Crowding and Density

Science.gov (United States)

Design and Environment, 1972

1972-01-01

Three-part report pinpointing problems and uncovering solutions for the dual concepts of density (ratio of people to space) and crowding (psychological response to density). Section one, A Primer on Crowding,'' reviews new psychological and social findings; section two, Density in the Suburbs,'' shows conflict between status quo and increased…

Use of gadolinium-based magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents and awareness of brain gadolinium deposition among pediatric providers in North America

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mithal, Leena B.; Patel, Payal S.; Mithal, Divakar; Palac, Hannah L.; Rozenfeld, Michael N.

2017-01-01

Numerous recent articles have reported brain gadolinium deposition when using linear but not macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). To determine the current landscape of gadolinium use among pediatric institutions and the knowledge base of radiologists and referring providers with regard to GBCAs and brain gadolinium deposition. We e-mailed voluntary closed surveys to 5,390 physicians in various pediatric professional societies between January 2016 and March 2016. We used chi-square and Fisher exact tests to compare response distributions among specialties. We found that 80% of surveyed pediatric hospitals use macrocyclic contrast agents. In the last year, 58% switched their agent, most commonly to gadoterate meglumine, with the most common reason being brain gadolinium deposition. Furthermore, surveys indicated that 23% of hospitals are considering switching, and, of these, 83% would switch to gadoterate meglumine; the most common reasons were brain gadolinium deposition and safety. Radiologists were more aware of brain gadolinium deposition than non-radiologist physicians (87% vs. 26%; P<0.0001). Radiologists and referring providers expressed similar levels of concern (95% and 89%). Twelve percent of radiologists and 2% of referring providers reported patients asking about brain gadolinium deposition. Radiologists were significantly more comfortable addressing patient inquiries than referring pediatric physicians (48% vs. 6%; P<0.0001). The number of MRIs requested by referring pediatric physicians correlated with their knowledge of brain gadolinium deposition, contrast agent used by their hospital, and comfort discussing brain gadolinium deposition with patients (P<0.0001). Since the discovery of brain gadolinium deposition, many pediatric hospitals have switched to or plan to switch to a more stable macrocyclic MR contrast agent, most commonly gadoterate meglumine. Despite this, there is need for substantial further education of radiologists and

Use of gadolinium-based magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents and awareness of brain gadolinium deposition among pediatric providers in North America

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mithal, Leena B. [Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children' s Hospital of Chicago, Department of Pediatrics, Chicago, IL (United States); Patel, Payal S. [University of Arizona College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Phoenix, AZ (United States); Mithal, Divakar [Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children' s Hospital of Chicago, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Chicago, IL (United States); Palac, Hannah L. [Northwestern University, Biostatistics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children' s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Rozenfeld, Michael N. [University of Arizona College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Phoenix, AZ (United States)

2017-05-15

Numerous recent articles have reported brain gadolinium deposition when using linear but not macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). To determine the current landscape of gadolinium use among pediatric institutions and the knowledge base of radiologists and referring providers with regard to GBCAs and brain gadolinium deposition. We e-mailed voluntary closed surveys to 5,390 physicians in various pediatric professional societies between January 2016 and March 2016. We used chi-square and Fisher exact tests to compare response distributions among specialties. We found that 80% of surveyed pediatric hospitals use macrocyclic contrast agents. In the last year, 58% switched their agent, most commonly to gadoterate meglumine, with the most common reason being brain gadolinium deposition. Furthermore, surveys indicated that 23% of hospitals are considering switching, and, of these, 83% would switch to gadoterate meglumine; the most common reasons were brain gadolinium deposition and safety. Radiologists were more aware of brain gadolinium deposition than non-radiologist physicians (87% vs. 26%; P<0.0001). Radiologists and referring providers expressed similar levels of concern (95% and 89%). Twelve percent of radiologists and 2% of referring providers reported patients asking about brain gadolinium deposition. Radiologists were significantly more comfortable addressing patient inquiries than referring pediatric physicians (48% vs. 6%; P<0.0001). The number of MRIs requested by referring pediatric physicians correlated with their knowledge of brain gadolinium deposition, contrast agent used by their hospital, and comfort discussing brain gadolinium deposition with patients (P<0.0001). Since the discovery of brain gadolinium deposition, many pediatric hospitals have switched to or plan to switch to a more stable macrocyclic MR contrast agent, most commonly gadoterate meglumine. Despite this, there is need for substantial further education of radiologists and

Target binding improves relaxivity in aptamer-gadolinium conjugates.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Elyse D; Beking, Michael A; Rajamanickam, Karunanithi; Tsai, Eve C; Derosa, Maria C

2012-12-01

MRI contrast agents (CA) have been heavily used over the past several decades to enhance the diagnostic value of the obtained images. From a design perspective, two avenues to improve the efficacy of contrast agents are readily evident: optimization of magnetic properties of the CA, and optimization of the pharmacokinetics and distribution of the CA in the patient. Contrast agents consisting of DNA aptamer-gadolinium(III) conjugates provide a single system in which these factors can be addressed simultaneously. In this proof-of-concept study, the 15mer thrombin aptamer was conjugated to diethylenetriaminepentaacetic (DTPA) dianhydride to form a monoamide derivative of the linear open-chain chelate present in the commonly used contrast agent Magnevist(®). The stability of the conjugated DNA aptamer-DTPA-Gd(III) chelate in a transmetallation study using Zn(II) was found to be similar to that reported for DTPA-Gd(III). Relaxivity enhancements of 35 ± 4 and 20 ± 1 % were observed in the presence of thrombin compared to a control protein at fields of 9.4 and 1.5 T, respectively. The inclusion of spacers between the aptamer and the DTPA to eliminate possible steric effects was also investigated but not found to improve the relaxation enhancement achieved in comparison to the unaltered aptamer conjugate.

Crowd wisdom drives intelligent manufacturing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiaqi Lu

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose – A fundamental problem for intelligent manufacturing is to equip the agents with the ability to automatically make judgments and decisions. This paper aims to introduce the basic principle for intelligent crowds in an attempt to show that crowd wisdom could help in making accurate judgments and proper decisions. This further shows the positive effects that crowd wisdom could bring to the entire manufacturing process. Design/methodology/approach – Efforts to support the critical role of crowd wisdom in intelligent manufacturing involve theoretical explanation, including a discussion of several prevailing concepts, such as consumer-to-business (C2B, crowdfunding and an interpretation of the contemporary Big Data mania. In addition, an empirical study with three business cases was conducted to prove the conclusion that our ideas could well explain the current business phenomena and guide the future of manufacturing. Findings – This paper shows that crowd wisdom could help make accurate judgments and proper decisions. It further shows the positive effects that crowd wisdom could bring to the entire manufacturing process. Originality/value – The paper highlights the importance of crowd wisdom in manufacturing with sufficient theoretical and empirical analysis, potentially providing a guideline for future industry.

Protein unfolding with a steric trap.

Science.gov (United States)

Blois, Tracy M; Hong, Heedeok; Kim, Tae H; Bowie, James U

2009-10-07

The study of protein folding requires a method to drive unfolding, which is typically accomplished by altering solution conditions to favor the denatured state. This has the undesirable consequence that the molecular forces responsible for configuring the polypeptide chain are also changed. It would therefore be useful to develop methods that can drive unfolding without the need for destabilizing solvent conditions. Here we introduce a new method to accomplish this goal, which we call steric trapping. In the steric trap method, the target protein is labeled with two biotin tags placed close in space so that both biotin tags can only be bound by streptavidin when the protein unfolds. Thus, binding of the second streptavidin is energetically coupled to unfolding of the target protein. Testing the method on a model protein, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), we find that streptavidin binding can drive unfolding and that the apparent binding affinity reports on changes in DHFR stability. Finally, by employing the slow off-rate of wild-type streptavidin, we find that DHFR can be locked in the unfolded state. The steric trap method provides a simple method for studying aspects of protein folding and stability in native solvent conditions, could be used to specifically unfold selected domains, and could be applicable to membrane proteins.

Crowd Behavior, Crowd Control, and the Use of Non-Lethal Weapons

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

that U.S. forces know these repertoires of actions when they operate in different cultures. Dr. Waddington provided the example of the Zulu tribe in...6 The History of Hostile Crowds and Riots...Mobs, and Non-lethal Weapons,” by Lieutenant Sid Heal. The History of Hostile Crowds and Riots Dr. Wendy Gilpin conducted background research on hostile

Microorganisms maintain crowding homeostasis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Berg, Jonas; Boersma, Arnold J; Poolman, Bert

2017-01-01

Macromolecular crowding affects the mobility of biomolecules, protein folding and stability, and the association of macromolecules with each other. Local differences in crowding that arise as a result of subcellular components and supramolecular assemblies contribute to the structural organization

The Subject in the Crowd: A Critical Discussion of Jodi Dean’s “Crowds and Party”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacob Johanssen

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This article presents a critical discussion of Jodi Dean’s (2016 book “Crowds and Party”. I pay particular attention to her discussion of crowds that is influenced by psychoanalysis. Dean has put forward an important argument for the affectivity within crowds that may be transformed into a Communist Party that is characterised by a similar affective infrastructure. I suggest that Dean’s discussion of affect is slightly vague at times and may be supplemented with Sigmund Freud’s work on affect. In contrast to Dean, who stresses the collectivity and deindividuation of the crowd, I argue that the crowd needs to be thought of as a place where individuality and collectivity come together and remain in tension.

Avenues for crowd science in Hydrology.

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, Julian; Stisen, Simon

2016-04-01

Crowd science describes research that is conducted with the participation of the general public (the crowd) and gives the opportunity to involve the crowd in research design, data collection and analysis. In various fields, scientists have already drawn on underused human resources to advance research at low cost, with high transparency and large acceptance of the public due to the bottom up structure and the participatory process. Within the hydrological sciences, crowd research has quite recently become more established in the form of crowd observatories to generate hydrological data on water quality, precipitation or river flow. These innovative observatories complement more traditional ways of monitoring hydrological data and strengthen a community-based environmental decision making. However, the full potential of crowd science lies in internet based participation of the crowd and it is not yet fully exploited in the field of Hydrology. New avenues that are not primarily based on the outsourcing of labor, but instead capitalize the full potential of human capabilities have to emerge. In multiple realms of solving complex problems, like image detection, optimization tasks, narrowing of possible solutions, humans still remain more effective than computer algorithms. The most successful online crowd science projects Foldit and Galaxy Zoo have proven that the collective of tens of thousands users could clearly outperform traditional computer based science approaches. Our study takes advantage of the well trained human perception to conduct a spatial sensitivity analysis of land-surface variables of a distributed hydrological model to identify the most sensitive spatial inputs. True spatial performance metrics, that quantitatively compare patterns, are not trivial to choose and their applicability is often not universal. On the other hand humans can quickly integrate spatial information at various scales and are therefore a trusted competence. We selected

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and gadolinium-based contrast media

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Henrik S; Morcos, Sameh K; Almén, Torsten

2012-01-01

PURPOSE: To update the guidelines of the Contrast Media Safety Committee (CMSC) of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) on nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and gadolinium-based contrast media. AREAS COVERED: Topics reviewed include the history, clinical features and prevalence of neph...... guidelines regarding gadolinium contrast agents minimises the risk of NSF • Potential long-term harm from gadolinium accumulation in the body is discussed.......PURPOSE: To update the guidelines of the Contrast Media Safety Committee (CMSC) of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) on nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and gadolinium-based contrast media. AREAS COVERED: Topics reviewed include the history, clinical features and prevalence...... of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and the current understanding of its pathophysiology. The risk factors for NSF are discussed and prophylactic measures are recommended. The stability of the different gadolinium-based contrast media and the potential long-term effects of gadolinium in the body have also been...

Crowds and Speculation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bondo Hansen, Kristian

and crowd phenomena in order to fully understand how markets were perceived and conceptualised in the given historical period. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s reflections on the analysis of problematisations, the dissertation explores how practical, academic and popular accounts of financial markets...... problematised (i.e. reflected upon, contested and responded to) various crowd phenomena as they occurred in the markets. As part of the historical exposition, the dissertation examines how financial writers employed tropes and terminology from late nineteenth century crowd theories when describing and seeking....... Drawing on an archive of handbooks on how to become a successful investor or speculator, scholarly work on financial markets (from the academic fields of economics, sociology and psychology) as well as a range of popular (fictional and non-fictional) textual accounts of trading in financial markets...

To See (Like a Crowd

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hazem Ziada

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the dynamics through which design drawings structure spatial strategies, particularly those with an agenda for socio-political change, while interrogating the drawings’ impacts on subjectivity. It dissects an early Soviet architectural drawing addressing the 1920s-30s' crowd-design-problem': using architectural space to generate a robust intersubjectivity in mass crowds. Revolutionary Soviet artists challenged inherited graphic regimes of viewing crowds from an alienating distance, proposing devices of 'immersion' to radically re-visualize mass crowds and re-conceptualize collectivity. Drawing on Suprematist compositions, the avant-garde Soviet Rationalist architects translated immersive principles from contemporary revolutionary art. The paper articulates the Rationalists’ alternative graphic framework which immerses the observer-cum-designer within crowd dynamics in a distinctively architectural way, while identifying its implications on spatial design: a space of undulating grounds, rhythmic choreographies and ‘textured’ visual fields. The paper also speculates on its implications redefining subjectivity; re-introducing emotion amongst the relations of production challenges canonical Historical Materialism.

