely used nodal expansion method. By using the DIF3D nodal formulation in hexagonal-z geometry as a concrete example, an analytic expression for the response matrix is first derived by using the hexagonal prism symmetry transformations. The spectral radius of the local response matrix is shown to be always 2 -norm of the response matrix is shown to be ∞ -norm is not always 2 - and l ∞ -norms of the response matrix are found to increase as the removal cross section decreases. On the other hand, for a given removal cross section, each of these matrix norms takes its minimum at a certain diffusion coefficient and increases as the diffusion coefficient deviates from this value. Based on these matrix norms, sufficient conditions for the convergence of the iteration schemes for solving the response matrix equations are discussed. The range of node-height-to-hexagon-pitch ratios that guarantees a positive solution is derived as a function of the diffusion coefficient and the removal cross section

  17. Adsorptive removal of phenolic compounds using cellulose acetate phthalate–alumina nanoparticle mixed matrix membrane

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mukherjee, Raka; De, Sirshendu, E-mail: sde@che.iitkgp.ernet.in

    2014-01-30

    Highlights: • Composite membrane of cellulose–acetate–phthalate and alumina nanoparticle is cast. • Surface charge of the membrane changes with nanoparticle concentration and pH. • Separation of phenolic compounds occurs due to adsorption. • The removal efficiency is maximum for 20% nanoparticle with 91% removal of catechol. • Transmembrane pressure drop has negligible effect on solute separation. -- Abstract: Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were prepared using alumina nanoparticles and cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) by varying concentration of nanoparticles in the range of 10 to 25 wt%. The membranes were characterized by scanning electron micrograph, porosity, permeability, molecular weight cut off, contact angle, surface zeta potential, mechanical strength. Addition of nanoparticles increased the porosity, permeability of the membrane up to 20 wt% of alumina. pH at point of zero charge of the membrane was 5.4. Zeta potential of the membrane became more negative up to 20 wt% of nanoparticles. Adsorption of phenolic derivatives, catechol, paranitrophenol, phenol, orthochloro phenol, metanitrophenol, by MMMs were investigated. Variation of rejection and permeate flux profiles were studied for different solutes as a function of various operating conditions, namely, solution pH, solute concentration in feed and transmembrane pressure drop. Difference in rejection of phenolic derivatives is consequence of interplay of surface charge and adsorption by alumina. Adsorption isotherm was fitted for different solutes and effects of pH were investigated. Catechol showed the maximum rejection 91% at solution pH 9. Addition of electrolyte reduced the rejection of solutes. Transmembrane pressure drop has insignificant effects on solute rejection. Competitive adsorption reduced the rejection of individual solute.

  18. Study of structure modification influence of polymer matrix on the impurity centers luminescence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akylbaev, Zh.S.; Karitskay, S.G.; Nikitina, L.A.; Kobzev, G.I.

    2002-01-01

    Data on study of influence of polymer matrix structure change on impurity centers fluorescence are cited. In the capacity of polymer matrix the polyvinyl butyryl (PVB) serves, and as fluorescence centers the dye molecules the crystal violet (CV) are serving. Computerized simulation of processes of PVB matrixes structuring under the oxygen action from air, produced under annealing of the film at thermal treatment of liquid polymer. Calculation of KV spectral lines wave length under optimization of the dye-polymer system is carried out by the Mm+ molecular mechanics method, and then by semi-empiric method ZINDO1

  19. Removing flicker based on sparse color correspondences in old film restoration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xi; Ding, Youdong; Yu, Bing; Xia, Tianran

    2018-04-01

    In the long history of human civilization, archived film is an indispensable part of it, and using digital method to repair damaged film is also a mainstream trend nowadays. In this paper, we propose a sparse color correspondences based technique to remove fading flicker for old films. Our model, combined with multi frame images to establish a simple correction model, includes three key steps. Firstly, we recover sparse color correspondences in the input frames to build a matrix with many missing entries. Secondly, we present a low-rank matrix factorization approach to estimate the unknown parameters of this model. Finally, we adopt a two-step strategy that divide the estimated parameters into reference frame parameters for color recovery correction and other frame parameters for color consistency correction to remove flicker. Our method combined multi-frames takes continuity of the input sequence into account, and the experimental results show the method can remove fading flicker efficiently.

  20. Matrix polyelectrolyte capsules based on polysaccharide/MnCO₃ hybrid microparticle templates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Qingrong; Ai, Hua; Gu, Zhongwei

    2011-06-15

    An efficient strategy for biomacromolecule encapsulation based on spontaneous deposition into polysaccharide matrix-containing capsules is introduced in this study. First, hybrid microparticles composed of manganese carbonate and ionic polysaccharides including sodium hyaluronate (HA), sodium alginate (SA) and dextran sulfate sodium (DS) with narrow size distribution were synthesized to provide monodisperse templates. Incorporation of polysaccharide into the hybrid templates was successful as verified by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Matrix polyelectrolyte microcapsules were fabricated through layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (PEs) onto the hybrid particles, followed by removal of the inorganic part of the cores, leaving polysaccharide matrix inside the capsules. The loading and release properties of the matrix microcapsules were investigated using myoglobin as a model biomacromolecule. Compared to matrix-free capsules, the matrix capsules had a much higher loading capacity up to four times; the driving force is mostly due to electrostatic interactions between myoglobin and the polysaccharide matrix. From our observations, for the same kind of polysaccharide, a higher amount of polysaccharide inside the capsules usually led to better loading capacity. The release behavior of the loaded myoglobin could be readily controlled by altering the environmental pH. These matrix microcapsules may be used as efficient delivery systems for various charged water-soluble macromolecules with applications in biomedical fields. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Analysis of biogenic carbonates by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Flow injection on-line solid-phase preconcentration for trace element determination in fish otoliths.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arslan, Z; Paulson, A J

    2002-04-01

    The aragonite deposits within the ear bones (otoliths) of teleost fish retain a chemical signal reflecting the life history of fish (similar to rings of trees) and the nature of fish habitats. Otoliths dissolved in acid solutions contain high concentrations of calcium and a variety of proteins. Elimination of matrix salts and organic interferences during preconcentration is essential for accurate determination of trace elements in otolith solutions by inductively coupled plasma-quadrupole mass spectrometry. An iminodiacetate-based chelating resin (Toyopearl AF-Chelate 650 M) has been used for on-line preconcentration and matrix separation for the determination of 31 transition and rare elements. Successful preconcentration of the elements was achieved at pH 5 by on-line buffering, except Mn which required pH 8.8. Sample solutions were loaded on to the column for 1 min at 3.2 mL min(-1), and then eluted directly into the mass spectrometer with 4% v/v nitric acid. This procedure enabled up to 25-fold preconcentration with successful removal of the calcium matrix. The effect of heat-assisted oxidation with concentrated nitric acid was investigated to eliminate the organic matrix. It was found that heating to dryness after dissolution and further mineralization with the acid significantly improved the retention of the transition elements. The method was validated by analysis of a certified reference material produced from saggittal otoliths of emperor snapper ( Lutjanus sebae), and then applied to the determination of trace metal concentrations in juvenile bluefin tuna ( Thunnus thynnus) from the Western Pacific Ocean.

  2. High performance matrix inversion based on LU factorization for multicore architectures

    KAUST Repository

    Dongarra, Jack

    2011-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to present an efficient implementation of an explicit matrix inversion of general square matrices on multicore computer architecture. The inversion procedure is split into four steps: 1) computing the LU factorization, 2) inverting the upper triangular U factor, 3) solving a linear system, whose solution yields inverse of the original matrix and 4) applying backward column pivoting on the inverted matrix. Using a tile data layout, which represents the matrix in the system memory with an optimized cache-aware format, the computation of the four steps is decomposed into computational tasks. A directed acyclic graph is generated on the fly which represents the program data flow. Its nodes represent tasks and edges the data dependencies between them. Previous implementations of matrix inversions, available in the state-of-the-art numerical libraries, are suffer from unnecessary synchronization points, which are non-existent in our implementation in order to fully exploit the parallelism of the underlying hardware. Our algorithmic approach allows to remove these bottlenecks and to execute the tasks with loose synchronization. A runtime environment system called QUARK is necessary to dynamically schedule our numerical kernels on the available processing units. The reported results from our LU-based matrix inversion implementation significantly outperform the state-of-the-art numerical libraries such as LAPACK (5x), MKL (5x) and ScaLAPACK (2.5x) on a contemporary AMD platform with four sockets and the total of 48 cores for a matrix of size 24000. A power consumption analysis shows that our high performance implementation is also energy efficient and substantially consumes less power than its competitors. © 2011 ACM.

  3. Method for the removal and recovery of mercury

    Science.gov (United States)

    Easterly, Clay E.; Vass, Arpad A.; Tyndall, Richard L.

    1997-01-01

    The present invention is an enhanced method for the removal and recovery of mercury from mercury-contaminated matrices. The method involves contacting a mercury-contaminated matrix with an aqueous dispersant solution derived from specific intra-amoebic isolates to release the mercury from the mercury-contaminated matrix and emulsify the mercury; then, contacting the matrix with an amalgamating metal from a metal source to amalgamate the mercury to the amalgamating metal; removing the metallic source from the mercury-contaminated matrix; and heating the metallic source to vaporize the mercury in a closed system to capture the mercury vapors.

  4. Electromagnetic analysis using transmission line variables

    CERN Document Server

    Weiner, Maurice

    2010-01-01

    This book employs a relatively new method for solving electromagnetic problems, one which makes use of a transmission line matrix (TLM). The propagation space is imagined to be filled with this matrix. The propagating fields and physical properties are then mapped onto the matrix. Mathematically, the procedures are identical with the traditional numerical methods; however, the interpretation and physical appeal of the transmission line matrix are far superior. Any change in the matrix has an immediate physical significance. What is also very important is that the matrix becomes a launching pad

  5. Microalgae removal with Moringa oleifera.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barrado-Moreno, M M; Beltran-Heredia, J; Martín-Gallardo, J

    2016-02-01

    Moringa oleifera seed extract was tested for algae (Chlorella, Microcystis, Oocystis and Scenedesmus) removal by Jar-test technique. This coagulant can be used in drinking water treatment. Jar-test has been carried out in order to evaluate the efficiency of this natural coagulant agent inside real surface water matrix. The influence of variables has been studied in this process, including operating parameters such as coagulant dosage, initial algae concentration, pH, agitation time and water matrix. Removal capacity is verified for water with high contamination of algae while the process is not affected by the pH and water matrix. Coagulation process may be modelling through Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption hypothesis, so acceptable r2 coefficients are obtained. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. MS-XANES studies on the interface effect of semiconductor InSb nanoparticles embedded in a-SiO2 matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Dongliang; Wu Ziyu; Wei Shiqiang

    2006-01-01

    The interface effect of semiconductor InSb nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in a-SiO 2 matrix was investigated via multi-scattering XANES simulations. The results show that the white line increase and broadening to higher energies of InSb NPs embedded in a-SiO 2 host matrix are mainly due to the interaction of InSb NPs and a-SiO 2 matrix. It can be interpreted as both a local single-site effect on μ 0 (E) due to the effect of a-SiO 2 matrix on Sb intra-atomic potential and the increase in 5p-hole population due to 5p-electron depletion in Sb for the InSb NPs embedded in SiO 2 matrix. On the other hand, our result reveals evidently that it is not reasonable to estimate the 5p-hole counts only according to the intensity of the white line due to the interface effect of nanoparticles. (authors)

  7. Formerly utilized MED/AEC sites remedial action program. Removal of a contaminated industrial waste line, Los Alamos, New Mexico. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunderson, T.C.; Ahlquist, A.J.

    1979-04-01

    In 1977 parts of an abandoned industrial waste line (IWL) that carried laboratory or process chemical and radiochemical wastes were removed from Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory property and from the townsite of Los Alamos in north-central New Mexico. Most of the IWL was removed between 1964 and 1967. Some IWL segments in the townsite, which at that time were buried under newly paved roads, were left for removal during future construction projects involving these roads to minimize traffic problems and road damage, and because they posed no public health hazard. In 1977, prior to impending major road construction in several areas, 400 m (1300 ft) of IWL and two IWL manhole structures were removed from Laboratory and Los Alamos County property. Associated soil contamination was removed to levels considered to be as low as practicable. Contaminated or potentially contaminated material was removed to an approved radioactive waste disposal site on Department of Energy property. Full details of the methods, findings, and as-left conditions are documented in this report

  8. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of ketamine metabolites from dried urine and on-line quantification by supercritical fluid chromatography and single mass detection (on-line SFE-SFC-MS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofstetter, Robert; Fassauer, Georg M; Link, Andreas

    2018-02-15

    On-line solid-phase supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and chromatography (SFC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) has been evaluated for its usefulness with respect to metabolic profiling and pharmacological investigations of ketamine in humans. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a rapid, highly selective and sensitive SFE-SFC-MS method for the quantification of ketamine and its metabolites in miniature amounts in human urine excluding liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). Several conditions were optimized systematically following the requirements of the European Medicines Agency: selectivity, carry-over, calibration curve parameters (LLOQ, range and linearity), within- and between-run accuracy and precision, dilution integrity, matrix effect, and stability. The method, which required a relatively small volume of human urine (20 μL per sample), was validated for pharmacologically and toxicologically relevant concentrations ranging from 25.0 to 1000 ng/mL (r 2  > 0.995). The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) for all compounds was found to be as low as 0.5 ng. In addition, stability of analytes during removal of water from the urine samples using different conditions (filter paper or ISOLUTE® HM-N) was studied. In conclusion, the method developed in this study can be successfully applied to studies of ketamine metabolites in humans, and may pave the way for routine application of on-line SFE-SFC-MS in clinical investigations. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Distributed power-line outage detection based on wide area measurement system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Liang; Song, Wen-Zhan

    2014-07-21

    In modern power grids, the fast and reliable detection of power-line outages is an important functionality, which prevents cascading failures and facilitates an accurate state estimation to monitor the real-time conditions of the grids. However, most of the existing approaches for outage detection suffer from two drawbacks, namely: (i) high computational complexity; and (ii) relying on a centralized means of implementation. The high computational complexity limits the practical usage of outage detection only for the case of single-line or double-line outages. Meanwhile, the centralized means of implementation raises security and privacy issues. Considering these drawbacks, the present paper proposes a distributed framework, which carries out in-network information processing and only shares estimates on boundaries with the neighboring control areas. This novel framework relies on a convex-relaxed formulation of the line outage detection problem and leverages the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) for its distributed solution. The proposed framework invokes a low computational complexity, requiring only linear and simple matrix-vector operations. We also extend this framework to incorporate the sparse property of the measurement matrix and employ the LSQRalgorithm to enable a warm start, which further accelerates the algorithm. Analysis and simulation tests validate the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

  10. Raptor nest management on power lines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harness, R.E. [EDM International Inc., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

    2005-07-01

    Many utilities in South Africa are now implementing labor-intensive methods to combat raptor nesting on power transmission lines. Methods have typically included direct nest removal and trimming of nest materials. However, the process is often unsuccessful, and utilities are now learning to accommodate the raptor nests. This paper argued that managing nests on utility structures has solved many operational problems and has resulted in positive publicity for many line operators. Nest management options included the use of stick deflectors to prevent nest material from accumulating during initial nest construction, as well as encouraging raptors to shift their efforts to a more suitable location. Raptors will often accept alternative nesting platforms, and taller, surrogate nesting poles can be placed next to distribution line structures. Elevated platforms can also be placed on problematic distribution structures, but may result in birds coming into contact with unprotected equipment. It was concluded that a successful nest management program includes plans to make nearby lines safe for raptors and to prevent their electrocution. Providing nests with bird-friendly utility configurations can result in electric facilities enhancing wild raptor populations without impacting power reliability. 14 refs., 9 figs.

  11. Effect of the sample matrix on measurement uncertainty in X-ray fluorescence analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morgenstern, P.; Brueggemann, L.; Wennrich, R.

    2005-01-01

    The estimation of measurement uncertainty, with reference to univariate calibration functions, is discussed in detail in the Eurachem Guide 'Quantifying Uncertainty in Analytical Measurement'. The adoption of these recommendations to quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) involves basic problems which are above all due to the strong influence of the sample matrix on the analytical response. In XRF-analysis, the proposed recommendations are consequently applicable only to the matrix corrected response. The application is also restricted with regard to both the matrices and analyte concentrations. In this context the present studies are aimed at the problems to predict measurement uncertainty also with reference to more variable sample compositions. The corresponding investigations are focused on the use of the intensity of the Compton scattered tube line as an internal standard to assess the effect of the individual sample matrix on the analytical response relatively to a reference matrix. Based on this concept the estimation of the measurement uncertainty of an analyte presented in an unknown specimen can be predicted in consideration of the data obtained under defined matrix conditions

  12. Nasca Lines, Peru

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-01-01

    The Nasca Lines are located in the Pampa region of Peru, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast 400 km south of Lima. The Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920's. Passengers reported seeing 'primitive landing strips' on the ground below. The Lines were made by removing the iron-oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the desert. When the gravel is removed, they contrast with the light color underneath. In this way the lines were drawn as furrows of a lighter color. On the pampa, south of the Nasca Lines, archaeologists have now uncovered the lost city of the line-builders, Cahuachi. It was built nearly two thousand years ago and was mysteriously abandoned 500 years later. This ASTER sub-image covers an area of 14 x 18 km, was acquired on December 22, 2000, and is located at 14.7 degrees south latitude and 75.1 degrees west longitude. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

  13. The effect of tomatine on metastasis related matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activities in breast cancer cell model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yelken, Besra Özmen; Balcı, Tuğçe; Süslüer, Sunde Yılmaz; Kayabaşı, Çağla; Avcı, Çığır Biray; Kırmızıbayrak, Petek Ballar; Gündüz, Cumhur

    2017-09-05

    Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women and metastasis is the cause of morbidity and mortality in patients. In the development of metastasis, the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family has a very important role in tumor development. MMP-2 and MMP-9 work together for extracellular matrix (ECM) cleavage to increase migration. Tomatine is a secondary metabolite that has a natural defense role against plants, fungi, viruses and bacteria that are synthesized from tomato. In additıon, tomatine is also known that it breaks down the cell membrane and is a strong inhibitor in human cancer cells. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the effect of tomatine on cytotoxicity, apoptosis and matrix metalloproteinase inhibition in MCF-7 cell lines. Human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) was used as a cell line. In MCF-7 cells, the IC 50 dose of tomatine was determined to be 7.07μM. According to the control cells, apoptosis increased 3.4 fold in 48thh. Activation of MMP-2, MMP-9 and MMP-9\\NGAL has been shown to decrease significantly in cells treated with tomatine by gelatin zymography compared to the control. As a result, matrix metalloproteinase activity and cell proliferation were suppressed by tomatine and this may provide support in treatment methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Weak matrix elements efforts on the lattice: Status and prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soni, A.

    1995-01-01

    Lattice approach to weak matrix elements is reviewed. Recent progress in treating heavy quarks on the lattice is briefly discussed. Illustrative sample of results obtained so far is given. Among them I elaborate on B K , line-integral B and B → K* γ . Experimental implications especially with regard to constraints on the Standard Model (i.e. Wolfenstein) parameters, V td measurements and expectations for B s -bar B s , oscillations are briefly discussed

  15. Study of imidaclopride removal from aqueous solution by adsorption onto granular activated carbon using an on-line spectrophotometric analysis system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daneshvar, N.; Aber, S.; Khani, A.; Khataee, A.R.

    2007-01-01

    The removal of imidaclopride as a pesticide by granular activated carbon (GAC) and its adsorption kinetics were studied at different pH values and temperatures. In all experiments, the amount of GAC and initial concentration of imidaclopride were 2 g and 25 ppm, respectively. The adsorption process was followed by an on-line spectrophotometric analysis system, which consisted of UV-spectrophotometer, a designed absorption cell, peristaltic pump and special glassy reactor. The effect of pH and temperature on adsorption was studied over 90 min adsorption periods. The obtained data were treated according to various kinetic models. The results showed that second order model was the most suitable one on the overall. The our results also showed that the adsorption rate constants for first order, second order and intraparticle diffusion models followed decreasing order: pH = 7 > 4 > 10 > 1, T = 25 > 35 > 45 > 55 deg. C

  16. Study of imidaclopride removal from aqueous solution by adsorption onto granular activated carbon using an on-line spectrophotometric analysis system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Daneshvar, N. [Water and Wastewater Treatment Research Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: nezam_daneshvar@yahoo.com; Aber, S. [Water and Wastewater Treatment Research Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: soheil_aber@yahoo.com; Khani, A. [Water and Wastewater Treatment Research Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: alikhani_chemwt@yahoo.com; Khataee, A.R. [Water and Wastewater Treatment Research Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz (Iran, Islamic Republic of)]. E-mail: ar_khataee@yahoo.com

    2007-06-01

    The removal of imidaclopride as a pesticide by granular activated carbon (GAC) and its adsorption kinetics were studied at different pH values and temperatures. In all experiments, the amount of GAC and initial concentration of imidaclopride were 2 g and 25 ppm, respectively. The adsorption process was followed by an on-line spectrophotometric analysis system, which consisted of UV-spectrophotometer, a designed absorption cell, peristaltic pump and special glassy reactor. The effect of pH and temperature on adsorption was studied over 90 min adsorption periods. The obtained data were treated according to various kinetic models. The results showed that second order model was the most suitable one on the overall. The our results also showed that the adsorption rate constants for first order, second order and intraparticle diffusion models followed decreasing order: pH = 7 > 4 > 10 > 1, T = 25 > 35 > 45 > 55 deg. C.

  17. Tissue artifact removal from respiratory signals based on empirical mode decomposition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shaopeng; Gao, Robert X; John, Dinesh; Staudenmayer, John; Freedson, Patty

    2013-05-01

    On-line measurement of respiration plays an important role in monitoring human physical activities. Such measurement commonly employs sensing belts secured around the rib cage and abdomen of the test object. Affected by the movement of body tissues, respiratory signals typically have a low signal-to-noise ratio. Removing tissue artifacts therefore is critical to ensuring effective respiration analysis. This paper presents a signal decomposition technique for tissue artifact removal from respiratory signals, based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). An algorithm based on the mutual information and power criteria was devised to automatically select appropriate intrinsic mode functions for tissue artifact removal and respiratory signal reconstruction. Performance of the EMD-algorithm was evaluated through simulations and real-life experiments (N = 105). Comparison with low-pass filtering that has been conventionally applied confirmed the effectiveness of the technique in tissue artifacts removal.

  18. OASIS/CREB3L1 is induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress in human glioma cell lines and contributes to the unfolded protein response, extracellular matrix production and cell migration.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ravi N Vellanki

    Full Text Available OASIS is a transcription factor similar to ATF6 that is activated by endoplasmic reticulum stress. In this study we investigated the expression of OASIS in human glioma cell lines and the effect of OASIS knock-down on the ER stress response and cell migration. OASIS mRNA was detected in three distinct glioma cell lines (U373, A172 and U87 and expression levels were increased upon treatment with ER stress-inducing compounds in the U373 and U87 lines. OASIS protein, which is glycosylated on Asn-513, was detected in the U373 and U87 glioma lines at low levels in control cells and protein expression was induced by ER stress. Knock-down of OASIS in human glioma cell lines resulted in an attenuated unfolded protein response to ER stress (reduced GRP78/BiP and GRP94 induction and decreased expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan extracellular matrix proteins, but induction of the collagen gene Col1a1 was unaffected. Cells in which OASIS was knocked-down exhibited altered cell morphology and reduced cell migration. These results suggest that OASIS is important for the ER stress response and maintenance of some extracellular matrix proteins in human glioma cells.

  19. Release of tensile strain on engineered human tendon tissue disturbs cell adhesions, changes matrix architecture, and induces an inflammatory phenotype

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bayer, Monika L; Schjerling, Peter; Herchenhan, Andreas

    2014-01-01

    Mechanical loading of tendon cells results in an upregulation of mechanotransduction signaling pathways, cell-matrix adhesion and collagen synthesis, but whether unloading removes these responses is unclear. We investigated the response to tension release, with regard to matrix proteins, pro......-inflammatory mediators and tendon phenotypic specific molecules, in an in vitro model where tendon-like tissue was engineered from human tendon cells. Tissue sampling was performed 1, 2, 4 and 6 days after surgical de-tensioning of the tendon construct. When tensile stimulus was removed, integrin type collagen receptors...... were upregulated. Stimulation with the cytokine TGF-β1 had distinct effects on some tendon-related genes in both tensioned and de-tensioned tissue. These findings indicate an important role of mechanical loading for cellular and matrix responses in tendon, including that loss of tension leads...

  20. THE RESPONSE OF TUNNEL LINING ON THERMAL LOADING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markéta Levorová

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The long-term functionality, i.e. stability of the lining of disposal tunnels is a precondition for the safe removal and reprocessing of spent nuclear waste from deep underground repositories in the near or more distant future. The reason for removing containers with radioactive waste from such repositories lies in the potential development of presently unavailable “perfect” technology for its reprocessing. The stability problems of the tunnel lining exposed to the long-term thermal load generated by the waste in the disposal container was the subject of one task of the European TIMODAZ project (Thermal Impact on the Damaged Zone around a Radioactive Waste Disposal in Clay Host Rocks. Research was carried out by means of physical modeling. Although the project was terminated in September 2010, recorded data is being further analyzed. This paper describes the design, construction and results of an in-situ model which has been built at the Underground Research Centre Josef in the Czech Republic.

  1. In-line micro-matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction for simultaneous separation and extraction of Sudan dyes in different spices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajabi, Maryam; Sabzalian, Sedigheh; Barfi, Behruz; Arghavani-Beydokhti, Somayeh; Asghari, Alireza

    2015-12-18

    A novel, simple, fast, and miniaturized method, termed in-line micro-matrix solid-phase dispersion (in-line MMSPD), coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the simultaneous extraction and determination of Sudan dyes (i.e. Sudan I-IV, Sudan orange G, Sudan black B, and Sudan red G) with the aid of an experimental design strategy. In this method, a matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) column including a suitable mixture of polar sorbents was inserted in the mobile phase pathway, and while the interfering compounds were retained, the analytes were eluted and entered into the analytical column. In this way, the extraction, elution, and separation of the analytes were performed sequentially. Under the optimal experimental conditions (including the amount of sample, 0.0426g; amount of dispersant phase, 0.0216g of florisil, 0.0227g of silica, 0.0141g of alumina; and blending time, 112s), the limits of detection (LODs), limits of quantification, linear dynamic ranges, and recoveries were obtained to be 0.3-15.3μgkg(-1), 1-50μgkg(-1), 50-28,000μgkg(-1), and 94.5-99.1%, respectively. The results obtained showed that determination of the selected Sudan dyes in food samples using an enough sensitive and a simple analytically validated method like in-line MMSPD may offer a suitable screening method, which could be useful for food analysis and adulteration. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Effect of sample matrix on the fundamental properties of the inductively coupled plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehn, Scott A.; Warner, Kelly A.; Huang Mao; Hieftje, Gary M.

    2003-01-01

    In the inductively coupled plasma (ICP), the emission intensities of atomic and ionic spectral lines are controlled by fundamental parameters such as electron temperature, electron number density, gas-kinetic temperature, analyte atom and ion number densities, and others. Accordingly, the effect of a sample matrix on the analyte emission intensity in an ICP might be attributable to changes in these fundamental parameters caused by the matrix elements. In the present study, a plasma imaging instrument that combines Thomson scattering, Rayleigh scattering, laser-induced fluorescence and computed tomography has been employed to measure the above-mentioned parameters in the presence and absence of matrix elements. The data thus obtained were all collected on a spatially resolved basis and without the need for Abel inversion. Calcium, strontium and barium served as analytes, while lithium, copper and zinc were introduced as matrix elements. Comparing the data with and without the matrix elements allows us to determine the extent to which each fundamental parameter changes in the presence of a matrix element, and to better understand the nature of the matrix effects that occur in the ICP. As has been seen in previous studies with different matrix elements, ion emission and ion number densities follow opposite trends when matrix interferents are introduced into the plasma: ion emission is enhanced by the presence of matrix interferents while ion concentrations are lowered. These changes are consistent with a shift from collisional deactivation to radiative decay of excited-state analyte species

  3. Pollutant Dispersion Modeling in Natural Streams Using the Transmission Line Matrix Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Safia Meddah

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Numerical modeling has become an indispensable tool for solving various physical problems. In this context, we present a model of pollutant dispersion in natural streams for the far field case where dispersion is considered longitudinal and one-dimensional in the flow direction. The Transmission Line Matrix (TLM, which has earned a reputation as powerful and efficient numerical method, is used. The presented one-dimensional TLM model requires a minimum input data and provides a significant gain in computing time. To validate our model, the results are compared with observations and experimental data from the river Severn (UK. The results show a good agreement with experimental data. The model can be used to predict the spatiotemporal evolution of a pollutant in natural streams for effective and rapid decision-making in a case of emergency, such as accidental discharges in a stream with a dynamic similar to that of the river Severn (UK.

  4. Removing celiac disease-related gluten proteins from bread wheat while retaining technological properties: a study with Chinese Spring deletion lines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Broeck, Hetty C; van Herpen, Teun W J M; Schuit, Cees; Salentijn, Elma M J; Dekking, Liesbeth; Bosch, Dirk; Hamer, Rob J; Smulders, Marinus J M; Gilissen, Ludovicus J W J; van der Meer, Ingrid M

    2009-04-07

    Gluten proteins can induce celiac disease (CD) in genetically susceptible individuals. In CD patients gluten-derived peptides are presented to the immune system, which leads to a CD4+ T-cell mediated immune response and inflammation of the small intestine. However, not all gluten proteins contain T-cell stimulatory epitopes. Gluten proteins are encoded by multigene loci present on chromosomes 1 and 6 of the three different genomes of hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) (AABBDD). The effects of deleting individual gluten loci on both the level of T-cell stimulatory epitopes in the gluten proteome and the technological properties of the flour were analyzed using a set of deletion lines of Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring. The reduction of T-cell stimulatory epitopes was analyzed using monoclonal antibodies that recognize T-cell epitopes present in gluten proteins. The deletion lines were technologically tested with respect to dough mixing properties and dough rheology. The results show that removing the alpha-gliadin locus from the short arm of chromosome 6 of the D-genome (6DS) resulted in a significant decrease in the presence of T-cell stimulatory epitopes but also in a significant loss of technological properties. However, removing the omega-gliadin, gamma-gliadin, and LMW-GS loci from the short arm of chromosome 1 of the D-genome (1DS) removed T-cell stimulatory epitopes from the proteome while maintaining technological properties. The consequences of these data are discussed with regard to reducing the load of T-cell stimulatory epitopes in wheat, and to contributing to the design of CD-safe wheat varieties.

  5. Experiences with on line fault detection system for protection system logic and decay heat removal system logic in Dhruva

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramkumar, N.; Dutta, P.K.; Darbhe, M.D.; Bharadwaj, G.

    2001-01-01

    Dhruva is a 100 MW (Thermal) natural uranium fuelled, vertical core, tank type multi purpose research reactor with heavy water acting as moderator, coolant and reflector. Helium is used as cover gas for heavy water system. Reactor Protection System and Decay Heat Removal System (DHRS) have triplicated instrumented channels. The logic for these systems are hybrid in nature with a mixture of relay logic and solid state logic. Fine Impulse Technique(FIT) is employed for On-line fault detection in the solid state logics of these systems. The FIT systems were designed in the early eighties. Operating experiences over the past 15 years has revealed certain deficiencies. In view of this, a microcomputer based state of the art FIT systems for logics of Reactor Protection System and DHRS are being implemented with improved functionalities built into them. This paper describes the operating experience of old FIT systems and improved features of the proposed new FIT systems. (author)

  6. The influence of matrix properties on growth and morphogenesis of human pancreatic ductal epithelial cells in 3D

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raza, Asad; Ki, Chang Seok; Lin, Chien-Chi

    2013-01-01

    A highly tunable synthetic biomimetic hydrogel platform was developed to study the growth and morphogenesis of pancreatic ductal epithelial cells (PDEC) under the influence of a myriad of instructive cues. A PDEC line, PANC-1, was used as a model system to illustrate the importance of matrix compositions on cell fate determination. PANC-1 is an immortalized ductal epithelial cell line widely used in the study of pancreatic tumor cell behaviors. PANC-1 cells are also increasingly explored as a potential cell source for endocrine differentiation. Thus far, most studies related to PANC-1, among other PDEC lines, are performed on 2D culture surfaces. Here, we evaluated the effect of matrix compositions on PANC-1 cell growth and morphogenesis in 3D. Specifically, PANC-1 cells were encapsulated in PEG-based hydrogels prepared by step-growth thiol-ene photopolymerization. It was found that thiol-ene hydrogels provided a cytocompatible environment for encapsulation and 3D culture of PANC-1 cells. In contrast to a monolayer morphology on 2D culture surfaces, PANC-1 cells formed clusters in 3D thiol-ene hydrogels within 4 days of culture. After culturing for 10 days, however, the growth and structures of these clusters were significantly impacted by gel matrix properties, including sensitivity of the matrix to proteases, stiffness of the matrix, and ECM-mimetic motifs. The use of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) sensitive linker or the immobilization of fibronectin-derived RGDS ligand in the matrix promoted PANC-1 cell growth and encouraged them to adopt ductal cyst-like structures. On the other hand, the encapsulated cells formed smaller and more compact aggregates in non-MMP responsive gels. The incorporation of laminin-derived YIGSR peptide did not enhance cell growth and caused the cells to form compact aggregates. Immobilized YIGSR also enhanced the expression of epithelial cell markers including β-catenin and E-cadherin. These studies have established PEG

  7. Matrix interdiction problem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pan, Feng [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Kasiviswanathan, Shiva [Los Alamos National Laboratory

    2010-01-01

    In the matrix interdiction problem, a real-valued matrix and an integer k is given. The objective is to remove k columns such that the sum over all rows of the maximum entry in each row is minimized. This combinatorial problem is closely related to bipartite network interdiction problem which can be applied to prioritize the border checkpoints in order to minimize the probability that an adversary can successfully cross the border. After introducing the matrix interdiction problem, we will prove the problem is NP-hard, and even NP-hard to approximate with an additive n{gamma} factor for a fixed constant {gamma}. We also present an algorithm for this problem that achieves a factor of (n-k) mUltiplicative approximation ratio.

  8. Signal Transmission on Power Lines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalby, Arne Brejning

    1997-01-01

    In the analysis of power-line networks over a large frequency span, the time-domain method used in programs like EMTP (Electromagnetic Time domain Program) can not be used. A more rigorous analysis method must be employed. The correct analysis method (assuming TEM-mode propagation) for multiple....... An approximate analysis method must be usedIn this paper it is shown that an eigenvectormatrix, that is the propagation modes, can be chosen almost arbitrarily if the frequency interval of interest lies below the frequency, where the line length is about 1/3 times the wavelength for the propagation mode...... with the lowest phase velocity. The propagation constants corresponding to the chosen eigenvector matrix (the quasi modes) are found iteratively, which is a much simpler procedure than finding the eigenvalues....

  9. Hanle-Zeeman Scattering Matrix for Magnetic Dipole Transitions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Megha, A.; Sampoorna, M.; Nagendra, K. N.; Sankarasubramanian, K., E-mail: megha@iiap.res.in, E-mail: sampoorna@iiap.res.in, E-mail: knn@iiap.res.in, E-mail: sankar@iiap.res.in [Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560 034 (India)

    2017-06-01

    The polarization of the light that is scattered by the coronal ions is influenced by the anisotropic illumination from the photosphere and the magnetic field structuring in the solar corona. The properties of the coronal magnetic fields can be well studied by understanding the polarization properties of coronal forbidden emission lines that arise from magnetic dipole ( M 1) transitions in the highly ionized atoms that are present in the corona. We present the classical scattering theory of the forbidden lines for a more general case of arbitrary-strength magnetic fields. We derive the scattering matrix for M 1 transitions using the classical magnetic dipole model of Casini and Lin and applying the scattering matrix approach of Stenflo. We consider a two-level atom model and neglect collisional effects. The scattering matrix so derived is used to study the Stokes profiles formed in coronal conditions in those regions where the radiative excitations dominate collisional excitations. To this end, we take into account the integration over a cone of an unpolarized radiation from the solar disk incident on the scattering atoms. Furthermore, we also integrate along the line of sight to calculate the emerging polarized line profiles. We consider radial and dipole magnetic field configurations and spherically symmetric density distributions. For our studies we adopt the atomic parameters corresponding to the [Fe xiii] 10747 Å coronal forbidden line. We also discuss the nature of the scattering matrix for M 1 transitions and compare it with that for the electric dipole ( E 1) transitions.

  10. Matrix evaluation for Pseudomonas spp. immobilisation in phenol bioremediation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonel Chitiva Urbina

    2003-07-01

    Full Text Available Pseudomonas spp. were cultivated in a free cell suspension and also immobilised in three different matrices to observe the influence of a contaminant like phenol on degradation velocity and compare each one's results. Polyurethane polymers, alginate (Manohar et al, 2001 and a mixture of alginate and polyvinyl alcohol (Doria et al, 2002 were selected and tested as matrices; all of them proved viable as matrices for cell immobilisation. Pseudomonas were cultivated in an initial 10 cfu/ml concentration in each one of the matrices for comparison purposes and in a medium without matrix; all mediums were supplemented with a minimum salt medium and 200 ppm phenol. A removal time of 23 days was observed in the medium without matrix, 15 days in the polyurethane matrix and 7 days in the alginate matrices. Improved removal times were observed in all matrices when compared to the free cell suspension.

  11. Impact of removing mucosal barrier injury laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infections from central line-associated bloodstream infection rates in the National Healthcare Safety Network, 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    See, Isaac; Soe, Minn M; Epstein, Lauren; Edwards, Jonathan R; Magill, Shelley S; Thompson, Nicola D

    2017-03-01

    Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) event data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network from 2014, the first year of required use of the mucosal barrier injury laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection (MBI-LCBI) definition, were analyzed to assess the impact of removing MBI-LCBI events from CLABSI rates. CLABSI rates decreased significantly in some location types after removing MBI-LCBI events, and MBI-LCBI events will be removed from publicly reported CLABSI rates. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  12. Removing celiac disease-related gluten proteins from bread wheat while retaining technological properties: a study with Chinese Spring deletion lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bosch Dirk

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Gluten proteins can induce celiac disease (CD in genetically susceptible individuals. In CD patients gluten-derived peptides are presented to the immune system, which leads to a CD4+ T-cell mediated immune response and inflammation of the small intestine. However, not all gluten proteins contain T-cell stimulatory epitopes. Gluten proteins are encoded by multigene loci present on chromosomes 1 and 6 of the three different genomes of hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum (AABBDD. Results The effects of deleting individual gluten loci on both the level of T-cell stimulatory epitopes in the gluten proteome and the technological properties of the flour were analyzed using a set of deletion lines of Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring. The reduction of T-cell stimulatory epitopes was analyzed using monoclonal antibodies that recognize T-cell epitopes present in gluten proteins. The deletion lines were technologically tested with respect to dough mixing properties and dough rheology. The results show that removing the α-gliadin locus from the short arm of chromosome 6 of the D-genome (6DS resulted in a significant decrease in the presence of T-cell stimulatory epitopes but also in a significant loss of technological properties. However, removing the ω-gliadin, γ-gliadin, and LMW-GS loci from the short arm of chromosome 1 of the D-genome (1DS removed T-cell stimulatory epitopes from the proteome while maintaining technological properties. Conclusion The consequences of these data are discussed with regard to reducing the load of T-cell stimulatory epitopes in wheat, and to contributing to the design of CD-safe wheat varieties.

  13. Mapping analysis of scaffold/matrix attachment regions (s/MARs) from two different mammalian cell lines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pilus, Nur Shazwani Mohd; Ahmad, Azrin; Yusof, Nurul Yuziana Mohd [School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor (Malaysia); Johari, Norazfa [Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor (Malaysia)

    2014-09-03

    Scaffold/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs) are potential element that can be integrated into expression vector to increase expression of recombinant protein. Many studies on S/MAR have been done but none has revealed the distribution of S/MAR in a genome. In this study, we have isolated S/MAR sequences from HEK293 and Chinese hamster ovary cell lines (CHO DG44) using two different methods utilizing 2 M NaCl and lithium-3,5-diiodosalicylate (LIS). The isolated S/MARs were sequenced using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform. Based on reference mapping analysis against human genome database, a total of 8,994,856 and 8,412,672 contigs of S/MAR sequences were retrieved from 2M NaCl and LIS extraction of HEK293 respectively. On the other hand, reference mapping analysis of S/MAR derived from CHO DG44 against our own CHO DG44 database have generated a total of 7,204,348 and 4,672,913 contigs from 2 M NaCl and LIS extraction method respectively.

  14. Mapping analysis of scaffold/matrix attachment regions (s/MARs) from two different mammalian cell lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pilus, Nur Shazwani Mohd; Ahmad, Azrin; Yusof, Nurul Yuziana Mohd; Johari, Norazfa

    2014-01-01

    Scaffold/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs) are potential element that can be integrated into expression vector to increase expression of recombinant protein. Many studies on S/MAR have been done but none has revealed the distribution of S/MAR in a genome. In this study, we have isolated S/MAR sequences from HEK293 and Chinese hamster ovary cell lines (CHO DG44) using two different methods utilizing 2 M NaCl and lithium-3,5-diiodosalicylate (LIS). The isolated S/MARs were sequenced using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform. Based on reference mapping analysis against human genome database, a total of 8,994,856 and 8,412,672 contigs of S/MAR sequences were retrieved from 2M NaCl and LIS extraction of HEK293 respectively. On the other hand, reference mapping analysis of S/MAR derived from CHO DG44 against our own CHO DG44 database have generated a total of 7,204,348 and 4,672,913 contigs from 2 M NaCl and LIS extraction method respectively

  15. Evidence of rock matrix back-diffusion and abiotic dechlorination using a field testing approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaefer, Charles E.; Lippincott, David R.; Klammler, Harald; Hatfield, Kirk

    2018-02-01

    An in situ field demonstration was performed in fractured rock impacted with trichloroethene (TCE) and cis-1,2-dichloroethene (DCE) to assess the impacts of contaminant rebound after removing dissolved contaminants within hydraulically conductive fractures. Using a bedrock well pair spaced 2.4 m apart, TCE and DCE were first flushed with water to create a decrease in dissolved contaminant concentrations. While hydraulically isolating the well pair from upgradient contaminant impacts, contaminant rebound then was observed between the well pair over 151 days. The magnitude, but not trend, of TCE rebound was reasonably described by a matrix back-diffusion screening model that employed an effective diffusion coefficient and first-order abiotic TCE dechlorination rate constant that was based on bench-scale testing. Furthermore, a shift in the TCE:DCE ratio and carbon isotopic enrichment was observed during the rebound, suggesting that both biotic and abiotic dechlorination were occurring within the rock matrix. The isotopic data and back-diffusion model together served as a convincing argument that matrix back-diffusion was the mechanism responsible for the observed contaminant rebound. Results of this field demonstration highlight the importance and applicability of rock matrix parameters determined at the bench-scale, and suggest that carbon isotopic enrichment can be used as a line of evidence for abiotic dechlorination within rock matrices.

  16. Quantitation of promethazine and metabolites in urine samples using on-line solid-phase extraction and column-switching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Q.; Putcha, L.; Harm, D. L. (Principal Investigator)

    2001-01-01

    A chromatographic method for the quantitation of promethazine (PMZ) and its three metabolites in urine employing on-line solid-phase extraction and column-switching has been developed. The column-switching system described here uses an extraction column for the purification of PMZ and its metabolites from a urine matrix. The extraneous matrix interference was removed by flushing the extraction column with a gradient elution. The analytes of interest were then eluted onto an analytical column for further chromatographic separation using a mobile phase of greater solvent strength. This method is specific and sensitive with a range of 3.75-1400 ng/ml for PMZ and 2.5-1400 ng/ml for the metabolites promethazine sulfoxide, monodesmethyl promethazine sulfoxide and monodesmethyl promethazine. The lower limits of quantitation (LLOQ) were 3.75 ng/ml with less than 6.2% C.V. for PMZ and 2.50 ng/ml with less than 11.5% C.V. for metabolites based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 10:1 or greater. The accuracy and precision were within +/- 11.8% in bias and not greater than 5.5% C.V. in intra- and inter-assay precision for PMZ and metabolites. Method robustness was investigated using a Plackett-Burman experimental design. The applicability of the analytical method for pharmacokinetic studies in humans is illustrated.

  17. Critical State of Sand Matrix Soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marto, Aminaton; Tan, Choy Soon; Makhtar, Ahmad Mahir; Kung Leong, Tiong

    2014-01-01

    The Critical State Soil Mechanic (CSSM) is a globally recognised framework while the critical states for sand and clay are both well established. Nevertheless, the development of the critical state of sand matrix soils is lacking. This paper discusses the development of critical state lines and corresponding critical state parameters for the investigated material, sand matrix soils using sand-kaolin mixtures. The output of this paper can be used as an interpretation framework for the research on liquefaction susceptibility of sand matrix soils in the future. The strain controlled triaxial test apparatus was used to provide the monotonic loading onto the reconstituted soil specimens. All tested soils were subjected to isotropic consolidation and sheared under undrained condition until critical state was ascertain. Based on the results of 32 test specimens, the critical state lines for eight different sand matrix soils were developed together with the corresponding values of critical state parameters, M, λ, and Γ. The range of the value of M, λ, and Γ is 0.803–0.998, 0.144–0.248, and 1.727–2.279, respectively. These values are comparable to the critical state parameters of river sand and kaolin clay. However, the relationship between fines percentages and these critical state parameters is too scattered to be correlated. PMID:24757417

  18. The Relaxation Matrix for Symmetric Tops with Inversion Symmetry. II; Line Mixing Effects in the V1 Band of NH3

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulet, C.; Ma, Q.

    2016-01-01

    Line mixing effects have been calculated in the ?1 parallel band of self-broadened NH3. The theoretical approach is an extension of a semi-classical model to symmetric-top molecules with inversion symmetry developed in the companion paper [Q. Ma and C. Boulet, J. Chem. Phys. 144, 224303 (2016)]. This model takes into account line coupling effects and hence enables the calculation of the entire relaxation matrix. A detailed analysis of the various coupling mechanisms is carried out for Q and R inversion doublets. The model has been applied to the calculation of the shape of the Q branch and of some R manifolds for which an obvious signature of line mixing effects has been experimentally demonstrated. Comparisons with measurements show that the present formalism leads to an accurate prediction of the available experimental line shapes. Discrepancies between the experimental and theoretical sets of first order mixing parameters are discussed as well as some extensions of both theory and experiment.

  19. Studies on carboxylated graphene oxide incorporated polyetherimide mixed matrix ultrafiltration membranes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaleekkal, Noel Jacob, E-mail: noeljacob89@gmail.com [Membrane Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, ACT, Anna University, Chennai, 600025 (India); Thanigaivelan, A., E-mail: thanichemstar@gmail.com [Membrane Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, ACT, Anna University, Chennai, 600025 (India); Rana, Dipak, E-mail: rana@uottawa.ca [Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur Private, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 (Canada); Mohan, D., E-mail: mohantarun@gmail.com [Membrane Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, ACT, Anna University, Chennai, 600025 (India)

    2017-01-15

    In this work the graphene oxide prepared by the modified Hummers’ method was effectively carboxylated. These carboxylated graphene oxide (c-GO) microsheets was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman shift, zeta potential, and their morphology was observed using a high resolution scanning/transmission electron microscopy. Polyetherimide mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated by the non-solvent induced phase separation technique with varying concentration of this microsheet. The presence of these microsheets on the membrane surface was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and could also be confirmed visually by optical images. The membranes were further characterized; they showed a greater water flux, higher porosity, and sufficient thermal stability. Incorporation of these microsheets improved the hydrophilicity of the membrane confirmed by the lower contact angle values, which in turn explained the lower interfacial free energy, the increase in work of adhesion, the higher solid-vapor free energy and the spreading coefficient. Membranes loaded with 0.3 wt% of c-GO showed a flux recovery of 94% and only a small flux decline even after 180 min of filtration of humic acid (HA) solution. The efficiency of these membranes in removal of HA, toxic metal ions was also investigated. The bacterial anti-adhesion property of c-GO in the membranes was also explored using Escherichia coli, as a model bio-foulant. The charge of the microsheets and their unique architecture imparts higher hydrophilicity and greater fouling resistance along with improved permeation flux when incorporated into the polymer matrix. - Highlights: • Novel membranes by incorporating carboxylated GO into polyetherimide matrix. • Modified membranes exhibited greater porosity, flux and high humic acid rejection. • Nanoplatelets improved the flux recovery ratio to >94%. • Liquid phase polymer based retention utilized for toxic heavy metal

  20. Matrix rigidity regulates cancer cell growth and cellular phenotype.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert W Tilghman

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix have an important role in cell growth and differentiation. However, it is unclear as to what extent cancer cells respond to changes in the mechanical properties (rigidity/stiffness of the microenvironment and how this response varies among cancer cell lines.In this study we used a recently developed 96-well plate system that arrays extracellular matrix-conjugated polyacrylamide gels that increase in stiffness by at least 50-fold across the plate. This plate was used to determine how changes in the rigidity of the extracellular matrix modulate the biological properties of tumor cells. The cell lines tested fall into one of two categories based on their proliferation on substrates of differing stiffness: "rigidity dependent" (those which show an increase in cell growth as extracellular rigidity is increased, and "rigidity independent" (those which grow equally on both soft and stiff substrates. Cells which grew poorly on soft gels also showed decreased spreading and migration under these conditions. More importantly, seeding the cell lines into the lungs of nude mice revealed that the ability of cells to grow on soft gels in vitro correlated with their ability to grow in a soft tissue environment in vivo. The lung carcinoma line A549 responded to culture on soft gels by expressing the differentiated epithelial marker E-cadherin and decreasing the expression of the mesenchymal transcription factor Slug.These observations suggest that the mechanical properties of the matrix environment play a significant role in regulating the proliferation and the morphological properties of cancer cells. Further, the multiwell format of the soft-plate assay is a useful and effective adjunct to established 3-dimensional cell culture models.

  1. Matrix Rigidity Regulates Cancer Cell Growth and Cellular Phenotype

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilghman, Robert W.; Cowan, Catharine R.; Mih, Justin D.; Koryakina, Yulia; Gioeli, Daniel; Slack-Davis, Jill K.; Blackman, Brett R.; Tschumperlin, Daniel J.; Parsons, J. Thomas

    2010-01-01

    Background The mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix have an important role in cell growth and differentiation. However, it is unclear as to what extent cancer cells respond to changes in the mechanical properties (rigidity/stiffness) of the microenvironment and how this response varies among cancer cell lines. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study we used a recently developed 96-well plate system that arrays extracellular matrix-conjugated polyacrylamide gels that increase in stiffness by at least 50-fold across the plate. This plate was used to determine how changes in the rigidity of the extracellular matrix modulate the biological properties of tumor cells. The cell lines tested fall into one of two categories based on their proliferation on substrates of differing stiffness: “rigidity dependent” (those which show an increase in cell growth as extracellular rigidity is increased), and “rigidity independent” (those which grow equally on both soft and stiff substrates). Cells which grew poorly on soft gels also showed decreased spreading and migration under these conditions. More importantly, seeding the cell lines into the lungs of nude mice revealed that the ability of cells to grow on soft gels in vitro correlated with their ability to grow in a soft tissue environment in vivo. The lung carcinoma line A549 responded to culture on soft gels by expressing the differentiated epithelial marker E-cadherin and decreasing the expression of the mesenchymal transcription factor Slug. Conclusions/Significance These observations suggest that the mechanical properties of the matrix environment play a significant role in regulating the proliferation and the morphological properties of cancer cells. Further, the multiwell format of the soft-plate assay is a useful and effective adjunct to established 3-dimensional cell culture models. PMID:20886123

  2. Pre-form ceramic matrix composite cavity and method of forming and method of forming a ceramic matrix composite component

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monaghan, Philip Harold; Delvaux, John McConnell; Taxacher, Glenn Curtis

    2015-06-09

    A pre-form CMC cavity and method of forming pre-form CMC cavity for a ceramic matrix component includes providing a mandrel, applying a base ply to the mandrel, laying-up at least one CMC ply on the base ply, removing the mandrel, and densifying the base ply and the at least one CMC ply. The remaining densified base ply and at least one CMC ply form a ceramic matrix component having a desired geometry and a cavity formed therein. Also provided is a method of forming a CMC component.

  3. Extracellular Matrix Proteins Expression Profiling in Chemoresistant Variants of the A2780 Ovarian Cancer Cell Line

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radosław Januchowski

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among gynaecological malignancies. Extracellular matrix (ECM can affect drug resistance by preventing the penetration of the drug into cancer cells and increased resistance to apoptosis. This study demonstrates alterations in the expression levels of ECM components and related genes in cisplatin-, doxorubicin-, topotecan-, and paclitaxel-resistant variants of the A2780 ovarian cancer cell line. Affymetrix Gene Chip Human Genome Array Strips were used for hybridisations. The genes that had altered expression levels in drug-resistant sublines were selected and filtered by scatter plots. The genes that were up- or downregulated more than fivefold were selected and listed. Among the investigated genes, 28 genes were upregulated, 10 genes were downregulated, and two genes were down- or upregulated depending on the cell line. Between upregulated genes 12 were upregulated very significantly—over 20-fold. These genes included COL1A2, COL12A1, COL21A1, LOX, TGFBI, LAMB1, EFEMP1, GPC3, SDC2, MGP, MMP3, and TIMP3. Four genes were very significantly downregulated: COL11A1, LAMA2, GPC6, and LUM. The expression profiles of investigated genes provide a preliminary insight into the relationship between drug resistance and the expression of ECM components. Identifying correlations between investigated genes and drug resistance will require further analysis.

  4. Development of an on-line flow injection Sr/matrix separation method for accurate, high-throughput determination of Sr isotope ratios by multiple collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galler, Patrick; Limbeck, Andreas; Boulyga, Sergei F; Stingeder, Gerhard; Hirata, Takafumi; Prohaska, Thomas

    2007-07-01

    This work introduces a newly developed on-line flow injection (FI) Sr/Rb separation method as an alternative to the common, manual Sr/matrix batch separation procedure, since total analysis time is often limited by sample preparation despite the fast rate of data acquisition possible by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometers (ICPMS). Separation columns containing approximately 100 muL of Sr-specific resin were used for on-line FI Sr/matrix separation with subsequent determination of (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios by multiple collector ICPMS. The occurrence of memory effects exhibited by the Sr-specific resin, a major restriction to the repetitive use of this costly material, could successfully be overcome. The method was fully validated by means of certified reference materials. A set of two biological and six geological Sr- and Rb-bearing samples was successfully characterized for its (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios with precisions of 0.01-0.04% 2 RSD (n = 5-10). Based on our measurements we suggest (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios of 0.713 15 +/- 0.000 16 (2 SD) and 0.709 31 +/- 0.000 06 (2 SD) for the NIST SRM 1400 bone ash and the NIST SRM 1486 bone meal, respectively. Measured (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios for five basalt samples are in excellent agreement with published data with deviations from the published value ranging from 0 to 0.03%. A mica sample with a Rb/Sr ratio of approximately 1 was successfully characterized for its (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope signature to be 0.718 24 +/- 0.000 29 (2 SD) by the proposed method. Synthetic samples with Rb/Sr ratios of up to 10/1 could successfully be measured without significant interferences on mass 87, which would otherwise bias the accuracy and uncertainty of the obtained data.

  5. Formation of extremely narrow metallic lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harris, E.P.; Keyes, R.W.

    1979-01-01

    A method for forming metal lines, particularly lines which are superconductive, involves delineating a pattern on a thin metal film on a substrate by masking techniques, ion implanting the metal film to a desired depth, removing the mask and etching away the unimplanted portion of the metal film to leave the line whose width is equal to the implanted depth. (U.K.)

  6. A hands-on activity for teaching product-process matrix: roadmap and application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciano Costa Santos

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The product-process matrix is a well-known framework proposed by Hayes and Wheelwright (1979 that is commonly used to identify processes types and to analyze the alignment of these processes with the products of a company. For didactic purposes, the matrix helps undergraduates beginners from Production Engineering to understand the logic of production systems, providing knowledge that will be essential for various course subjects. Considering the high level of abstraction of the concepts underlying the product-process matrix, this paper presents a way to facilitate the learning of them through the application of a hands-on activity which relies on the active learning philosophy. The proposed dynamic uses colored plastic sheets and PVC pipes as main materials, differing from the original proposal of Penlesky and Treleven (2005 . In addition to presenting an extremely simple exercise, which encourages its application in the classroom, another contribution of this paper is to define a complete roadmap for conducting the activity. This roadmap describes the assembly of fictitious products in customization and standardization scenarios for the comparison of two processes types of product-process matrix, job shop and assembly line. The activity revealed very successful after its application to two groups of Production Engineering undergraduates, confirmed with positive feedback from the students surveyed.

  7. Neutrino mass matrix: Inverted hierarchy and CP violation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frigerio, Michele; Smirnov, Alexei Yu.

