Role of the Short Distance Order in Glass Reactivity

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

In 2005, our group described for the first time the structural characterization at the atomic scale of bioactive glasses and the influence of the glasses’ nanostructure in their reactivity in simulated body fluids. In that study, two bioactive sol-gel glasses with composition 80%SiO2–20%CaO and 80%SiO2–17%CaO–3%P2O5 (in mol-%) were characterized by High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). Such characterization revealed unknown features of the glasses’ structure at the local scale that allowed the understanding of their different in vitro behaviors as a consequence of the presence or absence of P2O5. Since then, the nanostructure of numerous bioactive glasses, including melt-prepared, sol-gel derived, and mesoporous glasses, was investigated by HRTEM, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, and other experimental techniques. These studies have shown that although glasses are amorphous solids, a certain type of short distance order, which greatly influences the in vitro and in vivo reactivity, is always present. This paper reviews the most significant advances in the understanding of bioactive glasses that took place in the last years as a result of the growing knowledge of the glasses’ nanostructure. PMID:29534481

Real-Time Discrimination and Versatile Profiling of Spontaneous Reactive Oxygen Species in Living Organisms with a Single Fluorescent Probe.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ruilong; Zhao, Jun; Han, Guangmei; Liu, Zhengjie; Liu, Cui; Zhang, Cheng; Liu, Bianhua; Jiang, Changlong; Liu, Renyong; Zhao, Tingting; Han, Ming-Yong; Zhang, Zhongping

2016-03-23

Fluorescent probes are powerful tools for the investigations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in living organisms by visualization and imaging. However, the multiparallel assays of several ROS with multiple probes are often limited by the available number of spectrally nonoverlapping chromophores together with large invasive effects and discrepant biological locations. Meanwhile, the spontaneous ROS profilings in various living organs/tissues are also limited by the penetration capability of probes across different biological barriers and the stability in reactive in vivo environments. Here, we report a single fluorescent probe to achieve the effective discrimination and profiling of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and hypochlorous acid (HClO) in living organisms. The probe is constructed by chemically grafting an additional five-membered heterocyclic ring and a lateral triethylene glycol chain to a fluorescein mother, which does not only turn off the fluorescence of fluorescein, but also create the dual reactive sites to ROS and the penetration capability in passing through various biological barriers. The reactions of probe with •OH and HClO simultaneously result in cyan and green emissions, respectively, providing the real-time discrimination and quantitative analysis of the two ROS in cellular mitochondria. Surprisingly, the accumulation of probes in the intestine and liver of a normal-state zebrafish and the transfer pathway from intestine-to-blood-to-organ/tissue-to-kidney-to-excretion clearly present the profiling of spontaneous •OH and HClO in these metabolic organs. In particular, the stress generation of •OH at the fresh wound of zebrafish is successfully visualized for the first time, in spite of its extremely short lifetime.

Mass Measurement of Very Short Half-Lived Nuclei

CERN Document Server

Duma, M; Iacob, V E; Thibault, C

2002-01-01

The MISTRAL (Mass measurements at ISolde with a Transmission RAdiofrequency spectrometer on-Line) experiment exploits a rapid measurement technique to make accurate mass determinations of very short-lived nuclei. The physics goals are to elucidate new nuclear structure effects and constrain nuclear mass models in regions of interest to nuclear astrophysics.\\\\ \\\\The spectrometer, installed in May 97, performed as promised in the proposal with mass resolution exceeding 100,000. In its first experiment in July 1998, neutron-rich Na isotopes having half-lives as short as 31 ms were measured. A second experiment in November 1998 enabled us to improve the measurement precision of the isotopes $^{26-30}$Na to about 20 keV. The measurement program continues as experiment IS 373.

High rate gamma spectroscopy system for activation analysis of short-lived isomeric transitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Westphall, G P [Atominstitut der Oesterreichischen Hochschulen, Vienna

1976-07-15

A high rate spectroscopy system specially suited for measurement of short-lived isomeric transitions is described, which, as part of a fast activation analysis facility at the TRIGA Mark II reactor, provides for automatic recording and immediate evaluation of gamma spectra taken from nuclides activated at stationary or pulsed reactor power. The system consists of a commercial de-coupled Ge(Li)-detector of 70 cm/sup 3/ modified for recycling operation for input rates in excess of 500000 c/s /sup 60/Co, a time variant trapezoidal shaping section and a fast constant dead-time ADC coupled to a programmed multichannel analyzer. Novel circuits for efficient pile-up rejection and time variant base line restoration extend the concept of gated integration up to count rates of more than 200000 c/s /sup 60/Co. Time-sequenced recording of spectra is performed by a minicomputer operated as a front-end processor of a larger laboratory computer, where final data processing takes place. New concepts for very simple and cost-effective implementation of multichannel analyzers by means of general purpose small computers are described.

Ultrastable BSA-capped gold nanoclusters with a polymer-like shielding layer against reactive oxygen species in living cells

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Wenjuan; Cao, Yuqing; Sui, Dandan; Guan, Weijiang; Lu, Chao; Xie, Jianping

2016-05-01

The prevalence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the enzyme-containing intracellular environment could lead to the fluorescence quenching of bovine serum albumin (BSA)-capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs). Here we report an efficient strategy to address this issue, where a polymer-like shielding layer is designed to wrap around the Au core to significantly improve the stability of AuNCs against ROS and protease degradation. The key of our design is to covalently incorporate a thiolated AuNC into the BSA-AuNC via carbodiimide-activated coupling, leading to the formation of a AuNC pair inside the cross-linked BSA molecule. The as-designed paired AuNCs in BSA (or BSA-p-AuNCs for short) show improved performances in living cells.The prevalence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the enzyme-containing intracellular environment could lead to the fluorescence quenching of bovine serum albumin (BSA)-capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs). Here we report an efficient strategy to address this issue, where a polymer-like shielding layer is designed to wrap around the Au core to significantly improve the stability of AuNCs against ROS and protease degradation. The key of our design is to covalently incorporate a thiolated AuNC into the BSA-AuNC via carbodiimide-activated coupling, leading to the formation of a AuNC pair inside the cross-linked BSA molecule. The as-designed paired AuNCs in BSA (or BSA-p-AuNCs for short) show improved performances in living cells. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Detailed experimental materials, apparatus, experimental procedures and characterization data. See DOI: 10.1039/c6nr02178f

Measurement of short-lived particles at PETRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saxon, D.H.

1987-04-01

The contribution of PETRA to the measurement of short-lived particles is reviewed with discussion of the detectors and analysis techniques. New results are presented on lifetimes of identified particles and the systematics of b-life measurement outlined. The first application of vertex-tagging to flavour separation is described. (author)

Time-separated oscillatory fields for high-precision mass measurements on short-lived Al and Ca nuclides

CERN Document Server

George, Simon; Blank, B.; Blaum, K.; Breitenfeldt, M.; Hager, U.; Herfurth, F.; Herlert, A.; Kellerbauer, A.; Kluge, H.J.; Kretzschmar, M.; Lunney, D.; Savreux, R.; Schwarz, Andreas S.; Schweikhard, L.; Yazidjian, C.

2008-01-01

High-precision Penning trap mass measurements on the stable nuclide $^{27}$Al as well as on the short-lived radionuclides $^{26}$Al and $^{38,39}$Ca have been performed by use of radio-frequency excitation with time-separated oscillatory fields, i.e. Ramsey's method, as recently introduced for the excitation of the ion motion in a Penning trap, was applied. A comparison with the conventional method of a single continuous excitation demonstrates its advantage of up to ten times shorter measurements. The new mass values of $^{26,27}$Al clarify conflicting data in this specific mass region. In addition, the resulting mass values of the superallowed $\\beta$-emitter $^{38}$Ca as well as of the groundstate of the $\\beta$-emitter $^{26}$Al$^{m}$ confirm previous measurements and corresponding theoretical corrections of the ft-values.

Production of medical short-lived radionuclides in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiebe, L.I.

1985-01-01

The production of radionuclides for medical and biomedical research in Canada has been reviewed with respect to the national geographic and demographic characteristics which influence their use. The types of facilities available for the production of short-lived radionuclides have been summarized, and a tabulation of the radionuclides that are produced has been presented. In broad terms production facilities can be classified as belonging to one of two groups, nuclear reactor or charged-particle accelerators. The charged-particle accelerators produce the more neutron-deficient and (because of the resultant decay properties) the more useful radionuclides for medical application. The nuclear reactor facilities for radionuclide production range in size and capacity from the high-flux research reactors of AECL to the six SLOWPOKE reactors, five of which are located on university campuses across the country. The McMaster University reactor is used to produce curie quantities of fluorine-18 weekly. Millicurie amounts of a large number of radionuclides, most of which have half-lives ranging from 2 to 50 hr, are produced in the low-flux reactors, in support of basic medical research

Determination of short-lived trace elements in environmental samples by neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wardani, S.; Sihombing, E.; Hamzah, A.; Rochidi; Hery, P.S.; Hartaman, S.; Iman, J.

1998-01-01

Concentration of a short-lived trace elements in environmental samples were determined by neutron activation analysis, a counting loss often occur due to the high counting rate. A Pile-Up Rejecter (PUR) electric circuit was installed in counting a short-lived trace elements by a γ-ray spectrometer in order to correct a counting loss. The samples were irradiated for 30∼60 seconds at neutron flux of 3.5 x 10 12 n.cm -2 .s -1 , then the samples cooled for 120 second and counted for 180 second using this system. The nuclides concentration in the varieties environmental samples have a difference analysis result, was more accurate and precise, which the measured result would be 30 % more higher by PUR system than the result would be counted using a conventional γ-ray spectrometry method

Control of Reactive Species Generated by Low-frequency Biased Nanosecond Pulse Discharge in Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Effluent

Science.gov (United States)

Takashima, Keisuke; Kaneko, Toshiro

2016-09-01

The control of hydroxyl radical and the other gas phase species generation in the ejected gas through air plasma (air plasma effluent) has been experimentally studied, which is a key to extend the range of plasma treatment. Nanosecond pulse discharge is known to produce high reduced electric field (E/N) discharge that leads to efficient generation of the reactive species than conventional low frequency discharge, while the charge-voltage cycle in the low frequency discharge is known to be well-controlled. In this study, the nanosecond pulse discharge biased with AC low frequency high voltage is used to take advantages of these discharges, which allows us to modulate the reactive species composition in the air plasma effluent. The utilization of the gas-liquid interface and the liquid phase chemical reactions between the modulated long-lived reactive species delivered from the air plasma effluent could realize efficient liquid phase chemical reactions leading to short-lived reactive species production far from the air plasma, which is crucial for some plasma agricultural applications.

Soot and short-lived pollutants provide political opportunity

Science.gov (United States)

Victor, David G.; Zaelke, Durwood; Ramanathan, Veerabhadran

2015-09-01

Cutting levels of soot and other short-lived pollutants delivers tangible benefits and helps governments to build confidence that collective action on climate change is feasible. After the Paris climate meeting this December, actually reducing these pollutants will be essential to the credibility of the diplomatic process.

Short Lived Fission Product Yield Measurements in 235U, 238U and 239Pu

Science.gov (United States)

Silano, Jack; Tonchev, Anton; Tornow, Werner; Krishichayan, Fnu; Finch, Sean; Gooden, Matthew; Wilhelmy, Jerry

2017-09-01

Yields of short lived fission products (FPYs) with half lives of a few minutes to an hour contain a wealth of information about the fission process. Knowledge of short lived FPYs would contribute to existing data on longer lived FPY mass and charge distributions. Of particular interest are the relative yields between the ground states and isomeric states of FPYs since these isomeric ratios can be used to determine the angular momentum of the fragments. Over the past five years, a LLNL-TUNL-LANL collaboration has made precision measurements of FPYs from quasi-monoenergetic neutron induced fission of 235U, 238U and 239Pu. These efforts focused on longer lived FPYs, using a well characterized dual fission chamber and several days of neutron beam exposure. For the first time, this established technique will be applied to measuring short lived FPYs, with half lives of minutes to less than an hour. A feasibility study will be performed using irradiation times of < 1 hour, improving the sensitivity to short lived FPYs by limiting the buildup of long lived isotopes. Results from this exploratory study will be presented, and the implications for isomeric ratio measurements will be discussed. This work was performed under the auspices of US DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors that shape the life history of the short living scallop Argopecten ventricosus

OpenAIRE

Guerra, Citlali

2011-01-01

The scallop Argopecten ventricosus is characterized by its high swimming activity, fast growth, high reproductive effort and the early age to get first sexual maturity. These traits may be the result of the adaptation to a specific environment that favors an active lifestyle and a short lifespan (2 years). This opens the question of how environmental factors modulate the way a short living marine ectotherm budget energy investments among life history traits and how this modulation impacts the...

Production and Use of Short-Lived Radioisotopes from Reactors. Vol. II. Proceedings of a Seminar on the Practical Applications of Short-Lived Radioisotopes Produced in Small Research Reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1963-01-01

There are many radioisotope applications in which it is important that the radiation should rapidly fall to an insignificant level once the initial intense activity has served its purpose. Such applications include diagnostic tests in medicine, where it is essential to reduce the radiation dose to the patient to a minimum, non-destructive testing methods which must be applied without contaminating the material or product concerned, and repeated routine tests which are possible only if the residual activity from the previous test is negligible. All these applications call for radionuclides whose half- lives are measured in hours or even minutes. Similarly, in the new but increasingly important technique of activation analysis, whereby the quantities of elements present in a material can be determined by irradiating the material in a reactor and assaying the radionuclides produced, the latter are mainly short-lived and must be measured immediately. While the production of long-lived radionuclides can most economically be left to the large reactors at the main radioisotope centres, short-lived isotopes must be produced, or materials activation performed, in a reactor at or near the place of intended use or analysis; this, then, represents one of the most important uses for the large number of small reactors which have been installed in recent years, or will come into operation in the near future, in many parts of the world. Since in many countries the new problems of producing, separating and applying short-lived radioisotopes are being faced for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency believed it would be valuable to survey the state of the art by convening an international Seminar on Practical Applications of Short-lived Radioisotopes produced in Small Research Reactors at its Vienna headquarters in November, 1962. This Seminar provided an opportunity for the producers and users of short-lived radioisotopes from many countries to meet and discuss the

Production and Use of Short-Lived Radioisotopes from Reactors. Vol. II. Proceedings of a Seminar on the Practical Applications of Short-Lived Radioisotopes Produced in Small Research Reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1963-03-15

There are many radioisotope applications in which it is important that the radiation should rapidly fall to an insignificant level once the initial intense activity has served its purpose. Such applications include diagnostic tests in medicine, where it is essential to reduce the radiation dose to the patient to a minimum, non-destructive testing methods which must be applied without contaminating the material or product concerned, and repeated routine tests which are possible only if the residual activity from the previous test is negligible. All these applications call for radionuclides whose half- lives are measured in hours or even minutes. Similarly, in the new but increasingly important technique of activation analysis, whereby the quantities of elements present in a material can be determined by irradiating the material in a reactor and assaying the radionuclides produced, the latter are mainly short-lived and must be measured immediately. While the production of long-lived radionuclides can most economically be left to the large reactors at the main radioisotope centres, short-lived isotopes must be produced, or materials activation performed, in a reactor at or near the place of intended use or analysis; this, then, represents one of the most important uses for the large number of small reactors which have been installed in recent years, or will come into operation in the near future, in many parts of the world. Since in many countries the new problems of producing, separating and applying short-lived radioisotopes are being faced for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency believed it would be valuable to survey the state of the art by convening an international Seminar on Practical Applications of Short-lived Radioisotopes produced in Small Research Reactors at its Vienna headquarters in November, 1962. This Seminar provided an opportunity for the producers and users of short-lived radioisotopes from many countries to meet and discuss the

Fast Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Short-Lived Radicals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pagsberg, Palle Bjørn; Wilbrandt, Robert Walter; Hansen, Karina Benthin

1976-01-01

We report the first application of pulsed resonance Raman spectroscopy to the study of short-lived free radicals produced by pulse radiolysis. A single pulse from a flash-lamp pumped tunable dye laser is used to excite the resonance Raman spectrum of the p-terphenyl anion radical with an initial...

Increased Concentrations of Short-Lived Decay-Series Radionuclides in Groundwaters Underneath the Nopal I Uranium Deposit at Pena Blanca, Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, S.; Ku, T.; Todd, V.; Murrell, M. T.; Dinsmoor, J. C.

2007-05-01

The Nopal I uranium ore deposit at Pena Blanca, Mexico, located at > 200 meters above the groundwater table, provides an ideal natural analog for quantifying the effectiveness of geological barrier for isolation of radioactive waste nuclides from reaching the human environments through ground water transport. To fulfill such natural analog studies, three wells (PB1, PB2, and PB3 respectively) were drilled at the site from the land surface down to the saturated groundwater zone and ground waters were collected from each of these wells through large- volume sampling/in-situ Mn-filter filtration for analyses of short-lived uranium/thorium-series radionuclides. Our measurements from PB1 show that the groundwater standing in the hole has much lower 222Rn activity than the freshly pumped groundwater. From this change in 222Rn activity, we estimate the residence time of groundwater in PB1 to be about 20 days. Our measurements also show that the activities of short-lived radioisotopes of Th (234Th), Ra (228Ra, 224Ra, 223Ra), Rn (222Rn), Pb (210Pb), and Po (210Po) in PB1, PB2, and PB3 are all significantly higher than those from the other wells near the Nopal I site. These high activities provide evidence for the enrichment of long-lived U and Ra isotopes in the groundwater as well as in the associated adsorbed phases on the fractured aquifer rocks underneath the ore deposit. Such enrichment suggests a rapid dissolution of U and Ra isotopes from the uranium ore deposit in the vadose zone and the subsequent migration to the groundwater underneath. A reactive transport model can be established to characterize the in-situ transport of radionuclides at the site. The observed change of 222Rn activity at PB1 also suggests that the measured high radioactivityies in ground waters from the site isare not an artifact of drilling operations. However, further studies are needed to assess if or to what extent the radionuclide migration is affected by the previous mining activities at

A high rate gamma spectroscopy system for activation analysis of short lived isomeric transitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Westphal, G P [Atominstitut, Vienna (Austria)

1976-07-01

A high rate spectroscopy system specially suited for measurement of short-lived isomeric transitions is described, which, as part of a fast activation analysis facility at the TRIGA Mark II reactor, provides for automatic recording and immediate evaluation of gamma spectra taken from nuclides activated at stationary or pulsed reactor power. The system consists of a commercial DC-coupled Ge(Li)-detector of 70 cm{sup 3} modified for recycling operation for input rates in excess of 500,000 c/s Co-60, a time variant trapezoidal shaping section and a fast constant dead-time ADC coupled to a programmed multi-channel analyzer. Novel circuits for efficient pile-up rejection and time variant base line restoration extend the concept of gated integration up to count rates of more than 300,000 c/s Co-60. Time-sequenced recording of spectra is performed by a mini computer operated as a front-end processor of a larger laboratory computer, where final data processing takes place. New concepts for very simple and cost-effective implementation of multi-channel analyzers by means of general purpose small computers are described. (author)

Studies on short-lived fission products at the Mainz TRIGA reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trautmann, N.

1974-01-01

Neutron-rich nuclei of medium mass number are produced by thermal-neutron-induced fission of heavy elements, e.g., 235 U, 239 Pu, and 249 Cf. Pulse irradiations lead to an enhancement of the ratio of short-lived activities to the accompanying longer-lived components. One approach for investigating the properties of short-lived nuclei consists in a combination of rapid chemical separations with higher-resolution gamma spectroscopy. This is demonstrated by the isolation of neutron-rich isotopes of niobium by sorption on glass and of ruthenium by solvent extraction. Other rapid separation procedures from aqueous solutions are briefly summarized and a few examples for their application in nuclear fission- and delayed neutron studies are given. Some experiments with an on-line mass separator of the ISOLDE-type, using chemical targets, are described. (U.S.)

Digital reactivity meter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang Zongbing

1996-02-01

The importance and the usual methods of reactivity measurement in a nuclear reactor are presented. Emphasis is put upon the calculation principle, software and hardware components, main specifications, application, as well as the features of the digital reactivity meter. The test results of operation in various reactors shown that the meter possess the following features: high accuracy, short response time, low output noise, high resolution, wide measuring range, simple and flexible to operate, high stability and reliability. In addition, the reactivity meter can save the measuring data automatically and have a perfect capability of self-verifying. It not only meet the requirement of the reactivity measurement in nuclear power plant, but also can be applied to various types of reactors. (1 tab.)

Accurate mass measurements of short-lived isotopes with the MISTRAL rf spectrometer

CERN Document Server

Toader, C F; Borcea, C; Doubre, H; Duma, M; Jacotin, M; Henry, S; Képinski, J F; Lebée, G; Le Scornet, G; Lunney, M D; Monsanglant, C; De Saint-Simon, M; Thibault, C

1999-01-01

The MISTRAL experiment has measured its first masses at ISOLDE. Installed in May 1997, this radiofrequency transmission spectrometer is to concentrate on nuclides with particularly short half-lives. MISTRAL received its first stable beam in October and first radioactive beam in November 1997. These first tests, with a plasma ion source, resulted in excellent isobaric separation and reasonable transmission. Further testing and development enabled first data taking in July 1998 on neutron-rich Na isotopes having half-lives as short as 31 ms.

Immune System Dysregulation, Viral Reactivation and Stress During Short-Duration Space Flight

Science.gov (United States)

Crucian, Brian; Mehta, Satish; Stowe, Raymond; Uchakin, Peter; Quiriarte, Heather; Pierson, Duane; Sams, Clarence

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews a study that was conducted to ascertain if the immune system dysregulation, viral reactivation and stress from short duration space flight were a result of the stress of landing and readjustment to gravity. The objectives of the study were to replace several recent immune studies with one comprehensive study that will include in-flight sampling; address lack of in-flight data: (i.e., determine the in-flight status of immunity, physiological stress, viral immunity/reactivation); determine the clinical risk related to immune dysregulation for exploration class spaceflight; and determine the appropriate monitoring strategy for spaceflight-associated immune dysfunction, that could be used for the evaluation of countermeasures.

''Sleeping reactor'' irradiations: Shutdown reactor determination of short-lived activation products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jerde, E.A.; Glasgow, D.C.

1998-01-01

At the High-Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the principal irradiation system has a thermal neutron flux (φ) of ∼ 4 x 10 14 n/cm 2 · s, permitting the detection of elements via irradiation of 60 s or less. Irradiations of 6 or 7 s are acceptable for detection of elements with half-lives of as little as 30 min. However, important elements such as Al, Mg, Ti, and V have half-lives of only a few minutes. At HFIR, these can be determined with irradiation times of ∼ 6 s, but the requirement of immediate counting leads to increased exposure to the high activity produced by irradiation in the high flux. In addition, pneumatic system timing uncertainties (about ± 0.5 s) make irradiations of 9 Be(γ,n) 8 Be, the gamma rays principally originating in the spent fuel. Upon reactor SCRAM, the flux drops to ∼ 1 x 10 10 n/cm 2 · s within 1 h. By the time the fuel elements are removed, the flux has dropped to ∼ 6 x 10 8 . Such fluxes are ideal for the determination of short-lived elements such as Al, Ti, Mg, and V. An important feature of the sleeping reactor is a flux that is not constant

Developing role of short-lived radionuclides in nuclear medical practice. DOE symposium series; 56

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paras, P.; Thiessen, J.W.

1985-01-01

The purpose was to define the developing role and state-of-the-art development of short-lived radionuclides (SLR's) in current nuclear medical practice. Special emphasis was placed on radionuclides with general-purpose labeling capabilities. The need for high-purity labeling-grade iodine-123 was emphasized in the program. Papers have been separately abstracted for the data base

Short-lived positron emitter labeled radiotracers - present status

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fowler, J.S.; Wolf, A.P.

1982-01-01

The preparation of labelled compounds is important for the application of positron emission transaxial tomography (PETT) in biomedical sciences. This paper describes problems and progress in the synthesis of short-lived positron emitter ( 11 C, 18 F, 13 N) labelled tracers for PETT. Synthesis of labelled sugars, amino acids, and neurotransmitter receptors (pimozide and spiroperidol tagged with 11 C) is discussed in particular

Short-lived radioactive nuclides in meteorites and early solar system processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaussidon, M.; Gounelle, M.

2007-01-01

Now extinct, short-lived radioactive nuclides, such as 7 Be (T 1/2 = 53 days), 10 Be (T 1/2 = 1.5 Ma), 26 Al (T 1/2 = 0.74 Ma), 36 Cl (T 1/2 = 0.3 Ma), 41 Ca (T 1/2 = 0.1 Ma), 53 Mn (T 1/2 = 3.7 Ma) and 60 Fe (T 1/2 = 1.5 Ma), were present in the proto-solar nebula when the various components of meteorites formed. The presence of these radioactive isotopes requires a 'last-minute' origin, either nucleosynthesis in a massive star dying close in space and time to the nascent solar system or production by local irradiation of part of the proto-solar disk by high-energy solar cosmic rays. In this review, we list: (i) the different observations indicating the existence of multiple origins for short-lived radioactive nuclides, namely 7 Be, 10 Be and 36 Cl for irradiation scenario and 60 Fe for injection scenario; (ii) the constraints that exist on their distribution (homogeneous or heterogeneous) in the accretion disk; (iii) the constraints they brought on the timescales of nebular processes (from Ca-Al-rich inclusions to chondrules) and of the accretion and differentiation of planetesimals. (authors)

Use of short-lived radionuclides in the agricultural and environmental sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krohn, K.A.

1985-01-01

In addition to their well-known uses in physiology, biochemistry, and medicine, short-lived radioisotopes have played an important part in promoting the authors knowledge of the agricultural and environmental sciences. Numerous investigators have found that the scientific rewards justify the additional demands associated with use of short-lived radioisotopes when novel or uniquely precise results can be achieved. This is best exemplified by examining the use of 13 N. Nitrogen-13 is the longest lived radioisotope of this very important element. The 10-min half-life of 13 N has required that the agricultural or environmental test model be brought to the laboratory where the isotope is made, but this has been done successfully in numerous instances. One major incentive for this research has probably been the fact that there is no analog of the very useful 14 C tracer to study nitrogen chemistry and biology

Preparing isomerically pure beams of short-lived nuclei at JYFLTRAP

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eronen, T. [Department of Physics, University of Jyvaeskylae, P.O. Box 35 (YFL), FIN-40014 (Finland)], E-mail: tommi.eronen@jyu.fi; Elomaa, V.-V.; Hager, U.; Hakala, J.; Jokinen, A.; Kankainen, A.; Rahaman, S.; Rissanen, J.; Weber, C.; Aystoe, J. [Department of Physics, University of Jyvaeskylae, P.O. Box 35 (YFL), FIN-40014 (Finland)

2008-10-15

A new procedure to prepare isomerically clean samples of short-lived ions with a mass resolving power of more than 1 x 10{sup 5} has been developed at the JYFLTRAP tandem Penning trap system. The method utilises a dipolar rf-excitation of the ion motion with separated oscillatory fields in the precision trap. During a subsequent retransfer to the purification trap, the contaminants are rejected and as a consequence, the remaining bunch is isomerically cleaned. This newly-developed method is suitable for very high-resolution cleaning and is at least a factor of five faster than the methods used so far in Penning trap mass spectrometry.

Kinetic aspects of the syntheses using short-lived radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laangstroem, B.; Obenius, U.; Sjoeberg, S.; Bergson, G.

1981-01-01

In syntheses using short-lived radionuclides, such as 11 C, the reaction conditions are usually such that the concentrations of the reactants, except for the labelled reactant, can be considered constant during the reaction. Two kinetic models have been investigated - irreversible and reversible bimolecular elementary reactions. The influence of the rate constants, of the equilibrium constants, and of the ratio between the starting reactants on the yield of the labelled product has been studied. The results show that, even in cases with unfavourable equilibrium constants, high yields of the labelled products can be obtained if the rate constant for the forward reaction is large. In addition, the specific activity of the labelled product as a function of time has been studied for the irreversible bimolecular case. (author)

Historical review of short-lived isotope applications in New Zealand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

More, R.D.

1986-01-01

Production of short-lived isotopes, nitrogen 13, fluorine 18 and carbon 11 with a small Van de Graaff accelerator. Applications of these isotopes in uptake and photosynthetic translocation studies in plants, and fluorine tracing in dental studies

A technique for the measurement of electron attachment to short-lived excited species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christophorou, L.G.; Pinnaduwage, L.A.; Bitouni, A.P.

1990-01-01

A technique is described for the measurement of electron attachment to short-lived (approx-lt 10 -9 s) excited species. Preliminary results are presented for photoenhanced electron attachment to short-lived electronically-excited states of triethylamine molecules produced by laser two-photon excitation. The attachment cross sections for these excited states are estimated to be >10 -11 cm 2 and are ∼10 7 larger compared to those for the unexcited (ground-state) molecules. 8 refs., 4 figs

Disentangling the effects of CO2 and short-lived climate forcer mitigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rogelj, J.; Schaeffer, M.; Meinshausen, M.; Shindell, D.T.; Hare, W.; Klimont, Z.; Velders, G.J.M.; Amann, M.; Schellnhuber, H.J.

2014-01-01

Anthropogenic global warming is driven by emissions of a wide variety of radiative forcers ranging from very short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), like black carbon, to very long-lived, like CO2. These species are often released from common sources and are therefore intricately linked. However, for

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and on highly active ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and on highly active ... the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) was used to measure quality of life among patients on ... instrument for use in Ethiopia to assess the quality of life of people living with ...

A proposal for assessing study quality: Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-lived Chemicals (BEES-C) instrument

Science.gov (United States)

LaKind, Judy S.; Sobus, Jon R.; Goodman, Michael; Barr, Dana Boyd; Fürst, Peter; Albertini, Richard J.; Arbuckle, Tye E.; Schoeters, Greet; Tan, Yu-Mei; Teeguarden, Justin; Tornero-Velez, Rogelio; Weisel, Clifford P.

2015-01-01

The quality of exposure assessment is a major determinant of the overall quality of any environmental epidemiology study. The use of biomonitoring as a tool for assessing exposure to ubiquitous chemicals with short physiologic half-lives began relatively recently. These chemicals present several challenges, including their presence in analytical laboratories and sampling equipment, difficulty in establishing temporal order in cross-sectional studies, short- and long-term variability in exposures and biomarker concentrations, and a paucity of information on the number of measurements required for proper exposure classification. To date, the scientific community has not developed a set of systematic guidelines for designing, implementing and interpreting studies of short-lived chemicals that use biomonitoring as the exposure metric or for evaluating the quality of this type of research for WOE assessments or for peer review of grants or publications. We describe key issues that affect epidemiology studies using biomonitoring data on short-lived chemicals and propose a systematic instrument – the Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-lived Chemicals (BEES-C) instrument – for evaluating the quality of research proposals and studies that incorporate biomonitoring data on short-lived chemicals. Quality criteria for three areas considered fundamental to the evaluation of epidemiology studies that include biological measurements of short-lived chemicals are described: 1) biomarker selection and measurement, 2) study design and execution, and 3) general epidemiological study design considerations. We recognize that the development of an evaluative tool such as BEES-C is neither simple nor non-controversial. We hope and anticipate that the instrument will initiate further discussion/debate on this topic. PMID:25137624

Applications of nuclear data on short-lived fission products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rudstam, G.; Aagaard, P.; Aleklett, K.; Lund, E.

1981-01-01

The study of short-lived fission products gives information about the nuclear structure on the neutron-rich side of stability. The data are also of interest for various applications both to basic science and to nuclear technology. Some of these applications, taken up by the OSIRIS group at Studsvik, are described in the present contribution. (orig.)

Chemical Modeling of the Reactivity of Short-Lived Greenhouse Gases: A Model Inter-Comparison Prescribing a Well-Measured, Remote Troposphere

Science.gov (United States)

Prather, Michael J.; Flynn, Clare M.; Zhu, Xin; Steenrod, Stephen D.; Strode, Sarah A.; Fiore, Arlene M.; Correa, Gustavo; Murray, Lee T.; Lamarque, Jean-Francois

2018-01-01

We develop a new protocol for merging in situ measurements with 3-D model simulations of atmospheric chemistry with the goal of integrating over the data to identify the most reactive air parcels in terms of tropospheric production and loss of the greenhouse gases ozone and methane. Presupposing that we can accurately measure atmospheric composition, we examine whether models constrained by such measurements agree on the chemical budgets for ozone and methane. In applying our technique to a synthetic data stream of 14,880 parcels along 180W, we are able to isolate the performance of the photochemical modules operating within their global chemistry-climate and chemistry-transport models, removing the effects of modules controlling tracer transport, emissions, and scavenging. Differences in reactivity across models are driven only by the chemical mechanism and the diurnal cycle of photolysis rates, which are driven in turn by temperature, water vapor, solar zenith angle, clouds, and possibly aerosols and overhead ozone, which are calculated in each model. We evaluate six global models and identify their differences and similarities in simulating the chemistry through a range of innovative diagnostics. All models agree that the more highly reactive parcels dominate the chemistry (e.g., the hottest 10% of parcels control 25-30% of the total reactivities), but do not fully agree on which parcels comprise the top 10%. Distinct differences in specific features occur, including the regions of maximum ozone production and methane loss, as well as in the relationship between photolysis and these reactivities. Unique, possibly aberrant, features are identified for each model, providing a benchmark for photochemical module development. Among the 6 models tested here, 3 are almost indistinguishable based on the inherent variability caused by clouds, and thus we identify 4, effectively distinct, chemical models. Based on this work, we suggest that water vapor differences in

Online selection of short-lived particles on many-core computer architectures in the CBM experiment at FAIR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zyzak, Maksym

2016-01-01

Modern experiments in heavy ion collisions operate with huge data rates that can not be fully stored on the currently available storage devices. Therefore the data flow should be reduced by selecting those collisions that potentially carry the information of the physics interest. The future CBM experiment will have no simple criteria for selecting such collisions and requires the full online reconstruction of the collision topology including reconstruction of short-lived particles. In this work the KF Particle Finder package for online reconstruction and selection of short-lived particles is proposed and developed. It reconstructs more than 70 decays, covering signals from all the physics cases of the CBM experiment: strange particles, strange resonances, hypernuclei, low mass vector mesons, charmonium, and open-charm particles. The package is based on the Kalman filter method providing a full set of the particle parameters together with their errors including position, momentum, mass, energy, lifetime, etc. It shows a high quality of the reconstructed particles, high efficiencies, and high signal to background ratios. The KF Particle Finder is extremely fast for achieving the reconstruction speed of 1.5 ms per minimum-bias AuAu collision at 25 AGeV beam energy on single CPU core. It is fully vectorized and parallelized and shows a strong linear scalability on the many-core architectures of up to 80 cores. It also scales within the First Level Event Selection package on the many-core clusters up to 3200 cores. The developed KF Particle Finder package is a universal platform for short- lived particle reconstruction, physics analysis and online selection.

Online selection of short-lived particles on many-core computer architectures in the CBM experiment at FAIR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zyzak, Maksym

2016-07-07

Modern experiments in heavy ion collisions operate with huge data rates that can not be fully stored on the currently available storage devices. Therefore the data flow should be reduced by selecting those collisions that potentially carry the information of the physics interest. The future CBM experiment will have no simple criteria for selecting such collisions and requires the full online reconstruction of the collision topology including reconstruction of short-lived particles. In this work the KF Particle Finder package for online reconstruction and selection of short-lived particles is proposed and developed. It reconstructs more than 70 decays, covering signals from all the physics cases of the CBM experiment: strange particles, strange resonances, hypernuclei, low mass vector mesons, charmonium, and open-charm particles. The package is based on the Kalman filter method providing a full set of the particle parameters together with their errors including position, momentum, mass, energy, lifetime, etc. It shows a high quality of the reconstructed particles, high efficiencies, and high signal to background ratios. The KF Particle Finder is extremely fast for achieving the reconstruction speed of 1.5 ms per minimum-bias AuAu collision at 25 AGeV beam energy on single CPU core. It is fully vectorized and parallelized and shows a strong linear scalability on the many-core architectures of up to 80 cores. It also scales within the First Level Event Selection package on the many-core clusters up to 3200 cores. The developed KF Particle Finder package is a universal platform for short- lived particle reconstruction, physics analysis and online selection.

Analysing environmental and fishing effects on a short-lived species ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Short-lived species are extremely dependent on the seasonal and interannual variability of environmental conditions, and determining their stock status is often difficult. This study investigates the effects of environmental variability and fishing pressure on the stock of octopus Octopus vulgaris in Senegalese waters over a ...

Glucose Homeostasis During Short-term and Prolonged Exposure to High Altitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Ader, Marilyn; Bergman, Richard N.

2015-01-01

Most of the literature related to high altitude medicine is devoted to the short-term effects of high-altitude exposure on human physiology. However, long-term effects of living at high altitudes may be more important in relation to human disease because more than 400 million people worldwide reside above 1500 m. Interestingly, individuals living at higher altitudes have a lower fasting glycemia and better glucose tolerance compared with those who live near sea level. There is also emerging evidence of the lower prevalence of both obesity and diabetes at higher altitudes. The mechanisms underlying improved glucose control at higher altitudes remain unclear. In this review, we present the most current evidence about glucose homeostasis in residents living above 1500 m and discuss possible mechanisms that could explain the lower fasting glycemia and lower prevalence of obesity and diabetes in this population. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate and maintain the lower fasting glycemia in individuals who live at higher altitudes could lead to new therapeutics for impaired glucose homeostasis. PMID:25675133

A general dead-time correction method based on live-time stamping. Application to the measurement of short-lived radionuclides.

Science.gov (United States)

Chauvenet, B; Bobin, C; Bouchard, J

2017-12-01

Dead-time correction formulae are established in the general case of superimposed non-homogeneous Poisson processes. Based on the same principles as conventional live-timed counting, this method exploits the additional information made available using digital signal processing systems, and especially the possibility to store the time stamps of live-time intervals. No approximation needs to be made to obtain those formulae. Estimates of the variances of corrected rates are also presented. This method is applied to the activity measurement of short-lived radionuclides. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Hyperfine structure and isotope shift measurements of short lived elements by laser spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuessler, H.A.

1986-01-01

The aim of this research is to determine nuclear moments and charge distributions of short-lived isotopes produced both on-line and off-line to a nuclear facility. These measurements give detailed information on the nuclear force and are used to test current nuclear models. The small amounts of nuclei which can be produced off stability constitute the challenge in these experiments. Presently mainly neutron-rich isotopes are being studied by three ultrasensitive high-resolution laser techniques. These are collinear fast ion-beam laser spectroscopy, stored-ion laser spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. 5 figs

Identification of short-lived neutron-rich ruthenium and rhodium isotopes in fission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franz, G.; Herrmann, G.

1975-01-01

Short-lived ruthenium and rhodium isotopes ( 107 Ru, 108 Ru, 108 Rh, 109 Ru, 109 Rh, 110 Ru, 110 Rh, 111 Ru, 111 Rh, 112 Ru, 112 Rh, 113 Ru) have been separated from fission products by a rapid chemical procedure and identified by means of γ-ray spectroscopy. Nuclides with half-lives down to 3 sec were accessible. Ruthenium isotopes up to mass number 113 have been identified. (author)

High-frequency microrheology reveals cytoskeleton dynamics in living cells

Science.gov (United States)

Rigato, Annafrancesca; Miyagi, Atsushi; Scheuring, Simon; Rico, Felix

2017-08-01

Living cells are viscoelastic materials, dominated by an elastic response on timescales longer than a millisecond. On shorter timescales, the dynamics of individual cytoskeleton filaments are expected to emerge, but active microrheology measurements on cells accessing this regime are scarce. Here, we develop high-frequency microrheology experiments to probe the viscoelastic response of living cells from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. We report the viscoelasticity of different cell types under cytoskeletal drug treatments. On previously inaccessible short timescales, cells exhibit rich viscoelastic responses that depend on the state of the cytoskeleton. Benign and malignant cancer cells revealed remarkably different scaling laws at high frequencies, providing a unique mechanical fingerprint. Microrheology over a wide dynamic range--up to the frequency characterizing the molecular components--provides a mechanistic understanding of cell mechanics.

Search for short-lived particles produced on nuclei with a heavy liquid mini bubble chamber

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

The aim of this experiment is to search for short-lived particles produced in hadronic interactions on nuclei with our high resolution heavy liquid mini bubble chamber BIBC, aiming to establish the cross-section for associated production in hadron-nucleus collisions, its $A$-dependence and an approximate value of the lifetime. The chamber will be operated at a bubble density of 290 bubbles/cm and with an apparent bubble size of 30 $\\mu$m in real space. In test runs at CERN we measured detection efficiencies which, together with simulations of $D\\bar{D}$ production and decay, lead to a sensitivity of 0.25 events/($\\mu$b/N) per day if the lifetime is of the order of $5\\times10^{-13}$s. A null result after 10 days running time would set an upper limit on the production cross section to $3 \\mu$b. \\\\ \\\\ In order to measure the momenta of charged decay products of short-lived particles, the bubble chamber will be placed 1.80 m upstream of the streamer chamber of the NA5 experiment (MPI). The geometrical acceptance ...

Separation of short-lived fission products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tamai, Tadaharu; Ohyoshi, Emiko; Ohyoshi, Akira; Kiso, Yoshiyuki; Shinagawa, Mutsuaki.

1976-01-01

A rbief review is presented on the various methods of separation available for both gaseous and liquid states, for the separation of short-lived fission products formed by binary fission of neutron irradiated uranium. The means available for gaseous state are the hot atom reaction, the hydride method and on-line mass separation. For liquid state, use can be made of precipitation, ionic or atomic exchange, solvent extraction and paper electrophoresis. Particular reference is made to electrophoretic separation of ions produced by fission in aqueous solution of uranium. The principle of electrophoretic separation and the procedures for separating the element of interest from the other fission products are outlined, with reference made to the results obtained with the method by the present authors. The elements in question are alkalines, alkaline earths, rare earths, halogens, selenium and

Inactivation of Candida glabrata by a humid DC argon discharge afterglow: dominant contributions of short-lived aqueous active species

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Qing; Liu, Hongbin; Lu, Weiping; Chen, Qiang; Xu, Le; Wang, Xia; Zhu, Qunlin; Zeng, Xue; Yi, Ping

2017-05-01

Plasma medicine applications are currently attracting significant interest all over the world. Bactericidal treatments of Candida glabrata cultured in saline suspension are performed in this study by a room-temperature reactive afterglow of a DC-driven argon discharge. Water vapor was added to the discharge to study the inactivation contributions of reactive hydrolytic species including OH and H2O2 transporting along the gas flow to the treated solutions. The inactivation results indicate that the dominant roles in the bactericidal treatments are played by the short-lived aqueous active species, but not the stable species like H2O2aq (aq indicates an aqueous species). Further analysis shows that the ·OHaq radicals play an important role in the inactivation process. The ·OHaq radicals in the suspension are mostly produced from the direct dissolution of the OH species in the reactive afterglow. With the increase of added water vapor content, the ·OHaq production increases and enhances the inactivation efficiency of C. glabrata. Furthermore, it is found that the ambient air diffusion shows essential effects on the bactericidal activity of the remote humid argon discharge. Higher bactericidal effects can be obtained in open-space treatments compared to in a controlled Ar + H2O gas atmosphere. Key active air-byproduct species are believed to be generated in the suspension during the treatments and contributing to the inactivation process. Based on chemical analysis, the peroxynitrous acid ONOOHaq is considered as the key antimicrobial air-byproduct species. These results indicate the important dependence of plasma biomedical effects on the processing environment, which finally relates to the critical contributions of the key reactive species formed therein.

Transport of short lived radioactive contaminants with prologed half-lives of daughters through river water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metwally, S.M.; Prohl, G.

2005-01-01

One of the main pathways for transporting contaminants to other parts in the environment, are rivers. This work is devoted for deriving and assessment the concentration of soluble radio contaminants along a river at any time after discharge, including the short-lived radionuclides in comparison with the discharge time interval, and prolonged half-life of the produced daughter nuclei. The assumed boundary conditions and deduced formulas can be applied either in case of accidental release or discharge under authority control. The formulas determining the produced daughter nuclei concentration require inequality of the parent and daughter nuclei half-lives. Because of the regional variation of river morphology, the assumed constancy of the flow velocity and dispersion coefficient requires dividing the river path into zones of similar hydrologic characteristics

Organic synthesis with short-lived positron-emitting radioisotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pike, V.W.

1988-01-01

Chemistry with short-lived positron-emitting radioisotopes of the non-metals, principally 11 C, 13 N and 18 F, has burgeoned over the last decade. This has been almost entirely because of the emergence of positron emission tomography (PET) as a powerful non-invasive technique for investigating pathophysiology in living man. PET is essentially an external technique for the rapid serial reconstruction of the spatial distribution of any positron-emitting radioisotope that has been administered in vivo. Such a distribution is primarily governed by the chemical form in which the positron-emitting radioisotope is incorporated, and importantly for clinical research, is often perturbed by physical, biological or clinical factors. Judicious choice of the chemical form enables specific biological information to be obtained. For example, the labelling of glucose with a positron-emitting radioisotope could be expected to provide a radiopharmaceutical for the study of glucose utilisation in both health and disease. (author)

Electron scattering off short-lived radioactive nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, S.; Emoto, T.; Furukawa, Y.

2009-01-01

We have established a novel method which make electron scattering off short-lived radioactive nuclei come into being. This novel method was named SCRIT (Self-Confining RI ion Target). It was based on the well known "ion trapping" phenomenon in electron storage rings. Stable nucleus, 133 Cs, was used as target nucleus in the R&D experiment. The luminosity of interaction between stored electrons and Cs ions was about 1.02(0.06) × 10 26 cm -2 s -1 at beam current around 80 mA. The angular distribution of elastically scattered electrons from trapped Cs ions was measured. And an online luminosity monitor was used to monitor the change of luminosity during the experiment. (author)

Neutron-induced cross sections of short-lived nuclei via the surrogate reaction method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morel P.

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The measurement of neutron-induced cross sections of short-lived nuclei is extremely difficult due to the radioactivity of the samples. The surrogate reaction method is an indirect way of determining cross sections for nuclear reactions that proceed through a compound nucleus. This method presents the advantage that the target material can be stable or less radioactive than the material required for a neutron-induced measurement. We have successfully used the surrogate reaction method to extract neutron-induced fission cross sections of various short-lived actinides. In this work, we investigate whether this technique can be used to determine neutron-induced capture cross sections in the rare-earth region.

Neutron-induced cross sections of short-lived nuclei via the surrogate reaction method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tassan-Got L.

2012-02-01

Full Text Available The measurement of neutron-induced cross sections of short-lived nuclei is extremely difficult due to the radioactivity of the samples. The surrogate reaction method is an indirect way of determining cross sections for nuclear reactions that proceed through a compound nucleus. This method presents the advantage that the target material can be stable or less radioactive than the material required for a neutron-induced measurement. We have successfully used the surrogate reaction method to extract neutron-induced fission cross sections of various short-lived actinides. In this work, we investigate whether this technique can be used to determine neutron-induced capture cross sections in the rare-earth region.

Short-lived brain state after cued motor imagery in naive subjects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pfurtscheller, G.; Scherer, R.; Müller-Putz, G.R.; Lopes da Silva, F.H.

2008-01-01

Multi-channel electroencephalography recordings have shown that a visual cue, indicating right hand, left hand or foot motor imagery, can induce a short-lived brain state in the order of about 500 ms. In the present study, 10 able-bodied subjects without any motor imagery experience (naive subjects)

Single-point reactive power control method on voltage rise mitigation in residential networks with high PV penetration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasheminamin, Maryam; Agelidis, Vassilios; Ahmadi, Abdollah

2018-01-01

Voltage rise (VR) due to reverse power flow is an important obstacle for high integration of Photovoltaic (PV) into residential networks. This paper introduces and elaborates a novel methodology of an index-based single-point-reactive power-control (SPRPC) methodology to mitigate voltage rise by ...... system with high r/x ratio. Efficacy, effectiveness and cost study of SPRPC is compared to droop control to evaluate its advantages.......Voltage rise (VR) due to reverse power flow is an important obstacle for high integration of Photovoltaic (PV) into residential networks. This paper introduces and elaborates a novel methodology of an index-based single-point-reactive power-control (SPRPC) methodology to mitigate voltage rise...... by absorbing adequate reactive power from one selected point. The proposed index utilizes short circuit analysis to select the best point to apply this Volt/Var control method. SPRPC is supported technically and financially by distribution network operator that makes it cost effective, simple and efficient...

Review of short-lived radionuclide activities in the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sodd, V.J.

1985-01-01

A review is given of the accelerator-produced short-lived radionuclides which are used in radiopharmaceuticals available commercially in the US and of the accelerator facilities devoted primarily to their production. Reactions for the efficient production of 67 Ga, 81 Rb → /sup 81m/Kr, 111 In, 201 Tl, and 123 I are given. Methods for the production of higher purity 123 I are suggested

Hit-and-run stimulation: a novel concept to reactivate latent HIV-1 infection without cytokine gene induction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolschendorf, Frank; Duverger, Alexandra; Jones, Jennifer; Wagner, Frederic H; Huff, Jason; Benjamin, William H; Saag, Michael S; Niederweis, Michael; Kutsch, Olaf

2010-09-01

Current antiretroviral therapy (ART) efficiently controls HIV-1 replication but fails to eradicate the virus. Even after years of successful ART, HIV-1 can conceal itself in a latent state in long-lived CD4(+) memory T cells. From this latent reservoir, HIV-1 rebounds during treatment interruptions. Attempts to therapeutically eradicate this viral reservoir have yielded disappointing results. A major problem with previously utilized activating agents is that at the concentrations required for efficient HIV-1 reactivation, these stimuli trigger high-level cytokine gene expression (hypercytokinemia). Therapeutically relevant HIV-1-reactivating agents will have to trigger HIV-1 reactivation without the induction of cytokine expression. We present here a proof-of-principle study showing that this is a possibility. In a high-throughput screening effort, we identified an HIV-1-reactivating protein factor (HRF) secreted by the nonpathogenic bacterium Massilia timonae. In primary T cells and T-cell lines, HRF triggered a high but nonsustained peak of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) activity. While this short NF-kappaB peak potently reactivated latent HIV-1 infection, it failed to induce gene expression of several proinflammatory NF-kappaB-dependent cellular genes, such as those for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma). Dissociation of cellular and viral gene induction was achievable, as minimum amounts of Tat protein, synthesized following application of a short NF-kappaB pulse, triggered HIV-1 transactivation and subsequent self-perpetuated HIV-1 expression. In the absence of such a positive feedback mechanism, cellular gene expression was not sustained, suggesting that strategies modulating the NF-kappaB activity profile could be used to selectively trigger HIV-1 reactivation.

How well can global chemistry models calculate the reactivity of short-lived greenhouse gases in the remote troposphere, knowing the chemical composition

Science.gov (United States)

Prather, Michael J.; Flynn, Clare M.; Zhu, Xin; Steenrod, Stephen D.; Strode, Sarah A.; Fiore, Arlene M.; Correa, Gustavo; Murray, Lee T.; Lamarque, Jean-Francois

2018-05-01

We develop a new protocol for merging in situ measurements with 3-D model simulations of atmospheric chemistry with the goal of integrating these data to identify the most reactive air parcels in terms of tropospheric production and loss of the greenhouse gases ozone and methane. Presupposing that we can accurately measure atmospheric composition, we examine whether models constrained by such measurements agree on the chemical budgets for ozone and methane. In applying our technique to a synthetic data stream of 14 880 parcels along 180° W, we are able to isolate the performance of the photochemical modules operating within their global chemistry-climate and chemistry-transport models, removing the effects of modules controlling tracer transport, emissions, and scavenging. Differences in reactivity across models are driven only by the chemical mechanism and the diurnal cycle of photolysis rates, which are driven in turn by temperature, water vapor, solar zenith angle, clouds, and possibly aerosols and overhead ozone, which are calculated in each model. We evaluate six global models and identify their differences and similarities in simulating the chemistry through a range of innovative diagnostics. All models agree that the more highly reactive parcels dominate the chemistry (e.g., the hottest 10 % of parcels control 25-30 % of the total reactivities), but do not fully agree on which parcels comprise the top 10 %. Distinct differences in specific features occur, including the spatial regions of maximum ozone production and methane loss, as well as in the relationship between photolysis and these reactivities. Unique, possibly aberrant, features are identified for each model, providing a benchmark for photochemical module development. Among the six models tested here, three are almost indistinguishable based on the inherent variability caused by clouds, and thus we identify four, effectively distinct, chemical models. Based on this work, we suggest that water vapor

Last developments in the Belgian disposal programme for low and intermediate short-lived waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyazis, Jean-Paul

2006-01-01

After an historical reminder of the several phases of the Belgian program for the disposal of low and medium level short-lived waste since the creation of ONDRAF/NIRAS and the bad results obtained in the 90's by using a pure technical approach, the presentation will explain the main lines of the new methodology developed, as a consequence of the government decision of 16 January 1998 in ONDRAF/NIRAS to improve local acceptance for the disposal project. The way local partnerships were created with four nuclear municipalities under the form of a non-profit organization with a clear mission, the functioning, on a voluntary base, of the different partnerships during four to six years and the concrete results obtained until now using this very innovative method will be addressed. The last developments of the Belgian program for the disposal of low and medium level and short-lived waste will be presented, including the recent and very important decision of the Belgian government of 23 June 2006 to dispose of the low and medium active short-lived waste in a surface disposal installation on the territory of the municipality Dessel. (author)

Borylnitrenes: electrophilic reactive intermediates with high reactivity towards C-H bonds.

Science.gov (United States)

Bettinger, Holger F; Filthaus, Matthias

2010-12-21

Borylnitrenes (catBN 3a and pinBN 3b; cat = catecholato, pin = pinacolato) are reactive intermediates that show high tendency towards insertion into the C-H bonds of unactivated hydrocarbons. The present article summarizes the matrix isolation investigations that were aimed at identifying, characterizing and investigating the chemical behaviour of 3a by spectroscopic means, and of the experiments in solution and in the gas phase that were performed with 3b. Comparison with the reactivity reported for difluorovinylidene 1a in solid argon indicates that 3a shows by and large similar reactivity, but only after photochemical excitation. The derivative 3b inserts into the C-H bonds of hydrocarbon solvents in high yields and thus allows the formation of primary amines, secondary amines, or amides from "unreactive" hydrocarbons. It can also be used for generation of methylamine or methylamide from methane in the gas phase at room temperature. Remaining challenges in the chemistry of borylnitrenes are briefly summarized.

PANTHER Data from SOLVE-II Through CR-AVE: A Contrast Between Long and Short Lived Compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, F. L.; Dutton, G. S.; Elkins, J. W.; Hall, B. D.; Hurst, D. F.; Nance, J. D.; Thompson, T. M.

2006-12-01

PANTHER (PAN and other Trace Hydrohalocarbons ExpeRiment) is an airborne 6-channel gas chromatograph that measures approximately 20 important atmospheric trace gases whose changing burdens impact air quality, climate change and both stratospheric and tropospheric ozone. In this presentation we will contrast measurements of the long-lived compounds against the short-lived compounds. The long-lived compounds tend to have well-defined troposphere boundary conditions and develop spatial gradients due to stratospheric processing. These measurements have played a major role in quantifying stratospheric transport, stratosphere- troposphere exchange, and ozone loss. In contrast the short-lived species develop spatial and temporal gradients in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), due to variations in the surface boundary layer concentrations and the coupling of this surface boundary layer to the TTL via convective processes. Deep convection acts like a "conveyor belt" between the source region in the boundary layer and the relatively stable TTL region, often bypassing the free troposphere where scavenging of these short lived species takes place. Loss rates due to reaction with OH and thermal decomposition are reduced in the cold, dry air of the TTL, resulting in longer survival times. Isolation of the TTL region from the free troposphere can last from days to over a month. Significant amounts of these short-lived compound and their byproducts can therefore be transported into the lower stratosphere (LS). Of particular interest are compounds that contain bromine, iodine, and sulfur, not only because of their intrinsic harmful effects in the atmosphere, but also because they have unique source and sink regions that can help to de- convolve transport.

Freshly induced short-lived gamma-ray activity as a measure of fission rates in lightly re-irradiated spent fuel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kroehnert, H., E-mail: hanna.kroehnert@psi.c [Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), OPRA-E07, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland); Perret, G., E-mail: gregory.perret@psi.c [Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), OPRA-E07, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland); Murphy, M.F., E-mail: mike.murphy@psi.c [Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), OPRA-E07, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland); Chawla, R., E-mail: rakesh.chawla@epfl.c [Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), OPRA-E07, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland); Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)

2010-12-01

A new measurement technique has been developed to determine fission rates in burnt fuel, following re-irradiation in a zero-power research reactor. The development has been made in the frame of the LIFE-PROTEUS program at the Paul Scherrer Institute, which aims at characterizing the interfaces between fresh and highly burnt fuel assemblies in modern LWRs. To discriminate against the high intrinsic gamma-ray activity of the burnt fuel, the proposed measurement technique uses high-energy gamma-rays, above 2000 keV, emitted by short-lived fission products freshly produced in the fuel. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique, a fresh UO{sub 2} sample and a 36 GWd/t burnt UO{sub 2} sample were irradiated in the PROTEUS reactor and their gamma-ray activities were recorded directly after irradiation. For both fresh and the burnt fuel samples, relative fission rates were derived for different core positions, based on the short-lived {sup 142}La (2542 keV), {sup 89}Rb (2570 keV), {sup 138}Cs (2640 keV) and {sup 95}Y (3576 keV) gamma-ray lines. Uncertainties on the inter-position fission rate ratios were mainly due to the uncertainties on the net-area of the gamma-ray peaks and were about 1-3% for the fresh sample, and 3-6% for the burnt one. Thus, for the first time, it has been shown that the short-lived gamma-ray activity, induced in burnt fuel by irradiation in a zero-power reactor, can be used as a quantitative measure of the fission rate. For both fresh and burnt fuel, the measured results agreed, within the uncertainties, with Monte Carlo (MCNPX) predictions.

Inactivation of Candida glabrata by a humid DC argon discharge afterglow: dominant contributions of short-lived aqueous active species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiong, Qing; Liu, Hongbin; Xu, Le; Wang, Xia; Zhu, Qunlin; Lu, Weiping; Chen, Qiang; Zeng, Xue; Yi, Ping

2017-01-01

Plasma medicine applications are currently attracting significant interest all over the world. Bactericidal treatments of Candida glabrata cultured in saline suspension are performed in this study by a room-temperature reactive afterglow of a DC-driven argon discharge. Water vapor was added to the discharge to study the inactivation contributions of reactive hydrolytic species including OH and H 2 O 2 transporting along the gas flow to the treated solutions. The inactivation results indicate that the dominant roles in the bactericidal treatments are played by the short-lived aqueous active species, but not the stable species like H 2 O 2aq (aq indicates an aqueous species). Further analysis shows that the ·OH aq radicals play an important role in the inactivation process. The ·OH aq radicals in the suspension are mostly produced from the direct dissolution of the OH species in the reactive afterglow. With the increase of added water vapor content, the ·OH aq production increases and enhances the inactivation efficiency of C. glabrata . Furthermore, it is found that the ambient air diffusion shows essential effects on the bactericidal activity of the remote humid argon discharge. Higher bactericidal effects can be obtained in open-space treatments compared to in a controlled Ar + H 2 O gas atmosphere. Key active air-byproduct species are believed to be generated in the suspension during the treatments and contributing to the inactivation process. Based on chemical analysis, the peroxynitrous acid ONOOH aq is considered as the key antimicrobial air-byproduct species. These results indicate the important dependence of plasma biomedical effects on the processing environment, which finally relates to the critical contributions of the key reactive species formed therein. (paper)

Continuous administration of short-lived isotopes for evaluating dynamic parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selikson, M.

1985-01-01

In this paper it is shown that continuous but varying infusions (specifically, exponential infusions) of a short-lived radionuclide can be used to evaluate a wide range of dynamic parameters. The detector response to exponential infusions is derived. An example of an inert diffusible substrate for evaluating regional flow and a glucose model for evaluating regional metabolic rate are both worked out. The advantages of using exponential infusion methods are discussed

Live Candida albicans Suppresses Production of Reactive Oxygen Species in Phagocytes▿ †

Science.gov (United States)

Wellington, Melanie; Dolan, Kristy; Krysan, Damian J.