The sound of the crowd: auditory information modulates the perceived emotion of a crowd based on bodily expressions.

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, Joanna E; Kearney, Gavin; Rice, Henry; Newell, Fiona N

2012-02-01

Although both auditory and visual information can influence the perceived emotion of an individual, how these modalities contribute to the perceived emotion of a crowd of characters was hitherto unknown. Here, we manipulated the ambiguity of the emotion of either a visual or auditory crowd of characters by varying the proportions of characters expressing one of two emotional states. Using an intersensory bias paradigm, unambiguous emotional information from an unattended modality was presented while participants determined the emotion of a crowd in an attended, but different, modality. We found that emotional information in an unattended modality can disambiguate the perceived emotion of a crowd. Moreover, the size of the crowd had little effect on these crossmodal influences. The role of audiovisual information appears to be similar in perceiving emotion from individuals or crowds. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of multisensory influences on the perception of social information from crowds of individuals. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Studies on gadolinium precipitation in moderator system of nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joshi, Akhilesh C.; Rajesh, Puspalata; Rufus, A.L.; Velmurugan, S.

2015-01-01

Gadolinium is used in the moderator system of many Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) for start-up, shut-down and reactivity control during operation. It is very much essential to maintain gadolinium concentration in the system as desired. It has been reported that gadolinium gets precipitated in as oxalate in carbonated water under the influence of γ-radiation. Hence, studies were carried out to investigate the effect of dose, presence of other metal ions and metal surfaces on the precipitation of gadolinium. The results showed that the amount of carboxylic acids viz., formic acid and oxalic acid, formed due to radiolysis is dependent on the dose and that the curve passes though a maxima. Gadolinium is added in higher concentration in Advanced Heavy Water Reactor. So, experiments with high concentration of gadolinium were also carried out. Ultra pure water saturated with high purity CO 2 containing gadolinium and desired ion/surface was irradiated with γ-radiation from 60 Co source at 25°C to doses ranging from 2.5-16.6 Mrad. At lower doses, formation of carboxylic acids takes place but as the dose increases, decomposition of these acids starts and hence the concentration Vs dose passes through a maximum. It was found that precipitation of gadolinium as oxalate occurred at lower doses. At higher doses, it was seen that pH of the solution decreases and hence solubility of gadolinium oxalate increases. It was also observed that the amount of gadolinium precipitated varied linearly with the initial concentration of gadolinium varying from 2 ppm to 20 ppm. While for gadolinium concentration from 20 ppm to 400 ppm, gadolinium in particulate form was observed. The amount of carboxylic acids formed depends on the nature of cations present in solution. It was found that the amount of oxalic acid formed in the case of gadolinium was more than that formed in the case of sodium. Presence of metal oxides such as ZrO 2 formed over zircoloy surfaces was found to

A method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Mengxiao; Zhang, Guijuan; Wang, Mengsi; Lu, Dianjie; Liu, Hong

2017-10-01

The current evacuation model does not consider the impact of emotion and personality on crowd evacuation. Thus, there is large difference between evacuation results and the real-life behavior of the crowd. In order to generate more realistic crowd evacuation results, we present a method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation. First, we combine OCEAN (Openness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness) model and SIS (Susceptible Infected Susceptible) model to construct the P-SIS (Personalized SIS) emotional contagion model. The P-SIS model shows the diversity of individuals in crowd effectively. Second, we couple the P-SIS model with the social force model to simulate emotional contagion on crowd evacuation. Finally, the photo-realistic rendering method is employed to obtain the animation of crowd evacuation. Experimental results show that our method can simulate crowd evacuation realistically and has guiding significance for crowd evacuation in the emergency circumstances.

Tuning and Quantifying Steric and Electronic Effects of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes

KAUST Repository

Falivene, Laura

2014-07-12

This chapter states that the main handles for tuning steric and electronic effects are the substituents on N atoms, the nature of the C4-C5 bridge (either saturated or unsaturated), and the substituents on the C4 and C5 atoms. The initial intuition that steric properties of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) could be modulated and could impact catalytic behavior stimulated the development of steric descriptors to quantify the steric requirement of different NHCs and, possibly, to compare them with tertiary phosphines. NHCs can be classified as typically strong σ-basic/π-acid ligands, although they have been also shown to exhibit reasonable π-basic properties. This electronic modularity allows NHC ligands to adapt flexibly to different chemical environments represented by a transition metal and the other ligands. © 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. All rights reserved.

Unlocking the Sugar ‘Steric Gate’ of DNA Polymerases†

OpenAIRE

Brown, Jessica A.; Suo, Zucai

2011-01-01

To maintain genomic stability, ribonucleotide incorporation during DNA synthesis is controlled predominantly at the DNA polymerase level. A steric clash between the 2′-hydroxyl of an incoming ribonucleotide and a bulky active site residue, known as the ‘steric gate’, establishes an effective mechanism for most DNA polymerases to selectively insert deoxyribonucleotides. Recent kinetic, structural, and in vivo studies have illuminated novel features about ribonucleotide exclusion and the mechan...

Thermal diffusivity of samarium-gadolinium zirconate solid solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, W.; Wan, C.L.; Xu, Q.; Wang, J.D.; Qu, Z.X.

2007-01-01

We synthesized samarium-gadolinium zirconate solid solutions and determined their thermal diffusivities, Young's moduli and thermal expansion coefficients, which are very important for their application in thermal barrier coatings. Samarium-gadolinium zirconate solid solutions have extremely low thermal diffusivity between 20 and 600 deg. C. The solid solutions have lower Young's moduli and higher thermal expansion coefficients than those of pure samarium and gadolinium zirconates. This combination of characteristics is promising for the application of samarium and gadolinium zirconates in gas turbines. The mechanism of phonon scattering by point defects is discussed

Innovative funding solution for special projects: Crowd funding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sentot Imam Wahjono

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to examine the influence of crowd funding knowledge, applica-tion, platform, and project initiator toward successful crowd funding. This study conducted by quantitative approach, data have been collected with web-based ques-tionnaires via Kickstarter.com direct message and e-mail to 200 successful crowd funding project initiators as a sample and as much 152 sets questionnaire returned by a complete answer and should be analyzed further. Deployment and data collection take 3 month from October to December 2013. This study found evidence that crowd funding knowledge, crowd funding application, crowd funding platform, and project initiator has positive and significant relationship toward the success of crowd funding. The implication from this research is crowd funding can be a source of capital to finance the projects, not just rely on traditional sources of financing just like banking and capital markets. Crowd funding can be innovative funding solution.

Sustainable steric stabilization of colloidal titania nanoparticles

Science.gov (United States)

Elbasuney, Sherif

2017-07-01

A route to produce a stable colloidal suspension is essential if mono-dispersed particles are to be successfully synthesized, isolated, and used in subsequent nanocomposite manufacture. Dispersing nanoparticles in fluids was found to be an important approach for avoiding poor dispersion characteristics. However, there is still a great tendency for colloidal nanoparticles to flocculate over time. Steric stabilization can prevent coagulation by introducing a thick adsorbed organic layer which constitutes a significant steric barrier that can prevent the particle surfaces from coming into direct contact. One of the main features of hydrothermal synthesis technique is that it offers novel approaches for sustainable nanoparticle surface modification. This manuscript reports on the sustainable steric stabilization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Nanoparticle surface modification was performed via two main approaches including post-synthesis and in situ surface modification. The tuneable hydrothermal conditions (i.e. temperature, pressure, flow rates, and surfactant addition) were optimized to enable controlled steric stabilization in a continuous fashion. Effective post synthesis surface modification with organic ligand (dodecenyl succinic anhydride (DDSA)) was achieved; the optimum surface coating temperature was reported to be 180-240 °C to ensure DDSA ring opening and binding to titania nanoparticles. Organic-modified titania demonstrated complete change in surface properties from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and exhibited phase transfer from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. Exclusive surface modification in the reactor was found to be an effective approach; it demonstrated surfactant loading level 2.2 times that of post synthesis surface modification. Titania was also stabilized in aqueous media using poly acrylic acid (PAA) as polar polymeric dispersant. PAA-titania nanoparticles demonstrated a durable amorphous polymeric layer of 2 nm thickness. This

iCrowd: agent-based behavior modeling and crowd simulator

Science.gov (United States)

Kountouriotis, Vassilios I.; Paterakis, Manolis; Thomopoulos, Stelios C. A.

2016-05-01

Initially designed in the context of the TASS (Total Airport Security System) FP-7 project, the Crowd Simulation platform developed by the Integrated Systems Lab of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications at N.C.S.R. Demokritos, has evolved into a complete domain-independent agent-based behavior simulator with an emphasis on crowd behavior and building evacuation simulation. Under continuous development, it reflects an effort to implement a modern, multithreaded, data-oriented simulation engine employing latest state-of-the-art programming technologies and paradigms. It is based on an extensible architecture that separates core services from the individual layers of agent behavior, offering a concrete simulation kernel designed for high-performance and stability. Its primary goal is to deliver an abstract platform to facilitate implementation of several Agent-Based Simulation solutions with applicability in several domains of knowledge, such as: (i) Crowd behavior simulation during [in/out] door evacuation. (ii) Non-Player Character AI for Game-oriented applications and Gamification activities. (iii) Vessel traffic modeling and simulation for Maritime Security and Surveillance applications. (iv) Urban and Highway Traffic and Transportation Simulations. (v) Social Behavior Simulation and Modeling.

Gadolinium atom on neutron capture therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oda, Y.; Takagaki, M.; Miyatake, S.; Kikuchi, H.

1994-01-01

This report describes our measurements of gadolinium concentrations in several brain tumors obtained from fresh surgical specimens, as compared with corresponding concentrations in the blood. Moreover we tried to find out if the gadolinium concentration is high enough to use this compound in the treatment of brain tumors by neutron capture therapy. (J.P.N.)

Crowded: a crowd-sourced perspective of events as they happen

Science.gov (United States)

Brantingham, Richard; Hossain, Aleem

2013-05-01

`Crowded' is a web-based application developed by the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl) that collates imagery of a particular location from a variety of media sources to provide an operator with real-time situational awareness. Emergency services and other relevant agencies have detected or become aware of an event - a riot or an explosion, for instance - and its location or text associated with it. The ubiquity of mobile devices allows people to collect and upload media of the incident to the Internet, in real time. Crowded manages the interactions with online sources of media: Flickr; Instagram; YouTube; Twitter; and Transport for London traffic cameras, to retrieve imagery that is being uploaded at that point in time. In doing so, it aims to provide human operators with near-instantaneous `eyes-on' from a variety of different perspectives. The first instantiation of Crowded was implemented as a series of integrated web-services with the aim of rapidly understanding whether the approach was viable. In doing so, it demonstrated how non-traditional, open sources can be used to provide a richer current intelligence picture than can be obtained alone from classified sources. The development of Crowded also explored how open source technology and cloud-based services can be used in the modern intelligence and security environment to provide a multi-agency Common Operating Picture to help achieve a co-ordinated response. The lessons learned in building the prototype are currently being used to design and develop a second version, and identify options and priorities for future development.

Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations with steric effects - non-convexity and multiple stationary solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Gavish, Nir

2018-04-01

We study the existence and stability of stationary solutions of Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations with steric effects (PNP-steric equations) with two counter-charged species. We show that within a range of parameters, steric effects give rise to multiple solutions of the corresponding stationary equation that are smooth. The PNP-steric equation, however, is found to be ill-posed at the parameter regime where multiple solutions arise. Following these findings, we introduce a novel PNP-Cahn-Hilliard model, show that it is well-posed and that it admits multiple stationary solutions that are smooth and stable. The various branches of stationary solutions and their stability are mapped utilizing bifurcation analysis and numerical continuation methods.

Crowding effects in vehicular traffic.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jay Samuel L Combinido

Full Text Available While the impact of crowding on the diffusive transport of molecules within a cell is widely studied in biology, it has thus far been neglected in traffic systems where bulk behavior is the main concern. Here, we study the effects of crowding due to car density and driving fluctuations on the transport of vehicles. Using a microscopic model for traffic, we found that crowding can push car movement from a superballistic down to a subdiffusive state. The transition is also associated with a change in the shape of the probability distribution of positions from a negatively-skewed normal to an exponential distribution. Moreover, crowding broadens the distribution of cars' trap times and cluster sizes. At steady state, the subdiffusive state persists only when there is a large variability in car speeds. We further relate our work to prior findings from random walk models of transport in cellular systems.