    2003-01-01

    We reconstruct the neutrino mass matrix in the flavor basis, in the case of an inverted mass hierarchy (ordering), using all available experimental data on neutrino masses and oscillations. We analyze the dependence of the matrix elements m αβ on the CP violating Dirac δ and Majorana ρ and σ phases, for different values of the absolute mass scale. We find that the present data admit various structures of the mass matrix: (i) hierarchical structures with a set of small (zero) elements; (ii) structures with equalities among various groups of elements: e-row and/or μτ-block elements, diagonal and/or off-diagonal elements; (iii) 'democratic' structure. We find the values of phases for which these structures are realized. The mass matrix elements can anticorrelate with flavor: inverted partial or complete flavor alignment is possible. For various structures of the mass matrix we identify the possible underlying symmetry. We find that the mass matrix can be reconstructed completely only in particular cases, provided that the absolute scale of the mass is measured. Generally, the freedom related to the Majorana phase σ will not be removed, thus admitting various types of mass matrix

  8. A generic EEG artifact removal algorithm based on the multi-channel Wiener filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somers, Ben; Francart, Tom; Bertrand, Alexander

    2018-06-01

    Objective. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is an essential neuro-monitoring tool for both clinical and research purposes, but is susceptible to a wide variety of undesired artifacts. Removal of these artifacts is often done using blind source separation techniques, relying on a purely data-driven transformation, which may sometimes fail to sufficiently isolate artifacts in only one or a few components. Furthermore, some algorithms perform well for specific artifacts, but not for others. In this paper, we aim to develop a generic EEG artifact removal algorithm, which allows the user to annotate a few artifact segments in the EEG recordings to inform the algorithm. Approach. We propose an algorithm based on the multi-channel Wiener filter (MWF), in which the artifact covariance matrix is replaced by a low-rank approximation based on the generalized eigenvalue decomposition. The algorithm is validated using both hybrid and real EEG data, and is compared to other algorithms frequently used for artifact removal. Main results. The MWF-based algorithm successfully removes a wide variety of artifacts with better performance than current state-of-the-art methods. Significance. Current EEG artifact removal techniques often have limited applicability due to their specificity to one kind of artifact, their complexity, or simply because they are too ‘blind’. This paper demonstrates a fast, robust and generic algorithm for removal of EEG artifacts of various types, i.e. those that were annotated as unwanted by the user.

  9. Optimized convective transport with automated pressure control in on-line postdilution hemodiafiltration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joyeux, V; Sijpkens, Y; Haddj-Elmrabet, A; Bijvoet, A J; Nilsson, L-G

    2008-11-01

    In a stable patient population we evaluated on-line postdilution hemodiafiltration (HDF) on the incremental improvement in blood purification versus high-flux HD, using the same dialyzer and blood flow rate. For HDF we used a new way of controlling HDF treatments based on the concept of constant pressure control where the trans-membrane pressure is automatically set by the machine using a feedback loop on the achieved filtration (HDF UC). We enrolled 20 patients on on-line HDF treatment and during a 4-week study period recorded key treatment parameters in HDF UC. For one mid-week study treatment performed in HD and one midweek HDF UC treatment we sampled blood and spent dialysate to evaluate the removal of small- and middle-sized solutes. We achieved 18+/-3 liters of ultrafiltration in four-hour HDF UC treatments, corresponding to 27+/-3% of the treated blood volume. That percentage varied by patient hematocrit level. The ultrafiltration amounted to 49+/-4% of the estimated plasma water volume treated. We noted few machine alarms. For beta2m and factor D the effective reduction in plasma level by HDF (76+/-6% and 43+/-9%, respectively) was significantly greater than in HD, and a similar relation was seen in mass recovered in spent dialysate. Small solute removal was similar in HDF and HD. Albumin loss was low. The additional convective transport provided by on-line HDF significantly improved the removal of middle molecules when all other treatment settings were equal. Using the automated pressure control mode in HDF, the convective volume depended on the blood volume processed and the patient hematocrit level.

  10. Angular assymetries in a shielded pair line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fanchiotti, H.; Garcia Canal, C.A.; Vucetich, H.

    1979-01-01

    The capacitance matrix and surface charge density distribution of an unbalanced pair line with both longitudinal and balanced excitations is presented. In particular the case in which the axes of the inner wires are not restricted to lie on a line through the axis of the shield is discussed

  11. Video deraining and desnowing using temporal correlation and low-rank matrix completion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jin-Hwan; Sim, Jae-Young; Kim, Chang-Su

    2015-09-01

    A novel algorithm to remove rain or snow streaks from a video sequence using temporal correlation and low-rank matrix completion is proposed in this paper. Based on the observation that rain streaks are too small and move too fast to affect the optical flow estimation between consecutive frames, we obtain an initial rain map by subtracting temporally warped frames from a current frame. Then, we decompose the initial rain map into basis vectors based on the sparse representation, and classify those basis vectors into rain streak ones and outliers with a support vector machine. We then refine the rain map by excluding the outliers. Finally, we remove the detected rain streaks by employing a low-rank matrix completion technique. Furthermore, we extend the proposed algorithm to stereo video deraining. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm detects and removes rain or snow streaks efficiently, outperforming conventional algorithms.

  12. Asymmetric Bimodal Exponential Power Distribution on the Real Line

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Niyazi Çankaya

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The asymmetric bimodal exponential power (ABEP distribution is an extension of the generalized gamma distribution to the real line via adding two parameters that fit the shape of peakedness in bimodality on the real line. The special values of peakedness parameters of the distribution are a combination of half Laplace and half normal distributions on the real line. The distribution has two parameters fitting the height of bimodality, so capacity of bimodality is enhanced by using these parameters. Adding a skewness parameter is considered to model asymmetry in data. The location-scale form of this distribution is proposed. The Fisher information matrix of these parameters in ABEP is obtained explicitly. Properties of ABEP are examined. Real data examples are given to illustrate the modelling capacity of ABEP. The replicated artificial data from maximum likelihood estimates of parameters of ABEP and other distributions having an algorithm for artificial data generation procedure are provided to test the similarity with real data. A brief simulation study is presented.

  13. Investigations in gallium removal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Philip, C.V.; Pitt, W.W. [Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Beard, C.A. [Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium, TX (United States)

    1997-11-01

    Gallium present in weapons plutonium must be removed before it can be used for the production of mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear reactor fuel. The main goal of the preliminary studies conducted at Texas A and M University was to assist in the development of a thermal process to remove gallium from a gallium oxide/plutonium oxide matrix. This effort is being conducted in close consultation with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) personnel involved in the development of this process for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Simple experiments were performed on gallium oxide, and cerium-oxide/gallium-oxide mixtures, heated to temperatures ranging from 700--900 C in a reducing environment, and a method for collecting the gallium vapors under these conditions was demonstrated.

  14. Investigations in gallium removal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Philip, C.V.; Pitt, W.W.; Beard, C.A.

    1997-11-01

    Gallium present in weapons plutonium must be removed before it can be used for the production of mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear reactor fuel. The main goal of the preliminary studies conducted at Texas A and M University was to assist in the development of a thermal process to remove gallium from a gallium oxide/plutonium oxide matrix. This effort is being conducted in close consultation with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) personnel involved in the development of this process for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Simple experiments were performed on gallium oxide, and cerium-oxide/gallium-oxide mixtures, heated to temperatures ranging from 700--900 C in a reducing environment, and a method for collecting the gallium vapors under these conditions was demonstrated

  15. Experiments on aerosol removal by high-pressure water spray

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corno, Ada del, E-mail: delcorno@rse-web.it [RSE, Power Generation Technologies and Materials Dept, via Rubattino 54, I-20134 Milano (Italy); Morandi, Sonia, E-mail: morandi@rse-web.it [RSE, Power Generation Technologies and Materials Dept, via Rubattino 54, I-20134 Milano (Italy); Parozzi, Flavio, E-mail: parozzi@rse-web.it [RSE, Power Generation Technologies and Materials Dept, via Rubattino 54, I-20134 Milano (Italy); Araneo, Lucio, E-mail: lucio.araneo@polimi.it [Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy, via Lambruschini 4A, I-20156 Milano (Italy); CNR-IENI, via Cozzi 53, I-20125 Milano (Italy); Casella, Francesco, E-mail: francesco2.casella@mail.polimi.it [Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy, via Lambruschini 4A, I-20156 Milano (Italy)

    2017-01-15

    Highlights: • Experimental research to measure the efficiency of high-pressure sprays in capturing aerosols if applied to a filtered containment venting system in case of severe accident. • Cloud of monodispersed SiO{sub 2} particles with sizes 0.5 or 1.0 μm and initial concentration in the range 2–90 mg/m{sup 3}. • Carried out in a chamber 0.5 × 1.0 m and 1.5 m high, with transparent walls equipped with a high pressure water spray with single nozzle. • Respect to low-pressure sprays, removal efficiency turned out significant: the half-life for 1 μm particles with a removal high-pressure spray system is orders of magnitude shorter than that with a low-pressure sprays system. - Abstract: An experimental research was managed in the framework of the PASSAM European Project to measure the efficiency of high-pressure sprays in capturing aerosols when applied to a filtered containment venting system in case of severe accident. The campaign was carried out in a purposely built facility composed by a scrubbing chamber 0.5 × 1.0 m and 1.5 m high, with transparent walls to permit the complete view of the aerosol removal process, where the aerosol was injected to form a cloud of specific particle concentration. The chamber was equipped with a high pressure water spray system with a single nozzle placed on its top. The test matrix consisted in the combination of water pressure injections, in the range 50–130 bar, on a cloud of monodispersed SiO{sub 2} particles with sizes 0.5 or 1.0 μm and initial concentration ranging between 2 and 99 mg/m{sup 3}. The spray was kept running for 2 min and the efficiency of the removal was evaluated, along the test time, using an optical particle sizer. With respect to low-pressure sprays, the removal efficiency turned out much more significant: the half-life for 1 μm particles with a removal high-pressure spray system is orders of magnitude shorter than that with a low-pressure spray system. The highest removal rate was

  16. Experiments on aerosol removal by high-pressure water spray

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corno, Ada del; Morandi, Sonia; Parozzi, Flavio; Araneo, Lucio; Casella, Francesco

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Experimental research to measure the efficiency of high-pressure sprays in capturing aerosols if applied to a filtered containment venting system in case of severe accident. • Cloud of monodispersed SiO_2 particles with sizes 0.5 or 1.0 μm and initial concentration in the range 2–90 mg/m"3. • Carried out in a chamber 0.5 × 1.0 m and 1.5 m high, with transparent walls equipped with a high pressure water spray with single nozzle. • Respect to low-pressure sprays, removal efficiency turned out significant: the half-life for 1 μm particles with a removal high-pressure spray system is orders of magnitude shorter than that with a low-pressure sprays system. - Abstract: An experimental research was managed in the framework of the PASSAM European Project to measure the efficiency of high-pressure sprays in capturing aerosols when applied to a filtered containment venting system in case of severe accident. The campaign was carried out in a purposely built facility composed by a scrubbing chamber 0.5 × 1.0 m and 1.5 m high, with transparent walls to permit the complete view of the aerosol removal process, where the aerosol was injected to form a cloud of specific particle concentration. The chamber was equipped with a high pressure water spray system with a single nozzle placed on its top. The test matrix consisted in the combination of water pressure injections, in the range 50–130 bar, on a cloud of monodispersed SiO_2 particles with sizes 0.5 or 1.0 μm and initial concentration ranging between 2 and 99 mg/m"3. The spray was kept running for 2 min and the efficiency of the removal was evaluated, along the test time, using an optical particle sizer. With respect to low-pressure sprays, the removal efficiency turned out much more significant: the half-life for 1 μm particles with a removal high-pressure spray system is orders of magnitude shorter than that with a low-pressure spray system. The highest removal rate was detected with 1

  17. Influence of material removal programming on ion beam figuring of high-precision optical surfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Wenlin; Dai, Yifan; Xie, Xuhui

    2014-09-01

    Ion beam figuring (IBF) provides a nanometer/subnanometer precision fabrication technology for optical components, where the surface materials on highlands are gradually removed by the physical sputtering effect. In this deterministic method, the figuring process is usually divided into several iterations and the sum of the removed material in each iteration is expected to approach the ideally removed material as nearly as possible. However, we find that the material removal programming in each iteration would influence the surface error convergence of the figuring process. The influence of material removal programming on the surface error evolution is investigated through the comparative study of the contour removal method (CRM) and the geometric proportion removal method (PRM). The research results indicate that the PRM can maintenance the smoothness of the surface topography during the whole figuring process, which would benefit the stable operation of the machine tool and avoid the production of mid-to-high spatial frequency surface errors. Additionally, the CRM only has the corrective effect on the area above the contour line in each iteration, which would result in the nonuniform convergence of the surface errors in various areas. All these advantages distinguish PRM as an appropriate material removal method for ultraprecision optical surfaces.

  18. AUTOMOTIVE DIESEL MAINTENANCE 1. UNIT XVII, I--MAINTAINING THE LUBRICATION SYSTEM--CUMMINS DIESEL ENGINE, II--UNIT INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL--DRIVE LINES.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minnesota State Dept. of Education, St. Paul. Div. of Vocational and Technical Education.

    THIS MODULE OF A 30-MODULE COURSE IS DESIGNED TO DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIESEL ENGINE LUBRICATION SYSTEM AND THE PROCEDURES FOR REMOVAL AND INSTALLATION OF THE DRIVE LINE USED IN DIESEL ENGINE POWER DISTRIBUTION. TOPICS ARE (1) PROLONGING ENGINE LIFE, (2) FUNCTIONS OF THE LUBRICATING SYSTEM, (3) TRACING THE LUBRICANT FLOW, (4) DETERMINING…

  19. Study of uranium matrix interference on ten analytes using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ghazi, A.A.; Qamar, S.; Atta, M.A. (A.Q. Khan Research Labs., Rawalpindi (Pakistan))

    1993-08-01

    Maximum allowable concentrations of 12 elements in uranium hexafluoride feed for enrichment to reactor grade material (about 3%), vary from 1 to 100 ppm ([mu]g/g). Using an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, 51 lines of tine of these elements (B, Cr, Mo, P, Sb, Si, Ta, Ti, V and W) has been studied with a uranium matrix to investigate the matrix interference on the basis of signal to background (SBR), and background to background ratios (BBR). Detection limits and limits of quantitative determination (LQDs) were calculated for these elements in a uranium matrix using SBR and relative standard deviation of the background signal (RSD[sub B]) approach. In almost all cases, the uranium matrix interference reduces the SBRs to the extent that direct trace analysis is impossible. A uranium sample having known concentrations of impurities (around LQDs) was directly analysed with results that showed reasonable accuracy and precision. (Author).

  20. Determination of the self-adjoint matrix Schrödinger operators without the bound state data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Xiao-Chuan; Yang, Chuan-Fu

    2018-06-01

    (i) For the matrix Schrödinger operator on the half line, it is shown that the scattering data, which consists of the scattering matrix and the bound state data, uniquely determines the potential and the boundary condition. It is also shown that only the scattering matrix uniquely determines the self-adjoint potential and the boundary condition if either the potential exponentially decreases fast enough or the potential is known a priori on (), where a is an any fixed positive number. (ii) For the matrix Schrödinger operator on the full line, it is shown that the left (or right) reflection coefficient uniquely determine the self-adjoint potential if either the potential exponentially decreases fast enough or the potential is known a priori on (or ()), where b is an any fixed number.

  1. HYDROPHOBIC ZEOLITE-SILICONE RUBBER MIXED MATRIX MEMBRANES FOR ETHANOL-WATER SEPARATION: EFFECT OF ZEOLITE AND SILICONE COMPONENT SELECTION ON PERVAPORATION PERFORMANCE

    Science.gov (United States)

    High-silica ZSM 5 zeolites were incorporated into poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) polymers to form mixed matrix membranes for ethanol removal from water via pervaporation. Membrane formulation and preparation parameters were varied to determine the effect on pervaporation perform...

  2. QUEUEING DISCIPLINES BASED ON PRIORITY MATRIX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taufik I. Aliev

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with queueing disciplines for demands of general type in queueing systems with multivendor load. A priority matrix is proposed to be used for the purpose of mathematical description of such disciplines, which represents the priority type (preemptive priority, not preemptive priority or no priority between any two demands classes. Having an intuitive and simple way of priority assignment, such description gives mathematical dependencies of system operation characteristics on its parameters. Requirements for priority matrix construction are formulated and the notion of canonical priority matrix is given. It is shown that not every matrix, constructed in accordance with such requirements, is correct. The notion of incorrect priority matrix is illustrated by an example, and it is shown that such matrixes do not ensure any unambiguousness and determinacy in design of algorithm, which realizes corresponding queueing discipline. Rules governing construction of correct matrixes are given for canonical priority matrixes. Residence time for demands of different classes in system, which is the sum of waiting time and service time, is considered as one of the most important characteristics. By introducing extra event method Laplace transforms for these characteristics are obtained, and mathematical dependencies are derived on their basis for calculation of two first moments for corresponding characteristics of demands queueing

  3. Using matrix organization to manage health care delivery organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allcorn, S

    1990-01-01

    Matrix organization can provide health care organization managers enhanced information processing, faster response times, and more flexibility to cope with greater organization complexity and rapidly changing operating environments. A review of the literature informed by work experience reveals that the use of matrix organization creates hard-to-manage ambiguity and balances of power in addition to providing positive benefits for health care organization managers. Solutions to matrix operating problems generally rely on the use of superior information and decision support systems and extensive staff training to develop attitudes and behavior consistent with the more collegial matrix organization culture. Further improvement in understanding the suitability of matrix organization for managing health care delivery organizations will involve appreciating the impact of partial implementation of matrix organization, temporary versus permanent uses of matrix organization, and the impact of the ambiguity created by dual lines of authority upon the exercise of power and authority.

  4. Effect of Cell-to-matrix Ratio in Polyvinyl Alcohol Immobilized Pure and Mixed Cultures on Atrazine Degradation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siripattanakul, Sumana; Wirojanagud, Wanpen; McEvoy, John; Khan, Eakalak

    2008-01-01

    Atrazine biodegradation by immobilized pure and mixed cultures was examined. A pure atrazine-degrading culture, Agrobacterium radiobacter J14a (J14a), and a mixed culture (MC), isolated from an atrazine-contaminated crop field, were immobilized using phosphorylated-polyvinyl alcohol (PPVA). An existing cell immobilization procedure was modified to enhance PPVA matrix stability. The results showed that the matrices remained mechanically and chemically stable after shaking with glass beads over 15 days under various salt solutions and pH values. The immobilization process had a slight effect on cell viability. With the aid of scanning electron microscopy, a suitable microstructure of PPVA matrices for cell entrapment was observed. There were two porous layers of spherical gel matrices, the outside having an encapsulation property and the inside containing numerous pores for bacteria to occupy. J14a and MC were immobilized at three cell-to-matrix ratios of 3.5, 6.7, and 20 mg dry cells/mL matrix. The atrazine biodegradation tests were conducted in an aerobic batch system, which was inoculated with cells at 2,000 mg/L. The tests were also conducted using free (non-immobilized) J14a and MC for comparative purpose. The cell-to-matrix ratio of 3.5 mg/mL provided the highest atrazine removal efficiency of 40-50% in 120 h for both J14a and MC. The free cell systems, for both cultures, presented much lower atrazine removal efficiencies compared to the immobilized cell systems at the same level of inoculation

  5. Determination of on-stream destruction removal efficiency using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Demirgian, J.C.; Mao, Zhouxiong; MacIntosh, M.; Wentz, C.A.

    1991-01-01

    The requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and public concern about the safety of air emissions from incineration necessitate the development of continuous emission monitors for on-line determination of both the destruction removal efficiency (DRE) of hazardous wastes and the emission products of incomplete combustion (PICs). This paper describes a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method that has been developed for this purpose. A laboratory-scale hazardous waste incinerator was coupled directly, via heated sampling lines, to a heated long-path cell (LPC) combined with an FTIR analyzer. The DRE and PIC emission levels were measured, on-line, for toluene incineration. Thus, this new LPC/FTIR system has been demonstrated as an effective continuous emissions monitor. Further experimental work with other hydrocarbons is now underway using the FTIR system. 8 figs., 4 tabs

  6. Extended ABCD matrix formalism for the description of femtosecond diffraction patterns; application to femtosecond digital in-line holography with anamorphic optical systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunel, Marc; Shen, Huanhuan; Coetmellec, Sebastien; Lebrun, Denis

    2012-03-10

    We present a new model to predict diffraction patterns of femtosecond pulses through complex optical systems. The model is based on the extension of an ABCD matrix formalism combined with generalized Huygens-Fresnel transforms (already used in the CW regime) to the femtosecond regime. The model is tested to describe femtosecond digital in-line holography experiments realized in situ through a cylindrical Plexiglas pipe. The model allows us to establish analytical relations that link the holographic reconstruction process to the experimental parameters of the pipe and of the incident beam itself. Simulations and experimental results are in good concordance. Femtosecond digital in-line holography is shown to allow significant coherent noise reduction, and this model will be particularly efficient to describe a wide range of optical geometries. More generally, the model developed can be easily used in any experiment where the knowledge of the precise evolution of femtosecond transverse patterns is required.

  7. Elimination of fungicides in biopurification systems: Effect of fungal bioaugmentation on removal performance and microbial community structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murillo-Zamora, Sergio; Castro-Gutiérrez, Víctor; Masís-Mora, Mario; Lizano-Fallas, Verónica; Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Carlos E

    2017-11-01

    Bioaugmentation with ligninolytic fungi represents a potential way to improve the performance of biomixtures used in biopurification systems for the treatment of pesticide-containing agricultural wastewater. The fungus Trametes versicolor was employed in the bioaugmentation of a biomixture to be used in the simultaneous removal of seven fungicides. Liquid cultures of the fungus were able to remove tebuconazole, while no evidence of carbendazim, metalaxyl and triadimenol depletion was found. When applied in the biomixture, the bioaugmented matrix failed to remove all the triazole fungicides (including tebuconazole) under the assayed conditions, but was efficient to eliminate carbendazim, edifenphos and metalaxyl (the latter only after a second pesticide application). The re-addition of pesticides markedly increased the elimination of carbendazim and metalaxyl; nonetheless, no clear enhancement of the biomixture performance could be ascribed to fungal bioaugmentation, not even after the re-inoculation of fungal biomass. Detoxification efficiently took place in the biomixture (9 d after pesticide applications) according to acute tests on Daphnia magna. DGGE-analysis revealed only moderate time-divergence in bacterial and fungal communities, and a weak establishment of T. versicolor in the matrix. Data suggest that the non-bioaugmented biomixture is useful for the treatment of fungicides other than triazoles. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. On low rank classical groups in string theory, gauge theory and matrix models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Intriligator, Ken; Kraus, Per; Ryzhov, Anton V.; Shigemori, Masaki; Vafa, Cumrun

    2004-01-01

    We consider N=1 supersymmetric U(N), SO(N), and Sp(N) gauge theories, with two-index tensor matter and added tree-level superpotential, for general breaking patterns of the gauge group. By considering the string theory realization and geometric transitions, we clarify when glueball superfields should be included and extremized, or rather set to zero; this issue arises for unbroken group factors of low rank. The string theory results, which are equivalent to those of the matrix model, refer to a particular UV completion of the gauge theory, which could differ from conventional gauge theory results by residual instanton effects. Often, however, these effects exhibit miraculous cancellations, and the string theory or matrix model results end up agreeing with standard gauge theory. In particular, these string theory considerations explain and remove some apparent discrepancies between gauge theories and matrix models in the literature

  9. An Elementary Proof of the Polynomial Matrix Spectral Factorization Theorem

    OpenAIRE

    Ephremidze, Lasha

    2010-01-01

    A very simple and short proof of the polynomial matrix spectral factorization theorem (on the unit circle as well as on the real line) is presented, which relies on elementary complex analysis and linear algebra.

  10. The influence of matrix composition and reinforcement type on the properties of polysialate composites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammell, James A.

    There is a critical need for the development of materials for eliminating fire as a cause of death in aircraft accidents. Currently available composites that use organic matrices not only deteriorate at temperatures above 300°C but also emit toxic fumes. The results presented in this dissertation focus on the development of an inorganic matrix that does not burn or emit toxic fumes. The matrix, known as polysialate, can withstand temperatures in excess of 1000°C. The matrix behaves like a ceramic, but does not need high curing temperatures, so it can be processed like many common organic matrices. The major parameters evaluated in this dissertation are: (i) Influence of reinforcement type, (ii) Matrix formulation for both wet-dry durability and high temperature resistance, (iii) Influence of processing variables such as moisture reduction and storage, (iv) Tensile strain capacity of modified matrices and matrices reinforced with ceramic microfibers and discrete carbon fibers, and (v) analytical modeling of mechanical properties. For the reinforcement type; carbon, glass, and stainless steel wire fabrics were investigated. Carbon fabrics with 1, 3, 12, and 50k tows were used. A matrix chemical formulation that can withstand wetting and drying was developed. This formulation was tested at high temperatures to ascertain its stability above 400°C. On the topic of processing, shelf life of prepregged fabric layers and efficient moisture removal methods were studied. An analytical model based on layered reinforcement was developed for analyzing flexural specimens. It is shown that the new inorganic matrix can withstand wetting and drying, and also high temperature. The layered reinforcement concept provides accurate prediction of strength and stiffness for composites reinforced with 1k and 3k tows. The prepregged fabric layers can be stored for 14 days at -15°C without losing strength.

  11. Rapid and automated on-line solid phase extraction HPLC-MS/MS with peak focusing for the determination of ochratoxin A in wine samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campone, Luca; Piccinelli, Anna Lisa; Celano, Rita; Pagano, Imma; Russo, Mariateresa; Rastrelli, Luca

    2018-04-01

    This study reports a fast and automated analytical procedure based on an on-line SPE-HPLC-MS/MS method for the automatic pre-concentration, clean up and sensitive determination of OTA in wine. The amount of OTA contained in 100μL of sample (pH≅5.5) was retained and concentrated on an Oasis MAX SPE cartridge. After a washing step to remove matrix interferents, the analyte was eluted in back-flush mode and the eluent from the SPE column was diluted through a mixing Tee, using an aqueous solution before the chromatographic separation achieved on a monolithic column. The developed method has been validated according to EU regulation N. 519/2014 and applied for the analysis of 41 red and 17 white wines. The developed method features minimal sample handling, low solvent consumption, high sample throughput, low analysis cost and provides an accurate and highly selective results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Extracellular matrix as a driver for lung regeneration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balestrini, Jenna L; Niklason, Laura E

    2015-03-01

    Extracellular matrix has manifold roles in tissue mechanics, guidance of cellular behavior, developmental biology, and regenerative medicine. Over the past several decades, various pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that many connective tissues may be replaced and/or regenerated using suitable extracellular matrix scaffolds. More recently, decellularization of lung tissue has shown that gentle removal of cells can leave behind a "footprint" within the matrix that may guide cellular adhesion, differentiation and homing following cellular repopulation. Fundamental issues like understanding matrix composition and micro-mechanics remain difficult to tackle, largely because of a lack of available assays and tools for systematically characterizing intact matrix from tissues and organs. This review will critically examine the role of engineered and native extracellular matrix in tissue and lung regeneration, and provide insights into directions for future research and translation.

  13. Trace metals analysis in estuarine and seawater by ICP-MS using on line preconcentration and matrix elimination with chelating resin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicolaı, M; Rosin, C; Tousset, N; Nicolai, Y

    1999-09-13

    The main difficulties of trace metals analysis in estuarine and seawater stem from their very low concentration (mug/l to sub-mug/l), and, by contrast, the high salt content (up to 38 g/l in the Mediterranean Sea). ICP-MS allows multi-elemental analysis and offers great sensitivity, but may be strongly affected by matrix effects induced by high salt contents (> 1 g/l). To perform trace metals analysis both in riverine, estuarine and seawater, we have developed a hyphenated method: ion chelation chromatography coupled on-line with ICP-MS. Iminodiacetate resin, Metpac CC-1 (Dionex), was used to concentrate most of the trace metals, and to separate them from alkaline and alkaline-earth metals. Behaviour of 17 elements (Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, U, Cr, Mn, Al, Co, Ga, In, Zn, V, Tl, Bi, Ag and Sn) towards the resin was qualitatively investigated. A method validation, partly derived from AFNOR standard XPT 90-210, was carried out on 12 elements (Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, U, Cr, Mn, Al, Co, Ga, Bi and In). Replicate measurements of multi-elemental standard solutions were used to check linearity, and to determine repeatability and detection limits. Method accuracy was then assessed by analysing two certified materials: a synthetic freshwater (SRM 1643d), and a natural filtered coastal seawater (NRCC CASS-3). An application assay of natural samples from the Rhône river (France) was eventually carried out, and the analytical results were found to be consistent with previous works.

  14. Q Value of the Superallowed Decay of 46V and Its Influence on Vud and the Unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Savard, G.; Buchinger, F.; Crawford, J.E.; Gulick, S.; Lee, J.K.P.; Clark, J.A.; Sharma, H.; Sharma, K.S.; Hardy, J.C.; Hecht, A.A.; Levand, A.F.; Scielzo, N.D.; Tanihata, I.; Villari, A.C.C.; Wang, Y.

    2005-01-01

    The masses of the radioactive nuclei 46 V and its decay daughter 46 Ti have been measured with the Canadian Penning Trap on-line Penning trap mass spectrometer to a precision of 1x10 -8 . A Q EC value of 7052.90(40) keV for the superallowed beta decay of 46 V is obtained from the difference of these two masses. With this precise Q value, the Ft value for this decay is determined with improved precision. An investigation of an earlier Q-value measurement for 46 V uncovers a set of 7 measurements that cannot be reconciled with modern data and affects previous evaluations of V ud from superallowed Fermi decays. A new evaluation, adding our new data and removing the discredited subset, yields new values for G V and V ud . When combined with recent results for V us , this yields modified constraints for the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and other extensions of the standard model

  15. Preparation of the Nuclear Matrix for Parallel Microscopy and Biochemical Analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Rosemary H C; Hesketh, Emma L; Coverley, Dawn

    2016-01-04

    Immobilized proteins within the nucleus are usually identified by treating cells with detergent. The detergent-resistant fraction is often assumed to be chromatin and is described as such in many studies. However, this fraction consists of both chromatin-bound and nuclear-matrix-bound proteins. To investigate nuclear-matrix-bound proteins alone, further separation of these fractions is required; the DNA must be removed so that the remaining proteins can be compared with those from untreated cells. This protocol uses a nonionic detergent (Triton X-100) to remove membranes and soluble proteins from cells under physiologically relevant salt concentrations, followed by extraction with 0.5 m NaCl, digestion with DNase I, and removal of fragmented DNA. It uses a specialized buffer (cytoskeletal buffer) to stabilize the cytoskeleton and nuclear matrix in relatively gentle conditions. Nuclear matrix proteins can then be assessed by either immunofluorescence (IF) and immunoblotting (IB). IB has the advantage of resolving different forms of a protein of interest, and the soluble fractions can be analyzed. The major advantage of IF analysis is that individual cells (rather than homogenized populations) can be monitored, and the spatial arrangement of proteins bound to residual nuclear structures can be revealed. © 2016 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

  16. Waste removal in pyrochemical fuel processing for the Integral Fast Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ackerman, J.P.; Johnson, T.R.; Laidler, J.J.

    1994-01-01

    Electrorefining in a molten salt electrolyte is used in the Integral Fast Reactor fuel cycle to recover actinides from spent fuel. Processes that are being developed for removing the waste constituents from the electrorefiner and incorporating them into the waste forms are described in this paper. During processing, halogen, chalcogen, alkali, alkaline earth, and rare earth fission products build up in the molten salt as metal halides and anions, and fuel cladding hulls and noble metal fission products remain as metals of various particle sizes. Essentially all transuranic actinides are collected as metals on cathodes, and are converted to new metal fuel. After processing, fission products and other waste are removed to a metal and a mineral waste form. The metal waste form contains the cladding hulls, noble metal fission products, and (optionally) most rare earths in a copper or stainless steel matrix. The mineral waste form contains fission products that have been removed from the salt into a zeolite or zeolite-derived matrix

  17. Efficiency criterion for teleportation via channel matrix, measurement matrix and collapsed matrix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin-Wei Zha

    Full Text Available In this paper, three kinds of coefficient matrixes (channel matrix, measurement matrix, collapsed matrix associated with the pure state for teleportation are presented, the general relation among channel matrix, measurement matrix and collapsed matrix is obtained. In addition, a criterion for judging whether a state can be teleported successfully is given, depending on the relation between the number of parameter of an unknown state and the rank of the collapsed matrix. Keywords: Channel matrix, Measurement matrix, Collapsed matrix, Teleportation

  18. Effect of Fiber Poisson Contraction on Matrix Multicracking Evolution of Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic-Matrix Composites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longbiao, Li

    2015-12-01

    An analytical methodology has been developed to investigate the effect of fiber Poisson contraction on matrix multicracking evolution of fiber-reinforced ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs). The modified shear-lag model incorporated with the Coulomb friction law is adopted to solve the stress distribution in the interface slip region and intact region of the damaged composite. The critical matrix strain energy criterion which presupposes the existence of an ultimate or critical strain energy limit beyond which the matrix fails has been adopted to describe matrix multicracking of CMCs. As more energy is placed into the composite, matrix fractures and the interface debonding occurs to dissipate the extra energy. The interface debonded length under the process of matrix multicracking is obtained by treating the interface debonding as a particular crack propagation problem along the fiber/matrix interface. The effects of the interfacial frictional coefficient, fiber Poisson ratio, fiber volume fraction, interface debonded energy and cycle number on the interface debonding and matrix multicracking evolution have been analyzed. The theoretical results are compared with experimental data of unidirectional SiC/CAS, SiC/CAS-II and SiC/Borosilicate composites.

  19. Cell–material interactions on biphasic polyurethane matrix

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dicesare, Patrick; Fox, Wade M.; Hill, Michael J.; Krishnan, G. Rajesh; Yang, Shuying; Sarkar, Debanjan

    2013-01-01

    Cell–matrix interaction is a key regulator for controlling stem cell fate in regenerative tissue engineering. These interactions are induced and controlled by the nanoscale features of extracellular matrix and are mimicked on synthetic matrices to control cell structure and functions. Recent studies have shown that nanostructured matrices can modulate stem cell behavior and exert specific role in tissue regeneration. In this study, we have demonstrated that nanostructured phase morphology of synthetic matrix can control adhesion, proliferation, organization and migration of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Nanostructured biodegradable polyurethanes (PU) with segmental composition exhibit biphasic morphology at nanoscale dimensions and can control cellular features of MSCs. Biodegradable PU with polyester soft segment and hard segment composed of aliphatic diisocyanates and dipeptide chain extender were designed to examine the effect polyurethane phase morphology. By altering the polyurethane composition, morphological architecture of PU was modulated and its effect was examined on MSC. Results show that MSCs can sense the nanoscale morphology of biphasic polyurethane matrix to exhibit distinct cellular features and, thus, signifies the relevance of matrix phase morphology. The role of nanostructured phases of a synthetic matrix in controlling cell–matrix interaction provides important insights for regulation of cell behavior on synthetic matrix and, therefore, is an important tool for engineering tissue regeneration. PMID:23255285

  20. Line roughness improvements on self-aligned quadruple patterning by wafer stress engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Eric; Ko, Akiteru; Biolsi, Peter; Chae, Soo Doo; Hsieh, Chia-Yun; Kagaya, Munehito; Lee, Choongman; Moriya, Tsuyoshi; Tsujikawa, Shimpei; Suzuki, Yusuke; Okubo, Kazuya; Imai, Kiyotaka

    2018-04-01

    In integrated circuit and memory devices, size shrinkage has been the most effective method to reduce production cost and enable the steady increment of the number of transistors per unit area over the past few decades. In order to reduce the die size and feature size, it is necessary to minimize pattern formation in the advance node development. In the node of sub-10nm, extreme ultra violet lithography (EUV) and multi-patterning solutions based on 193nm immersionlithography are the two most common options to achieve the size requirement. In such small features of line and space pattern, line width roughness (LWR) and line edge roughness (LER) contribute significant amount of process variation that impacts both physical and electrical performances. In this paper, we focus on optimizing the line roughness performance by using wafer stress engineering on 30nm pitch line and space pattern. This pattern is generated by a self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP) technique for the potential application of fin formation. Our investigation starts by comparing film materials and stress levels in various processing steps and material selection on SAQP integration scheme. From the cross-matrix comparison, we are able to determine the best stack of film selection and stress combination in order to achieve the lowest line roughness performance while obtaining pattern validity after fin etch. This stack is also used to study the step-by-step line roughness performance from SAQP to fin etch. Finally, we will show a successful patterning of 30nm pitch line and space pattern SAQP scheme with 1nm line roughness performance.

  1. Experimental study on mechanical behavior of fiber/matrix interface in metal matrix composite

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Q.; Chiang, F.P.

    1994-01-01

    The technique SIEM(Speckle Interferometry with Electron Microscopy) was employed to quantitatively measure the deformation on the fiber/matrix interface in SCS-6/Ti-6-4 composite at a microscale level. The displacement field within the fiber/matrix interphase zone was determined by in-situ observation with sensitivity of 0.003(microm). The macro-mechanical properties were compared with micro-mechanical behavior. It is shown that the strength in the interphase zone is weaker than the matrix tensile strength. The deformation process can be characterized by the uniform deformation, interface strain concentration and debond, and matrix plastic deformation

  2. Removable Thin Films used for the Abatement and Mitigation of Beryllium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lumia, M.; Gentile, C.; Creek, K.; Sandoval, R.

    2003-01-01

    The use of removable thin films for the abatement of hazardous particulates has many advantages. Removable thin films are designed to trap and fix particulates in the film's matrix by adhesion. Thin films can be applied to an existing contaminated area to fix and capture the particulates for removal. The nature of the removable thin films, after sufficient cure time, is such that it can typically be removed as one continuous entity. The removable thin films can be applied to almost any surface type with a high success rate of removal

  3. Batched Triangular Dense Linear Algebra Kernels for Very Small Matrix Sizes on GPUs

    KAUST Repository

    Charara, Ali; Keyes, David E.; Ltaief, Hatem

    2017-01-01

    Batched dense linear algebra kernels are becoming ubiquitous in scientific applications, ranging from tensor contractions in deep learning to data compression in hierarchical low-rank matrix approximation. Within a single API call, these kernels are capable of simultaneously launching up to thousands of similar matrix computations, removing the expensive overhead of multiple API calls while increasing the occupancy of the underlying hardware. A challenge is that for the existing hardware landscape (x86, GPUs, etc.), only a subset of the required batched operations is implemented by the vendors, with limited support for very small problem sizes. We describe the design and performance of a new class of batched triangular dense linear algebra kernels on very small data sizes using single and multiple GPUs. By deploying two-sided recursive formulations, stressing the register usage, maintaining data locality, reducing threads synchronization and fusing successive kernel calls, the new batched kernels outperform existing state-of-the-art implementations.

  4. Batched Triangular Dense Linear Algebra Kernels for Very Small Matrix Sizes on GPUs

    KAUST Repository

    Charara, Ali

    2017-03-06

    Batched dense linear algebra kernels are becoming ubiquitous in scientific applications, ranging from tensor contractions in deep learning to data compression in hierarchical low-rank matrix approximation. Within a single API call, these kernels are capable of simultaneously launching up to thousands of similar matrix computations, removing the expensive overhead of multiple API calls while increasing the occupancy of the underlying hardware. A challenge is that for the existing hardware landscape (x86, GPUs, etc.), only a subset of the required batched operations is implemented by the vendors, with limited support for very small problem sizes. We describe the design and performance of a new class of batched triangular dense linear algebra kernels on very small data sizes using single and multiple GPUs. By deploying two-sided recursive formulations, stressing the register usage, maintaining data locality, reducing threads synchronization and fusing successive kernel calls, the new batched kernels outperform existing state-of-the-art implementations.

  5. Development of the determination method of rare earth elements in seawater by ICP-MS with an on-line preconcentration column of improved iminodiacetate resin and its application to Tokyo Bay seawater

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsuneto, Atsushi; Suzuki, Yoshinari; Furuta, Naoki; Furusho, Yoshiaki

    2009-01-01

    In order to determine rare earth elements (REEs) in seawater by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with an on-line preconcentration column, we used the improved iminodiacetate chelate resin (MetaSEP ME-2) that had a cation-type alkyl group. Its operating conditions were optimized, and the recoveries of REEs and the removal rates of matrix elements were compared with other resins. Ca and Mg were removed more efficiently under a buffer solution of pH 5.0. The removal efficiencies of Ca and Mg using MetaSEP ME-2 were better than those using other resins. We determined REEs in a seawater reference material (NASS-5) with MetaSEP ME-2. The obtained results were in good agreement with the reference values. We applied this method to the determination of REEs in seawater collected from Tokyo Bay, and evaluated the distribution patterns of REEs. Consequently, the positive anomaly of Gd in the small-molecule fraction was observed. The positive anomaly of Gd can be attributed to the outflow of Gd compounds, which are used for a magnetic resonance imaging contrast medium. (author)

  6. Spectral function for a nonsymmetric differential operator on the half line

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wuqing Ning

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available In this article we study the spectral function for a nonsymmetric differential operator on the half line. Two cases of the coefficient matrix are considered, and for each case we prove by Marchenko's method that, to the boundary value problem, there corresponds a spectral function related to which a Marchenko-Parseval equality and an expansion formula are established. Our results extend the classical spectral theory for self-adjoint Sturm-Liouville operators and Dirac operators.

  7. Infrared spectral line parameters of HBr and DBr at elevated temperatures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stocker, R.N.; Goldman, A.

    1976-01-01

    The electric dipole matrix elements for pure rotation and vibration-rotation transitions, with /m/<=40 and v<=v'<=6, having derived for HBr and DBr by using the Rydberg-Klein-Rees (RKR) potentials and numerical solutions of the Schroedinger equation. An improved dipole-moment expansion was determined by fitting these matrix elements to the available experimental data on line intensities. A least squares analysis of the available line position constants gave an improved set of Dunham coefficients good for spectral lines with both large and small quantum numbers v and J. The results were then used to generate a compilation of individual line parameters for the Δv = 1 bands of HBr and DBr at temperatures up to 3000 K. These parameters, together with previously compiled line parameters for HCl, HF, CO and NO, are being used for line-by-line calculations of radiance from a hot source as seen through an atmospheric path. (author)

  8. Thiacrown polymers for removal of mercury from waste streams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumann, Theodore F.; Reynolds, John G.; Fox, Glenn A.

    2004-02-24

    Thiacrown polymers immobilized to a polystyrene-divinylbenzene matrix react with Hg.sup.2+ under a variety of conditions to efficiently and selectively remove Hg.sup.2+ ions from acidic aqueous solutions, even in the presence of a variety of other metal ions. The mercury can be recovered and the polymer regenerated. This mercury removal method has utility in the treatment of industrial wastewater, where a selective and cost-effective removal process is required.

  9. Application of ABTS radical cation for selective on-line detection of radical scavengers in HPLC eluates

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koleva, [No Value; Niederlander, HAG; van Beek, TA

    2001-01-01

    The radical cation 2,2 ' -azinobis-(3 -ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate), (ABTS(.+)) was utilized in an on-line HPLC method for the detection of radical scavengers in complex matrixes. The HPLC-separated analytes react postcolumn with the preformed ABTS(.+), and the induced bleaching is detected as

  10. On matrix fractional differential equations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adem Kılıçman

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to study the matrix fractional differential equations and to find the exact solution for system of matrix fractional differential equations in terms of Riemann–Liouville using Laplace transform method and convolution product to the Riemann–Liouville fractional of matrices. Also, we show the theorem of non-homogeneous matrix fractional partial differential equation with some illustrative examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new methodology. The main objective of this article is to discuss the Laplace transform method based on operational matrices of fractional derivatives for solving several kinds of linear fractional differential equations. Moreover, we present the operational matrices of fractional derivatives with Laplace transform in many applications of various engineering systems as control system. We present the analytical technique for solving fractional-order, multi-term fractional differential equation. In other words, we propose an efficient algorithm for solving fractional matrix equation.

  11. Hardware-Efficient On-line Learning through Pipelined Truncated-Error Backpropagation in Binary-State Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hesham Mostafa

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Artificial neural networks (ANNs trained using backpropagation are powerful learning architectures that have achieved state-of-the-art performance in various benchmarks. Significant effort has been devoted to developing custom silicon devices to accelerate inference in ANNs. Accelerating the training phase, however, has attracted relatively little attention. In this paper, we describe a hardware-efficient on-line learning technique for feedforward multi-layer ANNs that is based on pipelined backpropagation. Learning is performed in parallel with inference in the forward pass, removing the need for an explicit backward pass and requiring no extra weight lookup. By using binary state variables in the feedforward network and ternary errors in truncated-error backpropagation, the need for any multiplications in the forward and backward passes is removed, and memory requirements for the pipelining are drastically reduced. Further reduction in addition operations owing to the sparsity in the forward neural and backpropagating error signal paths contributes to highly efficient hardware implementation. For proof-of-concept validation, we demonstrate on-line learning of MNIST handwritten digit classification on a Spartan 6 FPGA interfacing with an external 1Gb DDR2 DRAM, that shows small degradation in test error performance compared to an equivalently sized binary ANN trained off-line using standard back-propagation and exact errors. Our results highlight an attractive synergy between pipelined backpropagation and binary-state networks in substantially reducing computation and memory requirements, making pipelined on-line learning practical in deep networks.

  12. Hardware-Efficient On-line Learning through Pipelined Truncated-Error Backpropagation in Binary-State Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostafa, Hesham; Pedroni, Bruno; Sheik, Sadique; Cauwenberghs, Gert

    2017-01-01

    Artificial neural networks (ANNs) trained using backpropagation are powerful learning architectures that have achieved state-of-the-art performance in various benchmarks. Significant effort has been devoted to developing custom silicon devices to accelerate inference in ANNs. Accelerating the training phase, however, has attracted relatively little attention. In this paper, we describe a hardware-efficient on-line learning technique for feedforward multi-layer ANNs that is based on pipelined backpropagation. Learning is performed in parallel with inference in the forward pass, removing the need for an explicit backward pass and requiring no extra weight lookup. By using binary state variables in the feedforward network and ternary errors in truncated-error backpropagation, the need for any multiplications in the forward and backward passes is removed, and memory requirements for the pipelining are drastically reduced. Further reduction in addition operations owing to the sparsity in the forward neural and backpropagating error signal paths contributes to highly efficient hardware implementation. For proof-of-concept validation, we demonstrate on-line learning of MNIST handwritten digit classification on a Spartan 6 FPGA interfacing with an external 1Gb DDR2 DRAM, that shows small degradation in test error performance compared to an equivalently sized binary ANN trained off-line using standard back-propagation and exact errors. Our results highlight an attractive synergy between pipelined backpropagation and binary-state networks in substantially reducing computation and memory requirements, making pipelined on-line learning practical in deep networks.

  13. Improved virus removal in ceramic depth filters modified with MgO.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michen, Benjamin; Fritsch, Johannes; Aneziris, Christos; Graule, Thomas

    2013-02-05

    Ceramic filters, working on the depth filtration principle, are known to improve drinking water quality by removing human pathogenic microorganisms from contaminated water. However, these microfilters show no sufficient barrier for viruses having diameters down to 20 nm. Recently, it was shown that the addition of positively charged materials, for example, iron oxyhydroxide, can improve virus removal by adsorption mechanisms. In this work, we modified a common ceramic filter based on diatomaceous earth by introducing a novel virus adsorbent material, magnesium oxyhydroxide, into the filter matrix. Such filters showed an improved removal of about 4-log in regard to bacteriophages MS2 and PhiX174. This is explained with the electrostatic enhanced adsorption approach that is the favorable adsorption of negatively charged viruses onto positively charged patches in an otherwise negatively charged filter matrix. Furthermore, we provide theoretical evidence applying calculations according to Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory to strengthen our experimental results. However, modified filters showed a significant variance in virus removal efficiency over the course of long-term filtration experiments with virus removal increasing with filter operation time (or filter aging). This is explained by transformational changes of MgO in the filter upon contact with water. It also demonstrates that filter history is of great concern when filters working on the adsorption principles are evaluated in regard to their retention performance as their surface characteristics may alter with use.

  14. Non-Abelian integrable hierarchies: matrix biorthogonal polynomials and perturbations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ariznabarreta, Gerardo; García-Ardila, Juan C.; Mañas, Manuel; Marcellán, Francisco

    2018-05-01

    In this paper, Geronimus–Uvarov perturbations for matrix orthogonal polynomials on the real line are studied and then applied to the analysis of non-Abelian integrable hierarchies. The orthogonality is understood in full generality, i.e. in terms of a nondegenerate continuous sesquilinear form, determined by a quasidefinite matrix of bivariate generalized functions with a well-defined support. We derive Christoffel-type formulas that give the perturbed matrix biorthogonal polynomials and their norms in terms of the original ones. The keystone for this finding is the Gauss–Borel factorization of the Gram matrix. Geronimus–Uvarov transformations are considered in the context of the 2D non-Abelian Toda lattice and noncommutative KP hierarchies. The interplay between transformations and integrable flows is discussed. Miwa shifts, τ-ratio matrix functions and Sato formulas are given. Bilinear identities, involving Geronimus–Uvarov transformations, first for the Baker functions, then secondly for the biorthogonal polynomials and its second kind functions, and finally for the τ-ratio matrix functions, are found.

  15. Bioremediation system on-line for removal radionuclides in radioactive waters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Belinchon, J. A.; Garcia, A. M.; Ruibal, C.; Moreno, D. A.

    2010-01-01

    In previous studies developed in Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant (Valencia, Spain), has been observed that the microorganisms in the radioactive waters of the spent nuclear fuel pool are capable of colonizing the metallic surfaces of the walls and pipes and perform biofilm. These biofilm retain the nuclides contributing to decontaminate the water. In this project, carried out in Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant, a pilot plant has been designed for the bio decontamination of the radioactive water. At present, the radioactive water coming from the spent nuclear fuel pools, pass through ionic exchange resins. After, these resins are managed as radioactive waste. In this project, the water passes through a bioreactor with stainless steel balls capable of being colonized by the microorganisms in the water. Inside the bioreactor the water gets in contact with the material of the balls, and a biofilm, which retains the nuclides in the water, is developed. The biofilm is easily removed by any conventional procedure of radiochemical decontamination of materials and the nuclides can be collected in a small volume for recovery final disposition or containment. Later, the material of the bioreactor could be managed as not radioactive material. (Author) 9 refs.

  16. Cavity lining after excavating caries lesions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schwendicke, Falk; Göstemeyer, Gerd; Gluud, Christian

    2015-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: After removal of dentin caries lesions, cavity lining has been advocated. Non-clinical data support this approach, but clinical data are sparse and ambiguous. We aimed at evaluating the benefits and harms of cavity lining using meta-analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis. DATA: We...... included randomized clinical trials comparing restorations without versus with cavity lining for treating primary caries lesions. Only trials reporting failure (defined as need to re-retreat) after ≥1 year follow-up were included. Trial selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted....... STUDY SELECTION: From 128 studies, three randomized trials (89/130 patients or teeth), all treating primary teeth, were included. The trials had high risk of bias. All trials compared no lining versus calcium hydroxide lining after selective caries removal followed by adhesive restoration. Follow...

  17. EFFECT OF HEAT-DISPERSING ON STICKIES AND THEIR REMOVAL IN POST-FLOTATION

    OpenAIRE

    Yang Gao,; Menghua Qin,; Hailong Yu,; Fengshan Zhang

    2012-01-01

    The effect of heat-dispersing on sticky substances in a deinking pulping line was studied under different conditions including varying temperature, disc clearance, and pulp consistency. Sticky substances were quantitatively investigated before and after the heat-dispersing, and categorized into macro-, mini-, and micro-stickies as well as dissolved and colloidal substances. Meanwhile, their extents of removal in post-flotation were evaluated. The results showed that raising temperature, reduc...

  18. Influence of short-term aluminum exposure on demineralized bone matrix induced bone formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Severson, A.R. (Minnesota Univ., Duluth, MN (United States). Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology); Haut, C.F.; Firling, C.E. (Minnesota Univ., Duluth, MN (United States). Dept. of Biology); Huntley, T.E. (Minnesota Univ., Duluth, MN (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

    1992-12-01

    The effects of aluminum exposure on bone formation employing the demineralized bone matrix (DBM) induced bone development model were studied using 4-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats injected with a saline (control) or an aluminum chloride (experimental) solution. After 2 weeks of aluminum treatment, 20-mg portions of rat DBM were implanted subcutaneously on each side in the thoracic region of the control and experimental rats. Animals were killed 7, 12, or 21 days after implantation of the DBM and the developing plaques removed. No morphological, histochemical, or biochemical differences were apparent between plaques from day 7 control and experimental rats. Plaques from day 12 control and experimental rats exhibited cartilage formation and alkaline phosphatase activity localized in osteochondrogenic cells, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and extracellular matrix. Unlike the plaques from control rats that contained many osteoblastic mineralizing fronts, the plaques from the 12-day experimental group had a preponderance of cartilaginous tissue, no evidence of mineralization, increased levels of alkaline phosphatase activity, and a reduced calcium content. Plaques developing for 21 days in control animals demonstrated extensive new bone formation and bone marrow development, while those in the experimental rats demonstrated unmineralized osteoid-like matrix with poorly developed bone marrow. Alkaline phosphatase activity of the plaques continued to remain high on day 21 for the control and experimental groups. Calcium levels were significantly reduced in the experimental group. These biochemical changes correlated with histochemical reductions in bone calcification. Thus, aluminum administration to rats appears to alter the differentiation and calcification of developing cartilage and bone in the DBM-induced bone formation model and suggests that aluminum by some mechanism alters the matrix calcification in growing bones. (orig.).

  19. Using ice melting and ice rolling technologies to remove ice from sub-transmission and transmission lines at Manitoba Hydro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farias, A. R.

    1999-01-01

    Development of an of an Ice Storm Management program by Manitoba Hydro to reduce ice storm damage to its 8 kV feeders to 115 kV transmission lines, is discussed. The program consists of the de-icing of overhead lines, either by ice melting, or ice rolling. Ice melting involves the placement of a three-phase short at a calculated point. The term ice rolling denotes a process of mechanically stripping the ice from conductors. The most recent major ice storm experienced by Manitoba Hydro was in the winter of 1997/1998. During the period from February 6 to February 17, 1998, a total of 83 'ice melt' procedures were performed to melt the ice from 2,628 km of overhead line (7,883 km of conductor), in addition to 'ice rolling'. This paper describes Manitoba Hydro's 25-years' experience with ice melting and it also describes the advantages and disadvantages of both ice melting and ice rolling. Although not a panacea to combat the effects of ice storms, ice melting was found to be the most effective way of removing ice from overhead transmission and sub-transmission lines. Ice rolling was also found to be effective. Other tools that have been found to be useful by various utilities in combating ice storm damage include improved structure and line design, system design that provide more redundancies and emergency sources, and standby generators at critical load points

  20. NLTE steady-state response matrix method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faussurier, G.; More, R. M.

    2000-05-01

    A connection between atomic kinetics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics has been recently established by using a collisional-radiative model modified to include line absorption. The calculated net emission can be expressed as a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) symmetric response matrix. In the paper, this connection is extended to both cases of the average-atom model and the Busquet's model (RAdiative-Dependent IOnization Model, RADIOM). The main properties of the response matrix still remain valid. The RADIOM source function found in the literature leads to a diagonal response matrix, stressing the absence of any frequency redistribution among the frequency groups at this order of calculation.

  1. Use of gradient dilution to flag and overcome matrix interferences in axial-viewing inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheung, Yan; Schwartz, Andrew J.; Hieftje, Gary M.

    2014-01-01

    Despite the undisputed power of inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), its users still face serious challenges in obtaining accurate analytical results. Matrix interference is perhaps the most important challenge. Dilution of a matrix-containing sample is a common practice to reduce matrix interference. However, determining the optimal dilution factor requires tedious and time-consuming offline sample preparation, since emission lines and the effect of matrix interferences are affected differently by the dilution. The current study exploits this difference by employing a high-performance liquid chromatography gradient pump prior to the nebulizer to perform on-line mixing of a sample solution and diluent. Linear gradient dilution is performed on both the calibration standard and the matrix-containing sample. By ratioing the signals from two emission lines (from the same or different elements) as a function of dilution factor, the analyst can not only identify the presence of a matrix interference, but also determine the optimal dilution factor needed to overcome the interference. A ratio that does not change with dilution signals the absence of a matrix interference, whereas a changing ratio indicates the presence of an interference. The point on the dilution profile where the ratio stabilizes indicates the optimal dilution factor to correct the interference. The current study was performed on axial-viewing ICP-AES with o-xylene as the solvent

  2. Strategy of experimental studies in PNC on natural convection decay heat removal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ieda, Y.; Kamide, H.; Ohshima, H.; Sugawara, S.; Ninokata, H.