2009-01-01

Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an important aspect of phagocyte-mediated host responses. Since phagocytes play a crucial role in the host response to Candida albicans, we examined the ability of Candida to modulate phagocyte ROS production. ROS production was measured in the murine macrophage cell line J774 and in primary phagocytes using luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence. J774 cells, murine polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), human monocytes, and human PMN treated with live C. albicans produced significantly less ROS than phagocytes treated with heat-killed C. albicans. Live C. albicans also suppressed ROS production in murine bone marrow-derived macrophages from C57BL/6 mice, but not from BALB/c mice. Live C. albicans also suppressed ROS in response to external stimuli. C. albicans and Candida glabrata suppressed ROS production by phagocytes, whereas Saccharomyces cerevisiae stimulated ROS production. The cell wall is the initial point of contact between Candida and phagocytes, but isolated cell walls from both heat-killed and live C. albicans stimulated ROS production. Heat-killed C. albicans has increased surface exposure of 1,3-β-glucan, a cell wall component that can stimulate phagocytes. To determine whether surface 1,3-β-glucan exposure accounted for the difference in ROS production, live C. albicans cells were treated with a sublethal dose of caspofungin to increase surface 1,3-β-glucan exposure. Caspofungin-treated C. albicans was fully able to suppress ROS production, indicating that suppression of ROS overrides stimulatory signals from 1,3-β-glucan. These studies indicate that live C. albicans actively suppresses ROS production in phagocytes in vitro, which may represent an important immune evasion mechanism. PMID:18981256

Short-lived radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis of ocular melanoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Packer, S.; Lambrecht, R.; Atkins, H.L.; Wolf, A.P.

1974-01-01

An experimental procedure has been established to evaluate radiopharmaceuticals for the specific purpose of melanoma detection by scintiscanning. By using the Greene melanoma in the hamster several labeled compounds were compared. Specifically the tumor uptake along with detailed analyses of uptake by various parts of the eye and body were determined in a hamster model. Of those short-lived radionuclides investigated 203 Pb-tris was the most promising as a non-invasive localizing agent for ocular melanoma and it should prove effective for ocular scintigraphy. (U.S.)

Applications of short-lived isotopes in agricultural research in New Zealand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCallum, G.J.; More, R.D.; McNaughton, G.S.; Minchin, P.E.H.; Presland, M.R.; Stout, J.D.

1981-01-01

The use of the short-lived isotopes 11 C and 13 N in agricultural research studies in New Zealand is reviewed. The methods employed to produce these radioisotopes using a 3 MV Van de Graaff accelerator are given. Experiments on transport processes and the uptake of nutrient by plants, and the study of soil processes are described. (Auth.)

The development of fast tantalum foil targets for short-lived isotopes

CERN Document Server

Bennett, J R J; Drumm, P V; Ravn, H L

2003-01-01

The development of fast tantalum foil targets for short-lived isotopes was discussed. It was found that the effusion was faster but the diffusion out of the foils was a limiting factor. The performance of the targets at ISOLDE with beams of **1**1Li, **1**2Be and **1**4Be was also analyzed. (Edited abstract) 13 Refs.

Activation analysis with neutron generators using short-lived radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salma, I.

1993-01-01

The short half-life involves a number of important differences in production, transportation and measurement of radionuclides, and in counting statistics as compared with those in traditional activation analysis. Experiments were performed to investigate the analytical possibilities and prospective utilization of short-lived radionuclides produced by 14-MeV neutron irradiation. A rapid pneumatic transfer system for use with neutron generators was installed and applied for detecting radionuclides with a half-life from 300 ms to 30 s. The transport time for samples with a total mass of 1-4 g is between 130 and 160 ms for pressurized air of 0.1-0.4 MPa. 11 elements were studied by the conventional activation method using both a typical pneumatic transport system (run time 3 s) and the fast pneumatic transport facility. The effect of the cyclic activation technique on the elemental sensitivities was also investigated. (orig.)

Dissolved organic matter composition drives the marine production of brominated very short-lived substances.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yina; Thornton, Daniel C O; Bianchi, Thomas S; Arnold, William A; Shields, Michael R; Chen, Jie; Yvon-Lewis, Shari A

2015-03-17

Brominated very short-lived substances (BrVSLS), such as bromoform, are important trace gases for stratospheric ozone chemistry. These naturally derived trace gases are formed via bromoperoxidase-mediated halogenation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in seawater. Information on DOM type in relation to the observed BrVSLS concentrations in seawater, however, is scarce. We examined the sensitivity of BrVSLS production in relation to the presence of specific DOM moieties. A total of 28 model DOM compounds in artificial seawater were treated with vanadium bromoperoxidase (V-BrPO). Our results show a clear dependence of BrVSLS production on DOM type. In general, molecules that comprise a large fraction of the bulk DOM pool did not noticeably affect BrVSLS production. Only specific cell metabolites and humic acid appeared to significantly enhance BrVSLS production. Amino acids and lignin phenols suppressed enzyme-mediated BrVSLS production and may instead have formed halogenated nonvolatile molecules. Dibromomethane production was not observed in any experiments, suggesting it is not produced by the same pathway as the other BrVSLS. Our results suggest that regional differences in DOM composition may explain the observed BrVSLS concentration variability in the global ocean. Ultimately, BrVSLS production and concentrations are likely affected by DOM composition, reactivity, and cycling in the ocean.

Harvard-MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adelstein, S.J.

1995-02-01

The Harvard-MIT Research Program in Short-lived Radiopharmaceuticals was established in 1977 to foster interaction among groups working in radiopharmaceutical chemistry at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. To this was added a group at The Childrens Hospital. From these collaborations and building upon the special strengths of the participating individuals, laboratories and institutions, it was hoped that original approaches would be found for the design of new, clinically useful, radiolabeled compounds. The original thrust of this proposal included: (a) examination of the coordination chemistry of technetium as a basis for rational radiopharmaceutical design, (b) development of an ultrashort-lived radionuclide generator for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease in newborns, (c) synthesis of receptor-site-directed halopharmaceuticals, (d) improved facile labeling of complex molecules with positron-emitting radionuclides. The authors' 1986 proposal was oriented toward organs and disease, emphasizing radiolabeled agents that delineate specific functions and the distribution of receptors in brain, heart, and tumors. In 1989, they further refined their purposes and focused on two major aims: (a) synthesis and utilization of neutral technetium and rhenium complexes of high specific activity, and (b) development of new approaches to the radiolabeling of proteins, peptides, immunoglobulins, and their fragments. In 1992, the authors amended this proposal to concentrate their efforts on biologically active peptides and proteins for targeted radiodiagnosis and therapy

Harvard-MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adelstein, S.J. [Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States). Office of Sponsored Programs

1995-02-01

The Harvard-MIT Research Program in Short-lived Radiopharmaceuticals was established in 1977 to foster interaction among groups working in radiopharmaceutical chemistry at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. To this was added a group at The Childrens Hospital. From these collaborations and building upon the special strengths of the participating individuals, laboratories and institutions, it was hoped that original approaches would be found for the design of new, clinically useful, radiolabeled compounds. The original thrust of this proposal included: (a) examination of the coordination chemistry of technetium as a basis for rational radiopharmaceutical design, (b) development of an ultrashort-lived radionuclide generator for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease in newborns, (c) synthesis of receptor-site-directed halopharmaceuticals, (d) improved facile labeling of complex molecules with positron-emitting radionuclides. The authors` 1986 proposal was oriented toward organs and disease, emphasizing radiolabeled agents that delineate specific functions and the distribution of receptors in brain, heart, and tumors. In 1989, they further refined their purposes and focused on two major aims: (a) synthesis and utilization of neutral technetium and rhenium complexes of high specific activity, and (b) development of new approaches to the radiolabeling of proteins, peptides, immunoglobulins, and their fragments. In 1992, the authors amended this proposal to concentrate their efforts on biologically active peptides and proteins for targeted radiodiagnosis and therapy.

Corrections for the combined effects of decay and dead time in live-timed counting of short-lived radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fitzgerald, R.

2016-01-01

Studies and calibrations of short-lived radionuclides, for example "1"5O, are of particular interest in nuclear medicine. Yet counting experiments on such species are vulnerable to an error due to the combined effect of decay and dead time. Separate decay corrections and dead-time corrections do not account for this issue. Usually counting data are decay-corrected to the start time of the count period, or else instead of correcting the count rate, the mid-time of the measurement is used as the reference time. Correction factors are derived for both those methods, considering both extending and non-extending dead time. Series approximations are derived here and the accuracy of those approximations are discussed. - Highlights: • Derived combined effects of decay and dead time. • Derived for counting systems with extending or non-extending dead times. • Derived series expansions for both midpoint and decay-to-start-time methods. • Useful for counting experiments with short-lived radionuclides. • Examples given for "1"5O, used in PET scanning.

How well can global chemistry models calculate the reactivity of short-lived greenhouse gases in the remote troposphere, knowing the chemical composition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. J. Prather

2018-05-01

Full Text Available We develop a new protocol for merging in situ measurements with 3-D model simulations of atmospheric chemistry with the goal of integrating these data to identify the most reactive air parcels in terms of tropospheric production and loss of the greenhouse gases ozone and methane. Presupposing that we can accurately measure atmospheric composition, we examine whether models constrained by such measurements agree on the chemical budgets for ozone and methane. In applying our technique to a synthetic data stream of 14 880 parcels along 180° W, we are able to isolate the performance of the photochemical modules operating within their global chemistry-climate and chemistry-transport models, removing the effects of modules controlling tracer transport, emissions, and scavenging. Differences in reactivity across models are driven only by the chemical mechanism and the diurnal cycle of photolysis rates, which are driven in turn by temperature, water vapor, solar zenith angle, clouds, and possibly aerosols and overhead ozone, which are calculated in each model. We evaluate six global models and identify their differences and similarities in simulating the chemistry through a range of innovative diagnostics. All models agree that the more highly reactive parcels dominate the chemistry (e.g., the hottest 10 % of parcels control 25–30 % of the total reactivities, but do not fully agree on which parcels comprise the top 10 %. Distinct differences in specific features occur, including the spatial regions of maximum ozone production and methane loss, as well as in the relationship between photolysis and these reactivities. Unique, possibly aberrant, features are identified for each model, providing a benchmark for photochemical module development. Among the six models tested here, three are almost indistinguishable based on the inherent variability caused by clouds, and thus we identify four, effectively distinct, chemical models. Based on this

Emission channeling lattice location experiments with short-lived isotopes

CERN Multimedia

Wahl, U; Ronning, C R

2007-01-01

Emission channeling with position-sensitive detectors is a well-established technique at ISOLDE for studying the lattice location of radioactive impurities implanted into single crystals. In the case of electron emitting isotopes, however, due to count rate and noise-related limitations of the detection systems, the technique was restricted to isotopes with half lives above 6 h and electron energies above 40 keV. Recently, major technical developments have been realized and new equipment has been acquired which has allowed these limitations to be overcome and made feasible electron emission channeling experiments with short-lived isotopes and at low electron energies.\\\\ As first application, making use of two new on-line emission channeling setups at ISOLDE, we propose to investigate the lattice location of the transition metals Ni (2.5 h) and Co (1.6 h) in semiconductors, in particular in ZnO and GaN, by means of on-line $\\beta^{-}$-emission channeling experiments. In addition, we would like to study the lat...

Highly reactive light-dependent monoterpenes in the Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Jardine, A. B.; Jardine, K. J.; Fuentes, J. D.; Martin, S. T.; Martins, G.; Durgante, F.; Carneiro, V.; Higuchi, N.; Manzi, A. O.; Chambers, J. Q.

2015-03-01

Despite orders of magnitude difference in atmospheric reactivity and great diversity in biological functioning, little is known about monoterpene speciation in tropical forests. Here we report vertically resolved ambient air mixing ratios for 12 monoterpenes in a central Amazon rainforest including observations of the highly reactive cis-β-ocimene (160 ppt), trans-β-ocimene (79 ppt), and terpinolene (32 ppt) which accounted for an estimated 21% of total monoterpene composition yet 55% of the upper canopy monoterpene ozonolysis rate. All 12 monoterpenes showed a mixing ratio peak in the upper canopy, with three demonstrating subcanopy peaks in 7 of 11 profiles. Leaf level emissions of highly reactive monoterpenes accounted for up to 1.9% of photosynthesis confirming light-dependent emissions across several Amazon tree genera. These results suggest that highly reactive monoterpenes play important antioxidant roles during photosynthesis in plants and serve as near-canopy sources of secondary organic aerosol precursors through atmospheric photooxidation via ozonolysis.

Harvard--MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Progress report, September 1, 1977--April 30, 1978

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adelstein, S.J.; Brownell, G.L.

1978-05-01

Progress is reported on the following studies: chemistry studies designed to achieve a more complete understanding of the fundamental chemistry of technetium in order to facilitate the design of future radiopharmaceuticals incorporating the radionuclide /sup 99m/Tc; the development of new radiopharmaceuticals intended to improve image quality and lower radiation doses by the use of short-lived radionuclides and disease-specific agents; the development of short-lived positron-emitting radionuclides which offer advantages in transverse section imaging of regional physiological processes; and studies of the toxic effects of particulate radiation

Production cross sections of short-lived silver radionuclides from natPd(p,xn) nuclear processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khandaker, Mayeen Uddin; Kim, Kwangsoo; Kim, Guinyun

2012-01-01

Production cross-sections of short-lived 103 Ag, 104m Ag and 104g Ag radionuclides from proton-induced reactions on natural palladium (Pd) were measured up to 41 MeV by using a stacked-foil activation technique combined with high resolution γ-ray spectrometry. The present results are compared with the available literature values as well as theoretical data calculated by the TALYS and the ALICE-IPPE computer codes. Note that production cross-sections of the 104m Ag radionuclide from nat Pd(p,xn) processes has been measured here for the first time. Physical thick target yields for the investigated radionuclides were deduced from the respective threshold energy to 41 MeV taking into account that the total energy is absorbed in the targets. Measured data of the short-lived 103 Ag radionuclide are noteworthy due to its possible applications as a precursor for the indirect production of widely used therapeutic 103 Pd radionuclide via nat Pd(p,xn) 103 Ag → 103 Pd processes. On the other hand, the investigated 104 Ag radionuclide finds importance due to its potential use as a diagnostic and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging analogue. Above all, measured data will enrich the literature database leading to various applications in science and technology.

Determination of nuclear spins of short-lived isotopes by laser induced fluorescence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchinger, F.; Dabkiewicz, P.; Kremmling, H.; Kuehl, T.; Mueller, A.C.; Schuessler, H.A.

1980-01-01

The spins of several nuclear ground and isomeric states have been measured for a number of mercury isotopes. The fluorescent light from the 6s6p 3 P 1 state is observed at 2537 Angstroem after excitation with the frequency doubled output of a pulsed dye laser. Four different laser induced fluorescence techniques were tested for their applicability: double resonance, Hanle effect, time delayed integral Hanle beats, and time resolved quantum beats. The sensitivity and selectivity of these models are compared with emphasis on the determination of spins of nuclei far from beta-stability, where short half lives and low production yields restrict the number of available atoms. The experiments were carried out on-line with the ISOLDE isotope separator at CERN at densities as low as 10 6 atoms/cm 3 . Results for the very neutron deficient high spin mercury isomers with half lives of several seconds, but also for the ground states of the abundant low spin stable mercury isotopes, are given as examples. The test measurements determined the nuclear spins of the odd sup(185m-191m)Hg isomers to be I = 13/2. (orig.)

Interest of the Department of Energy in production and development of short-lived radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thiessen, J.W.

1985-01-01

The Department of Energy has developed production of potentially useful radionuclides for applications in medicine. The Department's financial commitment and the short-lived radionuclide production program, with emphasis on iodine-123, is discussed

Continuous administration of short-lived radioisotope tracers and the analogous Laplace transform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orr, J.S.

1979-01-01

Short-lived radioactive tracers are used because of the low radiation dose to patients. Another advantage finding increasing use, however, is that the equilibrium activities achieved by continuous administration to a steady state contain kinetic information. This is not the case with long-lived isotopes. The derivation of quantitative kinetic information in the form of rate constants or flows requires the formulation of a model of the system being studied. Several approaches to this have been published based on a model of single compartments with simultaneous arrival of tracer. To deal with more realistic models a method is proposed which uses the analogy between the procedure of continuous administration of short-lived tracer and the Laplace transform. This analogy permits all the theorems of Laplace transform theory to be applied to the analysis of measured activities. The basis of the analogy is explained and examples are given of its application to a number of models which represent actual physiology more realistically than single compartment models. In these applications the transformed equations representing the model, with measured values of activity inserted for each transform, are solved to derive the rate constants. This is different from the use of Laplace transforms where the constant coefficients are known and the initial value problem is solved to find the behaviour of the variables. (author)

Time-Resolved Fluorescence Immunoassay for C-Reactive Protein Using Colloidal Semiconducting Nanoparticles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pekka Hänninen

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Besides the typical short-lived fluorescence with decay times in the nanosecond range, colloidal II/VI semiconductor nanoparticles dispersed in buffer also possess a long-lived fluorescence component with decay times in the microsecond range. Here, the signal intensity of the long-lived luminescence at microsecond range is shown to increase 1,000-fold for CdTe nanoparticles in PBS buffer. This long-lived fluorescence can be conveniently employed for time-gated fluorescence detection, which allows for improved signal-to-noise ratio and thus the use of low concentrations of nanoparticles. The detection principle is demonstrated with a time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay for the detection of C-reactive protein (CRP using CdSe-ZnS nanoparticles and green light excitation.

Place of the final disposal of short lived dismantling waste; Plats foer slutfoervaring av kortlivat rivningsavfall

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-01-15

This report deals with the short-lived low and intermediate level radioactive waste, which will mainly arise from the dismantling of the Swedish nuclear power plants, but also the dismantling of other nuclear facilities. For these installations to be dismantled, there must be the capacity to receive and dispose of dismantling waste. SKB plans to expand the existing final repository for short-lived radioactive waste (SFR) in Forsmark for this purpose. The legislation requires alternatives to the chosen location. The alternate location for the disposal of decommissioning waste SKB has chosen to compare with is a location in the Simpevarp area outside Oskarshamn. There are currently Oskarshamn nuclear power plant and SKB between stock 'CLAB'. The choice of Simpevarp as alternative location is based on that it's one of the places in the country where data on the bedrock is available to an extent that allows an assessment of the prospects for long-term security, such an assessment is actually showing good potential, and that the location provide realistic opportunities to put into practice the disposal of decommissioning waste. At a comparison between the disposal of short-lived decommissioning waste in an extension of SFR with the option to build a separate repository for short-lived decommissioning waste in Simpevarp, the conclusion is that both options offer potentially good prospects for long-term security. The differences still indicated speaks to the Forsmark advantage. Similar conclusions were obtained when comparing the factors of environment, health and social aspects.

IN-SITU RADIONUCLIDE TRANSPORT NEAR THE NOPAL I URANIUM DEPOSIT AT PENA BLANCA, MEXICO: CONSTRAINTS FROM SHORT-LIVED DECAY-SERIES RADIONUCLIDES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, S.; Ku, T.L.; Todd, V.; Murrell, M.; Pineda, J. Alfredo Rodriguez; Dinsmoor, J.; Mitchell, A.

2005-01-01

For nuclear waste management, an important mechanism by which radioactive waste components are isolated from returning to the human environment, the biosphere, is by the geological barrier in which the effectiveness of the barrier is characterized by in-situ retardation factor, i.e., the transport rate of a radionuclide relative to that of groundwater. As part of natural analog studies of the Yucca Mountain Project of the U. S. Department of Energy, we propose such characterization by using naturally-occurring decay-series radioisotopes as an analog. We collected large-volume (>1000 liters) groundwater samples from three wells (PB, Pozos, and PB4, respectively) near the Nopal I Uranium Ore site at Pena Blanca, Mexico, by using an in-situ Mn-cartridge filtration technique for analysis of short-lived decay-series radionuclides. Results show that the activities of short-lived radioisotopes ( 228 Ra, 224 Ra and 223 Ra) and activity ratios of 224 Ra/ 228 Ra and 224 Ra/ 223 Ra are higher at PB and Pozos than at PB4. In contrast, the 210 Po activity is much lower at PB and Pozos than at PB4. The high Ra activities and activities ratios at PB and Pozos are attributable to the high alpha-recoil input from the aquifer rocks, while the high 210 Po activity at PB4 is due to the enhanced colloidal transport. Based on a uranium-series transport model, we estimate that the in-situ retardation factor of Ra is (0.43 ± 0.02) x 10 3 at PB, (1.68 ± 0.08) x 10 3 at Pozos, and (1.19 ± 0.08) x 10 3 at PB4 and that the mean fracture width in the aquifer rocks is about 0.23 (micro)m at PB, 0.37 (micro)m at Posos, and 4.0 (micro)m at PB4, respectively. The large fracture width at PB4 as derived from the model provides an additional evidence to the inference from the Po measurements that particle-reactive radionuclides are transported mainly as colloidal forms through the large fractures in rocks. Our model also suggests that in addition to alpha recoil, decay of 226 Ra from the adsorbed

Aube storage center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. Annual report 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-06-01

The National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra), was established by the December 1991 Waste Act as a public body in charge of the long-term management of all radioactive waste, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (formerly the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment), and the Ministry of Research. The Andra operates two storage centers in the Aube region (France): the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes, and the center for very-low-level radioactive wastes. This document is the 2008 activity report of the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. It presents a review of the activities of the center: presentation of the installations, safety and radiation protection, events or incidents, environmental monitoring, wastes management, public information

Reactive sites influence in PMMA oligomers reactivity: a DFT study

Science.gov (United States)

Paz, C. V.; Vásquez, S. R.; Flores, N.; García, L.; Rico, J. L.

2018-01-01

In this work, we present a theoretical study of methyl methacrylate (MMA) living anionic polymerization. The study was addressed to understanding two important experimental observations made for Michael Szwarc in 1956. The unexpected effect of reactive sites concentration in the propagation rate, and the self-killer behavior of MMA (deactivating of living anionic polymerization). The theoretical calculations were performed by density functional theory (DFT) to obtain the frontier molecular orbitals values. These values were used to calculate and analyze the chemical interaction descriptors in DFT-Koopmans’ theorem. As a result, it was observed that the longest chain-length species (related with low concentration of reactive sites) exhibit the highest reactivity (behavior associated with the increase of the propagation rate). The improvement in this reactivity was attributed to the crosslinking produced in the polymethyl methacrylate chains. Meanwhile, the self-killer behavior was associated with the intermolecular forces present in the reactive sites. This behavior was associated to an obstruction in solvation, since the active sites remained active through all propagation species. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the Szwarc experiments.

Simulation Studies of Diffusion-Release and Effusive-Flow of Short-Lived Radioactive Isotopes

CERN Document Server

Zhang, Yan; Kawai, Yoko

2005-01-01

Delay times associated with diffusion release from targets and effusive-flow transport of radioactive isotopes to ion sources are principal intensity limiters at ISOL-based radioactive ion beam facilities, and simulation studies with computer models are cost effective methods for designing targets and vapor transport systems with minimum delay times to avoid excessive decay losses of short lived ion species. A finite difference code, Diffuse II, was recently developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study diffusion-release of short-lived species from three principal target geometries. Simulation results are in close agreement with analytical solutions to Fick’s second equation. Complementary to the development of Diffuse II, the Monte-Carlo code, Effusion, was developed to address issues related to the design of fast vapor transport systems. Results, derived by using Effusion, are also found to closely agree with experimental measurements. In this presentation, the codes will be used in conc...

Short-lived pollutants in the Arctic: their climate impact and possible mitigation strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Menon

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Several short-lived pollutants known to impact Arctic climate may be contributing to the accelerated rates of warming observed in this region relative to the global annually averaged temperature increase. Here, we present a summary of the short-lived pollutants that impact Arctic climate including methane, tropospheric ozone, and tropospheric aerosols. For each pollutant, we provide a description of the major sources and the mechanism of forcing. We also provide the first seasonally averaged forcing and corresponding temperature response estimates focused specifically on the Arctic. The calculations indicate that the forcings due to black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone lead to a positive surface temperature response indicating the need to reduce emissions of these species within and outside the Arctic. Additional aerosol species may also lead to surface warming if the aerosol is coincident with thin, low lying clouds. We suggest strategies for reducing the warming based on current knowledge and discuss directions for future research to address the large remaining uncertainties.

Short-lived pollutants in the Arctic: their climate impact and possible mitigation strategies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Menon, Surabi; Quinn, P.K.; Bates, T.S.; Baum, E.; Doubleday, N.; Fiore, A.M.; Flanner, M.; Fridlind, A.; Garrett, T.J.; Koch, D.; Menon, S.; Shindell, D.; Stohl, A.; Warren, S.G.

2007-09-24

Several short-lived pollutants known to impact Arctic climate may be contributing to the accelerated rates of warming observed in this region relative to the global annually averaged temperature increase. Here, we present a summary of the short-lived pollutants that impact Arctic climate including methane, tropospheric ozone, and tropospheric aerosols. For each pollutant, we provide a description of the major sources and the mechanism of forcing. We also provide the first seasonally averaged forcing and corresponding temperature response estimates focused specifically on the Arctic. The calculations indicate that the forcings due to black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone lead to a positive surface temperature response indicating the need to reduce emissions of these species within and outside the Arctic. Additional aerosol species may also lead to surface warming if the aerosol is coincident with thin, low lying clouds. We suggest strategies for reducing the warming based on current knowledge and discuss directions for future research to address the large remaining uncertainties.

High Accuracy mass Measurement of the very Short-Lived Halo Nuclide $^{11}$Li

CERN Multimedia

Le scornet, G

2002-01-01

The archetypal halo nuclide $^{11}$Li has now attracted a wealth of experimental and theoretical attention. The most outstanding property of this nuclide, its extended radius that makes it as big as $^{48}$Ca, is highly dependent on the binding energy of the two neutrons forming the halo. New generation experiments using radioactive beams with elastic proton scattering, knock-out and transfer reactions, together with $\\textit{ab initio}$ calculations require the tightening of the constraint on the binding energy. Good metrology also requires confirmation of the sole existing precision result to guard against a possible systematic deviation (or mistake). We propose a high accuracy mass determintation of $^{11}$Li, a particularly challenging task due to its very short half-life of 8.6 ms, but one perfectly suiting the MISTRAL spectrometer, now commissioned at ISOLDE. We request 15 shifts of beam time.

Dynamical Detection of Topological Phase Transitions in Short-Lived Atomic Systems

OpenAIRE

Setiawan, F.; Sengupta, K.; Spielman, I. B.; Sau, Jay D.

2015-01-01

We demonstrate that dynamical probes provide direct means of detecting the topological phase transition (TPT) between conventional and topological phases, which would otherwise be difficult to access because of loss or heating processes. We propose to avoid such heating by rapidly quenching in and out of the short-lived topological phase across the transition that supports gapless excitations. Following the quench, the distribution of excitations in the final conventional phase carries signat...

Validation of Six Short and Ultra-short Screening Instruments for Depression for People Living with HIV in Ontario

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Choi, Stephanie KY; Boyle, Eleanor; Burchell, Ann

2015-01-01

Objective Major depression affects up to half of people living with HIV. However, among HIV-positive patients, depression goes unrecognized 60–70% of the time in non-psychiatric settings. We sought to evaluate three screening instruments and their short forms to facilitate the recognition...... acceptance. This could lead to clinical benefits in fast-paced speciality HIV care settings and better management of depression in HIV-positive patients....

Aube storage centre for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. Annual report 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-06-01

The National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra), was established by the December 1991 Waste Act as a public body in charge of the long-term management of all radioactive waste, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (formerly the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment), and the Ministry of Research. The Andra operates two storage centers in the Aube region (France): the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes, and the center for very-low-level radioactive wastes. This document is the 2009 activity report of the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. It presents a review of the activities of the center: presentation of the installations, safety and radiation protection, events or incidents, environmental monitoring, wastes management, public information, opinion of the Health and safety Committee (CHSCT)

Aube storage center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. Annual report 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-06-01

The National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra), was established by the December 1991 Waste Act as a public body in charge of the long-term management of all radioactive waste, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (formerly the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment), and the Ministry of Research. The Andra operates two storage centers in the Aube region (France): the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes, and the center for very-low-level radioactive wastes. This document is the 2010 activity report of the center for short-lived low- and intermediate-level wastes. It presents a review of the activities of the center: presentation of the installations, safety and radiation protection, events or incidents, environmental monitoring, wastes management, public information, recommendations of the Health and safety Committee (CHSCT)

Live Video Classroom Observation: An Effective Approach to Reducing Reactivity in Collecting Observational Information for Teacher Professional Development

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Jiwen

2015-01-01

This paper examines the significance of live video classroom observations of teaching practice to reduce reactivity (the observer effect) so as to obtain more credible observational information for teacher professional development in a secondary school in the largest city in southern China. Although much has been discussed regarding the use of…

High-power proton linac for transmuting the long-lived fission products in nuclear waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lawrence, G.P.

1991-01-01

High power proton linacs are being considered at Los Alamos as drivers for high-flux spallation neutron sources that can be used to transmute the troublesome long-lived fission products in defense nuclear waste. The transmutation scheme being studied provides a high flux (> 10{sup 16}/cm{sup 2}{minus}s) of thermal neutrons, which efficiently converts fission products to stable or short-lived isotopes. A medium-energy proton linac with an average beam power of about 110 MW can burn the accumulated Tc99 and I129 inventory at the DOE's Hanford Site within 30 years. Preliminary concepts for this machine are described. 3 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.

Contribution of short-lived nuclides to decay heat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katakura, Jun-ichi

1987-01-01

Comments are made on the calculation of decay heat, centering on evaluation of average decay energy. It is difficult to obtain sufficiently useful decay diagrams of short lived nucleides. High-energy levels are often missing in inferior decay diagrams, leading to an overestimation of the intensity of beta-rays at low-energy levels. Such an overestimation or underestimation due to the inferiority of a decay diagram is referred to as pandemonium effect. The pandemonium effect can be assessed by means of the ratio of the measured energy of the highest level of the daughter nuclide to the Q β -value of the beta-decay. When a satisfactory decay diagram cannot be obtained, the average decay energy has to be estimated by theoretical calculation. The gross theory for beta-decay proposed by Yamada and Takahashi is employed for the calculation. To carry out the calculation according to this theory, it is required to determine the value for the parameter Q 00 , the lowest energy of the daughter nuclide that meets the selection rule for beta-decay. Currently, Q 00 to be used for this purpose is estimated from data on the energy of the lowest level found in a decay diagram, even if it is inferior. Some examples of calculation of decay heat using the average beta- or gamma-ray energy are shown and compared with measurements. (author)

Centuries of thermal sea-level rise due to anthropogenic emissions of short-lived greenhouse gases.

Science.gov (United States)

Zickfeld, Kirsten; Solomon, Susan; Gilford, Daniel M

2017-01-24

Mitigation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases with short lifetimes (order of a year to decades) can contribute to limiting warming, but less attention has been paid to their impacts on longer-term sea-level rise. We show that short-lived greenhouse gases contribute to sea-level rise through thermal expansion (TSLR) over much longer time scales than their atmospheric lifetimes. For example, at least half of the TSLR due to increases in methane is expected to remain present for more than 200 y, even if anthropogenic emissions cease altogether, despite the 10-y atmospheric lifetime of this gas. Chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons have already been phased out under the Montreal Protocol due to concerns about ozone depletion and provide an illustration of how emission reductions avoid multiple centuries of future TSLR. We examine the "world avoided" by the Montreal Protocol by showing that if these gases had instead been eliminated in 2050, additional TSLR of up to about 14 cm would be expected in the 21st century, with continuing contributions lasting more than 500 y. Emissions of the hydrofluorocarbon substitutes in the next half-century would also contribute to centuries of future TSLR. Consideration of the time scales of reversibility of TSLR due to short-lived substances provides insights into physical processes: sea-level rise is often assumed to follow air temperature, but this assumption holds only for TSLR when temperatures are increasing. We present a more complete formulation that is accurate even when atmospheric temperatures are stable or decreasing due to reductions in short-lived gases or net radiative forcing.

Short-lived cyclotron-produced radioisotopes: Medi-Physics, Inc.'s commitment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kramer, H.H.

1985-01-01

Medi-Physics, Inc., is a major US supplier of short-lived cyclotron-produced radioisotopes for radiopharmaceuticals, as well as routinely producing and distributing the greatest number of 123 I radiopharmaceuticals. The present commercial production capacity for 123 I is more than ten times the theoretical need for existing procedures and is more than adequate for the research and development of new radiopharmaceuticals. However, production capacity is only one component of many that are required to supply a radioisotope for human use. These components are summarized in this paper

Prototype Systems Containing Human Cytochrome P450 for High-Throughput Real-Time Detection of DNA Damage by Compounds That Form DNA-Reactive Metabolites.

Science.gov (United States)

Brito Palma, Bernardo; Fisher, Charles W; Rueff, José; Kranendonk, Michel

2016-05-16

The formation of reactive metabolites through biotransformation is the suspected cause of many adverse drug reactions. Testing for the propensity of a drug to form reactive metabolites has increasingly become an integral part of lead-optimization strategy in drug discovery. DNA reactivity is one undesirable facet of a drug or its metabolites and can lead to increased risk of cancer and reproductive toxicity. Many drugs are metabolized by cytochromes P450 in the liver and other tissues, and these reactions can generate hard electrophiles. These hard electrophilic reactive metabolites may react with DNA and may be detected in standard in vitro genotoxicity assays; however, the majority of these assays fall short due to the use of animal-derived organ extracts that inadequately represent human metabolism. The current study describes the development of bacterial systems that efficiently detect DNA-damaging electrophilic reactive metabolites generated by human P450 biotransformation. These assays use a GFP reporter system that detects DNA damage through induction of the SOS response and a GFP reporter to control for cytotoxicity. Two human CYP1A2-competent prototypes presented here have appropriate characteristics for the detection of DNA-damaging reactive metabolites in a high-throughput manner. The advantages of this approach include a short assay time (120-180 min) with real-time measurement, sensitivity to small amounts of compound, and adaptability to a microplate format. These systems are suitable for high-throughput assays and can serve as prototypes for the development of future enhanced versions.

Seasonal variation in the behaviour of a short-lived rodent.

Science.gov (United States)

Eccard, Jana A; Herde, Antje

2013-11-15

Short lived, iteroparous animals in seasonal environments experience variable social and environmental conditions over their lifetime. Animals can be divided into those with a "young-of-the-year" life history (YY, reproducing and dying in the summer of birth) and an "overwinter" life history (OW, overwintering in a subadult state before reproducing next spring).We investigated how behavioural patterns across the population were affected by season and sex, and whether variation in behaviour reflects the variation in life history patterns of each season. Applications of pace-of-life (POL) theory would suggest that long-lived OW animals are shyer in order to increase survival, and YY are bolder in order to increase reproduction. Therefore, we expected that in winter and spring samples, when only OW can be sampled, the animals should be shyer than in summer and autumn, when both OW and YY animals can be sampled.We studied common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations, which express typical, intra-annual density fluctuation. We captured a total of 492 voles at different months over 3 years and examined boldness and activity level with two standardised behavioural experiments. Behavioural variables of the two tests were correlated with each other. Boldness, measured as short latencies in both tests, was extremely high in spring compared to other seasons. Activity level was highest in spring and summer, and higher in males than in females. Being bold in laboratory tests may translate into higher risk-taking in nature by being more mobile while seeking out partners or valuable territories. Possible explanations include asset-protection, with OW animals being rather old with low residual reproductive value in spring. Therefore, OW may take higher risks during this season. Offspring born in spring encounter a lower population density and may have higher reproductive value than offspring of later cohorts. A constant connection between life history and animal personality, as

Separation efficiency of the MASHA facility for short-lived mercury isotopes

Science.gov (United States)

Rodin, A. M.; Belozerov, A. V.; Chernysheva, E. V.; Dmitriev, S. N.; Gulyaev, A. V.; Gulyaeva, A. V.; Itkis, M. G.; Kliman, J.; Kondratiev, N. A.; Krupa, L.; Novoselov, A. S.; Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Podshibyakin, A. V.; Salamatin, V. S.; Siváček, I.; Stepantsov, S. V.; Vanin, D. V.; Vedeneev, V. Yu.; Yukhimchuk, S. A.; Granja, C.; Pospisil, S.

2014-06-01

The mass-separator MASHA built to identify Super Heavy Elements by their mass-to-charge ratios is described. The results of the off- and on-line measurements of its separation efficiency are presented. In the former case four calibrated leaks of noble gases were used. In the latter the efficiency was measured via 284 MeV Ar beam and with using the hot catcher. The ECR ion source was used in both cases. The -radioactive isotopes of mercury produced in the complete fusion reaction Ar+SmHg+xn were detected at the mass-separator focal plane. The half-lives and the separation efficiency for the short-lived mercury isotopes were measured. Potentialities of the MEDIPIX detector system have been demonstrated for future use at the mass-separator MASHA.

REACTIVITY OF ANIONS IN INTERSTELLAR MEDIA: DETECTABILITY AND APPLICATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Senent, M. L. [Departamento de Quimica y Fisica Teoricas, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, IEM-C.S.I.C., Serrano 121, Madrid E-28006 (Spain); Hochlaf, M., E-mail: senent@iem.cfmac.csic.es, E-mail: hochlaf@univ-mlv.fr [Laboratoire de Modelisation et Simulation Multi Echelle, Universite Paris-Est, MSME UMR 8208 CNRS, 5 boulevard Descartes, F-77454 Marne-la-Vallee (France)

2013-05-01

We propose a general rule to distinguish between detectable and undetectable astronomical anions. We believe that only few anions live long enough in the interstellar medium and thus can be detected. Our method is based on quantum mechanical calculations capable of describing accurately the evolution of electronic states during chemical processes. The still not fully understood reactivity at low temperatures is discussed considering non-adiabatic effects. The role of excited states has usually been neglected in previous works which basically focused on the ground electronic state for interpretations of experimental observations. Here, we deal with unsaturated carbon chains (e.g., C{sub n} H{sup -}), which show a high density of electronic states close to their corresponding ground electronic states, complex molecular dynamics, and non-adiabatic phenomena. Our general rule shows that it is not sufficient that anions exist in the gas phase (in the laboratory) to be present in media such as astrophysical media, since formation and decomposition reactions of these anions may allow the population of anionic electronic states to autodetach, forming neutrals. For C{sub n} H, reactivity depends strongly on n, where long and short chains behave differently. Formation of linear chains is relevant.

Rapid transfer of short-lived radioisotopes via a 2. 4 km rabbit system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burgerjon, J J; Gelbart, Z; Lau, V; Lehnart, D; Lenz, J; Pate, B D; Ruth, T J; Sprenger, H P; van Oers, N S.C.

1984-09-01

A 2.4 km long pipeline between a cyclotron and a hospital is used for the rapid transfer of short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. The vials containing the pharmaceuticals are placed inside capsules (rabbits) that are blown through a tube by means of compressed air. Travel times as short as 2 min are achieved, which makes the system suitable for the transfer of /sup 15/O, which has a 2 min half-life. The construction and test results of the system are described along with a computer model, developed to explain some properties of the system. 7 references, 15 figures, 2 tables.

Separation of actinides and long-lived fission products from high-level radioactive wastes (a review)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolarik, Z.

1991-11-01

The management of high-level radioactive wastes is facilitated, if long-lived and radiotoxic actinides and fission products are separated before the final disposal. Especially important is the separation of americium, curium, plutonium, neptunium, strontium, cesium and technetium. The separated nuclides can be deposited separately from the bulk of the high-level waste, but their transmutation to short-lived nuclides is a muchmore favourable option. This report reviews the chemistry of the separation of actinides and fission products from radioactive wastes. The composition, nature and conditioning of the wastes are described. The main attention is paid to the solvent extraction chemistry of the elements and to the application of solvent extraction in unit operations of potential partitioning processes. Also reviewed is the behaviour of the elements in the ion exchange chromatography, precipitation, electrolysis from aqueous solutions and melts, and the distribution between molten salts and metals. Flowsheets of selected partitioning processes are shown and general aspects of the waste partitioning are shortly discussed. (orig.) [de

Development of a system for real-time measurements of metabolite transport in plants using short-lived positron-emitting radiotracers

Science.gov (United States)

Kiser, Matthew R.

be introduced to plants as biologically active molecules such as 11CO2, N13O-3, 18F--[H2O], and H152O . Plants for these studies are grown in controlled-environment chambers at the Phytotron. The chambers offer an array of control for temperature, humidity, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and light intensity. Additionally, the Phytotron houses one large reach-in growth chamber that is dedicated to this project for radioisotope labeling measurements. There are several important properties of short-lived positron-emitting radio-tracers that make them well suited for use in investigating metabolite transport in plants. First, because the molecular mass of a radioisotope-tagged compound is only minutely different from the corresponding stable compound, radiotracer substances should be metabolized and transported in plants the same as their non-radioactive counterparts. Second, because the relatively high energy gamma rays emitted from electron-positron annihilation are attenuated very little by plant tissue, the real-time distribution of a radiotracer can be measured in vivo in plants. Finally, the short radioactive half-lives of these isotopes allow for repeat measurements on the same plant in a short period of time. For example, in studies of short-term environmental changes on plant metabolite dynamics, a single plant can be labeled multiple times to measure its responses to different, environmental conditions. Also, different short-lived radiotracers can be applied to the same plant over a short period of time to investigate the transport and allocation of various metabolites. This newly developed system provides the capabilities for production of 11CO2 at TUNL, transfer of the 11CO 2 gas from the target area at TUNL to a radiation-shielded cryogenic trap at the Phytotron, labeling of photoassimilates with 11C, and in vivo gamma-ray detection for real-time measurements of the radiotracer distribution in small plants. The experimental techniques and instrumentation

Broadband and High power Reactive Jamming Resilient Wireless Communication

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-21

Broadband and High -power Reactive Jamming Resilient Wireless Communication The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of... available in extremely hostile environments, where FHSS and DSSS are completely defeated by a broadband and high -power reactive jammer. b. Wireless...SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 12. DISTRIBUTION AVAILIBILITY STATEMENT 6. AUTHORS

Development of the k0-based cyclic neutron activation analysis for short-lived radionuclides

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dung, H.M.; Blaauw, M.; Beasley, D.; Freitas, M.D.C.

2011-01-01

The k0-based cyclic neutron activation analysis (k0-CNAA) technique has been studied to explore the applicability at the Portuguese research reactor (RPI). In particular, for the determination of elements which form short-lived radionuclides, particularly fluorine (20F, 11.16 s half-life) and

"Living high - training low" vs. "living high - training high": erythropoietic responses and performance of adolescent cross-country skiers.

Science.gov (United States)

Christoulas, K; Karamouzis, M; Mandroukas, K

2011-03-01

To determine and compare the erythropoietic response and exercise performance of adolescent cross-country skiers, as a result of "living high-training high" (HH) and "living high-training low" (HL). Nine female and six male adolescent cross-country skiers volunteered to participate in separate trials. In the first trial (HH), the skiers lived and trained for 21 days at 1550-2050 m, while in the second trial (HL) they trained near sea level (450-500 m) but resided at 1550 m. All participants underwent maximal cycle ergometer tests for the determination of VO2max and cardiorespiratory parameters via an open circuit system at sea level before ascent to altitude, and 1-2 days after descent from altitude. Blood samples were drawn prior to and immediately after maximal cycle exercise testing, at sea level prior to ascent, on days 1 (D1) and 21 (D21) at altitude (1740 m), and 1-2 days post-altitude, for the determination of serum erythropoietin (EPO) concentration, haemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), and red blood cell (RBC) volume. The results showed that both boys and girls cross-country skiers, significantly improved their sea level VO2max after 21 days of living at moderate altitude and training near sea level. The present study demonstrates that living at moderate altitude, 1550-2050 m and training low, near sea level (450-500 m) significantly increases VO2max and RBC mass for both boys and girls. Results indicate that applying the training concept "living high - training low" in adolescent athletes may improve their endurance performance.

Compton suppression spectrometry for analysis of short-lived neutron activation products in foods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.L.; Cunningham, W.C.

2008-01-01

Compton suppression spectrometry was used to analyze foods for elements with short-lived neutron activation products (half-lives of about 2 minutes to 1.5 days). Analysis conditions were optimized to provide quality assurance analyses for iodine in FDA's Total Diet Study. Iodine mass fractions (0.075 to 2.03 mg/kg) were measured in 19 of 42 foods analyzed, with limits of detection (LODs) ranging from 0.03 to 1.4 mg/kg, mostly depending on NaCl content. LODs were lowered by up to a factor of 2 for 16 elements. Suppression factors ranged from about 2 to 8 over the energy range 400 to 3200 keV. (author)

IN-SITU RADIONUCLIDE TRANSPORT NEAR THE NOPAL I URANIUM DEPOSIT AT PENA BLANCA, MEXICO: CONSTRAINTS FROM SHORT-LIVED DECAY-SERIES RADIONUCLIDES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

S. Luo; T.L. Ku; V. Todd; M. Murrell; J. Alfredo Rodriguez Pineda; J. Dinsmoor; A. Mitchell

2005-07-11

For nuclear waste management, an important mechanism by which radioactive waste components are isolated from returning to the human environment, the biosphere, is by the geological barrier in which the effectiveness of the barrier is characterized by in-situ retardation factor, i.e., the transport rate of a radionuclide relative to that of groundwater. As part of natural analog studies of the Yucca Mountain Project of the U. S. Department of Energy, we propose such characterization by using naturally-occurring decay-series radioisotopes as an analog. We collected large-volume (>1000 liters) groundwater samples from three wells (PB, Pozos, and PB4, respectively) near the Nopal I Uranium Ore site at Pena Blanca, Mexico, by using an in-situ Mn-cartridge filtration technique for analysis of short-lived decay-series radionuclides. Results show that the activities of short-lived radioisotopes ({sup 228}Ra, {sup 224}Ra and {sup 223}Ra) and activity ratios of {sup 224}Ra/{sup 228}Ra and {sup 224}Ra/{sup 223}Ra are higher at PB and Pozos than at PB4. In contrast, the {sup 210}Po activity is much lower at PB and Pozos than at PB4. The high Ra activities and activities ratios at PB and Pozos are attributable to the high alpha-recoil input from the aquifer rocks, while the high {sup 210}Po activity at PB4 is due to the enhanced colloidal transport. Based on a uranium-series transport model, we estimate that the in-situ retardation factor of Ra is (0.43 {+-} 0.02) x 10{sup 3} at PB, (1.68 {+-} 0.08) x 10{sup 3} at Pozos, and (1.19 {+-} 0.08) x 10{sup 3} at PB4 and that the mean fracture width in the aquifer rocks is about 0.23 {micro}m at PB, 0.37 {micro}m at Posos, and 4.0 {micro}m at PB4, respectively. The large fracture width at PB4 as derived from the model provides an additional evidence to the inference from the Po measurements that particle-reactive radionuclides are transported mainly as colloidal forms through the large fractures in rocks. Our model also suggests that

Radiotracer diffusion in semiconductors and metallic compounds using short-lived isotopes

CERN Multimedia

Deicher, M; Kronenberg, J; Wagner, F E

The transport of atoms in solids is of central importance for solid state physics, chemistry, metallurgy, and material sciences. Since the mobility of atoms in solids contributes to many physical phenomena the study of diffusion processes is of fundamental interest for solid state physics. Diffusion processes were frequently investigated using radioactive isotopes (radiotracers). The application of short-lived isotopes delivered at ISOLDE extends substantially the possibilities of investigating diffusion processes in solids. In particular, a new experimental set-up to be installed at ISOLDE in this year will enable the use of radioactive isotopes with half-lives down to minutes. Alternatively, in special cases diffusion processes can be investigated with help of hyperfine techniques on an atomic scale, like by perturbed $\\gamma \\gamma$-angular correlation (PAC). Here, the motion of the atom of interest becomes visible directly via characteristic changes in the measured PAC spectra.

First Isochronous Time-of-Flight Mass Measurements of Short-Lived Projectile Fragments in the ESR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stadlmann, J.; Geissel, H.; Hausmann, M.; Nolden, F.; Radon, T.; Schatz, H.; Scheidenberger, C.; Attallah, F.; Beckert, K.; Bosch, F.; Falch, M.; Franczak, B.; Franzke, B.; Kerscher, Th.; Klepper, O.; Kluge, H.J.; Kozhuharov, C.; Loebner, K.E.G.; Muenzenberg, G.; Novikov, Yu.N.; Steck, M.; Sun, Z.; Suemmerer, K.; Weick, H.; Wollnik, H.

2000-01-01

A new method for precise mass measurements of short-lived hot nuclei is presented. These nuclei were produced via projectile fragmentation, separated with the FRS and injected into the storage ring ESR being operated in the isochronous mode. The revolution time of the ions is measured with a time-of-flight detector sensitive to single particles. This new method allows access to exotic nuclei with half-lives in the microsecond region. First results from this novel method obtained with measurements on neutron-deficient fragments of a chromium primary beam with half-lives down to 50 ms are reported. A precision of deltam/m ≤ 5 · 10 -6 has been achieved

Evaluation of regional pulmonary function using short-lived radioactive gases

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ashitaka, Tsuyoshi [Toho Univ., Tokyo (Japan). School of Medicine

1993-05-01

We investigated the application of short-lived radioactive gases for the assessment of regional pulmonary function, particularly diffusing capacity, in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease and interstitial lung disease. Short-lived radioactive gases including C[sup 15]O-O, [sup 11]CO[sub 2], and [sup 11]CO were produced using a baby cyclotron for medical care. Using a [gamma] camera, breath-holding images were taken serially after inhalation of the radioactive gases. The first exponential component of time-activity curve was analyzed to obtain clearance rate, which was expressed as exponential coefficient ([lambda]). Moreover, we created a functional map which was calculated by the clearance rate of [sup 11]CO[sub 2] as a percentage. Regional clearance rates of each gas in normal volunteers revealed higher values in the lower lung field than in the upper lung field. Whole lung clearance rates ([lambda]) of each gas in patients correlated well with D[sub LCO]/V[sub A], which indicates diffusing capacity. The functional map showed decreased regional diffusion closely matched to the perfusion defects seen by [sup 99m]Tc-MAA perfusion images. However, in certain interstitial lung diseases decreased clearance of [sup 11]CO[sub 2] was observed in regions having no evidence of perfusion defects. We concluded the functional map display of [sup 11]CO[sub 2] is useful indicator of the regional diffusing capacity of both the normal and diseased lung, and that it is beneficial to analyze the pathogenic physiology of diseased lungs by making a comparison between the functional map of [sup 11]CO[sub 2] and [sup 99m]Tc-MAA perfusion images. (author).

Reactive intermediates in the gas phase generation and monitoring

CERN Document Server

Setser, D W

2013-01-01

Reactive Intermediates in the Gas Phase: Generation and Monitoring covers methods for reactive intermediates in the gas phase. The book discusses the generation and measurement of atom and radical concentrations in flow systems; the high temperature flow tubes, generation and measurement of refractory species; and the electronically excited long-lived states of atoms and diatomic molecules in flow systems. The text also describes the production and detection of reactive species with lasers in static systems; the production of small positive ions in a mass spectrometer; and the discharge-excite

Numerical Simulations of High Reactivity Gasoline Fuel Sprays under Vaporizing and Reactive Conditions

KAUST Repository

Mohan, Balaji; Jaasim, Mohammed; Ahmed, Ahfaz; Hernandez Perez, Francisco; Sim, Jaeheon; Roberts, William L.; Sarathy, Mani; Im, Hong G.

2018-01-01

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engines are becoming more popular alternative for conventional spark engines to harvest the advantage of high volatility. Recent experimental study demonstrated that high reactivity gasoline fuel can be operated in a conventional mixing controlled combustion mode producing lower soot emissions than that of diesel fuel under similar efficiency and NOx level [1]. Therefore, there is much interest in using gasoline-like fuels in compression ignition engines. In order to improve the fidelity of simulation-based GCI combustion system development, it is mandatory to enhance the prediction of spray combustion of gasoline-like fuels. The purpose of this study is to model the spray characteristics of high reactivity gasoline fuels and validate the models with experimental results obtained through an optically accessible constant volume vessel under vaporizing [2] and reactive conditions [3]. For reacting cases, a comparison of PRF and KAUST multi-component surrogate (KMCS) mechanism was done to obtain good agreement with the experimental ignition delay. From this study, some recommendations were proposed for GCI combustion modelling framework using gasoline like fuels.

Numerical Simulations of High Reactivity Gasoline Fuel Sprays under Vaporizing and Reactive Conditions

KAUST Repository

Mohan, Balaji

2018-04-03

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engines are becoming more popular alternative for conventional spark engines to harvest the advantage of high volatility. Recent experimental study demonstrated that high reactivity gasoline fuel can be operated in a conventional mixing controlled combustion mode producing lower soot emissions than that of diesel fuel under similar efficiency and NOx level [1]. Therefore, there is much interest in using gasoline-like fuels in compression ignition engines. In order to improve the fidelity of simulation-based GCI combustion system development, it is mandatory to enhance the prediction of spray combustion of gasoline-like fuels. The purpose of this study is to model the spray characteristics of high reactivity gasoline fuels and validate the models with experimental results obtained through an optically accessible constant volume vessel under vaporizing [2] and reactive conditions [3]. For reacting cases, a comparison of PRF and KAUST multi-component surrogate (KMCS) mechanism was done to obtain good agreement with the experimental ignition delay. From this study, some recommendations were proposed for GCI combustion modelling framework using gasoline like fuels.

Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Narama, Chiyuki; Daiyrov, Mirlan; Duishonakunov, Murataly; Tadono, Takeo; Sato, Hayato; Kääb, Andreas; Ukita, Jinro; Abdrakhmatov, Kanatbek

2018-04-01

Four large drainages from glacial lakes occurred during 2006-2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan. These floods caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying property and crops. Using satellite data analysis and field surveys of this area, we find that the water volume that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 194 000 m3, at western Zyndan lake in 2008 was 437 000 m3, at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 182 000 m3, and at Karateke lake in 2014 was 123 000 m3. Due to their subsurface outlet, we refer to these short-lived glacial lakes as the tunnel-type, a type that drastically grows and drains over a few months. From spring to early summer, these lakes either appear, or in some cases, significantly expand from an existing lake (but non-stationary), and then drain during summer. Our field surveys show that the short-lived lakes form when an ice tunnel through a debris landform gets blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water inside the tunnel during winter or by the collapse of ice and debris around the ice tunnel. The draining then occurs through an opened ice tunnel during summer. The growth-drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that of typical supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers. We argue here that the geomorphological characteristics under which such short-lived glacial lakes appear are (i) a debris landform containing ice (ice-cored moraine complex), (ii) a depression with water supply on a debris landform as a potential lake basin, and (iii) no visible surface outflow channel from the depression, indicating the existence of an ice tunnel. Applying these characteristics, we examine 60 depressions (> 0.01 km2) in the study region and identify here 53 of them that may become short-lived glacial lakes, with 34 of these having a potential drainage exceeding 10 m3 s-1 at peak discharge.

Sizes and shapes of short-lived nuclei via laser spectroscopy. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, D.A.

1985-10-01

This project, a collaboration involving Iowa State University, Argonne National Lab., and the University of Minnesota, was aimed at the determination of properties of short-lived nuclei through their atomic hyperfine structure and optical isotope shifts. The basic approach was to use a cryogenic He-jet system to thermalize, neutralize, and transport radioactive nuclei produced online into a region suitable for laser spectroscopy. The photon burst method was then used for high sensitivity with the resulting continuous atomic beam. The experiment was located on beamline of the ANL superconducting heavy-ion accelerator. The He-jet system developed would reliably transport approx.10 2 nuclei into phase space useful for high resolution laser spectroscopy. The laser system developed could accurately and reproducibly sweep small frequency ranges for periods greater than or equal to1 day and sensitivity limits less than or equal to1 atom/s were achieved. However the nuclei were not transported as free atoms precluding nuclear determinations. Attempts to obtain free atoms by eliminating turbulence and contamination were not successful. Some of the high sensitivity spectroscopy techniques developed in this work are now being applied in a search for nuclear relics of the Big Bang and in studies of the photon statistics of light scattered by a single atom. 3 refs., 4 figs

Short-lived Isotopes from a Close-by AGB Star Triggering the Protosolar Nebula

Science.gov (United States)

Gallino, R.; Busso, M.; Wasserburg, G. J.; Straniero, O.

The presence of short-lived isotopes in the early solar system, in particular 26Al, 41Ca, 60Fe, and 107Pd, point to a close-by and fresh nucleosynthesis source, possibly triggering the collapse of the protosolar nebula. We present the results of nucleosynthesis calculations based on an AGB polluting hypothesis. A general concordance of the predicted yields of the above radioactivities relative to 26Al can be obtained in the case of an intermediate mass AGB star with hot bottom burning in the envelope (thus producing 26Al), and mixing through a series of third dredge-up episodes a fraction of the C-rich and s-processed material from the He intershell with the extended envelope. Polution of the protosolar nebula with freshly synthesized material may derive from the efficient winds of the AGB star. In AGB stars, the s-process nucleosynthesis occurs both during the maximum phase of every thermal runaway, driven by the partial activation of the 22Ne(alpha,n)25Mg reaction, and in the interpulse phase, where the 13C nuclei are fully consumed in radiative conditions by the activation of the 13C(alpha,n)16O reaction. We have used different prescriptions for the amount of the 13C nuclei present in the intershell. A minimum amount of 13C is naturally expected in the ashes of H-shell burning. Possible formation of an extra "13C-pocket" derives from the injection of a small amount of protons from the envelope into the 12C-rich intershell during any third dredge-up episode, when the H-shell is inactivated. Prediction for other short-lived, 36Cl, 135Cs, and 205Pb, are given. General consequences for the pollution of the protosolar nebula with newly synthesized stable isotopes from the AGB winds are outlined. The origin of other detected short-lived nuclei, in particular 53Mn, 129I, and 182Hf, which cannot come from an AGB source, is analysed. The alternative trigger hypothesis by a close-by Supernova is discussed.

Are crab-type supernova remnants (plerions) short-lived

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weiler, K.W.; Panagia, N.

1978-01-01

Arguments are given for a possible picture of the origin, maintenance, and lifetimes of the so-called Crab-like supernova remnants. It is suggested that these objects imply the existence of at least two distinct types of supernova events. A possible connection of the remnant types with the optically defined supernovae of Type I and Type II is discussed. Accepting that a pulsar is formed in at least some supernova events, the proposal is made that a rapidly rotating, rapidly slowing pulsar is necessary to create and maintain a Crab-like supernova remnant. Finally, arguments are presented that such a supernova remnant will be relatively short lived with respect to the more common shell-type of supernova remnant, perhaps surviving only 10000-20000 yr before fading into the Galactic background. The name of plerion is proposed for these filled-center supernova remnants and observational possiblities for confirming their nature are suggested. (orig.) [de

High-resolution CT of airway reactivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herold, C.J.; Brown, R.H.; Hirshman, C.A.; Mitzner, W.; Zerhouni, E.A.

1990-01-01

Assessment of airway reactivity has generally been limited to experimental nonimaging models. This authors of this paper used high-resolution CT (HRCT) to evaluate airway reactivity and to calculate airway resistance (Raw) compared with lung resistance (RL). Ten anesthetized and ventilated dogs were investigated with HRCT (10 contiguous 2-mm sections through the lower lung lobes) during control state, following aerosol histamine challenge, and following posthistamine hyperinflation. The HRCT scans were digitized, and areas of 10 airways per dog (diameter, 1-10 mm) were measured with a computer edging process. Changes in airway area and Raw (calculated by 1/[area] 2 ) were measured. RL was assessed separately, following the same protocol. Data were analyzed by use of a paired t-test with significance at p < .05

Actinide and Xenon reactivity effects in ATW high flux systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woosley, M.; Olson, K.; Henderson, D.L.

1995-01-01

In this paper, initial system reactivity response to flux changes caused by the actinides and xenon are investigated separately for a high flux ATW system. The maximum change in reactivity after a flux change due to the effect of the changing quantities of actinides is generally at least two orders of magnitude smaller than either the positive or negative reactivity effect associated with xenon after a shutdown or start-up. In any transient flux event, the reactivity response of the system to xenon will generally occlude the response due to the actinides

Actinide and xenon reactivity effects in ATW high flux systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woosley, M.; Olson, K.; Henderson, D. L.; Sailor, W. C.