Stainless-Steel-Gadolinium Alloys; Alliages Acier Inoxydable-Gadolinium; Splavy iz nerzhaveyushchej stali i gadoliniya; Aleaciones de Acero Inoxidable-Gadolinio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Copeland, M.; Kato, H. [Albany Metallurgy Research Center, Bureau Of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, Albany, OR (United States)

1964-06-15

Because of the excellent corrosion resistance of stainless steels and the interest in gadolinium as a poison material, alloys of the two compounds were studied.Gadolinium was alloyed with AISE 304-type and chromium-type stainless steels; and then phase relationships, fabricability and properties were studied. The melting points of minor phases in alloys containing low percentages of gadolinium were noted to have a large effect on the structures resulting from equilibrating treatments and fabricability of the steels. When gadolinium was alloyed with the chromium-nickel-type steel, two minor phases, Fe{sub 9}Gd and Ni{sub 7}Gd, were observed to melt at 1080 Degree-Sign C, which limited the heat treatment and fabrication temperatures. Alloys with up to 5 wt.% gadolinium were successfully fabricated, and mechanical and corrosion properties were determined. No changes in the mechanical properties or resistance to hot-water corrosion of the steel were observed on alloying with up to about 3 wt.% gadolinium. Because of fabrication temperature limitations placed on chromium-nickel steels by the melting point of the minor phases, the effects of gadolinium on chromium steels were studied. Only one minor phase that melted at 1320 Degree-Sign C was noted on investigation of the 10 wt. % gadolinium isopleth in the chromium-iron-gadolinium alloy system. This property would enable one to equilibrate and fabricate these gadolinium steels at normally used temperatures. (author) [French] Les auteurs ont etudie des alliages d'acier inoxydable et de gadolinium en raison de l'excellente resistance a la corrosion des aciers inoxydables et de l 'interet que presente le gadolinium comme poison. Ils ont allie du gadolinium a des aciers inoxydables AISI de nuance 304 et des aciers au chrome et ils ont etudie le diagramme des phases, les possibilites de transformation et les proprietes de ces alliages. Dans les alliages d'une faible teneur en gadolinium, les points de fusion des phases

Setting up crowd science projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scheliga, Kaja; Friesike, Sascha; Puschmann, Cornelius; Fecher, Benedikt

2016-01-01

Crowd science is scientific research that is conducted with the participation of volunteers who are not professional scientists. Thanks to the Internet and online platforms, project initiators can draw on a potentially large number of volunteers. This crowd can be involved to support data-rich or

EMOTIONAL CONTAGION AND MOOD IN CROWD SERVING AS AUDIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beno Arnejcic

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The global world is gradually becoming a world of separated crowds despite the artificial wire and wireless connection through television and the Internet. Crowds remain a prevailing subject of research in different social studies, and the research of changes in the psychological structure of crowds and their characteristics is still of primary interest. The main focus of the research is on the interpretation of the results of the research paper about a special separated crowd called audience. It was observed how students, constituting the crowd, perceive a crowd on video. The observation was focused on the research of emotional contagion and mood in the crowd serving as audience. While watching a mass event on a big screen, the crowd serving as audience emotionally converges with someone else, in our case with public speakers.

Multiple solutions of steady-state Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations with steric effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Tai-Chia; Eisenberg, Bob

2015-01-01

Experiments measuring currents through single protein channels show unstable currents. Channels switch between ‘open’ or ‘closed’ states in a spontaneous stochastic process called gating. Currents are either (nearly) zero or at a definite level, characteristic of each type of protein, independent of time, once the channel is open. The steady state Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations with steric effects (PNP-steric equations) describe steady current through the open channel quite well, in a wide variety of conditions. Here we study the existence of multiple solutions of steady state PNP-steric equations to see if they themselves, without modification or augmentation, can describe two levels of current. We prove that there are two steady state solutions of PNP-steric equations for (a) three types of ion species (two types of cations and one type of anion) with a positive constant permanent charge, and (b) four types of ion species (two types of cations and their counter-ions) with a constant permanent charge but no sign condition. The excess currents (due to steric effects) associated with these two steady state solutions are derived and expressed as two distinct formulas. Our results indicate that PNP-steric equations may become a useful model to study spontaneous gating of ion channels. Spontaneous gating is thought to involve small structural changes in the channel protein that perhaps produce large changes in the profiles of free energy that determine ion flow. Gating is known to be modulated by external structures. Both can be included in future extensions of our present analysis. (paper)

Gadolinium depletion event in a CANDU® moderator - causes and recovery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Evans, D.W.; Price, J.; Swami, D.; Fracalanza, E.; Brett, M.E.; Puzzuoli, F.V.; Garg, A. [Ontario Power Generation, Pickering, Ontario (Canada); Herrmann, O.; Rudolph, A. [Kinectrics Inc., Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Stuart, C.; Glowa, G. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada); Smee, J. [Niagara Technical Consultants, St. Catharines, Ontario (Canada)

2010-07-01

Gadolinium nitrate is added to the moderator of CANDU units to maintain the reactor in a guaranteed shutdown state (GSS). In April 2008, after being in stable GSS for over 30 hours, one of Ontario Power Generation's Pickering-B units showed a gradual depletion of the dissolved gadolinium, despite purification being isolated. Further additions of gadolinium stabilized the moderator gadolinium concentration, however, since the root cause of the depletion was not immediately identified, the unit was placed in the drained shutdown state, per established procedures. The cumulative gadolinium depletion amounted to about 3200 grams, the equivalent of about 12 ppm. Analysis showed the presence of oxalate in the moderator water. It is well-known that gadolinium forms a very insoluble oxalate (log K{sub sp} = -29.1). Although sub-micron filtration of water samples did not show the presence of gadolinium particulate, the measured levels of oxalate, 1.2 to 2 ppm, were sufficient to react with 1.4 to 2.4 ppm of gadolinium. The source of oxalate was traced to radiolysis of dissolved CO{sub 2} species. This unit had been experiencing chronic low-level ingress of CO{sub 2} from the Annulus Gas System. Free oxalate ion is normally susceptible to radiolytic breakdown back to CO{sub 2}, but Gd{sup 3+} provides a stable sink for radiogenic oxalate, 2 Gd{sup 3+} + 3 C{sub 2}O{sub 4}{sup 2-} → Gd{sub 2}(C{sub 2}O{sub 4}){sub 3}. Subsequent testing confirmed that gadolinium oxalate is quite stable with respect to gamma irradiation. Inspections showed well-crystallized gadolinium oxalate deposited on moderator system surfaces. Estimates indicated that about 1200 grams of gadolinium could have deposited on in-core surfaces, including the outside of the calandria tubes. That amount of negative reactivity was a concern, since it would prevent re-start of the unit. OPG, with support from AECL-Chalk River and Kinectrics, embarked on a two-pronged chemistry recovery program aimed at 1

An Energy based Method to Measure the Crowd Safety

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yin, H.; Li, D.; Zheng, X.

2014-01-01

How to evaluate crowd safety in crowded areas is a tough, but important, problem. According to accident-causing theory, uncontrolled release of hazardous energy among overcrowded pedestrians is the basic cause of crowd disaster. Therefore, crowd energy is modeled in this paper, which takes both

Cost and availability of gadolinium for nuclear fuel reprocessing plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klepper, O.H.

1985-06-01

Gadolinium is currently planned for use as a soluble neutron poison in nuclear fuel reprocessing plants to prevent criticality of solutions of spent fuel. Gadolinium is relatively rare and expensive. The present study was undertaken therefore to estimate whether this material is likely to be available in quantities sufficient for fuel reprocessing and at reasonable prices. It was found that gadolinium, one of 16 rare earth elements, appears in the marketplace as a by-product and that its present supply is a function of the production rate of other more prevalent rare earths. The potential demand for gadolinium in a fuel reprocessing facility serving a future fast reactor industry amounts to only a small fraction of the supply. At the present rate of consumption, domestic supplies of rare earths containing gadolinium are adequate to meet national needs (including fuel reprocessing) for over 100 years. With access to foreign sources, US demands can be met well beyond the 21st century. It is concluded therefore that the supply of gadolinium will quite likely be more than adequate for reprocessing spent fuel for the early generation of fast reactors. The current price of 99.99% pure gadolinium oxide lies in the range $50/lb to $65/lb (1984 dollars). By the year 2020, in time for reprocessing spent fuel from an early generation of large fast reactors, the corresponding values are expected to lie in the $60/lb to $75/lb (1984 dollars) price range. This increase is modest and its economic impact on nuclear fuel reprocessing would be minor. The economic potential for recovering gadolinium from the wastes of nuclear fuel reprocessing plants (which use gadolinium neutron poison) was also investigated. The cost of recycled gadolinium was estimated at over twelve times the cost of fresh gadolinium, and thus recycle using current recovery technology is not economical. 15 refs., 4 figs., 11 tabs

Two-stage perceptual learning to break visual crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Ziyun; Fan, Zhenzhi; Fang, Fang

2016-01-01

When a target is presented with nearby flankers in the peripheral visual field, it becomes harder to identify, which is referred to as crowding. Crowding sets a fundamental limit of object recognition in peripheral vision, preventing us from fully appreciating cluttered visual scenes. We trained adult human subjects on a crowded orientation discrimination task and investigated whether crowding could be completely eliminated by training. We discovered a two-stage learning process with this training task. In the early stage, when the target and flankers were separated beyond a certain distance, subjects acquired a relatively general ability to break crowding, as evidenced by the fact that the breaking of crowding could transfer to another crowded orientation, even a crowded motion stimulus, although the transfer to the opposite visual hemi-field was weak. In the late stage, like many classical perceptual learning effects, subjects' performance gradually improved and showed specificity to the trained orientation. We also found that, when the target and flankers were spaced too finely, training could only reduce, rather than completely eliminate, the crowding effect. This two-stage learning process illustrates a learning strategy for our brain to deal with the notoriously difficult problem of identifying peripheral objects in clutter. The brain first learned to solve the "easy and general" part of the problem (i.e., improving the processing resolution and segmenting the target and flankers) and then tackle the "difficult and specific" part (i.e., refining the representation of the target).

Uncertainties in Steric Sea Level Change Estimation During the Satellite Altimeter Era: Concepts and Practices

Science.gov (United States)

MacIntosh, C. R.; Merchant, C. J.; von Schuckmann, K.

2017-01-01

This article presents a review of current practice in estimating steric sea level change, focussed on the treatment of uncertainty. Steric sea level change is the contribution to the change in sea level arising from the dependence of density on temperature and salinity. It is a significant component of sea level rise and a reflection of changing ocean heat content. However, tracking these steric changes still remains a significant challenge for the scientific community. We review the importance of understanding the uncertainty in estimates of steric sea level change. Relevant concepts of uncertainty are discussed and illustrated with the example of observational uncertainty propagation from a single profile of temperature and salinity measurements to steric height. We summarise and discuss the recent literature on methodologies and techniques used to estimate steric sea level in the context of the treatment of uncertainty. Our conclusions are that progress in quantifying steric sea level uncertainty will benefit from: greater clarity and transparency in published discussions of uncertainty, including exploitation of international standards for quantifying and expressing uncertainty in measurement; and the development of community "recipes" for quantifying the error covariances in observations and from sparse sampling and for estimating and propagating uncertainty across spatio-temporal scales.

Exits in order: How crowding affects particle lifetimes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Penington, Catherine J.; Simpson, Matthew J. [School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (Australia); Baker, Ruth E. [Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford (United Kingdom)

2016-06-28

Diffusive processes are often represented using stochastic random walk frameworks. The amount of time taken for an individual in a random walk to intersect with an absorbing boundary is a fundamental property that is often referred to as the particle lifetime, or the first passage time. The mean lifetime of particles in a random walk model of diffusion is related to the amount of time required for the diffusive process to reach a steady state. Mathematical analysis describing the mean lifetime of particles in a standard model of diffusion without crowding is well known. However, the lifetime of agents in a random walk with crowding has received much less attention. Since many applications of diffusion in biology and biophysics include crowding effects, here we study a discrete model of diffusion that incorporates crowding. Using simulations, we show that crowding has a dramatic effect on agent lifetimes, and we derive an approximate expression for the mean agent lifetime that includes crowding effects. Our expression matches simulation results very well, and highlights the importance of crowding effects that are sometimes overlooked.

Gadolinium recovery from aqueous pharmaceutical residuals by pulsed electrical discharge; Rueckgewinnung von Gadolinium aus pharmazeutischen Abwaessern mittels gepulster elektrischer Entladung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lorenz, Tom; Froehlich, Peter [TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany); Seifert, Martin; Jacob-Seifert, Karin [FNE Entsorgungsdienste GmbH, Freiberg (Germany)

2017-02-15

Advanced oxidation process (AOP) is an oxidation step releasing reactive oxygen species by pulsed electrical discharge in aqueous systems. In contrast to processes generating ozone by external UV radiation this method is feasible for turbid liquids with solid particles. This method is currently used in particular in the field of purification of chemically polluted waste waters. In the present application AOP is applied for partial degradation of the organic ligand system of a gadolinium X-ray contrast agent to separate gadolinium subsequently by adding caustic soda to precipitate > 99% of gadolinium.

Room temperature ferromagnetic gadolinium silicide nanoparticles

Science.gov (United States)

Hadimani, Magundappa Ravi L.; Gupta, Shalabh; Harstad, Shane; Pecharsky, Vitalij; Jiles, David C.

2018-03-06

A particle usable as T1 and T2 contrast agents is provided. The particle is a gadolinium silicide (Gd5Si4) particle that is ferromagnetic at temperatures up to 290 K and is less than 2 .mu.m in diameter. An MRI contrast agent that includes a plurality of gadolinium silicide (Gd.sub.5Si.sub.4) particles that are less than 1 .mu.m in diameter is also provided. A method for creating gadolinium silicide (Gd5Si4) particles is also provided. The method includes the steps of providing a Gd5Si4 bulk alloy; grinding the Gd5Si4 bulk alloy into a powder; and milling the Gd5Si4 bulk alloy powder for a time of approximately 20 minutes or less.