    1993-01-01

    Experimental studies have been and are being carried out in PNC to establish the design and safety evaluation methods and the design and safety evaluation guide lines for decay heat removal by natural convection. A strategy of the experimental studies in PNC is described in this paper. The sphere of studies in PNC is to develop the evaluation methods to be available to DRACS as well as PRACS and IRACS for the plant where decay heat is removed by natural convection in some cases of loss of station service power. Similarity parameters related to natural convection are derived from the governing equations. The roles of both sodium and water experiments are defined in consideration of the importance of the similarity parameters and characteristics of scale model experiments. The experimental studies in PNC are reviewed. On the basis of the experimental results, recommended evaluation methods are shown for decay heat removal feature by natural convection. Future experimental works are also proposed. (author)

  3. Regeneration of an aqueous solution from an acid gas absorption process by matrix stripping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rochelle, Gary T [Austin, TX; Oyenekan, Babatunde A [Katy, TX

    2011-03-08

    Carbon dioxide and other acid gases are removed from gaseous streams using aqueous absorption and stripping processes. By replacing the conventional stripper used to regenerate the aqueous solvent and capture the acid gas with a matrix stripping configuration, less energy is consumed. The matrix stripping configuration uses two or more reboiled strippers at different pressures. The rich feed from the absorption equipment is split among the strippers, and partially regenerated solvent from the highest pressure stripper flows to the middle of sequentially lower pressure strippers in a "matrix" pattern. By selecting certain parameters of the matrix stripping configuration such that the total energy required by the strippers to achieve a desired percentage of acid gas removal from the gaseous stream is minimized, further energy savings can be realized.

  4. A framework for general sparse matrix-matrix multiplication on GPUs and heterogeneous processors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Weifeng; Vinter, Brian

    2015-01-01

    General sparse matrix-matrix multiplication (SpGEMM) is a fundamental building block for numerous applications such as algebraic multigrid method (AMG), breadth first search and shortest path problem. Compared to other sparse BLAS routines, an efficient parallel SpGEMM implementation has to handle...... extra irregularity from three aspects: (1) the number of nonzero entries in the resulting sparse matrix is unknown in advance, (2) very expensive parallel insert operations at random positions in the resulting sparse matrix dominate the execution time, and (3) load balancing must account for sparse data...... memory space and efficiently utilizes the very limited on-chip scratchpad memory. Parallel insert operations of the nonzero entries are implemented through the GPU merge path algorithm that is experimentally found to be the fastest GPU merge approach. Load balancing builds on the number of necessary...

  5. Investigating electrochemical removal of bacterial biofilms from stainless steel substrates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dargahi, Mahdi; Hosseinidoust, Zeinab; Tufenkji, Nathalie; Omanovic, Sasha

    2014-05-01

    Electrochemical removal of biofilms deserves attention because of its ease of use and environmentally friendly nature. We investigated the influence of electrode potential and treatment time on the removal of a 10-day old Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formed on stainless steel 316 L substrates. At electrode potentials more positive than -1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl, lower removal rates were observed and only partial removal of the biofilm was achieved during a 1-min time interval. Electrostatic repulsion between the film and electrode surface is believed to drive biofilm detachment under these conditions. However, when the biofilm-coated substrates were treated at potentials negative of -1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl, complete removal of a biofilm was achieved within seconds. Under these conditions, vigorous evolution of hydrogen gas is believed to be responsible for the film removal, mechanically detaching the bacteria and extracellular polymeric matrix from the substrate. Stainless steel substrates were also subjected to repeated cycles of biofilm formation and electrochemical removal. High removal efficiencies were maintained throughout this process suggesting the potential of the proposed technology for application on conductive surfaces in various industrial settings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Novel matrix for REEs recovery from waste disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hareendran, K.; Singha, Mousumi; Roy, S.B.; Pal, Sangita

    2014-01-01

    Sorption of lanthanides (98%-99%) onto a novel matrix (polyacrylamide-carboxylate hydroxamate-PAMCHO) not only remove REE's before effluent disposal but also reduces the chance of contamination of potable water, nuclear plant generated shut down or gadolinium containing effluent during controlled fission reaction, in pharmaceutical diagnosis (MRI) and many other useful process effluents. By using such sorbent, 88% of the lanthanides can be recovered using HCl solution less than pH 1 from the laden matrix and can be concentrated more than 5 times. However, sorption into the interlayer's and diffusion of the REE's during leaching depends on the cross-linked structure of the gel matrix and tortuous path of the porous micro-channel (using scanning electron microscope-SEM study). The sequestration of matrix with REE's has been well established by using instrument FT-IR and gadolinium (cation-lanthanide) exchange method. To understand interaction of REE with sorbent, matrix have been prepared with cross-linking amount variation, such as 85:15, 90:10, 95:05 and 98:02 (matrix: cross-linker). A detailed sorption study of cross-linked matrix with gadolinium in feed solution (184 ppm), filtrate, leached and laden sorbent establishes mass balance (using ICP-AES for quantitative determination). This optimized sorbent (PAMCHO) indicates recovery of valuable REEs with elution factor of more than 0.9 when HCl solution of pH1.5 was used. (author)

  7. Compensation of matrix effects in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of pesticides using a combination of matrix matching and multiple isotopically labeled internal standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsuchiyama, Tomoyuki; Katsuhara, Miki; Nakajima, Masahiro

    2017-11-17

    In the multi-residue analysis of pesticides using GC-MS, the quantitative results are adversely affected by a phenomenon known as the matrix effect. Although the use of matrix-matched standards is considered to be one of the most practical solutions to this problem, complete removal of the matrix effect is difficult in complex food matrices owing to their inconsistency. As a result, residual matrix effects can introduce analytical errors. To compensate for residual matrix effects, we have developed a novel method that employs multiple isotopically labeled internal standards (ILIS). The matrix effects of ILIS and pesticides were evaluated in spiked matrix extracts of various agricultural commodities, and the obtained data were subjected to simple statistical analysis. Based on the similarities between the patterns of variation in the analytical response, a total of 32 isotopically labeled compounds were assigned to 338 pesticides as internal standards. It was found that by utilizing multiple ILIS, residual matrix effects could be effectively compensated. The developed method exhibited superior quantitative performance compared with the common single-internal-standard method. The proposed method is more feasible for regulatory purposes than that using only predetermined correction factors and is considered to be promising for practical applications. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. The controversial nuclear matrix: a balanced point of view.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martelli, A M; Falcieri, E; Zweyer, M; Bortul, R; Tabellini, G; Cappellini, A; Cocco, L; Manzoli, L

    2002-10-01

    The nuclear matrix is defined as the residual framework after the removal of the nuclear envelope, chromatin, and soluble components by sequential extractions. According to several investigators the nuclear matrix provides the structural basis for intranuclear order. However, the existence itself and the nature of this structure is still uncertain. Although the techniques used for the visualization of the nuclear matrix have improved over the years, it is still unclear to what extent the isolated nuclear matrix corresponds to an in vivo existing structure. Therefore, considerable skepticism continues to surround the nuclear matrix fraction as an accurate representation of the situation in living cells. Here, we summarize the experimental evidence in favor of, or against, the presence of a diffuse nucleoskeleton as a facilitating organizational nonchromatin structure of the nucleus.

  9. Development of on-line monitoring device to detect the presence/absence of sodium vapor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolson, R.D.; McPheeters, C.C.; Kremesec, V.J.; Kolba, V.M.

    1983-03-01

    A process is being developed by the Sodium Waste Technology Program at ANL-W to remove metallic sodium from scrap and waste. The final step in the process is the removal of residual metallic sodium by evaporation at temperatures up to 482 0 C (900 0 F) and at pressures of about 10 - 2 torr (1.3 Pa). Efficient operation of this process requires that the operators have a method to indicate the completion of the evaporation. This end point would signify when the chamber and scrap and waste is free of metallic sodium. It was determined that a measure of the vacuum was not sufficiently sensitive, and a research effort was undertaken to select an on-line monitoring device. In this effort, three promising methods were reviewed. The use of quadrupole mass spectrometer was recommended and an on-line device was designed for use in a Sodium Process Demonstration (SPD) Plant

  10. Lectures on matrix field theory

    CERN Document Server

    Ydri, Badis

    2017-01-01

    These lecture notes provide a systematic introduction to matrix models of quantum field theories with non-commutative and fuzzy geometries. The book initially focuses on the matrix formulation of non-commutative and fuzzy spaces, followed by a description of the non-perturbative treatment of the corresponding field theories. As an example, the phase structure of non-commutative phi-four theory is treated in great detail, with a separate chapter on the multitrace approach. The last chapter offers a general introduction to non-commutative gauge theories, while two appendices round out the text. Primarily written as a self-study guide for postgraduate students – with the aim of pedagogically introducing them to key analytical and numerical tools, as well as useful physical models in applications – these lecture notes will also benefit experienced researchers by providing a reference guide to the fundamentals of non-commutative field theory with an emphasis on matrix models and fuzzy geometries.

  11. The influence of electron collisions on non-LTE Li line formation in stellar atmospheres

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Osorio, Yeisson; Barklem, Paul; Lind, Karin; Asplund, Martin

    2012-01-01

    The influence of the uncertainties in the rate coefficient data for electron-impact excitation and ionization on non-LTE Li line formation in cool stellar atmospheres is investigated. We examine the electron collision data used in previous non-LTE calculations and compare them to our own calculations using the R-matrix with pseudostates (RMPS) method and to other calculations found in the literature.

  12. On the transfer matrix of the supersymmetric eight-vertex model. I. Periodic boundary conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hagendorf, Christian; Liénardy, Jean

    2018-03-01

    The square-lattice eight-vertex model with vertex weights a, b, c, d obeying the relation (a^2+ab)(b^2+ab) = (c^2+ab)(d^2+ab) and periodic boundary conditions is considered. It is shown that the transfer matrix of the model for L  =  2n  +  1 vertical lines and periodic boundary conditions along the horizontal direction possesses the doubly degenerate eigenvalue \\Thetan = (a+b){\\hspace{0pt}}2n+1 . This proves a conjecture by Stroganov from 2001. The proof uses the supersymmetry of a related XYZ spin-chain Hamiltonian. The eigenstates of the transfer matrix corresponding to \\Thetan are shown to be the ground states of the spin-chain Hamiltonian. Moreover, for positive vertex weights \\Thetan is the largest eigenvalue of the transfer matrix.

  13. Removal of phenolic endocrine disrupting compounds from waste activated sludge using UV, H2O2, and UV/H2O2 oxidation processes: Effects of reaction conditions and sludge matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Ai; Li, Yongmei

    2014-01-01

    Removal of six phenolic endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) (estrone, 17β-estradiol, 17α-ethinylestradiol, estriol, bisphenol A, and 4-nonylphenols) from waste activated sludge (WAS) was investigated using ultraviolet light (UV), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), and the combined UV/H 2 O 2 processes. Effects of initial EDC concentration, H 2 O 2 dosage, and pH value were investigated. Particularly, the effects of 11 metal ions and humic acid (HA) contained in a sludge matrix on EDC degradation were evaluated. A pseudo-first-order kinetic model was used to describe the EDC degradation during UV, H 2 O 2 , and UV/H 2 O 2 treatments of WAS. The results showed that the degradation of the 6 EDCs during all the three oxidation processes fitted well with pseudo-first-order kinetics. Compared with the sole UV irradiation or H 2 O 2 oxidation process, UV/H 2 O 2 treatment was much more effective for both EDC degradation and WAS solubilization. Under their optimal conditions, the EDC degradation rate constants during UV/H 2 O 2 oxidation were 45–197 times greater than those during UV irradiation and 11–53 times greater than those during H 2 O 2 oxidation. High dosage of H 2 O 2 and low pH were favorable for the degradation of EDCs. Under the conditions of pH = 3, UV wavelength = 253.7 nm, UV fluence rate = 0.069 mW cm −2 , and H 2 O 2 dosage = 0.5 mol L −1 , the removal efficiencies of E1, E2, EE2, E3, BPA, and NP in 2 min were 97%, 92%, 95%, 94%, 89%, and 67%, respectively. The hydroxyl radical (·OH) was proved to take the most important role for the removal of EDCs. Metal ions in sludge could facilitate the removal of EDCs during UV/H 2 O 2 oxidation. Fe, Ag, and Cu ions had more obvious effects compared with other metal ions. The overall role of HA was dependent on the balance between its competition as organics and its catalysis/photosensitization effects. These indicate that the sludge matrix plays an important role in the degradation of EDCs. - Highlights:

  14. Synergistic Effect of Nanophotocatalysis and Nonthermal Plasma on the Removal of Indoor HCHO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuanwei Lu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Photocatalysis is an effective method of air purification at the condition of a higher pollutant concentration. However, its wide application in indoor air cleaning is limited due to the low level of indoor air contaminants. Immobilizing the nanosized TiO2 particles on the surface of activated carbon filter (TiO2/AC film could increase the photocatalytic reaction rate as a local high pollutant concentration can be formed on the surface of TiO2 by the adsorption of AC. However, the pollutant removal still decreased quickly with the increase in flow velocity, which results in a decrease in air treatment capacity. In order to improve the air treatment capacity by the photocatalytic oxidation (PCO method, this paper used formaldehyde (HCHO as a contaminant to study the effect of combination of PCO with nonthermal plasma technology (NTP on the removal of HCHO. The experimental results show that HCHO removal is more effective with line-to-plate electrode discharge reactor; the HCHO removal and the reaction rate can be enhanced and the amount of air that needs to be cleaned can be improved. Meanwhile, the results show that there is the synergistic effect on the indoor air purification by the combination of PCO with NTP.

  15. CNTs Modified and Enhanced Cu Matrix Composites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG Wen-zhong

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The composite powders of 2%-CNTs were prepared by wet ball milling and hydrogen annealing treatment-cold pressing sintering was used to consolidate the ball milled composite powders with different modifications of the CNTs. The results show that the length of the CNTs is shortened, ports are open, and amorphous carbon content is increased by ball milling. And after a mixed acid purification, the impurity on the surface of the CNTs is completely removed,and a large number of oxygen-containing reactive groups are introduced; the most of CNTs can be embedded in the Cu matrix and the CNTs have a close bonding with the Cu matrix, forming the lamellar composite structure, then, ultrafine-grained composite powders can be obtained by hydrogen annealing treatment. Shortening and purification of the CNTs are both good for dispersion and bonding of CNTs in the Cu matrix, and the tensile strength and hardness of the composites after shortening and purification reaches the highest, and is 296MPa and 139.8HV respectively, compared to the matrix, up to 123.6% in tensile strength and 42.9% in hardness, attributed to the fine grain strengthening and load transferring.

  16. Toxic Gas Removal by Dielectric Discharge with Corona Effect

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moreno, H.; Pacheco, M.; Mercado, A.; Cruz, A.; Pacheco, J.; Yousfi, M.; Eichwald, O.; Benhenni, M.

    2006-01-01

    In this work, a theoretical and experimental study on SO2 and NOx removal by non-thermal plasma technology, more specifically a dielectric barrier (DBD) discharge combined with the Corona effect, is presented. Results obtained from a theoretical study describe the chemical kinetic model of SO2 and NOx removal processes; the effect of OH radicals in removal of both gases is noteworthy. Experimental results of de-SO2 process are reported. Also, optical emission spectroscopy study was applied on some atomic helium lines to obtain temperature of electrons in the non-thermal plasma

  17. Correction of failure in antenna array using matrix pencil technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, SU; Rahim, MKA

    2017-01-01

    In this paper a non-iterative technique is developed for the correction of faulty antenna array based on matrix pencil technique (MPT). The failure of a sensor in antenna array can damage the radiation power pattern in terms of sidelobes level and nulls. In the developed technique, the radiation pattern of the array is sampled to form discrete power pattern information set. Then this information set can be arranged in the form of Hankel matrix (HM) and execute the singular value decomposition (SVD). By removing nonprincipal values, we obtain an optimum lower rank estimation of HM. This lower rank matrix corresponds to the corrected pattern. Then the proposed technique is employed to recover the weight excitation and position allocations from the estimated matrix. Numerical simulations confirm the efficiency of the proposed technique, which is compared with the available techniques in terms of sidelobes level and nulls. (paper)

  18. From Off-line to On-line Handwriting Recognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lallican, P.; Viard-Gaudin, C.; Knerr, S.

    2004-01-01

    On-line handwriting includes more information on time order of the writing signal and on the dynamics of the writing process than off-line handwriting. Therefore, on-line recognition systems achieve higher recognition rates. This can be concluded from results reported in the literature, and has been

  19. Synthetic matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors inhibit growth of established breast cancer osteolytic lesions and prolong survival in mice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Winding, Bent; NicAmhlaoibh, Róisín; Misander, Henriette

    2002-01-01

    Breast cancer frequently leads to incurable bone metastasis. Essential requirements for the development of bone metastasis are cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, release of bioactive growth factors and cytokines, and removal of large amounts of bone matrix. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs...

  20. The novel composite mechanism of ammonium molybdophosphate loaded on silica matrix and its ion exchange breakthrough curves for cesium

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deng, Hao [State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Li, Yuxiang, E-mail: superfigure@163.com [State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); National Defense Key Discipline Laboratory for Nuclear Wastes and Environmental Safety, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Wu, Lang [State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Ma, Xue [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China)

    2017-02-15

    Highlights: • The granular composites were fabricated by the sequential annealing mechanism. • The method controls the porous characteristics and stable structure of materials. • The breakthrough curve of Cs{sup +} follows the Thomas model with a high removal rate. • It is a probable for SM-AMP20 to recycle Cs{sup +} using an eluent of 2–3 mol/L NH{sub 4}NO{sub 3}. - Abstract: Long-lived {sup 137}Cs (over 30 years), a byproduct of the spent fuel fission processes, comprises the majority of high-level and prolific heat-generating waste in downstream processing. This study reports a novel sequential annealing mechanism with cross-linked network of polyvinyl alcohol, fabricating the composite of ammonium molybdophosphate loaded on silica matrix (SM-AMP20, 20 wt% AMP) as an excellent granular ion exchanger for removal Cs{sup +}. When the matrix is remarkably sequential annealed, well-dispersed SM-AMP20 particles are formed by firmly anchoring themselves on controlling the porous characteristics and stable structure. The material crystallizes in the complex cubic space group Pn-3m with cell parameters of crystalline AMP formation. The breakthrough curve of Cs{sup +} by SM-AMP20 follows the Thomas model with a high removal rate of 88.23% (∼10 mg/L of Cs{sup +}) and breakthrough time as high as 26 h (flow rate Q ≈ 2.5 mL/min and bed height Z ≈ 11 cm) at neutral pH. We also report on sorbents that could efficiently remove Cs{sup +} ions from complex solutions containing different competitive cations (Na{sup +}, Al{sup 3+}, Fe{sup 3+}, and Ni{sup 2+}, respectively) in large excess. Furthermore, this study shows that there is a probability for SM-AMP20 to recycle cesium using an eluent of 2–3 mol/L NH{sub 4}NO{sub 3} solution.

  1. Newborn screening by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry based on parylene-matrix chip.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jo-Il; Noh, Joo-Yoon; Kim, Mira; Park, Jong-Min; Song, Hyun-Woo; Kang, Min-Jung; Pyun, Jae-Chul

    2017-08-01

    Newborn screening for diagnosis of phenylketonuria, homocystinuria, and maple syrup urine disease have been conducted by analyzing the concentration of target amino acids using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF MS) based on parylene-matrix chip. Parylene-matrix chip was applied to MALDI-ToF MS analysis reducing the matrix peaks significantly at low mass-to-charge ratio range (m/z  0.98) and the LODs were ranging from 9.0 to 22.9 μg/mL. Effect of proteins in serum was estimated by comparing MALDI-ToF mass spectra of amino acids-spiked serum before and after the methanol extraction. Interference of other amino acids on analysis of target analyte was determined to be insignificant. From these results, MALDI-ToF MS based on parylene-matrix chip could be applicable to medical diagnosis of neonatal metabolic disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Fast matrix factorization algorithm for DOSY based on the eigenvalue decomposition and the difference approximation focusing on the size of observed matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanaka, Yuho; Uruma, Kazunori; Furukawa, Toshihiro; Nakao, Tomoki; Izumi, Kenya; Utsumi, Hiroaki

    2017-01-01

    This paper deals with an analysis problem for diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY). DOSY is formulated as a matrix factorization problem of a given observed matrix. In order to solve this problem, a direct exponential curve resolution algorithm (DECRA) is well known. DECRA is based on singular value decomposition; the advantage of this algorithm is that the initial value is not required. However, DECRA requires a long calculating time, depending on the size of the given observed matrix due to the singular value decomposition, and this is a serious problem in practical use. Thus, this paper proposes a new analysis algorithm for DOSY to achieve a short calculating time. In order to solve matrix factorization for DOSY without using singular value decomposition, this paper focuses on the size of the given observed matrix. The observed matrix in DOSY is also a rectangular matrix with more columns than rows, due to limitation of the measuring time; thus, the proposed algorithm transforms the given observed matrix into a small observed matrix. The proposed algorithm applies the eigenvalue decomposition and the difference approximation to the small observed matrix, and the matrix factorization problem for DOSY is solved. The simulation and a data analysis show that the proposed algorithm achieves a lower calculating time than DECRA as well as similar analysis result results to DECRA. (author)

  3. MALDI-TOF Baseline Drift Removal Using Stochastic Bernstein Approximation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Howard Daniel

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Stochastic Bernstein (SB approximation can tackle the problem of baseline drift correction of instrumentation data. This is demonstrated for spectral data: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF data. Two SB schemes for removing the baseline drift are presented: iterative and direct. Following an explanation of the origin of the MALDI-TOF baseline drift that sheds light on the inherent difficulty of its removal by chemical means, SB baseline drift removal is illustrated for both proteomics and genomics MALDI-TOF data sets. SB is an elegant signal processing method to obtain a numerically straightforward baseline shift removal method as it includes a free parameter that can be optimized for different baseline drift removal applications. Therefore, research that determines putative biomarkers from the spectral data might benefit from a sensitivity analysis to the underlying spectral measurement that is made possible by varying the SB free parameter. This can be manually tuned (for constant or tuned with evolutionary computation (for .

  4. AUTOMATIC GLOBAL REGISTRATION BETWEEN AIRBORNE LIDAR DATA AND REMOTE SENSING IMAGE BASED ON STRAIGHT LINE FEATURES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Z. Q. Liu

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available An automatic global registration approach for point clouds and remote sensing image based on straight line features is proposed which is insensitive to rotational and scale transformation. First, the building ridge lines and contour lines in point clouds are automatically detected as registration primitives by integrating region growth and topology identification. Second, the collinear condition equation is selected as registration transformation function which is based on rotation matrix described by unit quaternion. The similarity measure is established according to the distance between the corresponding straight line features from point clouds and the image in the same reference coordinate system. Finally, an iterative Hough transform is adopted to simultaneously estimate the parameters and obtain correspondence between registration primitives. Experimental results prove the proposed method is valid and the spectral information is useful for the following classification processing.

  5. Particle Dispersibility Improvement of Polyester Fibers with a New Line Injection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Seong Yoon; Kim, Hak Yong; Jin, Fan Long; Park, Soo Jin

    2010-01-01

    In order to develop a new line injection system for spin draw yarn (FD SDY) fibers, the effect of various parameters in extrusion and melt line conditions on the dispersion and distribution of TiO 2 particles within FD PET fibers was investigated. As a result, the dispersibility of TiO 2 particles in a PET matrix is found to depend on the particle size and its surface characteristics. Surface modification of TiO 2 by dimethyl polysiloxane resulted in the improved dispersibility and affinity of TiO 2 particles in the PET matrix. Especially, residence time, mixing temperature, and mixing shear rate in the new line injection system under the SDY spinning process were very important parameters to minimize the agglomeration of TiO 2 particles. The FD SDY prepared by the new line injection system was superior to those using the polymerization process and the conventional masterbatch chip dosing process in the color-L and color-b values of the fibers

  6. Detection matrix of an electromagnetic radiation and radiological image intensifier comprising such a matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fraleux, Jean.

    1982-01-01

    This invention concerns a detection matrix comprising, in an electrode lattice of lines and columns, addressing means constituted of thin film technology MOS transistors and photoconductances which enable the number of unit module crossings to be halved and to bring about an increase in the effective detection area. This detection matrix is employed in radiological image intensifiers where it ensures the conversion of incident X photons into reading electric signals or only the detection of a visible radiation in the case where the incident X photons are converted into lesser energy photons by a scintillator. The scintillator is then formed of a panel brought into contact with the detector mosaic [fr

  7. A Rapid Coordinate Transformation Method Applied in Industrial Robot Calibration Based on Characteristic Line Coincidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bailing Liu

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Coordinate transformation plays an indispensable role in industrial measurements, including photogrammetry, geodesy, laser 3-D measurement and robotics. The widely applied methods of coordinate transformation are generally based on solving the equations of point clouds. Despite the high accuracy, this might result in no solution due to the use of ill conditioned matrices. In this paper, a novel coordinate transformation method is proposed, not based on the equation solution but based on the geometric transformation. We construct characteristic lines to represent the coordinate systems. According to the space geometry relation, the characteristic line scan is made to coincide by a series of rotations and translations. The transformation matrix can be obtained using matrix transformation theory. Experiments are designed to compare the proposed method with other methods. The results show that the proposed method has the same high accuracy, but the operation is more convenient and flexible. A multi-sensor combined measurement system is also presented to improve the position accuracy of a robot with the calibration of the robot kinematic parameters. Experimental verification shows that the position accuracy of robot manipulator is improved by 45.8% with the proposed method and robot calibration.

  8. A Rapid Coordinate Transformation Method Applied in Industrial Robot Calibration Based on Characteristic Line Coincidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Bailing; Zhang, Fumin; Qu, Xinghua; Shi, Xiaojia

    2016-01-01

    Coordinate transformation plays an indispensable role in industrial measurements, including photogrammetry, geodesy, laser 3-D measurement and robotics. The widely applied methods of coordinate transformation are generally based on solving the equations of point clouds. Despite the high accuracy, this might result in no solution due to the use of ill conditioned matrices. In this paper, a novel coordinate transformation method is proposed, not based on the equation solution but based on the geometric transformation. We construct characteristic lines to represent the coordinate systems. According to the space geometry relation, the characteristic line scan is made to coincide by a series of rotations and translations. The transformation matrix can be obtained using matrix transformation theory. Experiments are designed to compare the proposed method with other methods. The results show that the proposed method has the same high accuracy, but the operation is more convenient and flexible. A multi-sensor combined measurement system is also presented to improve the position accuracy of a robot with the calibration of the robot kinematic parameters. Experimental verification shows that the position accuracy of robot manipulator is improved by 45.8% with the proposed method and robot calibration. PMID:26901203

  9. The potential of compost-based biobarriers for Cr(VI) removal from contaminated groundwater: Column test

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boni, Maria Rosaria; Sbaffoni, Silvia

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a column reactor test, aiming at evaluating the performance of a biological permeable barrier made of low-cost waste materials, for Cr(VI) removal from contaminated groundwater. A 1:1 by volume mixture of green compost and siliceous gravel was tested as reactive medium in the experimental activity. A 10 mg/l Cr(VI) contaminated solution was used and the residual Cr(VI) concentration along the column height and in the outlet was determined in the water samples collected daily. Also pH, redox potential and COD were analyzed. At the end of the test, the reactive medium was characterized in terms of Cr(VI) and total chromium. The Cr(VI) removal efficiency was higher than 99% during the entire experimental activity. The influence of the biological activity on Cr(VI) removal efficiency was evaluated by varying the organic carbon and nitrogen dosages in the contaminated solution fed to the system; a removal decrease was observed when the organic carbon was not enough to sustain the microbial metabolism. The Cr(VI) removal was strictly linked to the biological activity of the native biomass of compost. No Cr(III) was detected in the outlet: the Cr(III) produced was entrapped in the solid matrix. Two main processes involved were: adsorption on the organic-based matrix and reduction into Cr(III) mediated by the anaerobic microbial metabolism of the bacteria residing in green compost. Siliceous gravel was used as the structure matrix, since its contribution to the removal was almost negligible. Thanks to the proven efficiency and to the low-cost, the reactive medium used can represent a valid alternative to conventional approaches to chromium remediation.

  10. Influence of luting agents on time required for cast post removal by ultrasound: an in vitro study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janir Alves Soares

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: This in vitro study evaluated the influence of luting agents on ultrasonic vibration time for intraradicular cast post removal. MATERIAL AND METHODS: After endodontic treatment, 30 roots of extracted human canines were embedded in resin cylinders. The post-holes were prepared at 10 mm depth and their impressions were taken using autopolymerizing acrylic resin. After casting procedures using a nickel-chromium alloy, the posts were randomly distributed into 3 groups (n=10 according to the luting material: G1- zinc phosphate (SS White (control group, G2 - glass ionomer cement (Vidrion C; SS White, and G3- resin cement (C&B; Bisco. In G3, the adhesive procedure was performed before post cementation. After 24 h, the cement line was removed at the post/tooth interface using a fine diamond bur, and the ST-09 tip of an Enac ultrasound unit was applied at maximum power on all surfaces surrounding the posts. The application time was recorded with a chronometer until the post was completely dislodged and data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey's test (p<0.05. RESULTS: The roots were removed from the acrylic resin and inspected to detect cracks and/or fractures. The means for G1, G2, and G3 were 168.5, 59.5, and 285 s, respectively, with statistically significant differences among them. Two G3 posts resisted removal, one of which developed a vertical fracture line. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, the cement type had a direct influence on the time required for ultrasonic post removal. Compared to the zinc phosphate and glass ionomer cements, the resin cement required a longer ultrasonic vibration time.

  11. ABL tyrosine kinase inhibition variable effects on the invasive properties of different triple negative breast cancer cell lines.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clément Chevalier

    Full Text Available The non-receptor tyrosine kinase ABL drives myeloid progenitor expansion in human chronic myeloid leukemia. ABL inhibition by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor nilotinib is a first-line treatment for this disease. Recently, ABL has also been implicated in the transforming properties of solid tumors, including triple negative (TN breast cancer. TN breast cancers are highly metastatic and several cell lines derived from these tumors display high invasive activity in vitro. This feature is associated with the activation of actin-rich membrane structures called invadopodia that promote extracellular matrix degradation. Here, we investigated nilotinib effect on the invasive and migratory properties of different TN breast cancer cell lines. Nilotinib decreased both matrix degradation and invasion in the TN breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB 231 and MDA-MB 468. However, and unexpectedly, nilotinib increased by two-fold the invasive properties of the TN breast cancer cell line BT-549 and of Src-transformed fibroblasts. Both display much higher levels of ABL kinase activity compared to MDA-MB 231. Similar effects were obtained by siRNA-mediated down-regulation of ABL expression, confirming ABL central role in this process. ABL anti-tumor effect in BT-549 cells and Src-transformed fibroblasts was not dependent on EGF secretion, as recently reported in neck and squamous carcinoma cells. Rather, we identified the TRIO-RAC1 axis as an important downstream element of ABL activity in these cancer cells. In conclusion, the observation that TN breast cancer cell lines respond differently to ABL inhibitors could have implications for future therapies.

  12. Matrix mineralogy of the Lance CO3 carbonaceous chondrite - A transmission electron microscope study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, Lindsay P.; Buseck, Peter R.

    1990-01-01

    Results are presented on electron microprobe analyses of three CO chondrites, all of which are falls: Lance, Kainsaz, and Warrenton. The TEM mineralogy results of Lance chondrite show that Fe-rich matrix olivines have been altered to Fe-bearing serpentine and Fe(3+) oxide; matrix metal was also altered to produce Fe(3+) oxides, leaving the residual metal enriched in Ni. Olivine grains in Lance's matrix contain channels along their 100-line and 001-line directions; the formation and convergence of such channels resulted in a grain-size reduction of the olivine. A study of Kainsaz and Warrenton showed that these meteorites do not contain phyllosilicates in their matrices, although both contain Fe(3+) oxide between olivine grains. It is suggested that, prior to its alteration, Lance probably resembled Kainsaz, an unaltered CO3 chondrite.

  13. Review of Coagulation Technology for Removal of Arsenic: Case of Chile

    OpenAIRE

    Sancha, Ana María

    2006-01-01

    Coagulation technology has been used since 1970 in northern Chile for removing arsenic from drinking-water. This experience suggests that coagulation is an effective technology for the removal of arsenic. It is currently possible to reduce arsenic from 400 μg/L to 10 μg/L at a rate of 500 L/sec, assuming pH, oxidizing and coagulation agents are strictly controlled. The Chilean experience with the removal of arsenic demonstrates that the water matrix dictates the selection of the arsenic-remov...

  14. Spectral lines and coincidence tables for the determination of zirconium, niobium and tantalum with the ICP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wuensch, G.; Wennemer, A.

    1987-01-01

    Coincidence tables for ICP-AES are given for 20 Zr lines, 9 Nb lines and 7 Ta lines. They include 582 interferent lines of 49 elements. The specified interference data (IEC and CCR) hold for a bandwidth FWHM = 16 pm and an interferent concentration of 1,000 mg/l. For trace determinations of Zr, Nb, Ta in a matrix of Fe, Z, Zr, Nb, Ta the dependence of the interference on the matrix concentration is specified up to 10,000 mg/l. Interference data CCR calculated for the ICP from the NBS tables often differ from the measured data by several orders of magnitude. The spectrum of Zr measured at a high concentration shows many weak lines most of which are not even listed in the MIT tables. They give rise to a quasi-continuous background the intensity of which increases nearly linearly with the matrix concentration. Therefore, an increase of sample concentration will not lead to an improved detection limit. The line intensities found in our investigations match well with those listed in the Wohlers tables. (orig.)

  15. Methods of removing a constituent from a feed stream using adsorption media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tranter, Troy J [Idaho Falls, ID; Mann, Nicholas R [Rigby, ID; Todd, Terry A [Aberdeen, ID; Herbst, Ronald S [Idaho Falls, ID

    2011-05-24

    A method of producing an adsorption medium to remove at least one constituent from a feed stream. The method comprises dissolving and/or suspending at least one metal compound in a solvent to form a metal solution, dissolving polyacrylonitrile into the metal solution to form a PAN-metal solution, and depositing the PAN-metal solution into a quenching bath to produce the adsorption medium. The at least one constituent, such as arsenic, selenium, or antimony, is removed from the feed stream by passing the feed stream through the adsorption medium. An adsorption medium having an increased metal loading and increased capacity for arresting the at least one constituent to be removed is also disclosed. The adsorption medium includes a polyacrylonitrile matrix and at least one metal hydroxide incorporated into the polyacrylonitrile matrix.

  16. Novel sandwich structure adsorptive membranes for removal of 4-nitrotoluene from water

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guo, Yuexin [College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); School of Pharmacy, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000 (China); Jia, Zhiqian, E-mail: zhqjia@bnu.edu.cn [College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China)

    2016-11-05

    Highlights: • Novel sandwich PES-SPES/PS-PDVB/PTFE adsorptive membranes were prepared. • The removal efficiency for 4-nitrotoluene is greater than 95% after five recycles. • The membrane showed higher adsorption capacity than that of mixed matrix membrane. - Abstract: Novel sandwich PES-SPES/PS-PDVB/PTFE adsorptive membranes were prepared by a filtration/immersion precipitation method and employed for the removal of 4-nitrotoluene from water. The static adsorption thermodynamics, kinetics, dynamic adsorption/desorption and membrane reusability were investigated. The results showed that the Freundlich model describes the adsorption isotherm satisfactorily. With increased PS-PDVB content, the maximum static adsorption capacity, partition coefficient, apparent adsorption rate constant, and dynamic adsorption capacity all significantly increased. The sandwich membranes showed much higher removal efficiency and adsorption capacity than those of mixed matrix membranes. With respect to dynamics adsorption/desorption, the sandwich membranes exhibited excellent reusability, with a removal efficiency greater than 95% even after five recycles.

  17. Electrokinetic migration studies on removal of chromium and uranyl ions from 904-A trench soil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bibler, J.P.; Meaker, T.F.; O'Steen, A.B.

    1992-01-01

    This report describes a laboratory-scale study, in which electrokinetic migration technology was used to remove chromium and uranium, as well as other ions, from soil taken from a bore hole adjacent to the 904-A trench at the Savannah River Technology Center. Imposition of an electric current on humid (not saturated) soil successfully caused cations to migrate through the pore water of the soil to the cathode, where they were captured in an ISOLOCKTm polymer matrix and in a cation exchange resin incorporated in the polymer. Chemicals circulated through the anode/polymer and cathode/polymer were able to control pH excursions in the electrokinetic-cells by reacting with the H + and OH - generated at the anode and cathode, respectively. The study indicates that ions adsorbed on the surface of the soil as well as those in the pores of soil particles can be caused to migrate through the soil to an appropriate electrode. After 10 days of operation at 20--25 V and 2 mA, approximately 65% of the chromium was removed from two 3.5 kg soil samples. A 57% removal of uranium was achieved. The study shows that electrokinetic migration, using the ISOLOCK trademark polymer will be effective as an in situ treatment method for the removal of metal ion contaminants in soil adjacent to the 904-A trench

  18. Refractive index inversion based on Mueller matrix method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Huaxi; Wu, Wenyuan; Huang, Yanhua; Li, Zhaozhao

    2016-03-01

    Based on Stokes vector and Jones vector, the correlation between Mueller matrix elements and refractive index was studied with the result simplified, and through Mueller matrix way, the expression of refractive index inversion was deduced. The Mueller matrix elements, under different incident angle, are simulated through the expression of specular reflection so as to analyze the influence of the angle of incidence and refractive index on it, which is verified through the measure of the Mueller matrix elements of polished metal surface. Research shows that, under the condition of specular reflection, the result of Mueller matrix inversion is consistent with the experiment and can be used as an index of refraction of inversion method, and it provides a new way for target detection and recognition technology.

  19. Transmembrane neural cell-adhesion molecule (NCAM), but not glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-anchored NCAM, down-regulates secretion of matrix metalloproteinases

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Edvardsen, K; Chen, W; Rucklidge, G

    1993-01-01

    proteinases, and proteinase inhibitors all participate in the construction, maintenance, and remodeling of extracellular matrix by cells. The neural cell-adhesion molecule (NCAM)-negative rat glioma cell line BT4Cn secretes substantial amounts of metalloproteinases, as compared with its NCAM-positive mother......During embryogenesis interactions between cells and extracellular matrix play a central role in the modulation of cell motility, growth, and differentiation. Modulation of matrix structure is therefore crucial during development; extracellular matrix ligands, their receptors, extracellular...... cell line BT4C. We have transfected the BT4Cn cell line with cDNAs encoding the human NCAM-B and -C isoforms. We report here that the expression of transmembrane NCAM-B, but not of glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-linked NCAM-C, induces a down-regulation of 92-kDa gelatinase (matrix metalloproteinase 9...

  20. Redesigning Triangular Dense Matrix Computations on GPUs

    KAUST Repository

    Charara, Ali; Ltaief, Hatem; Keyes, David E.

    2016-01-01

    A new implementation of the triangular matrix-matrix multiplication (TRMM) and the triangular solve (TRSM) kernels are described on GPU hardware accelerators. Although part of the Level 3 BLAS family, these highly computationally intensive kernels

  1. Control of extracellular matrix assembly by syndecan-2 proteoglycan

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klass, C M; Couchman, J R; Woods, A

    2000-01-01

    Extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition and organization is maintained by transmembrane signaling and integrins play major roles. We now show that a second transmembrane component, syndecan-2 heparan sulfate proteoglycan, is pivotal in matrix assembly. Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells were stably...... to rearrange laminin or fibronectin substrates into fibrils and to bind exogenous fibronectin. Transfection of activated alphaIIbalphaLdeltabeta3 integrin into alpha(5)-deficient CHO B2 cells resulted in reestablishment of the previously lost fibronectin matrix. However, cotransfection of this cell line with S...

  2. An efficient algorithm for removal of inactive blocks in reservoir simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abou-Kassem, J.H.; Ertekin, T. (Pennsylvania State Univ., PA (United States))

    1992-02-01

    In the efficient simulation of reservoirs having irregular boundaries one is confronted with two problems: the removal of inactive blocks at the matrix level and the development and application of a variable band-width solver. A simple algorithm is presented that provides effective solutions to these two problems. The algorithm is demonstrated for both the natural ordering and D4 ordering schemes. It can be easily incorporated in existing simulators and results in significant savings in CPU and matrix storage requirements. The removal of the inactive blocks at the matrix level plays a major role in effecting these savings whereas the application of a variable band-width solver plays an enhancing role only. The value of this algorithm lies in the fact that it takes advantage of irregular reservoir boundaries that are invariably encountered in almost all practical applications of reservoir simulation. 11 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.

  3. Coil extensions improve line shapes by removing field distortions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conradi, Mark S.; Altobelli, Stephen A.; McDowell, Andrew F.

    2018-06-01

    The static magnetic susceptibility of the rf coil can substantially distort the field B0 and be a dominant source of line broadening. A scaling argument shows that this may be a particular problem in microcoil NMR. We propose coil extensions to reduce the distortion. The actual rf coil is extended to a much longer overall length by abutted coil segments that do not carry rf current. The result is a long and nearly uniform sheath of copper wire, in terms of the static susceptibility. The line shape improvement is demonstrated at 43.9 MHz and in simulation calculations.

  4. Optimal pinnate leaf-like network/matrix structure for enhanced conductive cooling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu, Liguo; Zhou, Han; Zhu, Hanxing; Fan, Tongxiang; Zhang, Di

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We present a pinnate leaf-like network/matrix structure for conductive cooling. • We study the effect of matrix thickness on network conductive cooling performance. • Matrix thickness determines optimal distance between collection channels in network. • We determine the optimal network architecture from a global perspective. • Optimal network greatly reduces the maximum temperature difference in the network. - Abstract: Heat generated in electronic devices has to be effectively removed because excessive temperature strongly impairs their performance and reliability. Embedding a high thermal conductivity network into an electronic device is an effective method to conduct the generated heat to the outside. In this study, inspired by the pinnate leaf, we present a pinnate leaf-like network embedded in the matrix (i.e., electronic device) to cool the matrix by conduction and develop a method to construct the optimal network. In this method, we first investigate the effect of the matrix thickness on the conductive cooling performance of the network, and then optimize the network architecture from a global perspective so that to minimize the maximum temperature difference between the heat sink and the matrix. The results indicate that the matrix thickness determines the optimal distance of the neighboring collection channels in the network, which minimizes the maximum temperature difference between the matrix and the network, and that the optimal network greatly reduces the maximum temperature difference in the network. The results can serve as a design guide for efficient conductive cooling of electronic devices

  5. An improved method for removing transuranics from coral soil at Johnston Atoll

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moroney, J.D. III.; Johnson, N.R.; Moroney, K.S.; Mercier, J.R.

    1992-01-01

    An improved approach for removing mixed plutonium and americium contamination from coral soil matrix at the Defense Nuclear Agency's (DNA's) Johnston Atoll site has been developed by DNA's contractor, TMA/Eberline. The system uses arrays of sensitive radiation detectors coupled with sophisticated computer software newly designed by Eberline Instrument Corporation. The software controls a unique segmented gate methodology for removing contaminated soil from a moving feed supply on conveyor belts. Contaminated soil is diverted to a metal drum for collecting larger sized 'hot' particles (< 5,000 Becquerels) or to a soil washing process designed to remove dispersed low level contamination from a soil fraction consisting of very small particles. Low to intermediate levels of contamination are removed from the soil to meet DNAs criteria for release for unrestricted use based on US EPA guidelines

  6. On Chern-Simons Matrix Models

    CERN Document Server

    Garoufalidis, S; Garoufalidis, Stavros; Marino, Marcos

    2006-01-01

    The contribution of reducible connections to the U(N) Chern-Simons invariant of a Seifert manifold $M$ can be expressed in some cases in terms of matrix integrals. We show that the U(N) evaluation of the LMO invariant of any rational homology sphere admits a matrix model representation which agrees with the Chern-Simons matrix integral for Seifert spheres and the trivial connection.

  7. Ghost peaks observed after atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization experiments may disclose new ionization mechanism of matrix-assisted hypersonic velocity impact ionization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moskovets, Eugene

    2015-08-30

    Understanding the mechanisms of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) promises improvements in the sensitivity and specificity of many established applications in the field of mass spectrometry. This paper reports a serendipitous observation of a significant ion yield in a post-ionization experiment conducted after the sample had been removed from a standard atmospheric pressure (AP)-MALDI source. This post-ionization is interpreted in terms of collisions of microparticles moving with a hypersonic velocity into a solid surface. Calculations show that the thermal energy released during such collisions is close to that absorbed by the top matrix layer in traditional MALDI. The microparticles, containing both the matrix and analytes, could be detached from a film produced inside the inlet capillary during the sample ablation and accelerated by the flow rushing through the capillary. These observations contribute some new perspective to ion formation in both laser and laser-less matrix-assisted ionization. An AP-MALDI ion source hyphenated with a three-stage high-pressure ion funnel system was utilized for peptide mass analysis. After the laser had been turned off and the MALDI sample removed, ions were detected during a gradual reduction of the background pressure in the first funnel. The constant-rate pressure reduction led to the reproducible appearance of different singly and doubly charged peptide peaks in mass spectra taken a few seconds after the end of the MALDI analysis of a dried-droplet spot. The ion yield as well as the mass range of ions observed with a significant delay after a completion of the primary MALDI analysis depended primarily on the background pressure inside the first funnel. The production of ions in this post-ionization step was exclusively observed during the pressure drop. A lower matrix background and significant increase in relative yield of double-protonated ions are reported. The observations were partially consistent

  8. Comparison of Transmission Line Methods for Surface Acoustic Wave Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, William; Atkinson, Gary

    2009-01-01

    Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology is low cost, rugged, lightweight, extremely low power and can be used to develop passive wireless sensors. For these reasons, NASA is investigating the use of SAW technology for Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring (IVHM) of aerospace structures. To facilitate rapid prototyping of passive SAW sensors for aerospace applications, SAW models have been developed. This paper reports on the comparison of three methods of modeling SAWs. The three models are the Impulse Response Method (a first order model), and two second order matrix methods; the conventional matrix approach, and a modified matrix approach that is extended to include internal finger reflections. The second order models are based upon matrices that were originally developed for analyzing microwave circuits using transmission line theory. Results from the models are presented with measured data from devices. Keywords: Surface Acoustic Wave, SAW, transmission line models, Impulse Response Method.

  9. Modelling telluric line spectra in the optical and infrared with an application to VLT/X-Shooter spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudolf, N.; Günther, H. M.; Schneider, P. C.; Schmitt, J. H. M. M.

    2016-01-01

    Context. Earth's atmosphere imprints a large number of telluric absorption and emission lines on astronomical spectra, especially in the near infrared, that need to be removed before analysing the affected wavelength regions. Aims: These lines are typically removed by comparison to A- or B-type stars used as telluric standards that themselves have strong hydrogen lines, which complicates the removal of telluric lines. We have developed a method to circumvent that problem. Methods: For our IDL software package tellrem we used a recent approach to model telluric absorption features with the line-by-line radiative transfer model (LBLRTM). The broad wavelength coverage of the X-Shooter at VLT allows us to expand their technique by determining the abundances of the most important telluric molecules H2O, O2, CO2, and CH4 from sufficiently isolated line groups. For individual observations we construct a telluric absorption model for most of the spectral range that is used to remove the telluric absorption from the object spectrum. Results: We remove telluric absorption from both continuum regions and emission lines without systematic residuals for most of the processable spectral range; however, our method increases the statistical errors. The errors of the corrected spectrum typically increase by 10% for S/N ~ 10 and by a factor of two for high-quality data (S/N ~ 100), I.e. the method is accurate on the percent level. Conclusions: Modelling telluric absorption can be an alternative to the observation of standard stars for removing telluric contamination. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, 085.C-0764(A) and 60.A-9022(C).The tellrem package is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/585/A113

  10. Improving residue-residue contact prediction via low-rank and sparse decomposition of residue correlation matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Haicang; Gao, Yujuan; Deng, Minghua; Wang, Chao; Zhu, Jianwei; Li, Shuai Cheng; Zheng, Wei-Mou; Bu, Dongbo

    2016-03-25

    Strategies for correlation analysis in protein contact prediction often encounter two challenges, namely, the indirect coupling among residues, and the background correlations mainly caused by phylogenetic biases. While various studies have been conducted on how to disentangle indirect coupling, the removal of background correlations still remains unresolved. Here, we present an approach for removing background correlations via low-rank and sparse decomposition (LRS) of a residue correlation matrix. The correlation matrix can be constructed using either local inference strategies (e.g., mutual information, or MI) or global inference strategies (e.g., direct coupling analysis, or DCA). In our approach, a correlation matrix was decomposed into two components, i.e., a low-rank component representing background correlations, and a sparse component representing true correlations. Finally the residue contacts were inferred from the sparse component of correlation matrix. We trained our LRS-based method on the PSICOV dataset, and tested it on both GREMLIN and CASP11 datasets. Our experimental results suggested that LRS significantly improves the contact prediction precision. For example, when equipped with the LRS technique, the prediction precision of MI and mfDCA increased from 0.25 to 0.67 and from 0.58 to 0.70, respectively (Top L/10 predicted contacts, sequence separation: 5 AA, dataset: GREMLIN). In addition, our LRS technique also consistently outperforms the popular denoising technique APC (average product correction), on both local (MI_LRS: 0.67 vs MI_APC: 0.34) and global measures (mfDCA_LRS: 0.70 vs mfDCA_APC: 0.67). Interestingly, we found out that when equipped with our LRS technique, local inference strategies performed in a comparable manner to that of global inference strategies, implying that the application of LRS technique narrowed down the performance gap between local and global inference strategies. Overall, our LRS technique greatly facilitates

  11. Coating extracellular matrix proteins on a (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane-treated glass substrate for improved cell culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masuda, Hiro-taka; Ishihara, Seiichiro; Harada, Ichiro; Mizutani, Takeomi; Ishikawa, Masayori; Kawabata, Kazushige; Haga, Hisashi

    2014-01-01

    We demonstrate that a (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane-treated glass surface is superior to an untreated glass surface for coating with extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins when used as a cell culture substrate to observe cell physiology and behavior. We found that MDCK cells cultured on untreated glass coated with ECM removed the coated ECM protein and secreted different ECM proteins. In contrast, the cells did not remove the coated ECM protein when seeded on (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane-treated (i.e., silanized) glass coated with ECM. Furthermore, the morphology and motility of cells grown on silanized glass differed from those grown on non-treated glass, even when both types of glass were initially coated with laminin. We also found that cells on silanized glass coated with laminin had higher motility than those on silanized glass coated with fibronectin. Based on our results, we suggest that silanized glass is a more suitable cell culture substrate than conventional non-treated glass when coated by ECM for observations of ECM effects on cell physiology.

  12. Matrix precipitation: a general strategy to eliminate matrix interference for pharmaceutical toxic impurities analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xiaojing; Xiong, Xuewu; Cao, Ji; Luan, Baolei; Liu, Yongjun; Liu, Guozhu; Zhang, Lei

    2015-01-30

    Matrix interference, which can lead to false positive/negative results, contamination of injector or separation column, incompatibility between sample solution and the selected analytical instrument, and response inhibition or even quenching, is commonly suffered for the analysis of trace level toxic impurities in drug substance. In this study, a simple matrix precipitation strategy is proposed to eliminate or minimize the above stated matrix interference problems. Generally, a sample of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is dissolved in an appropriate solvent to achieve the desired high concentration and then an anti-solvent is added to precipitate the matrix substance. As a result, the target analyte is extracted into the mixed solution with very less residual of APIs. This strategy has the characteristics of simple manipulation, high recovery and excellent anti-interference capability. It was found that the precipitation ratio (R, representing the ability to remove matrix substance) and the proportion of solvent (the one used to dissolve APIs) in final solution (P, affecting R and also affecting the method sensitivity) are two important factors of the precipitation process. The correlation between R and P was investigated by performing precipitation with various APIs in different solvent/anti-solvent systems. After a detailed mathematical reasoning process, P=20% was proved to be an effective and robust condition to perform the precipitation strategy. The precipitation method with P=20% can be used as a general strategy for toxic impurity analysis in APIs. Finally, several typical examples are described in this article, where the challenging matrix interference issues have been resolved successfully. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Matrix completion by deep matrix factorization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Jicong; Cheng, Jieyu

    2018-02-01

    Conventional methods of matrix completion are linear methods that are not effective in handling data of nonlinear structures. Recently a few researchers attempted to incorporate nonlinear techniques into matrix completion but there still exists considerable limitations. In this paper, a novel method called deep matrix factorization (DMF) is proposed for nonlinear matrix completion. Different from conventional matrix completion methods that are based on linear latent variable models, DMF is on the basis of a nonlinear latent variable model. DMF is formulated as a deep-structure neural network, in which the inputs are the low-dimensional unknown latent variables and the outputs are the partially observed variables. In DMF, the inputs and the parameters of the multilayer neural network are simultaneously optimized to minimize the reconstruction errors for the observed entries. Then the missing entries can be readily recovered by propagating the latent variables to the output layer. DMF is compared with state-of-the-art methods of linear and nonlinear matrix completion in the tasks of toy matrix completion, image inpainting and collaborative filtering. The experimental results verify that DMF is able to provide higher matrix completion accuracy than existing methods do and DMF is applicable to large matrices. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Walking at the drip line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonaccorso, Angela

    2015-01-01

    Among exotic nuclei those at the drip line which are unstable against neutron emission are particularly interesting because they convey information on the nuclear force in the most extreme situations. Strictly speaking they are not ''nuclei'' but they exist thanks to long living resonances between a neutron and a bound ''core'' nucleus. Adding one more neutron they become bound and are called ''borromean''. Being particularly exotic they have attracted much attention in past years. One very challenging example is 13 Be whose level ordering has been discussed in a large number of papers in which it has been studied by transfer and fragmentation experiments, or it has been discussed theoretically. Although projectile fragmentation spectra show evident similarities, the interpretations of data all differ from each other. In this paper we argue that a way trough the problem could be to try to establish first, or at the same time, the quite elusive ''nature'' of the second s-state in the Beryllium isotopes with A=9-14. On the other hand there are other recent neutron removal experiments leading to nuclei unstable by one or more proton emissions, and thus somewhat mirror to borromean nuclei, performed with nuclei close to the proton drip line. It has been shown that by taking in coincidence all (charged) particles but the removed neutron, reconstructing the invariant mass and gating on the ground state peak, it is possible to obtain the longitudinal momentum distribution of the unbound ''core''. One can link it to the original wave function of the bound orbital and thus determine the initial neutron angular momentum from the shape of the distribution and the initial occupation probability from the absolute removal cross section. Then it is clear that modern experiments and theories are able to study unstable nuclei with the same degree of accuracy as stable nuclei. Such a

  15. On matrix fractional differential equations

    OpenAIRE

    Adem Kılıçman; Wasan Ajeel Ahmood

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this article is to study the matrix fractional differential equations and to find the exact solution for system of matrix fractional differential equations in terms of Riemann–Liouville using Laplace transform method and convolution product to the Riemann–Liouville fractional of matrices. Also, we show the theorem of non-homogeneous matrix fractional partial differential equation with some illustrative examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new methodology. The main objec...

  16. Low-temperature random matrix theory at the soft edge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edelman, Alan; Persson, Per-Olof; Sutton, Brian D.

    2014-01-01

    “Low temperature” random matrix theory is the study of random eigenvalues as energy is removed. In standard notation, β is identified with inverse temperature, and low temperatures are achieved through the limit β → ∞. In this paper, we derive statistics for low-temperature random matrices at the “soft edge,” which describes the extreme eigenvalues for many random matrix distributions. Specifically, new asymptotics are found for the expected value and standard deviation of the general-β Tracy-Widom distribution. The new techniques utilize beta ensembles, stochastic differential operators, and Riccati diffusions. The asymptotics fit known high-temperature statistics curiously well and contribute to the larger program of general-β random matrix theory

  17. Soil washing for brine removal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ayyachamy, J.S.; Atalay, A.; Zaman, M.

    1992-01-01

    During the exploration for oil and thereafter, brine transfer lines get ruptured releasing the brine which contaminates the surrounding soil. The salinity level in brine is very high, sometimes approaching or exceeding that of sea water. Soils contaminated with brine are unproductive and unsuitable for plant growth. Several investigators have documented the pollution of surface water and groundwater due to brine disposal from oil and needed to clean up such sites. The objective of this study is to develop a soil washing technique that can be used to remove brine sites were collected and used in the study. This paper reports on results which indicate that soil washing using various surface active agents is effective in removing the brine

  18. Optimizing the use of biosurfactants to remove diesel contamination in porous media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cote, A.L.; Tumeo, M.A.

    1995-01-01

    It has been demonstrated that biosurfactants can be used to successfully enhance the removal of hydrocarbon contamination from soils. The Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is currently involved in a multiyear study of surfactant usage in oil spill remediation in cold climates. Funding for this work is provided by the National Science Foundation, Petroleum Environmental Services, Inc., the Alaska Department of Conservation, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In the Summer of 1993, researchers from ETL successfully used a biologically derived surfactant to remove weathered crude oil contamination remaining from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This same technology may be applicable to other hydrocarbon-contaminated sites. Subsequent laboratory studies are being performed using soil columns to quantify the interaction between surfactant usage and soil characteristics. Specifically, the amount of surfactant applied, the method of application, the level of diesel contamination, and the type of soil matrix are being investigated. Diesel fuel has been chosen as a common type of hydrocarbon contamination. Adsorption of the surfactant on particle surfaces within the soil matrix can increase the cost of surfactant application and potentially diminish oil recovery. Four soil types are being used in these studies; a well-sorted, medium-grained sand; a moderately-sorted gravel, a volcanically-derived soil and a silt representative of tundra conditions. All of these soils are frequently encountered in oil spill remediation. This paper focuses on the relationships being identified between the level of contamination, soil matrix type, and the effectiveness of contaminant removal by biologically-derived surfactants

  19. International Conference on Matrix Analysis and its Applications 2015

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    This volume presents recent advances in the field of matrix analysis based on contributions at the MAT-TRIAD 2015 conference. Topics covered include interval linear algebra and computational complexity, Birkhoff polynomial basis, tensors, graphs, linear pencils, K-theory and statistic inference, showing the ubiquity of matrices in different mathematical areas. With a particular focus on matrix and operator theory, statistical models and computation, the International Conference on Matrix Analysis and its Applications 2015, held in Coimbra, Portugal, was the sixth in a series of conferences. Applied and Computational Matrix Analysis will appeal to graduate students and researchers in theoretical and applied mathematics, physics and engineering who are seeking an overview of recent problems and methods in matrix analysis.