1995-01-01

In this paper, initial system reactivity response to flux changes caused by the actinides and xenon are investigated separately for a high flux ATW system. The maximum change in reactivity after a flux change due to the effect of the changing quantities of actinides is generally at least two orders of magnitude smaller than either the positive or negative reactivity effect associated with xenon after a shutdown or start-up. In any transient flux event, the reactivity response of the system to xenon will generally occlude the response due to the actinides

Actinide and Xenon reactivity effects in ATW high flux systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Woosley, M. [Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States); Olson, K.; Henderson, D.L. [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)] [and others

1995-10-01

In this paper, initial system reactivity response to flux changes caused by the actinides and xenon are investigated separately for a high flux ATW system. The maximum change in reactivity after a flux change due to the effect of the changing quantities of actinides is generally at least two orders of magnitude smaller than either the positive or negative reactivity effect associated with xenon after a shutdown or start-up. In any transient flux event, the reactivity response of the system to xenon will generally occlude the response due to the actinides.

Post-discharge evolution of reactive species in the water activated by a surface air plasma: a modeling study

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z. C.; Liu, D. X.; Chen, C.; Liu, Z. J.; Yang, A. J.; Rong, M. Z.; Chen, H. L.; Kong, M. G.

2018-05-01

Plasma-activated water (PAW) has been reported to sustain a bactericidal ability for months. However, many reactive species regarded as the main antibacterial agents in PAW have short lifetimes of less than one second. In order to explain the prolonged antibacterial ability of PAW and predict how to extend its effective time, we studied the post-discharge evolution of reactive species in PAW based on a system-level model reported previously. Three common storage conditions for PAW were considered within the post-discharge time of 14 d: (I) leaving the residual gas and PAW in the sealed reactor; (II) leaving PAW in the open air; (III) sealing the container of PAW. In comparison, storage condition III was the best condition to preserve the long-lived species including H2O2 and HNO2/, whereas storage condition I was the best method to preserve the short-lived species including OH, HO2 and ONOOH/ONOO‑. It suggests that the gas–liquid mass transfer plays an important role in the evolution of reactive species. We also found that O2NOOH/O2NOO‑ had an almost one order of magnitude higher concentration and a longer residue time than those of ONOOH/ONOO‑. This distinction suggests that the biological effect of O2NOOH/O2NOO‑ may be important.

Magnetic moment of short lived {beta}-emitter {sup 24m}Al

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nishimura, D., E-mail: daiki@vg.phys.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp; Komurasaki, J.; Matsuta, K.; Mihara, M.; Matsumiya, R. [Osaka University, Department of Physics (Japan); Momota, S. [Kochi University of Technology (Japan); Ohtsubo, T. [Niigata University, Department of Physics (Japan); Izumikawa, T. [Niigata University, RI Center (Japan); Hirano, H. [Niigata University, Department of Physics (Japan); Kitagawa, A.; Kanazawa, M.; Torikoshi, M.; Sato, S. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Fukuda, M.; Ishikawa, D. [Osaka University, Department of Physics (Japan); Minamisono, T. [Fukui University of Technology (Japan); Watanabe, R.; Kubo, T. [Niigata University, Department of Physics (Japan); Nojiri, Y. [Kochi University of Technology (Japan); Alonso, J. R. [Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (United States)

2007-11-15

The magnetic moment of short lived {beta}-emitter {sup 24m}Al (426 keV, I{sup {pi}} = 1{sup +}, T{sub 1/2} = 131 ms) has been measured by means of {beta}-NMR technique, for the first time. From the {beta}-NMR spectrum, the magnetic moment was determined as |{mu}({sup 24m}Al)|=(2.99{+-}0.09){mu}{sub N}. Combined with the known magnetic moment of the mirror partner {sup 24m}Na, the expectation value of < S{sub z} > is obtained to be (0.08 {+-} 0.12). These values are reproduced well by the shell model calculation.

Investigation of short-living fission products from the spontaneous fission of Cf-252

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klonk, H.

1976-01-01

In this paper, a method of separating and measuring fission products of Cf-252 is presented. The measurement was achieved by means of γ-spectrometry and thus provides a quantitative analysis with a good separation of the fission products with respect to both atomic number Z and mass number A. The separation of the fission products from the fission source was achieved by means of solid traps. An automatic changing apparatus made it possible to keep irradiation and measuring times short, so even very short-lived fission products could be registered. The quantitative evaluation of primary fission products was made possible by correction according to Bateman equations. With that, the yields of single nuclides and the dispersion of charge can be determined. (orig./WL) [de

A survey of selected neutron-activation reactions with short-lived products of importance to fusion reactor technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ward, R.C.; Gomes, I.C.; Smith, D.L.

1994-11-01

The status of the cross sections for production of short-lived radioactivities in the intense high-energy neutron fields associated with D-T fusion reactors is investigated. The main concerns relative to these very radioactive isotopes are with radiation damage to sensitive components such as superconducting magnets, the decay-heat problem and the safety of personnel during operation of the facility. The present report surveys the status of nuclear data required to assess these problems. The study is limited to a few high-priority nuclear reactions which appear to be of critical concern in this context. Other reactions of lesser concern are listed but are not treated in the present work. Among the factors that were considered in defining the relevant reactions and setting priorities are: quantities of the elemental materials in a fusion reactor, isotopic abundances within elemental categories, the decay properties of the induced radioactive byproducts, the reaction cross sections, and the nature of the decay radiations. Attention has been focused on radioactive species with half lives in the range from about 1 second to 15 minutes. Available cross-section and reaction-product decay information from the literature has been compiled and included in the report. Uncertainties have been estimated by examining several sets of experimental as well as evaluated data. Comments on the general status of data for various high-priority reactions are offered. On the basis of this investigation, it has been found that the nuclear data are in reasonably good shape for some of the most important reactions but are unacceptable for others. Based on this investigation, the reactions which should be given the greatest attention are: 16 O(n,p) 16 N, 55 Mn(n,p) 55 Cr, 57 Fe(n,p) 57 Mn, 186 W(n,2n) 185m W, and 207 Pb(n,n') 207m Pb. However, the development of fusion power would benefit from an across-the-board refinement in these nuclear data so that a more accurate quantitative

A Proposal for Assessing Study Quality: Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-Lived Chemicals (BEES-C) Instrument

Science.gov (United States)

The quality of exposure assessment is a major determinant of the overall quality of any environmental epidemiology study. The use of biomonitoring as a tool for assessing exposure to ubiquitous chemicals with short physiologic half-lives began relatively recently. These chemicals...

Fast screening of analytes for chemical reactions by reactive low-temperature plasma ionization mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; Huang, Guangming

2015-11-15

Approaches for analyte screening have been used to aid in the fine-tuning of chemical reactions. Herein, we present a simple and straightforward analyte screening method for chemical reactions via reactive low-temperature plasma ionization mass spectrometry (reactive LTP-MS). Solution-phase reagents deposited on sample substrates were desorbed into the vapor phase by action of the LTP and by thermal desorption. Treated with LTP, both reagents reacted through a vapor phase ion/molecule reaction to generate the product. Finally, protonated reagents and products were identified by LTP-MS. Reaction products from imine formation reaction, Eschweiler-Clarke methylation and the Eberlin reaction were detected via reactive LTP-MS. Products from the imine formation reaction with reagents substituted with different functional groups (26 out of 28 trials) were successfully screened in a time of 30 s each. Besides, two short-lived reactive intermediates of Eschweiler-Clarke methylation were also detected. LTP in this study serves both as an ambient ionization source for analyte identification (including reagents, intermediates and products) and as a means to produce reagent ions to assist gas-phase ion/molecule reactions. The present reactive LTP-MS method enables fast screening for several analytes from several chemical reactions, which possesses good reagent compatibility and the potential to perform high-throughput analyte screening. In addition, with the detection of various reactive intermediates (intermediates I and II of Eschweiler-Clarke methylation), the present method would also contribute to revealing and elucidating reaction mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Narama

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Four large drainages from glacial lakes occurred during 2006–2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan. These floods caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying property and crops. Using satellite data analysis and field surveys of this area, we find that the water volume that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 194 000  m3, at western Zyndan lake in 2008 was 437 000 m3, at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 182 000 m3, and at Karateke lake in 2014 was 123 000 m3. Due to their subsurface outlet, we refer to these short-lived glacial lakes as the tunnel-type, a type that drastically grows and drains over a few months. From spring to early summer, these lakes either appear, or in some cases, significantly expand from an existing lake (but non-stationary, and then drain during summer. Our field surveys show that the short-lived lakes form when an ice tunnel through a debris landform gets blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water inside the tunnel during winter or by the collapse of ice and debris around the ice tunnel. The draining then occurs through an opened ice tunnel during summer. The growth–drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that of typical supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers. We argue here that the geomorphological characteristics under which such short-lived glacial lakes appear are (i a debris landform containing ice (ice-cored moraine complex, (ii a depression with water supply on a debris landform as a potential lake basin, and (iii no visible surface outflow channel from the depression, indicating the existence of an ice tunnel. Applying these characteristics, we examine 60 depressions (> 0.01 km2 in the study region and identify here 53 of them that may become short-lived glacial lakes, with 34 of these having a potential drainage exceeding 10 m3 s−1 at peak discharge.

Behaviour of short-lived fission products within operating UO2 fuel elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hastings, I.J.; Hunt, C.E.L.; Lipsett, J.J.

1983-01-01

We have carried out experiments using a ''sweep gas'' technique to determine the behaviour of short-lived fission products within operating, intact UO 2 fuel elements. The Zircaloy-4-clad elements were 500 mm long and contained fuel of density 10.65-10.71 Mg/m 3 . A He-2% H 2 carrier gas swept gaseous or volatile fission products out of the operating fuel element past a gamma spectrometer for measurement. In tests at linear powers of 45 and 60 kW/m to maximum burnups of 70 MW.h/kg U, the species measured directly at the spectrometer were generally the short-lived xenons and kryptons. We did not observe iodine or bromine during normal operation. However, we have deduced the behaviour of I-133 and I-135 from the decay of Xe-133 and Xe-135 during reactor shutdowns. Plots of R/B (released/born) against lambda (decay constant) or effective lambda for all isotopes observed at 45 and 60 kW/m show that a line of slope -0.5, corresponding with diffusion kinetics, is a good fit to the measured xenon and krypton data. Our inferred release of iodine fits the same line. From this we can extrapolate to an R/B for I-131 of about 5x10 -3 . The ANS 5.4 release correlation gives calculated results in good agreement with our measurements. (author)

Short-lived climate pollutant mitigation and the Sustainable Development Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Haines, Andy; Amann, Markus; Borgford-Parnell, Nathan; Leonard, Sunday; Kuylenstierna, Johan; Shindell, Drew

2017-12-01

The post-2015 development agenda is dominated by a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that arose from the 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The 17 goals and 169 targets address diverse and intersecting aspects of human and environmental needs and challenges. Achieving the SDGs by 2030 requires implementing coordinated and concerted strategies and actions that minimize potential trade-offs and conflicts and maximize synergies to contribute to multiple SDGs. Measures to mitigate emissions of short-lived climate pollutants are an example of actions that contribute to multiple outcomes relevant to development. This Perspective highlights the interlinkages between these pollutants and the SDGs, and shows that implementing emissions reduction measures can contribute to achieving many of the SDGs.

DEMOGRAPHY OF ALPINE SHORT-LIVED PLANTS, LONGEVITY AND ONTOGENY STAGE DURATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. S. Kazantseva

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The aim - to evaluate lifespan (full cycle and ontogeny stage durations of nine alpine short-lived North- West Caucasus plants.Methods. For calculation we used a new method which was developed and suggested earlier by us. This method is based on a discrete ontogeny description and on the probability theory and random processes. The data on the monitoring of the marked individuals were collected during six years.Results. We found out that the lifespan of Anthyllis vulneraria is 2.6±0.3 years (hereinafter “±” is Standard error, Draba hispida – 4.5±0.3, Murbeckiella huetii – 4.6±1.1, Carum meifolium – 7.8±1.4, Eritrichium caucasicum – 9.1±1.4, Trifolium badium – 10.3±2.6, Sedum tenellum – 11±2.05, Androsace albana – 12.1±2.5, Minuartia recurva – 22.9±4.5. Also we demonstrated the matrix population models for studied plants, which show the probability of transition of individuals from one ontogeny stage to another in time interval (in our experiment – 1 year.Conclusion. Mortality of seedlings and juvenile plants, except Murbeckiella huetii, is around and more than 50%. Two years is the minimal amount of time that is necessary for full cycle of short-lived alpine plants, as it was shown for Anthyllis vulneraria, Murbeckiella huetii и Trifolium badium. A 3-12 years lifespan was calculated for other studied species. Persistence of Eritrichium caucasicum and Androsace albana populations provided by resistance of adult vegetative plants.

Synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals containing short-lived radionuclides. Comprehensive report, March 1, 1980-February 26, 1986

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabalka, G.W.

1985-09-01

New methods for the rapid introduction of short-lived radionuclides into agents for use in diagnostic nuclear medicine are reported. Among the new syntheses reported are those for 123 I-labeled fatty acids and steroids, for 11 C-labeled alcohols, for 13 N-labeled amines, and for 15 O-labeled alcohols. 33 refs

Synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals containing short-lived radionuclides. Progress report, March 1, 1985-February 26, 1986

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabalka, G.W.

1985-09-01

Methods for the rapid introduction of short-lived radionuclides into agents for use in diagnostic nuclear medicine are reported. Methods to synthesize radioiodinated fatty acids, lipids, and amphetamine derivatives are described. New routes for the introduction of bromine-77, chlorine-34m, and carbon-11 into agents of interest are elaborated. 46 refs

Changing-Look AGNs or Short-Lived Radio Sources?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wołowska, Aleksandra [Toruń Centre for Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń (Poland); Kunert-Bajraszewska, Magdalena; Mooley, Kunal [Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, University of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom); Hallinan, Gregg, E-mail: ola@astro.umk.pl [Cahill Center for Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)

2017-11-17

The evolution of extragalactic radio sources has been a fundamental problem in the study of active galactic nuclei for many years. A standard evolutionary model has been created based on observations of a wide range of radio sources. In the general scenario of the evolution, the younger and smaller Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) and Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) sources become large-scale FRI and FRII objects. However, a growing number of observations of low power radio sources suggests that the model cannot explain all their properties and there are still some aspects of the evolutionary path that remain unclear. There are indications, that some sources may be short-lived objects on timescales of 10{sup 4}–10{sup 5} years. Those objects represent a new population of active galaxies. Here, we present the discovery of several radio transient sources on timescales of 5–20 yrs, largely associated with renewed AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus) activity. These changing-look AGNs possibly represent behavior typical for many active galaxies.

Fast neutron activation analysis using short-lived radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salma, I.; Zemplen-Papp, E.

1993-01-01

Fast neutron activation analysis experiments were performed to investigate the analytical possibilities and prospective utilization of short-lived activation products. A rapid pneumatic transfer system for use with neutron generators has been installed and applied for detecting radionuclides with a half-life from ∼300 ms to 20 s. The transport time for samples of total mass of 1-4 g is between 130 and 160 ms for pressurized air of 0.1-0.4 MPa. The reproducibility of transport times is less than 2%. The employed method of correcting time-dependent counting losses is based on the virtual pulse generator principle. The measuring equipment consists of CAMAC modules and a special gating circuit. Typical time distributions of counting losses are presented. The same 14 elements were studied by the conventional activation method (single irradiation and single counting) by both a typical pneumatic transport system (run time 3 s) and the fast pneumatic transport facility. Furthermore, the influence of the cyclic activation technique on the elemental sensitivities was investigated. (author) 15 refs.; 5 figs.; 3 tabs

Non-destructive investigation of technical plants and processes and natural processes by short-lived radionuclides (radiotracer)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jentsch, Thorsten; Zeuner, Albert

2009-01-01

Short lived open radionuclides are very suitable to investigate transport and mixing processes. They do not pollute the product. After decay of the radionuclide, the product can be used without any restrictions. Examples are showed for technical processes investigation by aid of radiotracer. (orig.)

Stability of gas atomized reactive powders through multiple step in-situ passivation

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Iver E.; Steinmetz, Andrew D.; Byrd, David J.

2017-05-16

A method for gas atomization of oxygen-reactive reactive metals and alloys wherein the atomized particles are exposed as they solidify and cool in a very short time to multiple gaseous reactive agents for the in-situ formation of a protective reaction film on the atomized particles. The present invention is especially useful for making highly pyrophoric reactive metal or alloy atomized powders, such as atomized magnesium and magnesium alloy powders. The gaseous reactive species (agents) are introduced into the atomization spray chamber at locations downstream of a gas atomizing nozzle as determined by the desired powder or particle temperature for the reactions and the desired thickness of the reaction film.

"Live High-Train High" increases hemoglobin mass in Olympic swimmers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonne, Thomas Christian; Lundby, Carsten; Jørgensen, Susanne

2014-01-01

PURPOSE: This study tested whether 3-4 weeks of classical "Live High-Train High" (LHTH) altitude training increases swim-specific VO2max through increased hemoglobin mass (Hbmass). METHODS: Ten swimmers lived and trained for more than 3 weeks between 2,130 and 3,094 m of altitude, and a control...

Precision mass measurements of very short-lived, neutron-rich Na isotopes using a radiofrequency spectrometer

CERN Document Server

Lunney, M D; Doubre, H; Henry, S; Monsanglant, C; De Saint-Simon, M; Thibault, C; Toader, C F; Borcea, C; Bollen, G

2001-01-01

Mass measurements of high precision have been performed on sodium isotopes out to $^{30}$Na using a new technique of radiofrequency excitation of ion trajectories in a homogeneous magnetic field. This method, especially suited to very short-lived nuclides, has allowed us to significantly reduce the uncertainty in mass of the most exotic Na isotopes: a relative error of 5x10$^{-7}$ was achieved for $^{28}$Na having a half-life of only 30.5 ms and 9x10$^{-7}$ for the weakly produced $^{30}$Na. Verifying and minimizing binding energy uncertainties in this region of the nuclear chart is important for clarification of a long standing problem concerning the strength of the $N$=20 magic shell closure. These results are the fruit of the commissioning of the new experimental program Mistral.

Measurements of airborne short-lived radioactivity concentration in a PET facility at a national University hospital

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saito, Tadashi

2006-01-01

National universities in Japan became under regulation of Industrial Safety and Health Law since 2004FY. One of the legal obligations is working environment measurements such as airborne radioactivity concentration in the rooms where employees handle unsealed radiation sources. Both in 2004FY and in 2005FY, measurements of airborne radioactivity concentration were carried out by two different agencies. The most prominent difference among them is the measurement for short-lived PET nuclides. In 2004FY, one agency measured the radioactivity with a Ge spectrometer at its own laboratory, whereas, in 2005FY, the other agency brought a NaI scintillation counter for gross gamma counting to the Hospital. It can be shown that detection limits for short-lived PET nuclides are in principle almost the same in both methods. It is also found that, in the actual case, gamma spectrometry with a Ge spectrometer is superior in judgement of detection of the radioactivity. (author)

Impact of preindustrial to present-day changes in short-lived pollutant emissions on atmospheric composition and climate forcing

Science.gov (United States)

Naik, Vaishali; Horowitz, Larry W.; Fiore, Arlene M.; Ginoux, Paul; Mao, Jingqiu; Aghedo, Adetutu M.; Levy, Hiram

2013-07-01

We describe and evaluate atmospheric chemistry in the newly developed Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory chemistry-climate model (GFDL AM3) and apply it to investigate the net impact of preindustrial (PI) to present (PD) changes in short-lived pollutant emissions (ozone precursors, sulfur dioxide, and carbonaceous aerosols) and methane concentration on atmospheric composition and climate forcing. The inclusion of online troposphere-stratosphere interactions, gas-aerosol chemistry, and aerosol-cloud interactions (including direct and indirect aerosol radiative effects) in AM3 enables a more complete representation of interactions among short-lived species, and thus their net climate impact, than was considered in previous climate assessments. The base AM3 simulation, driven with observed sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice cover (SIC) over the period 1981-2007, generally reproduces the observed mean magnitude, spatial distribution, and seasonal cycle of tropospheric ozone and carbon monoxide. The global mean aerosol optical depth in our base simulation is within 5% of satellite measurements over the 1982-2006 time period. We conduct a pair of simulations in which only the short-lived pollutant emissions and methane concentrations are changed from PI (1860) to PD (2000) levels (i.e., SST, SIC, greenhouse gases, and ozone-depleting substances are held at PD levels). From the PI to PD, we find that changes in short-lived pollutant emissions and methane have caused the tropospheric ozone burden to increase by 39% and the global burdens of sulfate, black carbon, and organic carbon to increase by factors of 3, 2.4, and 1.4, respectively. Tropospheric hydroxyl concentration decreases by 7%, showing that increases in OH sinks (methane, carbon monoxide, nonmethane volatile organic compounds, and sulfur dioxide) dominate over sources (ozone and nitrogen oxides) in the model. Combined changes in tropospheric ozone and aerosols cause a net negative top

Short-lived non-coding transcripts (SLiTs): Clues to regulatory long non-coding RNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Tani, Hidenori

2017-03-22

Whole transcriptome analyses have revealed a large number of novel long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Although the importance of lncRNAs has been documented in previous reports, the biological and physiological functions of lncRNAs remain largely unknown. The role of lncRNAs seems an elusive problem. Here, I propose a clue to the identification of regulatory lncRNAs. The key point is RNA half-life. RNAs with a long half-life (t 1/2 > 4 h) contain a significant proportion of ncRNAs, as well as mRNAs involved in housekeeping functions, whereas RNAs with a short half-life (t 1/2 regulatory ncRNAs and regulatory mRNAs. This novel class of ncRNAs with a short half-life can be categorized as Short-Lived non-coding Transcripts (SLiTs). I consider that SLiTs are likely to be rich in functionally uncharacterized regulatory RNAs. This review describes recent progress in research into SLiTs.

Reactivity monitoring for safety purposes on the UK prototype fast reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lord, D.J.; Wilkes, D.J.

1987-01-01

The small size and high rating of the liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) make the provision of safety related instrumentation for individual subassemblies both difficult and expensive. Global monitoring of the core is thus very attractive. Reactivity monitoring is an important part of such global monitoring. Reactivity monitoring on a short timescale (a few seconds) is used on the UK Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) as a trip parameter and long-term reactivity monitoring is being developed as a means of providing early warning of slowly developing faults. Results are presented from PFR to demonstrate the capabilities of reactivity monitoring in an operational fast reactor power station. (author)

CARIBIC observations of short-lived halocarbons and carbonyl sulphide over Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Leedham, E.; Wisher, A.; Oram, D.; Baker, A. K.; Brenninkmeijer, C. A.

2013-12-01

The CARIBIC project (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container, www.caribic-atmospheric.com) aims to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of a wide-range of compounds, including those of marine origin/influence, via ~monthly flights to collect in situ data and whole air samples aboard a commercial Lufthansa aircraft. CARIBIC measures up to an altitude of 12 km, allowing the influence of marine compounds on the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) to be explored. In particular, CARIBIC is a useful tool for exploring the impact of very short lived halocarbons (e.g. CH2Br2, CHBr3), whose impact on stratospheric ozone is dependent on convective uplift to the UTLS, a process which is not yet fully quantified. As part of the suite of CARIBIC measurements, whole air samples are analysed at the University of East Anglia (UEA) via gas chromatography mass spectrometry for carbonyl sulphide (OCS) and up to 40 halocarbons (accounting for virtually 100% of organic chlorine, bromine and iodine in the UTLS). Here we present an overview of short-lived halocarbons and OCS measured by CARIBIC. We focus on two regions of particular interest. (1) measurements made in 2012 over the tropical west Pacific to link with UEA measurements made during the SHIVA campaign. (2) measurements made during a collection of flights over India in 2008. Flights over India investigated the impact of monsoon circulation on the distribution of these compounds; for example, elevated concentrations of OCS were seen in CARIBIC samples taken over India during the summer monsoon (July - September). These flights, along with a wider range of flights over Asia (from Frankfurt to Guangzhou, Manila, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur) can provide unique information on the influence of tropical convection and monsoon circulation on halocarbon and OCS transport within this region.

A growing threat to the ozone layer from short-lived anthropogenic chlorocarbons

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. E. Oram

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Large and effective reductions in emissions of long-lived ozone-depleting substance (ODS are being achieved through the Montreal Protocol, the effectiveness of which can be seen in the declining atmospheric abundances of many ODSs. An important remaining uncertainty concerns the role of very short-lived substances (VSLSs which, owing to their relatively short atmospheric lifetimes (less than 6 months, are not regulated under the Montreal Protocol. Recent studies have found an unexplained increase in the global tropospheric abundance of one VSLS, dichloromethane (CH2Cl2, which has increased by around 60 % over the past decade. Here we report dramatic enhancements of several chlorine-containing VSLSs (Cl-VSLSs, including CH2Cl2 and CH2ClCH2Cl (1,2-dichloroethane, observed in surface and upper-tropospheric air in East and South East Asia. Surface observations were, on occasion, an order of magnitude higher than previously reported in the marine boundary layer, whilst upper-tropospheric data were up to 3 times higher than expected. In addition, we provide further evidence of an atmospheric transport mechanism whereby substantial amounts of industrial pollution from East Asia, including these chlorinated VSLSs, can rapidly, and regularly, be transported to tropical regions of the western Pacific and subsequently uplifted to the tropical upper troposphere. This latter region is a major provider of air entering the stratosphere, and so this mechanism, in conjunction with increasing emissions of Cl-VSLSs from East Asia, could potentially slow the expected recovery of stratospheric ozone.

New methodology for Ozone Depletion Potentials of short-lived compounds: n-Propyl bromide as an example

Science.gov (United States)

Wuebbles, Donald J.; Patten, Kenneth O.; Johnson, Matthew T.; Kotamarthi, Rao

2001-07-01

A number of the compounds proposed as replacements for substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol have extremely short atmospheric lifetimes, on the order of days to a few months. An important example is n-propyl bromide (also referred to as 1-bromopropane, CH2BrCH2CH3 or simplified as 1-C3H7Br or nPB). This compound, useful as a solvent, has an atmospheric lifetime of less than 20 days due to its reaction with hydroxyl. Because nPB contains bromine, any amount reaching the stratosphere has the potential to affect concentrations of stratospheric ozone. The definition of Ozone Depletion Potentials (ODP) needs to be modified for such short-lived compounds to account for the location and timing of emissions. It is not adequate to treat these chemicals as if they were uniformly emitted at all latitudes and longitudes as normally done for longer-lived gases. Thus, for short-lived compounds, policymakers will need a table of ODP values instead of the single value generally provided in past studies. This study uses the MOZART2 three-dimensional chemical-transport model in combination with studies with our less computationally expensive two-dimensional model to examine potential effects of nPB on stratospheric ozone. Multiple facets of this study examine key questions regarding the amount of bromine reaching the stratosphere following emission of nPB. Our most significant findings from this study for the purposes of short-lived replacement compound ozone effects are summarized as follows. The degradation of nPB produces a significant quantity of bromoacetone which increases the amount of bromine transported to the stratosphere due to nPB. However, much of that effect is not due to bromoacetone itself, but instead to inorganic bromine which is produced from tropospheric oxidation of nPB, bromoacetone, and other degradation products and is transported above the dry and wet deposition processes of the model. The MOZART2 nPB results indicate a minimal correction of the

A new integrative methodology for desertification studies based on magnetic and short-lived radioisotope measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oldfield, F.; Higgitt, S.R.; Maher, B.A.; Appleby, P.G.; Scoullos, M.

1986-01-01

The use of mineral magnetic measurements and short-lived radioisotope studies with 210 Pb and 137 Cs is discussed within the ecosystem watershed conceptual framework. Used in conjunction with geomorphological, sedimentological, palaeoecological and geochemical techniques, these methods can form the core of an integrated multidisciplinary study of desertification and erosion processes on all relevant temporal and spatial scales. 30 refs.; 4 figs

Reactive simulation of the chemistry behind the condensed-phase ignition of RDX from hot spots.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Kaushik L; Chaudhuri, Santanu

2015-07-28

Chemical events that lead to thermal initiation and spontaneous ignition of the high-pressure phase of RDX are presented using reactive molecular dynamics simulations. In order to initiate the chemistry behind thermal ignition, approximately 5% of RDX crystal is subjected to a constant temperature thermal pulse for various time durations to create a hot spot. After application of the thermal pulse, the ensuing chemical evolution of the system is monitored using reactive molecular dynamics under adiabatic conditions. Thermal pulses lasting longer than certain time durations lead to the spontaneous ignition of RDX after an incubation period. For cases where the ignition is observed, the incubation period is dominated by intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen transfer reactions. Contrary to the widely accepted unimolecular models of initiation chemistry, N-N bond dissociations that produce NO2 species are suppressed in the condensed phase. The gradual temperature and pressure increase in the incubation period is accompanied by the accumulation of short-lived, heavier polyradicals. The polyradicals contain intact triazine rings from the RDX molecules. At certain temperatures and pressures, the polyradicals undergo ring-opening reactions, which fuel a series of rapid exothermic chemical reactions leading to a thermal runaway regime with stable gas-products such as N2, H2O and CO2. The evolution of the RDX crystal throughout the thermal initiation, incubation and thermal runaway phases observed in the reactive simulations contains a rich diversity of condensed-phase chemistry of nitramines under high-temperature/pressure conditions.

Assessing adaptability and reactive scope: Introducing a new measure and illustrating its use through a case study of environmental stress in forest-living baboons.

Science.gov (United States)

MacLarnon, A M; Sommer, V; Goffe, A S; Higham, J P; Lodge, E; Tkaczynski, P; Ross, C

2015-05-01

In order to maintain regulatory processes, animals are expected to be adapted to the range of environmental stressors usually encountered in their environmental niche. The available capacity of their stress responses is termed their reactive scope, which is utilised to a greater or lesser extent to deal with different stressors. Typically, non-invasive hormone assessment is used to measure the physiological stress responses of wild animals, but, for methodological reasons, such measurements are not directly comparable across studies, limiting interpretation. To overcome this constraint, we propose a new measure of the relative strength of stress responses, 'demonstrated reactive scope', and illustrate its use in a study of ecological correlates (climate, food availability) of faecal glucocorticoid (fGC) levels in two forest-living troops of baboons. Results suggest the wild-feeding troop experiences both thermoregulatory and nutritional stress, while the crop-raiding troop experiences only thermoregulatory stress. This difference, together with the crop-raiding troop's lower overall physiological stress levels and lower demonstrated fGC reactive scope, may reflect nutritional stress-buffering in this troop. The relatively high demonstrated fGC reactive scope levels of both troops compared with other baboons and primate species, may reflect their extreme habitat, on the edge of the geographic range for baboons. Demonstrated reactive scope provides a means of gauging the relative strengths of stress responses of individuals, populations, or species under different conditions, enhancing the interpretive capacity of non-invasive studies of stress hormone levels in wild populations, e.g. in terms of animals' adaptive flexibility, the magnitude of their response to anthropogenic change, or the severity of impact of environmental conditions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Current-Limiting Reactors on the Tripping of Short Circuits in High-Voltage Electrical Equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volkov, M. S.; Gusev, Yu. P.; Monakov, Yu. V.; Cho, Gvan Chun

2016-01-01

The insertion of current-limiting reactors into electrical equipment operating at a voltage of 110 and 220 kV produces a change in the parameters of the transient recovery voltages at the contacts of the circuit breakers for disconnecting short circuits, which could be the reason for the increase in the duration of the short circuit, damage to the electrical equipment and losses in the power system. The results of mathematical modeling of the transients, caused by tripping of the short circuit in a reactive electric power transmission line are presented, and data are given on the negative effect of a current-limiting resistor on the rate of increase and peak value of the transient recovery voltages. Methods of ensuring the standard requirements imposed on the parameters of the transient recovery voltages when using current-limiting reactors in the high-voltage electrical equipment of power plants and substations are proposed and analyzed

Oxygen isotopic and geochemical evidence for a short-lived, high-temperature hydrothermal event in the Chegem caldera, Caucasus Mountains, Russia

Science.gov (United States)

Gazis, C.; Taylor, H.P.; Hon, K.; Tsvetkov, A.

1996-01-01

Within the 2.8 Ma Chegem ash-flow caldera (11 ?? 15 km), a single cooling unit of rhyolitic to dacitic welded tuff more than 2 km thick is exposed in deep valleys incised during recent rapid uplift of the Caucasus Mountains. The intracaldera tuff is mineralogically fresh and unaltered, and is overlain by andesite lavas and cut by a resurgent granodiorite intrusion. Major- and trace-element compositions for a 1405-m stratigraphic section of intracaldera tuff display trends of upwardly increasing Na2O, CaO, Al2O3, total Fe, MgO, TiO2, Sr and Zr and decreasing SiO2, K2O and Rb. This mafic-upward zoning (from 76.1 to 69.9% SiO2) reflects an inverted view of the upper part of the source magma chamber. Oxygen isotope studies of 35 samples from this 1405-m section define a striking profile with "normal" igneous ??18O values (+7.0 to +8.5) in the lower 600 m of tuff, much lower ??18O values (-4.0 to +4.3) in a 700-m zone above that and a shift to high ??18O values (+4.4 to -10.9) in the upper 100 m of caldera-fill exposure. Data from two other partial stratigraphic sections indicate that these oxygen isotope systematics are probably a caldera-wide phenomenon. Quartz and feldspar phenocrysts everywhere have "normal" igneous ??18O values of about +8.5 and +7.5, respectively, whereas groundmass and glass ??18O values range from -7.7 to +12.3. Consequently, the ??18O values of coexisting feldspar, groundmass and glass form a steep array in a plot of ??feldspar vs. ??groundmass/glass. Such pronounced disequilibrium between coexisting feldspar and groundmass or glass has never before been observed on this scale. It requires a hydrothermal event involving large amounts of low-18O H2O at sufficiently high temperatures and short enough time (tens of years or less) that glass exchanges thoroughly but feldspar does not. The most likely process responsible for the O depletions at Chegem is a very high temperature (500-600??C), short-lived, vigorous meteoric-hydrothermal event that was

Contribution of the short lived radionuclides in food to the total radiation burden of man after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popovic, D.; Djuric, G.; Smelcerovic, M.; Maksimovic, B.

1989-01-01

The paper presents the results of the short lived radionuclides (I-131, Te(I)-132, Cs-136, Ce-141,144, Ru-103,106, Ba(La)-140, Zr-95, Mo-99, Nb-95, Sb-125) mass activities estimation in some foodstuff (milk and milk products), immediately after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, in May 1986. The activities of the radionuclides were determined on Ge(Li) detector by standard gamma spectrometry, with the total error less than 20%. The results enabled the evaluation of the short lived radionuclides contribution in the total dose due to ingestion of milk and milk products, in the first month after the accident, compared to the contribution of I-131 and to the contribution of the main long lived radionuclides: Ce-134 and Cs-137 (author)

Quality of Standard Reference Materials for Short Time Activation Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ismail, S.S.; Oberleitner, W.

2003-01-01

Some environmental reference materials (CFA-1633 b, IAEA-SL-1, SARM-1,BCR-176, Coal-1635, IAEA-SL-3, BCR-146, and SRAM-5) were analysed by short-time activation analysis. The results show that these materials can be classified in three groups, according to their activities after irradiation. The obtained results were compared in order to create a quality index for determination of short-lived nuclides at high count rates. It was found that Cfta is not a suitable standard for determining very short-lived nuclides (half-lives<1 min) because the activity it produces is 15-fold higher than that SL-3. Biological reference materials, such as SRM-1571, SRM-1573, SRM-1575, SRM-1577, IAEA-392, and IAEA-393, were also investigated by a higher counting efficiency system. The quality of this system and its well-type detector for investigating short-lived nuclides was discussed

Applications of short-lived activation products in neutron activation analysis of bio-environmental specimens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-03-01

This report discusses the advantages and disadvantages, special techniques, and actual and potential applications of neutron activation analysis (NAA) utilizing short-lived neutron-induced products, with special reference to the analysis of samples of biological and environmental origin. Attention is devoted mainly to products having half-lives in roughly the range of 10 milliseconds to 60 seconds, but with some discussion of the usefulness of even shorter-lived species, and ones with half-lives as long as a few minutes. Important aspects of the analytical methodology include sample preparation, irradiation/transfer systems, activity measurements, data processing and analytical quality assurance. It is concluded that several trace elements can be determined in bio-environmental samples (as well as in samples of industrial, geochemical and other origin). In particular, this method provides analytical possibilities for several elements (e.g. B, F, Li and V) that are difficult to determine in some matrices at trace levels by any other technique. These conclusions are illustrated in an annex by results of calculations in which the applicability of the techniques to the analysis of several biological and environmental reference materials is evaluated by means of an advance computer prediction program. The report concludes with an annotated bibliography of relevant publications (including abstracts, where available) taken from the INIS database. (author)

Short-lived radionuclide production capability at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mausner, L.F.; Richards, P.

1985-01-01

The Brookhaven National Linac Isotope Producer is the first facility to demonstrate the capability of a large linear accelerator for efficient and economical production of difficult-to-make, medically useful radionuclides. The linac provides a beam of 200-MeV protons at an integrated beam current of up to 60 μA. The 200-MeV proton energy is very suitable for isotope production because the spallation process can create radionuclides unavailable at lower energy accelerators or reactors. Several medically important short-lived radionuclides are presently being prepared for on-site and off-site collaborative research programs. These are iodine-123, iron-52, manganese-52m, ruthenium-97, and the rubidium-81-krypton-81m system. The production parameters for these are summarized

Microcomputer-based systems for automatic control of sample irradiation and chemical analysis of short-lived isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bourret, S.C.

1974-01-01

Two systems resulted from the need for the study of the nuclear decay of short-lived radionuclides. Automation was required for better repeatability, speed of chemical separation after irradiation and for protection from the high radiation fields of the samples. A MCS-8 computer was used as the nucleus of the automatic sample irradiation system because the control system required an extensive multiple-sequential circuit. This approach reduced the sequential problem to a computer program. The automatic chemistry control system is a mixture of a fixed and a computer-based programmable control system. The fixed control receives the irradiated liquid sample from the reactor, extracts the liquid and disposes of the used sample container. The programmable control executes the chemistry program that the user has entered through the teletype. (U.S.)

Quantum non-locality in a two-slit interferometer for short-lived particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klein, Spencer R.; Nystrand, Joakim

2001-01-01

We describe a new test of quantum nonlocality, using an interferometer for short-lived particles. The separation is large compared with the particle lifetimes. This interferometer is realized by vector meson production in distant heavy ion collisions. The mesons decay before waves from the two sources (ions) can overlap, so interference is only possible among the decay products. The post-decay wave function must retain amplitudes for all possible decays. The decay products are spatially separated, necessitating a non-local wave function. The interference is measurable by summing the product momenta. Alternately, the products positions could be observed, allowing new tests of the EPR paradox

STED Imaging of Golgi Dynamics with Cer-SiR: A Two-Component, Photostable, High-Density Lipid Probe for Live Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Erdmann, Roman S; Toomre, Derek; Schepartz, Alanna

2017-01-01

Long time-lapse super-resolution imaging in live cells requires a labeling strategy that combines a bright, photostable fluorophore with a high-density localization probe. Lipids are ideal high-density localization probes, as they are >100 times more abundant than most membrane-bound proteins and simultaneously demark the boundaries of cellular organelles. Here, we describe Cer-SiR, a two-component, high-density lipid probe that is exceptionally photostable. Cer-SiR is generated in cells via a bioorthogonal reaction of two components: a ceramide lipid tagged with trans-cyclooctene (Cer-TCO) and a reactive, photostable Si-rhodamine dye (SiR-Tz). These components assemble within the Golgi apparatus of live cells to form Cer-SiR. Cer-SiR is benign to cellular function, localizes within the Golgi at a high density, and is sufficiently photostable to enable visualization of Golgi structure and dynamics by 3D confocal or long time-lapse STED microscopy.

Short communication: Reactivity of diacetyl with cleaning and sanitizing agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Rincon-Delgadillo, M I; Lopez-Hernandez, A; Rankin, S A

2013-01-01

Diacetyl is used to impart a buttery flavor to numerous food products such as sour cream, cottage cheese, vegetable oil-based spreads, baked goods, and beverages. Recent studies have linked exposure to high concentrations of diacetyl and the onset of bronchiolitis obliterans. Due to the reported risks that diacetyl may pose, many food companies have altered practices to reduce worker exposure to diacetyl, including the use of personal respirators, improved air handling systems, and adequate cleaning practices. Commonly used cleaning and sanitizing agents may be reactive with diacetyl; however, the efficacy of these chemicals has not been studied in detail and remains unclear. The objective of this work was to study the reaction chemistry of diacetyl with common industrial cleaning and sanitizing chemicals. The reactions were assessed at equimolar concentrations and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Peroxyacetic acid was most reactive with diacetyl (95% reduction in diacetyl), followed by sodium hypochlorite (76% reduction), and hydrogen peroxide (26% reduction). Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) did not react with diacetyl. Acetic acid was detected as the main product of reactions of diacetyl with peroxyacetic acid, sodium hypochlorite, and hydrogen peroxide. 1,1-Dichloro-2-propanone and 1,1,1-trichloropropanone were also identified as volatile reaction products in the sodium hypochlorite reactions. Copyright © 2013 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantifying short-lived events in multistate ionic current measurements.

Science.gov (United States)

Balijepalli, Arvind; Ettedgui, Jessica; Cornio, Andrew T; Robertson, Joseph W F; Cheung, Kin P; Kasianowicz, John J; Vaz, Canute

2014-02-25

We developed a generalized technique to characterize polymer-nanopore interactions via single channel ionic current measurements. Physical interactions between analytes, such as DNA, proteins, or synthetic polymers, and a nanopore cause multiple discrete states in the current. We modeled the transitions of the current to individual states with an equivalent electrical circuit, which allowed us to describe the system response. This enabled the estimation of short-lived states that are presently not characterized by existing analysis techniques. Our approach considerably improves the range and resolution of single-molecule characterization with nanopores. For example, we characterized the residence times of synthetic polymers that are three times shorter than those estimated with existing algorithms. Because the molecule's residence time follows an exponential distribution, we recover nearly 20-fold more events per unit time that can be used for analysis. Furthermore, the measurement range was extended from 11 monomers to as few as 8. Finally, we applied this technique to recover a known sequence of single-stranded DNA from previously published ion channel recordings, identifying discrete current states with subpicoampere resolution.

THE DEAD-LIVING-MOTHER: MARIE BONAPARTE'S INTERPRETATION OF EDGAR ALLAN POE'S SHORT STORIES.

Science.gov (United States)

Obaid, Francisco Pizarro

2016-06-01

Princess Marie Bonaparte is an important figure in the history of psychoanalysis, remembered for her crucial role in arranging Freud's escape to safety in London from Nazi Vienna, in 1938. This paper connects us to Bonaparte's work on Poe's short stories. Founded on concepts of Freudian theory and an exhaustive review of the biographical facts, Marie Bonaparte concluded that the works of Edgar Allan Poe drew their most powerful inspirational force from the psychological consequences of the early death of the poet's mother. In Bonaparte's approach, which was powerfully influenced by her recognition of the impact of the death of her own mother when she was born-an understanding she gained in her analysis with Freud-the thesis of the dead-living-mother achieved the status of a paradigmatic key to analyze and understand Poe's literary legacy. This paper explores the background and support of this hypothesis and reviews Bonaparte's interpretation of Poe's most notable short stories, in which extraordinary female figures feature in the narrative.

Variation in the local population dynamics of the short-lived Opuntia macrorhiza (Cactaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Haridas, C V; Keeler, Kathleen H; Tenhumberg, Brigitte

2015-03-01

Spatiotemporal variation in demographic rates can have profound effects for population persistence, especially for dispersal-limited species living in fragmented landscapes. Long-term studies of plants in such habitats help with understanding the impacts of fragmentation on population persistence but such studies are rare. In this work, we reanalyzed demographic data from seven years of the short-lived cactus Opuntia macrorhiza var. macrorhiza at five plots in Boulder, Colorado. Previous work combining data from all years and all plots predicted a stable population (deterministic log lamda approximately 0). This approach assumed that all five plots were part of a single population. Since the plots were located in a suburban-agricultural interface separated by highways, grazing lands, and other barriers, and O. macrorhiza is likely dispersal limited, we analyzed the dynamics of each plot separately using stochastic matrix models assuming each plot represented a separate population. We found that the stochastic population growth rate log lamdaS varied widely between populations (log lamdaS = 0.1497, 0.0774, -0.0230, -0.2576, -0.4989). The three populations with the highest growth rates were located close together in space, while the two most isolated populations had the lowest growth rates suggesting that dispersal between populations is critical for the population viability of O. macrorhiza. With one exception, both our prospective (stochastic elasticity) and retrospective (stochastic life table response experiments) analysis suggested that means of stasis and growth, especially of smaller plants, were most important for population growth rate. This is surprising because recruitment is typically the most important vital rate in a short-lived species such as O. macrorhiza. We found that elasticity to the variance was mostly negligible, suggesting that O. macrorhiza populations are buffered against large temporal variation. Finally, single-year elasticities to means

Spin rotation and depolarization of high-energy particles in crystals at Hadron Collider (LHC) and Future Circular Collider (FCC) energies and the possibility to measure the anomalous magnetic moments of short-lived particles

CERN Document Server

Baryshevsky, V.G.

2015-01-01

We study the phenomena of spin rotation and depolarization of high-energy particles in crystals in the range of high energies that will be available at Hadron Collider (LHC) and Future Circular Collider (FCC). It is shown that these phenomena can be used to measure the anomalous magnetic moments of short-lived particles in this range of energies. We also demonstrate that the phenomenon of particle spin depolarization in crystals provides a unique possibility of measuring the anomalous magnetic moment of negatively-charged particles (e.g., beauty baryons), for which the channeling effect is hampered due to far more rapid dechanneling as compared to that for positively-charged particles. Channeling of particles in either straight or bent crystals with polarized nuclei could be used for polarization and the analysis thereof of high-energy particles.

Thyroid cancer in the Marshallese: relative risk of short-lived internal emitters and external radiation exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lessard, E.T.; Brill, A.B.; Adams, W.H.

1986-01-01

In a study of the comparative effects of internal versus external irradiation of the thyroid in young people, we determined that the dose from internal irradiation of the thyroid with short-lived internal emitters produced several times less thyroid cancer than did the same dose of radiation given externally. The authors determined this finding for a group of 85 Marshall Islands children, who were less than 10 years of age at the time of exposure and who were accidentally exposed to internal and external thyroid radiation at an average level of 1400 rad. The external risk coefficient ranged between 2.5 and 4.9 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk, and thus, from our computations, the internal risk coefficient for the Marshallese children was estimated to range between 1.0 and 1.4 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk. In contrast, for individuals more than 10 years of age at the time of exposure, the dose from internal irradiation of the thyroid with short-lived internal emitters produced several times more thyroid cancer than did the same dose of radiation given externally. The external risk coefficients for the older age groups were reported in the above literature to be in the range of 1.0 to 3.3 cancers per million person-rad-years-at risk. The authors computed internal risk coefficients of 3.3 to 8.1 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk for adolescent and adult groups. This higher sensitivity to cancer induction in the exposed adolescents and adults, is different from that seen in other exposed groups. The small number of cancers in the exposed population and the influence of increased levels of TSH, nonuniform irradiation of the thyroid, and thyroid cell killing at high dose make it difficult to draw firm conclusions from these studies. 14 references, 8 tables

A Fluorogenic TMP-tag for High Signal-to-Background Intracellular Live Cell Imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Jing, Chaoran

2013-01-01

Developed to compliment the use of fluorescent proteins in live cell imaging, chemical tags enjoy the benefit of modular incorporation of organic fluorophores, opening the possibility of high photon output and special photophysical properties. However, the theoretical challenge in using chemical tags as opposed to fluorescent proteins for high-resolution imaging is background noise from unbound and/or non-specifically bound ligand-fluorophore. We envisioned we could overcome this limit by engineering fluorogenic trimethoprim-based chemical tags (TMP-tags) in which the fluorophore is quenched until binding with E. coli dihydrofolate reductase (eDHFR) tagged protein displaces the quencher. Thus, we began by building a non-fluorogenic, covalent TMP-tag based on a proximity-induced reaction known to achieve rapid and specific labeling both in vitro and inside of living cells. Here we take the final step and render the covalent TMP-tag fluorogenic. In brief, we designed a trimeric TMP-fluorophore-quencher molecule (TMP-Q-Atto520) with the quencher attached to a leaving group that, upon TMP binding to eDHFR, would be cleaved by a cysteine residue (Cys) installed just outside the binding pocket of eDHFR. We present the in vitro experiments showing that the eDHFR:L28C nucleophile cleaves the TMP-Q-Atto520 rapidly and efficiently, resulting in covalent labeling and remarkable fluorescence enhancement. Most significantly, while only our initial design, TMP-Q-Atto520 achieved the demanding goal of not only labeling highly abundant, localized intracellular proteins, but also less abundant, more dynamic cytoplasmic proteins. These results suggest that fluorogenic TMP-tag can significantly impact highresolution live cell imaging and further establish the potential of proximity-induced reactivity and organic chemistry more broadly as part of the growing toolbox for synthetic biology and cell engineering. PMID:23745575

Multiphase composition changes and reactive oxygen species formation during limonene oxidation in the new Cambridge Atmospheric Simulation Chamber (CASC)

Science.gov (United States)

Gallimore, Peter J.; Mahon, Brendan M.; Wragg, Francis P. H.; Fuller, Stephen J.; Giorio, Chiara; Kourtchev, Ivan; Kalberer, Markus

2017-08-01

The chemical composition of organic aerosols influences their impacts on human health and the climate system. Aerosol formation from gas-to-particle conversion and in-particle reaction was studied for the oxidation of limonene in a new facility, the Cambridge Atmospheric Simulation Chamber (CASC). Health-relevant oxidising organic species produced during secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation were quantified in real time using an Online Particle-bound Reactive Oxygen Species Instrument (OPROSI). Two categories of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were identified based on time series analysis: a short-lived component produced during precursor ozonolysis with a lifetime of the order of minutes, and a stable component that was long-lived on the experiment timescale (˜ 4 h). Individual organic species were monitored continuously over this time using Extractive Electrospray Ionisation (EESI) Mass Spectrometry (MS) for the particle phase and Proton Transfer Reaction (PTR) MS for the gas phase. Many first-generation oxidation products are unsaturated, and we observed multiphase aging via further ozonolysis reactions. Volatile products such as C9H14O (limonaketone) and C10H16O2 (limonaldehyde) were observed in the gas phase early in the experiment, before reacting again with ozone. Loss of C10H16O4 (7-hydroxy limononic acid) from the particle phase was surprisingly slow. A combination of reduced C = C reactivity and viscous particle formation (relative to other SOA systems) may explain this, and both scenarios were tested in the Pretty Good Aerosol Model (PG-AM). A range of characterisation measurements were also carried out to benchmark the chamber against existing facilities. This work demonstrates the utility of CASC, particularly for understanding the reactivity and health-relevant properties of organic aerosols using novel, highly time-resolved techniques.

Behaviour of short-lived iodines in operating UO2 fuel elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lipsett, J.J.; Hastings, I.J.; Hunt, C.E.L.

1984-11-01

Sweep gas experiments have been done to determine the behaviour of short-lived fission products within operating UO 2 fuel elements at linear powers of 45, 54, and 60 KW/m, and to burnups of 70, 80, and 50 MWh/kgU respectively. Although radioiodine transport was not observed directly during normal operation, equilibrium gap inventories for I-131 were deduced from the shutdown decay behaviour of the fission gases. These inventories were a strong function of fuel power and ranged from 10 GBq (0.27 Ci) to 100 GBq (2.7 Ci) over the range tested. We conclude that the iodine inventory was adsorbed onto the fuel and/or sheath surfaces with a volatile fraction of less than 10 -2 and a charcoal-filter-penetrating fraction of less than 2x10 -4

Chemically reactive species in liquids generated by atmospheric-pressure plasmas and their roles in plasma medicine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamaguchi, Satoshi

2013-01-01

Plasmas whose gas temperatures are close to room temperature may be generated in ambient air or a gas at atmospheric pressure with the use of low-frequency high voltage or low-power radio-frequency (RF) or microwave power applied to electrodes. Such plasmas can serve as a powerful source of free radicals and/or chemically reactive species that arise from atoms and molecules of the ambient gas. Recently use of such plasmas for medical purposes has attracted much attention as they can be implemented in possible medical devices that can cause blood coagulation, heal wounds, facilitate angiogenesis, sterilize surgical devices as well as living tissues without harming healthy cells, and selectively inactivate cancer cells. Especially of interest among reactive species generated by atmospheric-pressure plasmas (APP) are reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) that are generated in liquid phase. Since most living tissues and cells are immersed in liquids (such as blood or culture media), reactive species generated by APPs in the gas phase are transported to the liquid phase and possibly converted to different types of reactive species therein before causing some influence on the tissues or cells. In this study, the rate equations are solved to evaluate concentrations of various reactive species in pure water that are originated by plasma reactions in atmosphere and possible effects of such species (including ROS/RNS) on living tissues and cells are discussed

Chemically reactive species in liquids generated by atmospheric-pressure plasmas and their roles in plasma medicine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamaguchi, Satoshi [Center for Atomic and Molecular Technologies, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)

2013-07-11

Plasmas whose gas temperatures are close to room temperature may be generated in ambient air or a gas at atmospheric pressure with the use of low-frequency high voltage or low-power radio-frequency (RF) or microwave power applied to electrodes. Such plasmas can serve as a powerful source of free radicals and/or chemically reactive species that arise from atoms and molecules of the ambient gas. Recently use of such plasmas for medical purposes has attracted much attention as they can be implemented in possible medical devices that can cause blood coagulation, heal wounds, facilitate angiogenesis, sterilize surgical devices as well as living tissues without harming healthy cells, and selectively inactivate cancer cells. Especially of interest among reactive species generated by atmospheric-pressure plasmas (APP) are reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) that are generated in liquid phase. Since most living tissues and cells are immersed in liquids (such as blood or culture media), reactive species generated by APPs in the gas phase are transported to the liquid phase and possibly converted to different types of reactive species therein before causing some influence on the tissues or cells. In this study, the rate equations are solved to evaluate concentrations of various reactive species in pure water that are originated by plasma reactions in atmosphere and possible effects of such species (including ROS/RNS) on living tissues and cells are discussed.

The Coordination of calculation and experimental procedures in the determination of high-negative reactivities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinegin, A.A.; Tsyganov, S.V.

1999-01-01

Usually three sources of information about the value of inserted negative reactivity (ρ) are used: dynamical experiment with reactimeters, solution of conventionally critical problems, and dynamical calculation of the process of reactivity insertion with the reactimer model. Each of them gives they own estimation of ρ. The discrepancy between these estimation could be significant, particularly noticeable in dissymmetric insertion of perturbation. The paper discusses origin of problems of estimation high negative reactivity with reactivity meter. Authors believe that correct method of high negative reactivity estimation have to include three dimensional dynamic core model for taking to account spatial effect. Moreover, some special process, such a removal of delayed neutron emitters, change in the fraction of delayed neutrons, inner source etc. (Authors)

The coordination of calculation and experimental procedures in the determination of high-negative reactivities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinegin, A.A.; Tsyganov, S.V.

1999-01-01

Usually three sources of information about the value of inserted negative reactivity (ρ) are used: dynamical experiment with reactimeters, solution of conventionally critical problems, and dynamical calculation of the process of reactivity insertion with the reactimeter model. Each of them gives they own estimation of ρ. The discrepancy between these estimations could be significant, particularly noticeable in dissymmetric insertion of perturbation. Origin of problems of estimation high negative reactivity is discussed using the reactivity meter. A correct method of high negative reactivity estimation have to include three dimensional dinamic core model for taking to account spatial effect. Moreover, some special processes, such as removal of delayed neutron emitters, change in the fraction of delayed neutrons, inner sources are considered etc. (author)

Inhibitory Effects of Trapping Agents of Sulfur Drug Reactive Intermediates against Major Human Cytochrome P450 Isoforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasleen K. Sodhi

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In some cases, the formation of reactive species from the metabolism of xenobiotics has been linked to toxicity and therefore it is imperative to detect potential bioactivation for candidate drugs during drug discovery. Reactive species can covalently bind to trapping agents in in vitro incubations of compound with human liver microsomes (HLM fortified with β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH, resulting in a stable conjugate of trapping agent and reactive species, thereby facilitating analytical detection and providing evidence of short-lived reactive metabolites. Since reactive metabolites are typically generated by cytochrome P450 (CYP oxidation, it is important to ensure high concentrations of trapping agents are not inhibiting the activities of CYP isoforms. Here we assessed the inhibitory properties of fourteen trapping agents against the major human CYP isoforms (CYP1A2, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6 and 3A. Based on our findings, eleven trapping agents displayed inhibition, three of which had IC50 values less than 1 mM (2-mercaptoethanol, N-methylmaleimide and N-ethylmaleimide (NEM. Three trapping agents (dimedone, N-acetyl-lysine and arsenite did not inhibit CYP isoforms at concentrations tested. To illustrate effects of CYP inhibition by trapping agents on reactive intermediate trapping, an example drug (ticlopidine and trapping agent (NEM were chosen for further studies. For the same amount of ticlopidine (1 μM, increasing concentrations of the trapping agent NEM (0.007–40 mM resulted in a bell-shaped response curve of NEM-trapped ticlopidine S-oxide (TSO-NEM, due to CYP inhibition by NEM. Thus, trapping studies should be designed to include several concentrations of trapping agent to ensure optimal trapping of reactive metabolites.

Antigen modulation of the immune response. III. Evaluation of the hypothetical short-lived memory cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldbush, T.L.; Lande, I.; Bryan, B.; O'Neill, E.

1974-01-01

The putative short-lived memory cells, whose existence has been suggested by the results of secondary adoptive transfer experiments, were investigated. On the basis of the following evidences we have concluded that the short-lived memory cell is probably an artifact of the adoptive transfer technique: when immune thoracic duct lymphocytes, known to consist predominantly of long-lived memory cells, were transferred to irradiated recipients and challenged at various times after transfer, approximately 80 to 90 percent of the initial response was absent by Day 14 challenge; preirradiating adoptive recipients with increasing dose of x-irradiation tended to lengthen the observed half life of memory cells; single or multiple treatments of immune donors with 0.3 mg Vinblastin before transfer resulted in neither a depression of the initial secondary response nor an alteration in the rate of decline of the memory potential; reconstitution of irradiated hosts with normal spleen cells one day before transfer of memory cells and challenge resulted in inhibition of the adoptive secondary response; and the transfer of memory cells to antigen free intermediate hosts, in which they were allowed to reside for one day or fourteen days before transfer to irradiated recipients, resulted in only a slight decline in their capacity to respond. We propose that the rapid decline of memory potential in adoptive recipients challenged at various times after transfer is due to modulating effects by the hosts as it recovers from irradiation. These effects may be the result of cell crowding or the loss of irradiation-produced stimulatory factors. The relevance of these findings to adoptive transfer systems in general and the secondary response of intact animals is discussed

Formation of metal nanoparticles by short-distance sputter deposition in a reactive ion etching chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nie Min; Meng, Dennis Desheng; Sun Kai

2009-01-01

A new method is reported to form metal nanoparticles by sputter deposition inside a reactive ion etching chamber with a very short target-substrate distance. The distribution and morphology of nanoparticles are found to be affected by the distance, the ion concentration, and the sputtering time. Densely distributed nanoparticles of various compositions were fabricated on the substrates that were kept at a distance of 130 μm or smaller from the target. When the distance was increased to 510 μm, island structures were formed, indicating the tendency to form continuous thin film with longer distance. The observed trend for nanoparticle formation is opposite to the previously reported mechanism for the formation of nanoparticles by sputtering. A new mechanism based on the seeding effect of the substrate is proposed to interpret the experimental results.

Harvard--MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Progress report, September 1, 1977--April 30, 1978. [/sup 99m/Tc, positron-emitting radionuclides

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adelstein, S.J.; Brownell, G.L.