Gadolinium photoionization process

Science.gov (United States)

Paisner, Jeffrey A.; Comaskey, Brian J.; Haynam, Christopher A.; Eggert, Jon H.

1993-01-01

A method is provided for selective photoionization of the odd-numbered atomic mass gadolinium isotopes 155 and 157. The selective photoionization is accomplished by circular or linear parallel polarized laser beam energy effecting a three-step photoionization pathway.

Contrast opacification for CT from iodine, gadolinium and ytterbium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zwicker, C.; Langer, M.; Ullrich, V.; Felix, R.

1993-01-01

The absorption of the elements iodine, gadolinium und ytterbium in various dilutions was studied in relation to CT. Regression analysis and specific CT density measurements showed that absorption decreases from gadolinium to ytterbium and iodine. These results were confirmed by experiments using ten dogs. Boli of 0.5 molar gadolinium used for angio-CT without table movement showed the largest increase in density in the aorta and liver with an average of 190 HU and 21 HU respectively compared with iodine which gave 157 HU and 12 HU respectively. The animal experimental studies suggest that gadolinium and ytterbium are suitable contrast media for dynamic CT investigations. (orig.) [de

Calculation qualification of gadolinium burnable poisons in water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaucheprat, P.

1988-01-01

The work presented in this thesis constitutes the qualification on the one end of Appolo-Neptune scheme for the gadolinium burnable poison in a pressurized water reactor, and on the other end of basis nuclear data on natural gadolinium. This study has permitted to reduce by a factor 3 the actual incertitude on the gadolinium poison comparatively at precisions cited in international benchmarks calculations [fr

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in acute myocardial infarction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dijkman, P.R.M. van; Wall, E.E. van der; Roos, A. de; Doornbos, J.; Laarse, A. van der; Voorthuisen, A.E. van; Bruschke, A.V.G.; Rossum, A.C. van

1990-01-01

To evaluate he usefulness of the paramagnetic contrast agent Gadolinium-DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid) in Magnetic Resonance. Imaging of acute myocardial infarction, we studied a total of 45 patients with a first acute myocardial infarction by ECG-gated magnetic resonance imaging before and after intravenous administration of 0.1 mmol/kg Gadolinium-DTPA. All patients received thrombolytic treatment by intravenous streptokinase. The magnetic resonance imaging studies were preformed after a meam of 88 h (range 15-241) after the acute onset of acute myocardial infarction. Five patients without evidence of cardiac disease served as controls. Spin-echo measurements (TE 30 ms) were made using a Philips Gyroscan (0.5 Tesla) or a Teslacon II (0.6 Tesla). The 45 patients were divided into four groups of patients. In Group I( patients) Gadolinium-DTPA improved the detection of myocardial infarction by Gadolinium-DTPA. In Group II (20 patients) the magnetic resonance imaging procedure was repeated every 10 min for up to 40 min following administration of Gadolinium-DTPA. Optimal contrast enhancement was obtained 20-25 min after Gadolinium-DTPA. In Group III (27 patients) signal intensities were significantly higher in the patients who underwent the magnetic resonance imaging study more than 72 h (mean 120) after the acute event, suggesting increased acculumation of Gadolinium-DTPA in a more advanced stage of the infarction process. In Group IV (45 patients) Gadolinium-DTPA was administered in an attempt to distinguish between reperfused and nonreperfused myocardial areas after thrombolytic treatment for acute myocardial infarction. The signal intensities did not differ, but reperfused areas showed a more homogeneous aspect whereas nonreperfused areas were visualized as a more heterogeneous contrast enhancement. It is concluded that magnetic resonance imaging using the contrast agent Gadolinium-DTPA significantly improves the detection of infarcted myocardial areas

Engineering Requirements for crowds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogeiro Silva

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the software project the interested parts are highly distributed and form numerous and heterogeneous groups, online or face, constituting what could be called crowds. The development of social applications and cloud computing and mobile has generated a marked increase in environments based requirements in crowds. Technical Requirements Engineering (RE traditional face these scalability issues, and require the co-presence of interested and engineers in joint meetings that can not be made in common physical environments. While different approaches have been introduced to partially automate RE in these contexts, still is required a multi-method approach to semi-automate all activities related to work with crowds. In this paper is propose an approach that integrates existing elicitation techniques and requirements analysis and is complemented by introducing new concepts. The information is collected through direct interaction and social collaboration, and through data mining techniques.

Crowd counting via scale-adaptive convolutional neural network

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Lu; Shi, Miaojing; Chen, Qiaobo

2017-01-01

The task of crowd counting is to automatically estimate the pedestrian number in crowd images. To cope with the scale and perspective changes that commonly exist in crowd images, state-of-the-art approaches employ multi-column CNN architectures to regress density maps of crowd images. Multiple columns have different receptive fields corresponding to pedestrians (heads) of different scales. We instead propose a scale-adaptive CNN (SaCNN) architecture with a backbone of fixed small receptive fi...

Linking crowding, visual span, and reading.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Yingchen; Legge, Gordon E

2017-09-01

The visual span is hypothesized to be a sensory bottleneck on reading speed with crowding thought to be the major sensory factor limiting the size of the visual span. This proposed linkage between crowding, visual span, and reading speed is challenged by the finding that training to read crowded letters reduced crowding but did not improve reading speed (Chung, 2007). Here, we examined two properties of letter-recognition training that may influence the transfer to improved reading: the spatial arrangement of training stimuli and the presence of flankers. Three groups of nine young adults were trained with different configurations of letter stimuli at 10° in the lower visual field: a flanked-local group (flanked letters localized at one position), a flanked-distributed group (flanked letters distributed across different horizontal locations), and an isolated-distributed group (isolated and distributed letters). We found that distributed training, but not the presence of flankers, appears to be necessary for the training benefit to transfer to increased reading speed. Localized training may have biased attention to one specific, small area in the visual field, thereby failing to improve reading. We conclude that the visual span represents a sensory bottleneck on reading, but there may also be an attentional bottleneck. Reducing the impact of crowding can enlarge the visual span and can potentially facilitate reading, but not when adverse attentional bias is present. Our results clarify the association between crowding, visual span, and reading.

Molecular Crowding and Early Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, Ranajay; Pohorille, Andrew; Chen, Irene A.

2014-12-01

The environment of protocells might have been crowded with small molecules and functional and non-specific polymers. In addition to altering conformational equilibria, affecting reaction rates and changing the structure and activity of water, crowding might have enhanced the capabilities of protocells for evolutionary innovation through the creation of extended neutral networks in the fitness landscape.

Molecular crowding and early evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, Ranajay; Pohorille, Andrew; Chen, Irene A

2014-12-01

The environment of protocells might have been crowded with small molecules and functional and non-specific polymers. In addition to altering conformational equilibria, affecting reaction rates and changing the structure and activity of water, crowding might have enhanced the capabilities of protocells for evolutionary innovation through the creation of extended neutral networks in the fitness landscape.

The Behavioral Effects of Crowding: Definitions and Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Dean, Larry M.; And Others

1978-01-01

Crews of 18 U.S. Navy combat vessels rated their living and working conditions aboard ship, including degree of crowding. Three different types of measures corresponding to different definitions of crowding were constructed. These separate crowding measures correlated uniquely with satisfaction and illness criteria. (Author/MA)

What Macromolecular Crowding Can Do to a Protein

Science.gov (United States)

Kuznetsova, Irina M.; Turoverov, Konstantin K.; Uversky, Vladimir N.

2014-01-01

The intracellular environment represents an extremely crowded milieu, with a limited amount of free water and an almost complete lack of unoccupied space. Obviously, slightly salted aqueous solutions containing low concentrations of a biomolecule of interest are too simplistic to mimic the “real life” situation, where the biomolecule of interest scrambles and wades through the tightly packed crowd. In laboratory practice, such macromolecular crowding is typically mimicked by concentrated solutions of various polymers that serve as model “crowding agents”. Studies under these conditions revealed that macromolecular crowding might affect protein structure, folding, shape, conformational stability, binding of small molecules, enzymatic activity, protein-protein interactions, protein-nucleic acid interactions, and pathological aggregation. The goal of this review is to systematically analyze currently available experimental data on the variety of effects of macromolecular crowding on a protein molecule. The review covers more than 320 papers and therefore represents one of the most comprehensive compendia of the current knowledge in this exciting area. PMID:25514413

Firms, crowds, and innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Felin, Teppo; Lakhani, Karim R; Tushman, Michael L

2017-05-01

The purpose of this article is to suggest a (preliminary) taxonomy and research agenda for the topic of "firms, crowds, and innovation" and to provide an introduction to the associated special issue. We specifically discuss how various crowd-related phenomena and practices-for example, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, user innovation, and peer production-relate to theories of the firm, with particular attention on "sociality" in firms and markets. We first briefly review extant theories of the firm and then discuss three theoretical aspects of sociality related to crowds in the context of strategy, organizations, and innovation: (1) the functions of sociality (sociality as extension of rationality, sociality as sensing and signaling, sociality as matching and identity), (2) the forms of sociality (independent/aggregate and interacting/emergent forms of sociality), and (3) the failures of sociality (misattribution and misapplication). We conclude with an outline of future research directions and introduce the special issue papers and essays.

Age-related changes in crowding and reading speed

OpenAIRE

Liu, Rong; Patel, Bhavika N.; Kwon, MiYoung

2017-01-01

Crowding, the inability to recognize objects in clutter, is known to play a role in developmental changes in reading speed. Here, we investigated whether crowding also plays a role in age-related changes in reading speed. We recruited 18 young (mean age: 22.6???3.5; range: 18~31) and 21 older adults (mean age: 58.2???7.0; range: 50~73) with normal vision. Reading speed was measured with short blocks of text. The degree of crowding was determined by measuring crowding zone (the distance betwee...

German crowd-investing platforms: Literature review and survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Grundy

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents a comprehensive overview of the current German crowd-investing market drawing on a data-set of 31 crowd-investing platforms including the analysis of 265 completed projects. While crowd-investing market still only represents a niche in the German venture capital market, there is potential for an increase in both market volume and in average project investment. The market share is distributed among a few crowd-investing platforms with high entry barriers for new platforms although platforms that specialise in certain sectors have managed to successfully enter the market. German crowd-investing platforms are found to promote mainly internet-based enterprises (36% followed by projects in real estate (24% and green projects (19%, with the median money raised 100,000 euro.

Designing interactive technology for crowd experiences - beyond sanitization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Veerasawmy, Rune

2014-01-01

This dissertation concerns the topic on designing interactive technology for crowd expe- riences. It takes the outset in the experience-oriented design approach within interaction design, exploring the research question how can we conceptually understand and design interactive technology for crowd...... experiences? Through theoretical studies of sociological crowd theory and pragmatist perspectives on experience combined with design exper- iments at sporting events this dissertation establishes an conceptual understanding of crowd experience. The outcome of this work is furthermore synthesized...... in a conceptual model of social experiences that presents crowd experiences as a distinct type of social experience. This is different from what previously have been explored within experi- ence-oriented design. This dissertation is composed of four research papers framed by an overview that summarizes...

Determination of gadolinium by the method of derivative spectrophotometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aleksandrova, N.N.; Mishchenko, V.T.; Poluehktov, N.S.; Mukomel', V.L.

1988-01-01

Technique for gadolinium determination at the presence of interfering rare earth elements, which is based on the derivative spectrophotometry method, is suggested. The technique is of increased selectivity and allows to determine gadolinium in the mixtures with elements, which presence in solution makes impossible to determine gadolinium directly. At binary mixtures analysis Sr relative standard deviation does not exceed 0.03, while at the analysis of more complex mixtures Sr increases up to 0.06

Zirconium bisamidinate complexes with sterically demanding ligands : structure, solution dynamics, and reactivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Otten, Edwin; Dijkstra, Peter; Visser, Cindy; Meetsma, Auke; Hessen, Bart

2005-01-01

Bisamidinate zirconium dichloride and dimethyl complexes with the sterically demanding amidinate ligands [PhC(NAr)(2))](-) (A) and [PhC(NAr)(NAr')](-) (B) (Ar = 2,6-(Pr2C6H3)-Pr-i; Ar' = 2,6-Me2C6H3) were prepared. The steric demand of ligand A induces the unusual trans geometry in

Unlocking the Sugar ‘Steric Gate’ of DNA Polymerases†

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Jessica A.; Suo, Zucai

2011-01-01

To maintain genomic stability, ribonucleotide incorporation during DNA synthesis is controlled predominantly at the DNA polymerase level. A steric clash between the 2′-hydroxyl of an incoming ribonucleotide and a bulky active site residue, known as the ‘steric gate’, establishes an effective mechanism for most DNA polymerases to selectively insert deoxyribonucleotides. Recent kinetic, structural, and in vivo studies have illuminated novel features about ribonucleotide exclusion and the mechanistic consequences of ribonucleotide misincorporation on downstream events, such as the bypass of a ribonucleotide in a DNA template and the subsequent extension of the DNA lesion bypass product. These important findings are summarized in this review article. PMID:21226515

How crowded is the prokaryotic cytoplasm?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Spitzer, Jan; Poolman, Bert; Ferguson, Stuart

2013-01-01

We consider biomacromolecular crowding within the cytoplasm of prokaryotic cells as a two-phase system of 'supercrowded' cytogel and 'dilute' cytosol; we simplify and quantify this model for a coccoid cell over a wide range of biomacromolecular crowding. The key result shows that the supercrowded

Eyes on crowding : Crowding is preserved when responding by eye and similarly affects identity and position accuracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yildirim, Funda; Meyer, Vincent; Cornelissen, Frans W.