  20. 29 CFR 1926.955 - Overhead lines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... installing or removing wire or cable, strains to which poles and structures will be subjected shall be... being strung in or removed shall be kept under positive control by the use of adequate tension reels... adjacent to energized lines the tension stringing method or other methods which preclude unintentional...

  1. Matrix transformation of Fibonacci band matrix on generalized $bv$-space and its dual spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anupam Das

    2018-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we introduce a new sequence space $bv(\\hat{F}$ by using the Fibonacci band matrix $\\hat{F}.$ We also establish a few inclusion relations concerning this space and determine its $\\alpha-,\\beta-,\\gamma-$duals. Finally we characterize some matrix classes on the space $bv(\\hat{F}.$

  2. R and D study on on-line criticality surveillance system (V)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamada, Sumasu

    2001-02-01

    In view of necessity and importance of criticality surveillance systems for ensuring the safety of nuclear fuel manufacturing and reprocessing plants, 5-year basic studies and 4 year R and D studies on an on-line criticality surveillance system were carried out since 1991. This report is a summary of these series of studies. Noticing that the signal from a neutron detector is random in principle, these series of studies aimed to accumulate knowledge for developing an inexpensive criticality surveillance system with quick response based on the Auto-Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) model identification algorithm. During five-year basic studies on criticality surveillance system since 1991, we obtained knowledge required for developing a criticality surveillance system based on the ARMA model identification algorithm through 1) studies on recursive ARMA model identification algorithms most appropriate for estimating subcriticality form time series data under a steady state condition, 2) studies on pre-processing of signal from neutron detectors, 3) developing a new recursive ARMA model identification algorithm with small time delay to estimate time-dependent subcriticality, 4) proposing a basic concept for the elements required for an on-line criticality surveillance system, and 5) numerical analysis of data from the DCA experiments. During next four-year R and D studies on a criticality surveillance system since 1996, we 1) proposed modules required for a no-line criticality surveillance system, 2) revealed effectiveness of a adaptive digital filter (ADF) algorithm, as an important redundancy to the recursive ARMA model identification algorithm to be used in the signal processing module through numerical analysis of real data, 3) proposed a module of the Feynman-α method over γ ray signal and a fast signal processing module for γ ray signal, 4) developed a line-noise removal filter(Notch filter) and revealed its effectiveness for the DCA data corrupted with power-line

  3. Multiplicity dependence of matrix-induced frequency shifts for atomic transitions of the group 12 metals in rare gas solids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laursen, S.L.; Cartland, H.E.

    1991-01-01

    Atomic resonances of the group 12 metal atoms, Hg, Cd, and Zn, undergo frequency shifts from the gas phase atomic line when trapped in rare gas matrices of Ar, Kr, and Xe at 12 K. As expected, the shifts are approximately linear in polarizability of the rare gas, but the slope of this line depends on whether the transition in question is 1 P 1 left-arrow 1 S 0 or 3 P 1 left-arrow 1 S 0 . Thus the matrix-induced frequency shift is dependent on the singlet or triplet nature of the excited state as well as on the matrix material. This dependence on multiplicity is discussed in terms of interactions between the excited-state atomic orbitals and the matrix. The results are compared to matrix studies of other metals and to related gas-phase work on diatomic van der Waals complexes of group 12 metals with rare gases

  4. Particle Dispersibility Improvement of Polyester Fibers with a New Line Injection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Seong Yoon; Kim, Hak Yong [Chonbuk National University, Jeonju (Korea, Republic of); Jin, Fan Long [Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology, Jilin (China); Park, Soo Jin [Inha University, Incheon (Korea, Republic of)

    2010-09-15

    In order to develop a new line injection system for spin draw yarn (FD SDY) fibers, the effect of various parameters in extrusion and melt line conditions on the dispersion and distribution of TiO{sub 2} particles within FD PET fibers was investigated. As a result, the dispersibility of TiO{sub 2} particles in a PET matrix is found to depend on the particle size and its surface characteristics. Surface modification of TiO{sub 2} by dimethyl polysiloxane resulted in the improved dispersibility and affinity of TiO{sub 2} particles in the PET matrix. Especially, residence time, mixing temperature, and mixing shear rate in the new line injection system under the SDY spinning process were very important parameters to minimize the agglomeration of TiO{sub 2} particles. The FD SDY prepared by the new line injection system was superior to those using the polymerization process and the conventional masterbatch chip dosing process in the color-L and color-b values of the fibers.

  5. Process for off-gas particulate removal and apparatus therefor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carl, D.E.

    1997-01-01

    In the event of a breach in the off-gas line of a melter operation requiring closure of the line, a secondary vessel vent line is provided with a particulate collector utilizing atomization for removal of large particulates from the off-gas. The collector receives the gas containing particulates and directs a portion of the gas through outer and inner annular channels. The collector further receives a fluid, such as water, which is directed through the outer channel together with a second portion of the particulate-laden gas. The outer and inner channels have respective ring-like termination apertures concentrically disposed adjacent one another on the outer edge of the downstream side of the particulate collector. Each of the outer and inner channels curves outwardly away from the collector's centerline in proceeding toward the downstream side of the collector. Gas flow in the outer channel maintains the fluid on the channel's wall in the form of a ''wavy film,'' while the gas stream from the inner channel shears the fluid film as it exits the outer channel in reducing the fluid to small droplets. Droplets formed by the collector capture particulates in the gas stream by one of three mechanisms: impaction, interception or Brownian diffusion in removing the particulates. The particulate-laden droplets are removed from the fluid stream by a vessel vent condenser or mist eliminator. 4 figs

  6. Arsenic in drinking water wells on the Bolivian high plain: field monitoring and effect of salinity on removal efficiency of iron-oxides-containing filters

    OpenAIRE

    Van den Bergh, Kenneth; Du Laing, Gijs; Montoya, Juan; De Deckere, E; Tack, Filip

    2010-01-01

    In the rural areas around Oruro (Bolivia), untreated groundwater is used directly as drinking water. This research aimed to evaluate the general drinking water quality, with focus on arsenic (As) concentrations, based on analysis of 67 samples from about 16 communities of the Oruro district. Subsequently a filter using Iron Oxide Coated Sand (IOCS) and a filter using a Composite Iron Matrix (CIM) were tested for their arsenic removal capacity using synthetic water mimicking real groundwater. ...

  7. Possibilities of mercury removal in the dry flue gas cleaning lines of solid waste incineration units.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svoboda, Karel; Hartman, Miloslav; Šyc, Michal; Pohořelý, Michael; Kameníková, Petra; Jeremiáš, Michal; Durda, Tomáš

    2016-01-15

    Dry methods of the flue gas cleaning (for HCl and SO2 removal) are useful particularly in smaller solid waste incineration units. The amount and forms of mercury emissions depend on waste (fuel) composition, content of mercury and chlorine and on the entire process of the flue gas cleaning. In the case of high HCl/total Hg molar ratio in the flue gas, the majority (usually 70-90%) of mercury is present in the form of HgCl2 and a smaller amount in the form of mercury vapors at higher temperatures. Removal of both main forms of mercury from the flue gas is dependent on chemical reactions and sorption processes at the temperatures below approx. 340 °C. Significant part of HgCl2 and a small part of elemental Hg vapors can be adsorbed on fly ash and solid particle in the air pollution control (APC) processes, which are removed in dust filters. Injection of non-impregnated active carbon (AC) or activated lignite coke particles is able to remove mainly the oxidized Hg(2+) compounds. Vapors of metallic Hg(o) are adsorbed relatively weakly. Much better chemisorption of Hg(o) together with higher sorbent capacity is achieved by AC-based sorbents impregnated with sulfur, alkali poly-sulfides, ferric chloride, etc. Inorganic sorbents with the same or similar chemical impregnation are also applicable for deeper Hg(o) removal (over 85%). SCR catalysts convert part of Hg(o) into oxidized compounds (HgO, HgCl2, etc.) contributing to more efficient Hg removal, but excess of NH3 has a negative effect. Both forms, elemental Hg(o) and HgCl2, can be converted into HgS particles by reacting with droplets/aerosol of poly-sulfides solutions/solids in flue gas. Mercury captured in the form of water insoluble HgS is more advantageous in the disposal of solid waste from APC processes. Four selected options of the dry flue gas cleaning with mercury removal are analyzed, assessed and compared (in terms of efficiency of Hg-emission reduction and costs) with wet methods and retrofits for more

  8. Neural circuit architecture defects in a Drosophila model of Fragile X syndrome are alleviated by minocycline treatment and genetic removal of matrix metalloproteinase

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saul S. Siller

    2011-09-01

    Fragile X syndrome (FXS, caused by loss of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1 product (FMRP, is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. FXS patients suffer multiple behavioral symptoms, including hyperactivity, disrupted circadian cycles, and learning and memory deficits. Recently, a study in the mouse FXS model showed that the tetracycline derivative minocycline effectively remediates the disease state via a proposed matrix metalloproteinase (MMP inhibition mechanism. Here, we use the well-characterized Drosophila FXS model to assess the effects of minocycline treatment on multiple neural circuit morphological defects and to investigate the MMP hypothesis. We first treat Drosophila Fmr1 (dfmr1 null animals with minocycline to assay the effects on mutant synaptic architecture in three disparate locations: the neuromuscular junction (NMJ, clock neurons in the circadian activity circuit and Kenyon cells in the mushroom body learning and memory center. We find that minocycline effectively restores normal synaptic structure in all three circuits, promising therapeutic potential for FXS treatment. We next tested the MMP hypothesis by assaying the effects of overexpressing the sole Drosophila tissue inhibitor of MMP (TIMP in dfmr1 null mutants. We find that TIMP overexpression effectively prevents defects in the NMJ synaptic architecture in dfmr1 mutants. Moreover, co-removal of dfmr1 similarly rescues TIMP overexpression phenotypes, including cellular tracheal defects and lethality. To further test the MMP hypothesis, we generated dfmr1;mmp1 double null mutants. Null mmp1 mutants are 100% lethal and display cellular tracheal defects, but co-removal of dfmr1 allows adult viability and prevents tracheal defects. Conversely, co-removal of mmp1 ameliorates the NMJ synaptic architecture defects in dfmr1 null mutants, despite the lack of detectable difference in MMP1 expression or gelatinase activity between the single

  9. Invisible data matrix detection with smart phone using geometric correction and Hough transform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Halit; Uysalturk, Mahir C.; Karakaya, Mahmut

    2016-04-01

    Two-dimensional data matrices are used in many different areas that provide quick and automatic data entry to the computer system. Their most common usage is to automatically read labeled products (books, medicines, food, etc.) and recognize them. In Turkey, alcohol beverages and tobacco products are labeled and tracked with the invisible data matrices for public safety and tax purposes. In this application, since data matrixes are printed on a special paper with a pigmented ink, it cannot be seen under daylight. When red LEDs are utilized for illumination and reflected light is filtered, invisible data matrices become visible and decoded by special barcode readers. Owing to their physical dimensions, price and requirement of special training to use; cheap, small sized and easily carried domestic mobile invisible data matrix reader systems are required to be delivered to every inspector in the law enforcement units. In this paper, we first developed an apparatus attached to the smartphone including a red LED light and a high pass filter. Then, we promoted an algorithm to process captured images by smartphones and to decode all information stored in the invisible data matrix images. The proposed algorithm mainly involves four stages. In the first step, data matrix code is processed by Hough transform processing to find "L" shaped pattern. In the second step, borders of the data matrix are found by using the convex hull and corner detection methods. Afterwards, distortion of invisible data matrix corrected by geometric correction technique and the size of every module is fixed in rectangular shape. Finally, the invisible data matrix is scanned line by line in the horizontal axis to decode it. Based on the results obtained from the real test images of invisible data matrix captured with a smartphone, the proposed algorithm indicates high accuracy and low error rate.

  10. Hybrid adaptive radiotherapy with on-line MRI in cervix cancer IMRT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oh, Seungjong; Stewart, James; Moseley, Joanne; Kelly, Valerie; Lim, Karen; Xie, Jason; Fyles, Anthony; Brock, Kristy K.; Lundin, Anna; Rehbinder, Henrik; Milosevic, Michael; Jaffray, David

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Substantial organ motion and tumor shrinkage occur during radiotherapy for cervix cancer. IMRT planning studies have shown that the quality of radiation delivery is influenced by these anatomical changes, therefore the adaptation of treatment plans may be warranted. Image guidance with off-line replanning, i.e. hybrid-adaptation, is recognized as one of the most practical adaptation strategies. In this study, we investigated the effects of soft tissue image guidance using on-line MR while varying the frequency of off-line replanning on the adaptation of cervix IMRT. Materials and method: 33 cervical cancer patients underwent planning and weekly pelvic MRI scans during radiotherapy. 5 patients of 33 were identified in a previous retrospective adaptive planning study, in which the coverage of gross tumor volume/clinical target volume (GTV/CTV) was not acceptable given single off-line IMRT replan using a 3 mm PTV margin with bone matching. These 5 patients and a randomly selected 10 patients from the remaining 28 patients, a total of 15 patients of 33, were considered in this study. Two matching methods for image guidance (bone to bone and soft tissue to dose matrix) and three frequencies of off-line replanning (none, single, and weekly) were simulated and compared with respect to target coverage (cervix, GTV, lower uterus, parametrium, upper vagina, tumor related CTV and elective lymph node CTV) and OAR sparing (bladder, bowel, rectum, and sigmoid). Cost (total process time) and benefit (target coverage) were analyzed for comparison. Results: Hybrid adaptation (image guidance with off-line replanning) significantly enhanced target coverage for both 5 difficult and 10 standard cases. Concerning image guidance, bone matching was short of delivering enough doses for 5 difficult cases even with a weekly off-line replan. Soft tissue image guidance proved successful for all cases except one when single or more frequent replans were utilized in the difficult cases

  11. Analysis of the interaction of extracellular matrix and phenotype of bladder cancer cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dozmorov, Mikhail G; Kyker, Kimberly D; Saban, Ricardo; Knowlton, Nicholas; Dozmorov, Igor; Centola, Michael B; Hurst, Robert E

    2006-01-01

    The extracellular matrix has a major effect upon the malignant properties of bladder cancer cells both in vitro in 3-dimensional culture and in vivo. Comparing gene expression of several bladder cancer cells lines grown under permissive and suppressive conditions in 3-dimensional growth on cancer-derived and normal-derived basement membrane gels respectively and on plastic in conventional tissue culture provides a model system for investigating the interaction of malignancy and extracellular matrix. Understanding how the extracellular matrix affects the phenotype of bladder cancer cells may provide important clues to identify new markers or targets for therapy. Five bladder cancer cell lines and one immortalized, but non-tumorigenic, urothelial line were grown on Matrigel, a cancer-derived ECM, on SISgel, a normal-derived ECM, and on plastic, where the only ECM is derived from the cells themselves. The transcriptomes were analyzed on an array of 1186 well-annotated cancer derived cDNAs containing most of the major pathways for malignancy. Hypervariable genes expressing more variability across cell lines than a set expressing technical variability were analyzed further. Expression values were clustered, and to identify genes most likely to represent biological factors, statistically over-represented ontologies and transcriptional regulatory elements were identified. Approximately 400 of the 1186 total genes were expressed 2 SD above background. Approximately 100 genes were hypervariable in cells grown on each ECM, but the pattern was different in each case. A core of 20 were identified as hypervariable under all 3 growth conditions, and 33 were hypervariable on both SISgel and Matrigel, but not on plastic. Clustering of the hypervariable genes showed very different patterns for the same 6 cell types on the different ECM. Even when loss of cell cycle regulation was identified, different genes were involved, depending on the ECM. Under the most permissive conditions

  12. 77 FR 35366 - Albany-Eugene Transmission Line Rebuild Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-06-13

    ... materials, removing vegetation including danger trees, and revegetating areas disturbed by construction... implement the Proposed Action Alternative, based on the Albany-Eugene Transmission Line Rebuild Project (DOE...

  13. Expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in primary human breast cancer and breast cancer cell lines: New findings and review of the literature

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Köhrmann, Andrea; Kammerer, Ulrike; Kapp, Michaela; Dietl, Johannes; Anacker, Jelena

    2009-01-01

    Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of structural and functional related endopeptidases. They play a crucial role in tumor invasion and building of metastatic formations because of their ability to degrade extracellular matrix proteins. Under physiological conditions their activity is precisely regulated in order to prevent tissue disruption. This physiological balance seems to be disrupted in cancer making tumor cells capable of invading the tissue. In breast cancer different expression levels of several MMPs have been found. To fill the gap in our knowledge about MMP expression in breast cancer, we analyzed the expression of all known human MMPs in a panel of twenty-five tissue samples (five normal breast tissues, ten grade 2 (G2) and ten grade 3 (G3) breast cancer tissues). As we found different expression levels for several MMPs in normal breast and breast cancer tissue as well as depending on tumor grade, we additionally analyzed the expression of MMPs in four breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-468, BT 20, ZR 75/1) commonly used in research. The results could thus be used as model for further studies on human breast cancer. Expression analysis was performed on mRNA and protein level using semiquantitative RT-PCR, Western blot, immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry. In summary, we identified several MMPs (MMP-1, -2, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, -15, -19, -23, -24, -27 and -28) with a stronger expression in breast cancer tissue compared to normal breast tissue. Of those, expression of MMP-8, -10, -12 and -27 is related to tumor grade since it is higher in analyzed G3 compared to G2 tissue samples. In contrast, MMP-7 and MMP-27 mRNA showed a weaker expression in tumor samples compared to healthy tissue. In addition, we demonstrated that the four breast cancer cell lines examined, are constitutively expressing a wide variety of MMPs. Of those, MDA-MB-468 showed the strongest mRNA and protein expression for most of the MMPs analyzed. MMP-1, -2

  14. Arsenic and antimony removal from drinking water by adsorption on granular ferric oxide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sazakli, Eleni; Zouvelou, Stavroula V; Kalavrouziotis, Ioannis; Leotsinidis, Michalis

    2015-01-01

    Arsenic and antimony occur in drinking water due to natural weathering or anthropogenic activities. There has been growing concern about their impact on health. The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of a granular ferric oxide adsorbent medium to remove arsenic and antimony from drinking water via rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs). Three different water matrices - deionized, raw water treated with a reverse osmosis domestic device and raw water - were spiked with arsenic and/or antimony to a concentration of 100 μg L⁻¹. Both elements were successfully adsorbed onto the medium. The loadings until the guideline value was exceeded in the effluent were found to be 0.35-1.63 mg g⁻¹ for arsenic and 0.12-2.11 mg g⁻¹ for antimony, depending on the water matrix. Adsorption of one element was not substantially affected by the presence of the other. Aeration did not affect significantly the adsorption capacity. Granular ferric oxide could be employed for the simultaneous removal of arsenic and antimony from drinking water, whereas full-scale systems should be assessed via laboratory tests before their implementation.

  15. Machinability and Tribological Properties of Stir Cast LM6/SiC/GR Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tahat Montasser S.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Analysis on machining characteristics in turning of LM6/SiC/Gr hybrid metal matrix composites is made of (Al-11.8%Si/SiC/Gr hybrid metal matrix composites. The process performances such as porosity, wear rate of the composites, tool wear, tool life, specific modulus, surface roughness and material removal rate with equal weight fraction of SiC and Gr particulates of 3%, 7%, 10% and 13% reinforcement are investigated. This experimental analysis and test results on the machinability of Al/SiCMMC will provide essential guidelines to the manufacturers. Hybird metal matrix composites reinforced with graphite particles posses better machinability and tribological properties.

  16. Removable molar power arm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raj Kumar Verma

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Attachment of force elements from the gingival hook of maxillary molar tubes during the retraction of the anterior teeth is very common in orthodontic practice. As the line of force passes below the center of resistance (CR of molar, it results its mesial tipping and also anchorage loss. To overcome this problem, the line of force should pass along the CR of molar. This article highlights a method to overcome this problem by attaching a removable power arm to the headgear tube of molar tube during the retraction of the anterior teeth.

  17. Some remarks on unilateral matrix equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cerchiai, Bianca L.; Zumino, Bruno

    2001-01-01

    We briefly review the results of our paper LBNL-46775: We study certain solutions of left-unilateral matrix equations. These are algebraic equations where the coefficients and the unknown are square matrices of the same order, or, more abstractly, elements of an associative, but possibly noncommutative algebra, and all coefficients are on the left. Recently such equations have appeared in a discussion of generalized Born-Infeld theories. In particular, two equations, their perturbative solutions and the relation between them are studied, applying a unified approach based on the generalized Bezout theorem for matrix polynomials

  18. Airplane Ice Detector Based on a Microwave Transmission Line

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngo, Phong; Arndt, G. Dickey; Carl, James R.

    2004-01-01

    An electronic instrument that could detect the potentially dangerous buildup of ice on an airplane wing is undergoing development. The instrument is based on a microwave transmission line configured as a capacitance probe: at selected spots, the transmission-line conductors are partly exposed to allow any ice and/or liquid water present at those spots to act as predominantly capacitive electrical loads on the transmission line. These loads change the input impedance of the transmission line, as measured at a suitable excitation frequency. Thus, it should be possible to infer the presence of ice and/or liquid water from measurements of the input impedance and/or electrical parameters related to the input impedance. The sensory transmission line is of the microstrip type and thus thin enough to be placed on an airplane wing without unduly disturbing airflow in flight. The sensory spots are small areas from which the upper layer of the microstrip has been removed to allow any liquid water or ice on the surface to reach the transmission line. The sensory spots are spaced at nominal open-circuit points, which are at intervals of a half wavelength (in the transmission line, not in air) at the excitation frequency. The excitation frequency used in the experiments has been 1 GHz, for which a half wavelength in the transmission line is .4 in. (.10 cm). The figure depicts a laboratory prototype of the instrument. The impedance-related quantities chosen for use in this version of the instrument are the magnitude and phase of the scattering parameter S11 as manifested in the in-phase (I ) and quadrature (Q) outputs of the phase detector. By careful layout of the transmission line (including the half-wavelength sensor spacing), one can ensure that the amplitude and phase of the input to the phase detector keep shifting in the same direction as ice forms on one or more of the sensor areas. Although only one transmission-line sensor strip is used in the laboratory version, in a

  19. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) safeguard osteoblasts from apoptosis during transdifferentiation into osteocytes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karsdal, M A; Levin Andersen, Thomas; Bonewald, L

    2004-01-01

    of osteoblasts forced to transdifferentiate into osteocytes in 3D type I collagen gels were inhibited by more than 50% when exposed to 10 microM GM6001 and to Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2), a natural MT1-MMP inhibitor. This shows the importance of MMPs in safeguarding osteoblasts from......Osteoblasts undergo apoptosis or differentiate into either osteocytes or bone-lining cells after termination of bone matrix synthesis. In this study, we investigated the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in differentiation of osteoblasts, bone formation, transdifferentiation into osteocytes......, and osteocyte apoptosis. This was accomplished by using calvarial sections from the MT1-MMP-deficient mouse and by culture of the mouse osteoblast cell line MC3T3-E1 and primary mouse calvarial osteoblasts. We found that a synthetic matrix metalloprotease inhibitor, GM6001, strongly inhibited bone formation...

  20. Microstrip Butler matrix design and realization for 7 T MRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yazdanbakhsh, Pedram; Solbach, Klaus

    2011-07-01

    This article presents the design and realization of 8 × 8 and 16 × 16 Butler matrices for 7 T MRI systems. With the focus on low insertion loss and high amplitude/phase accuracy, the microstrip line integration technology (microwave-integrated circuit) was chosen for the realization. Laminate material of high permittivity (ε(r) = 11) and large thickness (h = 3.2 mm) is shown to allow the best trade-off of circuit board size versus insertion loss, saving circuit area by extensive folding of branch-line coupler topology and meandering phase shifter and connecting strip lines and reducing mutual coupling of neighboring strip lines by shield structures between strip lines. With this approach, 8 × 8 Butler matrices were produced in single boards of 310 mm × 530 mm, whereas the 16 × 16 Butler matrices combined two submatrices of 8 × 8 with two smaller boards. Insertion loss was found at 0.73 and 1.1 dB for an 8 × 8 matrix and 16 × 16 matrix, respectively. Measured amplitude and phase errors are shown to represent highly pure mode excitation with unwanted modes suppressed by 40 and 35 dB, respectively. Both types of matrices were implemented with a 7 T MRI system and 8- and 16-element coil arrays for RF mode shimming experiments and operated successfully with 8 kW of RF power. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  1. Platelet activation by extracellular matrix proteins in haemostasis and thrombosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Steve P

    2009-01-01

    The prevention of excessive blood loss to avoid fatal haemorrhage is a pivotal process for all organisms possessing a circulatory system. Increased circulating blood volume and pressure, as required in larger animals, make this process all the more important and challenging. It is essential to have a powerful and rapid system to detect damage and generate an effective seal, and which is also exquisitely regulated to prevent unwanted, excessive or systemic activation so as to avoid blockage of vessels. Thus, a highly specialised and efficient haemostatic system has evolved that consists of cellular (platelets) and protein (coagulation factors) components. Importantly, this is able to support haemostasis in both the low shear environment of the venous system and the high shear environment of the arterial system. Endothelial cells, lining the entire circulation system, play a crucial role in the delicate balance between activation and inhibition of the haemostatic system. An intact and healthy endothelium supports blood flow by preventing attachment of cells and proteins which is required for initiation of coagulation and platelet activation. Endothelial cells produce and release the two powerful soluble inhibitors of platelet activation, nitric oxide and prostacyclin, and express high levels of CD39 which rapidly metabolises the major platelet feedback agonist, ADP. This antithrombotic environment however can rapidly change following activation or removal of endothelial cells through injury or rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Loss of endothelial cells exposes the subendothelial extracellular matrix which creates strong signals for activation of the haemostatic system including powerful platelet adhesion and activation. Quantitative and qualitative changes in the composition of the subendothelial extracellular matrix influence these prothrombotic characteristics with life threatening thrombotic and bleeding complications, as illustrated by formation of

  2. Chern-Simons matrix models, two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory and the Sutherland model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabo, Richard J; Tierz, Miguel

    2010-01-01

    We derive some new relationships between matrix models of Chern-Simons gauge theory and of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. We show that q-integration of the Stieltjes-Wigert matrix model is the discrete matrix model that describes q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on S 2 . We demonstrate that the semiclassical limit of the Chern-Simons matrix model is equivalent to the Gross-Witten model in the weak-coupling phase. We study the strong-coupling limit of the unitary Chern-Simons matrix model and show that it too induces the Gross-Witten model, but as a first-order deformation of Dyson's circular ensemble. We show that the Sutherland model is intimately related to Chern-Simons gauge theory on S 3 , and hence to q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on S 2 . In particular, the ground-state wavefunction of the Sutherland model in its classical equilibrium configuration describes the Chern-Simons free energy. The correspondence is extended to Wilson line observables and to arbitrary simply laced gauge groups.

  3. OD Matrix Acquisition Based on Mobile Phone Positioning Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaoqing ZUO

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Dynamic OD matrix is basic data of traffic travel guidance, traffic control, traffic management and traffic planning, and reflects the basic needs of travelers on the traffic network. With the rising popularity of positioning technology and the communication technology and the generation of huge mobile phone users, the mining and use of mobile phone positioning data, can get more traffic intersections and import and export data. These data will be integrated into obtaining the regional OD matrix, which is bound to bring convenience. In this article, mobile phone positioning data used in the data acquisition of intelligent transportation system, research a kind of regional dynamic OD matrix acquisition method based on the mobile phone positioning data. The method based on purpose of transportation, using time series similarity classification algorithm based on piecewise linear representation of the corner point (CP-PLR, mapping each base station cell to traffic zone of different traffic characteristics, and through a series of mapping optimization of base station cell to traffic zone to realize city traffic zone division based on mobile phone traffic data, on the basis, adjacency matrix chosen as the physical data structure of OD matrix storage, the principle of obtaining regional dynamic OD matrix based on the mobile phone positioning data are expounded, and the algorithm of obtaining regional dynamic OD matrix based on mobile phone positioning data are designed and verified.

  4. M3: Matrix Multiplication on MapReduce

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Silvestri, Francesco; Ceccarello, Matteo

    2015-01-01

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

  5. BLACK HOLE MASS ESTIMATES BASED ON C IV ARE CONSISTENT WITH THOSE BASED ON THE BALMER LINES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Assef, R. J.; Denney, K. D.; Kochanek, C. S.; Peterson, B. M.; Kozlowski, S.; Dietrich, M.; Grier, C. J.; Khan, R. [Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 140 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Ageorges, N.; Buschkamp, P.; Gemperlein, H.; Hofmann, R. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstr., D-85748 Garching (Germany); Barrows, R. S. [Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701 (United States); Falco, E.; Kilic, M. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Feiz, C.; Germeroth, A. [Landessternwarte, ZAH, Koenigstuhl 12, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Juette, M.; Knierim, V. [Astron. Institut der Ruhr Univ. Bochum, Universitaetsstr. 150, D-44780 Bochum (Germany); Laun, W., E-mail: rjassef@astronomy.ohio-state.edu [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); and others

    2011-12-01

    Using a sample of high-redshift lensed quasars from the CASTLES project with observed-frame ultraviolet or optical and near-infrared spectra, we have searched for possible biases between supermassive black hole (BH) mass estimates based on the C IV, H{alpha}, and H{beta} broad emission lines. Our sample is based upon that of Greene, Peng, and Ludwig, expanded with new near-IR spectroscopic observations, consistently analyzed high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) optical spectra, and consistent continuum luminosity estimates at 5100 A. We find that BH mass estimates based on the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of C IV show a systematic offset with respect to those obtained from the line dispersion, {sigma}{sub l}, of the same emission line, but not with those obtained from the FWHM of H{alpha} and H{beta}. The magnitude of the offset depends on the treatment of the He II and Fe II emission blended with C IV, but there is little scatter for any fixed measurement prescription. While we otherwise find no systematic offsets between C IV and Balmer line mass estimates, we do find that the residuals between them are strongly correlated with the ratio of the UV and optical continuum luminosities. This means that much of the dispersion in previous comparisons of C IV and H{beta} BH mass estimates are due to the continuum luminosities rather than to any properties of the lines. Removing this dependency reduces the scatter between the UV- and optical-based BH mass estimates by a factor of approximately two, from roughly 0.35 to 0.18 dex. The dispersion is smallest when comparing the C IV {sigma}{sub l} mass estimate, after removing the offset from the FWHM estimates, and either Balmer line mass estimate. The correlation with the continuum slope is likely due to a combination of reddening, host contamination, and object-dependent SED shapes. When we add additional heterogeneous measurements from the literature, the results are unchanged. Moreover, in a trial observation of a

  6. Radiological Assessment for the Removal of Legacy BPA Power Lines that Cross the Hanford Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Millsap, William J.; Brush, Daniel J.

    2013-01-01

    This paper discusses some radiological field monitoring and assessment methods used to assess the components of an old electrical power transmission line that ran across the Hanford Site between the production reactors area (100 Area) and the chemical processing area (200 Area). This task was complicated by the presence of radon daughters -- both beta and alpha emitters -- residing on the surfaces, particularly on the surfaces of weathered metals and metals that had been electrically-charged. In many cases, these activities were high compared to the DOE Surface Contamination Guidelines, which were used as guides for the assessment. These methods included the use of the Toulmin model of argument, represented using Toulmin diagrams, to represent the combined force of several strands of evidences, rather than a single measurement of activity, to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that no or very little Hanford activity was present and mixed with the natural activity. A number of forms of evidence were used: the overall chance of Hanford contamination; measurements of removable activity, beta and alpha; 1-minute scaler counts of total surface activity, beta and alpha, using 'background makers'; the beta activity to alpha activity ratios; measured contamination on nearby components; NaI gamma spectral measurements to compare uncontaminated and potentially-contaminated spectra, as well as measurements for the sentinel radionuclides, Am- 241 and Cs-137 on conducting wire; comparative statistical analyses; and in-situ measurements of alpha spectra on conducting wire showing that the alpha activity was natural Po-210, as well as to compare uncontaminated and potentially-contaminated spectra

  7. Radiological Assessment for the Removal of Legacy BPA Power Lines that Cross the Hanford Site

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Millsap, William J.; Brush, Daniel J.

    2013-11-13

    This paper discusses some radiological field monitoring and assessment methods used to assess the components of an old electrical power transmission line that ran across the Hanford Site between the production reactors area (100 Area) and the chemical processing area (200 Area). This task was complicated by the presence of radon daughters -- both beta and alpha emitters -- residing on the surfaces, particularly on the surfaces of weathered metals and metals that had been electrically-charged. In many cases, these activities were high compared to the DOE Surface Contamination Guidelines, which were used as guides for the assessment. These methods included the use of the Toulmin model of argument, represented using Toulmin diagrams, to represent the combined force of several strands of evidences, rather than a single measurement of activity, to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that no or very little Hanford activity was present and mixed with the natural activity. A number of forms of evidence were used: the overall chance of Hanford contamination; measurements of removable activity, beta and alpha; 1-minute scaler counts of total surface activity, beta and alpha, using "background makers"; the beta activity to alpha activity ratios; measured contamination on nearby components; NaI gamma spectral measurements to compare uncontaminated and potentially-contaminated spectra, as well as measurements for the sentinel radionuclides, Am- 241 and Cs-137 on conducting wire; comparative statistical analyses; and in-situ measurements of alpha spectra on conducting wire showing that the alpha activity was natural Po-210, as well as to compare uncontaminated and potentially-contaminated spectra.

  8. Flow injection on-line dilution for multi-element determination in human urine with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald; Gammelgaard, Bente

    2001-01-01

    A simple flow injection on-line dilution procedure with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed for the determination of copper, zinc, arsenic, lead, selenium, nickel and molybdenum in human urine. Matrix effects were minimized by employing a dilution factor...

  9. On-line monitoring of trace compounds in the flue gas of an incineration pilot plant: Formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heger, H. J.; Zimmermann, R.; Dorfner, R.; Kettrup, A.; Boesl, U.

    1998-01-01

    Laser mass spectrometry is applied for on-line analysis of PAHs from a complex flue gas matrix in the combustion chamber of an incineration plant. Process monitoring of industrial processes can be performed. New insights into the formation of toxic combustion byproducts are possible

  10. Simultaneous determination of metolazone and valsartan in plasma by on-line SPE coupled with liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Jiezhao; Chen, Meiling; Li, Ying; Yu, Fanglin; Cheng, Xiaohui; Yang, Yang; Liu, Yan; Xie, Xiangyang; Li, Zhiping; Zhang, Hui; Mei, Xingguo

    2017-10-01

    Combination of metolazone (0.5 mg) and valsartan (80 mg) has been verified as a promising therapy treatment for hypertension. In order to facilitate to pharmacokinetic research, it needs a method for the simultaneously determination of metolazone and valsartan in biological samples. However, there are no relative reports so far. In order to facilitate to pharmacokinetic research, an on-line solid phase extraction coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of metolazone and valsartan in beagle dog plasma was developed and validated in this study. An on-line solid phase extraction column Retain PEP Javelin (10 mm × 2.1 mm) was used to remove impurities in plasma samples. The metolazone, valsartan and internal standard (losartan) were separated on a Poroshell 120 SB-C18 column (4.6 mm × 50 mm × 2.7 µm) with a gradient elution procedure. Acidified acetonitrile/water mixture was used as a mobile phase. The selected multiple-reaction monitoring mode in positive ion was performed and the parent to the product transitions m/z 366/259, m/z 436.2/291 and m/z 423.4/207 were used to measure the metolazone, valsartan and losartan. The method was linear over the range of 0.1-100 ng/mL and 1-1000 ng/mL for metolazone and valsartan, respectively. This method was validated in terms of specificity, linearity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy, matrix effect, and stability and then successfully applied to pharmacokinetic studies of the metolazone and valsartan combination tablets in beagle dogs.

  11. Development of real-time on-line vibration testing system for seismic experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horiuchi, T.; Nakagawa, M.; Kametani, M.

    1993-01-01

    An on-line vibration testing method is being developed for seismic experiments. This method combines computer simulation and an actuator for vibration testing of structures. A real-time, on-line testing system was developed to improve the method. In the system, the timing of the vibration testing and the computer simulation are the same. This allows time-dependent reaction forces, such as damping force, to be immediately considered in the computer simulation. The real-time system has many requirements, such as complicated matrix calculations within a small time step, and communication with outer devices like sensors and actuators through A/D and D/A converters. These functions arc accomplished by using a newly-developed, real-time controller that employs a parallel processing technique. A small structural model is used to demonstrate the system. The reliability and applicability of the system for seismic experiments can be demonstrated by comparing the results of the system and a shaking table, which are in almost agreement. (author)

  12. Mass spectrometry imaging of illicit drugs in latent fingerprints by matrix-free and matrix-assisted desorption/ionization techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skriba, Anton; Havlicek, Vladimir

    2018-02-01

    Compared with classical matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI), the matrix free-based strategies generate a cleaner background, without significant noise or interference coming from an applied matrix, which is beneficial for the analysis of small molecules, such as drugs of abuse. In this work, we probed the detection efficiency of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine in nanostructure-assisted laser desorption-ionization (NALDI) and desorption electrospray ionization and compared the sensitivity of these two matrix-free tools with a standard MALDI mass spectrometry experiment. In a typical mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) setup, papillary line latent fingerprints were recorded as a mixture a common skin fatty acid or interfering cosmetics with a drug. In a separate experiment, all drugs (1 µL of 1 μM standard solution) were detected by all three ionization techniques on a target. In the case of cocaine and heroin, NALDI mass spectrometry was the most sensitive and revealed signals even from 0.1 μM solution. The drug/drug contaminant (fatty acid or cosmetics) MSI approach could be used by law enforcement personnel to confirm drug abusers of having come into contact with the suspected drug by use of fingerprint scans at time of apprehension which can aid in reducing the work of lab officials.

  13. Immobilization of laccase by encapsulation in a sol-gel matrix and its characterization and use for the removal of estrogens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lloret, L; Eibes, G; Feijoo, G; Moreira, M T; Lema, J M; Hollmann, F

    2011-01-01

    Laccase from Myceliophthora thermophila was immobilized by encapsulation in a sol-gel matrix based on methyltrimethoxysilane and tetramethoxysilane. The amount of laccase used for the preparation of the hydrogel was in the range 2.2-22 mg of protein/mL sol and the corresponding enzymatic activities were in the range 5.5-17.0 U/g biocatalyst. The kinetic parameters of the encapsulated laccase showed that the immobilized enzyme presented lower affinity for the substrate 2,2'-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) (ABTS). However, the stability of laccase was significantly enhanced after immobilization; thus, both pH and thermal stability improved about 10-30% and tolerance to different inactivating agents (NaN(3) , ZnCl(2) , CoCl(2) , CaCl(2) , methanol, and acetone) was 20-40% higher. The reusability of the immobilized laccase was demonstrated in the oxidation of ABTS for several consecutive cycles, preserving 80% of the initial laccase activity after 10 cycles. The feasibility of the immobilized biocatalyst was tested for the continuous elimination of Acid Green 27 dye as a model compound in a packed-bed reactor (PBR). Removals of 70, 58, 57, and 55% were achieved after four consecutive cycles with limited adsorption on the support: only 10-15%. Finally, both batch stirred tank reactor (BSTR) operated in several cycles and PBR, containing the solid biocatalyst were applied for the treatment of a solution containing the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs): estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). Eliminations of EDCs in the BSTR were higher than 85% and the reusability of the biocatalyst for the degradation of those estrogens was demonstrated. In the continuous operation of the PBR, E1 was degraded by 55% and E2 and EE2 were removed up to 75 and 60%, at steady-state conditions. In addition, a 63% decrease in estrogenic activity was detected. Copyright © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

  14. Issues for Bringing Electron Beam Irradiators On-Line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaye, R.J.; Turman, B.N.

    1999-01-01

    Irradiation of red meat and poultry has been approved by the U.S. FDA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rule for processing red meat is out for comment. Looking beyond the current issues of packaging materials, labeling, and consumer acceptance, this paper reviews the next step of implementation and how to remove, or at least reduce, the barriers to utilization. Polls of the user community identified their requirements for electron beam or x-ray processing of meat or poultry and their concerns about implementation for on-line processing. These needs and issues are compared to the capabilities of the accelerator industry. The critical issues of beam utilization and dose uniformity, factors affecting floor space requirements, and treatment costs are examined

  15. Issues for Bringing Electron Beam Irradiators On-Line

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaye, R.J.; Turman, B.N.

    1999-04-20

    Irradiation of red meat and poultry has been approved by the U.S. FDA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rule for processing red meat is out for comment. Looking beyond the current issues of packaging materials, labeling, and consumer acceptance, this paper reviews the next step of implementation and how to remove, or at least reduce, the barriers to utilization. Polls of the user community identified their requirements for electron beam or x-ray processing of meat or poultry and their concerns about implementation for on-line processing. These needs and issues are compared to the capabilities of the accelerator industry. The critical issues of beam utilization and dose uniformity, factors affecting floor space requirements, and treatment costs are examined.

  16. Study of theophylline stability on polymer matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodrigues, Kiriaki M.S.; Parra, Duclerc F.; Oliveira, Maria Jose A.; Bustillos, Oscar V.; Lugao, Ademar B.

    2007-01-01

    Theophylline is a bronchodilator, commonly known and used as a drug model in the development of pharmaceutical formulations. The stability of the drug and the matrix, scope of this study, was evaluated in the solid formulation. Polymeric matrix based on PHB containing the drug (theophylline) was prepared and submitted to radiation sterilization at different doses of: 5, 10, 20 and 25 kGy using a Cobalt- 60 source. The modified drug release of theophylline sterilized tablets has been studied. Modern techniques of HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography), DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) and TGA (Thermogravimetry analysis) were employed. The results have shown the influence of sterilization by radiation process in both the theophylline and the polymeric drug delivery matrix samples. The increasing of polymeric matrix crosslinking under radiation conditions retards the drug release while the theophylline structure is stable under the radiation (author)

  17. Part 6: Modelling of simultaneous chemical-biological P removal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    drinie

    approaches taken in modelling the chemical P removal processes. In the literature .... to 2 mgP/l) for an iron dose of ~1 to 10 mg/l as Fe - refer to dashed line in Fig. 1). ...... systems exhibiting biological enhanced phosphate removal. Part 3:.

  18. Influence of chloride admixtures on cement matrix durability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheikh, I.A.; Zamorani, E.; Serrini, G.

    1989-01-01

    The influence of various inorganic salts, as chloride admixtures to Portland cement, on the mechanical properties and the durability of the matrix has been studied. The salts used in this study are chromium, nickel and cadmium chlorides. Improved compressive strength values are obtained which have been correlated to the stable metal hydroxide formation in high pH environment. Under static water conditions at 50 0 C, hydrolyzed chloride ions exhibit adverse effects on the matrix durability through rapid release of calcium as calcium chloride in the initial period of leaching. On the contrary, enhanced matrix durability is obtained on long term leaching in the case of cement containing chromium chloride

  19. Les Houches lectures on matrix models and topological strings

    CERN Document Server

    Marino, M

    2004-01-01

    In these lecture notes for the Les Houches School on Applications of Random Matrices in Physics we give an introduction to the connections between matrix models and topological strings. We first review some basic results of matrix model technology and then we focus on type B topological strings. We present the main results of Dijkgraaf and Vafa describing the spacetime string dynamics on certain Calabi-Yau backgrounds in terms of matrix models, and we emphasize the connection to geometric transitions and to large N gauge/string duality. We also use matrix model technology to analyze large N Chern-Simons theory and the Gopakumar-Vafa transition.

  20. Elimination of Isoxazolyl-Penicillins antibiotics in waters by the ligninolytic native Colombian strain Leptosphaerulina sp. considerations on biodegradation process and antimicrobial activity removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copete-Pertuz, Ledys S; Plácido, Jersson; Serna-Galvis, Efraím A; Torres-Palma, Ricardo A; Mora, Amanda

    2018-07-15

    In this work, Leptosphaerulina sp. (a Colombian native fungus) significantly removed three Isoxazolyl-Penicillin antibiotics (IP): oxacillin (OXA, 16000 μg L -1 ), cloxacillin (CLX, 17500 μg L -1 ) and dicloxacillin (DCX, 19000 μg L -1 ) from water. The biological treatment was performed at pH 5.6, 28 °C, and 160 rpm for 15 days. The biotransformation process and lack of toxicity of the final solutions (antibacterial activity (AA) and cytotoxicity) were tested. The role of enzymes in IP removal was analysed through in vitro studies with enzymatic extracts (crude and pre-purified) from Leptosphaerulina sp., commercial enzymes and enzymatic inhibitors. Furthermore, the applicability of mycoremediation process to a complex matrix (simulated hospital wastewater) was evaluated. IP were considerably abated by the fungus, OXA was the fastest degraded (day 6), followed by CLX (day 7) and DCX (day 8). Antibiotics biodegradation was associated to laccase and versatile peroxidase action. Assays using commercial enzymes (i.e. laccase from Trametes versicolor and horseradish peroxidase) and inhibitors (EDTA, NaCl, sodium acetate, manganese (II) ions) confirmed the significant role of enzymatic transformation. Whereas, biomass sorption was not an important process in the antibiotics elimination. Evaluation of AA against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 revealed that Leptosphaerulina sp. also eliminated the AA. In addition, the cytotoxicity assay (MTT) on the HepG2 cell line demonstrated that the IP final solutions were non-toxic. Finally, Leptosphaerulina sp. eliminated OXA and its AA from synthetic hospital wastewater at 6 days. All these results evidenced the potential of Leptosphaerulina sp. mycoremediation as a novel environmentally friendly process for the removal of IP from aqueous systems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Unique features in the ARIES glovebox line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez, H.E.; Brown, W.G.; Flamm, B.; James, C.A.; Laskie, R.; Nelson, T.O.; Wedman, D.E.

    1998-01-01

    A series of unique features have been incorporated into the Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, TA-55 Plutonium Facility. The features enhance the material handling in the process of the dismantlement of nuclear weapon primaries in the glovebox line. Incorporated into these features are the various plutonium process module's different ventilation zone requirements that the material handling systems must meet. These features include a conveyor system that consists of a remotely controlled cart that transverses the length of the conveyor glovebox, can be operated from a remote location and can deliver process components to the entrance of any selected module glovebox. Within the modules there exists linear motion material handling systems with lifting hoist, which are controlled via an Allen Bradley control panel or local control panels. To remove the packaged products from the hot process line, the package is processed through an air lock/electrolytic decontamination process that removes the radioactive contamination from the outside of the package container and allows the package to be removed from the process line

  2. Impacts of tree rows on grassland birds and potential nest predators: a removal experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellison, Kevin S; Ribic, Christine A; Sample, David W; Fawcett, Megan J; Dadisman, John D

    2013-01-01

    Globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. Encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. In North America, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. Because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often greater along wooded edge and grassland transitions, we measured the impacts of removing rows of trees and shrubs that intersected grasslands on potential nest predators and the three most abundant grassland bird species (Henslow's sparrow [Ammodramus henslowii], Eastern meadowlark [Sturnella magna], and bobolink [Dolichonyx oryzivorus]) at sites in Wisconsin, U.S.A. We monitored 3 control and 3 treatment sites, for 1 yr prior to and 3 yr after tree row removal at the treatment sites. Grassland bird densities increased (2-4 times for bobolink and Henslow's sparrow) and nesting densities increased (all 3 species) in the removal areas compared to control areas. After removals, Henslow's sparrows nested within ≤50 m of the treatment area, where they did not occur when tree rows were present. Most dramatically, activity by woodland-associated predators nearly ceased (nine-fold decrease for raccoon [Procyon lotor]) at the removals and grassland predators increased (up to 27 times activity for thirteen-lined ground squirrel [Ictidomys tridecemlineatus]). Nest success did not increase, likely reflecting the increase in grassland predators. However, more nests were attempted by all 3 species (175 versus 116) and the number of successful nests for bobolinks and Henslow's sparrows increased. Because of gains in habitat, increased use by birds, greater production of young, and the effective removal of woodland-associated predators, tree row removal, where appropriate based on the predator community, can be a beneficial management action for conserving grassland birds and improving fragmented and degraded grassland ecosystems.

  3. Impacts of tree rows on grassland birds and potential nest predators: a removal experiment.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin S Ellison

    Full Text Available Globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. Encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. In North America, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. Because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often greater along wooded edge and grassland transitions, we measured the impacts of removing rows of trees and shrubs that intersected grasslands on potential nest predators and the three most abundant grassland bird species (Henslow's sparrow [Ammodramus henslowii], Eastern meadowlark [Sturnella magna], and bobolink [Dolichonyx oryzivorus] at sites in Wisconsin, U.S.A. We monitored 3 control and 3 treatment sites, for 1 yr prior to and 3 yr after tree row removal at the treatment sites. Grassland bird densities increased (2-4 times for bobolink and Henslow's sparrow and nesting densities increased (all 3 species in the removal areas compared to control areas. After removals, Henslow's sparrows nested within ≤50 m of the treatment area, where they did not occur when tree rows were present. Most dramatically, activity by woodland-associated predators nearly ceased (nine-fold decrease for raccoon [Procyon lotor] at the removals and grassland predators increased (up to 27 times activity for thirteen-lined ground squirrel [Ictidomys tridecemlineatus]. Nest success did not increase, likely reflecting the increase in grassland predators. However, more nests were attempted by all 3 species (175 versus 116 and the number of successful nests for bobolinks and Henslow's sparrows increased. Because of gains in habitat, increased use by birds, greater production of young, and the effective removal of woodland-associated predators, tree row removal, where appropriate based on the predator community, can be a beneficial management action for conserving grassland birds and improving fragmented and degraded grassland

  4. Artifact removal from EEG signals using adaptive filters in cascade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcés Correa, A.; Laciar, E.; Patiño, H. D.; Valentinuzzi, M. E.

    2007-11-01

    Artifacts in EEG (electroencephalogram) records are caused by various factors, like line interference, EOG (electro-oculogram) and ECG (electrocardiogram). These noise sources increase the difficulty in analyzing the EEG and to obtaining clinical information. For this reason, it is necessary to design specific filters to decrease such artifacts in EEG records. In this paper, a cascade of three adaptive filters based on a least mean squares (LMS) algorithm is proposed. The first one eliminates line interference, the second adaptive filter removes the ECG artifacts and the last one cancels EOG spikes. Each stage uses a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which adjusts its coefficients to produce an output similar to the artifacts present in the EEG. The proposed cascade adaptive filter was tested in five real EEG records acquired in polysomnographic studies. In all cases, line-frequency, ECG and EOG artifacts were attenuated. It is concluded that the proposed filter reduces the common artifacts present in EEG signals without removing significant information embedded in these records.

  5. Artifact removal from EEG signals using adaptive filters in cascade

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garces Correa, A; Laciar, E; Patino, H D; Valentinuzzi, M E

    2007-01-01

    Artifacts in EEG (electroencephalogram) records are caused by various factors, like line interference, EOG (electro-oculogram) and ECG (electrocardiogram). These noise sources increase the difficulty in analyzing the EEG and to obtaining clinical information. For this reason, it is necessary to design specific filters to decrease such artifacts in EEG records. In this paper, a cascade of three adaptive filters based on a least mean squares (LMS) algorithm is proposed. The first one eliminates line interference, the second adaptive filter removes the ECG artifacts and the last one cancels EOG spikes. Each stage uses a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which adjusts its coefficients to produce an output similar to the artifacts present in the EEG. The proposed cascade adaptive filter was tested in five real EEG records acquired in polysomnographic studies. In all cases, line-frequency, ECG and EOG artifacts were attenuated. It is concluded that the proposed filter reduces the common artifacts present in EEG signals without removing significant information embedded in these records

  6. Artifact removal from EEG signals using adaptive filters in cascade

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garces Correa, A [Gabinete de TecnologIa Medica, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional de San Juan (Argentina); Laciar, E [Gabinete de TecnologIa Medica, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional de San Juan (Argentina); Patino, H D [Instituto de Automatica, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional de San Juan (Argentina); Valentinuzzi, M E [Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biologicas (INSIBIO), UNT-CONICET, Tucuman (Argentina)

    2007-11-15

    Artifacts in EEG (electroencephalogram) records are caused by various factors, like line interference, EOG (electro-oculogram) and ECG (electrocardiogram). These noise sources increase the difficulty in analyzing the EEG and to obtaining clinical information. For this reason, it is necessary to design specific filters to decrease such artifacts in EEG records. In this paper, a cascade of three adaptive filters based on a least mean squares (LMS) algorithm is proposed. The first one eliminates line interference, the second adaptive filter removes the ECG artifacts and the last one cancels EOG spikes. Each stage uses a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which adjusts its coefficients to produce an output similar to the artifacts present in the EEG. The proposed cascade adaptive filter was tested in five real EEG records acquired in polysomnographic studies. In all cases, line-frequency, ECG and EOG artifacts were attenuated. It is concluded that the proposed filter reduces the common artifacts present in EEG signals without removing significant information embedded in these records.

  7. Strontium (Sr) separation from seawater using titanate adsorbents: Effects of seawater matrix ions on Sr sorption behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryu, Jungho; Hong, Hye-jin; Ryu, Taegong; Park, In-Su

    2017-04-01

    Strontium (Sr) which has many industrial applications such as ferrite magnet, ceramic, and fire works exists in seawater with the concentration of approximately 7 mg/L. In previous report estimating economic potential on recovery of various elements from seawater in terms of their commercial values and concentrations in seawater, Sr locates upper than approximate break-even line, which implies Sr recovery from seawater can be potentially profitable. Recently, Sr separation from seawater has received great attention in the environmental aspect after Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident which released much amount of radioactive Sr and Cs. Accordingly, the efficient separation of radioactive elements released to seawater has become critical as an important technological need as well as their removal from radioactive wastes. So far, it has been introduced to separate Sr from aqueous media by various methods including solvent extraction, adsorption by solid materials, and ion exchange. Among them, the adsorption technique using solid adsorbents is of great interest for selectively separating Sr from seawater with respect to low concentration level of Sr. In this study, we synthesized titanate nanotube (TiNT) by simple hydrothermal reaction, characterized its physicochemical properties, and systematically evaluated Sr sorption behavior under various reaction conditions corresponding to seawater environment. The synthesized TiNT exhibited the fibril-type nanotube structure with high specific surface area of 260 m2/g. The adsorption of Sr on TiNT rapidly occurred following pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and was in good agreement with Langmuir isotherm model, indicating maximum adsorption capacity of 97 mg/g. Based on Sr uptake and Na release with stoichiometric balance, sorption mechanism of Sr on TiNT was found to be ion-exchange between Na in TiNT lattice and Sr in solution phase, which was also confirmed by XRD and Raman analysis. Among competitive ions, Ca

  8. Development of on-line monitoring system using smart material

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Jin Kyung; Lee, Sang Pill; Park, Yi Hyun [Dongeui Univ., Busan (Korea, Republic of); Park, Young Chul [Donga Univ., Busan (Korea, Republic of)

    2003-07-01

    A hot press method was used to create the optimal fabrication condition for a Shape Memory Alloy(SMA) composite. The bonding strength between the matrix and the reinforcement within the SMA composite by the hot press method was more increased by cold rolling. In this study, the objective was to develop an on-line monitoring system in order to prevent the crack initiation and propagation by shape memory effect in SMA composite. Shape memory effect was used to prevent the SMA composite from crack propagation. For this system an optimal AE parameter should be determined according to the degree of damage and crack initiation. When the SMA composite was heated by the plate heater attached at the composite, the propagating cracks could be controlled by the compressive force of SMA.