1978-05-01

Progress is reported on the following studies: chemistry studies designed to achieve a more complete understanding of the fundamental chemistry of technetium in order to facilitate the design of future radiopharmaceuticals incorporating the radionuclide /sup 99m/Tc; the development of new radiopharmaceuticals intended to improve image quality and lower radiation doses by the use of short-lived radionuclides and disease-specific agents; the development of short-lived positron-emitting radionuclides which offer advantages in transverse section imaging of regional physiological processes; and studies of the toxic effects of particulate radiation.

High-energy, short-pulse, carbon-dioxide lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fenstermacher, C.A.

1979-01-01

Lasers for fusion application represent a special class of short-pulse generators; not only must they generate extremely short temporal pulses of high quality, but they must do this at ultra-high powers and satisfy other stringent requirements by this application. This paper presents the status of the research and development of carbon-dioxide laser systems at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, vis-a-vis the fusion requirements

Muscle Senescence in Short-Lived Wild Mammals, the Soricine Shrews Blarina brevicauda and Sorex palustris

Science.gov (United States)

HINDLE, ALLYSON G.; LAWLER, JOHN M.; CAMPBELL, KEVIN L.; HORNING, MARKUS

2015-01-01

Red-toothed (soricine) shrews are consummate predators exhibiting the highest energy turnovers and shortest life spans (ca. 18 months) of any mammal, yet virtually nothing is known regarding their physiological aging. We assessed the emerging pattern of skeletal muscle senescence (contractile/connective tissue components) in sympatric species, the semi-aquatic water shrew (WS), Sorex palustris, and the terrestrial short-tailed shrew (STS), Blarina brevicauda, to determine if muscle aging occurs in wild, short-lived mammals (H0: shrews do not survive to an age where senescence occurs), and if so, whether these alterations are species-specific. Gracilis muscles were collected from first-year (n = 17) and second-year (n = 17) field-caught shrews. Consistent with typical mammalian aging, collagen content (% area) increased with age in both species (S. palustris: ~50%; B. brevicauda: ~60%). Muscle was dominated by stiffer Type I collagen, and the ratio of collagen Type I:Type III more than doubled with age. The area ratio of muscle:collagen decreased with age in both species, but was considerably lower in adult STS, suggesting species-specificity of senescence. Extracellular space was age-elevated in B. brevicauda, but was preserved in S. palustris (~50 vs. 10% elevation). Though juvenile interspecific comparisons revealed no significance, adult WS myocytes had 68% larger cross-sectional area and occurred at 28% lower fibers/area than those of adult STS. We demonstrate that age-related muscle senescence does occur in wild-caught, short-lived mammals, and we therefore reject this classic aging theory tenet. Our findings moreover illustrate that differential age adjustments in contractile/connective tissue components of muscle occur in the two species of wild-caught shrews. PMID:19296507

Quail and other short-lived birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Ottinger, M A

2001-04-01

Japanese quail are small galliforms that are migratory and generally live 2 to 3years in the wild. Although there is evidence for other environmental cues, they primarily respond to long daylength for regulation of reproduction. In contrast to the Common Tern, a long-lived sea bird that shows little evidence of reproductive aging, Japanese quail follow a well-defined process of aging with evidence of declining function in reproductive, metabolic, and sensory systems. Our studies focus on neuroendocrine changes associated with reproductive aging in the Japanese quail, with emphasis on the male in order to study both endocrine and behavioral components of reproduction and the process of reproductive aging.

Resting serum concentration of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Resting serum concentration of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in sportsmen and untrained male adults. F.A. Niyi-Odumosu, O. A. Bello, S.A. Biliaminu, B.V. Owoyele, T.O. Abu, O.L. Dominic ...

Reactivity and neutron emission measurements of highly burnt PWR fuel rod samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murphy, M.F.; Jatuff, F.; Grimm, P.; Seiler, R.; Brogli, R.; Meier, G.; Berger, H.-D.; Chawla, R.

2006-01-01

Fuel rods with burnup values beyond 50 GWd/t are characterised by relatively large amounts of fission products and a high abundance of major and minor actinides. Of particular interest is the change in the reactivity of the fuel as a function of burnup and the capability of modern codes to predict this change. In addition, the neutron emission from burnt fuel has important implications for the design of transport and storage facilities. Measurements have been made of the reactivity effects and the neutron emission rates of highly burnt uranium oxide and mixed oxide fuel rod samples coming from a pressurised water reactor (PWR). The reactivity measurements have been made in a PWR lattice in the PROTEUS zero-energy reactor moderated in turn with: water, a water and heavy water mixture and water containing boron. A combined transport flask and sample changer was used to insert the 400 mm long burnt fuel rod segments into the reactor. Both control rod compensation and reactor period methods were used to determine the reactivities of the samples. For the range of burnup values investigated, an interesting exponential relationship has been found between the neutron emission rate and the measured reactivity

Benchscale Assessment of the Efficacy of a Reactive Core Mat to Isolate PAH-spiked Aquatic Sediments.

Science.gov (United States)

Meric, Dogus; Barbuto, Sara; Sheahan, Thomas C; Shine, James P; Alshawabkeh, Akram N

2014-01-01

This paper describes the results of a benchscale testing program to assess the efficacy of a reactive core mat (RCM) for short term isolation and partial remediation of contaminated, subaqueous sediments. The 1.25 cm thick RCM (with a core reactive material such as organoclay with filtering layers on top and bottom) is placed on the sediment, and approximately 7.5 - 10 cm of overlying soil is placed on the RCM for stability and protection. A set of experiments were conducted to measure the sorption characteristics of the mat core (organoclay) and sediment used in the experiments, and to determine the fate of semi-volatile organic contaminants and non-reactive tracers through the sediment and reactive mat. The experimental study was conducted on naphthalene-spiked Neponset River (Milton, MA) sediment. The results show nonlinear sorption behavior for organoclay, with sorption capacity increasing with increasing naphthalene concentration. Neponset River sediment showed a notably high sorption capacity, likely due to the relatively high organic carbon fraction (14%). The fate and transport experiments demonstrated the short term efficiency of the reactive mat to capture the contamination that is associated with the post-capping period during which the highest consolidation-induced advective flux occurs, driving solid particles, pore fluid and soluble contaminants toward the reactive mat. The goal of the mat placement is to provide a physical filtering and chemically reactive layer to isolate contamination from the overlying water column. An important finding is that because of the high sorption capacity of the Neponset River sediment, the physical filtering capability of the mat is as critical as its chemical reactive capacity.

Combustion Mode Design with High Efficiency and Low Emissions Controlled by Mixtures Stratification and Fuel Reactivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu eWang

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a review on the combustion mode design with high efficiency and low emissions controlled by fuel reactivity and mixture stratification that have been conducted in the authors’ group, including the charge reactivity controlled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI combustion, stratification controlled premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI combustion, and dual-fuel combustion concepts controlled by both fuel reactivity and mixture stratification. The review starts with the charge reactivity controlled HCCI combustion, and the works on HCCI fuelled with both high cetane number fuels, such as DME and n-heptane, and high octane number fuels, such as methanol, natural gas, gasoline and mixtures of gasoline/alcohols, are reviewed and discussed. Since single fuel cannot meet the reactivity requirements under different loads to control the combustion process, the studies related to concentration stratification and dual-fuel charge reactivity controlled HCCI combustion are then presented, which have been shown to have the potential to achieve effective combustion control. The efforts of using both mixture and thermal stratifications to achieve the auto-ignition and combustion control are also discussed. Thereafter, both charge reactivity and mixture stratification are then applied to control the combustion process. The potential and capability of thermal-atmosphere controlled compound combustion mode and dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI/highly premixed charge combustion (HPCC mode to achieve clean and high efficiency combustion are then presented and discussed. Based on these results and discussions, combustion mode design with high efficiency and low emissions controlled by fuel reactivity and mixtures stratification in the whole operating range is proposed.

Short-Lived Electronically-Excited Diatomic Molecules Cooled via Supersonic Expansion from a Plasma Microjet

Science.gov (United States)

Houlahan, Thomas J., Jr.; Su, Rui; Eden, Gary

2014-06-01

Using a pulsed plasma microjet to generate short-lived, electronically-excited diatomic molecules, and subsequently ejecting them into vacuum to cool via supersonic expansion, we are able to monitor the cooling of molecules having radiative lifetimes as low as 16 ns. Specifically, we report on the rotational cooling of He_2 molecules in the d^3Σ_u^+, e^3Π_g, and f^3Σ_u^+ states, which have lifetimes of 25 ns, 67 ns, and 16 ns, respectively. The plasma microjet is driven with a 2.6 kV, 140 ns high-voltage pulse (risetime of 20 ns) which, when combined with a high-speed optical imaging system, allows the nonequilibrium rotational distribution for these molecular states to be monitored as they cool from 1200 K to below 250 K with spatial and temporal resolutions of below 10 μm and 10 ns, respectively. The spatial and temporal resolution afforded by this system also allows the observation of excitation transfer between the f^3Σ_u^+ state and the lower lying d^3Σ_u^+ and e^3Π_g states. The extension of this method to other electronically excited diatomics with excitation energies >5 eV will also be discussed.

Development of new organometallic species for the labelling of radiotracers with short half-lives radioisotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huet-Dales, A.

2003-11-01

The reactivity of clean organotins have been studied in the Stille coupling reaction in fast conditions, witch can be used with short half-life radioisotope. In a first part, development of the reaction conditions have been studied for the transfer of a methyl group by the Stille coupling reaction, via the synthesis of the correspond mono-organotin. The reaction time was optimized onto model compounds in 12-carbon and 11-carbon chemistry. In a second part, this methodology was applied to the synthesis of NK3 receptors radioligands, in 12-carbon and 11-carbon chemistry. Biological studies showed that these ligands have a good affinity with NK3 receptors, and are potential positron emission tomography tracers. (author)

Dynamical Detection of Topological Phase Transitions in Short-Lived Atomic Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Setiawan, F.; Sengupta, K.; Spielman, I. B.; Sau, Jay D.

2015-11-01

We demonstrate that dynamical probes provide direct means of detecting the topological phase transition (TPT) between conventional and topological phases, which would otherwise be difficult to access because of loss or heating processes. We propose to avoid such heating by rapidly quenching in and out of the short-lived topological phase across the transition that supports gapless excitations. Following the quench, the distribution of excitations in the final conventional phase carries signatures of the TPT. We apply this strategy to study the TPT into a Majorana-carrying topological phase predicted in one-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases with attractive interactions. The resulting spin-resolved momentum distribution, computed by self-consistently solving the time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, exhibits Kibble-Zurek scaling and Stückelberg oscillations characteristic of the TPT. We discuss parameter regimes where the TPT is experimentally accessible.

Cardiovascular Reactivity in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder With High- or Low-Level Depressive Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory-Induced Mental Stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Mei-Yeh; Chiu, Chen-Huan; Lee, Hsin-Chien; Su, Chien-Tien; Tsai, Pei-Shan

2016-03-01

Depression increases the risk of adverse cardiac events. Cardiovascular reactivity is defined as the pattern of cardiovascular responses to mental stress. An altered pattern of cardiovascular reactivity is an indicator of subsequent cardiovascular disease. Because depression and adverse cardiac events may have a dose-dependent association, this study examined the differences in cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) with high depression levels and those with low depression levels. Moreover, autonomic nervous system regulation is a highly plausible biological mechanism for the pattern of cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress. The association between cardiovascular reactivity and parameters of heart rate variability (HRV), an index for quantifying autonomic nervous system activity modulation, was thus examined. This study included 88 patients with MDD. HRV was measured before stress induction. The Stroop Color and Word Test and mirror star-tracing task were used to induce mental stress. We observed no significant association between depressive symptom level and any of the cardiovascular reactivity parameters. Cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress was comparable between patients with MDD with high-level depressive symptoms and those with low-level depressive symptoms. After adjusting for confounding variables, the high-frequency domain of HRV was found to be an independent predictor of the magnitude of heart rate reactivity (β = -.33, p = .002). In conclusion, the magnitude of cardiovascular reactivity may be independent of depression severity in patients with MDD. The autonomic regulation of cardiovascular responses to mental stress primarily influences heart rate reactivity in patients with MDD. © The Author(s) 2015.

Nuclear physics with use of KUR. Reviews of 30 years studies on short-lived nuclei and perspectives for the future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawase, Yoichi

1995-01-01

The research works which were carried out over the past 30 years on nuclear structure study have been reviewed with emphasis on the technical developments of experimental apparatus for the studies of very short-lived isotopes produced by the Kyoto University reactor(KUR). In the first chapter, nuclear structure studies of neutron-rich nuclei with use of the on-line irradiation apparatus and the on-line isotope separator(ISOL) for fission products have been described. In the second chapter, applications of nuclear methods to solid state physics by the perturbed angular correlation(PAC) technique have been examined to investigate the local electromagnetic fields in metals and compounds through the hyperfine interactions. Perspectives for the future of related research fields are given aiming at the advanced uses of short-lived radioisotopes. (author)

A phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique for mass measurements of short-lived nuclides

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eliseev, Sergey; Blaum, Klaus; Doerr, Andreas; Eronen, Tommi; Goncharov, Mikhail; Hoecker, Martin; Ketter, Jochen; Ramirez, Enrique Minaya; Simon, Vanessa [Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (Germany); Block, Michael [GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH (Germany); Chenmarev, Stanislav; Filjanin, Pavel; Nesterenko, Dmitriy; Novikov, Yuri [Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (Russian Federation); Droese, Christian; Schweikhard, Lutz [Institute for Physics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University (Germany)

2014-07-01

A novel approach to mass measurements on the sub-ppb level even for short-lived nuclides with half-lives well below one second is presented. It is based on the projection of the radial ion motion in a Penning trap onto a position sensitive detector. Compared to the presently employed time-of-flight ion-cyclotron-resonance technique, the novel approach is 25-times faster and provides a 40-fold gain in resolving power. With the new technique low-lying isomeric states with excitation energy on the 10-keV level can be separated from the ground state. Moreover, the new technique possesses a substantially higher sensitivity since just two ions are sufficient to determine the ion cyclotron frequency. A measurement of the mass difference of singly charged ions of {sup 132}Xe and {sup 131}Xe with an uncertainty of 25 eV has demonstrated the great potential of the new approach.

A highly tilted binding mode by a self-reactive T cell receptor results in altered engagement of peptide and MHC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sethi, D.K.; Heroux, A.; Schubert, D. A.; Anders, A.-K.; Bonsor, D. A.; Thomas, C. P.; Sundberg, E. J.; Pyrdol, J.; Wucherpfennig, K. W.

2011-01-17

Self-reactive T cells that escape elimination in the thymus can cause autoimmune pathology, and it is therefore important to understand the structural mechanisms of self-antigen recognition. We report the crystal structure of a T cell receptor (TCR) from a patient with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis that engages its self-peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) ligand in an unusual manner. The TCR is bound in a highly tilted orientation that prevents interaction of the TCR-{alpha} chain with the MHC class II {beta} chain helix. In this structure, only a single germline-encoded TCR loop engages the MHC protein, whereas in most other TCR-pMHC structures all four germline-encoded TCR loops bind to the MHC helices. The tilted binding mode also prevents peptide contacts by the short complementarity-determining region (CDR) 3{beta} loop, and interactions that contribute to peptide side chain specificity are focused on the CDR3{alpha} loop. This structure is the first example in which only a single germline-encoded TCR loop contacts the MHC helices. Furthermore, the reduced interaction surface with the peptide may facilitate TCR cross-reactivity. The structural alterations in the trimolecular complex are distinct from previously characterized self-reactive TCRs, indicating that there are multiple unusual ways for self-reactive TCRs to bind their pMHC ligand.

A Highly Tilted Binding Mode by a Self-Reactive T Cell Receptor Results in Altered Engagement of Peptide and MHC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D Sethi; D Schubert; A Anders; A Heroux; D Bonsor; C Thomas; E Sundberg; J Pyrdol; K Wucherpfennig

2011-12-31

Self-reactive T cells that escape elimination in the thymus can cause autoimmune pathology, and it is therefore important to understand the structural mechanisms of self-antigen recognition. We report the crystal structure of a T cell receptor (TCR) from a patient with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis that engages its self-peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) ligand in an unusual manner. The TCR is bound in a highly tilted orientation that prevents interaction of the TCR-{alpha} chain with the MHC class II {beta} chain helix. In this structure, only a single germline-encoded TCR loop engages the MHC protein, whereas in most other TCR-pMHC structures all four germline-encoded TCR loops bind to the MHC helices. The tilted binding mode also prevents peptide contacts by the short complementarity-determining region (CDR) 3{beta} loop, and interactions that contribute to peptide side chain specificity are focused on the CDR3{alpha} loop. This structure is the first example in which only a single germline-encoded TCR loop contacts the MHC helices. Furthermore, the reduced interaction surface with the peptide may facilitate TCR cross-reactivity. The structural alterations in the trimolecular complex are distinct from previously characterized self-reactive TCRs, indicating that there are multiple unusual ways for self-reactive TCRs to bind their pMHC ligand.

Muscle senescence in short-lived wild mammals, the soricine shrews Blarina brevicauda and Sorex palustris.

Science.gov (United States)

Hindle, Allyson G; Lawler, John M; Campbell, Kevin L; Horning, Markus

2009-06-01

Red-toothed (soricine) shrews are consummate predators exhibiting the highest energy turnovers and shortest life spans (ca. 18 months) of any mammal, yet virtually nothing is known regarding their physiological aging. We assessed the emerging pattern of skeletal muscle senescence (contractile/connective tissue components) in sympatric species, the semi-aquatic water shrew (WS), Sorex palustris, and the terrestrial short-tailed shrew (STS), Blarina brevicauda, to determine if muscle aging occurs in wild, short-lived mammals (H(0): shrews do not survive to an age where senescence occurs), and if so, whether these alterations are species-specific. Gracilis muscles were collected from first-year (n=17) and second-year (n=17) field-caught shrews. Consistent with typical mammalian aging, collagen content (% area) increased with age in both species (S. palustris: approximately 50%; B. brevicauda: approximately 60%). Muscle was dominated by stiffer Type I collagen, and the ratio of collagen Type I:Type III more than doubled with age. The area ratio of muscle:collagen decreased with age in both species, but was considerably lower in adult STS, suggesting species-specificity of senescence. Extracellular space was age-elevated in B. brevicauda, but was preserved in S. palustris ( approximately 50 vs. 10% elevation). Though juvenile interspecific comparisons revealed no significance, adult WS myocytes had 68% larger cross-sectional area and occurred at 28% lower fibers/area than those of adult STS. We demonstrate that age-related muscle senescence does occur in wild-caught, short-lived mammals, and we therefore reject this classic aging theory tenet. Our findings moreover illustrate that differential age adjustments in contractile/connective tissue components of muscle occur in the two species of wild-caught shrews. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Unattached fraction of short-lived Rn decay products in indoor and outdoor environments: An improved single-screen method and results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reineking, A.; Porstendoerfer, J.

1990-01-01

The unattached fraction fp of potential alpha energy of short-lived Rn decay products was measured under realistic, natural conditions in different dwellings and in the open atmosphere by a single-screen technique. An improved data evaluation method was developed where the measured activities of 218 Po (RaA) and 214 Pb (RaB) were corrected by the screen-attached activities of 214 Bi ( 214 Po) [RaC (RaC')]. This method is based on the experimental observation that the 214 Bi ( 214 Po) unattached activities are negligible under realistic living conditions and that the size distributions of the aerosol-attached activities of all short-lived Rn daughters are identical. In closed rooms without additional aerosol sources, a mean unattached fraction fp of the potential alpha energy of 0.096 was obtained at a mean aerosol particle concentration of 6100 cm-3 and at a mean equilibrium factor F of 0.30. This mean fp value is about three times higher than the value used in the literature for the radiation exposure calculation of the human public. In closed rooms with additional aerosol sources (cigarette smoke, heating systems, aerosols from a burning candle), the aerosol particle concentrations ranged up to 10(6) cm-3 and the attachment rates, X, increased up to 1000 h-1. The fp values sometimes decreased below the detection limit of 0.005, and the F values increased to as high as 0.77. In the ambient atmosphere in the vicinity of Goettingen, a mean unattached fraction fp of 0.02 and a mean aerosol particle concentration of 3.4 x 10(4) cm-3 were measured at 1 m above the ground. The mean equilibrium factor F was determined to be 0.7.A

Methanol conversion to hydrocarbons using modified clinoptilolite catalysts. Investigation of catalyst lifetime and reactivation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hutchings, G J; Themistocleous, T; Copperthwaite, R G

1988-10-17

A study of the deactivation and reactivation of modified clinoptilolite catalysts for methanol conversion to hydrocarbons is reported. Clinoptilolite catalysts, modified by either ammonium ion exchange or hydrochloric acid treatment, exhibit a short useful catalyst lifetime for this reaction (ca. 2-3 h) due to a high rate of coke deposition (3-5.10/sup -3/ g carbon/g catalyst/h). A comparative study of reactivation using oxygen, nitrous oxide and ozone/oxygen as oxidants indicated that nitrous oxide reactivation gives improved catalytic performance when compared to the activity and lifetime of the fresh catalyst. Both oxygen and ozone/oxygen were found to be ineffective for the reactivation of clinoptilolite. Initial studies of in situ on-line reactivation are also described. 3 figs., 15 refs., 4 tabs.

Short Communication: Gender Bias and Stigmatization against ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Short Communication: Gender Bias and Stigmatization against Women Living with ... In Ethiopia, HIV/AIDS is highly stigmatized due to the fact that sexual ... bias, socio-economic situations and traditional beliefs contribute, individually and in ...

A crossed-beam experiment on intramultiplet mixing collisions with short-lived Ne** {(2p)5(3p)} atoms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Manders, M.P.I.; Ruyten, W.M.J.; van de Beucken, F..J.H.M.; Driessen, J.P.J.; Veugelers, W.J.T.; Kramer, P.H.; Vredenbregt, E.J.D.; van Hoek, W.B.M.; Sandker, G.J.; Beijerinck, H.C.W.; Verhaar, B.J.

1988-01-01

We describe the design, operation, and calibration of a crossed-beam experiment for the study of intramultiplet mixing collisions of short-lived electronically excited Ne{(2p)5(3p)}≡{α} atoms with ground-state atoms/molecules. The excellent performance of almost 1 kHz/Å2 (number of counts per unit

Persistent high job demands and reactivity to mental stress predict future ambulatory blood pressure.

Science.gov (United States)

Steptoe, A; Cropley, M

2000-05-01

To test the hypothesis that work stress (persistent high job demands over 1 year) in combination with high reactivity to mental stress predict ambulatory blood pressure. Assessment of cardiovascular responses to standardized behavioural tasks, job demands, and ambulatory blood pressure over a working day and evening after 12 months. We studied 81 school teachers (26 men, 55 women), 36 of whom experienced persistent high job demands over 1 year, while 45 reported lower job demands. Participants were divided on the basis of high and low job demands, and high and low systolic pressure reactions to an uncontrollable stress task. Blood pressure and concurrent physical activity were monitored using ambulatory apparatus from 0900 to 2230 h on a working day. Cardiovascular stress reactivity was associated with waist/hip ratio. Systolic and diastolic pressure during the working day were greater in high job demand participants who were stress reactive than in other groups, after adjustment for age, baseline blood pressure, body mass index and negative affectivity. The difference was not accounted for by variations in physical activity. Cardiovascular stress reactivity and sustained psychosocial stress may act in concert to increase cardiovascular risk in susceptible individuals.

Development of a Method to Assess the Radiation Dose due to Internal Exposure to Short-lived Radioactive Materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benmaman, D.; Koch, J.; Ribak, J.

2014-01-01

Work with radioactive materials requires monitoring of the employees' exposure to ionizing radiation. Employees may be exposed to radiation from internal and/or external exposure. Control of external exposure is mostly conducted through personal radiation dosimeters provided to employees. Control of internal exposure can be performed by measuring the concentration of radioactive substances excreted in urine or through whole-body counting in which the entire body or target organs are scanned with a sensitive detector system (1). According to the regulations in Israel an employee that may be internally exposed must undergo an exposure control at least once every three months. The idea lying behind the control of internal exposure by urine testing is that if radioactive material has penetrated into the employee body, it can be detected even if the test is performed once every three months. A model was fitted for each element describing its dispersion in the body and its excretion therefrom (2). By means of this model, one can estimate the activity that entered the body and calculate the resulting radiation dose to which the worker was exposed. There is a problem to implement this method when it comes to short-lived radioactive materials, for which it is very likely that the material that penetrated into the body has decayed and cannot be detected by testing once every three months. As a result, workers with short-lived radioactive materials are presently not monitored for internal exposure, in contradiction to the requirements of the Safety at Work Regulations. The purpose of the study is to develop an alternative method to assess the amount of radioactive material absorbed in the body and the resulting radiation dose due to internal exposure of workers to short-lived radioactive materials

Sizes and shapes of short-lived nuclei via laser spectroscopy. Progress report, May 1, 1980-January 31, 1981

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, D.A.

1981-02-01

The first stage of the program to study the sizes and shapes of short-lived nuclei through their atomic hyperfine structure is to develop a movable laser spectroscopy system. This system is now almost complete and is described in this report along with plans for measurements at Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory

Increased Body Mass Index, Elevated C-reactive Protein, and Short Telomere Length

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rode, Line; Nordestgaard, Børge G; Weischer, Maren

2014-01-01

-reactive protein. SETTING AND DESIGN: We studied 45,069 individuals from the Copenhagen General Population Study with measurements of leukocyte telomere length, BMI, and C-reactive protein in a Mendelian randomization study. Using the three obesity-associated polymorphisms FTO rs9939609, MC4R rs17782313, and TMEM...

Gross theory of beta-decay and half-lives of short-lived nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamada, Masami; Kondo, Norikatsu.

1976-01-01

The gross theory of beta-decay has been developed, and this theory offers the means of calculating directly the function of beta-decay intensity, then half-lives, complex beta spectra and so on are estimated from it. This paper presents the more refined theory by introducing the shell effect. The shell effect is considered in the intensity function. The half-lives in the electron decay of In with spin of 9/2 + , the positron decay of Bi, Po, At and Rn, and the decay of odd-odd nuclei were estimated. The introduction of the shell effect shows better agreement between the theory and the experimental data. The inequality relations of intensity functions and half-lives of two adjacent nuclei were obtained. When the spins and parities of two nuclei are same, the inequality relations hold especially good. (Kato, T.)

NMR detection of short-lived β-emitter {sup 12}N implanted in water

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sugihara, T., E-mail: sugihara@vg.phys.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp; Mihara, M.; Shimaya, J.; Matsuta, K.; Fukuda, M.; Ohno, J.; Tanaka, M.; Yamaoka, S.; Watanabe, K.; Iwakiri, S.; Yanagihara, R.; Tanaka, Y.; Du, H.; Onishi, K.; Kambayashi, S.; Minamisono, T. [Osaka University, Department of Physics (Japan); Nishimura, D. [Tokyo University of Science, Department of Physics (Japan); Izumikawa, T. [Niigata University, Radioisotope Center (Japan); Ozawa, A. [University of Tsukuba, Department of Physics (Japan); Ishibashi, Y. [RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (Japan); and others

2017-11-15

The beta-detected nuclear magnetic resonance (β-NMR) in liquid H{sub 2}O has been observed for the first time using a short-lived β-ray emitter {sup 12}N (I{sup π} = 1{sup +},T{sub 1/2}=11 ms). A nuclear spin polarized {sup 12}N beam with an energy of about 20 MeV/nucleon was implanted into an enclosed water sample. About 50 % of implanted {sup 12}N ions maintained nuclear polarization and exhibited a β-NMR spectrum. The chemical shift of {sup 12}N in H{sub 2}O relative to {sup 12}N in Pt was deduced to be −(3.6±0.5) × 10{sup 2} ppm.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein predicts target organ damage in Chinese patients with metabolic syndrome

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhao, Zhigang; Nie, Hai; He, Hongbo

2007-01-01

with metabolic syndrome. A total of 1082 consecutive patients of Chinese origin were screened for the presence of metabolic syndrome according to the National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and target organ damage, including cardiac hypertrophy......Observational studies established high-sensitivity C-reactive protein as a risk factor for cardiovascular events in the general population. The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between target organ damage and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in a cohort of Chinese patients......, carotid intima-media thickness, and renal impairment, were investigated. The median (25th and 75th percentiles) of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in 619 patients with metabolic syndrome was 2.42 mg/L (0.75 and 3.66 mg/L) compared with 1.13 mg/L (0.51 and 2.46 mg/L) among 463 control subjects (P

Variation in Parasympathetic Dysregulation Moderates Short-term Memory Problems in Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Anthony R; Alarcón, Gabriela; Nigg, Joel T; Musser, Erica D

2015-11-01

Although attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with impairment in working memory and short-term memory, up to half of individual children with ADHD perform within a normative range. Heterogeneity in other ADHD-related mechanisms, which may compensate for or combine with cognitive weaknesses, is a likely explanation. One candidate is the robustness of parasympathetic regulation (as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA). Theory and data suggest that a common neural network is likely tied to both heart-rate regulation and certain cognitive functions (including aspects of working and short-term memory). Cardiac-derived indices of parasympathetic reactivity were collected during short-term memory (STM) storage and rehearsal tasks from 243 children (116 ADHD, 127 controls). ADHD was associated with lower STM performance, replicating previous work. In addition, RSA reactivity moderated the association between STM and ADHD - both as a category and a dimension - independent of comorbidity. Specifically, conditional effects revealed that high levels of withdrawal interacted with weakened STM but high levels of augmentation moderated a positive association predicting ADHD. Thus, variations in parasympathetic reactivity may help explain neuropsychological heterogeneity in ADHD.

182Hf-182W age dating of a 26Al-poor inclusion and implications for the origin of short-lived radioisotopes in the early Solar System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holst, Jesper Christian; Olsen, Mia Bjørg Stolberg; Paton, Chad

2013-01-01

provide a unique window into the earliest Solar System, including the origin of short-lived radioisotopes. However, their chronology is unknown. Using the 182Hf–182W chronometer, we show that a FUN CAI recording a condensation origin from a solar gas formed coevally with canonical CAIs, but with 26Al/27Al......Refractory inclusions [calcium–aluminum-rich inclusions, (CAIs)] represent the oldest Solar System solids and provide information regarding the formation of the Sun and its protoplanetary disk. CAIs contain evidence of now extinct short-lived radioisotopes (e.g., 26Al, 41Ca, and 182Hf) synthesized...... in one or multiple stars and added to the protosolar molecular cloud before or during its collapse. Understanding how and when short-lived radioisotopes were added to the Solar System is necessary to assess their validity as chronometers and constrain the birthplace of the Sun. Whereas most CAIs formed...

Monitoring of processes with gamma-rays of neutron capture and short-living radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aripov, G.A.; Kurbanov, B.I.; Allamuratova, G.

2004-01-01

Element content is a fundamental parameter of a substance, on which all its properties, and also character of physical, chemical, biological, technological and ecological processes depend. Therefore monitoring of element content (in the course of technological process - on line; in natural conditions - in site; or in living organisms - in vivo) becomes necessary for investigation of aforementioned processes. This problem can be successfully solved by using the methods of prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) on short-living radionuclides. These methods don't depend on type of substance (biological, geological, technological etc.), since the content is determined by gamma radiation of nuclei, and allows to meet such a serious requirement like the necessity of achieving minimal irradiation of the object and its minimal residual activity. In this work minimal determinable concentrations of various elements are estimated (based on experimental data) by the method of PGAA using radionuclide 252 Cf - source of neutrons with the yield of the oil of 10 8 neutron/sec on the experimental device with preliminary focusing of neutrons /1/, and also data of determination of elements by their isotopes with maximum time efficiency /2,3/ by the method of INAA. (author)

Preliminary investigation of actinide and xenon reactivity effects in accelerator transmutation of waste high-flux systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olson, K.R.; Henderson, D.L.

1995-01-01

The possibility of an unstable positive reactivity growth in an accelerator transmutation of waste (ATW)-type high-flux system is investigated. While it has always been clear that xenon is an important actor in the reactivity response of a system to flux changes, it has been suggested that in very high thermal flux transuranic burning systems, a positive, unstable reactivity growth could be caused by the actinides alone. Initial system reactivity response to flux changes caused by the actinides and xenon are investigated separately. The maximum change in reactivity after a flux change caused by the effect of the changing quantities of actinides is generally at least two orders of magnitude smaller than either the positive or negative reactivity effect associated with xenon after a shutdown or startup. In any transient flux event, the reactivity response of the system to xenon will generally occlude the response caused by the actinides. The capabilities and applications of both the current actinide model and the xenon model are discussed. Finally, the need for a complete dynamic model for the high-flux fluid-fueled ATW system is addressed

Fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up: analysis of reactivity coefficients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kryuchkov, E.F.; Shmelev, A.N.; Ternovykh, M.J.; Tikhomirov, G.V.; Jinhong, L.; Saito, M.

2003-01-01

Fuel cycles of light-water reactors (LWR) with high fuel burn-up (above 100 MWd/kg), as a rule, involve large amounts of fissionable materials. It leads to forming the neutron spectrum harder than that in traditional LWR. Change of neutron spectrum and significant amount of non-traditional isotopes (for example, 237 Np, 238 Pu, 231 Pa, 232 U) in such fuel compositions can alter substantially reactivity coefficients as compared with traditional uranium-based fuel. The present work addresses the fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up which are based on Th-Pa-U and U-Np-Pu fuel compositions. Numerical analyses are carried out to determine effective neutron multiplication factor and void reactivity coefficient (VRC) for different values of fuel burn-up and different lattice parameters. The algorithm is proposed for analysis of isotopes contribution to these coefficients. Various ways are considered to upgrade safety of nuclear fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up. So, the results obtained in this study have demonstrated that: -1) Non-traditional fuel compositions developed for achievement of high fuel burn-up in LWR can possess positive values of reactivity coefficients that is unacceptable from the reactor operation safety point of view; -2) The lattice pitch of traditional LWR is not optimal for non-traditional fuel compositions, the increased value of the lattice pitch leads to larger value of initial reactivity margin and provides negative VRC within sufficiently broad range of coolant density; -3) Fuel burn-up has an insignificant effect on VRC dependence on coolant density, so, the measures undertaken to suppress positive VRC of fresh fuel will be effective for partially burnt-up fuel compositions also and; -4) Increase of LWR core height and introduction of additional moderators into the fuel lattice can be used as the ways to reach negative VRC values for full range of possible coolant density variations

Tantalum-178 - a short-lived nuclide for nuclear medicine: development of a potential generator system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neirinckx, R.D.; Jones, A.G.; Davis, M.A.; Harris, G.I.; Holman, B.L.

1978-01-01

We describe a chemical separation that may form the basis of a generator system for the short-lived radionuclide Ta-178 (T/sub 1/2/ = 9 min). The parent nuclide W-178 (T/sub 1/2/ = 21.7 days) is loaded on an anion-exchange column and the daughter eluted with a mixture of dilute hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The yields of tantalum and the breakthrough of the tungsten parent as a function of the eluting conditions are discussed, and preliminary animal distribution data are presented for various treatments of the eluant solution

Application of short-time activation analysis in the sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grass, F.

1991-01-01

Short-time activation analysis has proved to be a valuable tool in nearly all fields of science. To take full advantage of this technique, it is favorable to use a fast transfer system and a high resolution high rate gamma-spectroscopy system for short lived gamma-emitters and a Cherenkov detector for the determination of hard beta-emitters. It is then possible to utilize sub-minute nuclides Li-8 (740 ms), B-12 (20 ms), F-20 (11.1 s), Y-89m (16 s), and Pb-207m (800 ms) for the determination of these elements. Besides these sub-minute nuclides which constitute the only possibility for neutron activation analysis of these elements there are a number of other elements which form longer lived nuclides on short irradiation. The analysis of the halogenides F, Cl, Br, I in waste water of a sewage incineration plant can be achieved with a single 20 s irradiation and two consecutive measurement of 20 and 600 s using Cl-38m, F-20, Br-79m as well as the longer lived Cl-38, Br-80, I-128

Reactive thermal waves in energetic materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, Larry G [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-01-01

Reactive thermal waves (RTWs) arise in several energetic material applications, including self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), high explosive cookoff, and the detonation of heterogeneous explosives. In this paper I exmaine ideal RTWs, by which I mean that (1) material motion is neglected, (2) the state dependence of reaction is Arrhenius in the temperature, and (3) the reaction rate is modulated by an arbitrary mass-fraction-based reaction progress function. Numerical simulations demonstrate that one's natural intuition, which is based mainly upon experience with inert materials and which leads one to expect diffusion processes to become relatively slow after a short time period, is invalid for high energy, state-sensitive reactive systems. Instead, theory predicts that RTWs can propagate at very high speeds. This result agrees with estimates for detonating heterogeneous explosives, which indicate that RTWs must spread from hot-spot nucleation sites at rates comparable to the detonation speed in order to produce experimentally-observed reaction zone thicknesses. Using dimensionless scaling and further invoking the high activation energy approximation, I obtain an analytic formula for the steady plane RTW speed from numerical calculations. I then compute the RTW speed for real explosives, and discuss aspects of their behavior.

High beam quality and high energy short-pulse laser with MOPA

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Quanwei; Pang, Yu; Jiang, JianFeng; Tan, Liang; Cui, Lingling; Wei, Bin; Sun, Yinhong; Tang, Chun

2018-03-01

A high energy, high beam quality short-pulse diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser with two amplifier stages is demonstrated. The two-rod birefringence compensation was used as beam quality controlling methods, which presents a short-pulse energy of 40 mJ with a beam quality value of M2 = 1.2 at a repetition rate of 400Hz. The MOPA system delivers a short-pulse energy of 712.5 mJ with a pulse width of 12.4 ns.The method of spherical aberration compensation is improved the beam quality, a M2 factor of 2.3 and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 27.7% is obtained at the maximum laser out power.The laser obtained 1.4J out energy with polarization integration.

The short-lived African turquoise killifish: an emerging experimental model for ageing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Yumi; Nam, Hong Gil; Valenzano, Dario Riccardo

2016-02-01

Human ageing is a fundamental biological process that leads to functional decay, increased risk for various diseases and, ultimately, death. Some of the basic biological mechanisms underlying human ageing are shared with other organisms; thus, animal models have been invaluable in providing key mechanistic and molecular insights into the common bases of biological ageing. In this Review, we briefly summarise the major applications of the most commonly used model organisms adopted in ageing research and highlight their relevance in understanding human ageing. We compare the strengths and limitations of different model organisms and discuss in detail an emerging ageing model, the short-lived African turquoise killifish. We review the recent progress made in using the turquoise killifish to study the biology of ageing and discuss potential future applications of this promising animal model. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Laser generation of proton beams for the production of short-lived positron emitting radioisotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spencer, I.; Ledingham, K.W.D.; Singhal, R.P.; McCanny, T.; McKenna, P.; Clark, E.L.; Krushelnick, K.; Zepf, M.; Beg, F.N.; Tatarakis, M.; Dangor, A.E.; Norreys, P.A.; Clarke, R.J.; Allott, R.M.; Ross, I.N.

2001-01-01

Protons of energies up to 37 MeV have been generated when ultra-intense lasers (up to 10 20 W cm -2 ) interact with hydrogen containing solid targets. These protons can be used to induce nuclear reactions in secondary targets to produce β + -emitting nuclei of relevance to the nuclear medicine community, namely 11 C and 13 N via (p, n) and (p,α) reactions. Activities of the order of 200 kBq have been measured from a single laser pulse interacting with a thin solid target. The possibility of using ultra-intense lasers to produce commercial amounts of short-lived positron emitting sources for positron emission tomography (PET) is discussed

Information management for high content live cell imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

White Michael RH

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background High content live cell imaging experiments are able to track the cellular localisation of labelled proteins in multiple live cells over a time course. Experiments using high content live cell imaging will generate multiple large datasets that are often stored in an ad-hoc manner. This hinders identification of previously gathered data that may be relevant to current analyses. Whilst solutions exist for managing image data, they are primarily concerned with storage and retrieval of the images themselves and not the data derived from the images. There is therefore a requirement for an information management solution that facilitates the indexing of experimental metadata and results of high content live cell imaging experiments. Results We have designed and implemented a data model and information management solution for the data gathered through high content live cell imaging experiments. Many of the experiments to be stored measure the translocation of fluorescently labelled proteins from cytoplasm to nucleus in individual cells. The functionality of this database has been enhanced by the addition of an algorithm that automatically annotates results of these experiments with the timings of translocations and periods of any oscillatory translocations as they are uploaded to the repository. Testing has shown the algorithm to perform well with a variety of previously unseen data. Conclusion Our repository is a fully functional example of how high throughput imaging data may be effectively indexed and managed to address the requirements of end users. By implementing the automated analysis of experimental results, we have provided a clear impetus for individuals to ensure that their data forms part of that which is stored in the repository. Although focused on imaging, the solution provided is sufficiently generic to be applied to other functional proteomics and genomics experiments. The software is available from: fhttp://code.google.com/p/livecellim/

Determination of k0-factors of short-lived nuclides and application of k0-NAA to selected trace elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acharya, R.; Holzbecher, J.; Chatt, A.

2012-01-01

As part of the standardization program of k 0 -based NAA (k 0 -NAA) methods at the Dalhousie University SLOWPOKE-2 reactor (DUSR) facility, the k 0 -factors of 15 analytically important short-lived nuclides (half-life 197 Au). The elemental standards used were prepared mostly from their primary standard solutions. The samples were irradiated in both inner and outer pneumatic sites of the DUSR facility and counted using an HPGe-detector coupled to an ORTEC’s digital gamma-ray spectrometer. The k 0 -factors determined using both inner and outer irradiation sites were found to be within ±5% with respect to either recommended or literature values in most cases. The Z-score values at 95% confidence level were found to be in the range of ±0.03–1.6. The k 0 -NAA method was applied to three different NIST standard reference materials (SRMs) and concentrations of six elements, namely Ag, F, Hf, Rb, Sc, and Se were determined using their short-lived nuclides. The concentrations of these elements were also determined by relative NAA method for comparison purposes.

Comparison of short-lived medical isotopes activation by laser thin target induced protons and conventional cyclotron proton beams

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Joseph; Dudnikova, Galina; Liu, Tung-Chang; Papadopoulos, Dennis; Sagdeev, Roald; Su, J. J.; UMD MicroPET Team

2014-10-01

Production diagnostic or therapeutic nuclear medicines are either by nuclear reactors or by ion accelerators. In general, diagnostic nuclear radioisotopes have a very short half-life varying from tens of minutes for PET tracers and few hours for SPECT tracers. Thus supplies of PET and SPECT radiotracers are limited by regional production facilities. For example 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is the most desired tracer for positron emission tomography because its 110 minutes half-life is sufficient long for transport from production facilities to nearby users. From nuclear activation to completing image taking must be done within 4 hours. Decentralized production of diagnostic radioisotopes will be idea to make high specific activity radiotracers available to researches and clinicians. 11 C, 13 N, 15 O and 18 F can be produced in the energy range from 10-20 MeV by protons. Protons of energies up to tens of MeV generated by intense laser interacting with hydrogen containing targets have been demonstrated by many groups in the past decade. We use 2D PIC code for proton acceleration, Geant4 Monte Carlo code for nuclei activation to compare the yields and specific activities of short-lived isotopes produced by cyclotron proton beams and laser driven protons.

A REVIEW ON EFFICACIOUS METHODS TO DECOLORIZE REACTIVE AZO DYE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jagadeesan Vijayaraghavan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the intensive review of reactive azo dye, Reactive Black 5. Various physicochemical methods namely photo catalysis, electrochemical, adsorption, hydrolysis and biological methods like microbial degradation, biosorption and bioaccumulation have been analyzed thoroughly along with the merits and demerits of each method. Among these various methods, biological treatment methods are found to be the best for decolorization of Reactive Black 5. With respect to dye biosorption, microbial biomass (bacteria, fungi, microalgae, etc, and outperformed macroscopic materials (seaweeds, crab shell, etc. are used for decolorization process. The use of living organisms may not be an option for the continuous treatment of highly toxic organic/inorganic contaminants. Once the toxicant concentration becomes too high or the process operated for a long time, the amount of toxicant accumulated will reach saturation. Beyond this point, an organism's metabolism may be interrupted, resulting in death of the organism. This scenario is not existed in the case of dead biomass, which is flexible to environmental conditions and toxicant concentrations. Thus, owing to its favorable characteristics, biosorption has received much attention in recent years.

Development and application of the generator for the short-living nuclides production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsejner, A.

1979-01-01

The results are stated of investigations by means of radioisotopes on the substance transfer in technological equipment. For these purposes, in most cases, nuclides with high gamma-activity are used and, if possible, having short half-life because the short half-life gives certain advantages in the cases when it is impossible to store radioactive substances in the technological equipment for a long time. It is noted that in connection with short half-life of the nucludes used for labelling and for the economic and radiation safety reasons, activity of these nuclides can not be high. It has been established that the most suitable nuclide for the labelling purpose is lanthanum-140 produced either in a nuclear reactor, or by means of separation from barium=-140 transforming into lanthanum-140 in an isotopic generator. Some methods of lanthanum separation from barium are described, in particular, in the isotopic generator described, barium is adsorbed on the cation-exchanger KPS-200 having high enough stability with respect to the ionozing radiations. As an eluent the 10 -2 M solution of the complexone (Na 2 - EDTA) was used. The complexone solution can be easely obtained and, because of the hydrolysis, it serves as a buffer solution. The data are given for radiation purity and yield of lanthanum-=140 [ru

Overweight and Cognitive Performance: High Body Mass Index Is Associated with Impairment in Reactive Control during Task Switching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Steenbergen

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The prevalence of weight problems is increasing worldwide. There is growing evidence that high body mass index (BMI is associated with frontal lobe dysfunction and deficits in cognitive control. The present study aims to clarify the association between weight status and the degree of impairment in cognitive flexibility, i.e., the ability to efficiently switch from one task to another, by disentangling the preparatory and residual domains of task switching. Twenty-six normal weight (BMI < 25, five males and twenty-six overweight (BMI ≥ 25, seven males university students performed a task-switching paradigm that provides a relatively well-established diagnostic measure of proactive vs. reactive control with regard to cognitive flexibility. Compared to individuals with a BMI lower than 25, overweight (i.e., ≥25 was associated with increased switching costs in the reactive switching condition (i.e., when preparation time is short, representing reduced cognitive flexibility in the preparatory domain. In addition, the overweight group reported significantly more depression and binge eating symptoms, although still indicating minimal depression. No between-group differences were found with regard to self-reported autism spectrum symptoms, impulsiveness, state- and trait anxiety, and cognitive reactivity to depression. The present findings are consistent with and extend previous literature showing that elevated BMI in young, otherwise healthy individuals is associated with significantly more switching costs due to inefficiency in the retrieval, implementation, and maintenance of task sets, indicating less efficient cognitive control functioning.

Measurement of formation cross sections producing short-lived nuclei by 14 MeV neutrons. Pr, Ba, Ce, Sm, W, Sn, Hf

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murahira, S.; Satoh, Y.; Honda, N.; Shibata, M.; Yamamoto, H.; Kawade, K.; Takahashi, A.; Iida, T.

1996-01-01

Thirteen neutron activation cross sections for (n,2n), (n,p), (n,np) and (n,α) reactions producing short-lived nuclei with half-lives between 56 s and 24 min were measured in the energy range from 13.4 MeV to 14.9 MeV for Pr, Ba, Ce, Sm, W, Sn and Hf. The cross sections of 179 Hf(n,np) 178m Lu and 180 Hf(n,p) 180 Lu were measured for the first time. (author)

Memory reactivation improves visual perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Amar-Halpert, Rotem; Laor-Maayany, Rony; Nemni, Shlomi; Rosenblatt, Jonathan D; Censor, Nitzan

2017-10-01

Human perception thresholds can improve through learning. Here we report findings challenging the fundamental 'practice makes perfect' basis of procedural learning theory, showing that brief reactivations of encoded visual memories are sufficient to improve perceptual discrimination thresholds. Learning was comparable to standard practice-induced learning and was not due to short training per se, nor to an epiphenomenon of primed retrieval enhancement. The results demonstrate that basic perceptual functions can be substantially improved by memory reactivation, supporting a new account of perceptual learning dynamics.

Climate response to projected changes in short-lived species under an A1B scenario from 2000-2050 in the GISS climate model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Menon, Surabi; Shindell, Drew T.; Faluvegi, Greg; Bauer, Susanne E.; Koch, Dorothy M.; Unger, Nadine; Menon, Surabi; Miller, Ron L.; Schmidt, Gavin A.; Streets, David G.

2007-03-26

We investigate the climate forcing from and response to projected changes in short-lived species and methane under the A1B scenario from 2000-2050 in the GISS climate model. We present a meta-analysis of new simulations of the full evolution of gas and aerosol species and other existing experiments with variations of the same model. The comparison highlights the importance of several physical processes in determining radiative forcing, especially the effect of climate change on stratosphere-troposphere exchange, heterogeneous sulfate-nitrate-dust chemistry, and changes in methane oxidation and natural emissions. However, the impact of these fairly uncertain physical effects is substantially less than the difference between alternative emission scenarios for all short-lived species. The net global mean annual average direct radiative forcing from the short-lived species is .02 W/m{sup 2} or less in our projections, as substantial positive ozone forcing is largely offset by negative aerosol direct forcing. Since aerosol reductions also lead to a reduced indirect effect, the global mean surface temperature warms by {approx}0.07 C by 2030 and {approx}0.13 C by 2050, adding 19% and 17%, respectively, to the warming induced by long-lived greenhouse gases. Regional direct forcings are large, up to 3.8 W/m{sup 2}. The ensemble-mean climate response shows little regional correlation with the spatial pattern of the forcing, however, suggesting that oceanic and atmospheric mixing generally overwhelms the effect of even large localized forcings. Exceptions are the polar regions, where ozone and aerosols may induce substantial seasonal climate changes.

New three-count technique for short-lived radon decay products in air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian Deyuan; Lu Zhizhao

1998-01-01

Up to the present, radon and its short-lived decay products in air are usually monitored by means of a detection. But radon progeny, including RaB ( 214 Pb) and RaC ( 214 Bi) which are β and γ emitters, contribute about 90% to the equilibrium equivalent radon concentration (EECRn). Therefore, this paper introduces a new three-count technique by a β detector in the light of radioactive decay law and its boundary conditions during sampling and counting times to solve the Bateman equation. β (even low level β) instruments have been fairly popularized domestically and internationally. It can be used not only as an instrument for radon and its daughters in air, but also as a monitor for β airborne activity in the environment. This new method taps further the latent power of the present instrument and realizes various uses for a unit. (author)

Continuous monitoring α-activity on aerosol filters by the pseudo-coincidence-technique. Explicitly taking into account the short lived Po-218 activity; Kontinuierliche Ueberwachung der α-Aktivitaet eines Aerosolfilters mit der Pseudokoinzidenzmesstechnik. Explizite Beruecksichtigung der kurzlebigen Po-218 Aktivitaetsbeitraaege

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kraut, W.; Schwarz, W. [Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW), Karlsruhe (Germany). Studiengang Sicherheitswesen; Kraut, B. [Berthold Technologies GmbH und Co.KG, Bad Wildbad (Germany)

2015-07-01

Pseudo-coincidence-technique is applied to continuous monitoring of α-activity on aerosolfilters by proportional counters. Filter activity can markedly increase or decrease by changing air conditions especially by the amount of short lived Po-218 activity. Conditions of constant proportions of activity concentrations for the short lived species for operating this technique are seldom fulfilled. The dynamic behavior of artificial (long lived) and natural (short lived) activity is mathematically modelled and the measured moving count rates are analyzed under this model by a multivariate regression analysis for activity concentrations of artificial resp. short lived activity. Results are compared to standard recommendations of DIN ISO 11929.

Fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up: analysis of reactivity coefficients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kryuchkov, E.F.; Shmelev, A.N.; Ternovykh, M.J.; Tikhomirov, G.V.; Jinhong, L. [Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (State University) (Russian Federation); Saito, M. [Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)

2003-07-01

Fuel cycles of light-water reactors (LWR) with high fuel burn-up (above 100 MWd/kg), as a rule, involve large amounts of fissionable materials. It leads to forming the neutron spectrum harder than that in traditional LWR. Change of neutron spectrum and significant amount of non-traditional isotopes (for example, {sup 237}Np, {sup 238}Pu, {sup 231}Pa, {sup 232}U) in such fuel compositions can alter substantially reactivity coefficients as compared with traditional uranium-based fuel. The present work addresses the fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up which are based on Th-Pa-U and U-Np-Pu fuel compositions. Numerical analyses are carried out to determine effective neutron multiplication factor and void reactivity coefficient (VRC) for different values of fuel burn-up and different lattice parameters. The algorithm is proposed for analysis of isotopes contribution to these coefficients. Various ways are considered to upgrade safety of nuclear fuel cycles with high fuel burn-up. So, the results obtained in this study have demonstrated that: -1) Non-traditional fuel compositions developed for achievement of high fuel burn-up in LWR can possess positive values of reactivity coefficients that is unacceptable from the reactor operation safety point of view; -2) The lattice pitch of traditional LWR is not optimal for non-traditional fuel compositions, the increased value of the lattice pitch leads to larger value of initial reactivity margin and provides negative VRC within sufficiently broad range of coolant density; -3) Fuel burn-up has an insignificant effect on VRC dependence on coolant density, so, the measures undertaken to suppress positive VRC of fresh fuel will be effective for partially burnt-up fuel compositions also and; -4) Increase of LWR core height and introduction of additional moderators into the fuel lattice can be used as the ways to reach negative VRC values for full range of possible coolant density variations.

Deep Reactive Ion Etching for High Aspect Ratio Microelectromechanical Components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Søren; Yalcinkaya, Arda Deniz; Jacobsen, S.

2004-01-01

A deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) process for fabrication of high aspect ratio trenches has been developed. Trenches with aspect ratios exceeding 20 and vertical sidewalls with low roughness have been demonstrated. The process has successfully been used in the fabrication of silicon-on-insulator (SOI...

Radioactivity of radon and its short-lived decay products in room air, 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimo, Michikuni; Katoh, Takao

1983-01-01

In the reactor room of the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, the measurements of radon (Rn) and its short-lived decay products (Rn-Dts) were carried out under ventilated and non-ventilated conditions. The indoor activities were equal to outdoor ones under ventilated condition and those activities increased till about 10 times of outdoors under non-ventilated condition. We attempted to explain these results on a basis of a simple model. The calculations were performed taking into account: (1) supply of Rn and Rn-Dts from outdoor, (2) the emanation rate of Rn from the wall materials of building, (3) the removal rate of Rn-Dts by ventilation and wall deposition, and (4) the attachment rate of unattached atom to aerosols. In addition, natural ventilation were considered during periods without artificial ventilation. (author)

Simulation of radon short lived decay daughters' inhalation using the lung compartmental model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomulescu, Vlad C.

2002-01-01

Radon and its short-lived decay daughters are the main source of radiation on natural ways for population. The radon gas, released from soil, water or construction materials is producing by radioactive decay the following solid daughters: Po-218, Bi-214, Pb-214, and Po-214, which can attach to aerosols, and consequently penetrate the organism by inhalation. The human respiratory tract can be approximated by aid of a compartment model that takes into account the different anatomical structures exposed to contamination and irradiation, as well as the respective physiological processes. This model is associated to a mathematical equation system that describes the behavior of the radioactive material inside the body. The results represent the dose equivalent on different organs and tissues, as a function of subject and the activity performed in contaminating environment. (author)

High-affinity RNA aptamers to C-reactive protein (CRP): newly developed pre-elution methods for aptamer selection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orito, N; Umekage, S; Sakai, E; Tanaka, T; Kikuchi, Y; Sato, K; Kawauchi, S; Tanaka, H

2012-01-01

We have developed a modified SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) method to obtain RNA aptamers with high affinity to C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is a clinical biomarker present in plasma, the level of which increases in response to infections and noninfectious inflammation. The CRP level is also an important prognostic indicator in patients with several syndromes. At present, CRP content in blood is measured immunochemically using antibodies. To develop a more sensitive method using RNA aptamers, we have attempted to obtain high-affinity RNA aptamers to CRP. We succeeded in obtaining an RNA aptamer with high affinity to CRP using a CRP-immobilized Sepharose column and pre-elution procedure. Pre-elution is a method that removes the weak binding portion from a selected RNA population by washing for a short time with buffer containing CRP. By surface plasmon-resonance (SPR) analysis, the affinity constant of this aptamer for CRP was calculated to be K D = 2.25x10 -9 (M). The secondary structure, contact sites with CRP protein, and application of this aptamer will be described.

Detection of 210Po on filter papers 16 years after use for the collection of short-lived radon progeny in a room

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abu-Jarad, F.; Fazal-ur-Rehman

2003-01-01

Radon gas was allowed to accumulate in its radium source and then injected into a 36 m 3 test room, resulting in an initial radon concentration of 15 kBq m -3 . Filter papers were used to collect the short-lived radon progeny and thus to measure the Potential Alpha Energy Concentration (PAEC) in-situ in the year 1984 at different times and conditions according to the experimental design. The radon progeny collected on the filter papers were studied as a function of aerosol particle concentration ranging from 10 2 -10 5 particles cm -3 in three different experiments. The highest aerosol particle concentration was generated by indoor cigarette smoking. Those filters were stored after the experiment, and were used after 16 years to study the activity of the radon long-lived alpha emitter progeny, 210 Po (T 1/2 =138 days). This isotope is separated from the short-lived progeny by 210 Pb beta emitter with 22.3 years half-life. After 16 years' storage of these filters, each filter paper was sandwiched and wrapped between two CR-39 nuclear track detectors, to put the detectors in contact with the surfaces of different filters, for 337 days. Correlation between the PAEC measured using filter papers in the year 1984 and the activity of long-lived alpha emitter 210 Po on the same filter papers measured in the year 2000 were studied. The results of the 210 Po activity showed a very good correlation of 0.92 with the PAEC 16 years ago. The results also depict that the PAEC and 210 Po activity in indoor air increased with the increase of aerosol particle concentration, which shows the attachment of short-lived radon progeny with the aerosol particles. The experiment proves that indoor cigarette smoking is a major source of aerosol particles carrying radon progeny and, thus, indoor cigarette smoking is an additional source of internal radiation hazard to the occupants whether smoker or non-smoker

High-Capacity Short-Range Optical Communication Links

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tatarczak, Anna

Over the last decade, we have observed a tremendous spread of end-user mobile devices. The user base of a mobile application can grow or shrink by millions per day. This situation creates a pressing need for highly scalable server infrastructure; a need nowadays satisfied through cloud computing...... offered by data centers. As the popularity of cloud computing soars, the demand for high-speed, short-range data center links grows. Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) and multimode fibers (MMF) prove especially well-suited for such scenarios. VCSELs have high modulation bandwidths......, we achieve 10 Gbps over 400 m and then conrm the approach in an optimized system at 25 Gbps over 300 m. The techniques described in this thesis leverage additional degrees of freedom to better utilize the available resources of short-range links. The proposed schemes enable higher speeds and longer...

High-voltage short-fall pulse generator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dolbilov, G.V.; Fateev, A.A.; Petrov, V.A.

1986-01-01

Powerful high-voltage pulses with short fall times and relatively low afterpulse amplitude are required for the deflection systems of accelerators. A generator is described that provides, into a 75-ohm load, a voltage pulse of up to 100 kV with a fall time of less than 1 nsec and a relative afterpulse amplitude of less than or equal to 15%. The generator employs a short-circuited ferrite-filled line in which shock waves are formed. A magnetic section is used to increase power. The switch is a TGI1-2500/50 thyratron. The main causes of afterpulses and methods for reducing their amplitude are examined

Harvard-MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Progress report, March 1, 1985-February 28, 1986

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-03-01

The Harvard-MIT Research Program in Short-Lived Radiopharmaceuticals was established in 1977 to foster interaction among groups working at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts General Hospital in fields related to radiopharmaceutical chemistry. From these collaborations and building upon the special, but different, strengths of the participating individuals, laboratories and institutions, it was hoped that original approaches would be found for the design of new, clinically useful, labeled compounds. We believe that examination of the record demonstrates that this has been a fruitful alliance

Harvard-MIT research program in short-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Progress report, March 1, 1983-February 29, 1984

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adelstein, S.J.; Brownell, G.L.