Peripheral vision guides recognition and selection of targets for eye movements. Crowding-a decline in recognition performance that occurs when a potential target is surrounded by other, similar, objects-influences peripheral object recognition. A recent model study suggests that crowding may be due

Simulation of Cognitive Pedestrian Agents Crowds in Crisis Situations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margaret Lyell

2006-06-01

Full Text Available In crisis situations in an urban environment, first responder teams often must deal with crowds of people. Consider the case of a building fire in a dense city environment. People may be injured; walkways may be blocked, with fire equipment attempting to reach the scene. Crowd behavior can become an issue when trying to reach the injured, ensure safety and restore conditions to normal. The motivations of pedestrians that form the crowd can vary. Some are there because they are curious about the crisis situation. Others, attending to their individual concerns, may have found themselves in the 'wrong' location. They may be trying to leave the area, but the density of people as well as the spatial layout of the walkways may be impeding their progress. Other individuals, unaware of the fire, may be attempting to reach their intended destinations that happen to be near the crisis area, thus adding to crowd congestion. With a model of crowd behavior, effective strategies for resource usage in managing crowd behavior can be developed. Our approach to this problem is that of agent-based modeling and simulation. We develop a cognitive pedestrian agent model. Utilizing this model, we simulate crowd behavior in a 'city fire' scenario. Characteristics of crowd behavior with different pedestrian personality mixes and a strategy for crowd management are investigated

Two's a crowd? Crowding effect in a parasitic castrator drives differences in reproductive resource allocation in single vs double infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Caitlin R; Moron, Nancy A; Kuris, Armand M

2017-04-01

The 'crowding effect' is a result of competition by parasites within a host for finite resources. Typically, the severity of this effect increases with increasing numbers of parasites within a host and manifests in reduced body size and thus fitness. Evidence for the crowding effect is mixed - while some have found negative effects, others have found a positive effect of increased parasite load on parasite fitness. Parasites are consumers with diverse trophic strategies reflected in their life history traits. These distinctions are useful to predict the effects of crowding. We studied a parasitic castrator, a parasite that usurps host reproductive energy and renders the host sterile. Parasitic castrators typically occur as single infections within hosts. With multiple parasitic castrators, we expect strong competition and evidence of crowding. We directly assess the effect of crowding on reproductive success in a barnacle population infected by a unique parasitic castrator, Hemioniscus balani, an isopod parasite that infects and blocks reproduction of barnacles. We find (1) strong evidence of crowding in double infections, (2) increased frequency of double infections in larger barnacle hosts with more resources and (3) perfect compensation in egg production, supporting strong space limitation. Our results document that the effects of crowding are particularly severe for this parasitic castrator, and may be applicable to other castrators that are also resource or space limited.

Effects of macromolecular crowding on protein conformational changes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hao Dong

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Many protein functions can be directly linked to conformational changes. Inside cells, the equilibria and transition rates between different conformations may be affected by macromolecular crowding. We have recently developed a new approach for modeling crowding effects, which enables an atomistic representation of "test" proteins. Here this approach is applied to study how crowding affects the equilibria and transition rates between open and closed conformations of seven proteins: yeast protein disulfide isomerase (yPDI, adenylate kinase (AdK, orotidine phosphate decarboxylase (ODCase, Trp repressor (TrpR, hemoglobin, DNA beta-glucosyltransferase, and Ap(4A hydrolase. For each protein, molecular dynamics simulations of the open and closed states are separately run. Representative open and closed conformations are then used to calculate the crowding-induced changes in chemical potential for the two states. The difference in chemical-potential change between the two states finally predicts the effects of crowding on the population ratio of the two states. Crowding is found to reduce the open population to various extents. In the presence of crowders with a 15 A radius and occupying 35% of volume, the open-to-closed population ratios of yPDI, AdK, ODCase and TrpR are reduced by 79%, 78%, 62% and 55%, respectively. The reductions for the remaining three proteins are 20-44%. As expected, the four proteins experiencing the stronger crowding effects are those with larger conformational changes between open and closed states (e.g., as measured by the change in radius of gyration. Larger proteins also tend to experience stronger crowding effects than smaller ones [e.g., comparing yPDI (480 residues and TrpR (98 residues]. The potentials of mean force along the open-closed reaction coordinate of apo and ligand-bound ODCase are altered by crowding, suggesting that transition rates are also affected. These quantitative results and qualitative trends will

Orientation-crowding within contours.

Science.gov (United States)

Glen, James C; Dakin, Steven C

2013-07-15

We examined how crowding (the breakdown of object recognition in the periphery caused by interference from "clutter") depends on the global arrangement of target and distracting flanker elements. Specifically we probed orientation discrimination using a near-vertical target Gabor flanked by two vertical distractor Gabors (one above and one below the target). By applying variable (opposite-sign) horizontal offsets to the positions of the two flankers we arranged the elements so that on some trials they formed contours with the target and on others they did not. While the presence of flankers generally elevated orientation discrimination thresholds for the target we observe maximal crowding not when flanker and targets were co-aligned but when a small spatial offset was applied to flanker location, so that contours formed between flanker and targets only when the target orientation was cued. We also report that observers' orientation judgments are biased, with target orientation appearing either attracted or repulsed by the global/contour orientation. A second experiment reveals that the sign of this effect is dependent both on observer and on eccentricity. In general, the magnitude of repulsion is reduced with eccentricity but whether this becomes attraction (of element orientation to contour orientation) is dependent on observer. We note however that across observers and eccentricities, the magnitude of repulsion correlates positively with the amount of release from crowding observed with co-aligned targets and flankers, supporting the notion of fluctuating bias as the basis for elevated crowding within contours.

Gadolinium-based contrast agent toxicity: a review of known and proposed mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogosnitzky, Moshe; Branch, Stacy

2016-06-01

Gadolinium chelates are widely used as contrast media for magnetic resonance imaging. The approved gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) have historically been considered safe and well tolerated when used at recommended dosing levels. However, for nearly a decade, an association between GBCA administration and the development of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) has been recognized in patients with severe renal impairment. This has led to modifications in clinical practices aimed at reducing the potential and incidence of NSF development. Newer reports have emerged regarding the accumulation of gadolinium in various tissues of patients who do not have renal impairment, including bone, brain, and kidneys. Despite the observations of gadolinium accumulation in tissues regardless of renal function, very limited clinical data regarding the potential for and mechanisms of toxicity is available. This significant gap in knowledge warrants retrospective cohort study efforts, as well as prospective studies that involve gadolinium ion (Gd(3+)) testing in patients exposed to GBCA. This review examines the potential biochemical and molecular basis of gadolinium toxicity, possible clinical significance of gadolinium tissue retention and accumulation, and methods that can limit gadolinium body burden.

Room temperature ferromagnetic gadolinium silicide nanoparticles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hadimani, Magundappa Ravi L.; Gupta, Shalabh; Harstad, Shane; Pecharsky, Vitalij; Jiles, David C.

2018-03-06

A particle usable as T₁ and T₂ contrast agents is provided. The particle is a gadolinium silicide (Gd₅Si₄) particle that is ferromagnetic at temperatures up to 290 K and is less than 2 .mu.m in diameter. An MRI contrast agent that includes a plurality of gadolinium silicide (Gd.sub.5Si.sub.4) particles that are less than 1 .mu.m in diameter is also provided. A method for creating gadolinium silicide (Gd₅Si₄) particles is also provided. The method includes the steps of providing a Gd₅Si₄ bulk alloy; grinding the Gd₅Si₄ bulk alloy into a powder; and milling the Gd₅Si₄ bulk alloy powder for a time of approximately 20 minutes or less.

Associative Interactions in Crowded Solutions of Biopolymers Counteract Depletion Effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Groen, Joost; Foschepoth, David; te Brinke, Esra; Boersma, Arnold J; Imamura, Hiromi; Rivas, Germán; Heus, Hans A; Huck, Wilhelm T S

2015-10-14

The cytosol of Escherichia coli is an extremely crowded environment, containing high concentrations of biopolymers which occupy 20-30% of the available volume. Such conditions are expected to yield depletion forces, which strongly promote macromolecular complexation. However, crowded macromolecule solutions, like the cytosol, are very prone to nonspecific associative interactions that can potentially counteract depletion. It remains unclear how the cytosol balances these opposing interactions. We used a FRET-based probe to systematically study depletion in vitro in different crowded environments, including a cytosolic mimic, E. coli lysate. We also studied bundle formation of FtsZ protofilaments under identical crowded conditions as a probe for depletion interactions at much larger overlap volumes of the probe molecule. The FRET probe showed a more compact conformation in synthetic crowding agents, suggesting strong depletion interactions. However, depletion was completely negated in cell lysate and other protein crowding agents, where the FRET probe even occupied slightly more volume. In contrast, bundle formation of FtsZ protofilaments proceeded as readily in E. coli lysate and other protein solutions as in synthetic crowding agents. Our experimental results and model suggest that, in crowded biopolymer solutions, associative interactions counterbalance depletion forces for small macromolecules. Furthermore, the net effects of macromolecular crowding will be dependent on both the size of the macromolecule and its associative interactions with the crowded background.

Sustainable steric stabilization of colloidal titania nanoparticles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Elbasuney, Sherif, E-mail: sherif_basuney2000@yahoo.com

2017-07-01

Graphical abstract: Controlled surface properties of titania nanoparticles via surface modification, flocculation from aqueous phase (a), stabilization in aqueous phase (b), extraction to organic phase (c). - Highlights: • Complete change in surface properties of titania nanoparticles from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. • Harvesting the formulated nanoparticles from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. • Exclusive surface modification in the reactor during nanoparticle synthesis. • Sustainable stabilization of titania nanoparticles in aqueous media with polar polymeric dispersant. - Abstract: A route to produce a stable colloidal suspension is essential if mono-dispersed particles are to be successfully synthesized, isolated, and used in subsequent nanocomposite manufacture. Dispersing nanoparticles in fluids was found to be an important approach for avoiding poor dispersion characteristics. However, there is still a great tendency for colloidal nanoparticles to flocculate over time. Steric stabilization can prevent coagulation by introducing a thick adsorbed organic layer which constitutes a significant steric barrier that can prevent the particle surfaces from coming into direct contact. One of the main features of hydrothermal synthesis technique is that it offers novel approaches for sustainable nanoparticle surface modification. This manuscript reports on the sustainable steric stabilization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Nanoparticle surface modification was performed via two main approaches including post-synthesis and in situ surface modification. The tuneable hydrothermal conditions (i.e. temperature, pressure, flow rates, and surfactant addition) were optimized to enable controlled steric stabilization in a continuous fashion. Effective post synthesis surface modification with organic ligand (dodecenyl succinic anhydride (DDSA)) was achieved; the optimum surface coating temperature was reported to be 180–240 °C to ensure DDSA ring opening

Statistical analysis of passenger-crowding in bus transport network of Harbin

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Baoyu; Feng, Shumin; Li, Jinyang; Zhao, Hu

2018-01-01

Passenger flow data is indispensable but rare in the study of public transport networks. In this study, we focus on the passenger-crowding characteristics of the bus transport network of Harbin (BTN-H) based on passenger flow investigation. The three frequency histograms for all the uplinks and downlinks in Harbin are presented, including passengers on the bus at each section, crowding coefficients, and position parameters of crowded sections. The differences in crowding position are analyzed on each route. The distributions of degree and crowding degree (in directed space L) follow an exponential law. The new finding indicates that there are many stations with few crowded sections and a few stations with many crowded sections. The distributions of path length and crowded length (in directed space P) are presented based on the minimum transfer times, and it is found that they can be fitted by a composite Gaussian function and a Gaussian function, respectively. The stations and paths can be divided into three crowd levels. We conclude that BTN-H is crowded from a network-based perspective.

The Crowd in Requirements Engineering: The Landscape and Challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, Eduard C.; Seyff, Norbert; Ali, Raian; Dalpiaz, Fabiano; Doerr, Joerg; Guzman, Emitza; Hosseini, Mahmood; Marco, Jordi; Oriol, Marc; Perini, Anna; Stade, Melanie

2017-01-01

Crowd-based requirements engineering (CrowdRE) could significantly change RE. Performing RE activities such as elicitation with the crowd of stakeholders turns RE into a participatory effort, leads to more accurate requirements, and ultimately boosts software quality. Although any stakeholder in the

Validation of gadolinium burnout using PWR benchmark specification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oettingen, Mikołaj, E-mail: moettin@agh.edu.pl; Cetnar, Jerzy, E-mail: cetnar@mail.ftj.agh.edu.pl

2014-07-01

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • We present methodology for validation of gadolinium burnout in PWR. • We model 17 × 17 PWR fuel assembly using MCB code. • We demonstrate C/E ratios of measured and calculated concentrations of Gd isotopes. • The C/E for Gd154, Gd156, Gd157, Gd158 and Gd160 shows good agreement of ±10%. • The C/E for Gd152 and Gd155 shows poor agreement below ±10%. - Abstract: The paper presents comparative analysis of measured and calculated concentrations of gadolinium isotopes in spent nuclear fuel from the Japanese Ohi-2 PWR. The irradiation of the 17 × 17 fuel assembly containing pure uranium and gadolinia bearing fuel pins was numerically reconstructed using the Monte Carlo Continuous Energy Burnup Code – MCB. The reference concentrations of gadolinium isotopes were measured in early 1990s at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. It seems that the measured concentrations were never used for validation of gadolinium burnout. In our study we fill this gap and assess quality of both: applied numerical methodology and experimental data. Additionally we show time evolutions of infinite neutron multiplication factor K{sub inf}, FIMA burnup, U235 and Gd155–Gd158. Gadolinium-based materials are commonly used in thermal reactors as burnable absorbers due to large neutron absorption cross-section of Gd155 and Gd157.