  9. Development of on-line monitoring system using smart material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jin Kyung; Lee, Sang Pill; Park, Yi Hyun; Park, Young Chul

    2003-01-01

    A hot press method was used to create the optimal fabrication condition for a Shape Memory Alloy(SMA) composite. The bonding strength between the matrix and the reinforcement within the SMA composite by the hot press method was more increased by cold rolling. In this study, the objective was to develop an on-line monitoring system in order to prevent the crack initiation and propagation by shape memory effect in SMA composite. Shape memory effect was used to prevent the SMA composite from crack propagation. For this system an optimal AE parameter should be determined according to the degree of damage and crack initiation. When the SMA composite was heated by the plate heater attached at the composite, the propagating cracks could be controlled by the compressive force of SMA

  10. Electrical power line and pole removal radiological survey completion report: Revision 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-02-01

    Each electric power pole and all wire, cross members, and attached hardware were radiologically surveyed and removed. The survey procedures did not conform in every respect with the planned procedures because the actual work differed from the removal plan. The survey showed that all contamination was fixed. Certain poles that were suspected of being contaminated with Th-230 were cut off one foot above ground level and left on site. Each truck load of materials was checked at the access point to ensure it met release criteria. Wood samples were taken from all the poles at Building 403 and 5% of all the rest and analyzed for U-238 and Th-232. Only U-238 was detected. 1903 bundles of wire (95,150 lin ft) were released, and 76 bundles (1520 lin ft) were found to be contaminated. 7163 lin ft of power pole material were released, and 1484 lin ft were contaminated. A comprehensive quality measure assurance/quality control program was applied to this work

  11. Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Decay Heat Removal Concepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    K. D. Weaver; L-Y. Cheng; H. Ludewig; J. Jo

    2005-01-01

    Current research and development on the Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) has focused on the design of safety systems that will remove the decay heat during accident conditions, ion irradiations of candidate ceramic materials, joining studies of oxide dispersion strengthened alloys; and within the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) the fabrication of carbide fuels and ceramic fuel matrix materials, development of non-halide precursor low density and high density ceramic coatings, and neutron irradiation of candidate ceramic fuel matrix and metallic materials. The vast majority of this work has focused on the reference design for the GFR: a helium-cooled, direct power conversion system that will operate with an outlet temperature of 850 C at 7 MPa. In addition to the work being performed in the United States, seven international partners under the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) have identified their interest in participating in research related to the development of the GFR. These are Euratom (European Commission), France, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Of these, Euratom (including the United Kingdom), France, and Japan have active research activities with respect to the GFR. The research includes GFR design and safety, and fuels/in-core materials/fuel cycle projects. This report is a compilation of work performed on decay heat removal systems for a 2400 MWt GFR during this fiscal year (FY05)

  12. Saltstone Matrix Characterization And Stadium Simulation Results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Langton, C.

    2009-01-01

    is less than that expected for saltstone containing the reference amount of slag (45 wt.% of the total cementitious mixture versus 21 wt.% used in the SIMCO samples). Consequently the SIMCO saltstone samples are expected to have lower strengths, and tortuosity and higher porosity, water diffusivity, and intrinsic permeability compared to the reference case MCU saltstone. MCU reference saltstone contains nonradioactive salt solution with a composition designed to simulate the product of the Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction (MCU) Unit (Harbour, 2009). The SIMCO saltstone samples were cast in molds and cured for three days under plastic with a source of water to prevent drying. Details of the sample preparation process are presented in Attachment 2. The molds were then removed and the samples were cured at a constant temperature (76 F, 24 C) and 100 percent relative humidity for up to one year. Selected samples were periodically removed and characterized the evolution of the matrix as a function of age. In order to preserve the age dependent microstructure at the specified curing times it is necessary to stop hydration. This was accomplished by immersing the samples in isopropanol for 5 days to replace water with alcohol. The microstructure of the matrix material was also characterized as a function of aging. This information was used as a base line for comparison with leached microstructures. After curing for 137 days, specimens were cut into 20 mm disks and exposed to deionized water with a pH maintained at 10.5. Microstructure and calcium sulfur leaching results for samples leached for 31 days are presented in this report. Insufficient leached material was generated during the testing to date to obtain physical and mineralogical properties for leached saltstone. Longer term experiments are required because the matrix alteration rate due to immersion in deionized water is slow

  13. Efficient design of multituned transmission line NMR probes: the electrical engineering approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frydel, J A; Krzystyniak, M; Pienkowski, D; Pietrzak, M; de Sousa Amadeu, N; Ratajczyk, T; Idzik, K; Gutmann, T; Tietze, D; Voigt, S; Fenn, A; Limbach, H H; Buntkowsky, G

    2011-01-01

    Transmission line-based multi-channel solid state NMR probes have many advantages regarding the cost of construction, number of RF-channels, and achievable RF-power levels. Nevertheless, these probes are only rarely employed in solid state-NMR-labs, mainly owing to the difficult experimental determination of the necessary RF-parameters. Here, the efficient design of multi-channel solid state MAS-NMR probes employing transmission line theory and modern techniques of electrical engineering is presented. As technical realization a five-channel ((1)H, (31)P, (13)C, (2)H and (15)N) probe for operation at 7 Tesla is described. This very cost efficient design goal is a multi port single coil transmission line probe based on the design developed by Schaefer and McKay. The electrical performance of the probe is determined by measuring of Scattering matrix parameters (S-parameters) in particular input/output ports. These parameters are compared to the calculated parameters of the design employing the S-matrix formalism. It is shown that the S-matrix formalism provides an excellent tool for examination of transmission line probes and thus the tool for a rational design of these probes. On the other hand, the resulting design provides excellent electrical performance. From a point of view of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), calibration spectra of particular ports (channels) are of great importance. The estimation of the π/2 pulses length for all five NMR channels is presented. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Effect of Urea and Thiourea on Generation of Xenogeneic Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Maelene L.; Wong, Janelle L.; Horn, Rebecca M.; Sannajust, Kimberley C.; Rice, Dawn A.

    2016-01-01

    Effective solubilization of proteins by chaotropes in proteomic applications motivates their use in solubilization-based antigen removal/decellularization strategies. A high urea concentration has previously been reported to significantly reduce lipophilic antigen content of bovine pericardium (BP); however, structure and function of the resultant extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold were compromised. It has been recently demonstrated that in vivo ECM scaffold fate is determined by two primary outcome measures as follows: (1) sufficient reduction in antigen content to avoid graft-specific adaptive immune responses and (2) maintenance of native ECM structural proteins to avoid graft-specific innate responses. In this work, we assessed residual antigenicity, ECM architecture, ECM content, thermal stability, and tensile properties of BP subjected to a gradient of urea concentrations to determine whether an intermediate concentration exists at which both antigenicity and structure–function primary outcome measures for successful in vivo scaffold outcome can simultaneously be achieved. Alteration in tissue structure–function properties at various urea concentrations with decreased effectiveness for antigen removal makes use of urea-mediated antigen removal unlikely to be suitable for functional scaffold generation. PMID:27230226

  15. Theoretical evaluation of matrix effects on trapped atomic levels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Das, G.P.; Gruen, D.M.

    1986-06-01

    We suggest a theoretical model for calculating the matrix perturbation on the spectra of atoms trapped in rare gas systems. The model requires the ''potential curves'' of the diatomic system consisting of the trapped atom interacting with one from the matrix and relies on the approximation that the total matrix perturbation is a scalar sum of the pairwise interactions with each of the lattice sites. Calculations are presented for the prototype systems Na in Ar. Attempts are made to obtain ab initio estimates of the Jahn-Teller effects for excited states. Comparison is made with our recent Matrix-Isolation Spectroscopic (MIS) data. 10 refs., 3 tabs.

  16. Theoretical evaluation of matrix effects on trapped atomic levels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Das, G.P.; Gruen, D.M.

    1986-06-01

    We suggest a theoretical model for calculating the matrix perturbation on the spectra of atoms trapped in rare gas systems. The model requires the ''potential curves'' of the diatomic system consisting of the trapped atom interacting with one from the matrix and relies on the approximation that the total matrix perturbation is a scalar sum of the pairwise interactions with each of the lattice sites. Calculations are presented for the prototype systems Na in Ar. Attempts are made to obtain ab initio estimates of the Jahn-Teller effects for excited states. Comparison is made with our recent Matrix-Isolation Spectroscopic (MIS) data. 10 refs., 3 tabs

  17. Atlas transmission line/transition design and fabrication status

    CERN Document Server

    Ballard, E O; Davis, H A; Elizondo, J M; Gribble, R F; Nielsen, K E; Parker, G V; Ricketts, R L; Valdez, G A

    1999-01-01

    Atlas is a pulsed-power facility under development at Los Alamos National Laboratory to drive high-energy density experiments. Design has been completed for this new generation pulsed-power machine consisting of an azimuthal array of 24, 240-kV Marx modules and transmission lines supplying current to the load region at the machine center. The transmission line consists of a cable header, load protection switch, and tri-plate assembly interfacing to the center transition section. The cable header interface to the Marx module provides a mechanism to remove the Marx module for maintenance without removing other components of the transmission line. The load protection switch provides a mechanism for protecting the load during charging of the Marx in the event of a pre-fire condition. The aluminum tri-plate is a low-inductance transmission line that carries radial current flow from the Marx energy storage system at the machine periphery toward the load. All transmission line components are oil insulated except the...

  18. Correction of UBV Photometry for Emission Lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Skopal A.

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available We investigate the effect on U,B,V magnitudes of the removal of emission lines from the spectra of some symbiotic stars and novae during their nebular phases. We approach this problem by the precise reconstruction of the composite UV/optical continuum and the line spectrum. The corrections ΔU, ΔB and ΔV are determined from the ratio of fluxes with and without emission lines. We demonstrate the effect for symbiotic nova V1016 Cyg during its nebular phase. We find that about 68%, 78% and 66% of the observed flux in the U, B and V filters is radiated in the emission lines. The effect should be taken into account before using the observed color indices of emission-line objects for diagnosis of their radiation in the continuum.

  19. Mussel-inspired co-deposition to enhance bisphenol A removal in a bifacial enzymatic membrane reactor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cao, Xiaotong; Luo, Jianquan; Woodley, John M.

    2018-01-01

    were used as the matrix to further exploit the potential of the biocatalytic membranes. such prepared biocatalytic membranes were enzymatically active on both sides, making it possible to construct a bifacial enzymatic membrane reactor (EMR) for highly efficient micro-pollutants removal (taking...

  20. Low-temperature matrix effects on orientational motion of Methyl radical trapped in gas solids: Angular tunneling vs. libration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dmitriev, Yurij A.; Zelenetckii, Ilia A.; Benetis, Nikolas P.

    2018-05-01

    EPR investigation of the lineshape of matrix -isolated methyl radical, CH3, spectra recorded in solid N2O and CO2 was carried out. Reversible temperature-dependent line width anisotropy was observed in both matrices. This effect is a fingerprint of the extra-slow radical rotation about the in-plane C2 axes. The rotation was found to be anisotropic and closely correlated to the orientational dynamics of the matrix molecules. It was suggested that a recently discovered "hoping precession" effect of matrix molecules in solid CO2 is a common feature of matrices of the linear molecules CO, N2O, and CO2. A new low-temperature matrix effect, referred to as "libration trap", was proposed which accounts for the changing CH3 reorientational motion about the radical C3-axis from rotation to libration. Temperature dependence of the intensity of the EPR satellites produced by these nonrotating-but librating methyls was presented. This allowed for a rough estimation of the rotation hindering potential due to correlation mismatch between the radical and the nearest matrix molecules' librations.

  1. The activity-integrated method for quality assessment of reduning injection by on-line DPPH-CE-DAD.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yan-xu Chang

    Full Text Available A sensitive on-line DPPH-CE-DAD method was developed and validated for both screening and determining the concentration of seven antioxidants of Reduning injection. The pH and concentrations of buffer solution, SDS, β-CD and organic modifier were studied for the detection of DPPH and seven antioxidants. By on-line mixing DPPH and sample solution, a DPPH-CE method for testing the antioxidant activity of the complex matrix was successfully established and used to screen the antioxidant components of Reduning injection. Then, antioxidant components including caffeic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid C, chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid and cryptochlorogenic acid were quantified by the newly established CE-DAD method. Finally, the total antioxidant activity and the multiple active components were selected as markers to evaluate the quality of Reduning injection. The results demonstrated that the on-line DPPH-CE-DAD method was reagent-saving, rapid and feasible for on-line simultaneous determination of total pharmacological activity and contents of multi-components samples. It was also a powerful method for evaluating the quality control and mechanism of action of TCM injection.

  2. Dynamic analysis and vibration testing of CFRP drive-line system used in heavy-duty machine tool

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mo Yang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Low critical rotary speed and large vibration in the metal drive-line system of heavy-duty machine tool affect the machining precision seriously. Replacing metal drive-line with the CFRP drive-line can effectively solve this problem. Based on the composite laminated theory and the transfer matrix method (TMM, this paper puts forward a modified TMM to analyze dynamic characteristics of CFRP drive-line system. With this modified TMM, the CFRP drive-line of a heavy vertical miller is analyzed. And the finite element modal analysis model of the shafting is established. The results of the modified TMM and finite element analysis (FEA show that the modified TMM can effectively predict the critical rotary speed of CFRP drive-line. And the critical rotary speed of CFRP drive-line is 20% higher than that of the original metal drive-line. Then, the vibration of the CFRP and the metal drive-line were tested. The test results show that application of the CFRP drive shaft in the drive-line can effectively reduce the vibration of the heavy-duty machine tool. Keywords: CFRP drive-line system, Dynamic behavior, Transfer matrix, Vibration measurement

  3. M(atrix) theory on an orbifold and twisted membrane

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, N.

    1997-01-01

    M(atrix) theory on an orbifold and classical two-branes therein are studied with particular emphasis on heterotic M(atrix) theory on S 1 / Z 2 relevant to strongly coupled heterotic and dual type IA string theories. By analyzing the orbifold condition on Chan-Paton factors, we show that three choices of gauge group are possible for heterotic M(atrix) theory: SO(2N), SO(2N+1) or USp(2N). By examining the area-preserving diffeomorphism that underlies the M(atrix) theory, we find that each choice of gauge group restricts the possible topologies of two-branes. The result suggests that only the choice of SO(2N) or SO(2N+1) allows open two-branes, and hence, is relevant to heterotic M(atrix) theory. We show that the requirement of both local vacuum energy cancellation and of world-sheet anomaly cancellation of the resulting heterotic string identifies supersymmetric twisted sector spectra with sixteen fundamental representation spinors from each of the two fixed points. Twisted open and closed two-brane configurations are obtained in the large N limit. (orig.)

  4. Modeling the formation of cell-matrix adhesions on a single 3D matrix fiber.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escribano, J; Sánchez, M T; García-Aznar, J M

    2015-11-07

    Cell-matrix adhesions are crucial in different biological processes like tissue morphogenesis, cell motility, and extracellular matrix remodeling. These interactions that link cell cytoskeleton and matrix fibers are built through protein clutches, generally known as adhesion complexes. The adhesion formation process has been deeply studied in two-dimensional (2D) cases; however, the knowledge is limited for three-dimensional (3D) cases. In this work, we simulate different local extracellular matrix properties in order to unravel the fundamental mechanisms that regulate the formation of cell-matrix adhesions in 3D. We aim to study the mechanical interaction of these biological structures through a three dimensional discrete approach, reproducing the transmission pattern force between the cytoskeleton and a single extracellular matrix fiber. This numerical model provides a discrete analysis of the proteins involved including spatial distribution, interaction between them, and study of the different phenomena, such as protein clutches unbinding or protein unfolding. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Removal of overburden soils from buried waste sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rice, P.M.

    1994-01-01

    Transuranic (TRU) waste buried in pits and trenches is covered with a soil cap, or overburden, to shed water. During retrieval operations, the overburden (expected to be clean) must be removed carefully to avoid breaching the soil/waste matrix within a pit or trench and to confine any possible local spot contamination. This necessitates removal in precise (7.6- to 15.25-cm) increments with a high degree of accuracy. In addition, during overburden removal the overburden must be characterized to a depth that exceeds each cut of soil. A field demonstration was conducted to evaluate a technology for removing overburden soils a the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC), Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The demonstration evaluated equipment performance and techniques for removing overburden soil and controlling contamination and dust. To evaluate the performance of these techniques during removal operations, personnel took air particulate samples, physical measurements of the soil cuts, maneuverability measurements, and rate of soil removal data. The overburden was spiked at specific locations and depths with rare earth tracers to provide a medium for evaluating samples. Analysis to determine the precision and accuracy of the soil removal, amount of dust generated, and potential spread of contamination was performed

  6. Polarization of Coronal Forbidden Lines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Hao; Qu, Zhongquan [Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650011 (China); Landi Degl’Innocenti, Egidio, E-mail: sayahoro@ynao.ac.cn [Dipartimento di Astronomia e Scienza dello Spazio, Università di Firenze, Largo E. Fermi 2, I-50125 Firenze (Italy)

    2017-03-20

    Since the magnetic field is responsible for most manifestations of solar activity, one of the most challenging problems in solar physics is the diagnostics of solar magnetic fields, particularly in the outer atmosphere. To this end, it is important to develop rigorous diagnostic tools to interpret polarimetric observations in suitable spectral lines. This paper is devoted to analyzing the diagnostic content of linear polarization imaging observations in coronal forbidden lines. Although this technique is restricted to off-limb observations, it represents a significant tool to diagnose the magnetic field structure in the solar corona, where the magnetic field is intrinsically weak and still poorly known. We adopt the quantum theory of polarized line formation developed in the framework of the density matrix formalism, and synthesize images of the emergent linear polarization signal in coronal forbidden lines using potential-field source-surface magnetic field models. The influence of electronic collisions, active regions, and Thomson scattering on the linear polarization of coronal forbidden lines is also examined. It is found that active regions and Thomson scattering are capable of conspicuously influencing the orientation of the linear polarization. These effects have to be carefully taken into account to increase the accuracy of the field diagnostics. We also found that linear polarization observation in suitable lines can give valuable information on the long-term evolution of the magnetic field in the solar corona.

  7. Quantitative analysis of higher hydrocarbons in natural gas using coupled solid-phase extraction / supercritiacal fluid extraction with on-line GC analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Janssen, J.G.M.; Cramers, C.A.M.G.; Meulen-Kuijk, van der L.; Smit, A.L.C.; Sandra, P.; Devos, G.

    1993-01-01

    Characterisation of natural gas with respect to the hydrocarbon content is a challenging analytical problem due to the extremely low concentrations and the complexity of the matrix. In this publication a method is described for fully on-line preconcentration and analysis of n-nonane and higher

  8. Should nuclear liability limits be removed. No

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pape, E.C.

    1985-01-01

    The opposing view to the proposition that limits on nuclear liability under the Price-Anderson Act should be removed cites the historical recognition of the need to protect the public as it was defined in 1957. The limit on liability today is $630 million per nuclear incident, with total protection continuing to increase as new plants come on line and additional purchased insurance becomes available. The limit gives the industry an incentive to commit capital and technical resources to develop new technology. Removing the limit would increase costs, but not benefits, for electric consumers, and would require a new way to protect the public other than through purchased insurance or the utility's resources. The industry will support raising the limit, however

  9. The unified method: I. Nonlinearizable problems on the half-line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fokas, A S; Lenells, J

    2012-01-01

    Boundary value problems for integrable nonlinear evolution PDEs formulated on the half-line can be analyzed by the unified method introduced by one of the authors and used extensively in the literature. The implementation of this general method to this particular class of problems yields the solution in terms of the unique solution of a matrix Riemann–Hilbert problem formulated in the complex k-plane (the Fourier plane), which has a jump matrix with explicit (x, t)-dependence involving four scalar functions of k, called the spectral functions. Two of these functions depend on the initial data, whereas the other two depend on all boundary values. The most difficult step of the new method is the characterization of the latter two spectral functions in terms of the given initial and boundary data, i.e. the elimination of the unknown boundary values. For certain boundary conditions, called linearizable, this can be achieved simply using algebraic manipulations. Here, we present an effective characterization of the spectral functions in terms of the given initial and boundary data for the general case of non-linearizable boundary conditions. This characterization is based on the analysis of the so-called global relation, on the analysis of the equations obtained from the global relation via certain transformations leaving the dispersion relation of the associated linearized PDE invariant and on the computation of the large k asymptotics of the eigenfunctions defining the relevant spectral functions. (paper)

  10. Extended Krylov subspaces approximations of matrix functions. Application to computational electromagnetics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Druskin, V.; Lee, Ping [Schlumberger-Doll Research, Ridgefield, CT (United States); Knizhnerman, L. [Central Geophysical Expedition, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    1996-12-31

    There is now a growing interest in the area of using Krylov subspace approximations to compute the actions of matrix functions. The main application of this approach is the solution of ODE systems, obtained after discretization of partial differential equations by method of lines. In the event that the cost of computing the matrix inverse is relatively inexpensive, it is sometimes attractive to solve the ODE using the extended Krylov subspaces, originated by actions of both positive and negative matrix powers. Examples of such problems can be found frequently in computational electromagnetics.

  11. Study on diverse passive decay heat removal approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin Qian; Si Shengyi

    2012-01-01

    One of the most important principles for nuclear safety is the decay heat removal in accidents. Passive decay heat removal systems are extremely helpful to enhance the safety. In currently design of many advanced nuclear reactors, kinds of passive systems are proposed or developed, such as the passive residual heat removal system, passive injection system, passive containment cooling system. These systems provide entire passive heat removal paths from core to ultimate heat sink. Various kinds of passive systems for decay heat removal are summarized; their common features or differences on heat removal paths and design principle are analyzed. It is found that, these passive decay heat removal paths are similarly common on and connected by several basic heat transfer modes and steps. By the combinations or connections of basic modes and steps, new passive decay heat removal approach or diverse system can be proposed. (authors)

  12. Preferential binding of DNA primase to the nuclear matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wood, S.H.; Collins, J.M.

    1986-01-01

    Several lines of research have stimulated interest in the nuclear matrix as the subcellular site of DNA replication. The authors have recently reported a relationship between rates of DNA synthesis and the differential binding of polymerase α to the nuclear matrix. They now report the detection of DNA primase bound to the HeLa nuclear matrix. Matrix-bound primase can be measured either indirectly, by the incorporation of [ 32 P] dAMP into an unprimed single-stranded template, or directly, by the incorporation of [ 3 H] AMP into matrix DNA. Characteristics of this system include a requirement for ATP, inhibition by adenosine-5'-0-(3'-thiotriphosphate), a primase inhibitor, and insensitivity to aphidicolin and α-amanitine, inhibitors of polymerase α and RNA polymerase, respectively. Subcellular quantification of primase and polymerase α activity revealed that while a majority of primase activity is bound to the matrix (72%), only 32% of polymerase α activity is matrix-bound. Treatment of the nuclear matrix with β-D-Octylglucoside allowed the solubilization of 54% of primase activity and 39% of polymerase α activity. This data provides further evidence of a structural and functional role for the nuclear matrix in DNA replication. The ability to solubilize matrix-bound replicative enzymes may prove to be an important tool in the elucidation of the spatial organization of DNA replication

  13. Effects of dynamic matrix remodelling on en masse migration of fibroblasts on collagen matrices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozcelikkale, Altug; Dutton, J Craig; Grinnell, Frederick; Han, Bumsoo

    2017-10-01

    Fibroblast migration plays a key role during various physiological and pathological processes. Although migration of individual fibroblasts has been well studied, migration in vivo often involves simultaneous locomotion of fibroblasts sited in close proximity, so-called ' en masse migration', during which intensive cell-cell interactions occur. This study aims to understand the effects of matrix mechanical environments on the cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions during en masse migration of fibroblasts on collagen matrices. Specifically, we hypothesized that a group of migrating cells can significantly deform the matrix, whose mechanical microenvironment dramatically changes compared with the undeformed state, and the alteration of the matrix microenvironment reciprocally affects cell migration. This hypothesis was tested by time-resolved measurements of cell and extracellular matrix movement during en masse migration on collagen hydrogels with varying concentrations. The results illustrated that a group of cells generates significant spatio-temporal deformation of the matrix before and during the migration. Cells on soft collagen hydrogels migrate along tortuous paths, but, as the matrix stiffness increases, cell migration patterns become aligned with each other and show coordinated migration paths. As cells migrate, the matrix is locally compressed, resulting in a locally stiffened and dense matrix across the collagen concentration range studied. © 2017 The Author(s).

  14. On-line filtering at the CERN-ISR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frehse, H.

    1981-01-01

    During the last years it has become quite evident that one should aim at trigger systems with high selectivity in order to improve the purity of data and simultaneously remove load from the off-line processing. At the CERN ISR typical pp interaction rates are in the order of 1-3 MHz. Therefore experiments studying low cross section processes need trigger systems which provide reduction factors in the order of 10 5 to avoid dead time losses. The use of programmable devices, allowing for flexible and sophisticated decision schemes, enables experiments to gain a decisive factor in rejection after pre-triggering with more conventional devices. An overview of the different methods employed and their performance is given. (orig.)

  15. Study on removal effect and mechanism of uranium by hydroxyapatite and natural apatite

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Xiaofeng; Chen Diyun; Tu Guoqing; Huang Xiaozhui

    2014-01-01

    By the static experiments, the effects of reaction time, pH value, initial concentration of uranium, dosage of apatite on adsorption of hydroxyapatite and natural apatite for uranium were studied respectively. The adsorption process was analyzed by thermodynamics and kinetics, and the adsorption mechanism was analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. The results of hydroxyapatite show that the removal capacity of uranium increases with the initial concentration of uranium, and the adsorption rate of hydroxyapatite on UO_2"2"+ reaches 85%, when the pH value is 4 to 5 and dosage of hydroxyapatite is 0.75 g. The results of natural apatite show that the removal capacity of uranium increases with the initial concentration of uranium, and the adsorption rate of natural apatite on UO_2"2"+ is up to 80%, when the pH value is 3 and dosage of hydroxyapatite is l.0 g. Similarly, at 120 minutes both of the removal reactions by hydroxyapatite and natural apatite substantially reach equilibrium. Moreover, both of the reactions by hydroxyapatite and natural apatite are in line with quasi secondary dynamics equation, and follow the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Infrared spectra indicate that the removal of hydroxyapatite for uranium depends on the complexation of phosphate, which is almost the same as that of natural apatite. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that hydroxyapatite has the composition and structure of pure material, whereas the natural apatite is mainly composed of Ca_5H_2(PO_4)_3F and Ca_8H_2(PO_4)_6H_2O. In addition, scanning electron microscope demonstrates that hydroxyapatite has the appearance of spherical with a hole and the hole has a cavity containing a large amount of floc, while the surface becomes smooth and pores are closed after removal of uranium, which is due to the adsorption of UO_2"2"+ leading a link between molecules on hydroxyapatite surface. But for natural apatite, it depicts the angular mineral shape

  16. Efficient sparse matrix-matrix multiplication for computing periodic responses by shooting method on Intel Xeon Phi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoykov, S.; Atanassov, E.; Margenov, S.

    2016-10-01

    Many of the scientific applications involve sparse or dense matrix operations, such as solving linear systems, matrix-matrix products, eigensolvers, etc. In what concerns structural nonlinear dynamics, the computations of periodic responses and the determination of stability of the solution are of primary interest. Shooting method iswidely used for obtaining periodic responses of nonlinear systems. The method involves simultaneously operations with sparse and dense matrices. One of the computationally expensive operations in the method is multiplication of sparse by dense matrices. In the current work, a new algorithm for sparse matrix by dense matrix products is presented. The algorithm takes into account the structure of the sparse matrix, which is obtained by space discretization of the nonlinear Mindlin's plate equation of motion by the finite element method. The algorithm is developed to use the vector engine of Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. It is compared with the standard sparse matrix by dense matrix algorithm and the one developed by Intel MKL and it is shown that by considering the properties of the sparse matrix better algorithms can be developed.

  17. A computational model of in vitro angiogenesis based on extracellular matrix fibre orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edgar, Lowell T; Sibole, Scott C; Underwood, Clayton J; Guilkey, James E; Weiss, Jeffrey A

    2013-01-01

    Recent interest in the process of vascularisation within the biomedical community has motivated numerous new research efforts focusing on the process of angiogenesis. Although the role of chemical factors during angiogenesis has been well documented, the role of mechanical factors, such as the interaction between angiogenic vessels and the extracellular matrix, remains poorly understood. In vitro methods for studying angiogenesis exist; however, measurements available using such techniques often suffer from limited spatial and temporal resolutions. For this reason, computational models have been extensively employed to investigate various aspects of angiogenesis. This paper outlines the formulation and validation of a simple and robust computational model developed to accurately simulate angiogenesis based on length, branching and orientation morphometrics collected from vascularised tissue constructs. Microvessels were represented as a series of connected line segments. The morphology of the vessels was determined by a linear combination of the collagen fibre orientation, the vessel density gradient and a random walk component. Excellent agreement was observed between computational and experimental morphometric data over time. Computational predictions of microvessel orientation within an anisotropic matrix correlated well with experimental data. The accuracy of this modelling approach makes it a valuable platform for investigating the role of mechanical interactions during angiogenesis.

  18. Electromigration-induced plastic deformation in passivated metal lines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valek, B. C.; Bravman, J. C.; Tamura, N.; MacDowell, A. A.; Celestre, R. S.; Padmore, H. A.; Spolenak, R.; Brown, W. L.; Batterman, B. W.; Patel, J. R.

    2002-11-01

    We have used scanning white beam x-ray microdiffraction to study microstructural evolution during an in situ electromigration experiment on a passivated Al(Cu) test line. The data show plastic deformation and grain rotations occurring under the influence of electromigration, seen as broadening, movement, and splitting of reflections diffracted from individual metal grains. We believe this deformation is due to localized shear stresses that arise due to the inhomogeneous transfer of metal along the line. Deviatoric stress measurements show changes in the components of stress within the line, including relaxation of stress when current is removed.

  19. Effect of boron nitride coating on fiber-matrix interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, R.N.; Brun, M.K.

    1987-01-01

    Coatings can modify fiber-matrix reactions and consequently interfacial bond strengths. Commercially available mullite, silicon carbide, and carbon fibers were coated with boron nitride via low pressure chemical vapor deposition and incorporated into a mullite matrix by hot-pressing. The influence of fiber-matrix interactions for uncoated fibers on fracture morphologies was studied. These observations are related to the measured values of interfacial shear strengths

  20. Constraints on the parameters of the CKM matrix by End 1998

    CERN Document Server

    Parodi, F; Stocchi, A

    1999-01-01

    A review of the current status of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix (CKM) is presented. This paper is an update of the results published in [1]. The experimental constraints imposed by the measurements of \\epsilon_K, V_{ub}/V_{cb}, \\Delta m_d and from the limit on \\Delta m_d are used. Values of the constraints and of the parameters entering into the constraints, which restrict the range of the \\bar{\\rho} and \\bar{\\eta} parameters, include recent measurements presented at 1998 Summer Conferences and progress obtained by lattice QCD collaborations. The results are: \\bar{\\rho}=0.202 ^{+0.053}_{-0.059},\\bar{\\eta}=0.340 \\pm 0.035, from which the angles \\alpha, ^{+ 0.29}_{-0.28} ,\\sin 2 \\beta = 0.725 ^{+0.050}_{-0.060} ,\\gamma= (59.5^{+8.5}_{-7.5})^{\\circ}. Without using the constraint from \\epsilon_K, external measurements or theoretical inputs have been removed, in turn, from the constraints and their respective probability density functions have been obtained. Central values and uncertainties on these quantit...

  1. Removal of aluminum turbidity from heavy water reactors by precipitation ion exchange using magnesium hydroxide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Venkateswarlu, K.S.; Shanker, R.; Velmurugan, S.; Venkateswaran, G.; Rao, M.R.

    1988-01-01

    A special magnesium hydroxide MG(OH)/sub 2/ sorber, loaded onto an ion-exchange matrix has been developed to remove hydrated alumina turbidity in heavy water. This sorber was applied to the coolant/moderator system in the research reactor Dhruva. The sorber not only removed turbidity but also suspended uranium at parts per billion levels and associated β, γ activity. The sorption is based on the attraction between the positively charged Mg(OH)/sub 2/ surface and the negatively charged hydrated alumina particles

  2. PERBANDINGAN ALGORITMA HIDDEN SPACE REMOVAL: Z-UFFER DAN SCANLINE DILIHAT DARI PENGGUNAAN MEMORI DAN KECEPATAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Djoni Haryadi Setiabudi

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available Hidden surface removal is an algorithm used to hide part of the object which is blocked by the object in front of it. If there are two plane crossed each other displayed without Hidden surface removal algorithm, the crossing section is invisible, because one object will block another object without crossing. The crossing sections can be displayed using Hidden surface removal algorithm. Z buffer algorithm implements Hidden Surface Removal by entering color and depth of the visible plane into the buffer, then displays the result on the screen. Scan Line algorithm will scanning the screen row by row of each object surface in three dimension and then displays on the screen after each row scanning. Both of the algorithms will be compared based on the memory usage dan time needed to execute. The experiment shows that Scanline algorithm uses less memory compared with Z-Buffer algoritm. Furthermore, based on the speed, the Scanline is better than the Z-Buffer if the object is collected on the y row, but the Z-Buffer is better than the Scanline if the object scattered and used all rows on the drawing plane and has more surface do displayed. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia : Hidden surface removal adalah suatu algoritma yang digunakan untuk menghilangkan penampilan bagian yang tertutup oleh objek yang didepannya. Apabila ada dua bidang yang berpotongan, apabila ditampilkan biasa tanpa menggunakan algoritma Hidden surface removal maka bagian yang berpotongan itu akan tidak kelihatan, oleh karena bidang yang satu ditutupi oleh bagian yang lain tanpa memotong. Oleh karena itu untuk menampilkan bidang perpotongan, diperlukan Algoritma Hidden surface removal. Algoritma Z buffer melaksanakan proses Hidden Surface Removal dengan memasukkan warna dan kedalaman bidang permukaan yang tampak ke dalam buffer, dan kemudian setelah selesai hasilnya ditampilkan ke layar. Algoritma Scan Line melakukan scanning untuk setiap baris dari layar bidang gambar untuk setiap

  3. Modeling food matrix effects on chemical reactivity: Challenges and perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capuano, Edoardo; Oliviero, Teresa; van Boekel, Martinus A J S

    2017-06-29

    The same chemical reaction may be different in terms of its position of the equilibrium (i.e., thermodynamics) and its kinetics when studied in different foods. The diversity in the chemical composition of food and in its structural organization at macro-, meso-, and microscopic levels, that is, the food matrix, is responsible for this difference. In this viewpoint paper, the multiple, and interconnected ways the food matrix can affect chemical reactivity are summarized. Moreover, mechanistic and empirical approaches to explain and predict the effect of food matrix on chemical reactivity are described. Mechanistic models aim to quantify the effect of food matrix based on a detailed understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena occurring in food. Their applicability is limited at the moment to very simple food systems. Empirical modeling based on machine learning combined with data-mining techniques may represent an alternative, useful option to predict the effect of the food matrix on chemical reactivity and to identify chemical and physical properties to be further tested. In such a way the mechanistic understanding of the effect of the food matrix on chemical reactions can be improved.

  4. On-Line Identification of Simulation Examples for Forgetting Methods to Track Time Varying Parameters Using the Alternative Covariance Matrix in Matlab

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vachálek, Ján

    2011-12-01

    The paper compares the abilities of forgetting methods to track time varying parameters of two different simulated models with different types of excitation. The observed parameters in the simulations are the integral sum of the Euclidean norm, deviation of the parameter estimates from their true values and a selected band prediction error count. As supplementary information, we observe the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix. In the paper we used a modified method of Regularized Exponential Forgetting with Alternative Covariance Matrix (REFACM) along with Directional Forgetting (DF) and three standard regularized methods.

  5. An investigation of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for use as a control in the laser removal of rock from fossils found at the Malapa hominin site, South Africa

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberts, D.E.; Plessis, A. du; Steyn, J.; Botha, L.R.; Pityana, S.; Berger, L.R.

    2012-01-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to study the spectra from fossils and surrounding rock recovered from the Cradle of Mankind site at Malapa, South Africa. The objective was to find a suitable spectral line(s), specific to fossils, which could be used as a control signal to limit damage to fossils during high speed laser removal of the encasing rock. The calcified clastic matrix (rock) encasing the fossils was found to emit a variety of complex LIBS spectra. Nevertheless, it was found possible to distinguish fossils in a single LIBS pulse, and without significant damage to the fossil, using spectral lines of neutral phosphorus. - Highlights: ► LIBS used to discriminate fossils from rock as potential processing control mechanism. ► 2 million year old fossils from Malapa hominin site found to be high in phosphorus. ► Rock spectral lines from silicon, iron and manganese, but no phosphorus. ► Holds great promise for process control in laser preparation of fossils. ► Also promising for accurate identification of fossils at excavation sites.

  6. Full CKM matrix with lattice QCD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Okamoto, Masataka; /Fermilab

    2004-12-01

    The authors show that it is now possible to fully determine the CKM matrix, for the first time, using lattice QCD. |V{sub cd}|, |V{sub cs}|, |V{sub ub}|, |V{sub cb}| and |V{sub us}| are, respectively, directly determined with the lattice results for form factors of semileptonic D {yields} {pi}lv, D {yields} Klv, B {yields} {pi}lv, B {yields} Dlv and K {yields} {pi}lv decays. The error from the quenched approximation is removed by using the MILC unquenced lattice gauge configurations, where the effect of u, d and s quarks is included. The error from the ''chiral'' extrapolation (m{sub l} {yields} m{sub ud}) is greatly reduced by using improved staggered quarks. The accuracy is comparable to that of the Particle Data Group averages. In addition, |V{sub ud}|, |V{sub ts}|, |V{sub ts}| and |V{sub td}| are determined by using unitarity of the CKM matrix and the experimental result for sin (2{beta}). In this way, they obtain all 9 CKM matrix elements, where the only theoretical input is lattice QCD. They also obtain all the Wolfenstein parameters, for the first time, using lattice QCD.

  7. Cell Matrix Remodeling Ability Shown by Image Spatial Correlation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiu, Chi-Li; Digman, Michelle A.; Gratton, Enrico

    2013-01-01

    Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling is a critical step of many biological and pathological processes. However, most of the studies to date lack a quantitative method to measure ECM remodeling at a scale comparable to cell size. Here, we applied image spatial correlation to collagen second harmonic generation (SHG) images to quantitatively evaluate the degree of collagen remodeling by cells. We propose a simple statistical method based on spatial correlation functions to determine the size of high collagen density area around cells. We applied our method to measure collagen remodeling by two breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7), which display different degrees of invasiveness, and a fibroblast cell line (NIH/3T3). We found distinct collagen compaction levels of these three cell lines by applying the spatial correlation method, indicating different collagen remodeling ability. Furthermore, we quantitatively measured the effect of Latrunculin B and Marimastat on MDA-MB-231 cell line collagen remodeling ability and showed that significant collagen compaction level decreases with these treatments. PMID:23935614

  8. Three identical particles on a line: comparison of some exact and approximate calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chuluunbaatar, O.; Gusev, A.A.; Vinitsky, S.I.; Larsen, S.Y.

    2002-01-01

    The three-body scattering problem is formulated in the adiabatic representation as a multi-channel spectral problem for a set of coupled one-dimensional integral equations. New stable variational-iteration schemes are developed to calculate the Hamiltonian eigenfunctions and energy eigenvalues, as well as the reaction matrix in the eigenphase shift representation, with prescribed accuracy. The convergence and efficiency of the method are demonstrated in the vicinity of the three-body threshold in the exactly solvable model of three identical particles fixed on a line and coupled with pair-repulsive or attractive zero-range potentials. (author). Letter-to-the-editor

  9. Removal of bisphenol A in canned liquid food by enzyme-based nanocomposites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tapia-Orozco, Natalia; Meléndez-Saavedra, Fanny; Figueroa, Mario; Gimeno, Miquel; García-Arrazola, Roeb

    2018-02-01

    Laccase from Trametes versicolor was immobilized on TiO2 nanoparticles; the nanocomposites obtained were used for the removal of bisphenol A (BPA) in a liquid food matrix. To achieve a high enzymatic stability over a wide pH range and at temperatures above 50 °C, the nanocomposite structures were prepared by both physical adsorption and covalent linking of the enzyme onto the nanometric support. All the nanocomposite structures retained 40% of their enzymatic activity after 60 days of storage. Proof-of-concept experiments in aqueous media using the nanocomposites resulted on a > 60% BPA removal after 48 h and showed that BPA was depleted within 5 days. The nanocomposites were tested in canned liquid food samples; the removal reached 93.3% within 24 h using the physically adsorbed laccase. For the covalently linked enzyme, maximum BPA removal was 91.3%. The formation of BPA dimers and trimers was observed in all the assays. Food samples with sugar and protein contents above 3 and 4 mg mL-1 showed an inhibitory effect on the enzymatic activity.

  10. Effect of garlic solution to Bacillus sp. removal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zainol, N.; Rahim, S. R.

    2018-04-01

    Biofilm is a microbial derived sessile community characterized by cells that are irreversibly attached to a substratum or interface to each other, embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances that they have produced. Bacillus sp. was used as biofilm model in this study. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of Garlic solution in term of ratio of water and Garlic solution (W/G) and ratio of Garlic solution to Bacillus sp. (GS/B) on Bacillus sp removal. Garlic solution was used to remove Bacillus sp. In this study, Garlic solution was prepared by crushing the garlic and mixed it with water. the Garlic solution was added into Bacillus sp. mixture and mixed well. The mixture then was spread on nutrient agar. The Bacillus sp. weight on agar plate was measured by using dry weight measurement method. In this study, initially Garlic solution volume and Garlic solution concentration were studied using one factor at time (OFAT). Later two-level-factorial analysis was done to determine the most contributing factor in Bacillus sp. removal. Design Expert software (Version 7) was used to construct experimental table where all the factors were randomized. Bacilus sp removal was ranging between 42.13% to 99.6%. The analysis of the results showed that at W/G of 1:1, Bacillus sp. removal increased when more Garlic solution was added to Bacillus sp. Effect of Garlic solution to Bacillus sp. will be understood which in turn may be beneficial for the industrial purpose.

  11. Multi-site and multi-depth in vivo cancer localization enhancement after auto-fluorescence removal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Montcuquet, A.S.; Herve, L.; Navarro, F.; Dinten, J.M.; Mars, J.I.

    2011-01-01

    Fluorescence imaging in diffusive media locates tumors tagged by injected fluorescent markers in NIR wavelengths. For deep embedded markers, natural auto-fluorescence of tissues comes to be a limiting factor to tumor detection and accurate FDOT reconstructions. A spectroscopic approach coupled with Non-negative Matrix Factorization source separation method is explored to discriminate fluorescence sources according to their fluorescence spectra and remove unwanted auto-fluorescence. We successfully removed auto-fluorescence from acquisitions on living mice with a single subcutaneous tumor or two capillary tubes inserted at different depths. (authors)

  12. The response-matrix based AFEN method for the hexagonal geometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noh, Jae Man; Kim, Keung Koo; Zee, Sung Quun; Joo, Hyung Kook; Cho, Byng Oh; Jeong, Hyung Guk; Cho, Jin Young

    1998-03-01

    The analytic function expansion nodal (AFEN) method, developed to overcome the limitations caused by the transverse integration, has been successfully to predict the neutron behavior in the hexagonal core as well as rectangular core. In the hexagonal node, the transverse leakage resulted from the transverse integration has some singular terms such as delta-function and step-functions near the node center line. In most nodal methods using the transverse integration, the accuracy of nodal method is degraded because the transverse leakage is approximated as a smooth function across the node center line by ignoring singular terms. However, the AFEN method in which there is no transverse leakage term in deriving nodal coupling equations keeps good accuracy for hexagonal node. In this study, the AFEN method which shows excellent accuracy in the hexagonal core analyses is reformulated as a response matrix form. This form of the AFEN method can be implemented easily to nodal codes based on the response matrix method. Therefore, the Coarse Mesh Rebalance (CMR) acceleration technique which is one of main advantages of the response matrix method can be utilized for the AFEN method. The response matrix based AFEN method has been successfully implemented into the MASTER code and its accuracy and computational efficiency were examined by analyzing the two- and three- dimensional benchmark problem of VVER-440. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the newly formulated AFEN method predicts accurately the assembly powers (within 0.2% average error) as well as the effective multiplication factor (within 0.2% average error) as well as the effective multiplication factor (within 20 pcm error). In addition, the CMR acceleration technique is quite efficient in reducing the computation time of the AFEN method by 8 to 10 times. (author). 22 refs., 1 tab., 4 figs

  13. Weak matrix elements on the lattice - Circa 1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soni, A.

    1995-01-01

    Status of weak matrix elements is reviewed. In particular, e'/e, B → K*γ, B B and B B , are discussed and the overall situation with respect to the lattice effort and some of its phenomenological implications are summarised. For e'/e the need for the relevant matrix elements is stressed in view of the forthcoming improved experiments. For some of the operators, (e.g. O 6 ), even bound on their matrix elements would be very helpful. On B → K degrees γ, a constant behavior of T 2 appears disfavored although dependence of T 2 could, of course, be milder than a simple pole. Improved data is badly needed to settle this important issue firmly, especially in view of its ramification for extractions of V td from B → ργ. On B κ , the preliminary result from JLQCD appears to contradict Sharpe et al. JLQCD data seems to fit very well to linear α dependence and leads to an appreciably lower value of B κ . Four studies of B κ in the open-quotes fullclose quotes (n f = 2) theory indicate very little quenching effects on B κ ; the full theory value seems to be just a little less than the quenched result. Based on expectations from HQET, analysis of B-parameter (B h ell) for the heavy-light mesons via B h ell) = constant + constants'/m h ell is suggested. A summary of an illustrative sample of hadron matrix elements is given and constraints on CKM parameters (e.g. V td /V ts , on the unitarity triangle and on x s /x d , emerging from the lattice calculations along with experimental results are briefly discussed. In quite a few cases, for the first time, some indication of quenching errors on weak matrix elements are now becoming available

  14. Matrix fluid chemistry experiment. Final report June 1998 - March 2003

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smellie, John A.T.; Waber, H. Niklaus; Frape, Shaun K.

    2003-06-01

    is mainly by small-scale advection via an interconnected micro fracture network and by diffusion. Over repository timescales diffusion of pore fluid/water from the rock matrix to the adjacent micro fracture groundwaters will become more important depending on the nature of existing chemical gradients. At Aespoe, permeable bedrock at all scales has facilitated the continuous removal and replacement of the interconnected pore space waters over relatively short periods of geological time, probably hundreds to a few thousands of years

  15. Matrix fluid chemistry experiment. Final report June 1998 - March 2003

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Smellie, John A.T. [Conterra AB, Luleaa (Sweden); Waber, H. Niklaus [Univ. of Bern (Switzerland). Inst. of Geology; Frape, Shaun K. [Univ. of Waterloo (Canada). Dept. of Earth Sciences

    2003-06-01

    through the rock matrix is mainly by small-scale advection via an interconnected micro fracture network and by diffusion. Over repository timescales diffusion of pore fluid/water from the rock matrix to the adjacent micro fracture groundwaters will become more important depending on the nature of existing chemical gradients. At Aespoe, permeable bedrock at all scales has facilitated the continuous removal and replacement of the interconnected pore space waters over relatively short periods of geological time, probably hundreds to a few thousands of years.

  16. Diclofenac removal in urine using strong-base anion exchange polymer resins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landry, Kelly A; Boyer, Treavor H

    2013-11-01

    One of the major sources of pharmaceuticals in the environment is wastewater effluent of which human urine contributes the majority of pharmaceuticals. Urine source separation has the potential to isolate pharmaceuticals at a higher concentration for efficient removal as well as produce a nutrient byproduct. This research investigated the efficacy of using strong-base anion exchange polymer resins to remove the widely detected and abundant pharmaceutical, diclofenac, from synthetic human urine under fresh and ureolyzed conditions. The majority of experiments were conducted using a strong-base, macroporous, polystyrene resin (Purolite A520E). Ion-exchange followed a two-step removal rate with rapid removal in 1 h and equilibrium removal in 24 h. Diclofenac removal was >90% at a resin dose of 8 mL/L in both fresh and ureolyzed urine. Sorption of diclofenac onto A520E resin was concurrent with desorption of an equivalent amount of chloride, which indicates the ion-exchange mechanism is occurring. The presence of competing ions such as phosphate and citrate did not significantly impact diclofenac removal. Comparisons of three polystyrene resins (A520E, Dowex 22, Dowex Marathon 11) as well as one polyacrylic resin (IRA958) were conducted to determine the major interactions between anion exchange resin and diclofenac. The results showed that polystyrene resins provide the highest level of diclofenac removal due to electrostatic interactions between quaternary ammonium functional groups of resin and carboxylic acid of diclofenac and non-electrostatic interactions between resin matrix and benzene rings of diclofenac. Diclofenac was effectively desorbed from A520E resin using a regeneration solution that contained 4.5% (m/m) NaCl in an equal-volume mixture of methanol and water. The greater regeneration efficiency of the NaCl/methanol-water mixture over the aqueous NaCl solution supports the importance of non-electrostatic interactions between resin matrix and benzene rings

  17. Line outage contingency analysis including the system islanding scenario

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hazarika, D.; Bhuyan, S. [Assam Engineering College, Jalukbari, Guwahati 781013 (India); Chowdhury, S.P. [Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700 032 (India)

    2006-05-15

    The paper describes an algorithm for determining the line outage contingency of a line taking into account of line over load effect in remaining lines and subsequent tripping of over loaded line(s) leading to possible system split or islanding of a power system. The optimally ordered sparse [B'], [B'] matrices for the integrated system are used for load flow analysis to determine modified values of voltage phase angles [{delta}] and bus voltages [V] to determine the over loading effect on the remaining lines due to outage of a selected line outage contingency. In case of over loading in remaining line(s), the over loaded lines are removed from the system and a topology processor is used to find the islands. A fast decoupled load flow (FDLF) analysis is carried out for finding out the system variables for the islanded (or single island) system by incorporating appropriate modification in the [B'] and [B'] matrices of the integrated system. Line outage indices based on line overload, loss of load, loss of generation and static voltage stability are computed to indicate severity of a line outage of a selected line. (author)

  18. The impact of episodic nonequilibrium fracture-matrix flow on geological repository performance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buscheck, T.A.; Nitao, J.J.; Chestnut, D.A.

    1991-01-01

    Adequate representation of fracture-matrix interaction during episodic infiltration events is crucial in making valid hydrological predictions of repository performance at Yucca Mountain. Various approximations have been applied to represent fracture-matrix flow interaction, including the Equivalent Continuum Model (ECM), which assumes capillary equilibrium between fractures and matrix, and the Fracture-Matrix Model (FMM), which accounts for nonequilibrium fracture-matrix flow. We analyze the relative impact of matrix imbibition on episodic nonequilibrium fracture-matrix flow for the eight major hydrostratigraphic units in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain. Comparisons are made between ECM and FMM predictions to determine the applicability of the ECM. The implications of nonequilibrium fracture-matrix flow on radionuclide transport are also discussed

  19. The role of autophagy inhibition in the enhanced cytotoxicity of temozolomide on melanoma cell lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. O. Ryabaya

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Despite advantages in treatment of metastatic melanoma it remains resistant to current therapy. Recent evidence indicates that tumor cells could overcome death through autophagy, a process that degrades cellular proteins and organelles to maintain cellular biosynthesis during nutrient deprivation or lack of energy. Objective: to investigate the involvement of autophagy inhibitors chloroquine (CQ and LY-294.002 (LY in temozolomide (TMZ cytotoxicity in human melanoma cell lines.Materials and methods. The study was performed on patient-derived melanoma cell lines Mel Z, Mel IL and Mel MTP. The antiproliferative activity of combined TMZ and autophagy inhibitors treatment was determined by MTT assay and colony-forming assay. Cell cycle analysis, apoptosis activation and expression analysis of key autophagy markers under combined treatment was evaluated.Results. CQ and LY enhanced the cytotoxicity of TMZ and reduced colony formation in 3 melanoma cell lines, moreover both inhibitors increased cell population in G0 / G1 phase of cell cycle in Mel Z, Mel IL cell lines, but not in Mel MTP. CQ and LY synergistically activated apoptosis in all cell lines. The matrix RNA expression analysis of key autophagy genes showed autophagy involvement in enhanced cytotoxicity.Conclusions. Thus, autophagy inhibition on different stages of this process could overcome resistance to TMZ and be applicable as potent target in metastatic melanoma treatment.

  20. Drawing ability in typical and atypical development; colour cues and the effect of oblique lines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farran, E K; Dodd, G F

    2015-06-01

    Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have poor drawing ability. Here, we investigated whether colour could be used as a facilitation cue during a drawing task. Participants with WS and non-verbal ability matched typically developing (TD) children were shown line figures presented on a 3 by 3 dot matrix, and asked to replicate the figures by drawing on an empty dot matrix. The dots of the matrix were either all black (control condition), or nine different coloured dots (colour condition). In a third condition, which also used coloured dots, participants were additionally asked to verbalise the colours of the dots prior to replicating the line drawings (colour-verbal condition). Performance was stronger in both WS and TD groups on the two coloured conditions, compared with the control condition. However, the facilitation effect of colour was significantly weaker in the WS group than in the TD group. Replication of oblique line segments was less successful than replication of non-oblique line segments for both groups; this effect was reduced by colour facilitation in the TD group only. Verbalising the colours had no additional impact on performance in either group. We suggest that colour acted as a cue to individuate the dots, thus enabling participants to better ascertain the spatial relationships between the parts of each figure, to determine the start and end points of component lines, and to determine the correspondence between the model and their replication. The reduced facilitation in the WS group is discussed in relation to the effect of oblique versus non-oblique lines, the use of atypical drawing strategies, and reduced attention to the model when drawing the replication. © 2014 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Correction of response defects in scintillation cameras by an on-line microcomputer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hadjeris, L.

    1982-07-01

    A fast microprocessor device has been developed, to allow removal of non-linearity and non-uniformity effects of gamma camera signals. It slips in between a commercial gamma camera and the associated data processing system. Camera signals are digitized by fast ADC and numerically processed in real time. Corrected data are given analogic to be taken into account by process device associated to the camera. The principle is first to correct energy spatial variations by using coefficients determinated during calibration by a uniform radioactive distribution source. Then non-linearity of X and Y signals are removed by translations of them. The displacement coefficient table is given from reference images of parallel line phantom [fr

  2. Changes in mycelial structure of Botrytis cinerea induced by removal of the glucan matrix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nurit Bar-Nun

    2007-09-01

    Significance and impact of study: These changes following glucanase treatment would lead to a fungal mycelium which will be more sensitive to antifungal agents and might suggest ways of combating Botrytis infections by preventing the formation of the extra-cellular matrix.

  3. Sodium removal by alcohol process: Basic tests and its application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakai, S.; Yamamoto, S.; Akai, M.; Yatabe, T.

    1997-01-01

    We have various methods for sodium removal; an alcohol cleaning process, a steam cleaning process and a direct burning process. Sodium removal by the alcohol process has a lot of advantages, such as causing no alkali corrosion to steel, short processing time and easy operation. Therefore the alcohol process was selected for the 1MWt double wall tube straight type steam generator. We have already had some experiences of the alcohol process, while still needed to confirm the sodium removal rate in the crevice and to develop an on-line sodium concentration monitoring method in alcohol during sodium removal. We have conducted the small scale sodium removal test with flowing alcohol where the sodium removal rate in the crevice and the alcohol conductivity were measured as functions of sodium concentration in alcohol and alcohol temperature. The sodium removal of the DWTSG was conducted by the devised alcohol process safely and efficiently. The process hour was about 1 day. Visual inspection during dismantling of the DWTSG showed no evidence of any un-reacted sodium. (author)

  4. Strategy BMT Al-Ittihad Using Matrix IE, Matrix SWOT 8K, Matrix SPACE and Matrix TWOS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nofrizal Nofrizal

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This research aims to formulate and select BMT Al-Ittihad Rumbai strategy to face the changing of business environment both from internal environment such as organization resources, finance, member and external business such as competitor, economy, politics and others. This research method used Analysis of EFAS, IFAS, IE Matrix, SWOT-8K Matrix, SPACE Matrix and TWOS Matrix. our hope from this research it can assist BMT Al-Ittihad in formulating and selecting strategies for the sustainability of BMT Al-Ittihad in the future. The sample in this research is using purposive sampling technique that is the manager and leader of BMT Al-IttihadRumbaiPekanbaru. The result of this research shows that the position of BMT Al-Ittihad using IE Matrix, SWOT-8K Matrix and SPACE Matrix is in growth position, stabilization and aggressive. The choice of strategy after using TWOS Matrix is market penetration, market development, vertical integration, horizontal integration, and stabilization (careful.

  5. Development of On-line Monitoring System for Shape Memory Alloy Composite

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jin Kyung; Park, Young Chul; Lee, Min Rae; Lee, Dong Hwa; Lee, Kyu Chang

    2003-01-01

    A hot press method was use for the optimal manufacturing condition for a shape memory alloy(SMA) composite. The bonding between the matrix and the reinforcement within the SMA composite by the hot press method was strengthened by cold rolling. In this study, the objective was to develop an on-line monitoring system for the prevention of the crack initiation and propagation by shape memory effort of SMA composite. Shape memory effect was used to prevent the SMA composite from cracking. For the system to be developed, an optimal hE parameter should be determined based on the degree of damage and crack initiation. When the SHA composite was heated by the plate heater attached at the composite, the propagating cracks appeared to be controlled by the compressive force of SMA

  6. Dynamic analysis and vibration testing of CFRP drive-line system used in heavy-duty machine tool

    OpenAIRE

    Mo Yang; Lin Gui; Yefa Hu; Guoping Ding; Chunsheng Song

    2018-01-01

    Low critical rotary speed and large vibration in the metal drive-line system of heavy-duty machine tool affect the machining precision seriously. Replacing metal drive-line with the CFRP drive-line can effectively solve this problem. Based on the composite laminated theory and the transfer matrix method (TMM), this paper puts forward a modified TMM to analyze dynamic characteristics of CFRP drive-line system. With this modified TMM, the CFRP drive-line of a heavy vertical miller is analyzed. ...