1984-02-01

This report describes research efforts towards the achievement of a clearer understanding of the solution chemistry of technetium in order to facilitate the design of future clinical agents labeled with Tc-99m, the development of new receptor binding radiopharmaceuticals for the in vivo assessment of insulin receptors and for imaging the adrenal medulla and the brain, the examination of the utility of monoclonal antibodies and liposomes in the design of radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and therapy, and the synthesis of short-lived positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals for transverse imaging of regional physiological processes

Gold-195m short-lived single-photon emitter for cardiovascular studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mena, I.; de Jong, R.; Mena, F.J.; Narahara, K.A.

1985-01-01

Ultrashort-lived radionuclides offer many advantages for clinical nuclear medicine. These radionuclide are generator-produced at bedside, with markedly diminished radiation exposure to the patient; larger doses of radionuclides can therefore be administered, and rapid, sequential, background-free studies can be performed. Gold-195m is an example of an ultrashort-lived radionuclide with a half-life of 30.4 sec. It is generated from /sup 195m/Hg (T/sub 1/2/, 40.6 hr). The quality of imaging and radiation exposure to patients is a function of the percentage breakthrough of /sup 195m/Hg owing to high-energy gamma radiation and longer half-life. Percentage breakthrough of /sup 195m/Hg was measured. The performance of the generator was assessed by determining the coefficient of variation of subsequent measurements

Engineering Multifunctional Living Paints: Thin, Convectively-Assembled Biocomposite Coatings of Live Cells and Colloidal Latex Particles Deposited by Continuous Convective-Sedimentation Assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Jessica Shawn

Advanced composite materials could be revolutionized by the development of methods to incorporate living cells into functional materials and devices. This could be accomplished by continuously and rapidly depositing thin ordered arrays of adhesive colloidal latex particles and live cells that maintain stability and preserve microbial reactivity. Convective assembly is one method of rapidly assembling colloidal particles into thin (advantages over thicker randomly ordered composites, including enhanced cell stability and increased reactivity through minimized diffusion resistance to nutrients and reduced light scattering. This method can be used to precisely deposit live bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeast, and algae into biocomposite coatings, forming reactive biosensors, photoabsorbers, or advanced biocatalysts. This dissertation developed new continuous deposition and coating characterization methods for fabricating and characterizing 90 hours) photohydrogen production under anoxygenic conditions. Nutrient reduction slows cell division, minimizing coating outgrowth, and promotes photohydrogen generation, improving coating reactivity. Scanning electron microscopy of microstructure revealed how coating reactivity can be controlled by the size and distribution of the nanopores in the biocomposite layers. Variations in colloid microsphere size and suspension composition do not affect coating reactivity, but both parameters alter coating microstructure. Porous paper coated with thin coatings of colloidal particles and cells to enable coatings to be used in a gas-phase without dehydration may offer higher volumetric productivity for hydrogen production. Future work should focus on optimization of cell density, light intensity, media cycling, and acetate concentration.

Delivery of halogenated very short-lived substances from the west Indian Ocean to the stratosphere during the Asian summer monsoon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Fiehn

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Halogenated very short-lived substances (VSLSs are naturally produced in the ocean and emitted to the atmosphere. When transported to the stratosphere, these compounds can have a significant influence on the ozone layer and climate. During a research cruise on RV Sonne in the subtropical and tropical west Indian Ocean in July and August 2014, we measured the VSLSs, methyl iodide (CH3I and for the first time bromoform (CHBr3 and dibromomethane (CH2Br2, in surface seawater and the marine atmosphere to derive their emission strengths. Using the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART with ERA-Interim meteorological fields, we calculated the direct contribution of observed VSLS emissions to the stratospheric halogen burden during the Asian summer monsoon. Furthermore, we compare the in situ calculations with the interannual variability of transport from a larger area of the west Indian Ocean surface to the stratosphere for July 2000–2015. We found that the west Indian Ocean is a strong source for CHBr3 (910 pmol m−2 h−1, very strong source for CH2Br2 (930 pmol m−2 h−1, and an average source for CH3I (460 pmol m−2 h−1. The atmospheric transport from the tropical west Indian Ocean surface to the stratosphere experiences two main pathways. On very short timescales, especially relevant for the shortest-lived compound CH3I (3.5 days lifetime, convection above the Indian Ocean lifts oceanic air masses and VSLSs towards the tropopause. On a longer timescale, the Asian summer monsoon circulation transports oceanic VSLSs towards India and the Bay of Bengal, where they are lifted with the monsoon convection and reach stratospheric levels in the southeastern part of the Asian monsoon anticyclone. This transport pathway is more important for the longer-lived brominated compounds (17 and 150 days lifetime for CHBr3 and CH2Br2. The entrainment of CHBr3 and CH3I from the west Indian Ocean to the stratosphere during the

SHORT COMMUNICATION High prevalence of Plasmodium ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dell

Volume 20, Number 1, January 2018. 1. SHORT COMMUNICATION ... This study was designed to establish the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria among HIV infected populations. ... The prevalence of P. falciparum was high among HIV seropositive individuals in the Lake Victoria Zone, which calls for additional ...

Peer Relations and Peer Deviance as Predictors of Reactive and Proactive Aggression among High School Girls

Science.gov (United States)

Uz Bas, Asli; Öz Soysal, Fatma Selda

2016-01-01

This study aimed to investigate associations between reactive and proactive aggression and peer relations and peer deviance among high school girls. A total of 442 high school students participated in this study. Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, the Peer Relations Scale, and the Peer Deviance Scale were used to collect data. Results…

Achieving high fusion reactivity in high poloidal beta discharges in TFTR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manuel, M.E.; Navratil, G.A.; Sabbagh, S.A.; Batha, S.; Bell, M.G.; Bell, R.; Budny, R.V.; Bush, C.E.; Cavallo, A.; Chance, M.S.; Cheng, C.Z.; Efthimion, P.C.; Fredrickson, E.D.; Fu, G.Y.; Hawryluk, R.J.; Janos, A.C.; Jassby, D.L.; Levinton, F.; Mikkelsen, D.R.; Manickam, J.; McCune, D.C.; McGuire, K.M.; Medley, S.S.; Mueller, D.; Nagayama, Y.; Owens, D.K.; Park, H.K.; Ramsey, A.T.; Stratton, B.C.; Synakowski, E.J.; Taylor, G.; Wieland, R.M.; Yamada, M.; Zarnstorff, M.C.: Zweben, S.; Kesner, J.; Marmar, E.; Snipes, J.; Terry, J.

1993-04-01

High poloidal beta discharges have been produced in TFTR that achieved high fusion reactivities at low plasma currents. By rapidly decreasing the plasma current just prior to high-power neutral beam injection, relatively peaked current profiles were created having high l i > 2, high Troyon-normalized beta, βN > 3, and high poloidal beta. β p ≥ 0.7 R/a. The global energy confinement time after the current ramp was comparable to supershots, and the combination of improved MHD stability and good confinement produced a new high εβ p high Q DD operating mode for TFTR. Without steady-state current profile control, as the pulse lengths of high βp discharges were extended, l i decreased, and the improved stability produced immediately after by the current ramp deteriorated. In four second, high εβ p discharges, the current profile broadened under the influence of bootstrap and beam-drive currents. When the calculated voltage throughout the plasma nearly vanished, MHD instabilities were observed with β N as low as 1.4. Ideal MHD stability calculations showed this lower beta limit to be consistent with theoretical expectations

Impact on short-lived climate forcers increases projected warming due to deforestation.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, C E; Monks, S A; Spracklen, D V; Arnold, S R; Forster, P M; Rap, A; Äijälä, M; Artaxo, P; Carslaw, K S; Chipperfield, M P; Ehn, M; Gilardoni, S; Heikkinen, L; Kulmala, M; Petäjä, T; Reddington, C L S; Rizzo, L V; Swietlicki, E; Vignati, E; Wilson, C

2018-01-11

The climate impact of deforestation depends on the relative strength of several biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects. In addition to affecting the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and moisture with the atmosphere and surface albedo, vegetation emits biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) that alter the formation of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), which include aerosol, ozone and methane. Here we show that a scenario of complete global deforestation results in a net positive radiative forcing (RF; 0.12 W m -2 ) from SLCFs, with the negative RF from decreases in ozone and methane concentrations partially offsetting the positive aerosol RF. Combining RFs due to CO 2 , surface albedo and SLCFs suggests that global deforestation could cause 0.8 K warming after 100 years, with SLCFs contributing 8% of the effect. However, deforestation as projected by the RCP8.5 scenario leads to zero net RF from SLCF, primarily due to nonlinearities in the aerosol indirect effect.

Treatment of reactive process wastewater with high-level ammonia by blow-off method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Xiaotong; Quan Ying; Wang Yang; Fu Genna; Liu Bing; Tang Yaping

2012-01-01

The ceramic UO 2 kernels for nuclear fuel elements of high temperature gas cooled reactors were prepared through sol-gel process with uranyl nitrate, which produces process wastewater containing high-level ammonia and uranium. The blow-off method on a bench scale was investigated to remove ammonia from reactive wastewater. Under the optimized operating conditions, the ammonia can be removed by more than 95%, with little reactive uranium distilled. The effects of pH, heating temperature and stripping time were studied. Static tests with ion-exchange resin indicate that ammonia removal treatment increases uranium accumulation in anion exchange resin. (authors)

Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Highly Reactive Glycosyl Halides

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lajos Kovács

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Highly reactive glycosyl chlorides and bromides have been analysed by a routine mass spectrometric method using electrospray ionization and lithium salt adduct-forming agents in anhydrous acetonitrile solution, providing salient lithiated molecular ions [M+Li]⁺, [2M+Li]⁺ etc. The role of other adduct-forming salts has also been evaluated. The lithium salt method is useful for accurate mass determination of these highly sensitive compounds.

Short Lived Climate Pollutants cause a Long Lived Effect on Sea-level Rise: Analyzing climate metrics for sea-level rise

Science.gov (United States)

Sterner, E.; Johansson, D. J.

2013-12-01

Climate change depends on the increase of several different atmospheric pollutants. While long term global warming will be determined mainly by carbon dioxide, warming in the next few decades will depend to a large extent on short lived climate pollutants (SLCP). Reducing emissions of SLCPs could contribute to lower the global mean surface temperature by 0.5 °C already by 2050 (Shindell et al. 2012). Furthermore, the warming effect of one of the most potent SLCPs, black carbon (BC), may have been underestimated in the past. Bond et al. (2013) presents a new best estimate of the total BC radiative forcing (RF) of 1.1 W/m2 (90 % uncertainty bounds of 0.17 to 2.1 W/m2) since the beginning of the industrial era. BC is however never emitted alone and cooling aerosols from the same sources offset a majority of this RF. In the wake of calls for mitigation of SLCPs it is important to study other aspects of the climate effect of SLCPs. One key impact of climate change is sea-level rise (SLR). In a recent study, the effect of SLCP mitigation scenarios on SLR is examined. Hu et al (2013) find a substantial effect on SLR from mitigating SLCPs sharply, reducing SLR by 22-42% by 2100. We choose a different approach focusing on emission pulses and analyse a metric based on sea level rise so as to further enlighten the SLR consequences of SLCPs. We want in particular to understand the time dynamics of SLR impacts caused by SLCPs compared to other greenhouse gases. The most commonly used physical based metrics are GWP and GTP. We propose and evaluate an additional metric: The global sea-level rise potential (GSP). The GSP is defined as the sea level rise after a time horizon caused by an emissions pulse of a forcer to the sea level rise after a time horizon caused by an emissions pulse of a CO2. GSP is evaluated and compared to GWP and GTP using a set of climate forcers chosen to cover the whole scale of atmospheric perturbation life times (BC, CH4, N2O, CO2 and SF6). The study

Numerical solution of stiff burnup equation with short half lived nuclides by the Krylov subspace method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Akio; Tatsumi, Masahiro; Sugimura, Naoki

2007-01-01

The Krylov subspace method is applied to solve nuclide burnup equations used for lattice physics calculations. The Krylov method is an efficient approach for solving ordinary differential equations with stiff nature such as the nuclide burnup with short lived nuclides. Some mathematical fundamentals of the Krylov subspace method and its application to burnup equations are discussed. Verification calculations are carried out in a PWR pin-cell geometry with UO 2 fuel. A detailed burnup chain that includes 193 fission products and 28 heavy nuclides is used in the verification calculations. Shortest half life found in the present burnup chain is approximately 30 s ( 106 Rh). Therefore, conventional methods (e.g., the Taylor series expansion with scaling and squaring) tend to require longer computation time due to numerical stiffness. Comparison with other numerical methods (e.g., the 4-th order Runge-Kutta-Gill) reveals that the Krylov subspace method can provide accurate solution for a detailed burnup chain used in the present study with short computation time. (author)

The origin and disappearance of the late Pleistocene-early Holocene short-lived coastal wetlands along the Carmel coast, Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Sivan, Dorit; Greenbaum, Noam; Cohen-Seffer, Ronit; Sisma-Ventura, Guy; Almogi-Labin, Ahuva

The formation of short-lived backswamps along the Carmel coast of Israel coincides with the rapid global sea-level rise during the late Pleistocene-early Holocene transition. The current study shows that the wetland phenomena originated around 10,000 yr ago and dried up shortly before the local Pre-Pottery Neolithic humans settled on the wetland dark clay sediments 9430 cal yr BP. Palaeontological and stable-isotope data were used in this study to elucidate previously published sedimentological reconstruction obtained from a core drilled into the western trough of the Carmel coastal plain. The water body contained typical brackish calcareous fauna, with variable numerical abundance and low species richness of ostracods and foraminifera. The δ 18O and δ 13C of the ostracod Cyprideis torosa show close similarity to the present Pleistocene coastal aquifer isotopic values. This study therefore concludes that the wetlands were shallow-water bodies fed by groundwater, with no evidence of sea-water mixing. It seems that they developed as the result of high groundwater levels, transportation of sediments landward, and deposition of sand bars at the paleo-river mouths. It is still not fully understood why these wetlands deteriorated abruptly and disappeared within less than 1000 yr.

High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Events after ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ribeiro, Daniel Rios Pinto; Ramos, Adriane Monserrat; Vieira, Pedro Lima; Menti, Eduardo; Bordin, Odemir Luiz Jr.; Souza, Priscilla Azambuja Lopes de; Quadros, Alexandre Schaan de; Portal, Vera Lúcia, E-mail: veraportal.pesquisa@gmail.com [Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Cardiologia - Instituto de Cardiologia/Fundação Universitária de Cardiologia, Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil)

2014-07-15

The association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction who undergo primary percutaneous coronary intervention remains controversial. To investigate the potential association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and an increased risk of MACE such as death, heart failure, reinfarction, and new revascularization in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. This prospective cohort study included 300 individuals aged >18 years who were diagnosed with ST-elevation myocardial infarction and underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention at a tertiary health center. An instrument evaluating clinical variables and the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) and Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk scores was used. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein was determined by nephelometry. The patients were followed-up during hospitalization and up to 30 days after infarction for the occurrence of MACE. Student's t, Mann-Whitney, chi-square, and logistic regression tests were used for statistical analyses. P values of ≤0.05 were considered statistically significant. The mean age was 59.76 years, and 69.3% of patients were male. No statistically significant association was observed between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and recurrent MACE (p = 0.11). However, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was independently associated with 30-day mortality when adjusted for TIMI [odds ratio (OR), 1.27; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.07-1.51; p = 0.005] and GRACE (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.06-1.49; p = 0.007) risk scores. Although high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was not predictive of combined major cardiovascular events within 30 days after ST-elevation myocardial infarction in patients who underwent primary angioplasty and stent implantation, it was an independent predictor

Comparison of pre- and post-levothyroxine high-sensitivity c-reactive protein and fetuin-a levels in subclinical hypothyroidism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oktay Bilgir

2015-02-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The objective of this trial was to determine the levels of inflammatory markers, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fetuin-A pre- and post-levothyroxine treatment in cases of subclinical hypothyroidism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 32 patients with a diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism and a control group of 30 healthy individuals were tested for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fetuin-A, followed by the administration of 50 µg of levothyroxine in the patient group for 3 months. During the post-treatment stage, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fetuin-A levels in the patient group were re-assessed and compared with pre-treatment values. RESULTS: Pre-treatment levels of both high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fetuin-A were observed to be higher in the patient group than in the control group. The decrease in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels during the post-treatment stage was not statistically significant. However, the decrease observed in post-treatment fetuin-A levels was found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The decrease in fetuin-A levels in subclinical hypothyroidism cases indicates that levothyroxine treatment exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects. Although the decrease in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels was statistically non-significant, it is predicted to reach significance with sustained treatment.

Distribution of Short-Term and Lifetime Predicted Risks of Cardiovascular Diseases in Peruvian Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Quispe, Renato; Bazo-Alvarez, Juan Carlos; Burroughs Peña, Melissa S; Poterico, Julio A; Gilman, Robert H; Checkley, William; Bernabé-Ortiz, Antonio; Huffman, Mark D; Miranda, J Jaime

2015-01-01

Background Short-term risk assessment tools for prediction of cardiovascular disease events are widely recommended in clinical practice and are used largely for single time-point estimations; however, persons with low predicted short-term risk may have higher risks across longer time horizons. Methods and Results We estimated short-term and lifetime cardiovascular disease risk in a pooled population from 2 studies of Peruvian populations. Short-term risk was estimated using the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease Pooled Cohort Risk Equations. Lifetime risk was evaluated using the algorithm derived from the Framingham Heart Study cohort. Using previously published thresholds, participants were classified into 3 categories: low short-term and low lifetime risk, low short-term and high lifetime risk, and high short-term predicted risk. We also compared the distribution of these risk profiles across educational level, wealth index, and place of residence. We included 2844 participants (50% men, mean age 55.9 years [SD 10.2 years]) in the analysis. Approximately 1 of every 3 participants (34% [95% CI 33 to 36]) had a high short-term estimated cardiovascular disease risk. Among those with a low short-term predicted risk, more than half (54% [95% CI 52 to 56]) had a high lifetime predicted risk. Short-term and lifetime predicted risks were higher for participants with lower versus higher wealth indexes and educational levels and for those living in urban versus rural areas (PPeruvian adults were classified as low short-term risk but high lifetime risk. Vulnerable adults, such as those from low socioeconomic status and those living in urban areas, may need greater attention regarding cardiovascular preventive strategies. PMID:26254303

Work-related social support modulates effects of early life stress on limbic reactivity during stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Leicht-Deobald, Ulrich; Bruch, Heike; Bönke, Luisa; Stevense, Amie; Fan, Yan; Bajbouj, Malek; Grimm, Simone

2017-12-15

Early life stress (ELS) affects stress- reactivity via limbic brain regions implicated such as hippocampus and amygdala. Social support is a major protective factor against ELS effects, while subjects with ELS experience reportedly perceive less of it in their daily life. The workplace, where most adults spend a substantial amount of time in their daily lives, might serve as a major resource for social support. Since previous data demonstrated that social support attenuates stress reactivity, we here used a psychosocial stress task to test the hypothesis that work-related social support modulates the effects of ELS. Results show decreased amygdala reactivity during stress in ELS subjects who report high levels of work- related social support, thereby indicating a signature for reduced stress reactivity. However, this effect was only observable on the neural, but not on the behavioral level, since social support had no buffering effect regarding the subjective experience of stress in daily life as well as regarding feelings of uncontrollability induced by the stress task. Accordingly, our data suggest that subjects with ELS experiences might benefit from interventions targeted at lowering their subjective stress levels by helping them to better perceive the availability of social support in their daily lives.

Synthesising highly reactive tin oxide using Tin(II2- ethylhexanoate polynucleation as precursor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alejandra Montenegro Hernández

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Tin oxide is a widely used compound in technological applications, particularity as a catalyst, gas sensor and in making varistors, transparent conductors, electrocatalytic electrodes and photovoltaic cells. An ethylhexanoate tin salt, a carboxylic acid and poly-esterification were used for synthesising highly reactive tin oxide in the present study. Synthesis was controlled by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR spectroscopy and recording changes in viscosity. The tin oxide characteristics so obtained were determined using FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM. The SnO2 dust synthesised and heat-treated at 550°C yielded high density aggregates, having greater than 50 μm particle size. This result demonstrates the high reactivity of the ceramic powders synthesised here.

Short-term testosterone manipulations modulate visual recognition memory and some aspects of emotional reactivity in male rhesus monkeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Lacreuse, Agnès; Gore, Heather E; Chang, Jeemin; Kaplan, Emily R

2012-05-15

The role of testosterone (T) in modulating cognitive function and emotion in men remains unclear. The paucity of animal studies has likely contributed to the slow progress in this area. In particular, studies in nonhuman primates have been lacking. Our laboratory has begun to address this issue by pharmacologically manipulating T levels in intact male rhesus monkeys, using blind, placebo-controlled, crossover designs. We previously found that T-suppressed monkeys receiving supraphysiological T for 4 weeks had lower visual recognition memory for long delays and enhanced attention to videos of negative social stimuli (Lacreuse et al., 2009, 2010) compared to when treated with oil. To further delineate the conditions under which T affects cognition and emotion, the present study focused on the short-term effects of physiological T. Six intact males were treated with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist degarelix (3 mg/kg) for 7 days and received one injection of T enanthate (5 mg/kg) followed by one injection of oil vehicle 7 days later (n=3), or the reverse treatment (n=3). Performance on two computerized tasks, the Delayed-non-matching-to-sample (DNMS) with random delays and the object-Delayed Recognition Span test (object-DRST) and one task of emotional reactivity, an approach/avoidance task of negative, familiar and novel objects, was examined at baseline and 3-5 days after treatment. DNMS performance was significantly better when monkeys were treated with T compared to oil, independently of the delay duration or the nature (emotional or neutral) of the stimuli. Performance on the object-DRST was unaffected. Interestingly, subtle changes in emotional reactivity were also observed: T administration was associated with fewer object contacts, especially on negative objects, without overt changes in anxious behaviors. These results may reflect increased vigilance and alertness with high T. Altogether, the data suggest that changes in general arousal may

Detection of {sup 210}Po on filter papers 16 years after use for the collection of short-lived radon progeny in a room

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abu-Jarad, F. E-mail: falah.abujarad@aramco.com; Fazal-ur-Rehman

2003-07-01

Radon gas was allowed to accumulate in its radium source and then injected into a 36 m{sup 3} test room, resulting in an initial radon concentration of 15 kBq m{sup -3}. Filter papers were used to collect the short-lived radon progeny and thus to measure the Potential Alpha Energy Concentration (PAEC) in-situ in the year 1984 at different times and conditions according to the experimental design. The radon progeny collected on the filter papers were studied as a function of aerosol particle concentration ranging from 10{sup 2}-10{sup 5} particles cm{sup -3} in three different experiments. The highest aerosol particle concentration was generated by indoor cigarette smoking. Those filters were stored after the experiment, and were used after 16 years to study the activity of the radon long-lived alpha emitter progeny, {sup 210}Po (T{sub 1/2}=138 days). This isotope is separated from the short-lived progeny by {sup 210}Pb beta emitter with 22.3 years half-life. After 16 years' storage of these filters, each filter paper was sandwiched and wrapped between two CR-39 nuclear track detectors, to put the detectors in contact with the surfaces of different filters, for 337 days. Correlation between the PAEC measured using filter papers in the year 1984 and the activity of long-lived alpha emitter {sup 210}Po on the same filter papers measured in the year 2000 were studied. The results of the {sup 210}Po activity showed a very good correlation of 0.92 with the PAEC 16 years ago. The results also depict that the PAEC and {sup 210}Po activity in indoor air increased with the increase of aerosol particle concentration, which shows the attachment of short-lived radon progeny with the aerosol particles. The experiment proves that indoor cigarette smoking is a major source of aerosol particles carrying radon progeny and, thus, indoor cigarette smoking is an additional source of internal radiation hazard to the occupants whether smoker or non-smoker.

Meanings of living in lodgings during senior high school

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wannebo, Wenche; Devik, Siri Andreassen; Uhrenfeldt, Lisbeth

2018-01-01

Studies show that senior high school students living in lodgings (away from home) when attending high school are vulnerable to stress and mental health problems. Moving away from home at the age of 15-16 is a transition that might affect adolescents' well-being. The aim of this study is to explore...... the experience of living in lodgings during senior high school. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 Norwegian lodgers of both genders between the ages of 16-18. Interviews were analyzed according to a phenomenological hermeneutical approach. Four main themes were identified: (a) striving between...

Introduction to nanotechnology: a short course for high school students

Science.gov (United States)

Markin, Alexey V.

2016-04-01

This report devoted to presenting results of development and implementation of a short course (4 hours) entitled "Introduction to Nanotechnology" that was specially designed for familiarizing high school students with nanomaterials and nanotechnology. The course contains introduction to nanotechnology, essential definitions, short overview of history, descriptions for various examples of nanomaterials and their classifications, performing demonstration experiments. All these parts of the course are briefly analyzed from pedagogical effectiveness point of view. Finally, results of course testing, problems and perspectives of nano-oriented education at high school are also discussed shortly.

OTDM Networking for Short Range High-Capacity Highly Dynamic Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Medhin, Ashenafi Kiros

This PhD thesis aims at investigating the possibility of designing energy-efficient high-capacity (up to Tbit/s) optical network scenarios, leveraging on the effect of collective switching of many bits simultaneously, as is inherent in high bit rate serial optical data signals. The focus...... is on short range highly dynamic networks, catering to data center needs. The investigation concerns optical network scenarios, and experimental implementations of high bit rate serial data packet generation and reception, scalable optical packet labeling, simple optical label extraction and stable ultra...

Latent Virus Reactivation: From Space to Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Mehta, Satish K.; Cohrs, Randall J.; Gilden, Donald H.; Tyring, Stephen K.; Castro, Victoria A.; Ott, C. Mark; Pierson, Duane L.

2010-01-01

Reactivation of latent viruses is a recognized consequence of decreased immunity. More recently viral reactivation has been identified as an important in vivo indicator of clinically relevant immune changes. Viral reactivation can be determined quickly and easily by the presence of virus in saliva and other body fluids. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a highly sensitive and specific molecular method to detect the presence of specific viral DNA. Studies in astronauts demonstrated that herpes simplex virus type 1(HSV-1), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and varicella zoster virus (VZV) reactivate at rates above normal during and after spaceflight in response to moderately decreased T-cell immunity. This technology was expanded to patients on Earth beginning with human immune deficiency virus (HIV) immuno-compromised patients. The HIV patients shed EBV in saliva at rates 9-fold higher than observed in astronauts demonstrating that the level of EBV shedding reflects the severity of impaired immunity. Whereas EBV reactivation is not expected to produce serious effects in astronauts on missions of 6 months or less, VZV reactivation in astronauts could produce shingles. Reactivation of live, infectious VZV in astronauts with no symptoms was demonstrated in astronauts during and after spaceflight. We applied our technology to study VZV-induced shingles in patients. In a study of 54 shingles patients, we showed salivary VZV was present in every patient on the day antiviral (acyclovir) treatment was initiated. Pain and skin lesions decreased with antiviral treatment. Corresponding decreases in levels of VZV were also observed and accompanied recovery. Although the level of VZV in shingles patients before the treatment was generally higher than those found in astronauts, lower range of VZV numbers in shingles patients overlapped with astronaut s levels. This suggests a potential risk of shingles to astronauts resulting from reactivation of VZV. In

Stepwise catalytic mechanism via short-lived intermediate inferred from combined QM/MM MERP and PES calculations on retaining glycosyltransferase ppGalNAcT2.

Science.gov (United States)

Trnka, Tomáš; Kozmon, Stanislav; Tvaroška, Igor; Koča, Jaroslav

2015-04-01

The glycosylation of cell surface proteins plays a crucial role in a multitude of biological processes, such as cell adhesion and recognition. To understand the process of protein glycosylation, the reaction mechanisms of the participating enzymes need to be known. However, the reaction mechanism of retaining glycosyltransferases has not yet been sufficiently explained. Here we investigated the catalytic mechanism of human isoform 2 of the retaining glycosyltransferase polypeptide UDP-GalNAc transferase by coupling two different QM/MM-based approaches, namely a potential energy surface scan in two distance difference dimensions and a minimum energy reaction path optimisation using the Nudged Elastic Band method. Potential energy scan studies often suffer from inadequate sampling of reactive processes due to a predefined scan coordinate system. At the same time, path optimisation methods enable the sampling of a virtually unlimited number of dimensions, but their results cannot be unambiguously interpreted without knowledge of the potential energy surface. By combining these methods, we have been able to eliminate the most significant sources of potential errors inherent to each of these approaches. The structural model is based on the crystal structure of human isoform 2. In the QM/MM method, the QM region consists of 275 atoms, the remaining 5776 atoms were in the MM region. We found that ppGalNAcT2 catalyzes a same-face nucleophilic substitution with internal return (SNi). The optimized transition state for the reaction is 13.8 kcal/mol higher in energy than the reactant while the energy of the product complex is 6.7 kcal/mol lower. During the process of nucleophilic attack, a proton is synchronously transferred to the leaving phosphate. The presence of a short-lived metastable oxocarbenium intermediate is likely, as indicated by the reaction energy profiles obtained using high-level density functionals.

Stepwise catalytic mechanism via short-lived intermediate inferred from combined QM/MM MERP and PES calculations on retaining glycosyltransferase ppGalNAcT2.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomáš Trnka

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The glycosylation of cell surface proteins plays a crucial role in a multitude of biological processes, such as cell adhesion and recognition. To understand the process of protein glycosylation, the reaction mechanisms of the participating enzymes need to be known. However, the reaction mechanism of retaining glycosyltransferases has not yet been sufficiently explained. Here we investigated the catalytic mechanism of human isoform 2 of the retaining glycosyltransferase polypeptide UDP-GalNAc transferase by coupling two different QM/MM-based approaches, namely a potential energy surface scan in two distance difference dimensions and a minimum energy reaction path optimisation using the Nudged Elastic Band method. Potential energy scan studies often suffer from inadequate sampling of reactive processes due to a predefined scan coordinate system. At the same time, path optimisation methods enable the sampling of a virtually unlimited number of dimensions, but their results cannot be unambiguously interpreted without knowledge of the potential energy surface. By combining these methods, we have been able to eliminate the most significant sources of potential errors inherent to each of these approaches. The structural model is based on the crystal structure of human isoform 2. In the QM/MM method, the QM region consists of 275 atoms, the remaining 5776 atoms were in the MM region. We found that ppGalNAcT2 catalyzes a same-face nucleophilic substitution with internal return (SNi. The optimized transition state for the reaction is 13.8 kcal/mol higher in energy than the reactant while the energy of the product complex is 6.7 kcal/mol lower. During the process of nucleophilic attack, a proton is synchronously transferred to the leaving phosphate. The presence of a short-lived metastable oxocarbenium intermediate is likely, as indicated by the reaction energy profiles obtained using high-level density functionals.

Synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals containing short-lived radionuclides: Progress report, March 1, 1987-February 28, 1988

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabalka, G.W.

1987-09-01

The objective is the creation of new methods for introducing short-lived isotopes into agents for use in diagnostic nuclear medicine. Focus is on the design of new molecular architecture as opposed to the application of known reactions to the synthesis of specific radiopharmaceuticals. The new technology is utilized in nuclear medicine research at the University of Tennessee Medical Imaging Center and in collaboration with colleagues at other DOE facilities. The program provides training for students in the scientific aspects of nuclear medicine. The academic nature of the program facilitates collaborative interactions with other DOE nuclear medicine programs and helps to insure the continued availability of skilled scientists dedicated to the advancement of nuclear medicine. 70 refs., 9 figs

Application of dynamic and transition magnetic fields for determination of magnetic moments of short-lived nuclear states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgov, N.A.

1986-01-01

Problem of measuring magnetic momenta of short-living nuclear states is discussed. Different methods for measuring magnetic momenta using interionic and transient magnetic fields were considered. Possibility for determining a value g by means of measuring correlation attenuation is investigated as well as measuring magnetic momenta by means of inclined foils. At present 2 + level magnetic momenta for many odd-odd nuclei have been determined by means of the above methods. The methods are only ones for determining magnetic momenta of nuclear levels with small lifetimes up to tenth and hundredth of shares of picoseconds

External tandem target system for efficient production of short-lived positron emitting radionuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koh, K.; Dwyer, J.; Finn, R.; Sheh, Y.; Sinnreich, J.; Wooten, T.

1983-01-01

Recent developments in radiopharmaceutical chemistry allow the incorporation of short-lived, positron-emitting radionuclides into a variety of compounds which when used with a positron emission tomograph provide a means of monitoring physiological disorders by a standard technique. To effectively meet the increased ''in-house'' clinical demands while maintaining a production schedule, a tandem target was designed and has been installed for the simultaneous ''on-line'' preparation of oxygen-15 labelled compounds such as CO 2 15 , H 2 O 15 ; and nitrogen-13 labelled compounds such as 13 NH 3 , 13 N 2 O, and 13 N 2 . The processing time required for the synthesis of the nitrogen-13 products as compared to the essentially instantaneous formation of oxygen-15 labelled compounds has provided the necessary time delay for clinical utilization. The characterisitcs of this external tandem target system as well as the automation for the dual processing are presented

Changes in oxidative stress parameters in relation to age, growth and reproduction in the short-lived catarina scallop Argopecten ventricosus reared in its natural environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra, C; Zenteno-Savín, T; Maeda-Martínez, A N; Philipp, E E R; Abele, D

2012-08-01

Increase in oxidative damage and decrease in cellular maintenance is often associated with aging, but, in marine ectotherms, both processes are also strongly influenced by somatic growth, maturation and reproduction. In this study, we used a single cohort of the short-lived catarina scallop Argopecten ventricosus, to investigate the effects of somatic growth, reproduction and aging on oxidative damage parameters (protein carbonyls, TBARS and lipofuscin) and cellular maintenance mechanisms (antioxidant activity and apoptosis) in scallops, caged in their natural environment. The concentrations of protein carbonyls and TBARS increased steeply during the early period of fast growth and during reproduction in one-year-old scallops. However, oxidative damage was transient, and apoptotic cell death played a pivotal role in eliminating damage in gill, mantle and muscle tissues of young scallops. Animals were able to reproduce again in the second year, but the reduced intensity of apoptosis impaired subsequent removal of damaged cells. In late survivors low antioxidant capacity and apoptotic activity together with a fast accumulation of the age pigment lipofuscin was observed. Rates of oxygen consumption and oxidative stress markers were strongly dependent on somatic growth and reproductive state but not on temperature. Compared to longer-lived bivalves, A. ventricosus seems more susceptible to oxidative stress with higher tissue-specific protein carbonyl levels and fast accumulation of lipofuscin in animals surviving the second spawning. Superoxide dismutase activity and apoptotic cell death intensity were however higher in this short-lived scallop than in longer-lived bivalves. The life strategy of this short-lived and intensely predated scallop supports rapid somatic growth and fitness as well as early maturation at young age at the cost of fast cellular degradation in second year scallops. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short-circuit experiments on a high Tc-superconducting cable conductor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tønnesen, Ole; Jensen, E.H.; Traholt, C.

2002-01-01

A high temperature superconductor (HTS) cable conductor (CC) with a critical current of 2.1 kA was tested over a range of short-circuit currents up to 20 kA. The duration of the short-circuit currents is 1 s. Between each short-circuit test the critical current of the HTS CC was measured in order...

Limited BRC rulemaking: Regulatory approach and experience in Texas for short-lived radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McBurney, Ruth E.; Pollard, Christine G.

1992-01-01

In 1987, the Texas Department of Health (TDH) implemented a rule to allow, under certain conditions, wastes containing limited concentrations of short- lived radionuclides (less than 300-day half-life) to be disposed of in Type I sanitary landfills. The rule was based on a technical analysis that demonstrated the degree of safety for approximately 340 m of radioactive waste generated annually in Texas and identified major restrictions and conditions for disposal. TDH's Bureau of Radiation Control staff have been able to maintain an account of licensees utilizing the rule during the past years. Several research and industrial facilities in the state have saved significantly on waste disposal expenses. Public concerns and economic impacts for licensees as well as other regulatory aspects and experiences with the rule are discussed. (author)

Routine short-term ureteral stent in living donor renal transplantation: introduction of a simple stent removal technique without using anesthesia and cystoscope.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, J; Lu, J; Zu, Q; Yang, S; Sun, S; Cai, W; Zhang, L; Zhang, X

2011-12-01

We evaluated routine short-time insertion of ureteral stent in living donor renal transplant at a single center. It was easy to remove the stent without cystoscopy and anesthesia. Between October 2007 and July 2010, a single surgeon performed 76 living donor renal transplantations at one institute. All recipients underwent extravesical ureteroneocystostomy with a 2-0 silk suture passed through the venting side hole of the double-J stent into the bladder; a quadruple knot prevented the suture's slippage or distraction from the stent. After removal of the indwelling catheter at 5 days posttransplantation, the 2-0 silk passed with the urinary stream within 72 hours. The double-J stent was removed at 7 to 10 (mean 8.4) days after kidney transplantation by pulling the 2-0 silk out of the urethral orifice without anesthesia or cystoscopy. There was only one case of stenosis, which was resolved by surgery. No patient developed urinary leakage. There were three episodes of urinary tract infection in 70 patients during first 6 months' follow-up. Routine short-term stenting is a safe and effective technique in living donor renal transplantation. Removal of the stent is feasible without cystoscopy or anesthesia. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verifying Temporal Properties of Reactive Systems by Transformation

OpenAIRE

Hamilton, Geoff

2015-01-01

We show how program transformation techniques can be used for the verification of both safety and liveness properties of reactive systems. In particular, we show how the program transformation technique distillation can be used to transform reactive systems specified in a functional language into a simplified form that can subsequently be analysed to verify temporal properties of the systems. Example systems which are intended to model mutual exclusion are analysed using these techniques with...

Distribution of Short-Term and Lifetime Predicted Risks of Cardiovascular Diseases in Peruvian Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Quispe, Renato; Bazo-Alvarez, Juan Carlos; Burroughs Peña, Melissa S; Poterico, Julio A; Gilman, Robert H; Checkley, William; Bernabé-Ortiz, Antonio; Huffman, Mark D; Miranda, J Jaime

2015-08-07

Short-term risk assessment tools for prediction of cardiovascular disease events are widely recommended in clinical practice and are used largely for single time-point estimations; however, persons with low predicted short-term risk may have higher risks across longer time horizons. We estimated short-term and lifetime cardiovascular disease risk in a pooled population from 2 studies of Peruvian populations. Short-term risk was estimated using the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease Pooled Cohort Risk Equations. Lifetime risk was evaluated using the algorithm derived from the Framingham Heart Study cohort. Using previously published thresholds, participants were classified into 3 categories: low short-term and low lifetime risk, low short-term and high lifetime risk, and high short-term predicted risk. We also compared the distribution of these risk profiles across educational level, wealth index, and place of residence. We included 2844 participants (50% men, mean age 55.9 years [SD 10.2 years]) in the analysis. Approximately 1 of every 3 participants (34% [95% CI 33 to 36]) had a high short-term estimated cardiovascular disease risk. Among those with a low short-term predicted risk, more than half (54% [95% CI 52 to 56]) had a high lifetime predicted risk. Short-term and lifetime predicted risks were higher for participants with lower versus higher wealth indexes and educational levels and for those living in urban versus rural areas (PPeruvian adults were classified as low short-term risk but high lifetime risk. Vulnerable adults, such as those from low socioeconomic status and those living in urban areas, may need greater attention regarding cardiovascular preventive strategies. © 2015 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell.

Observations of oxidation products above a forest imply biogenic emissions of very reactive compounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Holzinger

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Vertical gradients of mixing ratios of volatile organic compounds have been measured in a Ponderosa pine forest in Central California (38.90° N, 120.63° W, 1315m. These measurements reveal large quantities of previously unreported oxidation products of short lived biogenic precursors. The emission of biogenic precursors must be in the range of 13-66µmol m-2h-1 to produce the observed oxidation products. That is 6-30 times the emissions of total monoterpenes observed above the forest canopy on a molar basis. These reactive precursors constitute a large fraction of biogenic emissions at this site, and are not included in current emission inventories. When oxidized by ozone they should efficiently produce secondary aerosol and hydroxyl radicals.

Thyroid cancer in the Marshallese: relative risk of short-lived internal emitters and external radiation exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lessard, E.T.; Brill, A.B.; Adams, W.H.

1985-01-01

In a study of the comparative effects of internal versus external irradiation of the thyroid in young people, we determined that the dose from internal irradiation of the thyroid with short-lived internal emitters produced several times less thyroid cancer than did the same dose of radiation given externally. We determined this finding for a group of 85 Marshall Islands children, who were less than 10 years of age at the time of exposure and who were accidentially exposed to internal and external thyroid radiation at an average level of 1400 rad. The external risk coefficient ranged between 2.5 and 4.9 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk, and thus, from our computations, the internal risk coefficient for the Marshallese children was estimated to range between 1.0 and 1.4 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk. In contrast, for individual more than 10 years of age at the time of exposure, the dose from internal irradiation of the thyroid with short-lived internal emitters produced several times more thyroid cancer than did the same dose of radiation given externally. The external risk coefficients for the older age groups were reported in the literature to be in the range of 1.0 to 3.3 cancers per million person-rad-years-at risk. We computed internal risk coefficients of 3.3 to 8.1 cancers per million person-rad-years at risk for adolescent and adult groups. This higher sensitivity to cancer induction in the exposed adolescents and adults, is different from that seen in other exposed groups. 14 refs., 8 tabs

Synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals containing short-lived radionuclides: Comprehensive progress report, March 1, 1986-February 28, 1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabalka, G.W.

1988-06-01

The primary objective of the DOE Nuclear Medicine Program at The University of Tennessee is the creation of new methods for intoducing short-lived isotopes into agents for use in PET and SPECT. A portion of our effort is directed toward the design and in vivo quantitation of boron-containing neutron therapy agents. The uniqueness of the program is its focus on the design of new chemistry (molecular architecture) and technology as opposed to the application of known reactions to the synthesis of specific radiopharmaceuticals. The following topics are outlined in this paper: new isotope incorporation reactions utilizing nitrogen 13, oxygen 15, and carbon 11; technetium-boron complexes; boron-neutron-capture

Short-time, high-dosage penicillin infusion therapy of syphilis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lomholt, Hans; Poulsen, Asmus; Brandrup, Flemming

2003-01-01

The optimal dosage and duration of penicillin treatment for the various stages of syphilis are not known. We present data on 20 patients with syphilis (primary, secondary or latent) treated with high-dose, short-time penicillin infusion therapy. Patients were given 10 MIU of penicillin G intraven......The optimal dosage and duration of penicillin treatment for the various stages of syphilis are not known. We present data on 20 patients with syphilis (primary, secondary or latent) treated with high-dose, short-time penicillin infusion therapy. Patients were given 10 MIU of penicillin G...

Autofluorescence-Free Live-Cell Imaging Using Terbium Nanoparticles.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardoso Dos Santos, M; Goetz, J; Bartenlian, H; Wong, K-L; Charbonnière, L J; Hildebrandt, N

2018-04-18

Fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) have become irreplaceable tools for advanced cellular and subcellular imaging. While very bright NPs require excitation with UV or visible light, which can create strong autofluorescence of biological components, NIR-excitable NPs without autofluorescence issues exhibit much lower brightness. Here, we show the application of a new type of surface-photosensitized terbium NPs (Tb-NPs) for autofluorescence-free intracellular imaging in live HeLa cells. The combination of exceptionally high brightness, high photostability, and long photoluminecence (PL) lifetimes for highly efficient suppression of the short-lived autofluorescence allowed for time-gated PL imaging of intracellular vesicles over 72 h without toxicity and at extremely low Tb-NP concentrations down to 12 pM. Detection of highly resolved long-lifetime (ms) PL decay curves from small (∼10 μm 2 ) areas within single cells within a few seconds emphasized the unprecedented photophysical properties of Tb-NPs for live-cell imaging that extend well beyond currently available nanometric imaging agents.

Influence of life stress on immunological reactivity to mild psychological stress

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brosschot, J. F.; Benschop, R. J.; Godaert, G. L.; Olff, M.; de Smet, M.; Heijnen, C. J.; Ballieux, R. E.

1994-01-01

This study investigated the effects of self-reported life stress and locus of control on reactivity of several immune parameters to a mild and short-lasting interpersonal stressor. Subjects were 86 male teachers aged 24 to 55 years. Immune reactivity was defined as changes in numbers of monocytes.

Managing fusion high-level waste-A strategy for burning the long-lived products in fusion devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Guebaly, L.A.

2006-01-01

Fusion devices appear to be a viable option for burning their own high-level waste (HLW). We propose a novel strategy to eliminate (or minimize) the HLW generated by fusion systems. The main source of the fusion HLW includes the structural and recycled materials, refractory metals, and liquid breeders. The basic idea involves recycling and reprocessing the waste, separating the long-lived radionuclides from the bulk low-level waste, and irradiating the limited amount of HLW in a specially designed module to transmute the long-lived products into short-lived radioisotopes or preferably, stable elements. The potential performance of the new concept seems promising. Our analysis indicated moderate to excellent transmutation rates could be achieved in advanced fusion designs. Successive irradiation should burn the majority of the HLW. The figures of merit for the concept relate to the HLW burn-up fraction, neutron economy, and impact on tritium breeding. Hopefully, the added design requirements could be accommodated easily in fusion power plants and the cost of the proposed system would be much less than disposal in a deep geological HLW repository. Overall, this innovative approach offers benefits to fusion systems and helps earn public acceptance for fusion as a HLW-free source of clean nuclear energy

Analysis of reactivity worths of highly-burnt PWR fuel samples measured in LWR-PROTEUS Phase II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grimm, Peter; Murphy, Michael F.; Jatuff, Fabian; Seiler, Rudolf [Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland)

2008-07-01

The reactivity loss of PWR fuel with burnup has been determined experimentally by inserting fresh and highly-burnt fuel samples in a PWR test lattice in the framework of the LWR-PROTEUS Phase II programme. Seven UO{sub 2} samples irradiated in a Swiss PWR plant with burnups ranging from approx40 to approx120 MWd/kg and four MOX samples with burnups up to approx70 MWd/kg were oscillated in a test region constituted of actual PWR UO{sub 2} fuel rods in the centre of the PROTEUS zero-power experimental facility. The measurements were analyzed using the CASMO-4E fuel assembly code and a cross section library based on the ENDF/B-VI evaluation. The results show close proximity between calculated and measured reactivity effects and no trend for a deterioration of the quality of the prediction at high burnup. The analysis thus demonstrates the high accuracy of the calculation of the reactivity of highly-burnt fuel. (authors)

Cyclotron production of molecules labelled with short-lived radioisotopes β+ emitters (15O, 13N, 11C) and their clinical uses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bougharouat, B.

1981-01-01

Clinical use of three short-lived radioisotopes: 15 O, 13 N and 11 C is studied on two complementary aspects. A production and purification system is realized; detection instruments in medical use are studied. The production of labelled molecules with the three radiotracers 15 O, 13 N, 11 C from the target bombardment with charged and accelerated particles was studied [fr

Overview of past activities for the use of short-lived radionuclides and the role of the Bureau of Radiological Health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paras, P.

1985-01-01

The Bureau of Radiological Health has developed a national program to control unnecessary medical radiation exposures to man and to assure the safe and effective use of radiation. The continuing interest and the role of the Bureau in the use of short-lived radionuclides (SLR's) are emphasized. An overview of the Bureau's SLR program, past accomplishments, and the status of production and use of iodine-123 are presented

Monitoring reactive oxygen species formation and localisation in living cells by use of the fluorescent probe CM-H(2)DCFDA and confocal laser microscopy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Kim Anker; Jensen, Poul Erik; Møller, Ian Max

2009-01-01

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) develop as a consequence of wounding, light stress and chemical imbalances but act also as signals in living cells. The integrity of cells is seriously endangered, if ROS cannot be controlled by scavenging molecules and other repair mechanisms of the cell. For studying...... ROS development and signalling under stress, a reliable indicator is needed. We have tested the ROS sensitive dye 5-(and-6) chloromethyl-2',7' dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate acetyl ester (CM-H(2)DCFDA) using onion bulb scale and leaf epidermis as well as Arabidopsis leaves and protoplasts. ROS...

Live Ultra-High Definition from the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Grubbs, Rodney; George, Sandy

2017-01-01

The first ever live downlink of Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video from the International Space Station (ISS) was the highlight of a 'Super Session' at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in April 2017. The Ultra-High Definition video downlink from the ISS all the way to the Las Vegas Convention Center required considerable planning, pushed the limits of conventional video distribution from a space-craft, and was the first use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) from a space-craft. The live event at NAB will serve as a pathfinder for more routine downlinks of UHD as well as use of HEVC for conventional HD downlinks to save bandwidth. HEVC may also enable live Virtual Reality video downlinks from the ISS. This paper will describe the overall work flow and routing of the UHD video, how audio was synchronized even though the video and audio were received many seconds apart from each other, and how the demonstration paves the way for not only more efficient video distribution from the ISS, but also serves as a pathfinder for more complex video distribution from deep space. The paper will also describe how a 'live' event was staged when the UHD coming from the ISS had a latency of 10+ seconds. Finally, the paper will discuss how NASA is leveraging commercial technologies for use on-orbit vs. creating technology as was required during the Apollo Moon Program and early space age.

The low to intermediate activity and short living waste storage facility. For a controlled management of radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

Sited at about 50 km of Troyes (France), the Aube facility started in 1992 and has taken over the Manche facility for the surface storage of low to intermediate and short living radioactive wastes. The Aube facility (named CSFMA) is the answer to the safe management of these wastes at the industrial scale and for 50 years onward. This brochure presents the facility specifications, the wastes stored at the center, the surface storage concept, the processing and conditioning of waste packages, and the environmental monitoring performed in the vicinity of the site. (J.S.)

High-repetition-rate short-pulse gas discharge.

Science.gov (United States)

Tulip, J; Seguin, H; Mace, P N

1979-09-01

A high-average-power short-pulse gas discharge is described. This consists of a volume-preionized transverse discharge of the type used in gas lasers driven by a Blumlein energy storage circuit. The Blumlein circuit is fabricated from coaxial cable, is pulse-charged from a high-repetition-rate Marx-bank generator, and is switched by a high-repetition-rate segmented rail gap. The operation of this discharge under conditions typical of rare-gas halide lasers is described. A maximum of 900 pps was obtained, giving a power flow into the discharge of 30 kW.

A new kind high-reliability digital reactivity meter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen Feng; Jiang Zongbing

2001-01-01

The paper introduces a new kind of high-reliability Digital Reactivity Meter developed by the DRM developing group in designing department of Nuclear Power Institute of China. The meter has two independent measure channels, which can be set as either master-slave structure or working independently. This structure will ensure that the meter can continually fulfill its online measure task under the condition of single failure with it. It provides a solution for the conflict between nuclear station's extreme demand in DRM's reliability and instability of computer's business software platform. The instrument reaches both advance and reliability by covering a lot of kinds of complex functions in data process and display

[Reactive collisions of high-temperature systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graff, M.M.

1990-01-01

The object of this research is to study reactivity at superthermal collision energies using a fast neutral beam that is generated by photodetachment. Systems scheduled for initial study include basic oxygen-hydrogen reactions. Unfortunately, we can not yet report realization of this goal, but during this funding period we have made advances that are anticipated to lead to successful measurements during the next year. The parameters described below refer to the model system O + H 2 → OH + H. The basic design involves the collision of fast neutrals, created by photodetachment of the corresponding negative molecular ion, with a stable reactant gas in a collision cell. Products are detected by ionization and mass analysis. We are equipped to study rotational effects on reactivity by comparing results for rotational levels J = 0 and 1 of H 2 . Highlights during the funding period are given in this report

Reactivity control system of the high temperature engineering test reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tachibana, Yukio; Sawahata, Hiroaki; Iyoku, Tatsuo; Nakazawa, Toshio

2004-01-01

The reactivity control system of the high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR) consists of a control rod system and a reserve shutdown system. During normal operation, reactivity is controlled by the control rod system, which consists of 32 control rods (16 pairs) and 16 control rod drive mechanisms except for the case when the center control rods are removed to perform an irradiation test. In an unlikely event that the control rods fail to be inserted, reserve shutdown system is provided to insert pellets of neutron-absorbing material into the core. Alloy 800H is chosen for the metallic parts of the control rods. Because the maximum temperature of the control rods reaches about 900 deg. C at reactor scrams, structural design guideline and design material data on Alloy 800H are needed for the high temperature design. The design guideline for the HTTR control rod is based on ASME Code Case N-47-21. Design material data is also determined and shown in this paper. Observing the guideline, temperature and stress analysis were conducted; it can be confirmed that the target life of the control rods of 5 years can be achieved. Various tests conducted for the control rod system and the reserve shutdown system are also described

Radon and its short-lived decay nuclides in the living environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abe, Siro

1988-01-01

The problem about radon and its shortlived decay nuclides in the living environment has been frequently closed-up. The problem is focused on the exposure of human being due to radon and its progeny. This paper reports the reason to the occurrence of the problem. Radon source as well as its pathway into our rooms are outlined here. The behavior of radon and its progeny indoors is also shown in this paper in comparison with outdoor situation and from the persons' activity's point of view. (author)

Application of Elovich equation on uptake kinetics of 137Cs by living freshwater macrophytes - a short duration laboratory study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaison, T.J.; Patra, A.K.; Ravi, P.M.; Tripathi, R.M.

2014-01-01

Application of Elovich equation on uptake kinetics of 137 Cs by two living macrophytes during controlled experiments on short duration exposure is studied. Compliance to 2 nd order kinetics indicates the mechanism could be chemi-sorption, involving polar functional groups present on the extracelluar surface of the macrophytes. Data analysis suggests that Myriophyllum s. exhibits faster adsorption rate than Hydrilla v. As Myriophyllum s. exhibits better kinetics than Hydrilla v., former could be a better natural adsorbing media for 137 Cs. (author)

Analysis of the reactivity coefficients of the advanced high-temperature reactor for plutonium and uranium fuels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zakova, Jitka [Department of Nuclear and Reactor Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Roslagstullsbacken 21, S-10691, Stockholm (Sweden)], E-mail: jitka.zakova@neutron.kth.se; Talamo, Alberto [Nuclear Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, ANL, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)], E-mail: alby@anl.gov

2008-05-15

The conceptual design of the advanced high-temperature reactor (AHTR) has recently been proposed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with the intention to provide and alternative energy source for very high temperature applications. In the present study, we focused on the analyses of the reactivity coefficients of the AHTR core fueled with two types of fuel: enriched uranium and plutonium from the reprocessing of light water reactors irradiated fuel. More precisely, we investigated the influence of the outer graphite reflectors on the multiplication factor of the core, the fuel and moderator temperature reactivity coefficients and the void reactivity coefficient for five different molten salts: NaF, BeF{sub 2}, LiF, ZrF{sub 4} and Li{sub 2}BeF{sub 4} eutectic. In order to better illustrate the behavior of the previous parameters for different core configurations, we evaluated the moderating ratio of the molten salts and the absorption rate of the key fuel nuclides, which, of course, are driven by the neutron spectrum. The results show that the fuel and moderator temperature reactivity coefficients are always negative, whereas the void reactivity coefficient can be set negative provided that the fuel to moderator ratio is optimized (the core is undermoderated) and the moderating ratio of the coolant is large.

Analysis of the reactivity coefficients of the advanced high-temperature reactor for plutonium and uranium fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zakova, Jitka; Talamo, Alberto

2008-01-01

The conceptual design of the advanced high-temperature reactor (AHTR) has recently been proposed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with the intention to provide and alternative energy source for very high temperature applications. In the present study, we focused on the analyses of the reactivity coefficients of the AHTR core fueled with two types of fuel: enriched uranium and plutonium from the reprocessing of light water reactors irradiated fuel. More precisely, we investigated the influence of the outer graphite reflectors on the multiplication factor of the core, the fuel and moderator temperature reactivity coefficients and the void reactivity coefficient for five different molten salts: NaF, BeF 2 , LiF, ZrF 4 and Li 2 BeF 4 eutectic. In order to better illustrate the behavior of the previous parameters for different core configurations, we evaluated the moderating ratio of the molten salts and the absorption rate of the key fuel nuclides, which, of course, are driven by the neutron spectrum. The results show that the fuel and moderator temperature reactivity coefficients are always negative, whereas the void reactivity coefficient can be set negative provided that the fuel to moderator ratio is optimized (the core is undermoderated) and the moderating ratio of the coolant is large

Production, study and use of short-lived nuclides in pure and applied nuclear research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjoernstad, T.

1986-01-01

The thesis which is based on 17 published papers, reports on the on-line performance of the fast radiochemical separation system SISAK, technical devlopment in the preparation of sources for beta-particles and neutrons, and on important SISAK system improvements concerning liquid hold-up time. It further reports on the development of new production targets at ISOLDE for 600 MeV proton and 910 MeV 3 He-particle irradiations, on tests with a heavy ion beam of 1 GeV 12 C-particles, and on the present availability of mass-separated beams of the halogen elements through new ion source development. Some results from nuclear spectroscopic studies of nuclides in selected mass regions when using such new or improved techniques are given. Examples of techniques for practical application of short-lived nuclides in radiochemical analysis and for radiochemical production for medical purposes are presented

Random summing in a multi-detector counting system measuring mixtures of radionuclides of short and long half-lives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oxby, C.B.; Oldroyd, B.; Graham, S.G.

1979-01-01

A method is described for correcting a radiation spectrum for the distortion caused by random summing when a multidetector array is used to acquire events from a mixture of radionuclides whose half-lives may be long or short compared with the counting period. With our own counting system it was found that both the resolving time, and the fractions of the energy of a second signal which may be added to that of the immediately previous signal, i.e., the resolving time function, are dependent upon the energies of these two signals. The method requires knowledge of the losses which occur in a multidetector system e.g., live-time error and blocking losses, the variation of the resolving time function with signal energies, a standard spectrum of each radionuclide of the mixture and the fractions of them which constitute the mixture spectrum, the decay constant of each radionuclide, and the fraction of the total events recorded by the system being received by each detector. (orig.)

Measurement method of activation cross-sections of reactions producing short-lived nuclei with 14 MeV neutrons

CERN Document Server

Kawade, K; Kasugai, Y; Shibata, M; Iida, T; Takahashi, A; Fukahori, T

2003-01-01

We describe a method for obtaining reliable activation cross-sections in the neutron energy range between 13.4 and 14.9 MeV for the reactions producing short-lived nuclei with half-lives between 0.5 and 30 min. We noted neutron irradiation fields and measured induced activities, including (1) the contribution of scattered low-energy neutrons, (2) the fluctuation of the neutron fluence rate during the irradiation, (3) the true coincidence sum effect, (4) the random coincidence sum effect, (5) the deviation in the measuring position due to finite sample thickness, (6) the self-absorption of the gamma-ray in the sample material and (7) the interference reactions producing the same radionuclides or the ones emitting the gamma-ray with the same energy of interest. The cross-sections can be obtained within a total error of 3.6%, when good counting statistics are achieved, including an error of 3.0% for the standard cross-section of sup 2 sup 7 Al (n, alpha) sup 2 sup 4 Na. We propose here simple methods for measuri...