Gadolinium-enhanced turbo FLASH MR imaging of renal perfusion and excretion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watanabe, A.; Teresi, L.M.; Herbst, M.; O'Sullivan, R.M.; Lee, R.; Smith, C.; Renner, J.; Rappaport, A.; Bradley, W.G. Jr.

1990-01-01

This paper describes a novel approach to MR imaging of renal perfusion and excretion using gadolinium-enhanced, T1-weighted TURBP, fast low-angle shot (FLASH) imaging. Five normal volunteers and four patients were studied on a 1.5-T imaging system. Time-intensity curves of the appearance of gadolinium in each kidney and the bladder were then generated. In normal volunteers, marked first-pass enhancement of renal cortex followed by renal pyramids and collecting systems could be demonstrated on the first-pass gadolinium images. Delayed images showed hyperintense gadolinium within the bladder

Spatial and Social Aspects of Crowding Perception

Science.gov (United States)

Baum, Andrew; Davis, Glenn E.

1976-01-01

This paper discusses mediation of the crowding experience in architectural interiors by three environmental variables: setting orientation, room color, and visual complexity of the interior. Data indicated interior design does influence space perception and crowding thresholds. (RH)

Behavior of gadolinium-based diagnostics in water treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cyris, Maike

2013-04-25

Wastewater treatment plants throughout Europe are retrofitted for a sufficient removal of micropollutants. Most target compounds are eliminated efficiently at reasonable costs by oxidation. Sorption processes, on the other hand, are favored as no transformation products are formed. For oxidation, ozone is preferred presently. Its action is divided in two main reaction pathways: Via ozone and via hydroxyl radicals formed by ozone-matrix reactions. Oxidation efficiency strongly depends on reaction rate constants. Sorption processes are usually characterized, including sorption strength, by determination of isotherms. Also, for description of filtration processes isotherm data are necessary. So far, gadolinium chelates, used as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging, have not been investigated in both advanced wastewater treatment processes. The stable chelates are excreted without metabolization. Conventional wastewater treatment does not remove them substantially. They remain intact and no free Gd(III) is released. This may be changed due to oxidative treatment which potentially destroys the chelates, and Gd(III) ions which are toxic, contrary to the chelated form, may be liberated. Monitoring campaigns in wastewater and drinking water have been performed to demonstrate the relevance of gadolinium in such treatment steps. In a European monitoring campaign an average concentration of 118 ng L{sup -1} gadolinium has been determined for 75 wastewater treatment plants effluents, corresponding to a non-geogenic gadolinium concentration of 116 ng L{sup -1}. In drinking water in the Ruhr area, a densely populated region in Germany, gadolinium and the anomaly were measurable by a factor of five lower than the average in the investigated wastewater samples. The determined concentrations in drinking water are lower than acute toxic effect concentration. The speciation of gadolinium in the investigated samples is unknown, as only total element concentration has been

Behavior of gadolinium-based diagnostics in water treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cyris, Maike

2013-01-01

Wastewater treatment plants throughout Europe are retrofitted for a sufficient removal of micropollutants. Most target compounds are eliminated efficiently at reasonable costs by oxidation. Sorption processes, on the other hand, are favored as no transformation products are formed. For oxidation, ozone is preferred presently. Its action is divided in two main reaction pathways: Via ozone and via hydroxyl radicals formed by ozone-matrix reactions. Oxidation efficiency strongly depends on reaction rate constants. Sorption processes are usually characterized, including sorption strength, by determination of isotherms. Also, for description of filtration processes isotherm data are necessary. So far, gadolinium chelates, used as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging, have not been investigated in both advanced wastewater treatment processes. The stable chelates are excreted without metabolization. Conventional wastewater treatment does not remove them substantially. They remain intact and no free Gd(III) is released. This may be changed due to oxidative treatment which potentially destroys the chelates, and Gd(III) ions which are toxic, contrary to the chelated form, may be liberated. Monitoring campaigns in wastewater and drinking water have been performed to demonstrate the relevance of gadolinium in such treatment steps. In a European monitoring campaign an average concentration of 118 ng L -1 gadolinium has been determined for 75 wastewater treatment plants effluents, corresponding to a non-geogenic gadolinium concentration of 116 ng L -1 . In drinking water in the Ruhr area, a densely populated region in Germany, gadolinium and the anomaly were measurable by a factor of five lower than the average in the investigated wastewater samples. The determined concentrations in drinking water are lower than acute toxic effect concentration. The speciation of gadolinium in the investigated samples is unknown, as only total element concentration has been determined

Effect of organic bases on extraction of gadolinium carboxylates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sukhan, V.V.; Frankovskij, V.A.

1982-01-01

The effect of pyridine, 2-aminopyridine, benzylamine, antipyrine and o-phenanthroline on the extraction of capronates and bromocapronates of gadolinium with chloroform is studied. Out of the studied organic bases benzylamine produces the highest synergetic effect. In the absence of organic bases gadolinium carboxylates, solvated by three molecules of carbonic acids, are extracted into organic phase. A possihility of extractional separation of gadolinium from comparable amounts of iron with the mixture of 1 M solutions of caproic or bromocaproic acids with 1 M benzylamine from 0.1 M solution of tartaric acids is shown [ru

Gadolinium-containing contrast media for radiographic examinations: a position paper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomsen, Henrik S.; Almen, Torsten; Morcos, Sameh K.

2002-01-01

Recently, it has been suggested that gadolinium-based contrast media could be used for radiological examinations in patients with significant renal impairment, previous severe generalized reaction to iodinated contrast media or thyroid disease about to undergo radioactive iodine treatment; however, the indications for and risks of using gadolinium agents in this way are not well known; hence, the Contrast Media Safety Committee of The European Society of Urogenital Radiology reviewed the literature to issue a position paper on this subject. A comprehensive literature review was performed and the resulting report was discussed at the Ninth European Symposium on Urogenital Radiology in Genoa, Italy, June 2002. Review of the literature indicates that according to experimental data on animals gadolinium-based contrast media have more nephrotoxic potential than iodinated contrast media in equivalent X-ray attenuating doses; therefore, gadolinium-based contrast media should not replace iodinated contrast media in patients with renal insufficiency for radiographic examinations. For patients with previous severe generalized reactions to iodinated contrast media, and in patients about to undergo thyroid treatment with radioactive iodine gadolinium-based contrast media in approved intravenous doses, up to 0.3 mmol/kg body weight will not give diagnostic radiographic information in most cases. Gadolinium-based contrast media are not approved for radiographic examinations. (orig.)

Towards a South African crowd control model

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Modise, M

2013-03-01

Full Text Available . Phase 3, will be the development of decision support system for crowd control. This paper discusses Phase 1 of the project, which includes identification of various variables regarding crowd control and their relationships. During the Arab Spring...

Magnetic resonance characteristics and susceptibility weighted imaging of the brain in gadolinium encephalopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Samardzic, Dejan; Thamburaj, Krishnamoorthy

2015-01-01

To report the brain imaging features on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in inadvertent intrathecal gadolinium administration. A 67-year-old female with gadolinium encephalopathy from inadvertent high dose intrathecal gadolinium administration during an epidural steroid injection was studied with multisequence 3T MRI. T1-weighted imaging shows pseudo-T2 appearance with diffusion of gadolinium into the brain parenchyma, olivary bodies, and membranous labyrinth. Nulling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) signal is absent on fluid attenuation recovery (FLAIR). Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) demonstrates features similar to subarachnoid hemorrhage. CT may demonstrate a pseudo-cerebral edema pattern given the high attenuation characteristics of gadolinium. Intrathecal gadolinium demonstrates characteristic imaging features on MRI of the brain and may mimic subarachnoid hemorrhage on susceptibility-weighted imaging. Identifying high dose gadolinium within the CSF spaces on MRI is essential to avoid diagnostic and therapeutic errors. Copyright © 2013 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

Elimination reactions. V. Steric effects in Hofmann elimination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coke, J.L.; Smith, G.D.; Britton, G.H. Jr.

1975-01-01

Earlier Hofmann elimination studies were extended, and the percent syn eliminations in several ring systems have been correlated using cis-d 1 and trans-d 1 models. The measurements of several syn and anti k/sub H//k/sub D/ kinetic isotope effects are reported. Results indicate that Hofmann elimination of N,N,N-trimethyl-3,3-dimethylcyclopentylammonium hydroxide goes by 97 percent syn mechanism to give 3,3-dimethylcyclopentene and by 70 + - 6 percent syn mechanism to give 4,4-dimethylcyclopentene. There appears to be severe steric interactions in the anti mechanism in the 3,3-dimethylcyclopentyl system. Results indicate that, for Hofmann pyrolysis of trimethylammonium hydroxides, cyclopentene is formed by a 39 +- 7 percent syn mechanism, cyclohexene is formed by a 2 + - 2 percent syn mechanism, and cycloheptene is formed by a 30 +- 2 percent syn mechanism. Steric effects on isotope effects and mechanisms are discussed. (U.S.)

Production of gadolinium nitrate for TAPS 3 and 4 PHWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishra, S.L.; Ramakrishnan, P.; Iyer, N.S.; Singh, Harvinderpal

2004-01-01

In India, gadolinium nitrate is being used for the first time in PHWR at Tarapur. Gadolinium is preferred over boron due to high neutron cross section and the water soluble nitrate form works efficiently for reactivity control through moderator liquid poison addition system (MLPS) as well as for reactor shut down system (SDS2). Low concentration of gadolinium (0.1-0.2 g/l) in heavy water is sufficient to shut down the reactor in a very short time. After use, the small amount of gadolinium can be separated quickly from heavy water by ion exchange process. In this paper separation of Gd using of 2-ethyl hexyl phosphoric acid mono 2-ethyl hexyl ester EHEHPA as an extractant has been described

Fundamental study of DSA images using gadolinium contrast agent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagashima, Hiroyuki; Shiraishi, Akihisa; Igarashi, Hitoshi; Sakamoto, Hajime; Sano, Yoshitomo

2002-01-01

Most contrast agents used in digital subtraction angiography (DSA) are non-ionic iodinated contrast agents, which can cause severe side effects in patients with contraindications for iodine or allergic reactions to iodine. Therefore, DSA examinations using carbon dioxide gas or examinations done by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound (US) were carried out in these patients. However, none of these examinations provided mages as clear as those of DSA with an iodinated contrast agent. We experienced DSA examination using a gadolinium contrast agent in a patient contraindicated for iodine. The patient had undergone MRI examination with a gadolinium contrast agent previously without side effects. The characteristics of gadolinium and the iodinated contrast agent were compared, and the DSA images obtained clinically using these media were also evaluated. The signal-to-noise (SN) ratio of the gadolinium contrast agent was the highest at tube voltages of 70 to 80 kilovolts and improved slightly when the image intensifier (I.I.) entrance dose was greater than 300 μR (77.4 nC/kg). The dilution ratios of five iodinated contrast agents showed the same S/N value as the undiluted gadolinium contrast agent. Clinically, the images obtained showed a slight decrease in contrast but provided the data necessary to make a diagnosis and made it possible to obtain interventional radiology (IVR) without any side effects. DSA examinations using a gadolinium contrast agent have some benefit with low risk and are thought to be useful for patients contraindicated for iodine. (author)

Is word recognition crowded in pure alexia?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sand, Katrine; Habekost, Thomas; Petersen, Anders

2017-01-01

Pure alexia is a selective deficit in reading, which arises following damage to the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Crowding, the inability to recognise objects in a clutter, has recently been hypothesised to be the underlying deficit of apperceptive visual agnosia1. Crowding normally occurs...

Grouping and crowding affect target appearance over different spatial scales.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bilge Sayim

Full Text Available Crowding is the impairment of peripheral target perception by nearby flankers. A number of recent studies have shown that crowding shares many features with grouping. Here, we investigate whether effects of crowding and grouping on target perception are related by asking whether they operate over the same spatial scale. A target letter T had two sets of flanking Ts of varying orientations. The first set was presented close to the target, yielding strong crowding. The second set was either close enough to cause crowding on their own or too far to cause crowding on their own. The Ts of the second set had the same orientation that either matched the target's orientation (Grouped condition or not (Ungrouped condition. In Experiment 1, the Grouped flankers reduced crowding independently of their distance from the target, suggesting that grouping operated over larger distances than crowding. In Experiments 2 and 3 we found that grouping did not affect sensitivity but produced a strong bias to report that the grouped orientation was present at the target location whether or not it was. Finally, we investigated whether this bias was a response or perceptual bias, rejecting the former in favor of a perceptual grouping explanation. We suggest that the effect of grouping is to assimilate the target to the identity of surrounding flankers when they are all the same, and that this shape assimilation effect differs in its spatial scale from the integration effect of crowding.