  7. Influence of different metal ions on the ultrastructure, biochemical properties, and protein localization of the K562 cell nuclear matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neri, L M; Bortul, R; Zweyer, M; Tabellini, G; Borgatti, P; Marchisio, M; Bareggi, R; Capitani, S; Martelli, A M

    1999-06-01

    The higher order of chromatin organization is thought to be determined by the nuclear matrix, a mainly proteinaceous structure that would act as a nucleoskeleton. The matrix is obtained from isolated nuclei by a series of extraction steps involving the use of high salt and nonspecific nucleases, which remove chromatin and other loosely bound components. It is currently under debate whether these structures, isolated in vitro by unphysiological extraction buffers, correspond to a nucleoskeleton existing in vivo. In most cell types investigated, the nuclear matrix does not spontaneously resist these extractions steps; rather, it must be stabilized before the application of extracting agents. In this study nuclei, isolated from K562 human erythroleukemia cells, were stabilized by incubation with different metal ions (Ca2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+), and the matrix was obtained by extraction with 2 M NaCl. By means of ultrastructural analysis of the resulting structures, we determined that, except for Ca2+, all the other metals induced a stabilization of the matrix, which retained the inner fibrogranular network and residual nucleoli. The biochemical composition, analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis separation, exhibited a distinct matrix polypeptide pattern, characteristic of each type of stabilizing ion employed. We also investigated to what extent metal ions could maintain in the final structures the original distribution of three inner matrix components, i.e. NuMA, topoisomerase IIalpha, and RNP. Confocal microscopy analysis showed that only NuMa, and, to a lesser extent, topoisomerase IIalpha, were unaffected by stabilization with divalent ions. On the contrary, the fluorescent RNP patterns detected in the resulting matrices were always disarranged, irrespective of the stabilization procedure. These results indicate that several metal ions are powerful stabilizing agents of the nuclear matrix prepared from K562 erythroleukemia cells and also strengthen the

  8. A PAT approach for the on-line monitoring of pharmaceutical co-crystals formation with near infrared spectroscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarraguça, Mafalda C; Ribeiro, Paulo R S; Santos, Adenilson O; Silva, Marta C D; Lopes, João A

    2014-08-25

    Cocrystals represent a class of crystalline solids consisting of two or more molecular species usually held together by non-covalent bonds. Pharmaceutical cocrystals can alter the physicochemical properties of the active pharmaceutical ingredient to improve solubility, dissolution rate, particle properties and stability. This work presents a process analytical technology (PAT) approach to monitor on-line the cocrystallization of furosemide and adenine by solvent evaporation using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Furosemide and adenine were added to a small volume of methanol in a beaker and stirred on an orbital stirring table during 8h at room temperature. The on-line monitoring was performed with a FT-NIR spectrometer fitted with a reflectance fiber optic probe. Monitoring was performed with the probe tip placed 1cm above the cocrystallization medium to avoid interference with the cocrystallization process. Cocrystals were vacuum dried to remove residual solvent and characterized off-line by NIRS, MIRS, DSC and XRPD. Results demonstrate that it was possible to follow the main cocrystallization events on-line. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Bee venom induces apoptosis and suppresses matrix metaloprotease-2 expression in human glioblastoma cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsen Sisakht

    Full Text Available Abstract Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor representing with poor prognosis, therapy resistance and high metastasis rate. Increased expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase-2, a member of matrix metalloproteinase family proteins, has been reported in many cancers including glioblastoma. Inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression has resulted in reduced aggression of glioblastoma tumors in several reports. In the present study, we evaluated effect of bee venom on expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase-2 as well as potential toxicity and apoptogenic properties of bee venom on glioblastoma cells. Human A172 glioblastoma cells were treated with increasing concentrations of bee venom. Then, cell viability, apoptosis, matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression, and matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity were measured using MMT assay, propidium iodide staining, real time-PCR, and zymography, respectively. The IC50 value of bee venom was 28.5 µg/ml in which it leads to decrease of cell viability and induction of apoptosis. Incubation with bee venom also decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 in this cell line (p < 0.05. In zymography, there was a reverse correlation between bee venom concentration and total matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity. Induction of apoptosis as well as inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity and expression can be suggested as molecular mechanisms involved in cytotoxic and antimetastatic effects of bee venom against glioblastoma cells.

  10. Lead and copper removal from aqueous solutions by porous glass derived calcium hydroxyapatite

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liang Wen; Zhan Lei; Piao Longhua; Ruessel, Christian

    2011-01-01

    Graphical abstract: . Adsorption of Pb 2+ increases with the increase in NaCl volume percentage (1:0%, 2:30%, 3:40%, 4:40%) of the Glass Derived Hydroxyapatite and reaches equilibrium after 24 h. Highlights: → Novel porous glass derived hydroxyapatite matrix is prepared. → Glass derived hydroxyapatite matrix adsorbs lead and copper ions in solutions effectively. → Two adsorption mechanisms including ion exchange theory and the dissolution and precipitation theory are involved in removal of the heavy metal ions from the solutions. - Abstract: A porous glass was prepared by sintering Na 2 O-CaO-B 2 O 3 glass powder with powdered sodium chloride. Subsequently, the sodium chloride was dissolved in water resulting in a highly porous material. A sample was prepared consisting of 60 vol% glass and 40 vol% salt which both had particle sizes 2 HPO 4 solutions at room temperature for 1 day. The porous glass derived hydroxyapatite matrix was then processed for removing lead and copper ions from aqueous solutions. The results showed that the glass derived calcium hydroxyapatite matrix effectively immobilizes lead and copper ions in solution. The adsorption mechanism was investigated by the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy including Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry (SEM-EDX).

  11. Space Vector Modulation for an Indirect Matrix Converter with Improved Input Power Factor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nguyen Dinh Tuyen

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Pulse width modulation strategies have been developed for indirect matrix converters (IMCs in order to improve their performance. In indirect matrix converters, the LC input filter is used to remove input current harmonics and electromagnetic interference problems. Unfortunately, due to the existence of the input filter, the input power factor is diminished, especially during operation at low voltage outputs. In this paper, a new space vector modulation (SVM is proposed to compensate for the input power factor of the indirect matrix converter. Both computer simulation and experimental studies through hardware implementation were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed modulation strategy.

  12. In vitro investigation of the effect of matrix molecules on the behavior of colon cancer cells under the effect of geldanamycin derivative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vural, Kamil; Kosova, Funda; Kurt, Feyzan Özdal; Tuğlu, İbrahim

    2017-10-01

    The chaperone-binding drug, 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin, has recently come into clinical use. It is a derivative of geldanamycin, an ansamycin benzoquinone antibiotic with anti-carcinogenic effect. Understanding the effect of this drug on the cancer cells and their niche is important for treatment. We applied 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin to colon cancer cell line (Colo 205) on matrix molecules to investigate the relationship of apoptosis with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling immunocytochemistry and related gene expression. We used laminin and collagen I for matrix molecules and vascular endothelial growth factor for angiogenic structure. We also examined apoptosis-related signaling pathway including mitochondrial proteins, cytochrome c, Bcl-2, caspase-9, Apaf-1 expression using real-time polymerase chain reaction. There was clear effect of 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin that killed more cells on tissue culture plastic compared to matrix molecules. The IC 50 value was 0.58 µg/mL for tissue culture plastic compared with 0.64 µg/mL for laminin and 0.75 µg/mL for collagen I. The analyses showed that more cells on matrix molecules underwent apoptosis compared to that on tissue culture plastic. Apoptosis-related gene expression was similar in which Bcl-2 expression decreased and proapoptotic gene expression of the cells on matrix molecules increased compared to that on tissue culture plastic. However, the application of 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin was more effective for the cells on collagen I compared to the cells on laminin. There was also a decrease in angiogenesis as shown by the vascular endothelial growth factor staining. This was more pronounced by coating of the tissue culture plastic with matrix molecules. Our results supported the anti-cancer effect of 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin, and this effect depended on matrix molecules. This effect occurs through apoptosis, and related

  13. Regressional modeling of electrodialytic removal of Cu, Cr and As from CCA treated timber waste

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moreira, E.E.; Ribeiro, Alexandra B.; Mateus, Eduardo

    2005-01-01

    ) removal of Cu, Cr and As from CCA treated timber waste. The method uses a low-level direct current as the cleaning agent, combining the electrokinetic movement of ions in the matrix with the principle of electrodialysis. The technique was tested in eight experiments using a laboratory cell on sawdust...

  14. Development of a pericardial acellular matrix biomaterial: biochemical and mechanical effects of cell extraction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courtman, D W; Pereira, C A; Kashef, V; McComb, D; Lee, J M; Wilson, G J

    1994-06-01

    There is evidence to suggest that the cellular components of homografts and bioprosthetic xenografts may contribute to calcification or immunogenic reactions. A four-step detergent and enzymatic extraction process has been developed to remove cellular components from bovine pericardial tissue. The process results in an acellular matrix material consisting primarily of elastin, insoluble collagen, and tightly bound glycosaminoglycans. Light and electron microscopy confirmed that nearly all cellular constituents are removed without ultrastructural evidence of damage to fibrous components. Collagen denaturation temperatures remained unaltered. Biochemical analysis confirmed the retention of collagen and elastin and some differential extraction of glycosaminoglycans. Low strain rate fracture testing and high strain rate viscoelastic characterization showed that, with the exception of slightly increased stress relaxation, the mechanical properties of the fresh tissue were preserved in the pericardial acellular matrix. Crosslinking of the material in glutaraldehyde or poly(glycidyl ether) produced mechanical changes consistent with the same treatments of fresh tissue. The pericardial acellular matrix is a promising approach to the production of biomaterials for heart valve or cardiovascular patching applications.

  15. POINT CLOUD ORIENTED SHOULDER LINE EXTRACTION IN LOESS HILLY AREA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Min

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Shoulder line is the significant line in hilly area of Loess Plateau in China, dividing the surface into positive and negative terrain (P-N terrains. Due to the point cloud vegetation removal methods of P-N terrains are different, there is an imperative need for shoulder line extraction. In this paper, we proposed an automatic shoulder line extraction method based on point cloud. The workflow is as below: (i ground points were selected by using a grid filter in order to remove most of noisy points. (ii Based on DEM interpolated by those ground points, slope was mapped and classified into two classes (P-N terrains, using Natural Break Classified method. (iii The common boundary between two slopes is extracted as shoulder line candidate. (iv Adjust the filter gird size and repeat step i-iii until the shoulder line candidate matches its real location. (v Generate shoulder line of the whole area. Test area locates in Madigou, Jingbian County of Shaanxi Province, China. A total of 600 million points are acquired in the test area of 0.23km2, using Riegl VZ400 3D Laser Scanner in August 2014. Due to the limit Granted computing performance, the test area is divided into 60 blocks and 13 of them around the shoulder line were selected for filter grid size optimizing. The experiment result shows that the optimal filter grid size varies in diverse sample area, and a power function relation exists between filter grid size and point density. The optimal grid size was determined by above relation and shoulder lines of 60 blocks were then extracted. Comparing with the manual interpretation results, the accuracy of the whole result reaches 85%. This method can be applied to shoulder line extraction in hilly area, which is crucial for point cloud denoising and high accuracy DEM generation.

  16. Point Cloud Oriented Shoulder Line Extraction in Loess Hilly Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Min, Li; Xin, Yang; Liyang, Xiong

    2016-06-01

    Shoulder line is the significant line in hilly area of Loess Plateau in China, dividing the surface into positive and negative terrain (P-N terrains). Due to the point cloud vegetation removal methods of P-N terrains are different, there is an imperative need for shoulder line extraction. In this paper, we proposed an automatic shoulder line extraction method based on point cloud. The workflow is as below: (i) ground points were selected by using a grid filter in order to remove most of noisy points. (ii) Based on DEM interpolated by those ground points, slope was mapped and classified into two classes (P-N terrains), using Natural Break Classified method. (iii) The common boundary between two slopes is extracted as shoulder line candidate. (iv) Adjust the filter gird size and repeat step i-iii until the shoulder line candidate matches its real location. (v) Generate shoulder line of the whole area. Test area locates in Madigou, Jingbian County of Shaanxi Province, China. A total of 600 million points are acquired in the test area of 0.23km2, using Riegl VZ400 3D Laser Scanner in August 2014. Due to the limit Granted computing performance, the test area is divided into 60 blocks and 13 of them around the shoulder line were selected for filter grid size optimizing. The experiment result shows that the optimal filter grid size varies in diverse sample area, and a power function relation exists between filter grid size and point density. The optimal grid size was determined by above relation and shoulder lines of 60 blocks were then extracted. Comparing with the manual interpretation results, the accuracy of the whole result reaches 85%. This method can be applied to shoulder line extraction in hilly area, which is crucial for point cloud denoising and high accuracy DEM generation.

  17. Understanding effects of matrix protease and matrix organization on directional persistence and translational speed in three-dimensional cell migration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaman, Muhammad H; Matsudaira, Paul; Lauffenburger, Douglas A

    2007-01-01

    Recent studies have shown significant differences in migration mechanisms between two- and three-dimensional environments. While experiments have suggested a strong dependence of in vivo migration on both structure and proteolytic activity, the underlying biophysics of such dependence has not been studied adequately. In addition, the existing models of persistent random walk migration are primarily based on two-dimensional movement and do not account for the effect of proteolysis or matrix inhomogeneity. Using lattice Monte Carlo methods, we present a model to study the role of matrix metallo-proteases (MMPs) on directional persistence and speed. The simulations account for a given cell's ability to deform as well as to digest the matrix as the cell moves in three dimensions. Our results show a bimodal dependence of speed and persistence on matrix pore size and suggest high sensitivity on MMP activity, which is in very good agreement with experimental studies carried out in 3D matrices.

  18. Transformation Matrix for Time Discretization Based on Tustin’s Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yiming Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper studies rules in transformation of transfer function through time discretization. A method of using transformation matrix to realize bilinear transform (also known as Tustin’s method is presented. This method can be described as the conversion between the coefficients of transfer functions, which are expressed as transform by certain matrix. For a polynomial of degree n, the corresponding transformation matrix of order n exists and is unique. Furthermore, the transformation matrix can be decomposed into an upper triangular matrix multiplied with another lower triangular matrix. And both have obvious regularity. The proposed method can achieve rapid bilinear transform used in automatic design of digital filter. The result of numerical simulation verifies the correctness of the theoretical results. Moreover, it also can be extended to other similar problems. Example in the last throws light on this point.

  19. Removal of round off errors in the matrix exponential method for solving the heavy nuclide chain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Hyun Chul; Noh, Jae Man; Joo, Hyung Kook

    2005-01-01

    Many nodal codes for core simulation adopt the micro-depletion procedure for the depletion analysis. Unlike the macro-depletion procedure, the microdepletion procedure uses micro-cross sections and number densities of important nuclides to generate the macro cross section of a spatial calculational node. Therefore, it needs to solve the chain equations of the nuclides of interest to obtain their number densities. There are several methods such as the matrix exponential method (MEM) and the chain linearization method (CLM) for solving the nuclide chain equations. The former solves chain equations exactly even when the cycles that come from the alpha decay exist in the chain while the latter solves the chain approximately when the cycles exist in the chain. The former has another advantage over the latter. Many nodal codes for depletion analysis, such as MASTER, solve only the hard coded nuclide chains with the CLM. Therefore, if we want to extend the chain by adding some more nuclides to the chain, we have to modify the source code. In contrast, we can extend the chain just by modifying the input in the MEM because it is easy to implement the MEM solver for solving an arbitrary nuclide chain. In spite of these advantages of the MEM, many nodal codes adopt the chain linearization because the former has a large round off error when the flux level is very high or short lived or strong absorber nuclides exist in the chain. In this paper, we propose a new technique to remove the round off errors in the MEM and we compared the performance of the two methods

  20. The effects of primary beam filters on the analysis of rhodium and cadmium using a rhodium target x-ray tube

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anzelmo, J.A.; Boyer, B.W.

    1986-01-01

    Since its introduction in 1964, the thin end-window rhodium target x-ray tube has been considered to be an excellent general purpose source of excitation. Heavy elements are efficiently excited by high Bremsstrahlung and the K lines of rhodium while the light elements are excited by the L lines of rhodium. The ability to efficiently excite both heavy and light elements is essential to special applications such as auto catalysts, which are composed of precious metals in a clay-like matrix. Close control of the light elements, including sodium, phosphorous, aluminum and silicon, and the heavy element precious metals, such as rhodium, are necessary to keep operating characteristics and manufacturing expense at desired levels. A quick survey of typical x-ray tube targets shows that some targets are more efficient for light elements while others are more efficient for heavy elements. The few general purpose x-ray tubes that are available have characteristic lines which overlap on elements to be determined. The rhodium target, which is a good excitation source for most of the elements mentioned, contains line overlaps on cadmium (RHKB) and rhodium (RHKA). When using a sequential wavelength dispersive XRF spectrometer, the characteristic lines of the tube scattered from the sample can be removed by a programmable primary beam filter having an absorption edge just higher in wavelength than the wavelengths to be removed. The thickness and composition of the filter, as well as the choice of KV and MA, will determine the operating parameter necessary to achieve the optimum precision and lowest limits of detection. For this study, synthetic samples are made up using Kaolin as the matrix

  1. A Note on Inclusion Intervals of Matrix Singular Values

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shu-Yu Cui

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We establish an inclusion relation between two known inclusion intervals of matrix singular values in some special case. In addition, based on the use of positive scale vectors, a known inclusion interval of matrix singular values is also improved.

  2. Characteristic analysis on UAV-MIMO channel based on normalized correlation matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xi jun; Chen, Zi li; Hu, Yong Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Based on the three-dimensional GBSBCM (geometrically based double bounce cylinder model) channel model of MIMO for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the simple form of UAV space-time-frequency channel correlation function which includes the LOS, SPE, and DIF components is presented. By the methods of channel matrix decomposition and coefficient normalization, the analytic formula of UAV-MIMO normalized correlation matrix is deduced. This formula can be used directly to analyze the condition number of UAV-MIMO channel matrix, the channel capacity, and other characteristic parameters. The simulation results show that this channel correlation matrix can be applied to describe the changes of UAV-MIMO channel characteristics under different parameter settings comprehensively. This analysis method provides a theoretical basis for improving the transmission performance of UAV-MIMO channel. The development of MIMO technology shows practical application value in the field of UAV communication.

  3. Contact Line Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreiss, Gunilla; Holmgren, Hanna; Kronbichler, Martin; Ge, Anthony; Brant, Luca

    2017-11-01

    The conventional no-slip boundary condition leads to a non-integrable stress singularity at a moving contact line. This makes numerical simulations of two-phase flow challenging, especially when capillarity of the contact point is essential for the dynamics of the flow. We will describe a modeling methodology, which is suitable for numerical simulations, and present results from numerical computations. The methodology is based on combining a relation between the apparent contact angle and the contact line velocity, with the similarity solution for Stokes flow at a planar interface. The relation between angle and velocity can be determined by theoretical arguments, or from simulations using a more detailed model. In our approach we have used results from phase field simulations in a small domain, but using a molecular dynamics model should also be possible. In both cases more physics is included and the stress singularity is removed.

  4. Notes on Mayer expansions and matrix models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourgine, Jean-Emile

    2014-01-01

    Mayer cluster expansion is an important tool in statistical physics to evaluate grand canonical partition functions. It has recently been applied to the Nekrasov instanton partition function of N=2 4d gauge theories. The associated canonical model involves coupled integrations that take the form of a generalized matrix model. It can be studied with the standard techniques of matrix models, in particular collective field theory and loop equations. In the first part of these notes, we explain how the results of collective field theory can be derived from the cluster expansion. The equalities between free energies at first orders is explained by the discrete Laplace transform relating canonical and grand canonical models. In a second part, we study the canonical loop equations and associate them with similar relations on the grand canonical side. It leads to relate the multi-point densities, fundamental objects of the matrix model, to the generating functions of multi-rooted clusters. Finally, a method is proposed to derive loop equations directly on the grand canonical model

  5. Non-line-of-sight ultraviolet communication based on DHT ACO-OFDM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Qian; Chen, Gang

    2012-10-01

    Free space optical (FSO) communication has attracted tremendous research interest in the recent year. Most existing works focus only on the line-of-sight (LOS) transmission by infrared (IR) or visible light lasers/LEDs, while this article suggested a framework of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) FSO, motivated by our recent experimental results on the successful transmission of NLOS ultraviolet (UV) beams for up to kilometers, which is comparable to the typical distance a LOS FSO transmission. The NLOS provides an alternate path when the LOS path is shadowed or is highly attenuated. In order to mitigate the multipath dispersion of the NLOS FSO, a baseband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme was proposed, based on Discrete Hartley Transform (DHT) and asymmetric clipping to guarantee the positive-realness of the transmitted optical intensity. The proposed system could reduce the hardware complexity of transmitter and receiver. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) precoder was applied before the DHT to remove the crosstalk between subcarriers, i.e. the frequency domain orthogonality of OFDM was preserved. Performance of the BPSK modulated communication system was given under lognormal atmospheric turbulence for demonstration of the feasibility of the proposed method.

  6. Removal rate of [3H]hyaluronan injected subcutaneously in rabbits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reed, R.K.; Laurent, U.B.; Fraser, J.R.; Laurent, T.C.

    1990-01-01

    Hyaluronan is an important constituent of the extracellular matrix in skin, and recent studies suggest that there is a pool of easily removable (free) hyaluronan drained by lymph. The removal rate of free hyaluronan in skin was measured from the elimination of [ 3 H]hyaluronan, injected subcutaneously in 13 rabbits. The removal of radioactivity was determined from appearance of 3 H in plasma. During the first 24 h after injection, 10-87% of the tracer entered blood, less in injectates with high concentrations of hyaluronan. The removal was monoexponential with a half-life of 0.5-1 day when concentration of hyaluronan was 5 mg/ml or less. When hyaluronan concentration was 10 mg/ml or higher, the removal was slow for about 24 h and then became similar to that in experiments with low hyaluronan concentration. Free hyaluronan at physiological concentrations is thus turned over with the same rate as serum albumin, supporting the concept that hyaluronan is removed essentially by lymph flow to be degraded in lymph nodes and liver

  7. Matrix stiffness reverses the effect of actomyosin tension on cell proliferation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mih, Justin D; Marinkovic, Aleksandar; Liu, Fei; Sharif, Asma S; Tschumperlin, Daniel J

    2012-12-15

    The stiffness of the extracellular matrix exerts powerful effects on cell proliferation and differentiation, but the mechanisms transducing matrix stiffness into cellular fate decisions remain poorly understood. Two widely reported responses to matrix stiffening are increases in actomyosin contractility and cell proliferation. To delineate their relationship, we modulated cytoskeletal tension in cells grown across a physiological range of matrix stiffnesses. On both synthetic and naturally derived soft matrices, and across a panel of cell types, we observed a striking reversal of the effect of inhibiting actomyosin contractility, switching from the attenuation of proliferation on rigid substrates to the robust promotion of proliferation on soft matrices. Inhibiting contractility on soft matrices decoupled proliferation from cytoskeletal tension and focal adhesion organization, but not from cell spread area. Our results demonstrate that matrix stiffness and actomyosin contractility converge on cell spreading in an unexpected fashion to control a key aspect of cell fate.

  8. Optimization of graffiti removal on natural stone by means of high repetition rate UV laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fiorucci, M.P.; López, A.J.; Ramil, A.; Pozo, S.; Rivas, T.

    2013-01-01

    The use of laser for graffiti removal is a promising alternative to conventional cleaning methods, though irradiation parameters must be carefully selected in order to achieve the effective cleaning without damaging the substrate, especially when referring to natural stone. From a practical point of view, once a safe working window is selected, it is necessary to determine the irradiation conditions to remove large paint areas, with minimal time consumption. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic procedure to select the optimum parameters for graffiti removal by means of the 3rd harmonic of a high repetition rate nanosecond Nd:YVO 4 laser. Ablation thresholds of four spray paint colors were determined and the effect of pulse repetition frequency, beam diameter and line scan separation was analyzed, obtaining a set of values which optimize the ablation process.

  9. Optimization of graffiti removal on natural stone by means of high repetition rate UV laser

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fiorucci, M.P., E-mail: m.p.fiorucci@udc.es [Centro de Investigacións Tecnolóxicas, Universidade da Coruña, 15403 Ferrol (Spain); Dpto. Enxeñaría dos Recursos Naturais e Medio Ambiente, E.T.S.E. Minas, Universidade de Vigo, 36200 Vigo (Spain); López, A.J., E-mail: ana.xesus.lopez@udc.es [Centro de Investigacións Tecnolóxicas, Universidade da Coruña, 15403 Ferrol (Spain); Ramil, A., E-mail: alberto.ramil@udc.es [Centro de Investigacións Tecnolóxicas, Universidade da Coruña, 15403 Ferrol (Spain); Pozo, S., E-mail: ipozo@uvigo.es [Dpto. Enxeñaría dos Recursos Naturais e Medio Ambiente, E.T.S.E. Minas, Universidade de Vigo, 36200 Vigo (Spain); Rivas, T., E-mail: trivas@uvigo.es [Dpto. Enxeñaría dos Recursos Naturais e Medio Ambiente, E.T.S.E. Minas, Universidade de Vigo, 36200 Vigo (Spain)

    2013-08-01

    The use of laser for graffiti removal is a promising alternative to conventional cleaning methods, though irradiation parameters must be carefully selected in order to achieve the effective cleaning without damaging the substrate, especially when referring to natural stone. From a practical point of view, once a safe working window is selected, it is necessary to determine the irradiation conditions to remove large paint areas, with minimal time consumption. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic procedure to select the optimum parameters for graffiti removal by means of the 3rd harmonic of a high repetition rate nanosecond Nd:YVO{sub 4} laser. Ablation thresholds of four spray paint colors were determined and the effect of pulse repetition frequency, beam diameter and line scan separation was analyzed, obtaining a set of values which optimize the ablation process.

  10. Oxygen vacancy rich Cu2O based composite material with nitrogen doped carbon as matrix for photocatalytic H2 production and organic pollutant removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Lele; Xu, Xinxin; Yan, Jiaming; Shi, Fa-Nian; Huo, Yuqiu

    2018-02-06

    A nitrogen doped carbon matrix supported Cu 2 O composite material (Cu/Cu2O@NC) was fabricated successfully with a coordination polymer as precursor through calcination. In this composite material, Cu 2 O particles with a size of about 6-10 nm were dispersed evenly in the nitrogen doped carbon matrix. After calcination, some coordinated nitrogen atoms were doped in the lattice of Cu 2 O and replace oxygen atoms, thus generating a large number of oxygen vacancies. In Cu/Cu2O@NC, the existence of oxygen vacancies has been confirmed by electron spin resonance (ESR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Under visible light irradiation, Cu/Cu2O@NC exhibits excellent H 2 production with the rate of 379.6 μmol h -1 g -1 . Its photocatalytic activity affects organic dyes, such as Rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO). In addition to photocatalysis, Cu/Cu2O@NC also exhibits striking catalytic activity in reductive conversion of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol with in presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ). The conversion efficiency reaches almost 100% in 250 s with the quantity of Cu/Cu2O@NC as low as 5 mg. The outstanding H 2 production and organic pollutants removal are attributed to the oxygen vacancy. We expect that Cu/Cu2O@NC will find its way as a new resource for hydrogen energy as well as a promising material in water purification.

  11. Steam line break analysis in CAREM-25 reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zanocco, Pablo; Gimenez, Marcelo O.; Vertullo, Alicia; Schlamp, Miguel A.; Garcia, Alicia E.

    2000-01-01

    The main objective of this report is to analyze the reactor response during a steam line break postulated accident with RELAP5, a plant code using a separated flow model. The steam line break caused a rapid blowdown of the secondary coolant increasing the heat removal in the steam generator. As a consequence and due to reactor features the core power is also increased. As maximum removed power in the secondary side is highly dependant on the total water volume evaporated during the accident a detailed model of feed water and outlet steam pipes is provided. Different cases are analyzed with and without feedwater system and considering the fail or success of the First Shutdown System. In all the sequences the DNBR and CPR remain above the minimum safety values established by design. Further calculations concerning depressurization ramps and steam generator feed water pumps response during depressurization are advised. (author)

  12. Steam Line Break Analysis in CAREM-25 Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zanocco, Pablo; Gimenez, Marcelo; Vertullo, Alicia; Garcia, A; Schlamp, Miguel

    2000-01-01

    The main objective of this report is to analyze the reactor response during a steam line break postulated accident with RELAP5, a plant code using a separated flow model.The steam line break caused a rapid blowdown of the secondary coolant increasing the heat removal in the steam generator.As a consequence and due to reactor features the core power is also increased.As maximum removed power in the secondary side is highly dependant on the total water volume evaporated during the accident a detailed model of feed water and outlet steam pipes is provided.Different cases are analyzed with and without feedwater system and considering the fail or success of the First Shutdown System.In all the sequences the DNBR and CPR remain above the minimum safety values established by design.Further calculations concerning depressurization ramps and steam generator feed water pumps response during depressurization are advised

  13. Double layer mixed matrix membrane adsorbers improving capacity and safety hemodialysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saiful; Borneman, Z.; Wessling, M.

    2018-05-01

    Double layer mixed matrix membranes adsorbers have been developed for blood toxin removal by embedding activated carbon into cellulose acetate macroporous membranes. The membranes are prepared by phase inversion method via water vapor induced phase separation followed by an immersion precipitation step. Double layer MMM consisting of an active support and a separating layer. The active support layer consists of activated carbon particles embedded in macroporous cellulose acetate; the separating layer consists of particle free cellulose acetate. The double layer membrane possess an open and interconnected macroporous structure with a high loading of activated carbon available for blood toxins removal. The MMM AC has a swelling degree of 6.5 %, porosity of 53 % and clean water flux of 800 Lm-2h-1bar-1. The prepared membranes show a high dynamic Creatinine (Crt) removal during hemodilysis process. The Crt removal by adsorption contributes to amore than 83 % of the total removal. The double layer adsorptive membrane proves hemodialysis membrane can integrated with adsorption, in which blood toxins are removed in one step.

  14. Chromate dermatitis from a boiler lining.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rycroft, R J; Calnan, C D

    1977-08-01

    Chromate dermatitis is described in a mechanical fitter working inside boiler combustion chambers. A source of hexavalent chromate is traced to the action of the heat and alkaline fuel ash on trivalent chrome ore in parts of the refractory lining. Removal of the patient from this contact has resulted in almost complete clearing of his dermatitis, without any relapse, during a 9-month follow-up period.

  15. Double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy: Experimental study of lead emission intensity dependence on the wavelengths and sample matrix

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piscitelli S, V; Martinez L, M A; Fernandez C, A J [Laboratorio de Espectroscopia Laser, Escuela de Quimica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, DC 1020 (Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of); Gonzalez, J J; Mao, X L [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Russo, R.E. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)], E-mail: RERusso@lbl.gov

    2009-02-15

    Lead (Pb) emission intensity (atomic line 405.78 nm) dependence on the sample matrix (metal alloy) was studied by means of collinear double pulse (DP)-laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The measurement of the emission intensity produced by three different wavelength combinations (i.e. I:532 nm-II:1064 nm, I:532 nm-II:532 nm, and I:532 nm-II:355 nm) from three series of standard reference materials showed that the lead atomic line 405.78 nm emission intensity was dependent on the sample matrix for all the combination of wavelengths, however reduced dependency was found for the wavelength combination I:532 nm-II:355 nm. Two series of standard reference materials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and one series from the British Chemical Standards (BCS) were used for these experiments. Calibration curves for lead ablated from NIST 626-630 ('Zn{sub 95}Al{sub 4}Cu{sub 1}') provided higher sensitivity (slope) than those calibration curves produced from NIST 1737-1741 ('Zn{sub 99.5}Al{sub 0.5}') and with the series BCS 551-556 ('Cu{sub 87}Sn{sub 11}'). Similar trends between lead emission intensity (calibration curve sensitivities) and reported variations in plasma temperatures caused by the differing ionization potentials of the major and minor elements in these samples were established.

  16. Flagging and correcting non-spectral matrix interferences with spatial emission profiles and gradient dilution in inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheung, Yan; Schwartz, Andrew J.; Chan, George C.-Y.; Hieftje, Gary M.

    2015-01-01

    Matrix interference remains one of the most daunting challenges commonly encountered in inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). In the present study, a method is described that enables identification and correction of matrix interferences in axial-viewed ICP-AES through a combination of spatial mapping and on-line gradient dilution. Cross-sectional emission maps of the plasma are used to indicate the presence of non-spectral (plasma-related and sample-introduction-related) matrix interferences. In particular, apparent concentrations of an analyte species determined at various radial locations in the plasma differ in the presence of a matrix interference, which allows the interference to be flagged. To correct for the interference, progressive, on-line dilution of the sample, performed by a gradient high-performance liquid-chromatograph pump, is utilized. The spatially dependent intensities of analyte emission are monitored at different levels of sample dilution. As the dilution proceeds, the matrix-induced signal variation is reduced. At a dilution where the determined concentrations become independent of location in the plasma, the matrix interference is minimized. - Highlights: • Non-spectral matrix interference in ICP-AES is flagged and minimized. • Emission from different locations of the plasma are collected simultaneously. • Spatially dependent determined concentrations indicate the presence of interference. • Gradient dilution is performed on both calibration standards and sample. • Optimal dilution factor to minimize interference is found as dilution increases

  17. Flagging and correcting non-spectral matrix interferences with spatial emission profiles and gradient dilution in inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheung, Yan; Schwartz, Andrew J.; Chan, George C.-Y.; Hieftje, Gary M., E-mail: hieftje@indiana.edu

    2015-08-01

    Matrix interference remains one of the most daunting challenges commonly encountered in inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). In the present study, a method is described that enables identification and correction of matrix interferences in axial-viewed ICP-AES through a combination of spatial mapping and on-line gradient dilution. Cross-sectional emission maps of the plasma are used to indicate the presence of non-spectral (plasma-related and sample-introduction-related) matrix interferences. In particular, apparent concentrations of an analyte species determined at various radial locations in the plasma differ in the presence of a matrix interference, which allows the interference to be flagged. To correct for the interference, progressive, on-line dilution of the sample, performed by a gradient high-performance liquid-chromatograph pump, is utilized. The spatially dependent intensities of analyte emission are monitored at different levels of sample dilution. As the dilution proceeds, the matrix-induced signal variation is reduced. At a dilution where the determined concentrations become independent of location in the plasma, the matrix interference is minimized. - Highlights: • Non-spectral matrix interference in ICP-AES is flagged and minimized. • Emission from different locations of the plasma are collected simultaneously. • Spatially dependent determined concentrations indicate the presence of interference. • Gradient dilution is performed on both calibration standards and sample. • Optimal dilution factor to minimize interference is found as dilution increases.

  18. Composites based on PET and red mud residues as catalyst for organic removal from water

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bento, Natálya I.; Santos, Patrícia S.C. [Science and Technology Institute, Federal University of Alfenas, Rodovia José Aurélio Vilela, 11999, BR 267, Km 533, CEP 37715-400 Poços de Caldas, MG (Brazil); Souza, Talita E. de; Oliveira, Luiz C.A. [Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Minas Gerais, UFMG, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Castro, Cínthia S., E-mail: cinthia.soares.castro@gmail.com [Science and Technology Institute, Federal University of Alfenas, Rodovia José Aurélio Vilela, 11999, BR 267, Km 533, CEP 37715-400 Poços de Caldas, MG (Brazil)

    2016-08-15

    Highlights: • Composite based on carbon/iron oxide from PET and red mud wastes for organic contaminants oxidation. • Composites are mainly composed of hematite and a carbon matrix from PET decomposition. • RM/PET-15 presents the highest methylene blue (MB) removal from water, by combined adsorption and oxidation processes. • The dye oxidation was confirmed by ESI-MS studies. • The RM/PET catalysts can be reused for at least four batch runs. - Abstract: In this study, we obtained a composite based on carbon/iron oxide from red mud and PET (poly(ethylene terephthalate)) wastes by mechanical mixture (10, 15 and 20 wt.% of PET powder/red mud) followed by a controlled thermal treatment at 400 °C under air. XRD analyses revealed that the α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} is the main phase formed from red mud. TPR analyses showed that the iron oxide present in the composites undergoes reduction at lower temperature to form Fe{sup 2+} species present in Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}, indicating that the iron oxide in the composite can exhibit greater reactivity in the catalytic processes compared to the original red mud. In fact, catalytic tests showed that the composites presented higher capacity to remove methylene blue dye (MB), presenting about 90% of removal after 24 h of reaction. The MB removal was also monitored by mass spectrometer with ionization via electrospray (ESI-MS), which demonstrated the occurrence of the oxidation process, showing the formation of MB oxidation products. The stability of the composites was confirmed after four reuse cycles. The results seem to indicate that PET carbon deposited over the iron oxide from red mud promotes adsorption of the contaminant allowing its contact with the iron atoms and their consequent reaction.

  19. Local hemostatic matrix for endoscope-assisted removal of intracerebral hemorrhage is safe and effective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui-Tzung Luh

    2018-01-01

    Conclusion: This study shows that local application of FloSeal Hemostatic Matrix is safe and effective for hemostasis during MIE evacuation of ICH. In our experience, this shortens the operation time, especially in cases with intraoperative bleeding. A large, prospective, randomized trial is needed to confirm the findings.

  20. Two Methods for Antialiased Wireframe Drawing with Hidden Line Removal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas; Munk-Lund, Steen; Gjøl, Mikkel

    2008-01-01

    Two novel and robust techniques for wireframe drawing are proposed. Neither suffer from the well-known artifacts associated with the standard two pass, offset based techniques for wireframe drawing. Both methods draw prefiltered lines and produce high-quality antialiased results without super...

  1. The anti-inflammatory effects of matrix metalloproteinase-3 on irreversible pulpitis of mature erupted teeth.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hisanori Eba

    Full Text Available Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs are involved in extracellular matrix degradation and the modulation of cell behavior. These proteinases have also been implicated in tissue repair and regeneration. Our previous studies have demonstrated that MMP-3 elicits stimulatory effects on the proliferation and the migration of endothelial cells as well as anti-apoptotic effects on these cells in vitro. In addition, we found that MMP-3 enhanced the regeneration of lost pulp tissue in a rat incisor pulp injury model. However, continuously erupting rodent incisors exhibit significantly different pulp organization compared with mature erupted teeth. Therefore, we have further extended these studies using a canine irreversible pulpitis model to investigate the effects of MMP-3. In this study, the crowns of the canine mature premolars were removed and the pulp tissues were amputated. The amputated pulp tissues remained exposed for 24 or 72 hours to induce mild or severe irreversible pulpitis, respectively, followed by sealing of the cavities. In both models, the whole pulp tissues became necrotic by day 14. In this mild pulpitis model, the regeneration of pulp tissue with vasculature and nerves was observed until 14 days after sealing with MMP-3, followed by extracellular matrix formation in the regenerated pulp tissues until day 28. The treatment with MMP-3 resulted in a decrease in the number of macrophage and antigen-presenting cells and a significant inhibition of IL-6 expression on day 3. The inhibition of MMP-3 activity abolished these anti-inflammatory effects. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that MMP-3 was involved in the modification of serum-derived hyaluronan-associated proteins and hyaluronan (SHAP-HA complexes possibly through the degradation of versican. These results demonstrate that MMP-3 can act as an anti-inflammatory agent and suggest that MMP-3 might represent a useful therapy for the treatment of mild irreversible pulpitis.

  2. The anti-inflammatory effects of matrix metalloproteinase-3 on irreversible pulpitis of mature erupted teeth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eba, Hisanori; Murasawa, Yusuke; Iohara, Koichiro; Isogai, Zenzo; Nakamura, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Hiroyuki; Nakashima, Misako

    2012-01-01

    Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in extracellular matrix degradation and the modulation of cell behavior. These proteinases have also been implicated in tissue repair and regeneration. Our previous studies have demonstrated that MMP-3 elicits stimulatory effects on the proliferation and the migration of endothelial cells as well as anti-apoptotic effects on these cells in vitro. In addition, we found that MMP-3 enhanced the regeneration of lost pulp tissue in a rat incisor pulp injury model. However, continuously erupting rodent incisors exhibit significantly different pulp organization compared with mature erupted teeth. Therefore, we have further extended these studies using a canine irreversible pulpitis model to investigate the effects of MMP-3. In this study, the crowns of the canine mature premolars were removed and the pulp tissues were amputated. The amputated pulp tissues remained exposed for 24 or 72 hours to induce mild or severe irreversible pulpitis, respectively, followed by sealing of the cavities. In both models, the whole pulp tissues became necrotic by day 14. In this mild pulpitis model, the regeneration of pulp tissue with vasculature and nerves was observed until 14 days after sealing with MMP-3, followed by extracellular matrix formation in the regenerated pulp tissues until day 28. The treatment with MMP-3 resulted in a decrease in the number of macrophage and antigen-presenting cells and a significant inhibition of IL-6 expression on day 3. The inhibition of MMP-3 activity abolished these anti-inflammatory effects. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that MMP-3 was involved in the modification of serum-derived hyaluronan-associated proteins and hyaluronan (SHAP-HA) complexes possibly through the degradation of versican. These results demonstrate that MMP-3 can act as an anti-inflammatory agent and suggest that MMP-3 might represent a useful therapy for the treatment of mild irreversible pulpitis.

  3. Matrix calculus

    CERN Document Server

    Bodewig, E

    1959-01-01

    Matrix Calculus, Second Revised and Enlarged Edition focuses on systematic calculation with the building blocks of a matrix and rows and columns, shunning the use of individual elements. The publication first offers information on vectors, matrices, further applications, measures of the magnitude of a matrix, and forms. The text then examines eigenvalues and exact solutions, including the characteristic equation, eigenrows, extremum properties of the eigenvalues, bounds for the eigenvalues, elementary divisors, and bounds for the determinant. The text ponders on approximate solutions, as well

  4. Local hemostatic matrix for endoscope-assisted removal of intracerebral hemorrhage is safe and effective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luh, Hui-Tzung; Huang, Abel Po-Hao; Yang, Shih-Hung; Chen, Chien-Ming; Cho, Der-Yang; Chen, Chun-Chung; Kuo, Lu-Ting; Li, Chieh-Hsun; Wang, Kuo-Chuan; Tseng, Wei-Lung; Hsing, Ming-Tai; Yang, Bing-Shiang; Lai, Dar-Ming; Tsai, Jui-Chang

    2018-01-01

    Minimally invasive endoscope-assisted (MIE) evacuation of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is simple and effective, but the limited working space may hinder meticulous hemostasis and might lead to rebleeding. Management of intraoperative hemorrhage is therefore a critical issue of this study. This study presents experience in the treatment of patients with various types of ICH by MIE evacuation followed by direct local injection of FloSeal Hemostatic Matrix (Baxter Healthcare Corp, Fremont, CA, USA) for hemostasis. The retrospective nonrandomized clinical and radiology-based analysis enrolled 42 patients treated with MIE evacuation of ICH followed by direct local injection of FloSeal Hemostatic Matrix. Rebleeding, morbidity, and mortality were the primary endpoints. The percentage of hematoma evacuated was calculated from the pre- and postoperative brain computed tomography (CT) scans. Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE) was evaluated at 6 months postoperatively. Forty-two ICH patients were included in this study, among these, 23 patients were putaminal hemorrhage, 16 were thalamic ICH, and the other three were subcortical type. Surgery-related mortality was 2.4%. The average percentage of hematoma evacuated was 80.8%, and the rebleeding rate was 4.8%. The mean operative time was 102.7 minutes and the average blood loss was 84.9 mL. The mean postoperative GOSE score was 4.55 at 6-months' follow-up. This study shows that local application of FloSeal Hemostatic Matrix is safe and effective for hemostasis during MIE evacuation of ICH. In our experience, this shortens the operation time, especially in cases with intraoperative bleeding. A large, prospective, randomized trial is needed to confirm the findings. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  5. Determination of inorganic arsenic in algae using bromine halogenation and on-line nonpolar solid phase extraction followed by hydride generation atomic flourescence spectrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Accurate, stable and fast analysis of toxic inorganic arsenic (iAs) in complicated and arsenosugar-rich algae matrix is always a challenge. Herein, a novel analytical method for iAs in algae was reported, using bromine halogenation and on-line nonpolar solid phase extraction (SPE) followed by hydrid...

  6. A novel enzyme-based acidizing system: Matrix acidizing and drilling fluid damage removal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harris, R.E.; McKay, D.M. [Cleansorb Limited, Surrey (United Kingdom); Moses, V. [King`s College, London (United Kingdom)

    1995-12-31

    A novel acidizing process is used to increase the permeability of carbonate rock cores in the laboratory and to remove drilling fluid damage from cores and wafers. Field results show the benefits of the technology as applied both to injector and producer wells.

  7. Ceramic matrix composite article and process of fabricating a ceramic matrix composite article

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cairo, Ronald Robert; DiMascio, Paul Stephen; Parolini, Jason Robert

    2016-01-12

    A ceramic matrix composite article and a process of fabricating a ceramic matrix composite are disclosed. The ceramic matrix composite article includes a matrix distribution pattern formed by a manifold and ceramic matrix composite plies laid up on the matrix distribution pattern, includes the manifold, or a combination thereof. The manifold includes one or more matrix distribution channels operably connected to a delivery interface, the delivery interface configured for providing matrix material to one or more of the ceramic matrix composite plies. The process includes providing the manifold, forming the matrix distribution pattern by transporting the matrix material through the manifold, and contacting the ceramic matrix composite plies with the matrix material.

  8. On renormalization group flow in matrix model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao, H.B.

    1992-10-01

    The renormalization group flow recently found by Brezin and Zinn-Justin by integrating out redundant entries of the (N+1)x(N+1) Hermitian random matrix is studied. By introducing explicitly the RG flow parameter, and adding suitable counter terms to the matrix potential of the one matrix model, we deduce some interesting properties of the RG trajectories. In particular, the string equation for the general massive model interpolating between the UV and IR fixed points turns out to be a consequence of RG flow. An ambiguity in the UV region of the RG trajectory is remarked to be related to the large order behaviour of the one matrix model. (author). 7 refs

  9. The development of a 3-d risk matrix for qualitative maintenance risk management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hsu, Pi-Lin; Lo, Chung-Kung

    2009-01-01

    The 3-D Risk Matrix is a web-based tool, developed by the Institute of Nuclear Energy research (INER), to assist plant personnel for qualitative assessment of operational risks inherent with scheduling of system/component maintenance and testing. This paper focuses on a software development for a three-dimensional risk matrix which serves as a sub-function embedded in the Maintenance Rule (MR) risk management tool used by the Taiwan's nuclear power plants. The color in any field of the matrix directly corresponds to the risk condition level of the related plant maintenance configuration. It also informs the operators via graphical interface of the remaining hours before reaching to the potentially more significant risk level. In the 3-D Risk Matrix, the risk levels can be quickly determined since the conditional Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and Large Early Release Frequency (LERF) for each expected and allowed out-of-service sub-systems or trains combination is pre-calculated by INERISKEN. The 3-D Risk Matrix will play an important role to enhance the MR risk management tool during the on-line maintenances in Taiwan's nuclear power plants

  10. 3-loop heavy flavor corrections to DIS with two massive fermion lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ablinger, J.; Schneider, C.; Klein, S.

    2011-06-01

    We report on recent results obtained for the massive operator matrix elements which contribute to the massive Wilson coefficients in deep-inelastic scattering for Q 2 >> m i 2 in case of sub-processes with two fermion lines and different mass assignment. (orig.)

  11. Matrix factorizations and homological mirror symmetry on the torus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knapp, Johanna; Omer, Harun

    2007-01-01

    We consider matrix factorizations and homological mirror symmetry on the torus T 2 using a Landau-Ginzburg description. We identify the basic matrix factorizations of the Landau-Ginzburg superpotential and compute the full spectrum taking into account the explicit dependence on bulk and boundary moduli. We verify homological mirror symmetry by comparing three-point functions in the A-model and the B-model

  12. The Impact of Goal Setting and Empowerment on Governmental Matrix Organizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-09-01

    shared. In a study of matrix management, Eduardo Vasconcellos further describes various matrix structures in the Galbraith model. In a functional...Technology/LAR, Wright-Patterson AFB OH, 1992. Vasconcellos , Eduardo . "A Model For a Better Understanding of the Matrix Structure," IEEE Transactions on...project matrix, the project manager maintains more influence and the structure lies to the right-of center ( Vasconcellos , 1979:58). Different Types of

  13. Removal of phosphonates from industrial wastewater with UV/FeII, Fenton and UV/Fenton treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rott, Eduard; Minke, Ralf; Bali, Ulusoy; Steinmetz, Heidrun

    2017-10-01

    Phosphonates are an important group of phosphorus-containing compounds due to their increasing industrial use and possible eutrophication potential. This study involves investigations into the methods UV/Fe II , Fenton and UV/Fenton for their removal from a pure water matrix and industrial wastewaters. It could be shown that the degradability of phosphonates by UV/Fe II (6 kWh/m 3 ) in pure water crucially depended on the pH and was higher the less phosphonate groups a phosphonate contains. The UV/Fe II method is recommended in particular for the treatment of concentrates with nitrogen-free phosphonates, only little turbidity and a low content of organic compounds. Using Fenton reagent, the degradation of polyphosphonates was relatively weak in a pure water matrix (Fenton method (6 kWh/m 3 ), those phosphonates with the smallest numbers of phosphonate groups were easier degraded as well at pH 3.5 in a pure water matrix (o-PO 4 3- formation rates of up to 80%). Despite an incomplete transformation of organically bound phosphorus to o-PO 4 3- with Fenton reagent in an organically highly polluted wastewater (max. 15%), an almost total removal of the total P occurred. The most efficient total P elimination rates were achieved in accordance with the following Fenton implementation: reaction → sludge separation (acidic) → neutralization of the supernatant → sludge separation (neutral). Accordingly, a neutralization directly after the reaction phase led to a lower total P removal extent. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Removal of aluminum(III)-based turbidity in water using hydrous titanium oxide dispersed in ion-exchange resins

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Venkataramani, B.; Karweer, S.B.; Iyer, R.K.; Phatak, G.M.; Iyer, R.M.

    1988-01-01

    An adsorber consisting of hydrous titanium oxide (HTiO) dispersed in a Dowex-type ion-exchange resin matrix (designated RT resins) has been developed which is capable of removing Al(III)-based colloidal dispersions in the neutral pH condition. The effect of resin crosslinking, particle size, HTiO loading, turbidity level, and flow rate on the turbidity removal efficiency of RT resins has been studied. It is demonstrated that a train of columns comprising RT resin, H + , and OH - form of resins could be used for large-scale purification operations at high flow rates. These columns, apart from removing turbidity and associated radioactivity, can effectively remove dissolved uranium present in ppb levels when used for water purification in nuclear reactors

  15. Removal of organic carbon and sulphur compounds from process and fugitive emissions. Phase 1: Results from laboratory studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coleman, R.N.

    1994-01-01

    Lab-scale biofilters were constructed from black polypropylene plastic tubing with internal dimensions of 5 by 100 cm. A biofilter matrix was provided using coarse sphagnum peat which was washed with water and inoculated with enriched cultures of appropriate microorganisms. Compressed air was applied to the biofilters and various compounds were added to the air stream at appropriate concentrations. These compounds included hydrogen sulfide, n-hexane, cyclohexane, propionic acid, and butyric acid. Removal efficiency was evaluated for each compound. Over 99% of the hydrogen sulfide was removed, at concentrations of up to 125 ppM by volume. Removal levels of n-hexane, cyclohexane, and the organic acids were lower. Thiophene was not demonstrated as being removed. Numbers of microorganisms were assessed and their identity determined throughout the biofilter matrix. A mass balance for sulfur was determined throughout the biofilter system and showed 3.5% of sulfur unaccounted for. 9 refs., 9 figs., 7 tabs

  16. Covariance Estimation and Autocorrelation of NORAD Two-Line Element Sets

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Osweiler, Victor P

    2006-01-01

    This thesis investigates NORAD two-line element sets (TLE) containing satellite mean orbital elements for the purpose of estimating a covariance matrix and formulating an autocorrelation relationship...

  17. Induction of DNA breakage in X-irradiated nucleoids selectively stripped of nuclear proteins in two mouse lymphoma cell lines differing in radiosensitivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kruszewski, M.; Iwanenko, T.

    1998-01-01

    The role of nuclear proteins in protection of DNA against ionizing radiation and their contribution to the radiation sensitivity was examined by an alkaline version of comet assay in two L5178Y (LY) mouse lymphoma cell lines differing in sensitivity t o ionizing radiation. LY-S cells are twice more sensitive to ionizing radiation than LY-R cells (D 0 values of survival curves are 0.5 Gy and 1 Gy, respectively). Sequential removal of nuclear proteins by extraction with NaCl of different concentrations increased the X-ray induced DNA damage in LY-R nucleoids. In contrast, in the radiation sensitive LY-S cell line, depletion of nuclear proteins practically did not affect DNA damage. Although there is no doubt that the main cause of LY-S cells' sensitivity to ionizing radiation is a defect in the repair of double-strand breaks, our data support the concept that nuclear matrix organization may contribute to the cellular susceptibility to DNA damaging agents. (author)

  18. Simulating quantum systems on classical computers with matrix product states

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kleine, Adrian

    2010-01-01

    In this thesis, the numerical simulation of strongly-interacting many-body quantum-mechanical systems using matrix product states (MPS) is considered. Matrix-Product-States are a novel representation of arbitrary quantum many-body states. Using quantum information theory, it is possible to show that Matrix-Product-States provide a polynomial-sized representation of one-dimensional quantum systems, thus allowing an efficient simulation of one-dimensional quantum system on classical computers. Matrix-Product-States form the conceptual framework of the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). After a general introduction in the first chapter of this thesis, the second chapter deals with Matrix-Product-States, focusing on the development of fast and stable algorithms. To obtain algorithms to efficiently calculate ground states, the density-matrix renormalization group is reformulated using the Matrix-Product-States framework. Further, time-dependent problems are considered. Two different algorithms are presented, one based on a Trotter decomposition of the time-evolution operator, the other one on Krylov subspaces. Finally, the evaluation of dynamical spectral functions is discussed, and a correction vector-based method is presented. In the following chapters, the methods presented in the second chapter, are applied to a number of different physical problems. The third chapter deals with the existence of chiral phases in isotropic one-dimensional quantum spin systems. A preceding analytical study based on a mean-field approach indicated the possible existence of those phases in an isotropic Heisenberg model with a frustrating zig-zag interaction and a magnetic field. In this thesis, the existence of the chiral phases is shown numerically by using Matrix-Product-States-based algorithms. In the fourth chapter, we propose an experiment using ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices, which allows a well controlled observation of the spin-charge separation (of

  19. Simulating quantum systems on classical computers with matrix product states

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kleine, Adrian

    2010-11-08

    In this thesis, the numerical simulation of strongly-interacting many-body quantum-mechanical systems using matrix product states (MPS) is considered. Matrix-Product-States are a novel representation of arbitrary quantum many-body states. Using quantum information theory, it is possible to show that Matrix-Product-States provide a polynomial-sized representation of one-dimensional quantum systems, thus allowing an efficient simulation of one-dimensional quantum system on classical computers. Matrix-Product-States form the conceptual framework of the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). After a general introduction in the first chapter of this thesis, the second chapter deals with Matrix-Product-States, focusing on the development of fast and stable algorithms. To obtain algorithms to efficiently calculate ground states, the density-matrix renormalization group is reformulated using the Matrix-Product-States framework. Further, time-dependent problems are considered. Two different algorithms are presented, one based on a Trotter decomposition of the time-evolution operator, the other one on Krylov subspaces. Finally, the evaluation of dynamical spectral functions is discussed, and a correction vector-based method is presented. In the following chapters, the methods presented in the second chapter, are applied to a number of different physical problems. The third chapter deals with the existence of chiral phases in isotropic one-dimensional quantum spin systems. A preceding analytical study based on a mean-field approach indicated the possible existence of those phases in an isotropic Heisenberg model with a frustrating zig-zag interaction and a magnetic field. In this thesis, the existence of the chiral phases is shown numerically by using Matrix-Product-States-based algorithms. In the fourth chapter, we propose an experiment using ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices, which allows a well controlled observation of the spin-charge separation (of

  20. Explicit solutions to correlation matrix completion problems, with an application to risk management and insurance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Georgescu, Dan I; Higham, Nicholas J; Peters, Gareth W

    2018-03-01

    We derive explicit solutions to the problem of completing a partially specified correlation matrix. Our results apply to several block structures for the unspecified entries that arise in insurance and risk management, where an insurance company with many lines of business is required to satisfy certain capital requirements but may have incomplete knowledge of the underlying correlation matrix. Among the many possible completions, we focus on the one with maximal determinant. This has attractive properties and we argue that it is suitable for use in the insurance application. Our explicit formulae enable easy solution of practical problems and are useful for testing more general algorithms for the maximal determinant correlation matrix completion problem.

  1. Matrix-isolation studies on alkali-metal phosphates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenny, S.N.; Ogden, J.S.