Leadership emergence over time in short-lived groups: Integrating expectations states theory with temporal person-perception and self-serving bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalish, Yuval; Luria, Gil

2016-10-01

Research into leadership emergence typically focuses on the attributes of the emergent leader. By considering also the attributes of perceivers and the passage of time, we develop a more complete theory of leadership emergence in short-lived groups. Using expectation states theory as an overarching theoretical framework, and integrating it with the surface- and deep-level diversity literature and with theories of self-serving biases, we examine the predictors of leadership emergence in short timeframes. We conduct a field study in a military assessment boot camp (a pilot study, n = 60; and a main study, n = 89). We use cross-sectional and longitudinal exponential random graph models to analyze data on participants' abilities and on their perceptions of who, in their respective groups, were "leaders." We find that the criteria by which people perceive leadership in others change over time, from easily noticeable attributes to covert leadership-relevant attributes, and that people also rely on leadership-relevant attributes that they possess at high levels to inform their perceptions of leadership in others. The integration of expectation states theory, attribute salience over time and theories of self-serving bias is needed for a full understanding of leadership emergence in groups, because perceivers' own abilities are instrumental in shaping their perceptions of emergent leadership over time. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Climate impacts of short-lived climate forcers versus CO2 from biodiesel: a case of the EU on-road sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Marianne T; Berntsen, Terje K; Fuglestvedt, Jan S

2014-12-16

Biofuels are proposed to play an important role in several mitigation strategies to meet future CO2 emission targets for the transport sector but remain controversial due to significant uncertainties in net impacts on environment, society, and climate. A switch to biofuels can also affect short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), which provide significant contributions to the net climate impact of transportation. We quantify the radiative forcing (RF) and global-mean temperature response over time to EU on-road fossil diesel SLCFs and the impact of 20% (B20) and 100% (B100) replacement of fossil diesel by biodiesel. SLCFs are compared to impacts of on-road CO2 using different approaches from existing literature to account for biodiesel CO2. Given the best estimates for changes in emissions when replacing fossil diesel with biodiesel, the net positive RF from EU on-road fossil diesel SLCFs of 3.4 mW/m(2) is reduced by 15% and 80% in B20 and B100, respectively. Over time the warming of SLCFs is likely small compared to biodiesel CO2 impacts. However, SLCFs may be relatively more important for the total warming than in the fossil fuel case if biodiesel from feedstock with very short rotation periods and low land-use-change impacts replaces a high fraction of fossil diesel.

Children’s Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity Moderates the Relations between Family Adversity and Sleep Problems in Latino 5-Year Olds in the CHAMACOS Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abbey Alkon

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Sleep problems are common for young children especially if they live in adverse home environments. Some studies investigate if young children may also be at a higher risk of sleep problems if they have a specific biological sensitivity to adversity. This paper addresses the research question, does the relations between children’s exposure to family adversities and their sleep problems differ depending on their autonomic nervous system’s sensitivity to challenges? As part of a larger cohort study of Latino, low-income families, we assessed the cross-sectional relations among family demographics (education, marital status, adversities [routines, major life events (MLE], and biological sensitivity as measured by autonomic nervous system (ANS reactivity associated with parent-rated sleep problems when the children were 5 years old. Mothers were interviewed in English or Spanish and completed demographic, family, and child measures. The children completed a 15-min standardized protocol while continuous cardiac measures of the ANS [respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, preejection period (PEP] were collected during resting and four challenge conditions. Reactivity was defined as the mean of the responses to the four challenge conditions minus the first resting condition. Four ANS profiles, co-activation, co-inhibition, reciprocal low RSA and PEP reactivity, and reciprocal high RSA and PEP reactivity, were created by dichotomizing the reactivity scores as high or low reactivity. Logistic regression models showed there were significant main effects for children living in families with fewer daily routines having more sleep problems than for children living in families with daily routines. There were significant interactions for children with low PEP reactivity and for children with the reciprocal, low reactivity profiles who experienced major family life events in predicting children’s sleep problems. Children who had a reciprocal, low reactivity

Impacts of reactive nitrogen on climate change in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Yalan; Cui, Shenghui; Ju, Xiaotang; Cai, Zucong; Zhu, Yong-Guan

2015-01-29

China is mobilizing the largest anthropogenic reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the world due to agricultural, industrial and urban development. However, the climate effects related to Nr in China remain largely unclear. Here we comprehensively estimate that the net climate effects of Nr are -100 ± 414 and 322 ± 163 Tg CO₂e on a GTP₂₀ and a GTP₁₀₀ basis, respectively. Agriculture contributes to warming at 187 ± 108 and 186 ± 56 Tg CO₂e on a 20-y and 100-y basis, respectively, dominated by long-lived nitrous oxide (N2O) from fertilized soils. On a 20-y basis, industry contributes to cooling at -287 ± 306 Tg CO₂e, largely owing to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) altering tropospheric ozone, methane and aerosol concentrations. However, these effects are short-lived. The effect of industry converts to warming at 136 ± 107 Tg CO₂e on a 100-y basis, mainly as a result of the reduced carbon (C) sink from the NOx-induced ozone effect on plant damage. On balance, the warming effects of gaseous Nr are partly offset by the cooling effects of N-induced carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems. The large mitigation potentials through reductions in agricultural N₂O and industrial NOx will accompany by a certain mitigation pressure from limited N-induced C sequestration in the future.

Short-lived isomers in 94Rb

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsekhanovich, I.; Dare, J. A.; Smith, A. G.; Varley, B. J.; Simpson, G. S.; Urban, W.; Soldner, T.; Jolie, J.; Linnemann, A.; Orlandi, R.; Smith, J. F.; Scherillo, A.; Rzaca-Urban, T.; Zlomaniec, A.; Dorvaux, O.; Gall, B. J. P.; Roux, B.

2008-01-01

The medium-spin structure of the neutron-rich, odd-odd nucleus 94 Rb was studied by means of γ-ray spectroscopy. Excited levels were populated in the neutron-induced fission of 235 U and in the spontaneous fission of 252 Cf and 248 Cm. Two isomeric states were found at 1485.2 and 2074.8 keV with half-lives of 18 and 107 ns, respectively. The probable structures of the two isomers involve the fully aligned, proton-neutron configurations [π(g 9/2 ) x ν(g 7/2 )] 8 + and [π(g 9/2 ) x ν(h 11/2 )] 10 - , respectively. These new data give information on the single-particle energies in the region

Comparison of C-reactive protein and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in patients on hemodialysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imed Helal

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Chronic inflammation is highly prevalent in patients on hemodialysis (HD, as evidenced by increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP. We compared CRP to high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP to determine whether it has any clinical implications and prognostic significance in terms of mortality. CRP was measured using a standard immunoturbidometric assay on the COBAS; INTEGRA system and hs-CRP was measured using the Dade Behring on the Konelab Nephelometer in 50 patients on HD. CRP (≥6 mg/L and hs-CRP (≥3 mg/L levels were elevated in 30% and 54% of the patients, respectively. A significant correlation was noted between hs-CRP and CRP levels (r = 0.98, P <0.001. Deming regression analysis showed that the slope was near one (r = 0.90; 0.83-0.94 and that the intercept was small. Multivariate regression confirmed that age above 40 years (RR = 3.69, P = 0.027 and duration on HD greater than five years (RR = 3.71, P = 0.028 remained significant independent predictors of serum hs-CRP. Thirteen patients died during follow-up (26%. Multivariate Cox regression demonstrated that hs-CRP (RR = 1.062, P = 0.03 and CRP levels (RR = 1.057, P = 0.009 and age (RR = 1.078, P = 0.001 were the most powerful predictors of mortality. The CRP standard assay presents a reasonable alternative to the hs-CRP assay in patients on HD. The advantages of the CRP standard assay are its online and real-time availability as well as lower costs, particularly in developing countries.

The high level and long lived radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

This report presents the main conclusions of 15 years of researches managed by the CEA. This report is the preliminary version of the 2005 final report. It presents the main conclusions of the actions on the axis 1 and 3 of the law of the 30 December 1991. The synthesis report on the axis 1 concerns results obtained on the long lived radionuclides separation and transmutation in high level and long lived radioactive wastes. the synthesis report on the axis 3 presents results obtained by the processes of conditioning and of ground and underground long term storage. (A.L.B.)

Reactive Strength Index: A Poor Indicator of Reactive Strength?

Science.gov (United States)

Healy, Robin; Kenny, Ian; Harrison, Drew

2017-11-28

The primary aim was to assess the relationships between reactive strength measures and associated kinematic and kinetic performance variables achieved during drop jumps. A secondary aim was to highlight issues with the use of reactive strength measures as performance indicators. Twenty eight national and international level sprinters, consisting of fourteen men and women, participated in this cross-sectional analysis. Athletes performed drop jumps from a 0.3 m box onto a force platform with dependent variables contact time (CT), landing time (TLand), push-off time (TPush), flight time (FT), jump height (JH), reactive strength index (RSI, calculated as JH / CT), reactive strength ratio (RSR, calculated as FT / CT) and vertical leg spring stiffness (Kvert) recorded. Pearson's correlation test found very high to near perfect relationships between RSI and RSR (r = 0.91 to 0.97), with mixed relationships found between RSI, RSR and the key performance variables, (Men: r = -0.86 to -0.71 between RSI/RSR and CT, r = 0.80 to 0.92 between RSI/RSR and JH; Women: r = -0.85 to -0.56 between RSR and CT, r = 0.71 between RSI and JH). This study demonstrates that the method of assessing reactive strength (RSI versus RSR) may be influenced by the performance strategies adopted i.e. whether an athlete achieves their best reactive strength scores via low CTs, high JHs or a combination. Coaches are advised to limit the variability in performance strategies by implementing upper and / or lower CT thresholds to accurately compare performances between individuals.

Reactivation of αμ in muon-catalyzed fusion under plasma conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jandel, M.; Froelich, P.; Larson, G.; Stodden, C.D.

1989-01-01

The reactivation efficiency of αμ slowing down in a deuterium-tritium plasma has been calculated for a broad range of plasma conditions. The plasma stopping power has been obtained from the random-phase approximation, which includes both the quantum mechanics of short-range collisions and collective effects due to long-range plasma interactions. It is shown that muon reactivation increases with increasing plasma temperature and density. Near-complete reactivation is, however, reached only at temperatures higher than 1000 eV

'Sleeping reactor' irradiations. The use of a shut-down reactor for the determination of elements with short-lived activation products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jerde, E.A.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN; Glasgow, D.C.

1999-01-01

Neutron activation analysis utilizing the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) immediately following SCRAM is a workable solution to obtaining data for ultra-short lived species, principally Al, Ti, Mg, and V. Neutrons are produced in the HFIR core within the beryllium reflector due to gamma-ray bombardment from the spent fuel elements. This neutron flux is not constant, varying by over two orders of magnitude during the first 24 hours. The problems associated with irradiation in a changing neutron flux are removed through the use of a specially tailored activation equation. This activation equation is applicable to any irradiation at HFIR in the firs 24 hours after SCRAM since the fuel elements are identical from cycle to cycle, and the gamma-emitting nuclides responsible for the neutrons reach saturation during the fuel cycle. Reference material tests demonstrate that this method is successful, and detection limit estimates reveal that it should be applicable to materials of widely ranging mass and composition. (author)

Low interannual precipitation has a greater negative effect than seedling herbivory on the population dynamics of a short-lived shrub, Schiedea obovata.

Science.gov (United States)

Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia; Gaoue, Orou G

2018-01-01

Climate projections forecast more extreme interannual climate variability over time, with an increase in the severity and duration of extreme drought and rainfall events. Based on bioclimatic envelope models, it is projected that changing precipitation patterns will drastically alter the spatial distributions and density of plants and be a primary driver of biodiversity loss. However, many other underlying mechanisms can impact plant vital rates (i.e., survival, growth, and reproduction) and population dynamics. In this study, we developed a size-dependent integral projection model (IPM) to evaluate how interannual precipitation and mollusk herbivory influence the dynamics of a Hawaii endemic short-lived shrub, Schiedea obovata (Caryophyllaceae). Assessing how wet season precipitation effects population dynamics it critical, as it is the timeframe when most of the foliar growth occurs, plants flower and fruit, and seedlings establish. Temporal variation in wet season precipitation had a greater effect than mollusk herbivory on S . obovata population growth rate λ, and the impact of interannual precipitation on vital rates shifted across plant ontogeny. Furthermore, wet season precipitation influenced multiple vital rates in contrasting ways and the effect of precipitation on the survival of larger vegetative and reproductively mature individuals contributed the most to variation in the population growth rate. Among all combination of wet season precipitation and herbivory intensities, the only scenario that led to a growing population was when high wet precipitation was associated with low herbivory. Our study highlights the importance of evaluating how abiotic factors and plant-consumer interactions influence an organism across its life cycle to fully understand the underpinning mechanisms that structure its spatial and temporal distribution and abundance. Our results also illustrate that for short-lived species, like S. obovata , seedling herbivory can have

High-Temperature-Short-Time Annealing Process for High-Performance Large-Area Perovskite Solar Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Minjin; Kim, Gi-Hwan; Oh, Kyoung Suk; Jo, Yimhyun; Yoon, Hyun; Kim, Ka-Hyun; Lee, Heon; Kim, Jin Young; Kim, Dong Suk

2017-06-27

Organic-inorganic hybrid metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are attracting tremendous research interest due to their high solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency with a high possibility of cost-effective fabrication and certified power conversion efficiency now exceeding 22%. Although many effective methods for their application have been developed over the past decade, their practical transition to large-size devices has been restricted by difficulties in achieving high performance. Here we report on the development of a simple and cost-effective production method with high-temperature and short-time annealing processing to obtain uniform, smooth, and large-size grain domains of perovskite films over large areas. With high-temperature short-time annealing at 400 °C for 4 s, the perovskite film with an average domain size of 1 μm was obtained, which resulted in fast solvent evaporation. Solar cells fabricated using this processing technique had a maximum power conversion efficiency exceeding 20% over a 0.1 cm 2 active area and 18% over a 1 cm 2 active area. We believe our approach will enable the realization of highly efficient large-area PCSs for practical development with a very simple and short-time procedure. This simple method should lead the field toward the fabrication of uniform large-scale perovskite films, which are necessary for the production of high-efficiency solar cells that may also be applicable to several other material systems for more widespread practical deployment.

Possibilities of chemical isolation of element 106 from aqueous solutions according to the model experiments with short lived tungsten isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szeglowski, Z.; Bruchertseifer, H.; Brudanin, V.B.

1993-01-01

A rapid method for continuous separation of short-lived tungsten isotopes from the lanthanides has been developed. It consists in transforming nuclear reaction products from the target by an aerosol jet to an absorber where the KCl particulates are dissolved in 0.2 M HF and percolating the product solution through three successively linked columns filled with ion exchange resins Dowex 50X8 (cationite), Dowex 1X8 (anionite) and again Dowex 50X8. 3 refs

Comparison of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and fetuin-A levels before and after treatment for subjects with subclinical hyperthyroidism.

Science.gov (United States)

Bilgir, Oktay; Bilgir, Ferda; Topcuoglu, Tuba; Calan, Mehmet; Calan, Ozlem

2014-03-01

This study was designed to show the effect of propylthiouracil treatment on sCD40L, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and fetuin-A levels on subjects with subclinical hyperthyroidism. After checking sCD40L, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and fetuin-A levels of 35 patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism, each was given 50 mg tablets of propylthiouracil three times daily. After 3 months, sCD40L, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and fetuin-A levels were then compared to the levels before treatment. Although high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and sCD40L levels were normal in the subclinical hyperthyroidism patients compared to the healthy controls, fetuin-A levels were statistically significantly higher (*p = 0.022). After treatment, fetuin-A levels of subclinical hyperthyroidism patients decreased statistically significantly compared to the levels before treatment (**p = 0.026). sCD40L and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels did not have a statistically significant difference compared to the control group and post-propylthiouracil treatment. In subclinical hyperthyroidism patients, high fetuin-A levels before propylthiouracil treatment and decreases in these levels after treatment in cases with subclinical hyperthyroidism indicated the possibility of preventing long-term cardiac complications with propylthiouracil treatment.

High-intensity exercise and recovery during short-term ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective. To determine the effect of short-term creatine supplementation plus a protein-carbohydrate formula on high-intensity exercise performance and recovery. Design. A repeated-measures, experimental study, employing a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, group comparison design was used.

Anomalous high photoconductivity in short channel indium-zinc-oxide photo-transistors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Hyun-Sik; Jeon, Sanghun

2015-01-01

Upon light exposure, an indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) thin-film transistor (TFT) presents higher photoconductivity by several orders of magnitude at the negative gate bias region. Among various device geometrical factors, scaling down the channel length of the photo-transistor results in an anomalous increase in photoconductivity. To probe the origin of this high photoconductivity in short-channel device, we measured transient current, current–voltage, and capacitance–voltage characteristics of IZO–TFTs with various channel lengths and widths before and after illumination. Under the illumination, the equilibrium potential region which lies far from front interface exists only in short-channel devices, forming the un-depleted conducting back channel. This region plays an important role in carrier transport under the illumination, leading to high photoconductivity in short-channel devices. Photon exposure coupled with gate-modulated band bending for short-channel devices leads to the accumulation of V o ++ at the front channel and screening negative gate bias, thereby generating high current flow in the un-depleted back-channel region

Does reactivation trigger episodic memory change? A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Scully, Iiona D; Napper, Lucy E; Hupbach, Almut

2017-07-01

According to the reconsolidation hypothesis, long-term memories return to a plastic state upon their reactivation, leaving them vulnerable to interference effects and requiring re-storage processes or else these memories might be permanently lost. The present study used a meta-analytic approach to critically evaluate the evidence for reactivation-induced changes in human episodic memory. Results indicated that reactivation makes episodic memories susceptible to physiological and behavioral interference. When applied shortly after reactivation, interference manipulations altered the amount of information that could be retrieved from the original learning event. This effect was more pronounced for remote memories and memories of narrative structure. Additionally, new learning following reactivation reliably increased the number of intrusions from new information into the original memory. These findings support a dynamic view of long-term memory by showing that memories can be changed long after they were acquired. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Analysis of High Power IGBT Short Circuit Failures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pappas, G.

2005-02-11

The Next Linear Collider (NLC) accelerator proposal at SLAC requires a highly efficient and reliable, low cost, pulsed-power modulator to drive the klystrons. A solid-state induction modulator has been developed at SLAC to power the klystrons; this modulator uses commercial high voltage and high current Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) modules. Testing of these IGBT modules under pulsed conditions was very successful; however, the IGBTs failed when tests were performed into a low inductance short circuit. The internal electrical connections of a commercial IGBT module have been analyzed to extract self and mutual partial inductances for the main current paths as well as for the gate structure. The IGBT module, together with the partial inductances, has been modeled using PSpice. Predictions for electrical paths that carry the highest current correlate with the sites of failed die under short circuit tests. A similar analysis has been carried out for a SLAC proposal for an IGBT module layout. This paper discusses the mathematical model of the IGBT module geometry and presents simulation results.

Assisted Living Systems for Elderly and Disabled People: A Short Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivo Iliev

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The number of elderly people living alone in their homes is permanently growing in the whole western world. Because of the deteriorating capabilities to sense and interact with the environment, such as memory, eye sight, hearing and mobility, the ageing populations often live with significantly degraded life quality. Many also suffer from chronic diseases that require medical treatment and periodical examinations. Different Assisted Living Systems have been proposed to cope with the problems. The goal is to enable the elderly people to live longer in their preferred environment, to enhance the quality of their live and to reduce the expenses of the public health care. The Assisted Living Systems are based on a lot of sensors, actuators and multimedia equipment, providing for the autonomy of people and assisting them in carrying out their daily activities together with available interaction with remote relatives and friends. The applied approaches and implementations are specific that limit the dissemination of the results between the object oriented groups. Besides, most of the projects require considerable funding for implementation. For the time being and especially for some countries with lower Gross Domestic Product, the efforts may be directed to creation of low-cost assistive systems performing some basic tasks, related to the need and health status of the living alone adults or disabled people, e.g. automatic fall detection and signalization, as well as instantaneous monitoring the photo-pletismographic signals together with permanently available communication interface between the caregiver and the user.

Short-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Biomarkers of Systemic Inflammation: The Framingham Heart Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wenyuan; Dorans, Kirsten S; Wilker, Elissa H; Rice, Mary B; Ljungman, Petter L; Schwartz, Joel D; Coull, Brent A; Koutrakis, Petros; Gold, Diane R; Keaney, John F; Vasan, Ramachandran S; Benjamin, Emelia J; Mittleman, Murray A

2017-09-01

The objective of this study is to examine associations between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and circulating biomarkers of systemic inflammation in participants from the Framingham Offspring and Third Generation cohorts in the greater Boston area. We included 3996 noncurrent smoking participants (mean age, 53.6 years; 54% women) who lived within 50 km from a central air pollution monitoring site in Boston, MA, and calculated the 1- to 7-day moving averages of fine particulate matter (diameterpollution was associated with higher levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 but not fibrinogen or tumor necrosis factor α in individuals residing in the greater Boston area. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

High precision during food recruitment of experienced (reactivated) foragers in the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana (Apidae, Meliponini)

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez, Daniel; Nieh, James C.; Hénaut, Yann; Cruz, Leopoldo; Vandame, Rémy

Several studies have examined the existence of recruitment communication mechanisms in stingless bees. However, the spatial accuracy of location-specific recruitment has not been examined. Moreover, the location-specific recruitment of reactivated foragers, i.e., foragers that have previously experienced the same food source at a different location and time, has not been explicitly examined. However, such foragers may also play a significant role in colony foraging, particularly in small colonies. Here we report that reactivated Scaptotrigona mexicana foragers can recruit with high precision to a specific food location. The recruitment precision of reactivated foragers was evaluated by placing control feeders to the left and the right of the training feeder (direction-precision tests) and between the nest and the training feeder and beyond it (distance-precision tests). Reactivated foragers arrived at the correct location with high precision: 98.44% arrived at the training feeder in the direction trials (five-feeder fan-shaped array, accuracy of at least +/-6° of azimuth at 50 m from the nest), and 88.62% arrived at the training feeder in the distance trials (five-feeder linear array, accuracy of at least +/-5 m or +/-10% at 50 m from the nest). Thus, S. mexicana reactivated foragers can find the indicated food source at a specific distance and direction with high precision, higher than that shown by honeybees, Apis mellifera, which do not communicate food location at such close distances to the nest.

Long term imaging of living brain cancer cells

Science.gov (United States)

Farias, Patricia M. A.; Galembeck, André; Milani, Raquel; Andrade, Arnaldo C. D. S.; Stingl, Andreas

2018-02-01

QDs synthesized in aqueous medium and functionalized with polyethylene glycol were used as fluorescent probes. They label and monitor living healthy and cancer brain glial cells in culture. Physical-chemical characterization was performed. Toxicological studies were performed by in vivo short and long-term inhalation in animal models. Healthy and cancer glial living cells were incubated in culture media with highly controlled QDs. Specific features of glial cancer cells were enhanced by QD labelling. Cytoplasmic labelling pattern was clearly distinct for healthy and cancer cells. Labelled cells kept their normal activity for same period as non-labelled control samples.

Losing memories during sleep after targeted memory reactivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, Katharine C N S; Gómez, Rebecca L; Nadel, Lynn

2018-03-17

Targeting memories during sleep opens powerful and innovative ways to influence the mind. We used targeted memory reactivation (TMR), which to date has been shown to strengthen learned episodes, to instead induce forgetting (TMR-Forget). Participants were first trained to associate the act of forgetting with an auditory forget tone. In a second, separate, task they learned object-sound-location pairings. Shortly thereafter, some of the object sounds were played during slow wave sleep, paired with the forget tone to induce forgetting. One week later, participants demonstrated lower recall of reactivated versus non-reactivated objects and impaired recognition memory and lowered confidence for the spatial location of the reactivated objects they failed to spontaneously recall. The ability to target specific episodic memories for forgetting during sleep has implications for developing novel therapeutic techniques for psychological disorders such as PTSD and phobias. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantitative reactive modeling and verification.

Science.gov (United States)

Henzinger, Thomas A

Formal verification aims to improve the quality of software by detecting errors before they do harm. At the basis of formal verification is the logical notion of correctness , which purports to capture whether or not a program behaves as desired. We suggest that the boolean partition of software into correct and incorrect programs falls short of the practical need to assess the behavior of software in a more nuanced fashion against multiple criteria. We therefore propose to introduce quantitative fitness measures for programs, specifically for measuring the function, performance, and robustness of reactive programs such as concurrent processes. This article describes the goals of the ERC Advanced Investigator Project QUAREM. The project aims to build and evaluate a theory of quantitative fitness measures for reactive models. Such a theory must strive to obtain quantitative generalizations of the paradigms that have been success stories in qualitative reactive modeling, such as compositionality, property-preserving abstraction and abstraction refinement, model checking, and synthesis. The theory will be evaluated not only in the context of software and hardware engineering, but also in the context of systems biology. In particular, we will use the quantitative reactive models and fitness measures developed in this project for testing hypotheses about the mechanisms behind data from biological experiments.

Seismic Performance of High-Ductile Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Short Columns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingke Deng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study mainly aims to investigate the effectiveness of high-ductile fiber-reinforced concrete (HDC as a means to enhance the seismic performance of short columns. Six HDC short columns and one reinforced concrete (RC short column were designed and tested under lateral cyclic loading. The influence of the material type (concrete or HDC, axial load, stirrup ratio, and shear span ratio on crack patterns, hysteresis behavior, shear strength, deformation capacity, energy dissipation, and stiffness degradation was presented and discussed, respectively. The test results show that the RC short column failed in brittle shear with poor energy dissipation, while using HDC to replace concrete can effectively improve the seismic behavior of the short columns. Compared with the RC short column, the shear strength of HDC specimens was improved by 12.6–30.2%, and the drift ratio and the energy dissipation increases were 56.9–88.5% and 237.7–336.7%, respectively, at the ultimate displacement. Additionally, the prediction model of the shear strength for RC columns based on GB50010-2010 (Chinese code can be safely adopted to evaluate the shear strength of HDC short columns.

The utilisation of short-lived radionuclides in the assessment of formulation and in vivo disposition of drugs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Digenis, G.A.

1982-01-01

The utilisation of short-lived radionuclides in the assessment of drug formulations, and the in vivo distribution of drugs is discussed. Disintegration of tablets and capsules as a function of the formulation, and gastric emptying are important. The applicability of perturbed angular correlation to the study of the dissolution of water soluble substances from solid dosages in man is shown. Examples are given to illustrate how external scintigraphy can be applied to study the tissue distribution of 18 F-haloperidol, 82 Br-bromperidol, in rat and monkey. 11 C, L-andD-phenylalanine in rats, 11 C, D-leucine in mice with human colon tumours; 13 N-nitrosoureas and 13 N-nitroso-carbamates. (U.K.)

Cardiac parasympathetic reactivation following exercise: implications for training prescription.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley, Jamie; Peake, Jonathan M; Buchheit, Martin

2013-12-01

The objective of exercise training is to initiate desirable physiological adaptations that ultimately enhance physical work capacity. Optimal training prescription requires an individualized approach, with an appropriate balance of training stimulus and recovery and optimal periodization. Recovery from exercise involves integrated physiological responses. The cardiovascular system plays a fundamental role in facilitating many of these responses, including thermoregulation and delivery/removal of nutrients and waste products. As a marker of cardiovascular recovery, cardiac parasympathetic reactivation following a training session is highly individualized. It appears to parallel the acute/intermediate recovery of the thermoregulatory and vascular systems, as described by the supercompensation theory. The physiological mechanisms underlying cardiac parasympathetic reactivation are not completely understood. However, changes in cardiac autonomic activity may provide a proxy measure of the changes in autonomic input into organs and (by default) the blood flow requirements to restore homeostasis. Metaboreflex stimulation (e.g. muscle and blood acidosis) is likely a key determinant of parasympathetic reactivation in the short term (0-90 min post-exercise), whereas baroreflex stimulation (e.g. exercise-induced changes in plasma volume) probably mediates parasympathetic reactivation in the intermediate term (1-48 h post-exercise). Cardiac parasympathetic reactivation does not appear to coincide with the recovery of all physiological systems (e.g. energy stores or the neuromuscular system). However, this may reflect the limited data currently available on parasympathetic reactivation following strength/resistance-based exercise of variable intensity. In this review, we quantitatively analyse post-exercise cardiac parasympathetic reactivation in athletes and healthy individuals following aerobic exercise, with respect to exercise intensity and duration, and fitness

Measurements of half-lives of short-lived nuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elmali, A.

2001-01-01

In this work 19 F(n,p) 19 O (26.94 sec.), 76 Ge(n,2n) 75m Ge(47.73 sec.), 23 Na(n,p) 23 Ne (37.24 sec.) 23 Na(n,α) 20 F (11.12 sec.), 68 Zn(n,p) 68g Cu (31.11 sec.), 46 Ti(n,P) 46m Sc (18.70 sec.), 19 F(n,α) 16 N (7.13 sec.) and 92 Mo(n,2n) 91m Mo (65.40 sec.) half lives were determined. The half life measurements were performed utilizing the Sames T-400 neutron generator at the Physics Department of Cekmece Nuclear Research and Training Center, Istanbul. Fast neutrons (∼ 14 MeV) were produced via T(d,n)He reaction in a TIT target which was bombarded by 300 KeV deuterons. The samples bombarded with 14 MeV neutrons were transferred with a fast sample transport system from neutron source to the HPGe detector were the gamma measurements are performed. The time elapsed during the transport of the sample between the two stations were about 0.5 sec. in the experimental data, corrections were made for coincidence summing, pules pile up, dead time and background elimination. In order to test the accuracy and the sensitivity of the half-life measurement system used in this work, the 19 O half life form the 19 F(n,p) 19 O reaction were measured first and compared with the data given in a recently published JAERI report

Short-Lived Buildings in China: Impacts on Water, Energy, and Carbon Emissions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Wenjia; Wan, Liyang; Jiang, Yongkai; Wang, Can; Lin, Lishen

2015-12-15

This paper has changed the vague understanding that "the short-lived buildings have huge environmental footprints (EF)" into a concrete one. By estimating the annual floor space of buildings demolished and calibrating the average building lifetime in China, this paper compared the EF under various assumptive extended buildings' lifetime scenarios based on time-series environmental-extended input-output model. Results show that if the average buildings' lifetime in China can be extended from the current 23.2 years to their designed life expectancy, 50 years, in 2011, China can reduce 5.8 Gt of water withdrawal, 127.1 Mtce of energy consumption, and 426.0 Mt of carbon emissions, each of which is equivalent to the corresponding annual EF of Belgium, Mexico, and Italy. These findings will urge China to extend the lifetime of existing and new buildings, in order to reduce the EF from further urbanization. This paper also verifies that the lifetime of a product or the replacement rate of a sector is a very important factor that influences the cumulative EF. When making policies to reduce the EF, adjusting people's behaviors to extend the lifetime of products or reduce the replacement rate of sectors may be a very simple and cost-effective option.

Reactive bonding mediated high mass loading of individualized single-walled carbon nanotubes in an elastomeric polymer

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Liping; Li, Yongjin; Qiu, Jishan; You, Jichun; Dong, Wenyong; Cao, Xiaojun

2012-09-01

A reactive chemical bonding strategy was developed for the incorporation of a high mass loading of individual single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) into an elastomeric matrix using a reactive ionic liquid as a linker. This method simultaneously prevented the agglomeration of SWCNTs and caused strong interfacial bonding, while the electronic properties of the SWCNTs remained intact. As a result, the high conductivity of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the flexibility of the elastomeric matrix were retained, producing optimum electrical and mechanical properties. A composite material with a loading of 20 wt% SWCNTs was fabricated with excellent mechanical properties and a high conductivity (9500 S m-1). The method could be used to form transparent thin conductive films that could tolerate over 800 bend cycles at a bending angle of 180° while maintaining a constant sheet resistance.A reactive chemical bonding strategy was developed for the incorporation of a high mass loading of individual single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) into an elastomeric matrix using a reactive ionic liquid as a linker. This method simultaneously prevented the agglomeration of SWCNTs and caused strong interfacial bonding, while the electronic properties of the SWCNTs remained intact. As a result, the high conductivity of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the flexibility of the elastomeric matrix were retained, producing optimum electrical and mechanical properties. A composite material with a loading of 20 wt% SWCNTs was fabricated with excellent mechanical properties and a high conductivity (9500 S m-1). The method could be used to form transparent thin conductive films that could tolerate over 800 bend cycles at a bending angle of 180° while maintaining a constant sheet resistance. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Conductivity test of the SEBS-SWCNTs film, transmission spectra and sheet resistance for the spin-coated SEBS-SWCNTs thin films on PET slides. See DOI: 10

Evaluating the climate and air quality impacts of short-lived pollutants

Science.gov (United States)

Stohl, A.; Aamaas, B.; Amann, M.; Baker, L. H.; Bellouin, N.; Berntsen, T. K.; Boucher, O.; Cherian, R.; Collins, W.; Daskalakis, N.; Dusinska, M.; Eckhardt, S.; Fuglestvedt, J. S.; Harju, M.; Heyes, C.; Hodnebrog, Ø.; Hao, J.; Im, U.; Kanakidou, M.; Klimont, Z.; Kupiainen, K.; Law, K. S.; Lund, M. T.; Maas, R.; MacIntosh, C. R.; Myhre, G.; Myriokefalitakis, S.; Olivié, D.; Quaas, J.; Quennehen, B.; Raut, J.-C.; Rumbold, S. T.; Samset, B. H.; Schulz, M.; Seland, Ø.; Shine, K. P.; Skeie, R. B.; Wang, S.; Yttri, K. E.; Zhu, T.

2015-09-01

This paper presents a summary of the work done within the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme project ECLIPSE (Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants). ECLIPSE had a unique systematic concept for designing a realistic and effective mitigation scenario for short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs; methane, aerosols and ozone, and their precursor species) and quantifying its climate and air quality impacts, and this paper presents the results in the context of this overarching strategy. The first step in ECLIPSE was to create a new emission inventory based on current legislation (CLE) for the recent past and until 2050. Substantial progress compared to previous work was made by including previously unaccounted types of sources such as flaring of gas associated with oil production, and wick lamps. These emission data were used for present-day reference simulations with four advanced Earth system models (ESMs) and six chemistry transport models (CTMs). The model simulations were compared with a variety of ground-based and satellite observational data sets from Asia, Europe and the Arctic. It was found that the models still underestimate the measured seasonality of aerosols in the Arctic but to a lesser extent than in previous studies. Problems likely related to the emissions were identified for northern Russia and India, in particular. To estimate the climate impacts of SLCPs, ECLIPSE followed two paths of research: the first path calculated radiative forcing (RF) values for a large matrix of SLCP species emissions, for different seasons and regions independently. Based on these RF calculations, the Global Temperature change Potential metric for a time horizon of 20 years (GTP20) was calculated for each SLCP emission type. This climate metric was then used in an integrated assessment model to identify all emission mitigation measures with a beneficial air quality and short-term (20-year) climate impact. These measures together

Short-time maximum entropy method analysis of molecular dynamics simulation: Unimolecular decomposition of formic acid

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Osamu; Nomura, Tetsuo; Tabayashi, Kiyohiko; Yamasaki, Katsuyoshi

2008-07-01

We performed spectral analysis by using the maximum entropy method instead of the traditional Fourier transform technique to investigate the short-time behavior in molecular systems, such as the energy transfer between vibrational modes and chemical reactions. This procedure was applied to direct ab initio molecular dynamics calculations for the decomposition of formic acid. More reactive trajectories of dehydrolation than those of decarboxylation were obtained for Z-formic acid, which was consistent with the prediction of previous theoretical and experimental studies. Short-time maximum entropy method analyses were performed for typical reactive and non-reactive trajectories. Spectrograms of a reactive trajectory were obtained; these clearly showed the reactant, transient, and product regions, especially for the dehydrolation path.

Living alongside railway tracks: Long-term effects of nocturnal noise on sleep and cardiovascular reactivity as a function of age.

Science.gov (United States)

Tassi, Patricia; Rohmer, Odile; Schimchowitsch, Sarah; Eschenlauer, Arnaud; Bonnefond, Anne; Margiocchi, Florence; Poisson, Franck; Muzet, Alain

2010-10-01

Very few studies were devoted to permanent effects of nocturnal railway noise on sleep and cardiovascular reactivity. We investigated the effects of nocturnal railway noise on sleep and cardiovascular response in young and middle-aged adults living for many years either near a railway track or in a quiet area. Forty subjects (50% males) divided into two age groups (juniors: 26.2+/-3.6 and seniors: 56.2+/-4.2) participated in this experiment. Half of them lived near a railway track (RW group: 2.6 to 19 years) and the other half in a quiet environment (QE group: 8.1 to 14.2 years). After an adaptation night, all subjects underwent two nights in the laboratory: one control night and one noisy night (30 by-passes of a freight train). Sleep and cardiovascular modifications were assessed in response to noise. Sleep fragmentation indices were lower in RW subjects compared to QE whatever their age. In response to noise, there was a higher cardiovascular response rate to noise in RW juniors and a lower cardiovascular response rate in RW seniors compared to their age-paired QE counterparts. In conclusion, permanent exposure to nocturnal railway noise leads to decreased sleep fragmentation and to cardiovascular habituation. It is suggested that during the initial period experienced by residents living near railway tracks, nocturnal railway noise could induce a sensitization process on the autonomic response to noise reflecting a startle/defense reflex due to its functional significance, which progressively turns to habituation in the long-term if no adverse effect is experienced. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Convective Transport of Very-short-lived Bromocarbons to the Stratosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Qing; Atlas, Elliot Leonard; Blake, Donald Ray; Dorf, Marcel; Pfeilsticker, Klaus August; Schauffler, Sue Myhre

2014-01-01

We use the NASA GEOS Chemistry Climate Model (GEOSCCM) to quantify the contribution of two most important brominated very short-lived substances (VSLS), bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2), to stratospheric bromine and its sensitivity to convection strength. Model simulations suggest that the most active transport of VSLS from the marine boundary layer through the tropopause occurs over the tropical Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific warm pool, and off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Together, convective lofting of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 and their degradation products supplies 8 ppt total bromine to the base of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL, 150 hPa), similar to the amount of VSLS organic bromine available in the marine boundary layer (7.8-8.4 ppt) in the above active convective lofting regions. Of the total 8 ppt VSLS-originated bromine that enters the base of TTL at 150 hPa, half is in the form of source gas injection (SGI) and half as product gas injection (PGI). Only a small portion (Br2, together, contribute 7.7 pptv to the present-day inorganic bromine in the stratosphere. However, varying model deep convection strength between maximum and minimum convection conditions can introduce a 2.6 pptv uncertainty in the contribution of VSLS to inorganic bromine in the stratosphere (BryVSLS). Contrary to the conventional wisdom, minimum convection condition leads to a larger BryVSLS as the reduced scavenging in soluble product gases, thus a significant increase in PGI (2-3 ppt), greatly exceeds the relative minor decrease in SGI (a few 10ths ppt.

Influence of high-temperature steam on the reactivity of CaO sorbent for CO₂ capture.

Science.gov (United States)

Donat, Felix; Florin, Nicholas H; Anthony, Edward J; Fennell, Paul S

2012-01-17

Calcium looping is a high-temperature CO(2) capture technology applicable to the postcombustion capture of CO(2) from power station flue gas, or integrated with fuel conversion in precombustion CO(2) capture schemes. The capture technology uses solid CaO sorbent derived from natural limestone and takes advantage of the reversible reaction between CaO and CO(2) to form CaCO(3); that is, to achieve the separation of CO(2) from flue or fuel gas, and produce a pure stream of CO(2) suitable for geological storage. An important characteristic of the sorbent, affecting the cost-efficiency of this technology, is the decay in reactivity of the sorbent over multiple CO(2) capture-and-release cycles. This work reports on the influence of high-temperature steam, which will be present in flue (about 5-10%) and fuel (∼20%) gases, on the reactivity of CaO sorbent derived from four natural limestones. A significant increase in the reactivity of these sorbents was found for 30 cycles in the presence of steam (from 1-20%). Steam influences the sorbent reactivity in two ways. Steam present during calcination promotes sintering that produces a sorbent morphology with most of the pore volume associated with larger pores of ∼50 nm in diameter, and which appears to be relatively more stable than the pore structure that evolves when no steam is present. The presence of steam during carbonation reduces the diffusion resistance during carbonation. We observed a synergistic effect, i.e., the highest reactivity was observed when steam was present for both calcination and carbonation.

Release studies of a thin foil tantalum target for the production of short-lived radioactive nuclei

CERN Document Server

Bennett, J R J; Drumm, P V; Lettry, Jacques; Nilsson, T; Catherall, R; Jonsson, O C; Ravn, H L; Simon, H

2002-01-01

Measurements have been made at ISOLDE, of the release curves and yields of radioactive beams of lithium, sodium and beryllium from a target constructed from 2 $\\mu$m thick foils. The release curves have been analysed by fitting to a mathematical model to determine the coefficients of diffusion of the particles in the foils and effusion through the target and ionizer at several temperatures. Through a better understanding of the rate of transport of the particles, it is possible to design targets and ionizers with improved yields. This is most important for the rare, short-lived isotopes in which there is considerable interest for physics experiments. This target has demonstrated large increases in the yields of $^{11}$Li and $^{12}$Be, in agreement with the predictions of the model. (11 refs).

Immune reactivity after high-dose irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gassmann, W.; Wottge, H.U.; von Kolzynski, M.; Mueller-Ruchholtz, W.

1986-01-01

Immune reactivity after total-body irradiation was investigated in rats using skin graft rejection as the indicator system. After sublethal irradiation with 10.5 Gy (approximately 50% lethality/6 weeks) the rejection of major histocompatibility complex allogeneic skin grafts was delayed significantly compared with nonirradiated control animals (28 versus 6.5 days). In contrast, skin grafts were rejected after 7.5 days in sublethally irradiated animals and 7 days in lethally irradiated animals if additional skin donor type alloantigens--namely, irradiated bone marrow cells--were given i.v. either simultaneously or with a delay of not more than 24 hr after the above conditioning regimen. These reactions were alloantigen-specific. They were observed in six different strain combinations with varying donors and recipients. Starting on day 2 after irradiation, i.v. injection of bone marrow gradually lost its effectivity and skin grafts were no longer rejected with uniform rapidity; skin donor marrow given on days 4 or 8 did not accelerate skin graft rejection at all. These data show that for approximately 1-2 days after high-dose total-body irradiation rats are still capable of starting a vigorous immune reaction against i.v.-injected alloantigens. The phenomenon of impaired rejection of skin grafted immediately after high-dose irradiation appears to result from the poor accessibility of skin graft alloantigens during the early postirradiation phase when vascularization of the grafted skin is insufficient

Synergy between low and high energy radical femtochemistry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gauduel, Y A

2011-01-01

The deleterious effects of ionizing radiation on integrated biological targets being dependent on the spatio-temporal distribution of short-lived radical processes, a thorough knowledge of these early events requires a real-time probing in the range 10 -15 - 10 -10 s. This manuscript review is focused on the synergy that exists between low (1-10 eV) and high (MeV) energy radiation femtochemistry (LERF, HERF respectively). The synergy remains crucial for the investigation of primary radical processes that take place within the prethermal regime of low energy secondary electrons. The quantum character of very-short lived electron in a prehydrated configuration provides a unique sub-nanometric probe to spatially explore some early radiation-induced biomolecular damage. This approach would foreshadow the development of innovative applications for spatio-temporal radiation biology such as, i) a highly-selective pro-drug activation using well-defined quantum states of short-lived radicals, ii) the real-time nanodosimetry in biologically relevant environments, and iii) the ultrashort irradiation of living cells.

Aqueous reactive species induced by a PCB surface micro-discharge air plasma device: a quantitative study

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chen; Li, Fanying; Chen, Hai-Lan; Kong, Michael G.

2017-11-01

This paper presents a quantitative investigation on aqueous reactive species induced by air plasma generated from a printed circuit board surface micro-discharge (SMD) device. Under the conditions amenable for proliferation of mammalian cells, concentrations of ten types of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) in phosphate buffering solution (PBS) are measured by chemical fluorescent assays and electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR). Results show that concentrations of several detected RNS (NO2- , NO3- , peroxynitrites, and NO2\\centerdot ) are higher than those of ROS (H2O2, O2\\centerdot - , and 1O2) in the air plasma treated solution. Concentrations of NO3- can reach 150 times of H2O2 with 60 s plasma treatment. For short-lived species, the air plasma generates more copious peroxynitrite than other RONS including NO2\\centerdot , O2\\centerdot - , 1O2, and N{{O}\\centerdot } in PBS. In addition, the existence of reaction between H2O2 and NO2- /HNO2 to produce peroxynitrite is verified by the chemical scavenger experiments. The reaction relations between detected RONS are also discussed.

Screening for frailty in elderly subjects living at home: validation of the Modified Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Oubaya, N; Mahmoudi, R; Jolly, D; Zulfiqar, A A; Quignard, E; Cunin, C; Nazeyrollas, P; Novella, J L; Dramé, M

2014-01-01

To validate the modified version of the Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) frailty instrument in elderly people living at home. Longitudinal, prospective, multicentre study. Four departments (Ardennes, Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse) in two French Regions (Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine). Subjects aged 65 years or more, living at home, who could read and understand French, with a degree of autonomy corresponding to groups 5, or 6 in the AGGIR autonomy evaluation scale. Assessment included demographic characteristics, comprehensive geriatric assessment, and the SEGAm instrument. Psychometric validation was used to study feasibility and acceptability, internal structure validity, reliability, and discriminant validity of the SEGAm instrument. Between July 1st 2012 and March 31st 2013, 167 patients were included in the study. Averaged age was 77±7 years, the majority were women (70.7%). Feasibility and acceptability of the SEGAm instrument were excellent: we observed no refusal to participate, no drop-out during administration, no missing items, no ceiling or floor effects, and the administration time was short (5.0±3.5 min). By factor analysis, the instrument proved to be unidimensional. It showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.68) and good test-retest (intra-class correlation: 0.88) at 7 days interval. Discriminant validity showed a significant difference, mainly for nutritional status, fall risk, dependency, mood and depression risk, and comorbidities. Based on these psychometric properties, the SEGAm appears to be an easy-to-use instrument that is particularly suitable for use in the community to identify frail elderly people who could benefit from early targeted interventions.

Reactivity feedback coefficients of a material test research reactor fueled with high-density U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} dispersion fuels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muhammad, Farhan [Department of Nuclear Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad 45650 (Pakistan)], E-mail: farhan73@hotmail.com; Majid, Asad [Department of Nuclear Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad 45650 (Pakistan)

2008-10-15

The reactivity feedback coefficients of a material test research reactor fueled with high-density U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} dispersion fuels were calculated. For this purpose, the low-density LEU fuel of an MTR was replaced with high-density U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} LEU fuels currently being developed under the RERTR program. Calculations were carried out to find the fuel temperature reactivity coefficient, moderator temperature reactivity coefficient and moderator density reactivity coefficient. Nuclear reactor analysis codes including WIMS-D4 and CITATION were employed to carry out these calculations. It is observed that the average values of fuel temperature reactivity feedback coefficient, moderator temperature reactivity coefficient and moderator density reactivity coefficient from 20 deg. C to 100 deg. C, at the beginning of life, followed the relationships (in units of {delta}k/k x 10{sup -5} K{sup -1}) -2.116 - 0.118 {rho}{sub U}, 0.713 - 37.309/{rho}{sub U} and -12.765 - 34.309/{rho}{sub U}, respectively for 4.0 {<=} {rho}{sub U} (g/cm{sup 3}) {<=} 6.0.

Labeling suspended aerosol particles with short-lived radionuclides for determination of particle deposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, M.F.; Bryant, S.; Welch, S.; Digenis, G.A.

1984-01-01

Radiotracer techniques were developed to examine parameters that characterize pressurized aerosols designed to deliver insoluble particles suspended in the aerosol formulation. Microaggregated bovine serum albumin microspheres that were to be suspended were labeled with iodine-131 (t1/2 . 8 d). This iodination procedure (greater than 80% effective) is also applicable to iodine-123, which possesses superior characteristics for external imaging and further in vivo studies. This report shows that for pressurized aerosols containing suspended particles, each metered dose is approximately equal (not including the priming doses and the emptying doses). Increase in the delivery of the albumin particles out of the canister was best achieved by pretreating the valve assembly with a solution of 2% (w/v) bovine serum albumin in phosphate buffer. Use of a cascade impactor delineated the particle size distribution of the micropheres, with the majority of particles ranging in size from 2 to 8 microns. The data disclosed here indicate that the techniques developed with short-lived radionuclides can be used to quantitate each metered dose, characterize the particle size distribution profile of the aerosol contents, and determine the extent of deposition of the particles in the aerosol canister and all of its components

Radiation enhanced reactivation of nuclear replicating mammalian viruses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bockstahler, L.E.; Lytle, C.D.

1977-01-01

When CV-1 monkey kidney cells were UV-irradiated (0 to 18 J/m 2 ) or X-irradiated (0 to 10 krads) before infection with UV-irradiated simian adenovirus 7 (SA7) or simian virus 40 (SV40), increases in the infectivity of these nuclear replicating viruses as measured by plaque formation were observed. These radiation enhanced reactivations, UV enhanced reactivation (UVER) and X-ray enhanced reactivation (X-ray ER), occurred both when virus infection immediately followed irradiation of the cells (except for X-ray ER with SA7) and when virus infection was delayed until 3 to 5 days after cell irradiation. While there was little difference in the levels of reactivation of UV-irradiated SV40 between immediate and delayed infection, delayed infection resulted in higher levels of reactivation of SA7. X-ray enhanced reactivation of UV-irradiated Herpes simplex virus persisted for several days but did not increase. Thus, X-ray enhanced and UV enhanced reactivations of these mammalian viruses were relatively long-lived effects. Essentially no UVER or X-ray ER was found in CV-1 cells for either immediate or delayed infection with UV-irradiated vaccinia virus or poliovirus, both of which replicate in the cell cytoplasm. These results suggest UVER and X-ray ER in mammalian cells may be restricted to viruses which are replicated in the cell nucleus. (author)

Impacts of reactive nitrogen on climate change in China

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Yalan; Cui, Shenghui; Ju, Xiaotang; Cai, Zucong; Zhu, Yong-Guan

2015-01-01

China is mobilizing the largest anthropogenic reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the world due to agricultural, industrial and urban development. However, the climate effects related to Nr in China remain largely unclear. Here we comprehensively estimate that the net climate effects of Nr are −100 ± 414 and 322 ± 163 Tg CO2e on a GTP20 and a GTP100 basis, respectively. Agriculture contributes to warming at 187 ± 108 and 186 ± 56 Tg CO2e on a 20-y and 100-y basis, respectively, dominated by long-lived nitrous oxide (N2O) from fertilized soils. On a 20-y basis, industry contributes to cooling at −287 ± 306 Tg CO2e, largely owing to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) altering tropospheric ozone, methane and aerosol concentrations. However, these effects are short-lived. The effect of industry converts to warming at 136 ± 107 Tg CO2e on a 100-y basis, mainly as a result of the reduced carbon (C) sink from the NOx-induced ozone effect on plant damage. On balance, the warming effects of gaseous Nr are partly offset by the cooling effects of N-induced carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems. The large mitigation potentials through reductions in agricultural N2O and industrial NOx will accompany by a certain mitigation pressure from limited N-induced C sequestration in the future. PMID:25631557

Engineered, highly reactive substrates of microbial transglutaminase enable protein labeling within various secondary structure elements.

Science.gov (United States)

Rachel, Natalie M; Quaglia, Daniela; Lévesque, Éric; Charette, André B; Pelletier, Joelle N

2017-11-01

Microbial transglutaminase (MTG) is a practical tool to enzymatically form isopeptide bonds between peptide or protein substrates. This natural approach to crosslinking the side-chains of reactive glutamine and lysine residues is solidly rooted in food and textile processing. More recently, MTG's tolerance for various primary amines in lieu of lysine have revealed its potential for site-specific protein labeling with aminated compounds, including fluorophores. Importantly, MTG can label glutamines at accessible positions in the body of a target protein, setting it apart from most labeling enzymes that react exclusively at protein termini. To expand its applicability as a labeling tool, we engineered the B1 domain of Protein G (GB1) to probe the selectivity and enhance the reactivity of MTG toward its glutamine substrate. We built a GB1 library where each variant contained a single glutamine at positions covering all secondary structure elements. The most reactive and selective variants displayed a >100-fold increase in incorporation of a recently developed aminated benzo[a]imidazo[2,1,5-cd]indolizine-type fluorophore, relative to native GB1. None of the variants were destabilized. Our results demonstrate that MTG can react readily with glutamines in α-helical, β-sheet, and unstructured loop elements and does not favor one type of secondary structure. Introducing point mutations within MTG's active site further increased reactivity toward the most reactive substrate variant, I6Q-GB1, enhancing MTG's capacity to fluorescently label an engineered, highly reactive glutamine substrate. This work demonstrates that MTG-reactive glutamines can be readily introduced into a protein domain for fluorescent labeling. © 2017 The Protein Society.

Reactivity costs in MARIA reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marcinkowska, Zuzanna E.; Pytel, Krzysztof M.; Frydrysiak, Andrzej

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The methodology for calculating consumed fuel cost of excess reactivity is proposed. • Correlation between time integral of the core excess reactivity and released energy. • Reactivity price gives number of fuel elements required for given excess reactivity. - Abstract: For the reactor operation at high power level and carrying out experiments and irradiations the major cost of reactor operation is the expense of nuclear fuel. In this paper the methodology for calculating consumed fuel cost-relatedness of excess reactivity is proposed. Reactivity costs have been determined on the basis of operating data. A number of examples of calculating the reactivity costs for processes such as: strong absorbing material irradiation, molybdenium-99 production, beryllium matrix poisoning and increased moderator temperature illustrates proposed method.

Allergic contact dermatitis due to highly reactive halogenated compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pickering, F C; Ive, F A

1983-11-01

Ten cases of dermatitis in a fine organic chemicals plant are reported. These cases were all due to exposure to chemical compounds with reactive bromine or chlorine atoms. This type of chemical is always extremely irritant, but evidence is put forward to suggest that these cases were the result of allergic sensitization. Chemicals with reactive halogen atoms should always be handled with extreme care and patch testing should be approached with caution.

Investigation concerning the relative formation rate and half-life time of short-lived nuclides with a fast conveyor tube system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kreiner, H.J.

1976-01-01

Since the installation of the 'Ultrafast Rabbit System' at the FRN in end of 1974, some research was started concerning the possibility of neutron activation analysis of short-lived nuclides (0.02 1/2 < 1 s) and measurements of short-lived fission products of U-235 and Pu-239. One of the results of the investigations is a more exact gamma-energy determination of the 0.8 s Cl-38m with 671.33 keV. In NAA it was possible to reach a sensitivity for lead and boron near 2 μg per sample respectively 10 ppm. In measurements of light fission products 0.1 - 8s after a pulse irradiation some differences of the relative formation rate and half-life in the region of A approximately 100 were found in comparison to literature. For example a strong build-up could be seen measuring the gamma-energy of 276.1 keV that belongs to Nb-101. Therefore we suppose the existence of an isomeric state of Nb-101. In comparison to our own results of yield ratio of the Pu- and U-fission products a good agreement with known data was found. Furthermore the measuring method gives the possibility of coordination of unknown gamma-lines to nuclides using the rate of formation, the half-life, the yield ratio between U and Pu and the build-up factor. That could be verified in some cases, e.g. Nb-103 and Sr-96. (author)

Reactive Programming in Java

CERN Document Server

CERN. Geneva

2017-01-01

Reactive Programming in gaining a lot of excitement. Many libraries, tools, and frameworks are beginning to make use of reactive libraries. Besides, applications dealing with big data or high frequency data can benefit from this programming paradigm. Come to this presentation to learn about what reactive programming is, what kind of problems it solves, how it solves them. We will take an example oriented approach to learning the programming model and the abstraction.

Point-of-care C-reactive protein-based tuberculosis screening for people living with HIV: a diagnostic accuracy study.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoon, Christina; Semitala, Fred C; Atuhumuza, Elly; Katende, Jane; Mwebe, Sandra; Asege, Lucy; Armstrong, Derek T; Andama, Alfred O; Dowdy, David W; Davis, J Luke; Huang, Laurence; Kamya, Moses; Cattamanchi, Adithya

2017-12-01

Symptom-based screening for tuberculosis is recommended for all people living with HIV. This recommendation results in unnecessary Xpert MTB/RIF testing in many individuals living in tuberculosis-endemic areas and thus poor implementation of intensified case finding and tuberculosis preventive therapy. Novel approaches to tuberculosis screening are needed to help achieve global targets for tuberculosis elimination. We assessed the performance of C-reactive protein (CRP) measured with a point-of-care assay as a screening tool for active pulmonary tuberculosis. For this prospective study, we enrolled adults (aged ≥18 years) living with HIV with CD4 cell count less than or equal to 350 cells per μL who were initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) from two HIV/AIDS clinics in Uganda. CRP concentrations were measured at study entry with a point-of-care assay using whole blood obtained by fingerprick (concentration ≥10 mg/L defined as screen positive for tuberculosis). Sputum samples were collected for Xpert MTB/RIF testing and culture. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of point-of-care CRP and WHO symptom-based screening in reference to culture results. We repeated the sensitivity analysis with Xpert MTB/RIF as the reference standard. Between July 8, 2013, and Dec 15, 2015, 1237 HIV-infected adults were enrolled and underwent point-of-care CRP testing. 60 (5%) patients with incomplete or contaminated cultures were excluded from the analysis. Of the remaining 1177 patients (median CD4 count 165 cells per μL [IQR 75-271]), 163 (14%) had culture-confirmed tuberculosis. Point-of-care CRP testing had 89% sensitivity (145 of 163, 95% CI 83-93) and 72% specificity (731 of 1014, 95% CI 69-75) for culture-confirmed tuberculosis. Compared with WHO symptom-based screening, point-of-care CRP testing had lower sensitivity (difference -7%, 95% CI -12 to -2; p=0·002) but substantially higher specificity (difference 58%, 95% CI 55 to 61; ptuberculosis screening test

Generation of memory B cells and their reactivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Takeshi; Moran, Imogen; Shinnakasu, Ryo; Phan, Tri Giang; Kurosaki, Tomohiro

2018-05-01

The successful establishment of humoral memory response depends on at least two layers of defense. Pre-existing protective antibodies secreted by long-lived plasma cells act as a first line of defense against reinfection ("constitutive humoral memory"). Previously, a second line of defense in which pathogen-experienced memory B cells are rapidly reactivated to produce antibodies ("reactive humoral memory"), was considered as simply a back-up system for the first line (particularly for re-infection with homologous viruses). However, in the case of re-infection with similar but different strains of viruses, or in response to viral escape mutants, the reactive humoral memory plays a crucial role. Here, we review recent progress in our understanding of how memory B cells are generated in the pre-GC stage and during the GC reaction, and how these memory B cells are robustly reactivated with the help of memory Tfh cells to generate the secondary antibody response. In addition, we discuss how these advances may be relevant to the quest for a vaccine that can induce broadly reactive antibodies against influenza and HIV. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

"Short Courses Shouldn't Be Short-Lived!" Enhancing Longer-Term Impact of Short English as a Foreign Language INSET Initiatives in China

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Chunmei; He, Chuanjun

2015-01-01

Short in-service teacher development (INSET) programmes have been globally used as a form of teacher development, but their impact has been under question. This study sought to examine teacher participants' perceptions of short INSET programmes to come up with better solutions to enhancing their effect on teachers' professional learning. A…

Kidney paired exchange and desensitization: Strategies to transplant the difficult to match kidney patients with living donors.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Thomas A; Lee, Jacqueline I; Melcher, Marc L

2017-01-01

With organs in short supply, only a limited number of kidney transplants can be performed a year. Live donor donation accounts for 1/3rd of all kidney transplants performed in the United States. Unfortunately, not every donor recipient pair is feasible because of Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) sensitization and ABO incompatibility. To overcome these barriers to transplant, strategies such as kidney paired donation (KPD) and desensitization have been developed. KPD is the exchange of donors between at least two incompatible donor-recipient pairs such that they are now compatible. Desensitization is the removal of circulating donor specific antibodies to prevent graft rejection. Regardless of the treatment strategy, highly sensitized patients whose calculated panel reactive antibody (cPRA) is ≥95% remain difficult to transplant with match rates as low as 15% in KPD pools. Desensitization has proved to be difficult in those with high antibody titers. A novel approach is the combination of both KPD and desensitization to facilitate compatible and successful transplantation. A highly sensitized patient can be paired with a better immunological match in the KPD pool and subsequently desensitized to a lesser degree. This article reviews the current progress in KPD and desensitization and their use as a combined therapy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Treatment of short-lived radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Chiri

1976-01-01

Recently short life nuclides have come to be utilized increasingly as diagnostic radioisotopes, and Tc-99m (half-life; 6.05 hours) and Ga-67 (half-life 7.79 hours) are replacing the most nuclides fomerly used in vivo test. Such development of radioactive products inevitably causes the rapid increase of their wastes. At present, the radioactive wastes produced by hospitals and university laboratories in Japan are collected by the Japan Radioisotope Association, and treated by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. These wastes are divided into combustibles and incombustibles to store in the store house in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The present law in Japan contains the contradiction which treats the matter with one several millionth of radioactivity after decay same as the original radioactive matter. Thus solid must be stored permanently, while gas and liquid can be discharged after dilution. (Kobatake, H.)