Standard specification for sintered gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets

CERN Document Server

American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia

2008-01-01

1.1 This specification is for finished sintered gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets for use in light-water reactors. It applies to gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets containing uranium of any 235U concentration and any concentration of gadolinium oxide. 1.2 This specification recognizes the presence of reprocessed uranium in the fuel cycle and consequently defines isotopic limits for gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets made from commercial grade UO2. Such commercial grade UO2 is defined so that, regarding fuel design and manufacture, the product is essentially equivalent to that made from unirradiated uranium. UO2 falling outside these limits cannot necessarily be regarded as equivalent and may thus need special provisions at the fuel fabrication plant or in the fuel design. 1.3 This specification does not include (1) provisions for preventing criticality accidents or (2) requirements for health and safety. Observance of this specification does not relieve the user of the obligation to be aw...

Synthesis and evaluation of gadolinium complexes based on PAMAM as MRI contrast agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Guo-Ping; Hu, Bin; Liu, Mai-Li; Li, Li-Yun

2005-03-01

Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and pyridoxamine (PM) were incorporated into the amine groups on the surface of ammonia-core poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM, Generation 2.0-5.0) to obtain dendritic ligands. These dendritic ligands were reacted with gadolinium chloride to yield the corresponding dendritic gadolinium (Gd) complexes. The dendritic ligands and their gadolinium complexes were characterized by(1)HNMR, IR, UV and elemental analysis. Relaxivity studies showed that the dendritic gadolinium complexes possessed higher relaxation effectiveness compared with the clinically used Gd-DTPA. After administration of the dendritic gadolinium complexes (0.09 mmol kg(-1) ) to rats, magnetic resonance imaging of the liver indicated that the dendritic gadolinium complexes containing pyridoxamine groups enhanced the contrast of the MR images of the liver, provided prolonged intravascular duration and produced highly contrasted visualization of blood vessels.

Fisher information and steric effect: study of the internal rotation barrier of ethane.

Science.gov (United States)

Esquivel, Rodolfo O; Liu, Shubin; Angulo, Juan Carlos; Dehesa, Jesús S; Antolín, Juan; Molina-Espíritu, Moyocoyani

2011-05-05

On the basis of a density-based quantification of the steric effect [Liu, S. B. J. Chem. Phys.2007, 126, 244103], the origin of the internal rotation barrier between the eclipsed and staggered conformers of ethane is systematically investigated in this work from an information-theoretical point of view by using the Fisher information measure in conjugated spaces. Two kinds of computational approaches are considered in this work: adiabatic (with optimal structure) and vertical (with fixed geometry). The analyses are performed systematically by following, in each case, the conformeric path by changing the dihedral angle from 0 to 180° . This is calculated at the HF, MP2, B3LYP, and CCSD(T) levels of theory and with several basis sets. Selected descriptors of the densities are utilized to support the observations. Our results show that in the adiabatic case the eclipsed conformer possesses a larger steric repulsion than the staggered conformer, but in the vertical cases the staggered conformer retains a larger steric repulsion. Our results verify the plausibility for defining and computing the steric effect in the post-Hartree-Fock level of theory according to the scheme proposed by Liu.

Social identification moderates the effect of crowd density on safety at the Hajj.

Science.gov (United States)

Alnabulsi, Hani; Drury, John

2014-06-24

Crowd safety is a major concern for those attending and managing mass gatherings, such as the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca (also called Makkah). One threat to crowd safety at such events is crowd density. However, recent research also suggests that psychological membership of crowds can have positive benefits. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of density on safety might vary depending on whether there is shared social identification in the crowd. We surveyed 1,194 pilgrims at the Holy Mosque, Mecca, during the 2012 Hajj. Analysis of the data showed that the negative effect of crowd density on reported safety was moderated by social identification with the crowd. Whereas low identifiers reported reduced safety with greater crowd density, high identifiers reported increased safety with greater crowd density. Mediation analysis suggested that a reason for these moderation effects was the perception that other crowd members were supportive. Differences in reported safety across national groups (Arab countries and Iran compared with the rest) were also explicable in terms of crowd identification and perceived support. These findings support a social identity account of crowd behavior and offer a novel perspective on crowd safety management.

Estimating the magnitude of steric effects in rigid systems by NMR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoneda, Julliane Diniz; Seidl, Peter Rudolf; Leal, Katia Zaccur

2008-01-01

The rapid advance of supramolecular chemistry has led to a better understanding of the forces and interactions that are responsible for many different phenomena. Among these, steric effects play an important role in determining the constraints to association between the species involved. Although the role of steric effects has been recognized for a long time, quantitative information has been mainly related to the comparison of these effects on a chemical reaction or conformational equilibrium rather than the properties of the group of atoms that is responsible for their manifestation. This situation has been changing with the increase in power of computational methods and the accumulation of data on model compounds that can be used for the purpose of comparison. Here we present a short review of our recent work on NMR of rigid carbocyclic systems and apply this type of approach to di- and triamantane systems. Our results show how NMR can be used to locate the segment of a molecule that is subjected to steric effects and evaluate the degree to which these effects will distort its geometry. (author)

Estimating the magnitude of steric effects in rigid systems by NMR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoneda, Julliane Diniz [Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Niteroi, RJ (Brazil). Programa Pos-Graduacao em Quimica Organica; Seidl, Peter Rudolf [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Escola de Quimica; Leal, Katia Zaccur, E-mail: pseidl@eq.ufrj.br [Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Niteroi, RJ (Brazil). Dept. de Fisico-Quimica. Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Quimica Organica

2008-07-01

The rapid advance of supramolecular chemistry has led to a better understanding of the forces and interactions that are responsible for many different phenomena. Among these, steric effects play an important role in determining the constraints to association between the species involved. Although the role of steric effects has been recognized for a long time, quantitative information has been mainly related to the comparison of these effects on a chemical reaction or conformational equilibrium rather than the properties of the group of atoms that is responsible for their manifestation. This situation has been changing with the increase in power of computational methods and the accumulation of data on model compounds that can be used for the purpose of comparison. Here we present a short review of our recent work on NMR of rigid carbocyclic systems and apply this type of approach to di- and triamantane systems. Our results show how NMR can be used to locate the segment of a molecule that is subjected to steric effects and evaluate the degree to which these effects will distort its geometry. (author)

Factors Influencing Perceived Crowding of Tourists and Sustainable Tourism Destination Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qian Jin

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Studies on tourists crowding are developed to explore the perception of crowding, and these studies indicate crowding influence on sustainable development of tourist destinations. This study aims to reveal the influential factors of tourists’ perceived crowding. We obtained data from interviewing over 400 tourists and five senior tourism officials in Xi’an, China. This study firstly applies factor analysis to identify the constructed variables of tourists’ motivations from the principle component analysis. It then examines the correlation between nationality and perceived crowding. Consequently, a multiple regression is used to identify the connection between motivations and perceived crowding. The results of the study indicate nationality and motivation as two significant influential factors to perceived crowding management. This study also shows that management in tourist destinations would benefit from provision of the authentic travel experience integrated with zoning the travel destination.

National conference on crowd-funding - Presentations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bour, Daniel; Raguet, Alex; Arnaud, Christophe; Olive, Catherine; Herriou, Jean-Pierre; Lemaignan, Benoit; Camps, Mathieu; Gauduchon, Marie-Veronique; Hostache, Julien; Clerc, Jean-Marc; Feraudy, Nicolas de; Petit, Frederic; Blais, Armaury; Egnell, Luc; Desvigne, Alain; Floc'h, Romain; Forgues, Benoit; Kuzdzal, Matthieu

2016-12-01

This conference was organised in the framework of the CrowdFundRES European project (European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 646435). Its objectives were: - to provide a comprehensive overview of solar energy crowd-funding in Europe and in France; - to inform about the French legal framework; - to answer the pending questions regarding the conditions of application of the call for bids; - to identify the most suitable modalities for project developers; - to shed light on the possibilities offered to local communities and to their citizens; - to present concrete examples of realisations with their experience feedback; - to exchange on crowd-funding structuring at the service of energy transition in France and in regions. This document brings together the different presentations (slides) given at this conference

Detection of High-Density Crowds in Aerial Images Using Texture Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver Meynberg

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Automatic crowd detection in aerial images is certainly a useful source of information to prevent crowd disasters in large complex scenarios of mass events. A number of publications employ regression-based methods for crowd counting and crowd density estimation. However, these methods work only when a correct manual count is available to serve as a reference. Therefore, it is the objective of this paper to detect high-density crowds in aerial images, where counting– or regression–based approaches would fail. We compare two texture–classification methodologies on a dataset of aerial image patches which are grouped into ranges of different crowd density. These methodologies are: (1 a Bag–of–words (BoW model with two alternative local features encoded as Improved Fisher Vectors and (2 features based on a Gabor filter bank. Our results show that a classifier using either BoW or Gabor features can detect crowded image regions with 97% classification accuracy. In our tests of four classes of different crowd-density ranges, BoW–based features have a 5%–12% better accuracy than Gabor.

Identification and characterization of gadolinium(III) complexes in biological tissue extracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahakachchi, Chethaka L; Moore, Dennis A

2010-07-01

The gadolinium species present in a rat kidney following intravenous administration of a gadolinium-based magnetic resonance contrast agent (Optimark™, Gadoversetamide injection) to a rat was examined in the present study. The major gadolinium species in the supernatant of the rat kidney tissue extracts was determined by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with online inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-OES). The identity of the compound was established by liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) detection. The principal gadolinium(III) complex in a rat kidney tissue extract was identified as Gd-DTPA-BMEA 24 Hrs and 7 days after a single intravenous injection of Optimark™ (gadoversetamide; Gd-DTPA-BMEA) at a dose of 5 mmol Gd/kg body weight. The study demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of the use of two complementary techniques, HPLC-ICP-OES and HPLC-ESI-MS to study the in vivo behavior of gadolinium-based magnetic resonance contrast media.

Alkali metal and alkali earth metal gadolinium halide scintillators

Science.gov (United States)

Bourret-Courchesne, Edith; Derenzo, Stephen E.; Parms, Shameka; Porter-Chapman, Yetta D.; Wiggins, Latoria K.

2016-08-02

The present invention provides for a composition comprising an inorganic scintillator comprising a gadolinium halide, optionally cerium-doped, having the formula A.sub.nGdX.sub.m:Ce; wherein A is nothing, an alkali metal, such as Li or Na, or an alkali earth metal, such as Ba; X is F, Br, Cl, or I; n is an integer from 1 to 2; m is an integer from 4 to 7; and the molar percent of cerium is 0% to 100%. The gadolinium halides or alkali earth metal gadolinium halides are scintillators and produce a bright luminescence upon irradiation by a suitable radiation.

Studies on polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes as potential magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan Guoping; Liu Maili; Li Liyun

2005-01-01

Purpose: A series of polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes containing pyridoxamine groups were studied as the potential magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents for liver enhancement. Methods: These polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes were prepared and evaluated by relaxivity, acute toxicity studies and magnetic resonance imaging of the liver in rats. Results: These polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes have higher relaxation effectiveness than that of the clinically used gadolinium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid and possess the low intravenous acute toxicities to Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) mice. Magnetic resonance imaging of the liver in rats indicated that they greatly enhance the contrast of magnetic resonance images and provide prolonged intravascular duration in the liver. Conclusion: These results indicated that the polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes containing pyridoxamine groups could be considered as the appropriate MRI contrast agents for liver enhancement

New insights into turbulent pedestrian movement pattern in crowd-quakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, J; Song, W G; Lo, S M; Fang, Z M

2013-01-01

Video recordings right before the Love Parade disaster have been quantitatively analyzed to explore the bursts of unusual crowd movement patterns, crowd-quakes. The pedestrian movement pattern in this incident was special for the reason that it happened in a congested counter flow scenario, where stopped pedestrians were involved. No one was believed to have pushed others intentionally at the beginning, however, under this situation, the body contacts among the pedestrians still induced a force spread, which then led to velocity fluctuation. As indicated by the individual velocity-related features, the densely crowded pedestrian movement displayed turbulent flow features. Further analyzing the overall flow field, we also found that the pedestrian flow field shared typical patterns with turbulent fluid flow. As a result of the turbulent state, different clusters of pedestrians displayed different velocity features. Thus crowd pressure which took into account the velocity and density information was proved to be a good indicator of crowd disasters. Based on these essential features of pedestrian crowd-quakes, a minimal model, i.e., a pedestrian crowd-quake model, was established. Effects including pedestrian gait, stress conservation level and personal intention to escape were explored. (paper)

Modeling crowd behavior based on the discrete-event multiagent approach

OpenAIRE

Лановой, Алексей Феликсович; Лановой, Артем Алексеевич

2014-01-01

The crowd is a temporary, relatively unorganized group of people, who are in close physical contact with each other. Individual behavior of human outside the crowd is determined by many factors, associated with his intellectual activities, but inside the crowd the man loses his identity and begins to obey more simple laws of behavior.One of approaches to the construction of multi-level model of the crowd using discrete-event multiagent approach was described in the paper.Based on this analysi...