    1979-01-01

    This paper describes the results of a matrix-isolation i.r. study on the vaporisation of trisodium orthophosphate. When this material is heated in vacuo to ca. 1600 K, and the products condensed in a low-temperature argon matrix, the i.r. spectrum obtained is shown to be due to a trapped species NaPO 3 . With the aid of 18 O-enrichment, this molecule is shown to have a Csub(2v) bidentate structure with characteristic i.r. bands at 1 341.7, 1 211.1, 1 004.0, 536.6, 474.0 and 287.0 cm -1 . (author)

  2. Spatio-Temporal Audio Enhancement Based on IAA Noise Covariance Matrix Estimates

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørholm, Sidsel Marie; Jensen, Jesper Rindom; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll

    2014-01-01

    A method for estimating the noise covariance matrix in a mul- tichannel setup is proposed. The method is based on the iter- ative adaptive approach (IAA), which only needs short seg- ments of data to estimate the covariance matrix. Therefore, the method can be used for fast varying signals....... The method is based on an assumption of the desired signal being harmonic, which is used for estimating the noise covariance matrix from the covariance matrix of the observed signal. The noise co- variance estimate is used in the linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) filter and compared...

  3. Real time analysis by in line spectrophotometry using optical fibre: application to nuclear fuel reprocessing solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pouyat, D.; Couston, L.; Noire, M.H.; Davin, T.; Delage, J.; Bouzon, C.; Goutier, J.; Marty, P.

    1998-01-01

    In nuclear fuel reprocessing factories, an in line determination of actinides and acidity is useful to control the efficiency of the liquid-liquid extraction steps. Although molecular absorptiometric methods are very efficient at the laboratory scale, in-line analysis require to develop passive optical fibre sensor, spectral treatment, and optical fibre active sensors for ions or molecule without optical property such H + . In the first case, a specific optical fibre sensor has been developed to reduce radiological or optical contamination, and to remove the hydraulic perturbations of an intrusive technology. The optical spectrum is directly measured- through a Teflon-PFA tube. Five determination (U IV , U VI , Pu III , Pu IV and HNO 2 ) on eight different process point are achieved every 3 seconds, by using Partial Least Square (PLS) multivariate treatment based on a standards data base. For non linear interference, such as matrix effects on U VI spectrum in nitric acid media, PLS is not very efficient. A physical-chemical model is then required to get a linear relationship. For acidity measurements, an acid-sensitive dye is coated on the core of an optical fiber by the Sol-Gel process. The sensor response, proportional to the indicator protonation, is based on the evanescent wave absorption. This system is free from spectral interference, the response time is fast and measurements are reversible, even with Pu IV at 4 g/l. (author)

  4. Effect of ferrate on green algae removal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubiňáková, Emília; Híveš, Ján; Gál, Miroslav; Fašková, Andrea

    2017-09-01

    Green algae Cladophora aegagropila, present in cooling water of thermal power plants, causes many problems and complications, especially during summer. However, algae and its metabolites are rarely eliminated by common removal methods. In this work, the elimination efficiency of electrochemically prepared potassium ferrate(VI) on algae from cooling water was investigated. The influence of experimental parameters, such as Fe(VI) dosage, application time, pH of the system, temperature and hydrodynamics of the solution on removal efficiency, was optimized. This study demonstrates that algae C. aegagropila can be effectively removed from cooling water by ferrate. Application of ferrate(VI) at the optimized dosage and under the suitable conditions (temperature, pH) leads to 100% removal of green algae Cladophora from the system. Environmentally friendly reduction products (Fe(III)) and coagulation properties favour the application of ferrate for the treatment of water contaminated with studied microorganisms compared to other methods such as chlorination and use of permanganate, where harmful products are produced.

  5. Matrix models as non-commutative field theories on R3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Livine, Etera R

    2009-01-01

    In the context of spin foam models for quantum gravity, group field theories are a useful tool allowing on the one hand a non-perturbative formulation of the partition function and on the other hand admitting an interpretation as generalized matrix models. Focusing on 2d group field theories, we review their explicit relation to matrix models and show their link to a class of non-commutative field theories invariant under a quantum-deformed 3d Poincare symmetry. This provides a simple relation between matrix models and non-commutative geometry. Moreover, we review the derivation of effective 2d group field theories with non-trivial propagators from Boulatov's group field theory for 3d quantum gravity. Besides the fact that this gives a simple and direct derivation of non-commutative field theories for the matter dynamics coupled to (3d) quantum gravity, these effective field theories can be expressed as multi-matrix models with a non-trivial coupling between matrices of different sizes. It should be interesting to analyze this new class of theories, both from the point of view of matrix models as integrable systems and for the study of non-commutative field theories.

  6. Iterative reconstruction using a Monte Carlo based system transfer matrix for dedicated breast positron emission tomography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saha, Krishnendu [Ohio Medical Physics Consulting, Dublin, Ohio 43017 (United States); Straus, Kenneth J.; Glick, Stephen J. [Department of Radiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655 (United States); Chen, Yu. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032 (United States)

    2014-08-28

    To maximize sensitivity, it is desirable that ring Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems dedicated for imaging the breast have a small bore. Unfortunately, due to parallax error this causes substantial degradation in spatial resolution for objects near the periphery of the breast. In this work, a framework for computing and incorporating an accurate system matrix into iterative reconstruction is presented in an effort to reduce spatial resolution degradation towards the periphery of the breast. The GATE Monte Carlo Simulation software was utilized to accurately model the system matrix for a breast PET system. A strategy for increasing the count statistics in the system matrix computation and for reducing the system element storage space was used by calculating only a subset of matrix elements and then estimating the rest of the elements by using the geometric symmetry of the cylindrical scanner. To implement this strategy, polar voxel basis functions were used to represent the object, resulting in a block-circulant system matrix. Simulation studies using a breast PET scanner model with ring geometry demonstrated improved contrast at 45% reduced noise level and 1.5 to 3 times resolution performance improvement when compared to MLEM reconstruction using a simple line-integral model. The GATE based system matrix reconstruction technique promises to improve resolution and noise performance and reduce image distortion at FOV periphery compared to line-integral based system matrix reconstruction.

  7. An investigation of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for use as a control in the laser removal of rock from fossils found at the Malapa hominin site, South Africa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roberts, D.E., E-mail: troberts@csir.co.za [CSIR National Laser Centre, PO Box 395, Meiring Naude Road, Pretoria 0001 (South Africa); Plessis, A. du [CSIR National Laser Centre, PO Box 395, Meiring Naude Road, Pretoria 0001 (South Africa); University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland, Stellenbosch (South Africa); Steyn, J.; Botha, L.R.; Pityana, S. [CSIR National Laser Centre, PO Box 395, Meiring Naude Road, Pretoria 0001 (South Africa); Berger, L.R. [Institute for Human Evolution, School of GeoSciences, University of Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050 (South Africa)

    2012-07-15

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to study the spectra from fossils and surrounding rock recovered from the Cradle of Mankind site at Malapa, South Africa. The objective was to find a suitable spectral line(s), specific to fossils, which could be used as a control signal to limit damage to fossils during high speed laser removal of the encasing rock. The calcified clastic matrix (rock) encasing the fossils was found to emit a variety of complex LIBS spectra. Nevertheless, it was found possible to distinguish fossils in a single LIBS pulse, and without significant damage to the fossil, using spectral lines of neutral phosphorus. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer LIBS used to discriminate fossils from rock as potential processing control mechanism. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer 2 million year old fossils from Malapa hominin site found to be high in phosphorus. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Rock spectral lines from silicon, iron and manganese, but no phosphorus. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Holds great promise for process control in laser preparation of fossils. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Also promising for accurate identification of fossils at excavation sites.

  8. Observation of ESR spin flip satellite lines of trapped hydrogen atoms in solid H2 at 4.2 K

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyazaki, Tetsuo; Iwata, Nobuchika; Fueki, Kenji; Hase, Hirotomo

    1990-01-01

    ESR spectra of H atoms, produced in γ-irradiated solid H 2 , were studied at 4.2 K. Two main lines of the ESR spectra of H atoms that are separated by about 500 G accompanied two weak satellite lines. Both satellite lines and main lines decrease with the same decay rate. In the D 2 -H 2 mixtures, the satellite-line intensity depends upon the number of matrix protons. The spacing of the satellites from the main lines is equal to that of the NMR proton resonance frequency. It was concluded that the satellite lines were not ascribable to paired atoms but to spin flip lines due to an interaction of H atoms with matrix protons. The analysis of the spin flip lines and the main lines suggests that H atoms in solid H 2 are trapped in the substitutional site

  9. System for removing contaminated surface layers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshikawa, Kozo.

    1987-04-01

    The object of the present invention is to offer a new type of useful decontamination system, with which the contaminated surface layers can be removed effectively by injection of such solid microparticles. Liquid carbon dioxide is passed from a liquid carbon dioxide tank via the carbon dioxide supply line into the system for injecting solid carbon dioxide particles. Part of the liquid carbon dioxide introduced into the system is converted to solid carbon dioxide particles by the temperature drop resulting from adiabatic expansion in the carbon dioxide expansion space of the injection system. The solid carbon dioxide particles reach the injection nozzle, which is connected through the expansion space. The carbon dioxide microparticles are further cooled and accelerated by nitrogen gas injected from the nitrogen gas nozzle at the tip of the nitrogen gas supply line, which is connected to a liquid nitrogen tank. The cooled and accelerated solid carbon dioxide microparticles are injected from the injection nozzle for the solid carbon dioxide and directed against the contaminated surface to be cleaned, and, as a result, the surface contamination is removed

  10. Purity, adulteration and price of drugs bought on-line versus off-line in the Netherlands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Gouwe, Daan; Brunt, Tibor M; van Laar, Margriet; van der Pol, Peggy

    2017-04-01

    On-line drug markets flourish and consumers have high expectations of on-line quality and drug value. The aim of this study was to (i) describe on-line drug purchases and (ii) compare on-line with off-line purchased drugs regarding purity, adulteration and price. Comparison of laboratory analyses of 32 663 drug consumer samples (stimulants and hallucinogens) purchased between January 2013 and January 2016, 928 of which were bought on-line. The Netherlands. Primary outcome measures were (i) the percentage of samples purchased on-line and (ii) the chemical purity of powders (or dosage per tablet); adulteration; and the price per gram, blotter or tablet of drugs bought on-line compared with drugs bought off-line. The proportion of drug samples purchased on-line increased from 1.4% in 2013 to 4.1% in 2015. The frequency varied widely, from a maximum of 6% for controlled, traditional substances [ecstasy tablets, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) powder, amphetamine powder, cocaine powder, 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (2C-B) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)] to more than a third for new psychoactive substances (NPS) [4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA), 5/6-(2-aminopropyl)benzofuran (5/6-APB) and methoxetamine (MXE)]. There were no large differences in drug purity, yet small but statistically significant differences were found for 4-FA (on-line 59% versus off-line 52% purity for 4-FA on average, P = 0.001), MDMA powders (45 versus 61% purity for MDMA, P = 0.02), 2C-B tablets (21 versus 10 mg 2C-B/tablet dosage, P = 0.49) and ecstasy tablets (131 versus 121 mg MDMA/tablet dosage, P = 0.05). The proportion of adulterated samples purchased on-line and off-line did not differ, except for 4-FA powder, being less adulterated on-line (χ 2  = 8.3; P < 0.02). Drug prices were mainly higher on-line, ranging for various drugs from 10 to 23% higher than that of drugs purchased off-line (six of 10 substances: P < 0.05). Dutch drug users increasingly

  11. On the synthesis of resonance lines in dynamical models of structured hot-star winds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puls, J.; Owocki, S. P.; Fullerton, A. W.

    1993-01-01

    We examine basic issues involved in synthesizing resonance-line profiles from 1-D, dynamical models of highly structured hot-star winds. Although these models exhibit extensive variations in density as well as velocity, the density scale length is still typically much greater than the Sobolev length. The line transfer is thus treated using a Sobolev approach, as generalized by Rybicki & Hummer (1978) to take proper account of the multiple Sobolev resonances arising from the nonmonotonic velocity field. The resulting reduced-lambda-matrix equation describing nonlocal coupling of the source function is solved by iteration, and line profiles are then derived from formal solution integration using this source function. Two more approximate methods that instead use either a stationary or a structured, local source function yield qualitatively similar line-profiles, but are found to violate photon conservation by 10% or more. The full results suggest that such models may indeed be able to reproduce naturally some of the qualitative properties long noted in observed UV line profiles, such as discrete absorption components in unsaturated lines, or the blue-edge variability in saturated lines. However, these particular models do not yet produce the black absorption troughs commonly observed in saturated lines, and it seems that this and other important discrepancies (e.g., in acceleration time scale of absorption components) may require development of more complete models that include rotation and other 2-D and/or 3-D effects.

  12. Removal rate of ( sup 3 H)hyaluronan injected subcutaneously in rabbits

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reed, R.K.; Laurent, U.B.; Fraser, J.R.; Laurent, T.C. (Univ. of Bergen (Norway))

    1990-08-01

    Hyaluronan is an important constituent of the extracellular matrix in skin, and recent studies suggest that there is a pool of easily removable (free) hyaluronan drained by lymph. The removal rate of free hyaluronan in skin was measured from the elimination of ({sup 3}H)hyaluronan, injected subcutaneously in 13 rabbits. The removal of radioactivity was determined from appearance of {sup 3}H in plasma. During the first 24 h after injection, 10-87% of the tracer entered blood, less in injectates with high concentrations of hyaluronan. The removal was monoexponential with a half-life of 0.5-1 day when concentration of hyaluronan was 5 mg/ml or less. When hyaluronan concentration was 10 mg/ml or higher, the removal was slow for about 24 h and then became similar to that in experiments with low hyaluronan concentration. Free hyaluronan at physiological concentrations is thus turned over with the same rate as serum albumin, supporting the concept that hyaluronan is removed essentially by lymph flow to be degraded in lymph nodes and liver.

  13. Line formation in microturbulent magnetic fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Domke, H.; Pavlov, G.G.

    1979-01-01

    The formation of Zeeman lines in Gaussian microturbulent magnetic fields is considered assuming LTE. General formulae are derived for the local mean values of the transfer matrix elements. The cases of one-dimensional (longitudinal), isotropic, and two-dimensional (transversal) magnetic microturbulence are studied in some detail. Asymptotic formulae are given for small mean as well as for small microturbulent magnetic fields. Characteristic effects of magnetic microturbulence on the transfer coefficients are: (i) the broadening of the frequency contours, although only for the case of longitudinal Zeeman effect and longitudinal magnetic microturbulence this effect can be described analogous to Doppler broadening, (ii) the appearance of a pseudo-Zeeman structure for nonlongitudinal magnetic microturbulence, (iii) the reduction of maximal values of circular polarization, and (iv) the appearance of characteristic linear polarization effects due to the anisotropy of the magnetic microturbulence. Line contours and polarization of Zeeman triplets are computed for Milne-Eddington atmospheres. It is shown that magnetic intensification due to microturbulent magnetic fields may be much more efficient than that due to regular fields. The gravity center of a Zeeman line observed in circularly polarized light remains a reasonable measure of the line of sight component of the mean magnetic field for a line strength eta 0 < approx. 2. For saturated lines, the gravity center distance depends significantly on the magnetic microturbulence and its anisotropy. The influence of magnetic microturbulence on the ratio of longitudinal field magnetographic signals shows that unique conclusions about the magnetic microstructure can be drawn from the line ratio measurements only in combination with further spectroscopic data or physical reasoning. (orig.)

  14. Evaluation of glycerol removal techniques, cryoprotectants, and insemination methods for cryopreserving rooster sperm with implications of regeneration of breed or line or both.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purdy, P H; Song, Y; Silversides, F G; Blackburn, H D

    2009-10-01

    A series of experiments was designed to evaluate the quality of cryopreserved rooster sperm and its fertility so that programs needing to bank germplasm and recreate animals can do so utilizing a minimal amount of cryopreserved semen. In experiment 1, rooster semen from the National Animal Germplasm Program genebank was thawed and glycerol was removed using a discontinuous Accudenz column or by stepwise dilution. The postthaw sperm motilities, plasma membrane integrity, and concentration were determined before and after deglycerolization. Line differences in postthaw sperm concentration and progressive motility were observed before deglycerolization (Prooster semen was cryopreserved using Lake's diluent containing either dimethyl acetamide (DMA) or glycerol as the cryoprotectants. Postthaw analysis revealed that the samples cryopreserved with glycerol survived freezing better, determined by total motility (47.8 and 15.1% glycerol and DMA samples, respectively; P0.05). These results indicate that reasonable postthaw sperm quality and fertility can be derived using cryopreserved rooster semen. By utilizing this information, estimations can be made for storing sufficient material for line or breed, or both, recreation programs.

  15. Graphene oxide/ferric hydroxide composites for efficient arsenate removal from drinking water

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Kai; Dwivedi, Vineet; Chi Chunyan; Wu Jishan

    2010-01-01

    A series of novel composites based on graphene oxide (GO) cross-linked with ferric hydroxide was developed for effective removal of arsenate from contaminated drinking water. GO, which was used as a supporting matrix here, was firstly treated with ferrous sulfate. Then, the ferrous compound cross-linked with GO was in situ oxidized to ferric compound by hydrogen peroxide, followed by treating with ammonium hydroxide. The morphology and composition of the composites were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The ferric hydroxide was found to be homogenously impregnated onto GO sheets in amorphous form. These composites were evaluated as absorbents for arsenate removal from contaminated drinking water. For the water with arsenate concentration at 51.14 ppm, more than 95% of arsenate was absorbed by composite GO-Fe-5 with an absorption capacity of 23.78 mg arsenate/g of composite. Effective arsenate removal occurred in a wide range of pH from 4 to 9. However, the efficiency of arsenate removal was decreased when pH was increased to higher than 8.

  16. LTPS-TFT Pixel Circuit Compensating for TFT Threshold Voltage Shift and IR-Drop on the Power Line for AMOLED Displays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ching-Lin Fan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a new pixel design for the active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED using low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (LTPS-TFTs. The proposed pixel is composed of four switching TFTs, one driving TFT (DTFT, and one capacitor. The simulation results are performed by AIM-SPICE software. The error rate of OLED output current with (threshold voltage variation (0.3 V and power line drop by 1 V are improved to about 1.67% and 15%, respectively. Thus, the proposed pixel circuit can successfully overcome drawbacks suffered from DTFT threshold voltage deviation and IR-drop on power line.

  17. Effects of effluent organic matter characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter and selected pharmaceutically active compounds during managed aquifer recharge: Column study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maeng, Sung Kyu; Sharma, Saroj K.; Abel, Chol D. T.; Magic-Knezev, Aleksandra; Song, Kyung-Guen; Amy, Gary L.

    2012-10-01

    Soil column experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of effluent organic matter (EfOM) characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter (OM) and pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) during managed aquifer recharge (MAR) treatment processes. The fate of bulk OM and PhACs during an MAR is important to assess post-treatment requirements. Biodegradable OM from EfOM, originating from biological wastewater treatment, was effectively removed during soil passage. Based on a fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (F-EEM) analysis of wastewater effluent-dominated (WWE-dom) surface water (SW), protein-like substances, i.e., biopolymers, were removed more favorably than fluorescent humic-like substances under oxic compared to anoxic conditions. However, there was no preferential removal of biopolymers or humic substances, determined as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) observed via liquid chromatography with online organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) analysis. Most of the selected PhACs exhibited removal efficiencies of greater than 90% in both SW and WWE-dom SW. However, the removal efficiencies of bezafibrate, diclofenac and gemfibrozil were relatively low in WWE-dom SW, which contained more biodegradable OM than did SW (copiotrophic metabolism). Based on this study, low biodegradable fractions such as humic substances in MR may have enhanced the degradation of diclofenac, gemfibrozil and bezafibrate by inducing an oligotrophic microbial community via long term starvation. Both carbamazepine and clofibric acid showed persistent behaviors and were not influenced by EfOM.

  18. Effects of effluent organic matter characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter and selected pharmaceutically active compounds during managed aquifer recharge: Column study

    KAUST Repository

    Maeng, Sungkyu

    2012-10-01

    Soil column experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of effluent organic matter (EfOM) characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter (OM) and pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) during managed aquifer recharge (MAR) treatment processes. The fate of bulk OM and PhACs during an MAR is important to assess post-treatment requirements. Biodegradable OM from EfOM, originating from biological wastewater treatment, was effectively removed during soil passage. Based on a fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (F-EEM) analysis of wastewater effluent-dominated (WWE-dom) surface water (SW), protein-like substances, i.e., biopolymers, were removed more favorably than fluorescent humic-like substances under oxic compared to anoxic conditions. However, there was no preferential removal of biopolymers or humic substances, determined as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) observed via liquid chromatography with online organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) analysis. Most of the selected PhACs exhibited removal efficiencies of greater than 90% in both SW and WWE-dom SW. However, the removal efficiencies of bezafibrate, diclofenac and gemfibrozil were relatively low in WWE-dom SW, which contained more biodegradable OM than did SW (copiotrophic metabolism). Based on this study, low biodegradable fractions such as humic substances in MR may have enhanced the degradation of diclofenac, gemfibrozil and bezafibrate by inducing an oligotrophic microbial community via long term starvation. Both carbamazepine and clofibric acid showed persistent behaviors and were not influenced by EfOM. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

  19. Effects of effluent organic matter characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter and selected pharmaceutically active compounds during managed aquifer recharge: Column study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maeng, Sung Kyu; Sharma, Saroj K; Abel, Chol D T; Magic-Knezev, Aleksandra; Song, Kyung-Guen; Amy, Gary L

    2012-10-01

    Soil column experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of effluent organic matter (EfOM) characteristics on the removal of bulk organic matter (OM) and pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) during managed aquifer recharge (MAR) treatment processes. The fate of bulk OM and PhACs during an MAR is important to assess post-treatment requirements. Biodegradable OM from EfOM, originating from biological wastewater treatment, was effectively removed during soil passage. Based on a fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (F-EEM) analysis of wastewater effluent-dominated (WWE-dom) surface water (SW), protein-like substances, i.e., biopolymers, were removed more favorably than fluorescent humic-like substances under oxic compared to anoxic conditions. However, there was no preferential removal of biopolymers or humic substances, determined as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) observed via liquid chromatography with online organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) analysis. Most of the selected PhACs exhibited removal efficiencies of greater than 90% in both SW and WWE-dom SW. However, the removal efficiencies of bezafibrate, diclofenac and gemfibrozil were relatively low in WWE-dom SW, which contained more biodegradable OM than did SW (copiotrophic metabolism). Based on this study, low biodegradable fractions such as humic substances in MR may have enhanced the degradation of diclofenac, gemfibrozil and bezafibrate by inducing an oligotrophic microbial community via long term starvation. Both carbamazepine and clofibric acid showed persistent behaviors and were not influenced by EfOM. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Study of the Matrix Effect on the Plasma Characterization of Heavy Elements in Soil Sediments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tawfik W.

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS has been applied to perform a study of the matrix effect on the plasma characterization of soil sediment targets. The plasma is generated by focusing a pulsed Nd: YAG laser on the target in air at atmospheric pressure. The plasma emission spectrum was detected using a portable Echelle spectrometer (Mechelle 7500 — Multichannel Instruments, Stockholm, Sweden with intensified CCD camera. Spectroscopic analysis of plasma evolution of laser produced plasmas has been characterized in terms of their spectra, and electron temperature. Four heavy elements V, Pb, Mn and Co were determined in the obtained spectra. The LTE and optically thin plasma conditions were verified for the produced plasma. The electron temperature and density were determined using the emission intensity and stark broadening, respectively, of the spectral lines of the heavy elements in the soil sediments. The electron temperature does not change with concentration. For environmental applications, the obtained results showed the capability of the proposed LIBS setup with the portable Mechelle 7500 spectrometer to be applied in-situ for real-time measurements of the variation of the matrix elemental composition of soil sediments by following up only a single element as a marker for the composition of the soil sediment without need of analysis of the other elements.

  1. Nuclear magnetic resonance line-shape analysis and determination of exchange rates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, B.D.

    1989-01-01

    The fact that chemical exchange processes occur at rates that cover a broad range and produce readily detectable effects on the spectrum is one of the attractive features of high-resolution NMR. The description of these line shapes in the presence of spin-spin coupling requires the density matrix theory which is rather complex. Analysis of the line shapes usually needs computer simulations and is capable of providing reliable information on the exchange rates as well as spectral parameters in the absence of exchange. Simplified procedures, ignoring spin-spin coupling, often result in deviations in these exchange and spectral parameters determined. A step-by-step procedure is detailed in this chapter for setting up the matrices required for computing the line shapes of exchanges involving weakly coupled spin systems on the basis of the density matrix theory without the need for a detailed understanding of the theory. A knowledge of the energy level structure and allowed transitions in the NMR spectra of the individual weakly coupled spin systems is all that is required. The procedure is amenable to numerical computation. The group of illustrative examples chosen to demonstrate the development of the computational tools cover some of the commonly encountered cases of exchange from simple systems to rather complex ones. Such exchanges occur frequently in biological molecules, especially those involving enzyme-substrate complexes. In cases where the experimental line shapes are obtained with respectable precision, and the relevant exchange processes are unambiguously identifiable, the computer simulation method of line-shape analysis is capable of providing useful and incisive information. The example of the 31P exchanges in the adenylate kinase is illustrative of this point

  2. Incidence of thromboembolic events after use of gelatin-thrombin-based hemostatic matrix during intracranial tumor surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gazzeri, Roberto; Galarza, Marcelo; Conti, Carlo; De Bonis, Costanzo

    2018-01-01

    Association between the use of hemostatic agents made from collagen/gelatin mixed with thrombin and thromboembolic events in patients undergoing tumor resection has been suggested. This study evaluates the relationship between flowable hemostatic matrix and deep vein thrombosis in a large cohort of patients treated for brain tumor removal. The authors conducted a retrospective, multicenter, clinical review of all craniotomies for tumor removal performed between 2013 and 2014. Patients were classified in three groups: group I (flowable gelatin hemostatic matrix with thrombin), group II (gelatin hemostatic without thrombin), and group III (classical hemostatic). A total of 932 patients were selected: tumor pathology included 441 gliomas, 296 meningiomas, and 195 metastases. Thromboembolic events were identified in 4.7% of patients in which gelatin matrix with thrombin was applied, in 8.4% of patients with gelatin matrix without thrombin, and in 3.6% of cases with classical methods of hemostasis. Patients with venous thromboembolism had an increased proportion of high-grade gliomas (7.2%). Patients receiving a greater dose than 10 ml gelatin hemostatic had a higher rate of thromboembolic events. Intracranial hematoma requiring reintervention occurred in 19 cases: 4.5% of cases of group III, while reoperation was performed in 1.3 and 1.6% of patients in which gelatin matrix with or without thrombin was applied. Gelatin matrix hemostat is an efficacious tool for neurosurgeons in cases of difficult intraoperative bleeding during cranial tumor surgery. This study may help to identify those patients at high risk for developing thromboembolism and to treat them accordingly.

  3. Multi-threaded Sparse Matrix-Matrix Multiplication for Many-Core and GPU Architectures.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deveci, Mehmet [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rajamanickam, Sivasankaran [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Trott, Christian Robert [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-12-01

    Sparse Matrix-Matrix multiplication is a key kernel that has applications in several domains such as scienti c computing and graph analysis. Several algorithms have been studied in the past for this foundational kernel. In this paper, we develop parallel algorithms for sparse matrix-matrix multiplication with a focus on performance portability across different high performance computing architectures. The performance of these algorithms depend on the data structures used in them. We compare different types of accumulators in these algorithms and demonstrate the performance difference between these data structures. Furthermore, we develop a meta-algorithm, kkSpGEMM, to choose the right algorithm and data structure based on the characteristics of the problem. We show performance comparisons on three architectures and demonstrate the need for the community to develop two phase sparse matrix-matrix multiplication implementations for efficient reuse of the data structures involved.

  4. A Closed-Form Error Model of Straight Lines for Improved Data Association and Sensor Fusing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volker Sommer

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Linear regression is a basic tool in mobile robotics, since it enables accurate estimation of straight lines from range-bearing scans or in digital images, which is a prerequisite for reliable data association and sensor fusing in the context of feature-based SLAM. This paper discusses, extends and compares existing algorithms for line fitting applicable also in the case of strong covariances between the coordinates at each single data point, which must not be neglected if range-bearing sensors are used. Besides, in particular, the determination of the covariance matrix is considered, which is required for stochastic modeling. The main contribution is a new error model of straight lines in closed form for calculating quickly and reliably the covariance matrix dependent on just a few comprehensible and easily-obtainable parameters. The model can be applied widely in any case when a line is fitted from a number of distinct points also without a priori knowledge of the specific measurement noise. By means of extensive simulations, the performance and robustness of the new model in comparison to existing approaches is shown.

  5. On the validity of cosmological Fisher matrix forecasts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolz, Laura; Kilbinger, Martin; Weller, Jochen; Giannantonio, Tommaso

    2012-01-01

    We present a comparison of Fisher matrix forecasts for cosmological probes with Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) posterior likelihood estimation methods. We analyse the performance of future Dark Energy Task Force (DETF) stage-III and stage-IV dark-energy surveys using supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations and weak lensing as probes. We concentrate in particular on the dark-energy equation of state parameters w 0 and w a . For purely geometrical probes, and especially when marginalising over w a , we find considerable disagreement between the two methods, since in this case the Fisher matrix can not reproduce the highly non-elliptical shape of the likelihood function. More quantitatively, the Fisher method underestimates the marginalized errors for purely geometrical probes between 30%-70%. For cases including structure formation such as weak lensing, we find that the posterior probability contours from the Fisher matrix estimation are in good agreement with the MCMC contours and the forecasted errors only changing on the 5% level. We then explore non-linear transformations resulting in physically-motivated parameters and investigate whether these parameterisations exhibit a Gaussian behaviour. We conclude that for the purely geometrical probes and, more generally, in cases where it is not known whether the likelihood is close to Gaussian, the Fisher matrix is not the appropriate tool to produce reliable forecasts

  6. Polymer functionalized nanocomposites for metals removal from water and wastewater: An overview.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lofrano, Giusy; Carotenuto, Maurizio; Libralato, Giovanni; Domingos, Rute F; Markus, Arjen; Dini, Luciana; Gautam, Ravindra Kumar; Baldantoni, Daniela; Rossi, Marco; Sharma, Sanjay K; Chattopadhyaya, Mahesh Chandra; Giugni, Maurizio; Meric, Sureyya

    2016-04-01

    Pollution by metal and metalloid ions is one of the most widespread environmental concerns. They are non-biodegradable, and, generally, present high water solubility facilitating their environmental mobilisation interacting with abiotic and biotic components such as adsorption onto natural colloids or even accumulation by living organisms, thus, threatening human health and ecosystems. Therefore, there is a high demand for effective removal treatments of heavy metals, making the application of adsorption materials such as polymer-functionalized nanocomposites (PFNCs), increasingly attractive. PFNCs retain the inherent remarkable surface properties of nanoparticles, while the polymeric support materials provide high stability and processability. These nanoparticle-matrix materials are of great interest for metals and metalloids removal thanks to the functional groups of the polymeric matrixes that provide specific bindings to target pollutants. This review discusses PFNCs synthesis, characterization and performance in adsorption processes as well as the potential environmental risks and perspectives. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Interactions between Skeletal Muscle Myoblasts and their Extracellular Matrix Revealed by a Serum Free Culture System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaturvedi, Vishal; Dye, Danielle E; Kinnear, Beverley F; van Kuppevelt, Toin H; Grounds, Miranda D; Coombe, Deirdre R

    2015-01-01

    Decellularisation of skeletal muscle provides a system to study the interactions of myoblasts with muscle extracellular matrix (ECM). This study describes the efficient decellularisation of quadriceps muscle with the retention of matrix components and the use of this matrix for myoblast proliferation and differentiation under serum free culture conditions. Three decellularisation approaches were examined; the most effective was phospholipase A2 treatment, which removed cellular material while maximizing the retention of ECM components. Decellularised muscle matrices were then solubilized and used as substrates for C2C12 mouse myoblast serum free cultures. The muscle matrix supported myoblast proliferation and differentiation equally as well as collagen and fibronectin. Immunofluorescence analyses revealed that myoblasts seeded on muscle matrix and fibronectin differentiated to form long, well-aligned myotubes, while myoblasts seeded on collagen were less organized. qPCR analyses showed a time dependent increase in genes involved in skeletal muscle differentiation and suggested that muscle-derived matrix may stimulate an increased rate of differentiation compared to collagen and fibronectin. Decellularized whole muscle three-dimensional scaffolds also supported cell adhesion and spreading, with myoblasts aligning along specific tracts of matrix proteins within the scaffolds. Thus, under serum free conditions, intact acellular muscle matrices provided cues to direct myoblast adhesion and migration. In addition, myoblasts were shown to rapidly secrete and organise their own matrix glycoproteins to create a localized ECM microenvironment. This serum free culture system has revealed that the correct muscle ECM facilitates more rapid cell organisation and differentiation than single matrix glycoprotein substrates.

  8. Radon removal from gaseous xenon with activated charcoal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abe, K.; Hieda, K.; Hiraide, K.; Hirano, S.; Kishimoto, Y.; Kobayashi, K.; Koshio, Y. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); Liu, J.; Martens, K. [Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582 (Japan); Moriyama, S. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); Nakahata, M. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582 (Japan); Nishiie, H.; Ogawa, H.; Sekiya, H.; Shinozaki, A. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); Suzuki, Y. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582 (Japan); Takachio, O.; Takeda, A.; Ueshima, K.; Umemoto, D. [Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205 (Japan); and others

    2012-01-01

    Many low background experiments using xenon need to remove radioactive radon to improve their sensitivities. However, no method of continually removing radon from xenon has been described in the literature. We studied a method to remove radon from xenon gas through an activated charcoal trap. From our measurements we infer a linear relationship between the mean propagation velocity v{sub Rn} of radon and v{sub Xe} of xenon in the trap with v{sub Rn}/v{sub Xe}=(0.96{+-}0.10) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -3} at -85 Degree-Sign C. As the mechanism for radon removal in this charcoal trap is its decay, knowledge of this parameter allows us to design an efficient radon removal system for the XMASS experiment. The verification of this system found that it reduces radon by a factor of 0.07, which is in line with its expected average retention time of 14.8 days for radon.

  9. Applying TPM on Production Line of Huanwei

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhai Yunkai

    2017-01-01

    The study based on the study and analysis of the TPM theory, based on my practice in the SMT2 production line of Victoria Electronics of Huanwei. Then it studied the promotion and implementation steps of TPM on SMT2 line. And it also introduced the improvement instance of SMT2 line. By contrasting the utilization of equipment on SMT2 line before and after the comprehensive of TPM, the necessity of implementing TPM is derived. For how to apply TPM on the production lines, and how to improve equipment comprehensive utilization, finish the order on time, provide high quality products to our customers, these are the main part of production line equipment management work. This article provides the reference for how to promote TPM on other production lines.

  10. New composites of nanoparticle Cu (I) oxide and titania in a novel inorganic polymer (geopolymer) matrix for destruction of dyes and hazardous organic pollutants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Falah, Mahroo [MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand); MacKenzie, Kenneth J.D., E-mail: Kenneth.mackenzie@vuw.ac.nz [MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand); Knibbe, Ruth [Robinson Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand); Page, Samuel J.; Hanna, John V. [Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL (United Kingdom)

    2016-11-15

    Highlights: • Synthesis reported of new photoactive nano-oxide composites in a geopolymer matrix. • The novel aluminosilicate matrix is expanded with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. • The photoactive component consists of a Cu(I) oxide and titania heterostructure. • Composites remove the model pollutant by both adsorption and photodegradation. • These new photocatalysts are extremely efficient and ecologically friendly. - Abstract: New photoactive composites to efficiently remove organic dyes from water are reported. These consist of Cu{sub 2}O/TiO{sub 2} nanoparticles in a novel inorganic geopolymer matrix modified by a large tertiary ammonium species (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) whose presence in the matrix is demonstrated by FTIR spectroscopy. The CTAB does not disrupt the tetrahedral geopolymer structural silica and alumina units as demonstrated by {sup 29}Si and {sup 27}Al MAS NMR spectroscopy. SEM/EDS, TEM and BET measurements suggest that the Cu{sub 2}O/TiO{sub 2} nanoparticles are homogenously distributed on the surface and within the geopolymer pores. The mechanism of removal of methylene blue (MB) dye from solution consists of a combination of adsorption (under dark conditions) and photodegradation (under UV radiation). MB adsorption in the dark follows pseudo second-order kinetics and is described by Freundlich-Langmuir type isotherms. The performance of the CTAB-modified geopolymer based composites is superior to composites based on unmodified geopolymer hosts, the most effective composite containing 5 wt% Cu{sub 2}O/TiO{sub 2} in a CTAB-modified geopolymer host. These composites constitute a new class of materials with excellent potential in environmental protection applications.

  11. Less is more: strategies to remove marker genes from transgenic plants

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Selectable marker genes (SMGs) and selection agents are useful tools in the production of transgenic plants by selecting transformed cells from a matrix consisting of mostly untransformed cells. Most SMGs express protein products that confer antibiotic- or herbicide resistance traits, and typically reside in the end product of genetically-modified (GM) plants. The presence of these genes in GM plants, and subsequently in food, feed and the environment, are of concern and subject to special government regulation in many countries. The presence of SMGs in GM plants might also, in some cases, result in a metabolic burden for the host plants. Their use also prevents the re-use of the same SMG when a second transformation scheme is needed to be performed on the transgenic host. In recent years, several strategies have been developed to remove SMGs from GM products while retaining the transgenes of interest. This review describes the existing strategies for SMG removal, including the implementation of site specific recombination systems, TALENs and ZFNs. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of existing SMG-removal strategies and explores possible future research directions for SMG removal including emerging technologies for increased precision for genome modification. PMID:23617583

  12. Less is more: strategies to remove marker genes from transgenic plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yau, Yuan-Yeu; Stewart, C Neal

    2013-04-23

    Selectable marker genes (SMGs) and selection agents are useful tools in the production of transgenic plants by selecting transformed cells from a matrix consisting of mostly untransformed cells. Most SMGs express protein products that confer antibiotic- or herbicide resistance traits, and typically reside in the end product of genetically-modified (GM) plants. The presence of these genes in GM plants, and subsequently in food, feed and the environment, are of concern and subject to special government regulation in many countries. The presence of SMGs in GM plants might also, in some cases, result in a metabolic burden for the host plants. Their use also prevents the re-use of the same SMG when a second transformation scheme is needed to be performed on the transgenic host. In recent years, several strategies have been developed to remove SMGs from GM products while retaining the transgenes of interest. This review describes the existing strategies for SMG removal, including the implementation of site specific recombination systems, TALENs and ZFNs. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of existing SMG-removal strategies and explores possible future research directions for SMG removal including emerging technologies for increased precision for genome modification.

  13. Extracellular matrix components direct porcine muscle stem cell behavior

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilschut, Karlijn J.; Haagsman, Henk P.; Roelen, Bernard A.J.

    2010-01-01

    In muscle tissue, extracellular matrix proteins, together with the vasculature system, muscle-residence cells and muscle fibers, create the niche for muscle stem cells. The niche is important in controlling proliferation and directing differentiation of muscle stem cells to sustain muscle tissue. Mimicking the extracellular muscle environment improves tools exploring the behavior of primary muscle cells. Optimizing cell culture conditions to maintain muscle commitment is important in stem cell-based studies concerning toxicology screening, ex vivo skeletal muscle tissue engineering and in the enhancement of clinical efficiency. We used the muscle extracellular matrix proteins collagen type I, fibronectin, laminin, and also gelatin and Matrigel as surface coatings of tissue culture plastic to resemble the muscle extracellular matrix. Several important factors that determine myogenic commitment of the primary muscle cells were characterized by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. Adhesion of high PAX7 expressing satellite cells was improved if the cells were cultured on fibronectin or laminin coatings. Cells cultured on Matrigel and laminin coatings showed dominant integrin expression levels and exhibited an activated Wnt pathway. Under these conditions both stem cell proliferation and myogenic differentiation capacity were superior if compared to cells cultured on collagen type I, fibronectin and gelatin. In conclusion, Matrigel and laminin are the preferred coatings to sustain the proliferation and myogenic differentiation capacity of the primary porcine muscle stem cells, when cells are removed from their natural environment for in vitro culture.

  14. Extracellular matrix components direct porcine muscle stem cell behavior

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilschut, Karlijn J. [Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584 CM, Utrecht (Netherlands); Haagsman, Henk P. [Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL, Utrecht (Netherlands); Roelen, Bernard A.J., E-mail: b.a.j.roelen@uu.nl [Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584 CM, Utrecht (Netherlands)

    2010-02-01

    In muscle tissue, extracellular matrix proteins, together with the vasculature system, muscle-residence cells and muscle fibers, create the niche for muscle stem cells. The niche is important in controlling proliferation and directing differentiation of muscle stem cells to sustain muscle tissue. Mimicking the extracellular muscle environment improves tools exploring the behavior of primary muscle cells. Optimizing cell culture conditions to maintain muscle commitment is important in stem cell-based studies concerning toxicology screening, ex vivo skeletal muscle tissue engineering and in the enhancement of clinical efficiency. We used the muscle extracellular matrix proteins collagen type I, fibronectin, laminin, and also gelatin and Matrigel as surface coatings of tissue culture plastic to resemble the muscle extracellular matrix. Several important factors that determine myogenic commitment of the primary muscle cells were characterized by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. Adhesion of high PAX7 expressing satellite cells was improved if the cells were cultured on fibronectin or laminin coatings. Cells cultured on Matrigel and laminin coatings showed dominant integrin expression levels and exhibited an activated Wnt pathway. Under these conditions both stem cell proliferation and myogenic differentiation capacity were superior if compared to cells cultured on collagen type I, fibronectin and gelatin. In conclusion, Matrigel and laminin are the preferred coatings to sustain the proliferation and myogenic differentiation capacity of the primary porcine muscle stem cells, when cells are removed from their natural environment for in vitro culture.

  15. The role of nitric oxide radicals in removal of hyper-radiosensitivity by priming irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edin, Nina Jeppesen; Sandvik, Joe Alexander; Pettersen, Erik Olai; Vollan, Hilde Synnove; Reger, Katharina; Görlach, Agnes

    2013-01-01

    In this study, a mechanism in which low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity (HRS) is permanently removed, induced by low-dose-rate (LDR) (0.2 - 0.3 Gy/h for 1 h) but not by high-dose-rate priming (0.3 Gy at 40 Gy/h) was investigated. One HRS-negative cell line (NHIK 3025) and two HRS-positive cell lines (T-47D, T98G) were used. The effects of different pretreatments on HRS were investigated using the colony assay. Cell-based ELISA was used to measure nitric oxide synthase (NOS) levels, and microarray analysis to compare gene expression in primed and unprimed cells. The data show how permanent removal of HRS, previously found to be induced by LDR priming irradiation, can also be induced by addition of nitric oxide (NO)-donor DEANO combined with either high-dose-rate priming or exposure to prolonged cycling hypoxia followed by reoxygenation, a treatment not involving radiation. The removal of HRS appears not to involve DNA damage induced during priming irradiation as it was also induced by LDR irradiation of cell-conditioned medium without cells present. The permanent removal of HRS in LDR-primed cells was reversed by treatment with inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor 1400W. Furthermore, 1400W could also induce HRS in an HRS-negative cell line. The data suggest that LDR irradiation for 1 h, but not 15 min, activates iNOS, and also that sustained iNOS activation is necessary for the permanent removal of HRS by LDR priming. The data indicate that nitric oxide production is involved in the regulatory processes determining cellular responses to low-dose-rate irradiation. (author)

  16. Rigorous theoretical derivation of lumped models to transmission line systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Jixiang

    2012-01-01

    By virtue of the negative electric parameter concept, i.e. negative lumped resistance, inductance, conductance and capacitance (N-RLGC), the lumped equivalent models of transmission line systems, including the circuit model, two-port π-network and T-network, are given. We start from the N-segment-ladder-like equivalent networks composed distributed parameters, and achieve the input impedance in the form of a continued fraction. Utilizing the continued fraction theory, the expressions of input impedance are obtained under three kinds of extreme cases, i.e. the load impedances are equal to zero, infinity and characteristic impedance, respectively. When the number of segment N is limited to infinity, they are transformed to lumped elements. Comparison between the distributed model and lumped model of transmission lines, the expression of tanh γd, which is the key term in the transmission line equations, are obtained by RLGC, furthermore, according to input admittance, admittance matrix and ABCD matrix of transmission lines, the lumped equivalent circuit models, π-networks and T-networks have been given. The models are verified in the frequency and time domain, respectively, showing that the models are accurate and efficient. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  17. Extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) remodels the extracellular matrix through enhancing matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and inhibiting tissue inhibitors of MMPs expression in HPV-positive cervical cancer cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Q; Cao, X; Pan, J; Ye, Y; Xie, Y; Ohara, N; Ji, H

    2015-01-01

    PUPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: To study the expression of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMPs) in uterine cervical cancer cell lines in vitro. EMMPRIN, MMPs, and TIMPs expression were assessed by Western blot and real-time RT-PCR from cervical carcinoma SiHa, HeLa, and C33-A cells. EMMPRIN recombinant significantly increased MMP-2, MMP-9 protein and mRNA expression in SiHa and Hela cells, but not in C33-A cells by Western blot analysis and real-time RT-PCR. EMMPRIN recombinant significantly inhibited TIMP-1 protein and mRNA levels in SiHa and Hela cells, but not in C33-A cells. There was no difference on the TIMP-2 expression in those cells with the treatment of EMMPRIN recombinant. EMMPRIN RNAi decreased MMP-2 and MMP-9 and increased TIMP-1 expression in SiHa and HeLa cells, but not in C33-A cells. There was no change on the expression of TIMP-2 mRNA levels in SiHa, HeLa and C33-A cells transfected with siEMMPRIN. EMMPRIN may induce MMP-2 and MMP-9, and downregulate TIMP-1 in HPV-positive cervical cancer cells in vitro.

  18. Noise-immune complex correlation for vasculature imaging based on standard and Jones-matrix optical coherence tomography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makita, Shuichi; Kurokawa, Kazuhiro; Hong, Young-Joo; Li, En; Miura, Masahiro; Yasuno, Yoshiaki

    2016-03-01

    A new optical coherence angiography (OCA) method, called correlation mapping OCA (cmOCA), is presented by using the SNR-corrected complex correlation. An SNR-correction theory for the complex correlation calculation is presented. The method also integrates a motion-artifact-removal method for the sample motion induced decorrelation artifact. The theory is further extended to compute more reliable correlation by using multi- channel OCT systems, such as Jones-matrix OCT. The high contrast vasculature imaging of in vivo human posterior eye has been obtained. Composite imaging of cmOCA and degree of polarization uniformity indicates abnormalities of vasculature and pigmented tissues simultaneously.

  19. STRATEGIES OF MARKETING OF A COMPANY SUPPLIER OF GRATUITOUS SERVICES ON-LINE ANALYSIS OF THEIMPORTÂNCIA-DESEMPENHO MATRIX

    OpenAIRE

    PAULA CASTRO PIRES DE SOUZA CHIMENTI

    2001-01-01

    O trabalho busca analisar uma empresa provedora de serviços gratuitos on-line, Elefante Internet, à luz da matriz Importância-Desempenho. Através de revisão bibliográfica e pesquisa com grupo de foco, chegou-se a um conjunto preliminar de 44 atributos. Uma pesquisa com 700 respostas posicionou estes atributos na matriz, gerando 4 conjuntos de atributos, baseados em desempenho e importância. Com base na matriz, foi possível tecer análises sobre o posicionamento e...

  20. Tetracycline removal and effect on the formation and degradation of extracellular polymeric substances and volatile fatty acids in the process of hydrogen fermentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hou, Guangying; Hao, Xiaoyan; Zhang, Rui; Wang, Jing; Liu, Rutao; Liu, Chunguang

    2016-07-01

    Many research indicate antibiotics show adverse effect on methane fermentation, while few research focus on their effect on hydrogen fermentation. The present study aimed to gain insight of the effect of antibiotics on hydrogen fermentation with waste sludge and corn straw as substrate. For this purpose, tetracycline, as a model, was investigated with regard to tetracycline removal, hydrogen production, interaction with extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) of substrate and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) on concentration and composition. Results show that tetracycline could be removed efficiently by hydrogen fermentation, and relative low-dose tetracycline (200mg/l) exposure affects little on hydrogen production. While tetracycline exposure could change hydrogen fermentation from butyric acid-type to propionic acid-type depending on tetracycline level. Based upon three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy and UV-vis tetracycline changed the component and content of EPSs, and static quenching was the main mechanism between EPSs with tetracycline. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Frame dependence of world lines for directly interacting classical relativistic particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Molotkov, V.V.; Todorov, I.T.

    1979-06-01

    The motion of world lines is studied in the constraint Hamiltonian formulation of relativistic point particle dynamics. The particle world lines are shown to depend, in general (in the presence of interaction) on the choice of the equal time hyperplane (the only exception being the elastic scattering of rigid balls). However, the relative motion of a 2-particle system and the (classical) S-matrix are independent of this choice. This inferred that particle trajectories should not be regarded as frame independent observables in the classical theory of relativistic particles. (author)

  2. EQCM verification of the concept of drug immobilization and release from conducting polymer matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krukiewicz, Katarzyna; Bednarczyk-Cwynar, Barbara; Turczyn, Roman; Zak, Jerzy K.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Disuccinyl derivative of anti-cancer drug, betulin, was immobilized in PEDOT matrix. • EQCM was used to monitor the processes of drug immobilization and release. • SEM, EDS and IR confirmed the presence of drug in polymer matrix. • The release of drug was performed with and without application of external potential. • Potentiodynamic stimulation was more efficient that potentiostatic release. - Abstract: Local drug delivery based on conducting polymer carriers is an innovative approach of medical treatment joining the concept of regional release of biomolecules with ion-exchange properties of conjugated polymers. In this study, we have applied electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) to monitor the process of three-step immobilization and release of anti-cancer drug, disuccinyl derivative of betulin, in PEDOT matrix. Each step of this process has been carefully investigated, i.e. electrochemical polymerization of monomer in the absence of drug, removal of primary dopant during the process of matrix reduction and drug incorporation during the process of matrix oxidation. The release of drug from PEDOT matrix has been performed via three paths, i.e. spontaneous release with no application of external potential, active release under potentiostatic conditions and active release under potentiodynamic conditions. EDS elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy, IR and Raman spectroscopies, have been used to analyze structural and surface properties of drug-loaded PEDOT matrices.

  3. After-heat removing device in nuclear power plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mizuno, K [Nippon Atomic Industry Group Co. Ltd., Tokyo

    1977-01-14

    Purpose: To prevent water hammer in a BWR type reactor or the like by moving water in pipe lines having stagnant portions in an after-heat removing device. Constitution: To a reactor container, is provided a recycling pump which constitutes a closed loop type recycling system in a nuclear power plant together with a pressure vessel and pipe lines. A pump and a heat exchanger are provided outside of the reactor container and they are connected to up- and down-streams of the recycling pump to form an after-heat removing device in the plant. Upon shutdown of the nuclear power plant, since water in the stagnant portion flows to the intake port of the recycling pump and water from the reactor is spontaneously supplemented thereafter to the stagnant portion, neither pressurized water nor heated steam is generated and thus water hammer is prevented.

  4. Numerical study on optimal Stirling engine regenerator matrix designs taking into account the effects of matrix temperature oscillations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andersen, Stig Kildegard; Carlsen, Henrik; Thomsen, Per Grove

    2006-01-01

    A new regenerator matrix design that improves the efficiency of a Stirling engine has been developed in a numerical study of the existing SM5 Stirling engine. A new, detailed, one-dimensional Stirling engine model that delivers results in good agreement with experimental data was used for mapping the performance of the engine, for mapping the effects of regenerator matrix temperature oscillations, and for optimising the regenerator design. The regenerator matrix temperatures were found to oscillate in two modes. The first mode was oscillation of a nearly linear axial matrix temperature profile while the second mode bended the ends of the axial matrix temperature profile when gas flowed into the regenerator with a temperature significantly different from the matrix temperature. The first mode of oscillation improved the efficiency of the engine but the second mode reduced both the work output and efficiency of the engine. A new regenerator with three differently designed matrix sections that amplified the first mode of oscillation and reduced the second improved the efficiency of the engine from the current 32.9 to 33.2% with a 3% decrease in power output. An efficiency of 33.0% was achievable with uniform regenerator matrix properties

  5. Molecular dynamics simulations of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization: Matrix-analyte interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nangia, Shivangi; Garrison, Barbara J.

    2011-01-01

    There is synergy between matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. To understand analyte ejection from the matrix, MD simulations have been employed. Prior calculations show that the ejected analyte molecules remain solvated by the matrix molecules in the ablated plume. In contrast, the experimental data show free analyte ions. The main idea of this work is that analyte molecule ejection may depend on the microscopic details of analyte interaction with the matrix. Intermolecular matrix-analyte interactions have been studied by focusing on 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB; matrix) and amino acids (AA; analyte) using Chemistry at HARvard Molecular Mechanics (CHARMM) force field. A series of AA molecules have been studied to analyze the DHB-AA interaction. A relative scale of AA molecule affinity towards DHB has been developed.

  6. Experience on sodium removal from various components

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kamei, M; Kanbe, M; Yagisawa, H; Sasaki, S; Kataoka, H; Fukada, T; Ishii, Y; Saito, R; Mimoto, Y [O-arai Engineering Centre, PNC, Ibaraki-ken, Tokio (Japan)

    1978-08-01

    Since 1970, OEC (O-arai Engineering Center) has been Investigating the following methods for removal of sodium from the components of sodium plants: steam cleaning for the 50 MW Steam Generator, secondary proto-type pump of 'JOYO' and Dummy fuel assembly of 'JOYO', alcohol cleaning for Sector Model of Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) of 'JOYO', a sector model of Sodium-to-Air cooler of 'JOYO' and a proto-type isolation valve of 'JOYO' and cleaning by vacuumization at high temperature for Regenerative Heat Exchanger. This report describes the outline of the Sodium Disposal Facility and experience of sodium removal processing on the 50 MW Steam Generator, the crevices of the experimental sub-assemblies, the Fuel Handling Machine of 'MONJU' and the Regenerative Heat Exchanger of the Sodium Flow Test Facility. Through these experiences it was noted that, (1) Removal of sodium from crevices such as in bolted joints are very difficult. (2) Consideration is needed in the removal process where material damage might occur from the generation of hydro-oxides. (3) Some detection device to tell the completion of sodium removal as well as the end of reaction is required. (4) Requalification rules should be clarified. Efforts in this direction have been made in the case of a 'JOYO' prototype pump by reinstalling it after sodium removal five times. (author)

  7. Experience on sodium removal from various components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamei, M.; Kanbe, M.; Yagisawa, H.; Sasaki, S.; Kataoka, H.; Fukada, T.; Ishii, Y.; Saito, R.; Mimoto, Y.

    1978-01-01

    Since 1970, OEC (O-arai Engineering Center) has been Investigating the following methods for removal of sodium from the components of sodium plants: steam cleaning for the 50 MW Steam Generator, secondary proto-type pump of 'JOYO' and Dummy fuel assembly of 'JOYO', alcohol cleaning for Sector Model of Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) of 'JOYO', a sector model of Sodium-to-Air cooler of 'JOYO' and a proto-type isolation valve of 'JOYO' and cleaning by vacuumization at high temperature for Regenerative Heat Exchanger. This report describes the outline of the Sodium Disposal Facility and experience of sodium removal processing on the 50 MW Steam Generator, the crevices of the experimental sub-assemblies, the Fuel Handling Machine of 'MONJU' and the Regenerative Heat Exchanger of the Sodium Flow Test Facility. Through these experiences it was noted that, (1) Removal of sodium from crevices such as in bolted joints are very difficult. (2) Consideration is needed in the removal process where material damage might occur from the generation of hydro-oxides. (3) Some detection device to tell the completion of sodium removal as well as the end of reaction is required. (4) Requalification rules should be clarified. Efforts in this direction have been made in the case of a 'JOYO' prototype pump by reinstalling it after sodium removal five times. (author)

  8. Experience on sodium removal from various components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamei, M.; Kanbe, M.; Yagisawa, H.; Sasaki, S.; Kataoka, H.