Localized Chemical Remodeling for Live Cell Imaging of Protein-Specific Glycoform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hui, Jingjing; Bao, Lei; Li, Siqiao; Zhang, Yi; Feng, Yimei; Ding, Lin; Ju, Huangxian

2017-07-03

Live cell imaging of protein-specific glycoforms is important for the elucidation of glycosylation mechanisms and identification of disease states. The currently used metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) technology permits routinely global chemical remodeling (GCM) for carbohydrate site of interest, but can exert unnecessary whole-cell scale perturbation and generate unpredictable metabolic efficiency issue. A localized chemical remodeling (LCM) strategy for efficient and reliable access to protein-specific glycoform information is reported. The proof-of-concept protocol developed for MUC1-specific terminal galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine (Gal/GalNAc) combines affinity binding, off-on switchable catalytic activity, and proximity catalysis to create a reactive handle for bioorthogonal labeling and imaging. Noteworthy assay features associated with LCM as compared with MOE include minimum target cell perturbation, short reaction timeframe, effectiveness as a molecular ruler, and quantitative analysis capability. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Optimization of irradiation decay and counting times in nuclear activation analysis using short-lived nuclides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjoernstad, T.

This work describes a method and outlines a procedure for optim- ization of an activation analysis with respect to the experimental times, irradiation time, t(subi), decay time and counting time. The method is based on the 'minimum relative standard deviation criterion', and specially designed for the use on short-lived nuclides. A computer program, COMB1, is written in the BASIC language in order to make the calculations easier and faster. It is intended to be understandable, and easily applicable on a computer of modest size. Time and cost are important factors, especially for routine analysis on a service basis. In such cases one can often allow a controlled reduction in the analysis quality (through a higher relative standard deviation). The procedure outlined can therefore help find acceptable conditions by calculation of the 'best practical' (or reasonable) experimental time values, and the minimum number of accumulation cycles necessary to fulfil the requirements given. (Auth.)

Context of the long-term management of low-level short-lived waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hooft, E.

2004-01-01

Until the international moratorium of 1983, Belgium relied on sea disposal for its low-level waste. Since then, ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian radioactive waste management agency, has launched studies to look for land-based solutions. These studies, which are still going on, have gone through various phases. The sometimes harsh reactions in public opinion and the recommendations of independent experts, however, progressively led ONDRAF/NIRAS to question its work methodology. On 16 January 1998 was a milestone in Belgian's nuclear waste management. On that day, the Belgian federal government opted for a final, or potentially final, solution for the long-term management of short-lived, low-level radioactive waste, a solution that also had to be progressive, flexible, and reversible. At the same time, the government entrusted new missions to ONDRAF/NIRAS in particular that of developing methods to enable the integration of final repository project proposals at a local level and restricted the number of potential sites for final disposal to the four existing nuclear sites in Belgium and to possibly interested local districts. The government's decision of 16 January 1998 forced ONDRAF/NIRAS to change its strategy. The agency set up a new work programme and worked out an innovative methodology. This new methodology aims to generate, at the level of the interested towns and villages, draft projects for a final repository supported by a wide public consensus. (author)

Features of Onset and Clinical Course of Reactive Arthritis in Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.S. Lebets

2013-09-01

Results. Reactive arthritis of chlamydial etiology is characterized by lesion of large and medium-sized joints of the lower limbs, which is often accompanied by short-term morning stiffness and rapid onset of transient hypomyatrophy. Reiter’s disease may develop rarely. Mycoplasma-induced reactive arthritis is characterized by debut with arthritis of knee, ankle, wrist and small joints of the hand, the development of bursitis and hypomyatrophy. Feature of Ureaplasma arthritis is the formation of bursitis in the heel and tendinitis. Reactive arthritis associated with elevated titers to antistreptolysin O differs with polymorphism of articular syndrome manifestations and, to some extent, of similarity with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Unspecified reactive arthritis has a number of the general features with others reactive arthritis and it is characterized by rather benign clinical course, long preservation of joints function and low laboratory activity. Relapse rate of reactive arthritis increases with an increase of duration of illness.

Transient analysis of the output short-circuit fault of high power and high voltage DC power supply

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Zhigang; Zhang Jian; Huang Yiyun; Hao Xu; Sun Haozhang; Guo Fei

2014-01-01

The transient conditions of output short-circuit fault of high voltage DC power supply was introduced, and the energy of power supply injecting into klystron during the protection process of three-electrode gas switch were analyzed and calculated in detail when klystron load happening electrode arc faults. The results of calculation and simulation are consistent with the results of the experiment. When the output short-circuit fault of high voltage power supply occurs, switch can be shut off in the microsecond, and the short circuit current can be controlled in 200 A. It has verified the rapidity and reliability of the three-electrode gas switch protection, and it has engineering application value. (authors)

The measurement of subcritical reactivity in nuclear reactors by use of a high frequency sine-wave modulated neutron source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guppy, C.B.

1964-11-01

In this report the frequency response characteristics for phase and gain of the fundamental reactor mode of the zero power kinetics are given for various subcritical reactivities in a fast reactor and in a thermal reactor. Results, of a study on harmonic effects based on a small zero energy thermal reactor are presented which demonstrate the importance of spatial harmonic effects. A harmonic theory for thermal reactors is developed. A new method of measuring, subcritical reactivity at moderately high frequencies is suggested which circumvents the harmonic problem. It is shown that at high frequencies there is more sensitivity than at low frequencies and that this could lead to an increased range over which subcritical reactivity can be measured. (author)

182Hf-182W age dating of a 26Al-poor inclusion and implications for the origin of short-lived radioisotopes in the early Solar System.

Science.gov (United States)

Holst, Jesper C; Olsen, Mia B; Paton, Chad; Nagashima, Kazuhide; Schiller, Martin; Wielandt, Daniel; Larsen, Kirsten K; Connelly, James N; Jørgensen, Jes K; Krot, Alexander N; Nordlund, Ake; Bizzarro, Martin

2013-05-28

Refractory inclusions [calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions, (CAIs)] represent the oldest Solar System solids and provide information regarding the formation of the Sun and its protoplanetary disk. CAIs contain evidence of now extinct short-lived radioisotopes (e.g., (26)Al, (41)Ca, and (182)Hf) synthesized in one or multiple stars and added to the protosolar molecular cloud before or during its collapse. Understanding how and when short-lived radioisotopes were added to the Solar System is necessary to assess their validity as chronometers and constrain the birthplace of the Sun. Whereas most CAIs formed with the canonical abundance of (26)Al corresponding to (26)Al/(27)Al of ∼5 × 10(-5), rare CAIs with fractionation and unidentified nuclear isotope effects (FUN CAIs) record nucleosynthetic isotopic heterogeneity and (26)Al/(27)Al of Solar System, including the origin of short-lived radioisotopes. However, their chronology is unknown. Using the (182)Hf-(182)W chronometer, we show that a FUN CAI recording a condensation origin from a solar gas formed coevally with canonical CAIs, but with (26)Al/(27)Al of ∼3 × 10(-6). The decoupling between (182)Hf and (26)Al requires distinct stellar origins: steady-state galactic stellar nucleosynthesis for (182)Hf and late-stage contamination of the protosolar molecular cloud by a massive star(s) for (26)Al. Admixing of stellar-derived (26)Al to the protoplanetary disk occurred during the epoch of CAI formation and, therefore, the (26)Al-(26)Mg systematics of CAIs cannot be used to define their formation interval. In contrast, our results support (182)Hf homogeneity and chronological significance of the (182)Hf-(182)W clock.

Early history and reactivation of the rand thrust, southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Postlethwaite, Clay E.; Jacobson, Carl E.

The Rand thrust of the Rand Mountains in the northwestern Mojave Desert separates an upper plate of quartz monzonite and quartzofeldspathic to amphibolitic gneiss from a lower plate of metagraywacke and mafic schist (Rand Schist). The Rand thrust is considered part of the regionally extensive Vincent/Chocolate Mountain thrust system, which is commonly believed to represent a Late Cretaceous subduction zone. The initial direction of dip and sense of movement along the Vincent/Chocolate Mountain thrust are controversial. Microfabrics of mylonites and quartzites from the Rand Mountains were analyzed in an attempt to determine transport direction for this region, but the results are ambiguous. In addition, the southwestern portion of the Rand thrust was found to have been reactivated as a low-angle normal fault after subduction. Reactivation might have occurred shortly after subduction, in which case it could account for the preservation of high-pressure mineral assemblages in the Rand Schist, or it could be related to mid-Tertiary extension in the western United States. In either event, the reactivation might be responsible for the complicated nature of the microfabrics. The Rand Schist exhibits an inverted metamorphic zonation. Isograds in the schist are not significantly truncated by the reactivated segment of the Rand thrust. This indicates that other segments of the Vincent/Chocolate Mountain thrust should be re-evaluated for the possibility of late movement, even if they show an apparently undisturbed inverted metamorphic zonation.

Calculation of research reactor RA power at uncontrolled reactivity changes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cupac, S.

1978-01-01

The safety analysis of research reactor RA involves also the calculation of reactor power at uncontrolled reactivity changes. The corresponding computer code, based on Point Kinetics Model has been made. The short review of method applied for solving kinetic equations is given and several examples illustrating the reactor behaviour at various reactivity changes are presented. The results already obtained are giving rather rough picture of reactor behaviour in considered situations. This is the consequence of using simplified feed back and reactor cooling models, as well as temperature reactivity coefficients, which do not correspond to the actual reactor RA structure (which is now only partly fulfilled with 80% enriched uranium fuel). (author) [sr

DFT-based prediction of reactivity of short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase

Science.gov (United States)

Stawoska, I.; Dudzik, A.; Wasylewski, M.; Jemioła-Rzemińska, M.; Skoczowski, A.; Strzałka, K.; Szaleniec, M.

2017-06-01

The reaction mechanism of ketone reduction by short chain dehydrogenase/reductase, ( S)-1-phenylethanol dehydrogenase from Aromatoleum aromaticum, was studied with DFT methods using cluster model approach. The characteristics of the hydride transfer process were investigated based on reaction of acetophenone and its eight structural analogues. The results confirmed previously suggested concomitant transfer of hydride from NADH to carbonyl C atom of the substrate with proton transfer from Tyr to carbonyl O atom. However, additional coupled motion of the next proton in the proton-relay system, between O2' ribose hydroxyl and Tyr154 was observed. The protonation of Lys158 seems not to affect the pKa of Tyr154, as the stable tyrosyl anion was observed only for a neutral Lys158 in the high pH model. The calculated reaction energies and reaction barriers were calibrated by calorimetric and kinetic methods. This allowed an excellent prediction of the reaction enthalpies (R2 = 0.93) and a good prediction of the reaction kinetics (R2 = 0.89). The observed relations were validated in prediction of log K eq obtained for real whole-cell reactor systems that modelled industrial synthesis of S-alcohols.

Cerebrovascular reactivity among native-raised high altitude residents: an fMRI study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Jiaxing

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The impact of long term residence on high altitude (HA on human brain has raised concern among researchers in recent years. This study investigated the cerebrovascular reactivity among native-born high altitude (HA residents as compared to native sea level (SL residents. The two groups were matched on the ancestral line, ages, gender ratios, and education levels. A visual cue guided maximum inspiration task with brief breath holding was performed by all the subjects while Blood-Oxygenation-Level-Dependent (BOLD functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI data were acquired from them. Results Compared to SL controls, the HA group showed generally decreased cerebrovascular reactivity and longer delay in hemodynamic response. Clusters showing significant differences in the former aspect were located at the bilateral primary motor cortex, the right somatosensory association cortex, the right thalamus and the right caudate, the bilateral precuneus, the right cingulate gyrus and the right posterior cingulate cortex, as well as the left fusiform gyrus and the right lingual cortex; clusters showing significant differences in the latter aspect were located at the precuneus, the insula, the superior frontal and temporal gyrus, the somatosensory cortex (the postcentral gyrus and the cerebellar tonsil. Inspiratory reserve volume (IRV, which is an important aspect of pulmonary function, demonstrated significant correlation with the amount of BOLD signal change in multiple brain regions, particularly at the bilateral insula among the HA group. Conclusions Native-born HA residents generally showed reduced cerebrovascular reactivity as demonstrated in the hemodynamic response during a visual cue guided maximum inspiration task conducted with BOLD-fMRI. This effect was particularly manifested among brain regions that are typically involved in cerebral modulation of respiration.

"Living with Volcanoes": Cross-Curricular Teaching in the High School Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Jolley, Alison; Ayala, Gianna

2015-01-01

A new, interdisciplinary high school geoarchaeology curriculum unit, titled "Living with Volcanoes," was created and tested in two pilot lessons with 30 high school students total studying geography and classical civilization in northern England. Students were highly engaged during the curriculum unit and showed positive learning gains…

MR imaging of the bone marrow using short TI IR, 1. Normal and pathological intensity distribution of the bone marrow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishizaka, Hiroshi; Kurihara, Mikiko; Tomioka, Kuniaki; Kobayashi, Kanako; Sato, Noriko; Nagai, Teruo; Heshiki, Atsuko; Amanuma, Makoto; Mizuno, Hitomi.

1989-02-01

Normal vertebral bone marrow intensity distribution and its alteration in various anemias were evaluated on short TI IR sequences. Material consists of 73 individuals, 48 normals and 25 anemic patients excluding neoplastic conditions. All normal and reactive hypercellular bone marrow revealed characteristic intensity distribution; marginal high intensity and central low intensity, corresponding well to normal distribution of red and yellow marrows and their physiological or reactive conversion between red and yellow marrows. Aplastic anemia did not reveal normal intensity distribution, presumably due to autonomous condition.

Traceless affinity labeling of endogenous proteins for functional analysis in living cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayashi, Takahiro; Hamachi, Itaru

2012-09-18

Protein labeling and imaging techniques have provided tremendous opportunities to study the structure, function, dynamics, and localization of individual proteins in the complex environment of living cells. Molecular biology-based approaches, such as GFP-fusion tags and monoclonal antibodies, have served as important tools for the visualization of individual proteins in cells. Although these techniques continue to be valuable for live cell imaging, they have a number of limitations that have only been addressed by recent progress in chemistry-based approaches. These chemical approaches benefit greatly from the smaller probe sizes that should result in fewer perturbations to proteins and to biological systems as a whole. Despite the research in this area, so far none of these labeling techniques permit labeling and imaging of selected endogenous proteins in living cells. Researchers have widely used affinity labeling, in which the protein of interest is labeled by a reactive group attached to a ligand, to identify and characterize proteins. Since the first report of affinity labeling in the early 1960s, efforts to fine-tune the chemical structures of both the reactive group and ligand have led to protein labeling with excellent target selectivity in the whole proteome of living cells. Although the chemical probes used for affinity labeling generally inactivate target proteins, this strategy holds promise as a valuable tool for the labeling and imaging of endogenous proteins in living cells and by extension in living animals. In this Account, we summarize traceless affinity labeling, a technique explored mainly in our laboratory. In our overview of the different labeling techniques, we emphasize the challenge of designing chemical probes that allow for dissociation of the affinity module (often a ligand) after the labeling reaction so that the labeled protein retains its native function. This feature distinguishes the traceless labeling approach from the traditional

Reactive programming in eventsourcing systems

OpenAIRE

Kučinskas, Žilvinas

2017-01-01

Eventsourcing describes current state as series of events that occurred in a system. Events hold all information that is needed to recreate current state. This method allows to achieve high volume of transactions, and enables efficient replication. Whereas reactive programming lets implement reactive systems in declarative style, decomposing logic into smaller, easier to understand components. Thesis aims to create reactive programming program interface, incorporating both principles. Applyin...

Radon and its short-lived daughter products in the lower atmosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Servant, J.

1964-01-01

The variations of vertical and temporal distributions of natural radioactivity with geographical location in the lower atmospheric layers are shown. The content of radon and its short lived daughters products are measured. Radon content is measured continually with a new apparatus, the sensibility of which is 0,2.10 -11 Ci m -3 i.e. the fiftieth of the mean concentration near the soil, this apparatus allowed us to show that radioactive equilibrium between radon and its daughter products is realised when the atmosphere is stable. Air observations between 0 and 100 meters above the ground point out that radon and its decay products are valuable tracers to mark the stability of the atmosphere. Under very stable nighttime conditions the radon accumulates in the former 30 meters of the air layer, at sunrise it ascends and at 9 o'clock attains 100 meters high. The removal rate of the air in the lower atmosphere is computed from the movement of this radon mass, it is equal to 90 per cent for a summer day. We have show that this radon comes from the soil in which it diffuses by brownian motion the intensity of which varies with the water content of the soil, its value for June 1958 is 6,10 -17 Ci cm -2 s -1 and for January 1959 0.2,10 -17 Ci cm -2 s - 1. During the year 1958-1959 general mean of flux for the sedimentary soil studied is equal to 3. 8 ± 1.3, 10 -17 Ci cm -2 s -1 it is identical to the world wide mean computed by H. Israel. In a hilly site in the Morvan, air movements are well marked by this radioactivity. We observed from one hand downslope and up-slope breezes having, respectively, speeds of 0.2 m s -1 and 0.7 m s -1 and from the other hand by night, in the valley and with a light wind favours the stagnation of the air near the ground, a strong increase of the radioactivity which is proportional to the one of the granitic rocks of the region. The radon flux of this soil is 74,10 -17 Ci cm -2 s -1 and the radioactivity of the air can attain 1.5,10 -8 Ci m

High-order harmonic generation with short-pulse lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schafer, K.J.; Krause, J.L.; Kulander, K.C.

1992-12-01

Recent progress in the understanding of high-order harmonic conversion from atoms and ions exposed to high-intensity, short-pulse optical lasers is reviewed. We find that ions can produce harmonics comparable in strength to those obtained from neutral atoms, and that the emission extends to much higher order. Simple scaling laws for the strength of the harmonic emission and the maximium observable harmonic are suggested. These results imply that the photoemission observed in recent experiments in helium and neon contains contributions from ions as well as neutrals

High Average Power, High Energy Short Pulse Fiber Laser System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Messerly, M J

2007-11-13

Recently continuous wave fiber laser systems with output powers in excess of 500W with good beam quality have been demonstrated [1]. High energy, ultrafast, chirped pulsed fiber laser systems have achieved record output energies of 1mJ [2]. However, these high-energy systems have not been scaled beyond a few watts of average output power. Fiber laser systems are attractive for many applications because they offer the promise of high efficiency, compact, robust systems that are turn key. Applications such as cutting, drilling and materials processing, front end systems for high energy pulsed lasers (such as petawatts) and laser based sources of high spatial coherence, high flux x-rays all require high energy short pulses and two of the three of these applications also require high average power. The challenge in creating a high energy chirped pulse fiber laser system is to find a way to scale the output energy while avoiding nonlinear effects and maintaining good beam quality in the amplifier fiber. To this end, our 3-year LDRD program sought to demonstrate a high energy, high average power fiber laser system. This work included exploring designs of large mode area optical fiber amplifiers for high energy systems as well as understanding the issues associated chirped pulse amplification in optical fiber amplifier systems.

Mitochondria and Reactive Oxygen Species: Physiology and Pathophysiology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subhashini Bolisetty

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The air that we breathe contains nearly 21% oxygen, most of which is utilized by mitochondria during respiration. While we cannot live without it, it was perceived as a bane to aerobic organisms due to the generation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen metabolites by mitochondria and other cellular compartments. However, this dogma was challenged when these species were demonstrated to modulate cellular responses through altering signaling pathways. In fact, since this discovery of a dichotomous role of reactive species in immune function and signal transduction, research in this field grew at an exponential pace and the pursuit for mechanisms involved began. Due to a significant number of review articles present on the reactive species mediated cell death, we have focused on emerging novel pathways such as autophagy, signaling and maintenance of the mitochondrial network. Despite its role in several processes, increased reactive species generation has been associated with the origin and pathogenesis of a plethora of diseases. While it is tempting to speculate that anti-oxidant therapy would protect against these disorders, growing evidence suggests that this may not be true. This further supports our belief that these reactive species play a fundamental role in maintenance of cellular and tissue homeostasis.

One-step uniformly hybrid carbon quantum dots with high-reactive TiO{sub 2} for photocatalytic application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Wei [School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044 (China); Ni, Yaru; Xu, Zhongzi [College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009 (China)

2015-02-15

Highlights: • CQDs were uniformly deposited on high-reactive TiO{sub 2} by a one-pot method. • CQDs can use a wide range of solar spectrum efficiently for photocatalysis. • TiO{sub 2} facets are not affected and the total photocatalytic activity was improved. - Abstract: High-reactive facets dominated anatase TiO{sub 2} is of great significance to solve environment and energy challenges. Maintaining the pristine structure and improving the photocatalytic activity of TiO{sub 2} still need innovation work by employing different modification processes. Here, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were employed to modify TiO{sub 2} with exposed {0 0 1}, {1 0 1}, and {0 1 0} facets by a one-pot hydrothermal method. Results indicate that CQDs can disperse uniformly on TiO{sub 2} surface, and the high-reactive facets are maintained perfectly. The introduced CQDs can both enhance the light absorption and suppress photogenerated electron-hole’s recombination. Proper amount of introduced CQDs can both significantly enhance the photocatalytic activities, which are very stable, under the UV and visible light irradiation Corresponding photocatalytic mechanisms are also discussed in the present work.

PASTEURISASI HIGH TEMPERATURE SHORT TIME (HTST) SUSU TERHADAP Listeria monocytogenes PADA PENYIMPANAN REFRIGERATOR

OpenAIRE

SABIL, SYAHRIANA

2015-01-01

2015 SYAHRIANA SABIL (I 111 11 273). Pasteurisasi High Temperature Short Time (HTST) Susu terhadap Listeria monocytogenes pada Penyimpanan Refrigerator. Dibimbing oleh RATMAWATI MALAKA dan FARIDA NUR YULIATI. Pasteurisasi High Temperature Short Time (HTST) merupakan proses pemanasan susu di bawah titik didih yang diharapkan dapat membunuh Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) karena bersifat patogen dan mengakibatkan listeriosis yang merupakan penyakit zoonosis. Tu...

Insertion material for controlling reactivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baba, Iwao.

1994-01-01

Moderators and a group of suspended materials having substantially the same density as the moderator are sealed in a hollow rod vertically inserted to a fuel assembly. Specifically, the group of suspended materials is adapted to have a density changing stepwise from density of the moderator at the exit temperature of the reactor core to that at the inlet temperature of the reactor core. Reactivity is selectively controlled for a portion of high power and a portion of high reactivity by utilizing the density of the moderator and the distribution of the density. That is, if the power distribution is flat, the density of the moderators changes at a constant rate over the vertical direction of the reactor core and the suspended materials stay at a portion of the same density, to form a uniform distribution. Further, upon reactor shutdown, since the liquid temperature of the moderators is lowered and the density is increased, all of beads are collected at the upper portion to remove water at the upper portion of the reactor core of low burnup degree thereby selectively controlling the reactivity at a portion of high power and a portion of high reactivity. (N.H.)

The Impact of High-Rise Buildings on the Living Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giyasov Botir

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Urbanization as a socio-economic process manifested in the concentration of the population in modern big cities contributes to the development of high-rise building construction. With the development of education and culture, changing leisure habits, city residents put forward new architectural and functional requirements to the living environment and urban infrastructure. This calls for the creation of new types and forms of residential buildings, the structure of the city and transport networks. In addition, the need to develop high-rise building construction is justified by the growing demand for residential, public and administrative buildings and the lack of free space.The paper analyzes the development of high-rise building construction in urban areas. The problem of the impact of high-rise building construction in big cities on the living environment is considered. Using analytical methods, causes and sources of pollution, such as transport and engineering infrastructure have been identified. In some urban areas, there are zones with modified thermal conditions and air exchange resulting in the formation of the “urban heat island”The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of variations in temperature and wind speed with respect to the height of the building have been calculated, using the example of the Evolution Tower of the Moscow International Business Center (“Moscow City”. Calculation and comparative analysis for the cities of Moscow, Khanty-Mansiysk and Vladivostok has made it possible to assess the variation in temperature and wind speed and their impact on the living environment under different climatic conditions.

The Impact of High-Rise Buildings on the Living Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Giyasov, Botir; Giyasova, Irina

2018-03-01

Urbanization as a socio-economic process manifested in the concentration of the population in modern big cities contributes to the development of high-rise building construction. With the development of education and culture, changing leisure habits, city residents put forward new architectural and functional requirements to the living environment and urban infrastructure. This calls for the creation of new types and forms of residential buildings, the structure of the city and transport networks. In addition, the need to develop high-rise building construction is justified by the growing demand for residential, public and administrative buildings and the lack of free space.The paper analyzes the development of high-rise building construction in urban areas. The problem of the impact of high-rise building construction in big cities on the living environment is considered. Using analytical methods, causes and sources of pollution, such as transport and engineering infrastructure have been identified. In some urban areas, there are zones with modified thermal conditions and air exchange resulting in the formation of the "urban heat island"The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of variations in temperature and wind speed with respect to the height of the building have been calculated, using the example of the Evolution Tower of the Moscow International Business Center ("Moscow City"). Calculation and comparative analysis for the cities of Moscow, Khanty-Mansiysk and Vladivostok has made it possible to assess the variation in temperature and wind speed and their impact on the living environment under different climatic conditions.

Evidence for greater cue reactivity among low-dependent vs. high-dependent smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Noreen L; Carpenter, Matthew J; Saladin, Michael E; Gray, Kevin M; Upadhyaya, Himanshu P

2010-07-01

Cue reactivity paradigms are well-established laboratory procedures used to examine subjective craving in response to substance-related cues. For smokers, the relationship between nicotine dependence and cue reactivity has not been clearly established. The main aim of the present study was to further examine this relationship. Participants (N=90) were between the ages 18-40 and smoked > or =10 cigarettes per day. Average nicotine dependence (Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence; FTND) at baseline was 4.9 (SD=2.1). Participants completed four cue reactivity sessions consisting of two in vivo cues (smoking and neutral) and two affective imagery cues (stressful and relaxed), all counterbalanced. Craving in response to cues was assessed following each cue exposure using the Questionnaire of Smoking Urges-Brief (QSU-B). Differential cue reactivity was operationally defined as the difference in QSU scores between the smoking and neutral cues, and between the stressful and relaxed cues. Nicotine dependence was significantly and negatively associated with differential cue reactivity scores in regard to hedonic craving (QSU factor 1) for both in vivo and imagery cues, such that those who had low FTND scores demonstrated greater differential cue reactivity than those with higher FTND scores (beta=-.082; p=.037; beta=-.101; p=.023, respectively). Similar trends were found for the Total QSU and for negative reinforcement craving (QSU factor 2), but did not reach statistical significance. Under partially sated conditions, less dependent smokers may be more differentially cue reactive to smoking cues as compared to heavily dependent smokers. These findings offer methodological and interpretative implications for cue reactivity studies. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emission channeling with short-lived isotopes lattice location of impurities in semiconductors and oxides

CERN Multimedia

We propose to perform emission channeling lattice location experiments in a number of semiconductor and oxide systems of technological relevance: \\\\- The lattice location of the transition metal probes $^{56}$Mn ($\\textit{t}_{1/2}$=2.6 h), $^{59}$Fe (45 d), $^{61}$Co (1.6 h) and $^{65}$Ni (2.5 h) is to be investigated in materials of interest as dilute magnetic semiconductors, such as GaMnAs, GaMnN, GaFeN, AlGaN, SiC, and in a number of oxides that are candidates for “single ion ferromagnetism”, in particular SrTiO$_3$ and LiNbO$_3$.\\\\- The topic of $\\textit{p}$-type doping of nitride semiconductors shall be addressed by studying the lattice sites of the acceptor dopants Mg and Be in GaN and AlN using the short-lived probes $^{27}$Mg (9.5 min) and $^{11}$Be (13.8 s). The aim is to reach a lattice location precision around 0.05 Å in order to provide critical tests for recent theoretical models which e.g. have predicted displacements of the Mg atom from the ideal substitutional Ga and Al sites of the order...

The trade-off between short- and long-lived greenhouse gases under uncertainty and learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aaheim, H. Asbjoern; Brekke, Kjell Arne; Lystad, Terje; Torvanger, Asbjoern

2001-01-01

To find an optimal climate policy we must balance abatement of different greenhouse gases. There is substantial uncertainty about future damages from climate change, but we will learn more over the next few decades. Gases vary in terms of how long they remain in the atmosphere, which means that equivalent pulse emissions have very different climate impacts. Such differences between gases are important in consideration of uncertainty and learning about future damages, but they are disregarded by the conventional concept of Global Warming Potential We have developed a numerical model to analyze how uncertainty and learning affect optimal emissions of both CO 2 and CH 4 . In the model, emissions of these greenhouse gases lead to global temperature increases and production losses. New information about the severity of the climate problem arrives either in 2010 or in 2020. We find that uncertainty causes increased optimal abatement of both gases, compared to the certainty case. This effect amounts to 0.08 o C less expected temperature increase by year 2200. Learning leads to less abatement for both gases since expected future marginal damages from emissions are reduced. This effect is less pronounced for the short-lived CH 4 . (author)

Utilization of Short-Simulations for Tuning High-Resolution Climate Model

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, W.; Xie, S.; Ma, P. L.; Rasch, P. J.; Qian, Y.; Wan, H.; Ma, H. Y.; Klein, S. A.

2016-12-01

Many physical parameterizations in atmospheric models are sensitive to resolution. Tuning the models that involve a multitude of parameters at high resolution is computationally expensive, particularly when relying primarily on multi-year simulations. This work describes a complementary set of strategies for tuning high-resolution atmospheric models, using ensembles of short simulations to reduce the computational cost and elapsed time. Specifically, we utilize the hindcast approach developed through the DOE Cloud Associated Parameterization Testbed (CAPT) project for high-resolution model tuning, which is guided by a combination of short (tests have been found to be effective in numerous previous studies in identifying model biases due to parameterized fast physics, and we demonstrate that it is also useful for tuning. After the most egregious errors are addressed through an initial "rough" tuning phase, longer simulations are performed to "hone in" on model features that evolve over longer timescales. We explore these strategies to tune the DOE ACME (Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy) model. For the ACME model at 0.25° resolution, it is confirmed that, given the same parameters, major biases in global mean statistics and many spatial features are consistent between Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP)-type simulations and CAPT-type hindcasts, with just a small number of short-term simulations for the latter over the corresponding season. The use of CAPT hindcasts to find parameter choice for the reduction of large model biases dramatically improves the turnaround time for the tuning at high resolution. Improvement seen in CAPT hindcasts generally translates to improved AMIP-type simulations. An iterative CAPT-AMIP tuning approach is therefore adopted during each major tuning cycle, with the former to survey the likely responses and narrow the parameter space, and the latter to verify the results in climate context along with assessment in

Identification of a new reactive metabolite of pyrrolizidine alkaloid retrorsine: (3H-pyrrolizin-7-yl)methanol.

Science.gov (United States)

Fashe, Muluneh M; Juvonen, Risto O; Petsalo, Aleksanteri; Rahnasto-Rilla, Minna; Auriola, Seppo; Soininen, Pasi; Vepsäläinen, Jouko; Pasanen, Markku

2014-11-17

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) such as retrorsine are common food contaminants that are known to be bioactivated by cytochrome P450 enzymes to putative hepatotoxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic metabolites known as dehydropyrrolizidine alkaloids (DHPs). We compared how both electrochemical (EC) and human liver microsomal (HLM) oxidation of retrorsine could produce short-lived intermediate metabolites; we also characterized a toxicologically important metabolite, (3H-pyrrolizin-7-yl)methanol. The EC cell was coupled online or offline to a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS), whereas the HLM oxidation was performed in 100 mM potassium phosphate (pH 7.4) in the presence of NADPH at 37 °C. The EC cell oxidation of retrorsine produced 12 metabolites, including dehydroretrorsine (m/z 350, [M + H(+)]), which was degraded to a new reactive metabolite at m/z 136 ([M + H(+)]). The molecular structure of this small metabolite was determined using high-resolution mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy followed by chemical synthesis. In addition, we also identified another minor but reactive metabolite at m/z 136, an isomer of (3H-pyrrolizin-7-yl)methanol. Both (3H-pyrrolizin-7-yl)methanol and its minor isomer were also observed after HLM oxidation of retrorsine and other hepatotoxic PAs such as lasiocarpine and senkirkin. In the presence of reduced glutathione (GSH), each isomer formed identical GSH conjugates at m/z 441 and m/z 730 in the negative ESI-MS. Because (3H-pyrrolizine-7-yl)methanol) and its minor isomer subsequently reacted with GSH, it is concluded that (3H-pyrrolizin-7-yl)methanol may be a common toxic metabolite arising from PAs.

Advances in the MQDT approach of electron/molecular cation reactive collisions: High precision extensive calculations for applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Motapon O.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in the stepwise multichannel quantum defect theory approach of electron/molecular cation reactive collisions have been applied to perform computations of cross sections and rate coefficients for dissociative recombination and electron-impact ro-vibrational transitions of H2+, BeH+ and their deuterated isotopomers. At very low energy, rovibronic interactions play a significant role in the dynamics, whereas at high energy, the dissociative excitation strongly competes with all other reactive processes.

Effects of short-term environmental disturbances on living benthic foraminifera during the Pacific oyster summer mortality in the Marennes-Oléron Bay (France).

Science.gov (United States)

Bouchet, Vincent M P; Debenay, Jean-Pierre; Sauriau, Pierre-Guy; Radford-Knoery, Joël; Soletchnik, Patrick

2007-09-01

Sediment cores were collected from April to August 2004 on tidal mudflats of the macrotidal Marennes-Oléron Bay (SW France), famous for the cultivation of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). The response of living (stained) benthic foraminifera to short-term biogeochemical disturbances in the sediment and overlying water, which may be involved in oyster summer mortality, was monitored. Short-term hypoxia occurred in early June, in conjunction with a sudden rise in temperature. In mid-June, the ammonia content of sediment porewater increased, leading to potentially maximal flux towards overlying waters. Foraminiferal assemblages, particularly in the topmost layer, were altered. Ammonia tepida was the most tolerant to temperature increase and hypoxic conditions whereas Brizalina variabilis and Haynesina germanica were sensitive to organic degradation and hypoxia. Cribroelphidium gunteri was the most opportunistic during recolonisation. Benthic foraminifera showed that short-term biochemical changes in the sediment are toxic and may be involved in the summer mortality of Pacific oysters.

Efficacy of short-term high-dose statin in preventing contrast-induced nephropathy: a meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongchuan Li

Full Text Available A few studies focused on statin therapy as specific prophylactic measures of contrast-induced nephropathy have been published with conflicting results. In this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of short-term high-dose statin treatment for the prevention of CIN and clinical outcomes and re-evaluate of the potential benefits of statin therapy.We searched PubMed, OVID, EMBASE, Web of science and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases for randomized controlled trials comparing short-term high-dose statin treatment versus low-dose statin treatment or placebo for preventing CIN. Our outcome measures were the risk of CIN within 2-5 days after contrast administration and need for dialysis.Seven randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,399 patients were identified and analyzed. The overall results based on fixed-effect model showed that the use of short-term high-dose statin treatment was associated with a significant reduction in risk of CIN (RR =0.51, 95% CI 0.34-0.76, p =0.001; I(2 = 0%. The incidence of acute renal failure requiring dialysis was not significant different after the use of statin (RR = 0.33, 95% CI 0.05-2.10, p = 0.24; I(2 = 0%. The use of statin was not associated with a significant decrease in the plasma C-reactive protein level (SMD -0.64, 95% CI: -1.57 to 0.29, P = 0.18, I(2 = 97%.Although this meta-analysis supports the use of statin to reduce the incidence of CIN, it must be considered in the context of variable patient demographics. Only a limited recommendation can be made in favour of the use of statin based on current data. Considering the limitations of included studies, a large, well designed trial that incorporates the evaluation of clinically relevant outcomes in participants with different underlying risks of CIN is required to more adequately assess the role for statin in CIN prevention.

Multidimensional poverty, household environment and short-term morbidity in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehury, Bidyadhar; Mohanty, Sanjay K

2017-01-01

Using the unit data from the second round of the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS-II), 2011-2012, which covered 42,152 households, this paper examines the association between multidimensional poverty, household environmental deprivation and short-term morbidities (fever, cough and diarrhoea) in India. Poverty is measured in a multidimensional framework that includes the dimensions of education, health and income, while household environmental deprivation is defined as lack of access to improved sanitation, drinking water and cooking fuel. A composite index combining multidimensional poverty and household environmental deprivation has been computed, and households are classified as follows: multidimensional poor and living in a poor household environment, multidimensional non-poor and living in a poor household environment, multidimensional poor and living in a good household environment and multidimensional non-poor and living in a good household environment. Results suggest that about 23% of the population belonging to multidimensional poor households and living in a poor household environment had experienced short-term morbidities in a reference period of 30 days compared to 20% of the population belonging to multidimensional non-poor households and living in a poor household environment, 19% of the population belonging to multidimensional poor households and living in a good household environment and 15% of the population belonging to multidimensional non-poor households and living in a good household environment. Controlling for socioeconomic covariates, the odds of short-term morbidity was 1.47 [CI 1.40-1.53] among the multidimensional poor and living in a poor household environment, 1.28 [CI 1.21-1.37] among the multidimensional non-poor and living in a poor household environment and 1.21 [CI 1.64-1.28] among the multidimensional poor and living in a good household environment compared to the multidimensional non-poor and living in a good household

Decay properties of short-lived mass-separated fission products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lund, E.

1977-01-01

The present work describes determinations of total β-decay energies and studies of delayed neutron emission including the identification and half-life determinations of delayed neutron precursors and the measurement of neutron spectra. It also includes a short review of the OSIRIS on-line isotope separator facility. (Auth.)

The pitfalls of short-range endemism: high vulnerability to ecological and landscape traps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leanda D. Mason

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Ecological traps attract biota to low-quality habitats. Landscape traps are zones caught in a vortex of spiralling degradation. Here, we demonstrate how short-range endemic (SRE traits may make such taxa vulnerable to ecological and landscape traps. Three SRE species of mygalomorph spider were used in this study: Idiommata blackwalli, Idiosoma sigillatum and an undescribed Aganippe sp. Mygalomorphs can be long-lived (>43 years and select sites for permanent burrows in their early dispersal phase. Spiderlings from two species, I. blackwalli (n = 20 and Aganippe sp. (n = 50, demonstrated choice for microhabitats under experimental conditions, that correspond to where adults typically occur in situ. An invasive veldt grass microhabitat was selected almost exclusively by spiderlings of I. sigillatum. At present, habitat dominated by veldt grass in Perth, Western Australia, has lower prey diversity and abundance than undisturbed habitats and therefore may act as an ecological trap for this species. Furthermore, as a homogenising force, veldt grass can spread to form a landscape trap in naturally heterogeneous ecosystems. Selection of specialised microhabitats of SREs may explain high extinction rates in old, stable landscapes undergoing (human-induced rapid change.

Streaming Pool: reuse, combine and create reactive streams with pleasure

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2017-01-01

When connecting together heterogeneous and complex systems, it is not easy to exchange data between components. Streams of data are successfully used in industry in order to overcome this problem, especially in the case of "live" data. Streams are a specialization of the Observer design pattern and they provide asynchronous and non-blocking data flow. The ongoing effort of the ReactiveX initiative is one example that demonstrates how demanding this technology is even for big companies. Bridging the discrepancies of different technologies with common interfaces is already done by the Reactive Streams initiative and, in the JVM world, via reactive-streams-jvm interfaces. Streaming Pool is a framework for providing and discovering reactive streams. Through the mechanism of dependency injection provided by the Spring Framework, Streaming Pool provides a so called Discovery Service. This object can discover and chain streams of data that are technologically agnostic, through the use of Stream IDs. The stream to ...

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and risk of sepsis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henry E Wang

Full Text Available Conventional C-reactive protein assays have been used to detect or guide the treatment of acute sepsis. The objective of this study was to determine the association between elevated baseline high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP and the risk of future sepsis events.We studied data from 30,239 community dwelling, black and white individuals, age ≥45 years old enrolled in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS cohort. Baseline hsCRP and participant characteristics were determined at the start of the study. We identified sepsis events through review of hospital records. Elevated hsCRP was defined as values >3.0 mg/L. Using Cox regression, we determined the association between elevated hsCRP and first sepsis event, adjusting for sociodemographic factors (age, sex, race, region, education, income, health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol use, chronic medical conditions (coronary artery disease, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease and statin use.Over the mean observation time of 5.7 years (IQR 4.5-7.1, 974 individuals experienced a sepsis event, and 11,447 (37.9% had elevated baseline hsCRP (>3.0 mg/L. Elevated baseline hsCRP was independently associated with subsequent sepsis (adjusted HR 1.56; 95% CI 1.36-1.79, adjusted for sociodemographics, health behaviors, chronic medical conditions and statin use.Elevated baseline hsCRP was associated with increased risk of future sepsis events. hsCRP may help to identify individuals at increased risk for sepsis.

Reactive Burn Model Calibration for PETN Using Ultra-High-Speed Phase Contrast Imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Carl; Ramos, Kyle; Bolme, Cindy; Sanchez, Nathaniel; Barber, John; Montgomery, David

2017-06-01

A 1D reactive burn model (RBM) calibration for a plastic bonded high explosive (HE) requires run-to-detonation data. In PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate, 1.65 g/cc) the shock to detonation transition (SDT) is on the order of a few millimeters. This rapid SDT imposes experimental length scales that preclude application of traditional calibration methods such as embedded electromagnetic gauge methods (EEGM) which are very effective when used to study 10 - 20 mm thick HE specimens. In recent work at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source we have obtained run-to-detonation data in PETN using ultra-high-speed dynamic phase contrast imaging (PCI). A reactive burn model calibration valid for 1D shock waves is obtained using density profiles spanning the transition to detonation as opposed to particle velocity profiles from EEGM. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) methods were used to operate the LANL hydrocode FLAG iteratively to refine SURF RBM parameters until a suitable parameter set attained. These methods will be presented along with model validation simulations. The novel method described is generally applicable to `sensitive' energetic materials particularly those with areal densities amenable to radiography.

Living high-training low: effect on erythropoiesis and aerobic performance in highly-trained swimmers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robach, P.; Schmitt, L.; Brugniaux, J.V.

2006-01-01

LHTL enhances aerobic performance in athletes, and if any positive effect may last for up to 2 weeks after LHTL intervention. Eighteen swimmers trained for 13 days at 1,200 m while sleeping/living at 1,200 m in ambient air (control, n=9) or in hypoxic rooms (LHTL, n=9, 5 days at simulated altitude of 2......The "living high-training low" model (LHTL), i.e., training in normoxia but sleeping/living in hypoxia, is designed to improve the athletes performance. However, LHTL efficacy still remains controversial and also little is known about the duration of its potential benefit. This study tested whether......,500 m followed by 8 days at simulated altitude of 3,000 m, 16 h day(-1)). Measures were done before 1-2 days (POST-1) and 2 weeks after intervention (POST-15). Aerobic performance was assessed from two swimming trials, exploring .VO(2max) and endurance performance (2,000-m time trial), respectively...

The association of low birth weight with serum C reactive protein in 3‐year‐old children living in Cuba: A population‐based prospective study

Science.gov (United States)

Fundora‐Hernández, Hermes; Batista‐Gutierrez, Lourdes; Suárez‐Medina, Ramón; de la C. Mora‐Faife, Esperanza; García‐García, Gladys; del Valle‐Infante, Ileana; Gómez‐Marrero, Liem; Britton, John; Fogarty, Andrew W.

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective Low birthweight is associated with a decreased risk of childhood leukemia and an increased risk of both cardiovascular disease and all‐cause mortality in adult life. Possible biological mediators include systemic innate immunity and inflammation. We tested the hypothesis that birthweight was inversely associated with serum high sensitivity C reactive protein assay (hsCRP), a measure of both innate immunity and systemic inflammation. Methods Data on birthweight and current anthropometric measures along with a range of exposures were collected at 1 and 3 years of age in a population‐based cohort study of young children living in Havana, Cuba. A total of 986 children aged 3‐years‐old provided blood samples that were analyzed for serum hsCRP levels. Results Nearly 49% of children had detectable hsCRP levels in their serum. Lower birthweight was linearly associated with the natural log of hsCRP levels (beta coefficient −0.70 mg L−1 per kg increase in birthweight, 95% CI: −1.34 to −0.06). This was attenuated but still present after adjustment for the child's sex and municipality (−0.65 mg L−1 per kg birthweight; 95% CI: −1.38 to +0.08). There were no associations between growth from birth or anthropometric measures at 3 years and systemic inflammation. Conclusions Birthweight was inversely associated with serum hsCRP levels in children aged 3 years living in Cuba. These observations provide a potential mechanism that is present at the age of 3 years to explain the association between low birthweight and both decreased childhood leukemia and increased cardiovascular disease in adults. PMID:27859847

High-Specificity Targeted Functional Profiling in Microbial Communities with ShortBRED.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Kaminski

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Profiling microbial community function from metagenomic sequencing data remains a computationally challenging problem. Mapping millions of DNA reads from such samples to reference protein databases requires long run-times, and short read lengths can result in spurious hits to unrelated proteins (loss of specificity. We developed ShortBRED (Short, Better Representative Extract Dataset to address these challenges, facilitating fast, accurate functional profiling of metagenomic samples. ShortBRED consists of two components: (i a method that reduces reference proteins of interest to short, highly representative amino acid sequences ("markers" and (ii a search step that maps reads to these markers to quantify the relative abundance of their associated proteins. After evaluating ShortBRED on synthetic data, we applied it to profile antibiotic resistance protein families in the gut microbiomes of individuals from the United States, China, Malawi, and Venezuela. Our results support antibiotic resistance as a core function in the human gut microbiome, with tetracycline-resistant ribosomal protection proteins and Class A beta-lactamases being the most widely distributed resistance mechanisms worldwide. ShortBRED markers are applicable to other homology-based search tasks, which we demonstrate here by identifying phylogenetic signatures of antibiotic resistance across more than 3,000 microbial isolate genomes. ShortBRED can be applied to profile a wide variety of protein families of interest; the software, source code, and documentation are available for download at http://huttenhower.sph.harvard.edu/shortbred.

High frequency study of a short niobium/lead alloy line

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazuer, J.; Gilchrist, J.

1974-01-01

The resonant Q-factors of coaxial lines 1.42 m in length, consisting of fine niobium wires in superconducting tubes, have been studied. The lines are either open-circuited at each end or else short-circuited at each end. In either case the fundamental resonance and odd harmonics up to the ninth were observed. Various surface treatments of the wire made no appreciable difference to the Q value of the open-circuited lines. The short-circuited lines had much lower Q values due to imperfect short-circuiting contacts, and were used mainly to study the effect of a superposed direct current. This was appreciable even when the current was much smaller than the current that the wire would support without resistive transition. The additional high-frequency loss caused by the current was attributed to flux penetration. (author)

Mice selected for high versus low stress reactivity: a new animal model for affective disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Touma, Chadi; Bunck, Mirjam; Glasl, Lisa; Nussbaumer, Markus; Palme, Rupert; Stein, Hendrik; Wolferstätter, Michael; Zeh, Ramona; Zimbelmann, Marina; Holsboer, Florian; Landgraf, Rainer

2008-07-01

Affective disorders such as major depression are among the most prevalent and costly diseases of the central nervous system, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. In recent years, it has become evident that alterations of the stress hormone system, in particular dysfunctions (hyper- or hypo-activity) of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, play a prominent role in the development of major depressive disorders. Therefore, we aimed to generate a new animal model comprising these neuroendocrine core symptoms in order to unravel parameters underlying increased or decreased stress reactivity. Starting from a population of outbred mice (parental generation: 100 males and 100 females of the CD-1 strain), two breeding lines were established according to the outcome of a 'stress reactivity test' (SRT), consisting of a 15-min restraint period and tail blood samplings immediately before and after exposure to the stressor. Mice showing a very high or a very low secretion of corticosterone in the SRT, i.e. animals expressing a hyper- or a hypo-reactivity of the HPA axis, were selected for the 'high reactivity' (HR) and the 'low reactivity' (LR) breeding line, respectively. Additionally, a third breeding line was established consisting of animals with an 'intermediate reactivity' (IR) in the SRT. Already in the first generation, i.e. animals derived from breeding pairs selected from the parental generation, significant differences in the reactivity of the HPA axis between HR, IR, and LR mice were observed. Moreover, these differences were found across all subsequent generations and could be increased by selective breeding, which indicates a genetic basis of the respective phenotype. Repeated testing of individuals in the SRT furthermore proved that the observed differences in stress responsiveness are present already early in life and can be regarded as a robust genetic predisposition. Tests investigating the animal's emotionality including anxiety

High voltage short plus generation based on avalanche circuit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Yuanfeng; Yu Xiaoqi

2006-01-01

Simulate the avalanche circuit in series with PSPICE module, design the high voltage short plus generation circuit by avalanche transistor in series for the sweep deflection circuit of streak camera. The output voltage ranges 1.2 KV into 50 ohm load. The rise time of the circuit is less than 3 ns. (authors)

Computational simulation of reactive species production by methane-air DBD at high pressure and high temperature

Science.gov (United States)

Takana, H.; Tanaka, Y.; Nishiyama, H.

2012-01-01

Computational simulations of a single streamer in DBD in lean methane-air mixture at pressure of 1 and 3 atm and temperature of 300 and 500 K were conducted for plasma-enhanced chemical reactions in a closed system. The effects of surrounding pressure and temperature are characterized for reactive species production by a DBD discharge. The results show that the production characteristics of reactive species are strongly influenced by the total gas number density and the higher concentration of reactive species are produced at higher pressure and lower gas temperature for a given initial reduced electric field.

Teachable, high-content analytics for live-cell, phase contrast movies.

Science.gov (United States)

Alworth, Samuel V; Watanabe, Hirotada; Lee, James S J

2010-09-01

CL-Quant is a new solution platform for broad, high-content, live-cell image analysis. Powered by novel machine learning technologies and teach-by-example interfaces, CL-Quant provides a platform for the rapid development and application of scalable, high-performance, and fully automated analytics for a broad range of live-cell microscopy imaging applications, including label-free phase contrast imaging. The authors used CL-Quant to teach off-the-shelf universal analytics, called standard recipes, for cell proliferation, wound healing, cell counting, and cell motility assays using phase contrast movies collected on the BioStation CT and BioStation IM platforms. Similar to application modules, standard recipes are intended to work robustly across a wide range of imaging conditions without requiring customization by the end user. The authors validated the performance of the standard recipes by comparing their performance with truth created manually, or by custom analytics optimized for each individual movie (and therefore yielding the best possible result for the image), and validated by independent review. The validation data show that the standard recipes' performance is comparable with the validated truth with low variation. The data validate that the CL-Quant standard recipes can provide robust results without customization for live-cell assays in broad cell types and laboratory settings.

Relativity a very short introduction

CERN Document Server

Stannard, F Russell

2008-01-01

Relativity: A Very Short Introduction makes the theory of relativity understandable and accessible. 100 years ago, Einstein's theory of relativity shattered the world of physics. Our comforting Newtonian ideas of space and time were replaced by bizarre and counterintuitive conclusions: if you move at high speed, time slows down, space squashes up and you get heavier; travel fast enough and you could weigh as much as a jumbo jet, be squashed thinner than a CD without feeling a thing - and live forever. And that was just the special theory. With the general theory came even stranger ideas of curved space-time, which changed our understanding of gravity and the cosmos.

ISRNA: an integrative online toolkit for short reads from high-throughput sequencing data.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Guan-Zheng; Yang, Wei; Ma, Ying-Ke; Wang, Xiu-Jie

2014-02-01

Integrative Short Reads NAvigator (ISRNA) is an online toolkit for analyzing high-throughput small RNA sequencing data. Besides the high-speed genome mapping function, ISRNA provides statistics for genomic location, length distribution and nucleotide composition bias analysis of sequence reads. Number of reads mapped to known microRNAs and other classes of short non-coding RNAs, coverage of short reads on genes, expression abundance of sequence reads as well as some other analysis functions are also supported. The versatile search functions enable users to select sequence reads according to their sub-sequences, expression abundance, genomic location, relationship to genes, etc. A specialized genome browser is integrated to visualize the genomic distribution of short reads. ISRNA also supports management and comparison among multiple datasets. ISRNA is implemented in Java/C++/Perl/MySQL and can be freely accessed at http://omicslab.genetics.ac.cn/ISRNA/.

Impact of seasonal forcing on reactive ecological systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Vesipa, Riccardo; Ridolfi, Luca

2017-04-21

Our focus is on the short-term dynamics of reactive ecological systems which are stable in the long term. In these systems, perturbations can exhibit significant transient amplifications before asymptotically decaying. This peculiar behavior has attracted increasing attention. However, reactive systems have so far been investigated assuming that external environmental characteristics remain constant, although environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, moisture, water availability, etc.) can undergo substantial changes due to seasonal cycles. In order to fill this gap, we propose applying the adjoint non-modal analysis to study the impact of seasonal variations of environmental conditions on reactive systems. This tool allows the transient dynamics of a perturbation affecting non-autonomous ecological systems to be described. To show the potential of this approach, a seasonally forced prey-predator model with a Holling II type functional response is studied as an exemplifying case. We demonstrate that seasonalities can greatly affect the transient dynamics of the system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research with high-power short-wavelength lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holzrichter, J.F.; Campbell, E.M.; Lindl, J.D.; Storm, E.

1985-01-01

Three important high-temperature, high-density experiments were conducted recently using the 10-TW, short-wavelength Novette laser system at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These experiments demonstrated successful solutions to problems that arose during previous experiments with long wavelength lasers (lambda greater than or equal to 1μm) in which inertial confinement fusion (ICF), x-ray laser, and other high-temperature physics concepts were being tested. The demonstrations were: (1) large-scale plasmas (typical dimensions of up to 1000 laser wavelengths) were produced in which potentially deleterious laser-plasma instabilities were collisionally damped. (2) Deuterium-tritium fuel was imploded to a density of 20 g/cm 3 and a pressure of 10 10 atm. (3) A 700-fold amplification of soft x rays by stimulated emission at 206 and 209 A (62 eV) from Se +24 ions was observed in a laser-generated plasma. Isoelectronic scaling to 155 A (87 eV) in Y +29 was also demonstrated

Generating high-power short terahertz electromagnetic pulses with a multifoil radiator.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinokurov, Nikolay A; Jeong, Young Uk

2013-02-08

We describe a multifoil cone radiator capable of generating high-field short terahertz pulses using short electron bunches. Round flat conducting foil plates with successively decreasing radii are stacked, forming a truncated cone with the z axis. The gaps between the foil plates are equal and filled with some dielectric (or vacuum). A short relativistic electron bunch propagates along the z axis. At sufficiently high particle energy, the energy losses and multiple scattering do not change the bunch shape significantly. When passing by each gap between the foil plates, the electron bunch emits some energy into the gap. Then, the radiation pulses propagate radially outward. For transverse electromagnetic waves with a longitudinal (along the z axis) electric field and an azimuthal magnetic field, there is no dispersion in these radial lines; therefore, the radiation pulses conserve their shapes (time dependence). At the outer surface of the cone, we have synchronous circular radiators. Their radiation field forms a conical wave. Ultrashort terahertz pulses with gigawatt-level peak power can be generated with this device.

Calculation of neutron flux and reactivity by perturbation theory at high order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, W.L.P. da; Silva, F.C. da; Thome Filho, Z.D.

1982-01-01

A high order pertubation theory is studied, independent of time, applied to integral parameter calculation of a nuclear reactor. A pertubative formulation, based on flux difference technique, which gives directy the reactivity and neutron flux up to the aproximation order required, is presented. As an application of the method, global pertubations represented by fuel temperature variations, are used. Tests were done aiming to verify the relevancy of the approximation order for several intensities of the pertubations considered. (E.G.) [pt

Biodiesel production from triolein and short chain alcohols through biocatalysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Salis, Andrea; Pinna, Marcella; Monduzzi, Maura; Solinas, Vincenzo

2005-09-29

Oleic acid alkyl esters (biodiesel) were synthesised by biocatalysis in solvent-free conditions. Different commercial immobilised lipases, namely Candida antarctica B, Rizhomucor miehei, and Pseudomonas cepacia, were tested towards the reaction between triolein and butanol to produce butyl oleate. Pseudomonas cepacia lipase resulted to be the most active enzyme reaching 100% of conversion after 6h. Different operative conditions such as reaction temperature, water activity, and reagent stoichiometric ratio were investigated and optimised. These conditions were then used to investigate the effect of linear and branched short chain alcohols. Methanol and 2-butanol were the worst alcohols: the former, probably, due to its low miscibility with the oil and the latter because secondary alcohols usually are less reactive than primary alcohols. Conversely, linear and branched primary alcohols with short alkyl chains (C(2)--C(4)) showed high reaction rate and conversion. A mixture of linear and branched short chain alcohols that mimics the residual of ethanol distillation (fusel oil) was successfully used for oleic acid ester synthesis. These compounds are important in biodiesel mixtures since they improve low temperature properties.

Dynamic Performance of the ITER Reactive Power Compensation System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sheng Zhicai; Fu Peng; Xu Liuwei

2011-01-01

Dynamic performance of a reactive power compensation (RPC) system for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) power supply is presented. Static var compensators (SVCs) are adopted to mitigate voltage fluctuation and reduce the reactive power down to a level acceptable for the French/European 400 kV grid. A voltage feedback and load power feedforward controller for SVC is proposed, with the feedforward loop intended to guarantee short response time and the feedback loop ensuring good dynamics and steady characteristics of SVC. A mean filter was chosen to measure the control signals to improve the dynamic response. The dynamic performance of the SVC is verified by simulations using PSCAD/EMTDC codes.

Pretreatment of cellulosic wastes to increase enzyme reactivity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neese, N.; Wallick, J.; Harper, J.M.

1977-03-01

The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose is generally a slow reaction. Different pretreatments, such as ball milling to a -200 mesh or swelling in 1 to 2 percent NaOH are reported to increase the reactivity considerably. In this work a fiber fraction from cattle manure was treated in an autoclave for 5 to 30 min at temperatures ranging from 130 to 200/sup 0/C. The reactivity of the cellulose, measured by incubating samples with a commercial cellulase preparation for one hour at 50/sup 0/C and pH 4.8, was increased by a factor of 4 to 6 compared to NaOH treatment and 10 to 20 compared to untreated fiber. The increased reaction rate is probably mostly due to an increase in cellulose availability to enzymatic attack, as structural hemicellulose is hydrolyzed and removed during the treatment. Sugars, produced by hemicellulosis hydrolysis, will react further to give caramelization products. These side reactions were shown to be suppressed by short treatment times. The treated fiber could support growth of a mixed culture of Trichoderma viride and Candida utilis only after washing, indicating the formation of water soluble inhibitory products during treatment. The treatment with high-temperature steam can probably be used also with other cellulosic materials to increase reactivity. This may be an attractive way to prepare low-valued wastes such as manure fibers, straw, stalks, or corn cobs for fermentation processes to increase the protein content or for use directly as ruminant animal feed.

Activation of DAF-16/FOXO by reactive oxygen species contributes to longevity in long-lived mitochondrial mutants in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Science.gov (United States)

Senchuk, Megan M; Dues, Dylan J; Schaar, Claire E; Johnson, Benjamin K; Madaj, Zachary B; Bowman, Megan J; Winn, Mary E; Van Raamsdonk, Jeremy M

2018-03-01

Mild deficits in mitochondrial function have been shown to increase lifespan in multiple species including worms, flies and mice. Here, we study three C. elegans mitochondrial mutants (clk-1, isp-1 and nuo-6) to identify overlapping genetic pathways that contribute to their longevity. We find that genes regulated by the FOXO transcription factor DAF-16 are upregulated in all three strains, and that the transcriptional changes present in these worms overlap significantly with the long-lived insulin-IGF1 signaling pathway mutant daf-2. We show that DAF-16 and multiple DAF-16 interacting proteins (MATH-33, IMB-2, CST-1/2, BAR-1) are required for the full longevity of all three mitochondrial mutants. Our results suggest that the activation of DAF-16 in these mutants results from elevated levels of reactive oxygen species. Overall, this work reveals an overlapping genetic pathway required for longevity in three mitochondrial mutants, and, combined with previous work, demonstrates that DAF-16 is a downstream mediator of lifespan extension in multiple pathways of longevity.

[Relationship between periodontitis and levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein].

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Heng-biao; Chen, Hui; Zhou, Na; Jin, Dan; Zhang, Jing; Peng, Chun-mei

2010-08-01

To evaluate the relationship between periodontitis and the traditional risk factors of coronary heart disease (CHD), as well as the role in the mechanisms responsible for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in the relationship of peridontitis and CHD. A periodontal examination was conducted on a total of 356 subjects, and community periodontal index of treatment needs (CPITN) was obtained from each subject. Periodontal status was categorized into TN periodontal, hsCRP concentration and routinely CHD serological indexes. In the groups of TN periodontal pockets were found in the Group hsCRP > or = 3.0 mg x L(-1) (P periodontal disease.

High Pressure Combustion Experimental Facility(HPCEF) for Studies on Combustion in Reactive Flows

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-13

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 12. DISTRIBUTION AVAILIBILITY STATEMENT 6...Report: High Pressure Combustion Experimental Facility (HPCEF) for Studies on Combustion in Reactive Flows The views, opinions and/or findings... contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not contrued as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision, unless so

Process stabilization by peak current regulation in reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering of hafnium nitride

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, T; Villamayor, M; Helmersson, U; Lundin, D

2016-01-01

A simple and cost effective approach to stabilize the sputtering process in the transition zone during reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is proposed. The method is based on real-time monitoring and control of the discharge current waveforms. To stabilize the process conditions at a given set point, a feedback control system was implemented that automatically regulates the pulse frequency, and thereby the average sputtering power, to maintain a constant maximum discharge current. In the present study, the variation of the pulse current waveforms over a wide range of reactive gas flows and pulse frequencies during a reactive HiPIMS process of Hf-N in an Ar–N 2 atmosphere illustrates that the discharge current waveform is a an excellent indicator of the process conditions. Activating the reactive HiPIMS peak current regulation, stable process conditions were maintained when varying the N 2 flow from 2.1 to 3.5 sccm by an automatic adjustment of the pulse frequency from 600 Hz to 1150 Hz and consequently an increase of the average power from 110 to 270 W. Hf–N films deposited using peak current regulation exhibited a stable stoichiometry, a nearly constant power-normalized deposition rate, and a polycrystalline cubic phase Hf-N with (1 1 1)-preferred orientation over the entire reactive gas flow range investigated. The physical reasons for the change in the current pulse waveform for different process conditions are discussed in some detail. (paper)

Joint excitation and reactive power control in thermal power plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dragosavac Jasna

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The coordinated voltage and reactive power controller, designed for the thermal power plant, is presented in the paper. A brief explanation of the need for such device is given and justification for commissioning of such equipment is outlined. After short description of the theoretical background of the proposed control design, the achieved features of the commissioned equipment are fully given. Achieved performances are illustrated by recorded reactive power and bus voltage responses after commissioning of the described equipment into the largest thermal power plant in Serbia. As it can be seen in presented records, all design targets are met.

Cardiovascular reactivity as a mechanism linking child trauma to adolescent psychopathology

Science.gov (United States)

Heleniak, Charlotte; McLaughlin, Katie A.; Ormel, Johan; Riese, Harriette

2016-01-01

Alterations in physiological reactivity to stress are argued to be central mechanisms linking adverse childhood environmental experiences to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Childhood trauma exposure may influence physiological reactivity to stress in distinct ways from other forms of childhood adversity. This study applied a novel theoretical model to investigate the impact of childhood trauma on cardiovascular stress reactivity – the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. This model suggests that inefficient cardiovascular responses to stress – a threat as opposed to challenge profile – are characterized by blunted cardiac output (CO) reactivity and increased vascular resistance. We examined whether childhood trauma exposure predicted an indicator of the threat profile of cardiovascular reactivity and whether such a pattern was associated with adolescent psychopathology in a population-representative sample of 488 adolescents (M = 16.17 years old, 49.2% boys) in the TRacking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Exposure to trauma was associated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms and a pattern of cardiovascular reactivity consistent with the threat profile, including blunted CO reactivity during a social stress task. Blunted CO reactivity, in turn, was positively associated with externalizing, but not internalizing symptoms and mediated the link between trauma and externalizing psychopathology. None of these associations varied by gender. The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat provides a novel theoretical framework for understanding disruptions in physiological reactivity to stress following childhood trauma exposure, revealing a potential pathway linking such exposure with externalizing problems in adolescents. PMID:27568327

High quality diet improves lipid metabolic profile and breeding performance in the blue-footed booby, a long-lived seabird.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erick González-Medina

Full Text Available Understanding the role of diet in the physiological condition of adults during reproduction and hence its effect on reproductive performance is fundamental to understand reproductive strategies in long-lived animals. In birds, little is known about the influence of the quality of food consumed at the beginning of the reproductive period and its short-term effects on reproductive performance. To assess the role of diet in the physiological condition of female blue-footed booby, Sula nebouxii (BFBO, during reproduction we evaluated whether individual differences in diet (assessed by using δ13C and δ15N values of whole blood from female birds and muscle tissue of the principal prey species prior to egg laying and during incubation influenced their lipid metabolic profile (measured as triglyceride levels and C:N ratio and their reproductive performance (defined by laying date, clutch size and hatching success. Females with higher δ15N values in their blood during the courtship and incubation periods had a higher lipid metabolic profile, earlier laying date, greater clutch size (2-3 eggs and higher hatching success. Females that laid earlier and more eggs (2-3 eggs consumed more Pacific anchoveta (Cetengraulis mysticetus and Pacific thread herring (Opisthonema libertate than did other females. These two prey species also had high amounts of lipids (C:N ratio and caloric content (Kcal/g fresh weight. The quality of food consumed by females at the beginning of reproduction affected their physiological condition, as well as their short-term reproductive performance. Our work emphasizes the importance of determining the influence of food quality during reproduction to understand the reproductive decisions and consequences in long-lived animals.

Applying burnable poison particles to reduce the reactivity swing in high temperature reactors with batch-wise fuel loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kloosterman, J.L.; Dam, H. van; Hagen, T.H.J.J. van der

2003-01-01

Burnup calculations have been performed on a standard HTR fuel pebble with a radius of 3 cm containing 9 g of 8% enriched uranium and burnable poison particles (BPP) made of B 4 C highly enriched in 10 B. The radius of the BPP and the number of particles per fuel pebble have been varied to find the flattest reactivity-to-time curve. It was found that for a k∞ of 1.1, a reactivity swing as low as 2% can be obtained when each fuel pebble contains about 1070 BPP with a radius of 75 μm. For coated BPP that consist of a graphite kernel with a radius of 300 μm covered with a B 4 C burnable poison layer, a similar value for the reactivity swing can be obtained. Cylindrical particles seem to perform worse. In general, the modification of the geometry of BPP is an effective means to tailor the reactivity curve of HTRs

New use of global warming potentials to compare cumulative and short-lived climate pollutants

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Myles R.; Fuglestvedt, Jan S.; Shine, Keith P.; Reisinger, Andy; Pierrehumbert, Raymond T.; Forster, Piers M.

2016-08-01

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have requested guidance on common greenhouse gas metrics in accounting for Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to emission reductions. Metric choice can affect the relative emphasis placed on reductions of `cumulative climate pollutants' such as carbon dioxide versus `short-lived climate pollutants' (SLCPs), including methane and black carbon. Here we show that the widely used 100-year global warming potential (GWP100) effectively measures the relative impact of both cumulative pollutants and SLCPs on realized warming 20-40 years after the time of emission. If the overall goal of climate policy is to limit peak warming, GWP100 therefore overstates the importance of current SLCP emissions unless stringent and immediate reductions of all climate pollutants result in temperatures nearing their peak soon after mid-century, which may be necessary to limit warming to ``well below 2 °C'' (ref. ). The GWP100 can be used to approximately equate a one-off pulse emission of a cumulative pollutant and an indefinitely sustained change in the rate of emission of an SLCP. The climate implications of traditional CO2-equivalent targets are ambiguous unless contributions from cumulative pollutants and SLCPs are specified separately.

The trade-off between short- and long-lived greenhouse gases under uncertainty and learning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aaheim, H. Asbjoern; Brekke, Kjell Arne; Lystad, Terje; Torvanger, Asbjoern

2001-07-01

To find an optimal climate policy we must balance abatement of different greenhouse gases. There is substantial uncertainty about future damages from climate change, but we will learn more over the next few decades. Gases vary in terms of how long they remain in the atmosphere, which means that equivalent pulse emissions have very different climate impacts. Such differences between gases are important in consideration of uncertainty and learning about future damages, but they are disregarded by the conventional concept of Global Warming Potential We have developed a numerical model to analyze how uncertainty and learning affect optimal emissions of both CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4}. In the model, emissions of these greenhouse gases lead to global temperature increases and production losses. New information about the severity of the climate problem arrives either in 2010 or in 2020. We find that uncertainty causes increased optimal abatement of both gases, compared to the certainty case. This effect amounts to 0.08 {sup o}C less expected temperature increase by year 2200. Learning leads to less abatement for both gases since expected future marginal damages from emissions are reduced. This effect is less pronounced for the short-lived CH{sub 4}. (author)

Highly sensitive SnO2 sensor via reactive laser-induced transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Palla Papavlu, Alexandra; Mattle, Thomas; Temmel, Sandra; Lehmann, Ulrike; Hintennach, Andreas; Grisel, Alain; Wokaun, Alexander; Lippert, Thomas

2016-04-01

Gas sensors based on tin oxide (SnO2) and palladium doped SnO2 (Pd:SnO2) active materials are fabricated by a laser printing method, i.e. reactive laser-induced forward transfer (rLIFT). Thin films from tin based metal-complex precursors are prepared by spin coating and then laser transferred with high resolution onto sensor structures. The devices fabricated by rLIFT exhibit low ppm sensitivity towards ethanol and methane as well as good stability with respect to air, moisture, and time. Promising results are obtained by applying rLIFT to transfer metal-complex precursors onto uncoated commercial gas sensors. We could show that rLIFT onto commercial sensors is possible if the sensor structures are reinforced prior to printing. The rLIFT fabricated sensors show up to 4 times higher sensitivities then the commercial sensors (with inkjet printed SnO2). In addition, the selectivity towards CH4 of the Pd:SnO2 sensors is significantly enhanced compared to the pure SnO2 sensors. Our results indicate that the reactive laser transfer technique applied here represents an important technical step for the realization of improved gas detection systems with wide-ranging applications in environmental and health monitoring control.

Health Literacy of Living Kidney Donors and Kidney Transplant Recipients

Science.gov (United States)

Dageforde, Leigh Anne; Petersen, Alec W.; Feurer, Irene D.; Cavanaugh, Kerri L.; Harms, Kelly A.; Ehrenfeld, Jesse M.; Moore, Derek E.

2015-01-01

Background Health literacy (HL) may be a mediator for known socioeconomic and racial disparities in living kidney donation. Methods We evaluated the associations of patient and demographic characteristics with HL in living kidney donors (LD), living donor kidney transplant recipients (LDR), and deceased donor recipients (DDR) in a single center retrospective review of patients undergoing kidney donation or transplantation from September 2010 to July 2012. HL and demographic data were collected. HL was assessed via the Short Literacy Survey (SLS) comprising three self-reported screening questions scored using the 5-point Likert scale [low (3-8), moderate (9-14), high (15)]. Chi-square and logistic regression were used to test factors associated with lower HL. Results The sample included 360 adults (105 LD, 103 LDR, 152 DDR; 46±14 years; 70% white; 56% male; 14±3 years of education). HL scores were skewed (49% high, 41% moderate, 10% low). The distribution of HL categories differed significantly among groups (p=0.019). After controlling for age, race, gender, education and a race-education interaction term, DDR were more likely to have moderate or low HL than LDR (OR 1.911; 95%CI 1.096, 3.332; p=0.022) Conclusions Overall, living donors had high HL. The distribution of low, moderate and high HL differed significantly between LD, DDR and LDR. DDR had a higher likelihood of having low HL than LDR. Screening kidney transplant candidates and donors for lower HL may identify barriers to living donation. Future interventions addressing HL may be important to increase living donation and reduce disparities. PMID:24573114

Teaching English Using Local Culture Content Short Story

OpenAIRE

Sanda, Silfi

2009-01-01

This paper is mainly about the use of local culture content short story in developing students' English proficiency and some activities that can be employed for this purpose. The local culture exposed in the short story is the traditional woven clothes of Palembang, Songket in term of process and product. The short story used in this topic is Cek Ipah "The Palembang Songket Weaver". This short story is authors' original work telling about everyday live of palembang songket weaver which covers...

Short Circuits of a 10 MW High Temperature Superconducting Wind Turbine Generator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Xiaowei (Andy); Liu, Dong; Polinder, Henk

2016-01-01

Direct drive high temperature superconducting (HTS) wind turbine generators have been proposed to tackle challenges for ever increasing wind turbine ratings. Due to smaller reactances in HTS generators, higher fault currents and larger transient torques could occur if sudden short circuits happen...... at generator terminals. In this paper, a finite element model that couples magnetic fields and the generator’s equivalent circuits is developed to simulate short circuit faults. Afterwards, the model is used to study the transient performance of a 10 MW HTS wind turbine generator under four different short...... that the short circuits pose great challenges to the generator, and careful consideration should be given to protect the generator. The results presented in this paper would be beneficial to the design, operation and protection of an HTS wind turbine generator....

Development of laser plasma x-ray microscope for living hydrated biological specimens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kado, Masataka; Daido, Hiroyuki

2005-01-01

Investigating the structure and the function of life object performing advanced life activity becomes important. In order to investigate the life object, it is necessary to observe living specimens with high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution. Since laser plasma x-ray source has high brightness and short pulse duration, x-ray microscope with the laser plasma x-ray source makes possible to observe living specimens. Such as chromosomes, macrophages, bacterium, and so on have been observed by contact x-ray microscopy. The x-ray images obtained by indirect measurements such as the contact x-ray microscopy have difficulty to avoid artificial effect such as irregular due to developing process. Development of an x-ray microscope with laser plasma x-ray source is necessary to avoid such defects. (author)

Persistent Associative Plasticity at an Identified Synapse Underlying Classical Conditioning Becomes Labile with Short-Term Homosynaptic Activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Jiangyuan; Schacher, Samuel

2015-12-09

Synapses express different forms of plasticity that contribute to different forms of memory, and both memory and plasticity can become labile after reactivation. We previously reported that a persistent form of nonassociative long-term facilitation (PNA-LTF) of the sensorimotor synapses in Aplysia californica, a cellular analog of long-term sensitization, became labile with short-term heterosynaptic reactivation and reversed when the reactivation was followed by incubation with the protein synthesis inhibitor rapamycin. Here we examined the reciprocal impact of different forms of short-term plasticity (reactivations) on a persistent form of associative long-term facilitation (PA-LTF), a cellular analog of classical conditioning, which was expressed at Aplysia sensorimotor synapses when a tetanic stimulation of the sensory neurons was paired with a brief application of serotonin on 2 consecutive days. The expression of short-term homosynaptic plasticity [post-tetanic potentiation or homosynaptic depression (HSD)], or short-term heterosynaptic plasticity [serotonin-induced facilitation or neuropeptide Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-NH2 (FMRFa)-induced depression], at synapses expressing PA-LTF did not affect the maintenance of PA-LTF. The kinetics of HSD was attenuated at synapses expressing PA-LTF, which required activation of protein kinase C (PKC). Both PA-LTF and the attenuated kinetics of HSD were reversed by either a transient blockade of PKC activity or a homosynaptic, but not heterosynaptic, reactivation when paired with rapamycin. These results indicate that two different forms of persistent synaptic plasticity, PA-LTF and PNA-LTF, expressed at the same synapse become labile when reactivated by different stimuli. Activity-dependent changes in neural circuits mediate long-term memories. Some forms of long-term memories become labile and can be reversed with specific types of reactivations, but the mechanism is complex. At the cellular level, reactivations that induce a

Why do short term workers have high mortality?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolstad, Henrik; Olsen, Jørn

1999-01-01

or violence, the rate ratios for short term employment were 2.30 (95% Cl 1.74-3.06) and 1.86 (95% Cl 1.35-2.56), respectively. An unhealthy lifestyle may also be a determinant of short term employment. While it is possible in principle to adjust for lifestyle factors if proper data are collected, the health......Increased mortality is often reported among workers in short term employment. This may indicate either a health-related selection process or the presence of different lifestyle or social conditions among short term workers. The authors studied these two aspects of short term employment among 16...

High efficiency H6 single-phase transformerless grid-tied PV inverter with proposed modulation for reactive power generation

Science.gov (United States)

Almasoudi, Fahad M.; Alatawi, Khaled S.; Matin, Mohammad

2017-08-01

Implementation of transformerless inverters in PV grid-tied system offer great benefits such as high efficiency, light weight, low cost, etc. Most of the proposed transformerless inverters in literature are verified for only real power application. Currently, international standards such as VDE-AR-N 4105 has demanded that PV grid-tied inverters should have the ability of controlling a specific amount of reactive power. Generation of reactive power cannot be accomplished in single phase transformerless inverter topologies because the existing modulation techniques are not adopted for a freewheeling path in the negative power region. This paper enhances a previous high efficiency proposed H6 trnasformerless inverter with SiC MOSFETs and demonstrates new operating modes for the generation of reactive power. A proposed pulse width modulation (PWM) technique is applied to achieve bidirectional current flow through freewheeling state. A comparison of the proposed H6 transformerless inverter using SiC MOSFETs and Si MOSFTEs is presented in terms of power losses and efficiency. The results show that reactive power control is attained without adding any additional active devices or modification to the inverter structure. Also, the proposed modulation maintains a constant common mode voltage (CM) during every operating mode and has low leakage current. The performance of the proposed system verifies its effectiveness in the next generation PV system.

Detection and Characterization of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Biological Systems by Monitoring Species-Specific Products.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardy, Micael; Zielonka, Jacek; Karoui, Hakim; Sikora, Adam; Michalski, Radosław; Podsiadły, Radosław; Lopez, Marcos; Vasquez-Vivar, Jeannette; Kalyanaraman, Balaraman; Ouari, Olivier

2018-05-20

Since the discovery of the superoxide dismutase enzyme, the generation and fate of short-lived oxidizing, nitrosating, nitrating, and halogenating species in biological systems has been of great interest. Despite the significance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) in numerous diseases and intracellular signaling, the rigorous detection of ROS and RNS has remained a challenge. Recent Advances: Chemical characterization of the reactions of selected ROS and RNS with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spin traps and fluorescent probes led to the establishment of species-specific products, which can be used for specific detection of several forms of ROS and RNS in cell-free systems and in cultured cells in vitro and in animals in vivo. Profiling oxidation products from the ROS and RNS probes provides a rigorous method for detection of those species in biological systems. Formation and detection of species-specific products from the probes enables accurate characterization of the oxidative environment in cells. Measurement of the total signal (fluorescence, chemiluminescence, etc.) intensity does not allow for identification of the ROS/RNS formed. It is critical to identify the products formed by using chromatographic or other rigorous techniques. Product analyses should be accompanied by monitoring of the intracellular probe level, another factor controlling the yield of the product(s) formed. More work is required to characterize the chemical reactivity of the ROS/RNS probes, and to develop new probes/detection approaches enabling real-time, selective monitoring of the specific products formed from the probes. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 28, 1416-1432.

A novel ultra-short scanning nuclear microprobe: Design and preliminary results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lebed, S.; Butz, T.; Vogt, J.; Reinert, T.; Spemann, D.; Heitmann, J.; Stachura, Z.; Lekki, J.; Potempa, A.; Styczen, J.; Sulkio-Cleff, B.

2001-01-01

The paper describes an optimized scanning nuclear microprobe (MP) with a new ultra-short (total length of 1.85 m) probe forming system based on a divided Russian quadruplet (DRQ) of magnetic quadrupole lenses. Modern electrostatic accelerators have a comparatively high beam brightness of about 10-25 pA/μm 2 /mrad 2 /MeV. This allows the MP proposed to provide a high lateral resolution even with large (1%) parasitic (sextupole and octupole) pole tip field components in all lenses. The features of the design permit the MP operation in the high current and low current modes with a short working distance and inexpensive quadrupole lenses. A new quadrupole doublet design has been developed for the MP. In the present work the calculated features of the new MP are compared with preliminary experimental results obtained with a similar system (total length of 2.3 m) at the INP in Cracow. The new MP is promising for studies of solids or biological samples with high resolutions (0.08-2 μm) in both modes under ambient conditions. A vertical version of the ultra-short MP can be very useful for single ion bombardments of living cells

Passivation of bimetallic catalysts used in water treatment: prevention and reactivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jianming; Gillham, Robert W; Gui, Lai

2013-01-01

With respect to degradation rates and the range in contaminants treated, bimetals such as Ni-Fe or Pd-Fe generally outperform unamended granular iron. However, the catalytic enhancement is generally short-lived, lasting from a few days to months. To take advantage of the significant benefits of bimetals, this study aims at developing an effective method for the rejuvenation of passivated bimetals and alternatively, the prevention of rapid reactivity loss of bimetals. Because the most likely cause of Ni-Fe and Pd-Fe passivation is the deposition of iron oxide films over the catalyst sites, it is hypothesized that removal of the iron oxide films will restore the lost reactivity or avoiding the deposition of iron oxide films will prevent passivation. Two organic ligands (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and [s,s]-ethylenediaminedisuccinate acid ([s,s]-EDDS)) and two acids (citric acid and sulphuric acid) were tested as possible chemical reagents for both passivation rejuvenation and prevention. Trichloroethene (TCE) and Ni-Fe were chosen as probes for chlorinated solvents and bimetals respectively. The test was carried out using small glass columns packed with Ni-Fe. TCE solution containing a single reagent at various concentrations was pumped through the Ni-Fe columns with a residence time in the Ni-Fe of about 6.6 min. TCE concentrations in the influent and effluent were measured to evaluate the performance of each chemical reagent. The results show that (i) for passivated Ni-Fe, flushing with a low concentration of acid or ligand solution without mechanical mixing can fully restore the lost reactivity; and (ii) for passivation prevention, adding a small amount of a ligand or an acid to the feed solution can successfully prevent or at least substantially reduce Ni-Fe passivation. All four chemicals tested are effective in both rejuvenation and prevention, but sulphuric acid and citric acid are considered to be the most practical reagents due to their

Quantitative cerebral blood flow patterns with the short lived isotope 195m Au

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindner, P.; Nickel, O.

1984-01-01

A previously reported theory for quantitative cerebral blood flow measurements using intravenously injected nondiffusible radiotracers has been applied on patients after stroke and on volunteers undergoing a mental stimulation exercise. Quantitative measurements of cerebral blood flow patterns (in ml/min/100g) not only in p.a. but also in lateral views of the brain are possible by using of the short-lived (30 sec) isotope Au 195m. The energy spectrum of the eluate of the generator shows two strong photon peaks, one at 68 keV and a second at 262 keV. The 68 keV peak is suitable for perfusion studies in lateral views of the hemispheres, no 'look through' effect is seen. The 262 keV peak is good for studies in p.a. positions. The studies last less than 1 minute and can be repeated after 3 minutes. Parametric images for quantitative regional cerebral blood flow can be generated. The area of occluded vessels in the case of stroke can be made visible. Quantitative activation patterns of cerebral blood flow during mental stimulation can be generated. After optical stimulation a clear increase of blood flow was seen in the visual cortex. The results prove that not only with freely diffusible (like Xenon) but also with nondiffusible indicators like 195m Au it is possible to measure quantitatively cerebral blood flow patterns. Au 195m is very advantageous for quantitative clinical investigations of cerebrovascular disease. (Author)

High throughput assay for evaluation of reactive carbonyl scavenging capacity.

Science.gov (United States)

Vidal, N; Cavaille, J P; Graziani, F; Robin, M; Ouari, O; Pietri, S; Stocker, P

2014-01-01

Many carbonyl species from either lipid peroxidation or glycoxidation are extremely reactive and can disrupt the function of proteins and enzymes. 4-hydroxynonenal and methylglyoxal are the most abundant and toxic lipid-derived reactive carbonyl species. The presence of these toxics leads to carbonyl stress and cause a significant amount of macromolecular damages in several diseases. Much evidence indicates trapping of reactive carbonyl intermediates may be a useful strategy for inhibiting or decreasing carbonyl stress-associated pathologies. There is no rapid and convenient analytical method available for the assessment of direct carbonyl scavenging capacity, and a very limited number of carbonyl scavengers have been identified to date, their therapeutic potential being highlighted only recently. In this context, we have developed a new and rapid sensitive fluorimetric method for the assessment of reactive carbonyl scavengers without involvement glycoxidation systems. Efficacy of various thiol- and non-thiol-carbonyl scavenger pharmacophores was tested both using this screening assay adapted to 96-well microplates and in cultured cells. The scavenging effects on the formation of Advanced Glycation End-product of Bovine Serum Albumin formed with methylglyoxal, 4-hydroxynonenal and glucose-glycated as molecular models were also examined. Low molecular mass thiols with an α-amino-β-mercaptoethane structure showed the highest degree of inhibitory activity toward both α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and dicarbonyls. Cysteine and cysteamine have the best scavenging ability toward methylglyoxal. WR-1065 which is currently approved for clinical use as a protective agent against radiation and renal toxicity was identified as the best inhibitor of 4-hydroxynonenal.

High throughput assay for evaluation of reactive carbonyl scavenging capacity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Vidal

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Many carbonyl species from either lipid peroxidation or glycoxidation are extremely reactive and can disrupt the function of proteins and enzymes. 4-hydroxynonenal and methylglyoxal are the most abundant and toxic lipid-derived reactive carbonyl species. The presence of these toxics leads to carbonyl stress and cause a significant amount of macromolecular damages in several diseases. Much evidence indicates trapping of reactive carbonyl intermediates may be a useful strategy for inhibiting or decreasing carbonyl stress-associated pathologies. There is no rapid and convenient analytical method available for the assessment of direct carbonyl scavenging capacity, and a very limited number of carbonyl scavengers have been identified to date, their therapeutic potential being highlighted only recently. In this context, we have developed a new and rapid sensitive fluorimetric method for the assessment of reactive carbonyl scavengers without involvement glycoxidation systems. Efficacy of various thiol- and non-thiol-carbonyl scavenger pharmacophores was tested both using this screening assay adapted to 96-well microplates and in cultured cells. The scavenging effects on the formation of Advanced Glycation End-product of Bovine Serum Albumin formed with methylglyoxal, 4-hydroxynonenal and glucose-glycated as molecular models were also examined. Low molecular mass thiols with an α-amino-β-mercaptoethane structure showed the highest degree of inhibitory activity toward both α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and dicarbonyls. Cysteine and cysteamine have the best scavenging ability toward methylglyoxal. WR-1065 which is currently approved for clinical use as a protective agent against radiation and renal toxicity was identified as the best inhibitor of 4-hydroxynonenal.

Real-time high resolution 3D imaging of the lyme disease spirochete adhering to and escaping from the vasculature of a living host.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tara J Moriarty

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Pathogenic spirochetes are bacteria that cause a number of emerging and re-emerging diseases worldwide, including syphilis, leptospirosis, relapsing fever, and Lyme borreliosis. They navigate efficiently through dense extracellular matrix and cross the blood-brain barrier by unknown mechanisms. Due to their slender morphology, spirochetes are difficult to visualize by standard light microscopy, impeding studies of their behavior in situ. We engineered a fluorescent infectious strain of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease pathogen, which expressed green fluorescent protein (GFP. Real-time 3D and 4D quantitative analysis of fluorescent spirochete dissemination from the microvasculature of living mice at high resolution revealed that dissemination was a multi-stage process that included transient tethering-type associations, short-term dragging interactions, and stationary adhesion. Stationary adhesions and extravasating spirochetes were most commonly observed at endothelial junctions, and translational motility of spirochetes appeared to play an integral role in transendothelial migration. To our knowledge, this is the first report of high resolution 3D and 4D visualization of dissemination of a bacterial pathogen in a living mammalian host, and provides the first direct insight into spirochete dissemination in vivo.

Simulation study on the measurements of diffusion coefficients in solid materials by short-lived radiotracer beams

CERN Document Server

Jeong, S C; Kawakami, H

2003-01-01

We have examined, by a computer simulation, an on-line measurement of diffusion coefficients by using a short-lived alpha particle emitter, sup 8 Li (half life of 0.84s), as a radiotracer. The energy spectra of alpha particles emitted from diffusing sup 8 Li primarily implanted in the sample of LiAl ar simulated as a measure of the diffusion of sup 8 Li in the sample. As a possible time sequence for the measurement, a time cycle of 6s, i.e. the implantation of sup 8 Li for 1.5s and subsequent diffusion for 4.5s, is supposed. The sample is primarily set on a given temperature for the measurement. The time-dependent yields of alpha particles during the time cycle reveal the possibility to measure the diffusion coefficient with an accuracy of 10% if larger than 1 x 10 sup - sup 9 cm sup 2 /s, by the comparison with the experimental spectra measured at the temperature, i.e. at a certain diffusion coefficient. (author)

Minimum short-circuit ratios for grid interconnection of wind farms with induction generators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reginatto, Romeu; Rocha, Carlos [Western Parana State University (UNIOESTE), Foz do Iguacu, PR (Brazil). Center for Engineering and Exact Sciences], Emails: romeu@unioeste.br, croberto@unioeste.br

2009-07-01

This paper concerns the problem of determining the minimum value for the short-circuit ratio which is adequate for the interconnection of a given wind farms to a given grid point. First, a set of 3 criteria is defined in order to characterize the quality/safety of the interconnection: acceptable terminal voltage variations, a minimum active power margin, and an acceptable range for the internal voltage angle. Then, the minimum short circuit ratio requirement is determined for 6 different induction generator based wind turbines, both fixed-speed (with and without reactive power compensation) and variable-speed (with the following control policies: reactive power, power factor, and terminal voltage regulation). The minimum short-circuit ratio is determined and shown in graphical results for the 6 wind turbines considered, for X/R in the range 0-15, also analyzing the effect of more/less stringent tolerances for the interconnection criteria. It is observed that the tighter the tolerances the larger the minimum short-circuit ratio required. For the same tolerances in the interconnection criteria, a comparison of the minimum short circuit ratio required for the interconnection of both squirrel-cage and doubly-fed induction generators is presented, showing that the last requires much smaller values for the short-circuit ratio. (author)

[Physical performance of older adults living in rural areas at sea level and at high altitude in Peru].

Science.gov (United States)

Estela-Ayamamani, David; Espinoza-Figueroa, Jossué; Columbus-Morales, Mauricio; Runzer-Colmenares, Fernando; Parodi, José F; Mayta-Tristán, Percy

2015-01-01

Living at high altitudes requires the inhabitants to adapt biologically and socially to the environment. The objective of this study was to determine the difference in physical performance (PP) in rural populations at sea level and at high altitude. A cross-sectional study was conducted in rural communities in Ancash, Peru, located at 3.345 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) and also in communities located in coastal areas at 6m.a.s.l. PP was measured by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and other associated factors. Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) were calculated. A total of 130 older adults were assessed in the high altitude communities and 129 on the coast. The median age was 71.4 years, and 55.6% were female. Low physical performance (SPPB ≤ 6) was 10.0% at high altitude and 19.4% on the coast (p<0.05). Factors associated with low physical performance were residing at the coast (aPR: 2.10, 95% CI 1.02 to 4.33), self-reported poor health (aPR: 2.48, 95% CI 1.21 -5.08), hypertension (aPR: 1.73, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.98), and age (aPR: 1.04, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.07), while being a farmer (aPR: 0.49, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.97), and being independent (aPR: 0.37, 95% CI 0,20-, 072) were found to be protective factors. It was also found that the inhabitants of the coast have a mean of 0.86 points lower total SPPB than the high altitude ones (p=0.004). There is an association between altitude of residence and PP in older adults. The prevalence of a low PP in older adults in rural areas at sea level is twice as high compared to those living in high altitude rural communities. Copyright © 2014 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

The reactivity meter and core reactivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siltanen, P.

1999-01-01

This paper discussed in depth the point kinetic equations and the characteristics of the point kinetic reactivity meter, particularly for large negative reactivities. From a given input signal representing the neutron flux seen by a detector, the meter computes a value of reactivity in dollars (ρ/β), based on inverse point kinetics. The prompt jump point of view is emphasised. (Author)

Cue reactivity and its inhibition in pathological computer game players.

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, Robert C; Krüger, Jenny-Kathinka; Neumann, Britta; Schott, Björn H; Kaufmann, Christian; Heinz, Andreas; Wüstenberg, Torsten

2013-01-01

Despite a rising social relevance of pathological computer game playing, it remains unclear whether the neurobiological basis of this addiction-like behavioral disorder and substance-related addiction are comparable. In substance-related addiction, attentional bias and cue reactivity are often observed. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance study using a dot probe paradigm with short-presentation (attentional bias) and long-presentation (cue reactivity) trials in eight male pathological computer game players (PCGPs) and nine healthy controls (HCs). Computer game-related and neutral computer-generated pictures, as well as pictures from the International Affective Picture System with positive and neutral valence, served as stimuli. PCGPs showed an attentional bias toward both game-related and affective stimuli with positive valence. In contrast, HCs showed no attentional bias effect at all. PCGPs showed stronger brain responses in short-presentation trials compared with HCs in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus and in long-presentation trials in lingual gyrus. In an exploratory post hoc functional connectivity analyses, for long-presentation trials, connectivity strength was higher between right inferior frontal gyrus, which was associated with inhibition processing in previous studies, and cue reactivity-related regions (left orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum) in PCGPs. We observed behavioral and neural effects in PCGPs, which are comparable with those found in substance-related addiction. However, cue-related brain responses were depending on duration of cue presentation. Together with the connectivity result, these findings suggest that top-down inhibitory processes might suppress the cue reactivity-related neural activity in long-presentation trials. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction Biology © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.

An ESIPT-based two-photon fluorescent probe detection of hydrogen peroxide in live cells and tissues.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Liyi; Peng, Yongbo; Wang, Qianqian; Lin, Qinlu

2017-02-01

A variety of diseases associated with human aging, which have a strong oxidative stress, but connecting age-related diseases and oxidative stress of the basic molecular mechanisms still insufficiently understood. Oxidative stress origins from the unregulated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and oxidative damaging to tissues and organs from subsequent oxidation-reduction chemistry by cellular mismanagement. In particular, H 2 O 2 is a major by-product of ROS in live organisms and a common marker for oxidative stress, and its dynamic equilibrium can have various physiological and pathological consequences. H 2 O 2 is a small molecule, but it is an essential oxygen metabolite in living systems and acts as an important compound in cellular signal transduction by reversible oxidation of proteins. To quantitatively detect of H 2 O 2 in biosystems, herein, we adopted a 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)-4(3H)-quinazolinone (HPQ), a small organic fluorophore known for its luminescence mechanism through excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). HPQ was employed as a precursor to develop a turn-on probe (HPQ-H) for bioimaging applications. After cleavaging the boronic ester moiety by H 2 O 2 , HPQ-H releases a HPQ fluorophore which shows a 45-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement with high sensitivity and selectivity over other reactive oxygen species (ROS), and a high resolution imaging and large tissue-imaging depth (70-170μm) in living cells and tissues images under two-photon excitation (720nm). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

THC-MP: High performance numerical simulation of reactive transport and multiphase flow in porous media

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Xiaohui; Li, Weishan; Tian, Hailong; Li, Hongliang; Xu, Haixiao; Xu, Tianfu

2015-07-01

The numerical simulation of multiphase flow and reactive transport in the porous media on complex subsurface problem is a computationally intensive application. To meet the increasingly computational requirements, this paper presents a parallel computing method and architecture. Derived from TOUGHREACT that is a well-established code for simulating subsurface multi-phase flow and reactive transport problems, we developed a high performance computing THC-MP based on massive parallel computer, which extends greatly on the computational capability for the original code. The domain decomposition method was applied to the coupled numerical computing procedure in the THC-MP. We designed the distributed data structure, implemented the data initialization and exchange between the computing nodes and the core solving module using the hybrid parallel iterative and direct solver. Numerical accuracy of the THC-MP was verified through a CO2 injection-induced reactive transport problem by comparing the results obtained from the parallel computing and sequential computing (original code). Execution efficiency and code scalability were examined through field scale carbon sequestration applications on the multicore cluster. The results demonstrate successfully the enhanced performance using the THC-MP on parallel computing facilities.

Dry Deposition of Reactive Nitrogen From Satellite Observations of Ammonia and Nitrogen Dioxide Over North America

Science.gov (United States)

Kharol, S. K.; Shephard, M. W.; McLinden, C. A.; Zhang, L.; Sioris, C. E.; O'Brien, J. M.; Vet, R.; Cady-Pereira, K. E.; Hare, E.; Siemons, J.; Krotkov, N. A.

2018-01-01

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) is an essential nutrient to plants and a limiting element for growth in many ecosystems, but it can have harmful effects on ecosystems when in excess. Satellite-derived surface observations are used together with a dry deposition model to estimate the dry deposition flux of the most abundant short-lived nitrogen species, NH3 and NO2, over North America during the 2013 warm season. These fluxes demonstrate that the NH3 contribution dominates over NO2 for most regions (comprising 85% of their sum in Canada and 65% in the U.S.), with some regional exceptions (e.g. Alberta and northeastern U.S.). Nationwide, 51 t of N from these species were dry deposited in the U.S., approximately double the 28 t in Canada over this period. Forest fires are shown to be the major contributor of dry deposition of Nr from NH3 in northern latitudes, leading to deposition fluxes 2-3 times greater than from expected amounts without fires.

Water-selective excitation of short T2 species with binomial pulses.

Science.gov (United States)

Deligianni, Xeni; Bär, Peter; Scheffler, Klaus; Trattnig, Siegfried; Bieri, Oliver

2014-09-01

For imaging of fibrous musculoskeletal components, ultra-short echo time methods are often combined with fat suppression. Due to the increased chemical shift, spectral excitation of water might become a favorable option at ultra-high fields. Thus, this study aims to compare and explore short binomial excitation schemes for spectrally selective imaging of fibrous tissue components with short transverse relaxation time (T2 ). Water selective 1-1-binomial excitation is compared with nonselective imaging using a sub-millisecond spoiled gradient echo technique for in vivo imaging of fibrous tissue at 3T and 7T. Simulations indicate a maximum signal loss from binomial excitation of approximately 30% in the limit of very short T2 (0.1 ms), as compared to nonselective imaging; decreasing rapidly with increasing field strength and increasing T2 , e.g., to 19% at 3T and 10% at 7T for T2 of 1 ms. In agreement with simulations, a binomial phase close to 90° yielded minimum signal loss: approximately 6% at 3T and close to 0% at 7T for menisci, and for ligaments 9% and 13%, respectively. Overall, for imaging of short-lived T2 components, short 1-1 binomial excitation schemes prove to offer marginal signal loss especially at ultra-high fields with overall improved scanning efficiency. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Application of non-thermal plasma reactor for degradation and detoxification of high concentrations of dye Reactive Black 5 in water

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Dojčinović Biljana P.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Degradation and detoxification efficiency of high concentrations of commercially available reactive textile dye Reactive Black 5 solution (40, 80, 200, 500, 1000 mg L-1, were studied. Advanced oxidation processes in water falling film based dielectric barrier discharge as a non-thermal plasma reactor were used. For the first time, this reactor was used for the treatment of high concentrations of organic pollutants such as reactive textile dye Reactive Black 5 in water. Solution of the dye is treated by plasma as thin water solution film that is constantly regenerated. Basically, the reactor works as a continuous flow reactor and the electrical discharge itself takes place at the gas-liquid interphase. The dye solution was recirculated through the reactor with an applied energy density of 0-374 kJ L-1. Decolorization efficiency (% was monitored by UV-VIS spectrophotometric technique. Samples were taken after every recirculation (~ 22 kJ L-1 and decolorization percent was measured after 5 min and 24 h of plasma treatment. The efficiency of degradation (i.e. mineralization and possible degradation products were also tracked by determination of the chemical oxygen demand (COD and by ion chromatography (IC. Initial toxicity and toxicity of solutions after the treatment were studied with Artemia salina test organisms. Efficiency of decolorization decreased with the increase of the dye concentration. Complete decolorization, high mineralization and non-toxicity of the solution (<10 % were acomplished after plasma treatment using energy density of 242 kJ L-1, while the initial concentrations of Reactive Black 5 were 40 and 80 mg L-1. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172030 i br. 171034

Priority Queue Based Reactive Buffer Management Policy for Delay Tolerant Network under City Based Environments.

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Qaisar Ayub

Full Text Available Delay Tolerant Network (DTN multi-copy routing protocols are privileged to create and transmit multiple copies of each message that causes congestion and some messages are dropped. This process is known as reactive drop because messages were dropped re-actively to overcome buffer overflows. The existing reactive buffer management policies apply a single metric to drop source, relay and destine messages. Hereby, selection to drop a message is dubious because each message as source, relay or destine may have consumed dissimilar magnitude of network resources. Similarly, DTN has included time to live (ttl parameter which defines lifetime of message. Hence, when ttl expires then message is automatically destroyed from relay nodes. However, time-to-live (ttl is not applicable on messages reached at their destinations. Moreover, nodes keep replicating messages till ttl expires even-though large number of messages has already been dispersed. In this paper, we have proposed Priority Queue Based Reactive Buffer Management Policy (PQB-R for DTN under City Based Environments. The PQB-R classifies buffered messages into source, relay and destine queues. Moreover, separate drop metric has been applied on individual queue. The experiment results prove that proposed PQB-R has reduced number of messages transmissions, message drop and increases delivery ratio.

Priority Queue Based Reactive Buffer Management Policy for Delay Tolerant Network under City Based Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Ayub, Qaisar; Ngadi, Asri; Rashid, Sulma; Habib, Hafiz Adnan

2018-01-01

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) multi-copy routing protocols are privileged to create and transmit multiple copies of each message that causes congestion and some messages are dropped. This process is known as reactive drop because messages were dropped re-actively to overcome buffer overflows. The existing reactive buffer management policies apply a single metric to drop source, relay and destine messages. Hereby, selection to drop a message is dubious because each message as source, relay or destine may have consumed dissimilar magnitude of network resources. Similarly, DTN has included time to live (ttl) parameter which defines lifetime of message. Hence, when ttl expires then message is automatically destroyed from relay nodes. However, time-to-live (ttl) is not applicable on messages reached at their destinations. Moreover, nodes keep replicating messages till ttl expires even-though large number of messages has already been dispersed. In this paper, we have proposed Priority Queue Based Reactive Buffer Management Policy (PQB-R) for DTN under City Based Environments. The PQB-R classifies buffered messages into source, relay and destine queues. Moreover, separate drop metric has been applied on individual queue. The experiment results prove that proposed PQB-R has reduced number of messages transmissions, message drop and increases delivery ratio.

[Hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly].

Science.gov (United States)

Maazoun, F; Deschamps, O; Barros-Kogel, E; Ngwem, E; Fauchet, N; Buffet, P; Froissart, A

2015-11-01

Hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly is a rare and severe form of chronic malaria. This condition is a common cause of splenomegaly in endemic areas. The pathophysiology of hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly involves an intense immune reaction (predominantly B cell-driven) to repeated/chronic infections with Plasmodium sp. The diagnosis may be difficult, due to a poorly specific clinical presentation (splenomegaly, fatigue, cytopenias), a long delay between residence in a malaria-endemic area and onset of symptoms, and a frequent absence of parasites on conventional thin and thick blood smears. A strongly contributive laboratory parameter is the presence of high levels of total immunoglobulin M. When the diagnostic of hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly is considered, search for anti-Plasmodium antibodies and Plasmodium nucleic acids (genus and species) by PCR is useful. Diagnosis of hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly relies on the simultaneous presence of epidemiological, clinical, biological and follow-up findings. Regression of both splenomegaly and hypersplenism following antimalarial therapy allows the differential diagnosis with splenic lymphoma, a common complication of hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly. Although rare in Western countries, hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly deserves increased medical awareness to reduce the incidence of incorrect diagnosis, to prevent progression to splenic lymphoma and to avoid splenectomy. Copyright © 2015 Société nationale française de médecine interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Long-lived gas-phase radicals from combustion

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Kaneko, Takashi; Furusawa, Koji; Amano, Toshiji; Okubo, Yoichi; Tsuchiya, Jun' ichi; Yoshizawa, Fujiroku; Akutsu, Yoshiaki; Tamura, Masamitsu; Yoshida, Tadao (Univ. of Tokyo (Japan))

1989-04-20

On indoor air pollution or fire, it is feared that the gas-phase radicals from the combustion of inflammables or fuel seriously exert an influence on the organisms as harmful matter. The gas-phase radicals were studied using the electron spin resonance (ESR) spin-trapping technique. For the spin trap solution, 0.1 mol solution of {alpha}-phenyl-N-t-butylnitron in benzene was used. As a result, apparently long-lived and highly reactive oxygen-centered radicals were detected in the smoke from polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, cellulose, kerosene, benzene, acetone, methanol and butylalcohol. It is suggested that the production mechanism for the radicals should be different from olefin-NOx-air system reaction, which is considered for the radicals from cigarette smoke. 11 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.

Forecasting short-run crude oil price using high- and low-inventory variables

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye, Michael; Zyren, John; Shore, Joanne

2006-01-01

Since inventories have a lower bound or a minimum operating level, economic literature suggests a nonlinear relationship between inventory level and commodity prices. This was found to be the case in the short-run crude oil market. In order to explore this inventory-price relationship, two nonlinear inventory variables are defined and derived from the monthly normal level and relative level of OECD crude oil inventories from post 1991 Gulf War to October 2003: one for the low inventory state and another for the high inventory state of the crude oil market. Incorporation of low- and high-inventory variables in a single equation model to forecast short-run WTI crude oil prices enhances the model fit and forecast ability

Ink-Jet Printing of Gluconobacter oxydans: Micropatterned Coatings As High Surface-to-Volume Ratio Bio-Reactive Coatings

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Marcello Fidaleo

2013-12-01

Full Text Available We formulated a latex ink for ink-jet deposition of viable Gram-negative bacterium Gluconobacter oxydans as a model adhesive, thin, highly bio-reactive microstructured microbial coating. Control of G. oxydans latex-based ink viscosity by dilution with water allowed ink-jet piezoelectric droplet deposition of 30 × 30 arrays of two or three droplets/dot microstructures on a polyester substrate. Profilometry analysis was used to study the resulting dry microstructures. Arrays of individual dots with base diameters of ~233–241 µm were obtained. Ring-shaped dots with dot edges higher than the center, 2.2 and 0.9 µm respectively, were obtained when a one-to-four diluted ink was used. With a less diluted ink (one-to-two diluted, the microstructure became more uniform with an average height of 3.0 µm, but the ink-jet printability was more difficult. Reactivity of the ink-jet deposited microstructures following drying and rehydration was studied in a non-growth medium by oxidation of 50 g/L D-sorbitol to L-sorbose, and a high dot volumetric reaction rate was measured (~435 g·L−1·h−1. These results indicate that latex ink microstructures generated by ink-jet printing may hold considerable potential for 3D fabrication of high surface-to-volume ratio biocoatings for use as microbial biosensors with the aim of coating microbes as reactive biosensors on electronic devices and circuit chips.

Short steel and concrete columns under high temperatures

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A. E. P. G. A. Jacintho

Full Text Available The growing demand for knowledge about the effect of high temperatures on structures has stimulated increasing research worldwide. This article presents experimental results for short composite steel and concrete columns subjected to high temperatures in ovens with or without an axial compression load, numerically analyzes the temperature distribution in these columns after 30 and 60 minutes and compares them with experimental results. The models consist of concrete-filled tubes of three different thicknesses and two different diameters, and the concrete fill has conventional properties that remained constant for all of the models. The stress-strain behavior of the composite columns was altered after exposure to high temperatures relative to the same columns at room temperature, which was most evident in the 60-minute tests due to the higher temperatures reached. The computational analysis adopted temperature rise curves that were obtained experimentally.

Clinical and immunological investigations of respiratory disease in workers using reactive dyes.

Science.gov (United States)

Docker, A; Wattie, J M; Topping, M D; Luczynska, C M; Newman Taylor, A J; Pickering, C A; Thomas, P; Gompertz, D

1987-01-01

A questionnaire survey of over 400 workers handling reactive dyes showed that over 15% had work related respiratory or nasal symptoms. Forty nine employees with symptoms were referred to chest clinics for detailed assessment. It was considered that in 19 the symptoms could be attributed to an irritant response to a variety of chemicals, including hydrochloric acid vapour, sulphur dioxide, and reactive dyes. Symptoms in 24 were attributed to an allergic reaction to a specific agent; in most (21) to one or more reactive dyes. Two patterns of allergic lower respiratory symptoms were identified; an immediate response of short duration and a longer lasting response, usually of several hours, sometimes accompanied by nocturnal asthma. A radioallergosorbent test (RAST) screen containing the most commonly used reactive dyes was used to detect specific IgE. Allergic symptoms to reactive dyes were strongly associated with specific IgE (17/21 employees) and atopy (18/21). Irritant symptoms were also associated with atopy (13/19) but only weakly associated with specific IgE (7/19). PMID:3651352

The removal of reactive dyes using high-ash char

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Moreira R.F.P.M.

2001-01-01

Full Text Available The thermodynamics and kinetics of adsorption of reactive dyes on high-ash char was studied. Equilibrium data were obtained using the static method with controlled agitation at temperatures in the range of 30 to 60ºC. The Langmuir isotherm model was used to describe the equilibrium of adsorption, and the equilibrium parameters, R L, in the range of 0 to 1 indicate favorable adsorption. The amount of dye adsorbed increased as temperature increased from 30 to 40ºC, but above 40ºC the increase in temperature resulted in a decrease in the amount of dye adsorbed. The kinetic data presented are for controlled agitation at 50 rpm and constant temperature with dye concentrations in the range of 10 ppm to50 ppm. The film mass transfer coefficient, Kf, and the effective diffusivity inside the particle, De, were fitted to the experimental data. The results indicate that internal diffusion governs the adsorption rate.

Memory Reactivation Enables Long-Term Prevention of Interference.

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Herszage, Jasmine; Censor, Nitzan

2017-05-22

The ability of the human brain to successively learn or perform two competing tasks constitutes a major challenge in daily function. Indeed, exposing the brain to two different competing memories within a short temporal offset can induce interference, resulting in deteriorated performance in at least one of the learned memories [1-4]. Although previous studies have investigated online interference and its effects on performance [5-13], whether the human brain can enable long-term prevention of future interference is unknown. To address this question, we utilized the memory reactivation-reconsolidation framework [2, 12] stemming from studies at the synaptic level [14-17], according to which reactivation of a memory enables its update. In a set of experiments, using the motor sequence learning task [18] we report that a unique pairing of reactivating the original memory (right hand) in synchrony with novel memory trials (left hand) prevented future interference between the two memories. Strikingly, these effects were long-term and observed a month following reactivation. Further experiments showed that preventing future interference was not due to practice per se, but rather specifically depended on a limited time window induced by reactivation of the original memory. These results suggest a mechanism according to which memory reactivation enables long-term prevention of interference, possibly by creating an updated memory trace integrating original and novel memories during the reconsolidation time window. The opportunity to induce a long-term preventive effect on memories may enable the utilization of strategies optimizing normal human learning, as well as recovery following neurological insults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dormancy and germination in short-lived lepidium perfoliatu l. (brassicaceae) seeds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, An-Jun; Tian, M.; Long, Chun-Lin

2010-01-01

To understand germination timing in an ecological context, the response to environmental events that effect seed dormancy is central and has to be combined with knowledge of germination responses to different ecological factors. In this study, seed dormancy, germination and seedling survival of annual short-lived clasping pepper weed Lepidium perfoliatum L. (Brassicaceae) were investigated. Three types of pre-treatments viz., various temperature dry storage, light and water stress were tested as possible dormancy and survival-affecting environmental events. Fresh mature seeds were greatly dormant. Warm (30 deg. C) dry storage more facilitated breaking dormancy, they germinated well under apt conditions (e.g. 20 deg. C and 10/20 deg. C plus periodic light, 14 h/d). For those seeds which underwent after-ripening, they could germinate at a range of constant temperatures (4, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 deg. C) and one alternating temperature (10/20 deg. C). Under alternating temperature regimes, the final percent germination of L. perfoliatum seeds increased from 37 deg. C to 93% when temperature altered from 4/10 deg. C to 10/20 deg. C in light, then decreased with increasing temperature. The germination pattern under constant temperature conditions was similar to that under alternating temperature and significant differences in final percent germinations and rates of germination were observed among different temperatures. Under different light treatments, final germination of showed significant differences, only with 35% of germination percentage in dark, much lower than those in red and white light (i.e. 93% and 91%, respectively). GA3 could promote the germination of non-dormant seeds in dark. When water potentials were reduced, final percent germination decreased dramatically, and few seeds germinated at -0.98 MPa (generated by PEG-8000). The changes of proline content in resultant seedlings were reverse to that of final percent germination with changing water

Improved hepatic lipid composition following short-term exercise in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haus, Jacob M; Solomon, Thomas; Kelly, Karen R

2013-01-01

measures included hepatic triglyceride content, and a lipid saturation index and polyunsaturated lipid index (PUI) of the liver, obtained by 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (N = 14). Insulin sensitivity was estimated from an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and mononuclear cells were isolated...... to assess reactive oxygen species production during the OGTT. Circulating glucose, insulin, and high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin were determined from plasma. Main Outcome: Short-term aerobic exercise training improved hepatic lipid composition in patients with NAFLD. Results: Exercise training...... resulted in an increase in liver PUI (P Index: P

Live cell imaging combined with high-energy single-ion microbeam

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Na; Du, Guanghua; Liu, Wenjing; Guo, Jinlong; Wu, Ruqun; Chen, Hao; Wei, Junzhe

2016-03-01

DNA strand breaks can lead to cell carcinogenesis or cell death if not repaired rapidly and efficiently. An online live cell imaging system was established at the high energy microbeam facility at the Institute of Modern Physics to study early and fast cellular response to DNA damage after high linear energy transfer ion radiation. The HT1080 cells expressing XRCC1-RFP were irradiated with single high energy nickel ions, and time-lapse images of the irradiated cells were obtained online. The live cell imaging analysis shows that strand-break repair protein XRCC1 was recruited to the ion hit position within 20 s in the cells and formed bright foci in the cell nucleus. The fast recruitment of XRCC1 at the ion hits reached a maximum at about 200 s post-irradiation and then was followed by a slower release into the nucleoplasm. The measured dual-exponential kinetics of XRCC1 protein are consistent with the proposed consecutive reaction model, and the measurements obtained that the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 recruitment to DNA strand break is 1.2 × 10-3 s-1 and the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 release from the break-XRCC1 complex is 1.2 × 10-2 s-1.

High-rise construction in Russia as one of the objectives of improving the management mechanism for living standards of the population

Science.gov (United States)

Sergeeva, Svetlana; Komyshova, Lyudmila; Nagibina, Natalia

2018-03-01

The article is aimed at determining the significance of solving the problem of high-rise construction in Russia as one of the tasks of improving the mechanism of managing the living standards of the population. To determine the effectiveness of measures aimed at improving the quality of life management mechanism, the expert evaluation method is used. The paper presents the measures to improve the quality of life and consequently the migration attractiveness of the region. Despite a number of actual difficulties and lack of sufficient experience, there is an interest in the development of high-rise construction. The result of the analysis of the general demographic dynamics for the last fifteen years is shown. Migration is the most mobile tool for managing short-term demographic processes; therefore, great attention should be paid to this component. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account other consequences of migration.

Persistent Latent Tuberculosis Reactivation Risk in United States Immigrants

Science.gov (United States)

Painter, John; Parker, Matthew; Lowenthal, Phillip; Flood, Jennifer; Fu, Yunxin; Asis, Redentor; Reves, Randall

2014-01-01

Rationale: Current guidelines limit latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) evaluation to persons in the United States less than or equal to 5 years based on the assumption that high TB rates among recent entrants are attributable to high LTBI reactivation risk, which declines over time. We hypothesized that high postarrival TB rates may instead be caused by imported active TB. Objectives: Estimate reactivation and imported TB in an immigrant cohort. Methods: We linked preimmigration records from a cohort of California-bound Filipino immigrants during 2001–2010 with subsequent TB reports. TB was likely LTBI reactivation if the immigrant had no evidence of active TB at preimmigration examination, likely imported if preimmigration radiograph was abnormal and TB was reported less than or equal to 6 months after arrival, and likely reactivation of inactive TB if radiograph was abnormal but TB was reported more than 6 months after arrival. Measurements and Main Results: Among 123,114 immigrants, 793 TB cases were reported. Within 1 year of preimmigration examination, 85% of TB was imported; 6 and 9% were reactivation of LTBI and inactive TB, respectively. Conversely, during Years 2–9 after U.S. entry, 76 and 24% were reactivation of LTBI and inactive TB, respectively. The rate of LTBI reactivation (32 per 100,000) did not decline during Years 1–9. Conclusions: High postarrival TB rates were caused by detection of imported TB through active postarrival surveillance. Among immigrants without active TB at baseline, reported TB did not decline over 9 years, indicating sustained high risk of LTBI reactivation. Revised guidelines should support LTBI screening and treatment more than 5 years after U.S. arrival. PMID:24308495

Short Sleep Duration Among Middle School and High School Students - United States, 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Wheaton, Anne G; Jones, Sherry Everett; Cooper, Adina C; Croft, Janet B

2018-01-26

Insufficient sleep among children and adolescents is associated with increased risk for obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, attention and behavior problems, and poor academic performance (1-4). The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that, for optimal health, children aged 6-12 years should regularly sleep 9-12 hours per 24 hours and teens aged 13-18 years should sleep 8-10 hours per 24 hours (1). CDC analyzed data from the 2015 national, state, and large urban school district Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBSs) to determine the prevalence of short sleep duration (school nights among middle school and high school students in the United States. In nine states that conducted the middle school YRBS and included a question about sleep duration in their questionnaire, the prevalence of short sleep duration among middle school students was 57.8%, with state-level estimates ranging from 50.2% (New Mexico) to 64.7% (Kentucky). The prevalence of short sleep duration among high school students in the national YRBS was 72.7%. State-level estimates of short sleep duration for the 30 states that conducted the high school YRBS and included a question about sleep duration in their questionnaire ranged from 61.8% (South Dakota) to 82.5% (West Virginia). The large percentage of middle school and high school students who do not get enough sleep on school nights suggests a need for promoting sleep health in schools and at home and delaying school start times to permit students adequate time for sleep.

Metamemory ratings predict long-term changes in reactivated episodic memories

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Amnon eYacoby

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Reactivation of long-term memory can render the memory item temporarily labile, offering an opportunity to modify it via behavioral or pharmacological intervention. Declarative memory reactivation is accompanied by a metamemory ability to subjectively assess the knowledge available concerning the target item (Feeling of knowing, FOK. We set out to examine whether FOK can predict the extent of change of long-term episodic memories by post-retrieval manipulations. To this end, participants watched a short movie and immediately thereafter tested on their memory for it. A day later, they were reminded of that movie, and either immediately or one day later, were presented with a second movie. The reminder phase consisted of memory cues to which participants were asked to judge their FOK regarding the original movie. The memory performance of participants to whom new information was presented immediately after reactivating the original episode corresponded to the degree of FOK ratings upon reactivation such that the lower their FOK, the less their memory declined. In contrast, no relation was found between FOK and memory strength for those who learned new information one day after the reminder phase. Our findings suggest that the subjective accessibility of reactivated memories may determine the extent to which new information might modify those memories.

Specificity of "Live High-Train Low" altitude training on exercise performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bejder, Jacob; Nordsborg, Nikolai Baastrup

2018-01-01

The novel hypothesis that "Live High-Train Low" (LHTL) does not improve sport-specific exercise performance (e.g., time trial) is discussed. Indeed, many studies demonstrate improved performance after LHTL but unfortunately control groups are often lacking, leaving open the possibility of training...

Triggering Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injecting Short-lived Radioisotopes with a Shock Wave. V. Nonisothermal Collapse Regime

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boss, Alan P., E-mail: aboss@carnegiescience.edu [Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015-1305 (United States)