    1978-02-01

    Since 1970, OEC (O-arai Engineering Center) has been investigating the following methods for removal of sodium from the components of sodium plants: steam cleaning for the 50 MW Steam Generator, secondary proto-type pump of ''JOYO'' and Dummy fuel assembly of ''JOYO'', alcohol cleaning for Sector Model of Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) of ''JOYO'', a sector model of Sodium-to-Air cooler of ''JOYO'' and a proto-type Isolation valve of ''JOYO'' and cleaning by vacuumization at high temperature for Regenerative Heat Exchanger. This report describes the outline of the Sodium Disposal Facility and experience of sodium removal processing on the 50 MW Steam Generator, the crevices of the experimental subassemblies, the Fuel Handling Machine of ''MONJU'' and the Regenerative Heat Exchanger of the Sodium Flow Test Facility. Through these experiences it was noted that, (1) Removal of Sodium from crevices such as in bolted joints are very difficult. (2) Consideration is needed in the removal process where material damage might occur from the generation of hydro-oxides. (3) Some detection device to tell the completion of sodium removal as well as the end of reaction is required. (4) Requalification rules should be clarified. Efforts in this direction have been made in the case of a ''JOYO'' prototype pump by reinstalling it after sodium removal five times. (author)

  9. Application of a simple column-switching ion chromatography technique for removal of matrix interferences and sensitive fluorescence determination of acidic compounds (pharmaceutical drugs) in complex samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhammad, Nadeem; Subhani, Qamar; Wang, Fenglian; Guo, Dandan; Zhao, Qiming; Wu, Shuchao; Zhu, Yan

    2017-09-15

    This work illustrates the introduction of a simple, rugged and flexible column-switching ion chromatography (IC) technique for an automated on-line QuEChERS extracted samples extracts washing followed by sensitive fluorescence (FLD) determination of five acidic pharmaceutical drugs namely; clofibric acid (CLO), ibuprofen (IBU), aspirin (ASP), naproxen (NAP) and flurobrofen (FLU) in three complex samples (spinach, apple and hospital sewage sludge). An old anion exchange column IonPac ® AS11-HC was utilized as a pre-treatment column for on-line washing of inorganic and organic interferences followed by isocratic separation of five acidic drugs with another anion exchange IonPac ® AS12A analytical column by exploiting the column-switching technique. This novel method exhibited good linearity with correlation coefficients (r 2 ) for all drugs were in the range 0.976-0.996. The limit of detection and quantification of all five acidic drugs were in the range 0.024μg/kg to 8.70μg/kg and 0.082μg/kg to 0.029mg/kg, respectively, and better recoveries in the range 81.17-112.5% with percentage relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 17.8% were obtained. This on-line sample pre-treatment method showed minimum matrix effect in the range of 0.87-1.25 except for aspirin. This simple rugged and flexible column-switching system required only 28min for maximum elimination of matrices and interferences in three complex samples extracts, isocratic separation of five acidic drugs and for the continuous regeneration of pre-treatment column prior to every subsequent analysis. Finally, this simple automated IC system was appeared so rugged and flexible, which can eliminate and wash out most of interference, impurities and matrices in complex samples, simply by adjusting the NaOH and acetonitrile concentration in washing mobile phase with maximum recoveries of acidic analytes of interest. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  10. Membrane-type-3 matrix metalloproteinase (MT3-MMP functions as a matrix composition-dependent effector of melanoma cell invasion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Tatti

    Full Text Available In primary human melanoma, the membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase, MT3-MMP, is overexpressed in the most aggressive nodular-type tumors. Unlike MT1-MMP and MT2-MMP, which promote cell invasion through basement membranes and collagen type I-rich tissues, the function of MT3-MMP in tumor progression remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that MT3-MMP inhibits MT1-MMP-driven melanoma cell invasion in three-dimensional collagen, while yielding an altered, yet MT1-MMP-dependent, form of expansive growth behavior that phenocopies the formation of nodular cell colonies. In melanoma cell lines originating from advanced primary or metastatic lesions, endogenous MT3-MMP expression was associated with limited collagen-invasive potential. In the cell lines with highest MT3-MMP expression relative to MT1-MMP, collagen-invasive activity was increased following stable MT3-MMP gene silencing. Consistently, MT3-MMP overexpression in cells derived from less advanced superficially spreading melanoma lesions, or in the MT3-MMP knockdown cells, reduced MT1-MMP-dependent collagen invasion. Rather than altering MT1-MMP transcription, MT3-MMP interacted with MT1-MMP in membrane complexes and reduced its cell surface expression. By contrast, as a potent fibrinolytic enzyme, MT3-MMP induced efficient invasion of the cells in fibrin, a provisional matrix component frequently found at tumor-host tissue interfaces and perivascular spaces of melanoma. Since MT3-MMP was significantly upregulated in biopsies of human melanoma metastases, these results identify MT3-MMP as a matrix-dependent modifier of the invasive tumor cell functions during melanoma progression.

  11. A systematic study on the interfacial energy of O-line interfaces in fcc/bcc systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dai, Fuzhi; Zhang, Wenzheng

    2013-01-01

    Habit planes between face-centered cubic (fcc)/body-centered cubic (bcc) phases usually exhibit irrational orientations, which often agree with the O-line criterion. Previously, energy calculation was made to test whether the habit planes were energetically favorable, but the values of the energy were found very sensitive to the initial atomic configuration in an irrationally orientated interface. In this paper, under the O-line condition, simple selection criteria are proposed to define and remove interfacial interstitials and vacancies in the initial atomic configuration. The criteria are proved to be effective in obtaining robust energy results. Interfacial energies of two types of O-line interfaces in fcc/bcc systems are calculated following the criteria. The observed transformation crystallography of precipitates in Ni–Cr and Cu–Cr systems can be explained consistently as the irrational habit plane in each system is associated with the lowest energy O-line interface. (paper)

  12. Removal and sterilization of biofilms and planktonic bacteria by microwave-induced argon plasma at atmospheric pressure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Mi Hee; Park, Bong Joo; Jin, Soo Chang; Kim, Dohyun; Kim, Jungsung; Park, Jong-Chul; Han, Inho; Hyun, Soon O; Chung, Kie-Hyung

    2009-01-01

    Microbial biofilms are a functional matrix of microbial cells, enveloped in polysaccharides, enzymes and virulence factors secreted by them that can develop on indwelling medical devices and biomaterials. Plasma sterilization has been widely studied in recent years for biological applications. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of removal and anti-recovery of biofilms by microwave-induced argon plasma at atmospheric pressure. We observed that all bacterial biofilms formatted by Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria are removed in less than 20 s, and the growth inhibitions of planktonic bacteria within biofilms are also confirmed by plasma exposure for 5 s. These results suggest that our plasma system can be applied to medical and biological fields where the removal of biofilms and their debris is required.

  13. Noise-immune complex correlation for optical coherence angiography based on standard and Jones matrix optical coherence tomography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makita, Shuichi; Kurokawa, Kazuhiro; Hong, Young-Joo; Miura, Masahiro; Yasuno, Yoshiaki

    2016-04-01

    This paper describes a complex correlation mapping algorithm for optical coherence angiography (cmOCA). The proposed algorithm avoids the signal-to-noise ratio dependence and exhibits low noise in vasculature imaging. The complex correlation coefficient of the signals, rather than that of the measured data are estimated, and two-step averaging is introduced. Algorithms of motion artifact removal based on non perfusing tissue detection using correlation are developed. The algorithms are implemented with Jones-matrix OCT. Simultaneous imaging of pigmented tissue and vasculature is also achieved using degree of polarization uniformity imaging with cmOCA. An application of cmOCA to in vivo posterior human eyes is presented to demonstrate that high-contrast images of patients' eyes can be obtained.

  14. Noise-immune complex correlation for optical coherence angiography based on standard and Jones matrix optical coherence tomography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makita, Shuichi; Kurokawa, Kazuhiro; Hong, Young-Joo; Miura, Masahiro; Yasuno, Yoshiaki

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes a complex correlation mapping algorithm for optical coherence angiography (cmOCA). The proposed algorithm avoids the signal-to-noise ratio dependence and exhibits low noise in vasculature imaging. The complex correlation coefficient of the signals, rather than that of the measured data are estimated, and two-step averaging is introduced. Algorithms of motion artifact removal based on non perfusing tissue detection using correlation are developed. The algorithms are implemented with Jones-matrix OCT. Simultaneous imaging of pigmented tissue and vasculature is also achieved using degree of polarization uniformity imaging with cmOCA. An application of cmOCA to in vivo posterior human eyes is presented to demonstrate that high-contrast images of patients’ eyes can be obtained. PMID:27446673

  15. On the regularity of the covariance matrix of a discretized scalar field on the sphere

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bilbao-Ahedo, J.D. [Departamento de Física Moderna, Universidad de Cantabria, Av. los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander (Spain); Barreiro, R.B.; Herranz, D.; Vielva, P.; Martínez-González, E., E-mail: bilbao@ifca.unican.es, E-mail: barreiro@ifca.unican.es, E-mail: herranz@ifca.unican.es, E-mail: vielva@ifca.unican.es, E-mail: martinez@ifca.unican.es [Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Av. los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander (Spain)

    2017-02-01

    We present a comprehensive study of the regularity of the covariance matrix of a discretized field on the sphere. In a particular situation, the rank of the matrix depends on the number of pixels, the number of spherical harmonics, the symmetries of the pixelization scheme and the presence of a mask. Taking into account the above mentioned components, we provide analytical expressions that constrain the rank of the matrix. They are obtained by expanding the determinant of the covariance matrix as a sum of determinants of matrices made up of spherical harmonics. We investigate these constraints for five different pixelizations that have been used in the context of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data analysis: Cube, Icosahedron, Igloo, GLESP and HEALPix, finding that, at least in the considered cases, the HEALPix pixelization tends to provide a covariance matrix with a rank closer to the maximum expected theoretical value than the other pixelizations. The effect of the propagation of numerical errors in the regularity of the covariance matrix is also studied for different computational precisions, as well as the effect of adding a certain level of noise in order to regularize the matrix. In addition, we investigate the application of the previous results to a particular example that requires the inversion of the covariance matrix: the estimation of the CMB temperature power spectrum through the Quadratic Maximum Likelihood algorithm. Finally, some general considerations in order to achieve a regular covariance matrix are also presented.

  16. R and D study on on-line criticality surveillance system (III)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamada, Sumasu

    1999-02-01

    The Criticality Surveillance System should have high reliability and high expandability enable to apply new approaches. Under this basic concept, a basic design of the Criticality Surveillance System has been proposed in 1997. We propose here several new ideas of modification to the original design of the Criticality Surveillance System, and also reports some results of numerical analysis over the DCA experiments in 1996. In this report, first, we proposed the modification of the Criticality Surveillance System by adding a series of modules for the usage of the Feynman-α method over the γ-ray signal, because recent studies revealed that the statistical analysis of the γ-ray signal in time domain can provide very good information of the reactor decay constant even in the case of low count rate. This modification could increase the reliability of the Criticality Surveillance System over the wide range of amount of the reprocessed fuel in the tank. Last year we have developed an executable ADF program based on the Least Mean Squares, as the redundancy to the recursive ARMA model identification algorithm. However, this algorithm has a property that the convergence rate of parameter estimation becomes very slow when input data is corrupted with colored noise. To cope with this problem, we introduced a new ADF algorithm called Block ADF algorithm, which is developed to improve the convergence rate with less computational load to the computer. In Chapter 2, we showed the basic theory and a fast adaptive filter algorithm using eigenvalue reciprocals as stepsizes in Chapter 3. This new algorithm provides a stable parameter estimates with less computation as fast as the Recursive Least Squares Method. Thirdly, we introduced a notch filter for power line noise and a software. This filter has to be developed for each specific sampling frequency and specific power line frequency, however, this filter can remove not only the line spectrum of the power line frequency but also

  17. HIV gp120 binds to mannose receptor on vaginal epithelial cells and induces production of matrix metalloproteinases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sashaina E Fanibunda

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: During sexual transmission of HIV in women, the virus breaches the multi-layered CD4 negative stratified squamous epithelial barrier of the vagina, to infect the sub-epithelial CD4 positive immune cells. However the mechanisms by which HIV gains entry into the sub-epithelial zone is hitherto unknown. We have previously reported human mannose receptor (hMR as a CD4 independent receptor playing a role in HIV transmission on human spermatozoa. The current study was undertaken to investigate the expression of hMR in vaginal epithelial cells, its HIV gp120 binding potential, affinity constants and the induction of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs downstream of HIV gp120 binding to hMR. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Human vaginal epithelial cells and the immortalized vaginal epithelial cell line Vk2/E6E7 were used in this study. hMR mRNA and protein were expressed in vaginal epithelial cells and cell line, with a molecular weight of 155 kDa. HIV gp120 bound to vaginal proteins with high affinity, (Kd = 1.2±0.2 nM for vaginal cells, 1.4±0.2 nM for cell line and the hMR antagonist mannan dose dependently inhibited this binding. Both HIV gp120 binding and hMR exhibited identical patterns of localization in the epithelial cells by immunofluorescence. HIV gp120 bound to immunopurified hMR and affinity constants were 2.9±0.4 nM and 3.2±0.6 nM for vaginal cells and Vk2/E6E7 cell line respectively. HIV gp120 induced an increase in MMP-9 mRNA expression and activity by zymography, which could be inhibited by an anti-hMR antibody. CONCLUSION: hMR expressed by vaginal epithelial cells has high affinity for HIV gp120 and this binding induces production of MMPs. We propose that the induction of MMPs in response to HIV gp120 may lead to degradation of tight junction proteins and the extracellular matrix proteins in the vaginal epithelium and basement membrane, leading to weakening of the epithelial barrier; thereby facilitating transport of HIV across the

  18. Removal of carbon contaminations by RF plasma generated reactive species and subsequent effects on optical surface

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yadav, P. K., E-mail: praveenyadav@rrcat.gov.in; Rai, S. K.; Modi, M. H.; Nayak, M.; Lodha, G. S. [Indus Synchrotron Utilization Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore-452013 (India); Kumar, M.; Chakera, J. A.; Naik, P. A. [Laser Plasma Laboratory, Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore-452013 (India)

    2015-06-24

    Carbon contamination on optical elements is a serious issue in synchrotron beam lines for several decades. The basic mechanism of carbon deposition on optics and cleaning strategies are not fully understood. Carbon growth mechanism and optimized cleaning procedures are worldwide under development stage. Optimized RF plasma cleaning is considered an active remedy for the same. In present study carbon contaminated optical test surfaces (carbon capped tungsten thin film) are exposed for 30 minutes to four different gases, rf plasma at constant power and constant dynamic pressure. Structural characterization (thickness, roughness and density) of virgin samples and plasma exposed samples was done by soft x-ray (λ=80 Å) reflectivity measurements at Indus-1 reflectivity beam line. Different gas plasma removes carbon with different rate (0.4 to 0.65 nm /min). A thin layer 2 to 9 nm of different roughness and density is observed at the top surface of tungsten film. Ar gas plasma is found more suitable for cleaning of tungsten surface.

  19. Multi-threaded Sparse Matrix Sparse Matrix Multiplication for Many-Core and GPU Architectures.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deveci, Mehmet [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Trott, Christian Robert [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rajamanickam, Sivasankaran [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2018-01-01

    Sparse Matrix-Matrix multiplication is a key kernel that has applications in several domains such as scientific computing and graph analysis. Several algorithms have been studied in the past for this foundational kernel. In this paper, we develop parallel algorithms for sparse matrix- matrix multiplication with a focus on performance portability across different high performance computing architectures. The performance of these algorithms depend on the data structures used in them. We compare different types of accumulators in these algorithms and demonstrate the performance difference between these data structures. Furthermore, we develop a meta-algorithm, kkSpGEMM, to choose the right algorithm and data structure based on the characteristics of the problem. We show performance comparisons on three architectures and demonstrate the need for the community to develop two phase sparse matrix-matrix multiplication implementations for efficient reuse of the data structures involved.

  20. Influence of visualization on consumption during on-line shopping

    OpenAIRE

    Hictaler, Urška

    2013-01-01

    This diploma work studies the influence of visualization on consumption during on-line shopping. The first part of the thesis starts with key areas of visualization, consumption and on-line shopping. Visualization, areas of use, human perception and ways of product presentation in on-line shops are defined discussed first. Next, consumption, consumers and factors that influence their decisions and satisfaction are defined. The last topic in the first part of the thesis discusses on-line shopp...

  1. The complex sine-Gordon model on a half line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tzamtzis, Georgios

    2003-01-01

    In this thesis, we study the complex sine-Gordon model on a half line. The model in the bulk is an integrable (1+1) dimensional field theory which is U(1) gauge invariant and comprises a generalisation of the sine-Gordon theory. It accepts soliton and breather solutions. By introducing suitably selected boundary conditions we may consider the model on a half line. Through such conditions the model can be shown to remain integrable and various aspects of the boundary theory can be examined. The first chapter serves as a brief introduction to some basic concepts of integrability and soliton solutions. As an example of an integrable system with soliton solutions, the sine-Gordon model is presented both in the bulk and on a half line. These results will serve as a useful guide for the model at hand. The introduction finishes with a brief overview of the two methods that will be used on the fourth chapter in order to obtain the quantum spectrum of the boundary complex sine-Gordon model. In the second chapter the model is properly introduced along with a brief literature review. Different realisations of the model and their connexions are discussed. The vacuum of the theory is investigated. Soliton solutions are given and a discussion on the existence of breathers follows. Finally the collapse of breather solutions to single solitons is demonstrated and the chapter concludes with a different approach to the breather problem. In the third chapter, we construct the lowest conserved currents and through them we find suitable boundary conditions that allow for their conservation in the presence of a boundary. The boundary term is added to the Lagrangian and the vacuum is reexamined in the half line case. The reflection process of solitons from the boundary is studied and the time-delay is calculated. Finally we address the existence of boundary-bound states. In the fourth chapter we study the quantum complex sine-Gordon model. We begin with a brief overview of the theory in

  2. Study on diverse passive decay heat removal approach and principle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin Qian; Si Shengyi

    2012-01-01

    Decay heat removal in post-accident is one of the most important aspects concerned in the reactor safety analysis. Passive decay heat removal approach is used to enhance nuclear safety. In advanced reactors, decay heat is removed by multiple passive heat removal paths through core to ultimate heat sink by passive residual heat removal system, passive injection system, passive containment cooling system and so on. Various passive decay heat removal approaches are summarized in this paper, the common features and differences of their heat removal paths are analyzed, and the design principle of passive systems for decay heat removal is discussed. It is found that. these decay heat removal paths is combined by some basic heat transfer processes, by the combination of these basic processes, diverse passive decay heat removal approach or system design scheme can be drawn. (authors)

  3. Construction of the Dependence Matrix Based on the TRIZ Contradiction Matrix in OOD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Jianhong; Zhang, Quan; Wang, Yanling; Luo, Tao

    In the Object-Oriented software design (OOD), design of the class and object, definition of the classes’ interface and inheritance levels and determination of dependent relations have a serious impact on the reusability and flexibility of the system. According to the concrete problems of design, how to select the right solution from the hundreds of the design schemas which has become the focus of attention of designers. After analyzing lots of software design schemas in practice and Object-Oriented design patterns, this paper constructs the dependence matrix of Object-Oriented software design filed, referring to contradiction matrix of TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) proposed by the former Soviet Union innovation master Altshuller. As the practice indicates, it provides a intuitive, common and standardized method for designers to choose the right design schema. Make research and communication more effectively, and also improve the software development efficiency and software quality.

  4. Automatic localization of the prostate for on-line or off-line image-guided radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smitsmans, Monique H.P.; Wolthaus, Jochem W.H.; Artignan, Xavier; Bois, Josien de; Jaffray, David A.; Lebesque, Joos V.; Herk, Marcel van

    2004-01-01

    analysis and were removed from the data set before further analysis. Results: Comparing gray value registration to contour registration, we found a success rate of 91%. The accuracy for rotations around the left-right, cranial-caudal, and anterior-posterior axis was 2.4 degrees, 1.6 degrees, and 1.3 degrees (1 SD), respectively, and for translations along these axes 0.7, 1.3, and 1.2 mm (1 SD), respectively. A large part of the error is attributed to uncertainty in the reference contour set. Automatic prostate localization takes about 45 seconds on a 1.7 GHz Pentium IV personal computer. Conclusions: This newly developed method localizes the prostate quickly, accurately, and with a good success rate, although visual inspection is still needed to detect outliers. With this approach, it will be possible to correct on-line or off-line for prostate movement. Combined with the conformity of intensity-modulated dose distributions, this method might permit dose escalation beyond that of current conformal approaches, because margins can be safely reduced

  5. Vision loss associated with the use and removal of intraocular silicone oil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick D Williams

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Patrick D Williams1, Christopher G Fuller1, Ingrid U Scott2, Dwain G Fuller1, Harry W Flynn Jr31Texas Retina Associates, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Departments of Ophthalmology and Health Evaluation Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USAPurpose: To describe vision loss associated with the use or removal of silicone oil retinal tamponade.Methods: Records were reviewed of all patients with a decrease in visual acuity of at least 3 Snellen lines from best acuity with 5000 centistoke silicone oil in place or after removal of silicone oil at a single retina-only practice between 1996 and 2006.Results: Nine patients (6 men, 3 women with a mean age of 48 years (range, 16–61 met study inclusion criteria. Seven patients lost at least three Snellen lines of vision while the silicone oil was in place. Four patients had late modest improvements in acuity when compared to their final recorded Snellen vision before silicone oil removal, however no patients exhibited visual improvement when comparing their final recorded visual acuities after oil removal with best recorded acuities under oil tamponade. Loss of the foveal depression was a consistent feature on optical coherence tomography.Conclusions: Vision loss is a possible complication of silicone oil use and removal. Late visual improvement may occur in some patients. Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanism(s of vision loss associated with the use or removal of silicone oil.Keywords: retinal tamponade, visual acuity, snellen vision, silicone oil

  6. Line Rogue Waves in the Mel'nikov Equation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Yongkang

    2017-07-01

    General line rogue waves in the Mel'nikov equation are derived via the Hirota bilinear method, which are given in terms of determinants whose matrix elements have plain algebraic expressions. It is shown that fundamental rogue waves are line rogue waves, which arise from the constant background with a line profile and then disappear into the constant background again. By means of the regulation of free parameters, two subclass of nonfundamental rogue waves are generated, which are called as multirogue waves and higher-order rogue waves. The multirogue waves consist of several fundamental line rogue waves, which arise from the constant background and then decay back to the constant background. The higher-order rogue waves start from a localised lump and retreat back to it. The dynamical behaviours of these line rogue waves are demonstrated by the density and the three-dimensional figures.

  7. Numerical study on optimal Stirling engine regenerator matrix designs taking into account the effects of matrix temperature oscillations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Stig Kildegård; Carlsen, Henrik; Thomsen, Per Grove

    2006-01-01

    A new regenerator matrix design that improves the efficiency of a Stirling engine has been developed in a numerical study of the existing SM5 Stirling engine. A new, detailed, one-dimensional Stirling engine model that delivers results in good agreement with experimental data was used for mapping...... the per- formance of the engine, for mapping the effects of regenerator matrix temperature oscillations, and for optimising the regenerator design. The regenerator matrix temperatures were found to oscillate in two modes. The first mode was oscillation of a nearly linear axial matrix temperature profile...... while the second mode bended the ends of the axial matrix temperature profile when gas flowed into the regenerator with a temperature significantly different from the matrix temperature. The first mode of oscillation improved the efficiency of the engine but the second mode reduced both the work output...

  8. On-Line Voltage Stability Assessment based on PMU Measurements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Garcia-Valle, Rodrigo; P. Da Silva, Luiz C.; Nielsen, Arne Hejde

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a method for on-line monitoring of risk voltage collapse based on synchronised phasor measurement. As there is no room for intensive computation and analysis in real-time, the method is based on the combination of off-line computation and on-line monitoring, which are correlat...

  9. IMPROVING THE TEXTILE’S ENTERPRISES KNOWLEDGE MATRIX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    RADULESCU Ion Razvan

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The textile enterprises need adequate solutions to face the competition on the global market. Innovation leverages the enterprises competitiveness: however, improving innovation is a task of research providers in the field. The Knowledge Matrix for Innovation (KMI represents an instrument for quantifying the intangible assets of a textile enterprise. Examples of intangible assets are: innovation strategy / culture, informational resources, training methodology, relationships portfolio, IP rights etc. By improving such factors of the KMI, the textile enterprises are going to improve their competitiveness. This main aim is tackled by the Erasmus Plus – VET Project “Matrix of knowledge for innovation and competitiveness in textile enterprises - TexMatrix” (2016-2018. The red line of the project follows the definition of the KMI, the adaptation of the Benchmarking questionnaire and its implementation on the e-learning Tool, the Benchmarking study by consulting of 50 textile enterprises at consortium level, supporting the Guide with new research and innovation management solutions for the enterprises and Blended courses for 95 young trainees, based on the Guide in e-learning format. The project also aims to counsel 100 decision-factors from textile enterprises on the new solutions comprised in the Guide, within 5 Workshops. The e-learning Tool has the URL address: www.advan2tex.eu/portal/ .

  10. Fuzzy vulnerability matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baron, Jorge H.; Rivera, S.S.

    2000-01-01

    The so-called vulnerability matrix is used in the evaluation part of the probabilistic safety assessment for a nuclear power plant, during the containment event trees calculations. This matrix is established from what is knows as Numerical Categories for Engineering Judgement. This matrix is usually established with numerical values obtained with traditional arithmetic using the set theory. The representation of this matrix with fuzzy numbers is much more adequate, due to the fact that the Numerical Categories for Engineering Judgement are better represented with linguistic variables, such as 'highly probable', 'probable', 'impossible', etc. In the present paper a methodology to obtain a Fuzzy Vulnerability Matrix is presented, starting from the recommendations on the Numerical Categories for Engineering Judgement. (author)

  11. Diffusion bonded matrix of HGMF applied for BWR condensate water purification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soda, Fumitaka; Yukawa, Takao; Ito, Kazuyuki.

    1984-01-01

    High Gradient Magnetic Filter (HGMF) applied to the purification of power plant primary water has recently attracted much attention. In the application of HGMF to the water treatment of power plants, especially nuclear power plants, reliabillties of matrix (filtering medium) as well as removal performance for cruds (insoluble corrosion products) are considered to be important factors. To satisfy these factors, a new filtering medium named Diffision Bonded Matrix (DBM) has been developed and the test results are reported. Filtering efficiency and mechanical stiffness of DBM were examined using HGMF pilot test units consisting of 160 mm diameters x 240 mm length filter. The filtering velocity and the magnetic flux density used in this test were 800 m/h 5 kG, respectively. The filtering efficiencies and of 85-100% were obtained for artificial cruds for DBM. The DBM indicated slightly better filtering efficiency than for conventional wool matrix under the same filtering and matrix conditions. The DBM kept its original mechanical properties and very few pieces of fibers were broken off while the conventional wool matrix lost its volume elasticities and the considerable amount of fibers was broken off during the test operation. The results described here demonstrated the applicability of DBM for treatment of BWR primary water by High Gradient Magnetic Filter. (author)

  12. Neuronal Uptake and Neuroprotective Properties of Curcumin-Loaded Nanoparticles on SK-N-SH Cell Line: Role of Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) Polymeric Matrix Composition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djiokeng Paka, Ghislain; Doggui, Sihem; Zaghmi, Ahlem; Safar, Ramia; Dao, Lé; Reisch, Andreas; Klymchenko, Andrey; Roullin, V Gaëlle; Joubert, Olivier; Ramassamy, Charles

    2016-02-01

    Curcumin, a neuroprotective agent with promising therapeutic approach has poor brain bioavailability. Herein, we demonstrate that curcumin-encapsulated poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) 50:50 nanoparticles (NPs-Cur 50:50) are able to prevent the phosphorylation of Akt and Tau proteins in SK-N-SH cells induced by H2O2 and display higher anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities than free curcumin. PLGA can display various physicochemical and degradation characteristics for controlled drug release applications according to the matrix used. We demonstrate that the release of curcumin entrapped into a PLGA 50:50 matrix (NPs-Cur 50:50) is faster than into PLGA 65:35. We have studied the effects of the PLGA matrix on the expression of some key antioxidant- and neuroprotective-related genes such as APOE, APOJ, TRX, GLRX, and REST. NPs-Cur induced the elevation of GLRX and TRX while decreasing APOJ mRNA levels and had no effect on APOE and REST expressions. In the presence of H2O2, both NPs-Cur matrices are more efficient than free curcumin to prevent the induction of these genes. Higher uptake was found with NPs-Cur 50:50 than NPs-Cur 65:35 or free curcumin. By using PLGA nanoparticles loaded with the fluorescent dye Lumogen Red, we demonstrated that PLGA nanoparticles are indeed taken up by neuronal cells. These data highlight the importance of polymer composition in the therapeutic properties of the nanodrug delivery systems. Our study demonstrated that NPs-Cur enhance the action of curcumin on several pathways implicated in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Overall, these results suggest that PLGA nanoparticles are a promising strategy for the brain delivery of drugs for the treatment of AD.

  13. Formal scattering theory approach to S-matrix relations in supersymmetric quantum mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amado, R.D.; Cannata, F.; Dedonder, J.P.

    1988-01-01

    Combining the methods of scattering theory and supersymmetric quantum mechanics we obtain relations between the S matrix and its supersymmetric partner. These relations involve only asymptotic quantities and do not require knowledge of the dynamical details. For example, for coupled channels with no threshold differences the relations involve the asymptotic normalization constant of the bound state removed by supersymmetry

  14. Oxygen consumption by hydrazine in long sample lines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chi, Lisheng; Turner, Carl-W.

    2012-09-01

    In nuclear power plants secondary side system dissolved oxygen concentration is a strictly controlled chemistry parameter intended to minimize corrosion and fouling of steam cycle components. Low dissolved oxygen concentration is maintained by a combination of mechanical de-aeration and chemical reaction. The dissolved oxygen concentration in feedwater is monitored by sampling systems to ensure it remains within station specification during operation. The sample lines in a nuclear power plant's sampling system can be from 5 to nearly 200 meters in length, resulting in sample residence times between the take-off point to the analyzer from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the flow rate and the length of the sample line. For many chemical parameters the residence time is of no concern. For measurements of dissolved oxygen and hydrazine in the secondary coolant, however, for residence times longer than one minute, it is uncertain whether the sample is representative of conditions in the secondary coolant, especially for samples taken from locations where the temperature is well over 100 deg. C. To address this concern, a series of tests were conducted under both warm-up and power operation conditions, respectively, to investigate the effect of temperature, residence time, sample line length, surface area, hydrazine-to-oxygen ratio, and the concentrations of dissolved oxygen and hydrazine on the consumption of oxygen by hydrazine. The test results revealed that dissolved oxygen measurements in CANDU plants are underestimated to various degrees, depending on the sampling system operating conditions. Two distinct types of behaviours are observed for the oxygen removal rate: 1) the percentage removal of dissolved oxygen is invariant with time during the tests, and increases with increasing residence time in the test section, when the reaction between hydrazine and oxygen is better described by a homogenous reaction mechanism, and 2) the percentage oxygen

  15. Noise removal in multichannel image data by a parametric maximum noise fraction estimator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Conradsen, Knut; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

    1991-01-01

    Some approaches to noise removal in multispectral imagery are presented. The primary contribution of the present work is the establishment of several ways of estimating the noise covariance matrix from image data and a comparison of the noise separation performances. A case study with Landsat MSS...

  16. Revised Line Profile Function for Hydrogenic Species

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sapar A.

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Analytical series expansions for the hydrogenic spectral line profile functions are derived starting from the three single expressions, obtained by integrating twice the convolution of the Holtsmark, Lorentz and Doppler line profile functions. We get well converging series expansions for the line wings and centers by reducing the number of arguments in the profile function by one, introducing the module of the Holtsmark and Lorentz profiles as a new argument. In the intermediate part of the line, the parabolic cylinder functions expressed via the confluent hypergeometric series, are used. The multi-component Stark splitting of the hydrogenic spectral lines and the modeled stochastic electron transitions in the electric field of the adjacent ions generate wide Doppler plateaux at the line centers, with the characteristic widths estimated from the fit to the characteristic width of the Holtsmark profile. This additional Doppler broadening of the line profile function removes the central dip typical to the Holtsmark profile.

  17. INIS retrieval service, towards on-line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebinuma, Yukio; Komatsubara, Yasutoshi

    1983-01-01

    Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute executes the retrieval service of INIS atomic energy information by batch system in cooperation with Genshiryoku Kozaikai. This service is very popular to the users in whole Japan, but the demand of on-line service has increased recently. Therefore, it was decided to begin the INIS on-line service from January, 1984, through the on-line information retrieval system of the Japan Information Center of Science and Technology. It is expected that when the operation will be started, the utilization of INIS atomic energy information in Japan will drastically increase. Also Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute has carried out the retrieval service by on-line system for those in the institute besides the batch system, accordingly, at this opportunity, the state of utilization of both systems and their distinction to use effectively, and the operation and the method of utilization of the on-line information retrieval system of JICST are explained. In the on-line system, the users are accessible to the data base themselves, and immediate information retrieval is possible, while in the batch system, the related information can be retrieved without fail, and the troublesome operation of equipment is not necessary. (Kako, I.)

  18. Effect of matrix granulation and wax coating on the dissolution rates ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    disintegrating) granules consisting of paracetamol (drug) and acrylatemethacrylate copolymer, a matrix forming material. The effect of coating the matrix granules with wax on the drug release profiles was also investigated. The objective was to ...

  19. A new technique for on-line and off-line high speed computation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartouni, E.P.; Jensen, D.A.; Klima, B.; Kreisler, M.N.; Rabin, M.S.Z.; Uribe, J.; Gottschalk, E.; Gara, A.; Knapp, B.C.

    1989-01-01

    A new technique for both on-line and off-line computation has been developed. With this technique, a reconstruction analysis in Elementary Particle Physics, otherwise prohibitively long, has been accomplished. It will be used on-line in an upcoming Fermilab experiment to reconstruct more than 100,000 events per second and to trigger on the basis of that information. The technique delivers 40 Giga operations per second, has a bandwidth on the order of Gigabytes per second and has a modest cost. An overview of the program, details of the system, and performance measurements are presented in this paper

  20. Notes on branes in matrix theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keski-Vakkuri, E.; Kraus, P.

    1998-01-01

    We study the effective actions of various brane configurations in matrix theory. Starting from the 0+1-dimensional quantum mechanics, we replace coordinate matrices by covariant derivatives in the large N limit, thereby obtaining effective field theories on the brane world-volumes. Even for non-compact branes, these effective theories are of Yang-Mills type, with constant background magnetic fields. In the case of a D2-brane, we show explicitly how the effective action equals the large magnetic field limit of the Born-Infeld action, and thus derive from matrix theory the action used by Polchinski and Pouliot to compute M-momentum transfer between membranes. We also consider the effect of compactifying transverse directions. Finally, we analyze a scattering process involving a recently proposed background representing a classically stable D6+D0 brane configuration. We compute the potential between this configuration and a D0-brane, and show that the result agrees with supergravity. (orig.)

  1. Bioremediation system on-line for removal radionuclides in radioactive waters; Sistema de biorremediation on-line pra la eliminacion de radionuclidos en aguas radiactivas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belinchon, J. A.; Garcia, A. M.; Ruibal, C.; Moreno, D. A.

    2010-07-01

    In previous studies developed in Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant (Valencia, Spain), has been observed that the microorganisms in the radioactive waters of the spent nuclear fuel pool are capable of colonizing the metallic surfaces of the walls and pipes and perform biofilm. These biofilm retain the nuclides contributing to decontaminate the water. In this project, carried out in Cofrentes Nuclear Power Plant, a pilot plant has been designed for the bio decontamination of the radioactive water. At present, the radioactive water coming from the spent nuclear fuel pools, pass through ionic exchange resins. After, these resins are managed as radioactive waste. In this project, the water passes through a bioreactor with stainless steel balls capable of being colonized by the microorganisms in the water. Inside the bioreactor the water gets in contact with the material of the balls, and a biofilm, which retains the nuclides in the water, is developed. The biofilm is easily removed by any conventional procedure of radiochemical decontamination of materials and the nuclides can be collected in a small volume for recovery final disposition or containment. Later, the material of the bioreactor could be managed as not radioactive material. (Author) 9 refs.

  2. The Exopolysaccharide Matrix

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, H.; Falsetta, M.L.; Klein, M.I.

    2013-01-01

    Many infectious diseases in humans are caused or exacerbated by biofilms. Dental caries is a prime example of a biofilm-dependent disease, resulting from interactions of microorganisms, host factors, and diet (sugars), which modulate the dynamic formation of biofilms on tooth surfaces. All biofilms have a microbial-derived extracellular matrix as an essential constituent. The exopolysaccharides formed through interactions between sucrose- (and starch-) and Streptococcus mutans-derived exoenzymes present in the pellicle and on microbial surfaces (including non-mutans) provide binding sites for cariogenic and other organisms. The polymers formed in situ enmesh the microorganisms while forming a matrix facilitating the assembly of three-dimensional (3D) multicellular structures that encompass a series of microenvironments and are firmly attached to teeth. The metabolic activity of microbes embedded in this exopolysaccharide-rich and diffusion-limiting matrix leads to acidification of the milieu and, eventually, acid-dissolution of enamel. Here, we discuss recent advances concerning spatio-temporal development of the exopolysaccharide matrix and its essential role in the pathogenesis of dental caries. We focus on how the matrix serves as a 3D scaffold for biofilm assembly while creating spatial heterogeneities and low-pH microenvironments/niches. Further understanding on how the matrix modulates microbial activity and virulence expression could lead to new approaches to control cariogenic biofilms. PMID:24045647

  3. Growth of Listeria monocytogenes on a RTE-meat matrix enhances cell invasiveness to mouse J774A.1 macrophages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Chen-Si; Wang, Chinling; Tsai, Hsiang-Jung; Chou, Chung-Hsi

    2010-11-15

    It remains unclear whether the growth of Listeria monocytogenes on a ready-to-eat (RTE) meat matrix has an impact on the bacterium's pathogenic abilities. In this study, we investigated the impact of environments on virulence by growing L. monocytogenes (F2365 strain) on brain heart infusion agar (BHI), tryptic soy agar (TSA), and RTE turkey meat matrices. Bacteria cultured from these media were harvested and used to infect mouse macrophage cell line J774A.1 with different MOIs to examine their invasion ability. At MOI=10 and 50, the numbers of bacteria recovered from cells infected with turkey-meat-grown Listeria were significantly higher than those from the two nutrient-rich growth media. Additionally, MOI played a role in determining L. monocytogenes recovery rates, since significant differences were found amongst all three groups at low MOI, while no significant differences were found between BHI and TSA groups at high MOI. These results indicate that environmental changes affect the ability of L. monocytogenes to invade and survive intracellularly while grown on RTE-meat matrix. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Mechanical phenotyping of cells and extracellular matrix as grade and stage markers of lung tumor tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panzetta, Valeria; Musella, Ida; Rapa, Ida; Volante, Marco; Netti, Paolo A; Fusco, Sabato

    2017-07-15

    The mechanical cross-talk between cells and the extra-cellular matrix (ECM) regulates the properties, functions and healthiness of the tissues. When this is disturbed it changes the mechanical state of the tissue components, singularly or together, and cancer, along with other diseases, may start and progress. However, the bi-univocal mechanical interplay between cells and the ECM is still not properly understood. In this study we show how a microrheology technique gives us the opportunity to evaluate the mechanics of cells and the ECM at the same time. The mechanical phenotyping was performed on the surgically removed tissues of 10 patients affected by adenocarcinoma of the lung. A correlation between the mechanics and the grade and stage of the tumor was reported and compared to the mechanical characteristics of the healthy tissue. Our findings suggest a sort of asymmetric modification of the mechanical properties of the cells and the extra-cellular matrix in the tumor, being the more compliant cell even though it resides in a stiffer matrix. Overall, the simultaneous mechanical characterization of the tissues constituents (cells and ECM) provided new support for diagnosis and offered alternative points of analysis for cancer mechanobiology. When the integrity of the mechanical cross-talk between cells and the extra-cellular matrix is disturbed cancer, along with other diseases, may initiate and progress. Here, we show how a new technique gives the opportunity to evaluate the mechanics of cells and the ECM at the same time. It was applied on surgically removed tissues of 10 patients affected by adenocarcinoma of the lung and a correlation between the mechanics and the grade and stage of the tumor was reported and compared to the mechanical characteristics of the healthy tissue. Copyright © 2017 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Research for the Influence of Distribution Network Line Reclosing Current on Line Protection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Kansheng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available According to the distribution network line structure and reclosing control strategy, the system simulation model of distribution network lines has established based on the real-time digital simulation RTDS. Based on this, distribution network switching impulse current characteristic has researched with different capacity, different distribution and different load power factor under the different voltage switching angles. The results of the study provide a scientific basis for distribution network line protection setting, in order to further lay the foundation for improvement the validity and reliability of distribution network line protection action.

  6. Recursion relations for multi-gluon off-shell amplitudes on the light-front and Wilson lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Cruz-Santiago

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available We analyze the off-shell scattering amplitudes in the framework of the light-front perturbation theory. It is shown that the previously derived recursion relation between tree level off-shell amplitudes in this formalism actually resums whole classes of graphs into a Wilson line. More precisely, we establish a correspondence between the light-front methods for the computation of the off-shell amplitudes and the approach which makes use of the matrix elements of straight infinite Wilson lines, which are manifestly gauge invariant objects. Furthermore, since it is needed to explicitly verify the gauge invariance of light-front amplitudes, it is demonstrated that the Ward identities in this framework need additional instantaneous terms in the light-front graphs.

  7. Accelerating Matrix-Vector Multiplication on Hierarchical Matrices Using Graphical Processing Units

    KAUST Repository

    Boukaram, W.

    2015-03-25

    Large dense matrices arise from the discretization of many physical phenomena in computational sciences. In statistics very large dense covariance matrices are used for describing random fields and processes. One can, for instance, describe distribution of dust particles in the atmosphere, concentration of mineral resources in the earth\\'s crust or uncertain permeability coefficient in reservoir modeling. When the problem size grows, storing and computing with the full dense matrix becomes prohibitively expensive both in terms of computational complexity and physical memory requirements. Fortunately, these matrices can often be approximated by a class of data sparse matrices called hierarchical matrices (H-matrices) where various sub-blocks of the matrix are approximated by low rank matrices. These matrices can be stored in memory that grows linearly with the problem size. In addition, arithmetic operations on these H-matrices, such as matrix-vector multiplication, can be completed in almost linear time. Originally the H-matrix technique was developed for the approximation of stiffness matrices coming from partial differential and integral equations. Parallelizing these arithmetic operations on the GPU has been the focus of this work and we will present work done on the matrix vector operation on the GPU using the KSPARSE library.

  8. Removal of organic nitrogen compounds in LCO reduces the hydrodesulphurization severity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, H.; Chen, J.; Ring, Z. [National Centre for Upgrading Technology, Devon, AB (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    Canada and the United States committed to reducing diesel sulphur from 500 to 15 part per million by 2006. Refineries could benefit from a better understanding of the effects of feed matrix on sulphur removal by hydrodesulphurization (HDS) in selecting the right feed or feed pre-treatment options for their existing HDS units and achieve the required sulphur level at minimum cost. This paper presented a study that examined the influence of nitrogen compounds on the HDS activities of substituted dibenzothiophenes in light oil cycle over a nitrogen/molybdenum on alumina oxide (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) commercial catalyst using five light cycle oil feeds with different concentrations of organic nitrogen compounds. The paper discussed experiments that were conducted under conditions close to industrial HDS processes. The paper addressed feed preparation; the nitrogen effect on HDS reactivity of dibenzothiophene, 4-methyldibenzothiophene, and 4,6-dimethyl dibenzothiophene; sulphur composition analysis; hydrodenitrogenation; and kinetic modeling. It was concluded that organic nitrogen compounds have more of an inhibition effect on sulphur removal by the hydrogenation pathway than by the hydrogenolysis pathway. Nitrogen removal by feed pre-treatment was found to be an attractive alternative to achieve the ultra-low sulphur goal. 26 refs., 3 tabs., 9 figs.

  9. Hidden Identification on Parts: Magnetic Machine-Readable Matrix Symbols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schramm, Harry F.; Jones, Clyde S.; Roxby, Donald L.; Teed, James D.; Shih, William C. L.; Fitzpatrick, Gerald L.; Knisely, Craig

    2005-01-01

    All NASA parts have identification, usually expressed in terms of part number, serial number, and the like. In most cases, this identification is permanently marked directly on the part for tracking throughout its life cycle. NASA has developed a method for reading the matrix symbol through up to 15 mils (25 m) of paint (5 or 6 layers). This method of part identification involves coating selected patches on the objects with magnetic materials in matrix symbol patterns and reading the patterns by use of magneto-optical imaging equipment.

  10. Direct comparison of phosphate uptake by adnate and loosely attached microalgae within an intact biofilm matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burkholder, J.M.; Wetzel, R.G.; Klomparens, K.L.

    1990-01-01

    We report a direct comparison of phosphate uptake by adnate and loosely attached microalgae in an intact biofilm matrix, with resolution at the level of individual cells. Track scanning electron microscope autoradiography enabled assay of [ 33 P]phosphate uptake from the overlying water by adnate algae left undisturbed on mature leaves of the macrophyte Potamogeton illinoensis or on artificial plant mimics. The epiphyte communities developed in either phosphate-poor or moderately phosphate-enriched water, and they were assayed on both natural and artificial plants. All adnate taxa examined from both natural and artificial plants in both habitats took up significantly less radiolabel when assayed beneath the overlying matrix than when they were exposed to the water upon removal of the overstory material. Track scanning electron microscope autoradiography and track light microscope autoradiography were intercalibrated to enable comparison of [ 33 P]phosphate uptake by adnate and loosely attached components of the epiphyte matrix. Loosley attached cells on substrata from both habitats took up significantly more radiolabel than did underlying adnate cells, indicating that access to phosphate supplies from the water depended on the position of microbial cells in the matrix. In this short-term assay, the adnate microalgae were relatively isolated from the water column nutrient source

  11. Adsorption studies of Cd(II) onto Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} mixed oxide dispersed on silica matrix and its on-line preconcentration and determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mendonca Costa, Lucimara [Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Quimica da Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Rua Gabriel Monteiro da Silva, 700, Alfenas-MG, CEP 37130-000 (Brazil); Ribeiro, Emerson Schwingel [Instituto de Quimica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, CEP 21941-909 (Brazil); Segatelli, Mariana Gava [Departamento de Quimica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Rod. Celso Garcia Cid, PR 445 Km 380, Campus Universitario, Londrina-PR, CEP 86051-990 (Brazil); Nascimento, Danielle Raphael do [Instituto de Quimica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, CEP 21941-909 (Brazil); Midori de Oliveira, Fernanda [Departamento de Quimica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Rod. Celso Garcia Cid, PR 445 Km 380, Campus Universitario, Londrina-PR, CEP 86051-990 (Brazil); Tarley, Cesar Ricardo Teixeira, E-mail: tarley@uel.br [Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Quimica da Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Rua Gabriel Monteiro da Silva, 700, Alfenas-MG, CEP 37130-000 (Brazil); Departamento de Quimica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Rod. Celso Garcia Cid, PR 445 Km 380, Campus Universitario, Londrina-PR, CEP 86051-990 (Brazil)

    2011-05-15

    The present study describes the adsorption characteristic of Cd(II) onto Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} mixed oxide dispersed on silica matrix. The characterization of the adsorbent has been carried out by infrared spectroscopy (IR), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF) and specific surface area (S{sub BET}). From batch experiments, adsorption kinetic of Cd(II) was described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The Langmuir linear isotherm fitted to the experimental adsorption isotherm very well, and the maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 17.88 mg g{sup -1}. Using the effective material, a method for Cd(II) preconcentration at trace level was developed. The method was based on on-line adsorption of Cd(II) onto SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} at pH 8.64, in which the quantitative desorption occurs with 1.0 mol L{sup -1} hydrochloric acid towards FAAS detector. The experimental parameters related to the system were studied by means of multivariate analysis, using 2{sup 4} full factorial design and Doehlert matrix. The effect of SO{sub 4}{sup 2-}, Cu{sup 2+}, Zn{sup 2+} and Ni{sup 2+} foreign ions showed no interference at 1:100 analyte:interferent proportion. Under the most favorable experimental conditions, the preconcentration system provided a preconcentration factor of 18.4 times, consumption index of 1.08 mL, sample throughput of 14 h{sup -1}, concentration efficiency of 4.35 min{sup -1}, linear range from 5.0 up to 35.0 {mu}g L{sup -1} and limits of detection and quantification of 0.19 and 0.65 {mu}g L{sup -1} respectively. The feasibility of the proposed method for Cd(II) determination was assessed by analysis of water samples, cigarette sample and certified reference materials TORT-2 (Lobster hepatopancreas) and DOLT-4 (Dogfish liver).

  12. Conditioning of inorganic ion exchangers based on cerium (IV) antimonate in cement matrix. Vol. 3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aly, H.F.; Zakareia, N.; El-Dessouky, M.I.; Abo-Mosallem, N.M.; EL-Naggar, I.M.

    1996-01-01

    The use of inorganic adsorbents for treatment of aqueous radioactive waste has many advantages; namely; better resistance to chemical action, thermal stability, compatibility with immobilization matrices and resistance to radiation. Inorganic ion exchangers process many properties which make them more suitable for rad waste treatment than organic exchange resins. Inorganic ion exchange materials can be immobilized using cement matrix to obtain good solidified waste form. In this work, the removal of radioactive nuclides from radioactive waste is carried out by chemical in-situ precipitation. The addition of cerium (IV) antimonate (cesb) to cement mixture enhances the compressive strength more than plain cement. Waste package containing cesb increased the compressive strength relative to original ordinary portland cement (OPC) matrix for waste products immersed in tap water for one month. The compressive strength increases in the order; st Ce Sb> mix Ce Sb> Na Ce Sb> Co Ce Sb> Cs Ce Sb> OPC> Eu Ce Sb> Ce Sb; (mix refers to all the radionuclides used here). The cumulative leached fractions of 60 Co and 134 Cs decreased for solidified waste products containing Ce Sb in comparison to plain cement. 2 figs., 9 tabs

  13. Conditioning of inorganic ion exchangers based on cerium (IV) antimonate in cement matrix. Vol. 3

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aly, H F; Zakareia, N; El-Dessouky, M I; Abo-Mosallem, N M; EL-Naggar, I M [Hot Laboratory and Waste Management Centre, Atomic Energy Authority, P.O. Box 13759, Cairo (Egypt)

    1996-03-01

    The use of inorganic adsorbents for treatment of aqueous radioactive waste has many advantages; namely; better resistance to chemical action, thermal stability, compatibility with immobilization matrices and resistance to radiation. Inorganic ion exchangers process many properties which make them more suitable for rad waste treatment than organic exchange resins. Inorganic ion exchange materials can be immobilized using cement matrix to obtain good solidified waste form. In this work, the removal of radioactive nuclides from radioactive waste is carried out by chemical in-situ precipitation. The addition of cerium (IV) antimonate (cesb) to cement mixture enhances the compressive strength more than plain cement. Waste package containing cesb increased the compressive strength relative to original ordinary portland cement (OPC) matrix for waste products immersed in tap water for one month. The compressive strength increases in the order; st Ce Sb> mix Ce Sb> Na Ce Sb> Co Ce Sb> Cs Ce Sb> OPC> Eu Ce Sb> Ce Sb; (mix refers to all the radionuclides used here). The cumulative leached fractions of {sup 60} Co and {sup 134} Cs decreased for solidified waste products containing Ce Sb in comparison to plain cement. 2 figs., 9 tabs.

  14. Selective removal of phosphate for analysis of organic acids in complex samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deshmukh, Sandeep; Frolov, Andrej; Marcillo, Andrea; Birkemeyer, Claudia

    2015-04-03

    Accurate quantitation of compounds in samples of biological origin is often hampered by matrix interferences one of which occurs in GC-MS analysis from the presence of highly abundant phosphate. Consequently, high concentrations of phosphate need to be removed before sample analysis. Within this context, we screened 17 anion exchange solid-phase extraction (SPE) materials for selective phosphate removal using different protocols to meet the challenge of simultaneous recovery of six common organic acids in aqueous samples prior to derivatization for GC-MS analysis. Up to 75% recovery was achieved for the most organic acids, only the low pKa tartaric and citric acids were badly recovered. Compared to the traditional approach of phosphate removal by precipitation, SPE had a broader compatibility with common detection methods and performed more selectively among the organic acids under investigation. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that phosphate removal strategies during the analysis of biologically relevant small molecular weight organic acids consider the respective pKa of the anticipated analytes and the detection method of choice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Matrix Information Geometry

    CERN Document Server

    Bhatia, Rajendra

    2013-01-01

    This book is an outcome of the Indo-French Workshop on Matrix Information Geometries (MIG): Applications in Sensor and Cognitive Systems Engineering, which was held in Ecole Polytechnique and Thales Research and Technology Center, Palaiseau, France, in February 23-25, 2011. The workshop was generously funded by the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR).  During the event, 22 renowned invited french or indian speakers gave lectures on their areas of expertise within the field of matrix analysis or processing. From these talks, a total of 17 original contribution or state-of-the-art chapters have been assembled in this volume. All articles were thoroughly peer-reviewed and improved, according to the suggestions of the international referees. The 17 contributions presented  are organized in three parts: (1) State-of-the-art surveys & original matrix theory work, (2) Advanced matrix theory for radar processing, and (3) Matrix-based signal processing applications.  

  16. Efficient implementations of block sparse matrix operations on shared memory vector machines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Washio, T.; Maruyama, K.; Osoda, T.; Doi, S.; Shimizu, F.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper, we propose vectorization and shared memory-parallelization techniques for block-type random sparse matrix operations in finite element (FEM) applications. Here, a block corresponds to unknowns on one node in the FEM mesh and we assume that the block size is constant over the mesh. First, we discuss some basic vectorization ideas (the jagged diagonal (JAD) format and the segmented scan algorithm) for the sparse matrix-vector product. Then, we extend these ideas to the shared memory parallelization. After that, we show that the techniques can be applied not only to the sparse matrix-vector product but also to the sparse matrix-matrix product, the incomplete or complete sparse LU factorization and preconditioning. Finally, we report the performance evaluation results obtained on an NEC SX-4 shared memory vector machine for linear systems in some FEM applications. (author)

  17. The Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Diabetic Wound Healing in relation to Photobiomodulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ayuk, Sandra Matabi; Abrahamse, Heidi; Houreld, Nicolette Nadene

    2016-01-01

    The integration of several cellular responses initiates the process of wound healing. Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an integral role in wound healing. Their main function is degradation, by removal of damaged extracellular matrix (ECM) during the inflammatory phase, breakdown of the capillary basement membrane for angiogenesis and cell migration during the proliferation phase, and contraction and remodelling of tissue in the remodelling phase. For effective healing to occur, all wounds require a certain amount of these enzymes, which on the contrary could be very damaging at high concentrations causing excessive degradation and impaired wound healing. The imbalance in MMPs may increase the chronicity of a wound, a familiar problem seen in diabetic patients. The association of diabetes with impaired wound healing and other vascular complications is a serious public health issue. These may eventually lead to chronic foot ulcers and amputation. Low intensity laser irradiation (LILI) or photobiomodulation (PBM) is known to stimulate several wound healing processes; however, its role in matrix proteins and diabetic wound healing has not been fully investigated. This review focuses on the role of MMPs in diabetic wound healing and their interaction in PBM.

  18. The Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Diabetic Wound Healing in relation to Photobiomodulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Matabi Ayuk

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The integration of several cellular responses initiates the process of wound healing. Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs play an integral role in wound healing. Their main function is degradation, by removal of damaged extracellular matrix (ECM during the inflammatory phase, breakdown of the capillary basement membrane for angiogenesis and cell migration during the proliferation phase, and contraction and remodelling of tissue in the remodelling phase. For effective healing to occur, all wounds require a certain amount of these enzymes, which on the contrary could be very damaging at high concentrations causing excessive degradation and impaired wound healing. The imbalance in MMPs may increase the chronicity of a wound, a familiar problem seen in diabetic patients. The association of diabetes with impaired wound healing and other vascular complications is a serious public health issue. These may eventually lead to chronic foot ulcers and amputation. Low intensity laser irradiation (LILI or photobiomodulation (PBM is known to stimulate several wound healing processes; however, its role in matrix proteins and diabetic wound healing has not been fully investigated. This review focuses on the role of MMPs in diabetic wound healing and their interaction in PBM.

  19. Matrix density effects on the mechanical properties of SiC fiber-reinforced silicon nitride matrix properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatt, Ramakrishna T.; Kiser, Lames D.

    1990-01-01

    The room temperature mechanical properties were measured for SiC fiber reinforced reaction-bonded silicon nitride composites (SiC/RBSN) of different densities. The composites consisted of approx. 30 vol percent uniaxially aligned 142 micron diameter SiC fibers (Textron SCS-6) in a reaction-bonded Si3N4 matrix. The composite density was varied by changing the consolidation pressure during RBSN processing and by hot isostatically pressing the SiC/RBSN composites. Results indicate that as the consolidation pressure was increased from 27 to 138 MPa, the average pore size of the nitrided composites decreased from 0.04 to 0.02 microns and the composite density increased from 2.07 to 2.45 gm/cc. Nonetheless, these improvements resulted in only small increases in the first matrix cracking stress, primary elastic modulus, and ultimate tensile strength values of the composites. In contrast, HIP consolidation of SiC/RBSN resulted in a fully dense material whose first matrix cracking stress and elastic modulus were approx. 15 and 50 percent higher, respectively, and ultimate tensile strength values were approx. 40 percent lower than those for unHIPed SiC/RBSN composites. The modulus behavior for all specimens can be explained by simple rule-of-mixture theory. Also, the loss in ultimate strength for the HIPed composites appears to be related to a degradation in fiber strength at the HIP temperature. However, the density effect on matrix fracture strength was much less than would be expected based on typical monolithic Si3N4 behavior, suggesting that composite theory is indeed operating. Possible practical implications of these observations are discussed.

  20. Analysis of impurities in silver matrix by atomic absorption spectrophotometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hussain, R.; Ishaque, M.; Mohammad, D.

    1999-01-01

    A procedure for the analysis of aluminium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc mainly using flame lens atomic absorption spectrophotometry has been described. The results depict that the presence of silver does not introduce any significant interference, when standards are prepared in matching silver matrix solutions. The calibration curves obey the straight-line equations passing through the origin. Thus the separation of silver matrix from the analyte solutions is not necessary. The method has successfully been applied for the analysis of silver foils, wires, battery grade silver oxides and silver nitrate samples containing analyte elements in the concentration range 2 to 40 ppm. (author)