Optimization of gadolinium burnable poison loading by the conjugate gradients method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drumm, C.R.

1984-01-01

Improved use of burnable poison is suggested for pressurized water reactors (PWR's) to insure a sufficiently negative moderator temperature coefficient of reactivity for extended burnup cycles and low leakage refueling patterns. The use of gadolinium as a burnable poison can lead to large axial fluctuations in the power distribution through the cycle. The goal of this work is to determine the optimal axial distribution of gadolinium burnable poison in a PWR to overcome the axial fluctuations, yielding an improved power distribution. The conjugate gradients optimization method is used in this work because of the high degree of nonlinearity of the problem. The neutron diffusion and depletion equations are solved for a one-dimensional one-group core model. The state variables are the flux, the critical soluble boron concentration, and the burnup. The control variables are the number of gadolinium pins per assembly and the beginning-of-cycle gadolinium concentration, which determine the gadolinium cross section. Two separate objectives are considered: 1) to minimize the power peaking factor, which will minimize the capital cost of the plant; and 2) to maximize the cycle length, which will minimize the fuel cost for the plant. It is shown in this work that optimizing the gadolinium distribution can yield an improved power distribution

Crystal structures of three sterically congested disilanes

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Kothanda Rama Pichaandi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In the three sterically congested silanes, C24H38Si2 (1 (1,1,2,2-tetraisopropyl-1,2-diphenyldisilane, C24H34Br4Si2 (2 [1,1,2,2-tetrakis(2-bromopropan-2-yl-1,2-diphenyldisilane] and C32H38Si2 (3 (1,2-di-tert-butyl-1,1,2,2-tetraphenyldisilane, the Si—Si bond length is shortest in (1 and longest in (2, with (3 having an intermediate value, which parallels the increasing steric congestion. A comparison of the two isopropyl derivatives, (1 and 2, shows a significant increase in the Si—C(ipso distance with the introduction of bromine. Also, in the brominated compound 2, attractive intermolecular Br...Br interactions exist with Br...Br separations ca 0.52 Å shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii. In compound 2, one of the bromoisopropyl groups is rotationally disordered in an 0.8812 (9:0.1188 (9 ratio. Compound 3 exhibits `whole molecule' disorder in a 0.9645 (7:0.0355 (7 ratio with the Si—Si bonds in the two components making an angle of ca 66°.

Estimating the number of people in crowded scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Minjin; Kim, Wonjun; Kim, Changick

2011-01-01

This paper presents a method to estimate the number of people in crowded scenes without using explicit object segmentation or tracking. The proposed method consists of three steps as follows: (1) extracting space-time interest points using eigenvalues of the local spatio-temporal gradient matrix, (2) generating crowd regions based on space-time interest points, and (3) estimating the crowd density based on the multiple regression. In experimental results, the efficiency and robustness of our proposed method are demonstrated by using PETS 2009 dataset.

Magnon contribution to electrical resistance of gadolinium-dysprosium alloy single crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nikitin, S.A.; Slobodchikov, S.S.; Solomkin, I.K.

1978-01-01

The magnon, phonon and interelectron collision contributions to the electric resistance of single crystals of gadolinium-dysprosium alloys were quantified. A relationship was found to exist between the electric resistance and the variation of the topology of the Fermi surface on melting of gadolinium with dysprosium. It was found that gadolinium-dysprosium alloys, which have no helicoidal magnetic structure in magnetically ordered state, feature a spin-spin helicoidal-type correlations in the paramagnetic field

New insights into the crowd characteristics in Mina

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, J. Y.; Weng, W. G.; Zhang, X. L.

2014-11-01

The significance of the study of the characteristics of crowd behavior is indubitable for safely organizing mass activities. There is insufficient material to conduct such research. In this paper, the Mina crowd disaster is quantitatively re-investigated. Its instantaneous velocity field is extracted from video material based on the cross-correlation algorithm. The properties of the stop-and-go waves, including fluctuation frequencies, wave propagation speeds, characteristic speeds, and time and space averaged velocity variances, are analyzed in detail. Thus, the database of the stop-and-go wave features is enriched, which is very important to crowd studies. The ‘turbulent’ flows are investigated with the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method which is widely used in fluid mechanics. And time series and spatial analysis are conducted to investigate the characteristics of the ‘turbulent’ flows. In this paper, the coherent structures and movement process are described by the POD method. The relationship between the jamming point and crowd path is analyzed. And the pressure buffer recognized in this paper is consistent with Helbing's high-pressure region. The results revealed here may be helpful for facilities design, modeling crowded scenarios and the organization of large-scale mass activities.

Cross-cultural differences in tolerance for crowding: fact or fiction?

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, G W; Lepore, S J; Allen, K M

2000-08-01

It is widely believed that cultures vary in their tolerance for crowding. There is, however, little evidence to substantiate this belief, coupled with serious shortcomings in the extant literature. Tolerance for crowding has been confused with cultural differences in personal space preferences along with perceived crowding. Furthermore, the few studies that have examined cultural variability in reactions to crowding have compared subgroup correlations, which is not equivalent to a statistical interaction. Although the authors found a statistical interaction indicating that Asian Americans and Latin Americans differ in the way they perceive crowding in comparison to their fellow Anglo-American and African American citizens, all four ethnic groups suffer similar, negative psychological distress sequelae of high-density housing. These results hold independently of household income.

Early Gadolinium Enhancement for Determination of Area at Risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hammer-Hansen, Sophia; Leung, Steve W; Hsu, Li-Yueh

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether early gadolinium enhancement (EGE) by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in a canine model of reperfused myocardial infarction depicts the area at risk (AAR) as determined by microsphere blood flow analysis. BACKGROUND: It remains controver......OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether early gadolinium enhancement (EGE) by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in a canine model of reperfused myocardial infarction depicts the area at risk (AAR) as determined by microsphere blood flow analysis. BACKGROUND: It remains...... requires pathological validation. METHODS: Eleven dogs underwent 2 h of coronary artery occlusion and 48 h of reperfusion before imaging at 1.5-T. EGE imaging was performed 3 min after contrast administration with coverage of the entire left ventricle. Late gadolinium enhancement imaging was performed...... on native T1 and T2 maps. The size of EGE was significantly greater than the infarct by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (44.1 ± 15.8% vs. 20.7 ± 14.4%; p gadolinium enhancement (44.1 ± 15.8% vs. 23.5 ± 12.7%; p

Polymer crowding and shape distributions in polymer-nanoparticle mixtures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lim, Wei Kang; Denton, Alan R., E-mail: alan.denton@ndsu.edu [Department of Physics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota 58108-6050 (United States)

2014-09-21

Macromolecular crowding can influence polymer shapes, which is important for understanding the thermodynamic stability of polymer solutions and the structure and function of biopolymers (proteins, RNA, DNA) under confinement. We explore the influence of nanoparticle crowding on polymer shapes via Monte Carlo simulations and free-volume theory of a coarse-grained model of polymer-nanoparticle mixtures. Exploiting the geometry of random walks, we model polymer coils as effective penetrable ellipsoids, whose shapes fluctuate according to the probability distributions of the eigenvalues of the gyration tensor. Accounting for the entropic cost of a nanoparticle penetrating a larger polymer coil, we compute the crowding-induced shift in the shape distributions, radius of gyration, and asphericity of ideal polymers in a theta solvent. With increased nanoparticle crowding, we find that polymers become more compact (smaller, more spherical), in agreement with predictions of free-volume theory. Our approach can be easily extended to nonideal polymers in good solvents and used to model conformations of biopolymers in crowded environments.

Polymer crowding and shape distributions in polymer-nanoparticle mixtures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Wei Kang; Denton, Alan R.

2014-01-01

Macromolecular crowding can influence polymer shapes, which is important for understanding the thermodynamic stability of polymer solutions and the structure and function of biopolymers (proteins, RNA, DNA) under confinement. We explore the influence of nanoparticle crowding on polymer shapes via Monte Carlo simulations and free-volume theory of a coarse-grained model of polymer-nanoparticle mixtures. Exploiting the geometry of random walks, we model polymer coils as effective penetrable ellipsoids, whose shapes fluctuate according to the probability distributions of the eigenvalues of the gyration tensor. Accounting for the entropic cost of a nanoparticle penetrating a larger polymer coil, we compute the crowding-induced shift in the shape distributions, radius of gyration, and asphericity of ideal polymers in a theta solvent. With increased nanoparticle crowding, we find that polymers become more compact (smaller, more spherical), in agreement with predictions of free-volume theory. Our approach can be easily extended to nonideal polymers in good solvents and used to model conformations of biopolymers in crowded environments

NECESSITY FACTORS AND PREDICTORS OF DENTAL CROWDING TREATMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgeta ZEGAN

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to identify the significant necessity and predictive factors of dental crowding treatment, on 422 subjects (165 boys and 257 girls from the North-East part of Romania. Correlations have been established between dental crowding and age, dentition, Angle class of malocclusions, the etiological factors, types and modalities of treatments, and types of orthodontic appliances employed (p0.05. The necessity and predictive factors of the treatment were adequate with age, dentition, severity of crowding and Angle class of malocclusion.

Designing for crowd well-being : Current designs, strategies and future design suggestions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, J.; de Ridder, H.; Vermeeren, A.P.O.S.; Conrado, C.; Martella, C.

2013-01-01

This paper introduces the concept of crowd well-being and the needs for sustaining it. Crowd well-being can be interpreted as crowd members’ evaluations on their emotional reactions, moods and judgments they form about their satisfactions, goals or needs fulfillment in a crowded situation according

Peer Crowd Identification and Adolescent Health Behaviors: Results From a Statewide Representative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Jeffrey W; Stalgaitis, Carolyn A; Charles, John; Madden, Patrick A; Radhakrishnan, Anjana G; Saggese, Daniel

2018-02-01

Peer crowds are macro-level subcultures that share similarities across geographic areas. Over the past decade, dozens of studies have explored the association between adolescent peer crowds and risk behaviors, and how they can inform public health efforts. However, despite the interest, researchers have not yet reported on crowd size and risk levels from a representative sample, making it difficult for practitioners to apply peer crowd science to interventions. The current study reports findings from the first statewide representative sample of adolescent peer crowd identification and health behaviors. Weighted data were analyzed from the 2015 Virginia Youth Survey of Health Behaviors ( n = 4,367). Peer crowds were measured via the I-Base Survey™, a photo-based peer crowd survey instrument. Frequencies and confidence intervals of select behaviors including tobacco use, substance use, nutrition, physical activity, and violence were examined to identify high- and low-risk crowds. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios for each crowd and behavior. Risky behaviors clustered in two peer crowds. Hip Hop crowd identification was associated with substance use, violence, and some depression and suicidal behaviors. Alternative crowd identification was associated with increased risk for some substance use behaviors, depression and suicide, bullying, physical inactivity, and obesity. Mainstream and, to a lesser extent, Popular, identities were associated with decreased risk for most behaviors. Findings from the first representative study of peer crowds and adolescent behavior identify two high-risk groups, providing critical insights for practitioners seeking to maximize public health interventions by targeting high-risk crowds.

Characteristics of gadolinium-DTPA complex: a potential NMR contrast agent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weinmann, H.J.; Brasch, R.C.; Press, W.R.; Wesbey, G.E.

1984-01-01

Chelation of the rare-earth element gadolinium (Gd) with diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) results in a strongly paramagnetic, stable complex that is well tolerated in animals. The strongly paramagnetic gadolinium complex reduces hydrogen-proton relaxation times even in low concentrations (less than 0.01 mmol/L). The pharmacokinetic behavior of intravenously delivered Gd-DTPA is similar to the well known iodinated contrast agents used in urography and angiography; excretion is predominately through the kidneys with greater than 90% recovery in 24 hr. The intravenous LD 50 of the meglumine salt of Gd-DTPA is 10 mmol/kg for the rat; in vivo there is no evidence of dissociation of the gadolinium ion from the DTPA ligand. The combination of strong proton relaxation, in-vivo stability, rapid urinary excretion, and high tolerance favors the further development and the potential clinical application of gadolinium-DTPA as a contrast enhancer in magnetic resonance imaging

Formation of nanoclusters of gadolinium atoms in silicon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iliev, Kh.M.; Saparniyazova, Z.M.; Ismajlov, K.A.; Madzhitov, M.Kh.

2011-01-01

A technology of stage wise low temperature diffusion of gadolinium into silicon that makes it possible to form nanoclusters of impurity atoms with a significant magnetic moment distributed throughout the volume of the material has been developed. It is shown that, unlike the samples obtained by high temperature diffusion doping, the samples prepared by the new technology do not have surface erosion, and alloys and silicides are not formed in the near surface region. Nanoclusters of impurity atoms of gadolinium in the volume of the crystal lattice of the silicon are studied using an MIK-5 infrared microscope. It is found that, in the stage wise low temperature diffusion, the temperature and time of the diffusion have an effect not only on the depth of penetration of the impurities but also on the sizes of the resulting clusters; these factors can also prevent the formation of clusters. The study of the effect of low temperature treatments on the size and distribution of clusters shows that, upon annealing in the temperature range of 500-700 degrees Celsius, the ordering of the clusters of gadolinium impurity atoms is observed. A further increase in the annealing temperature leads to the destruction of gadolinium clusters in the silicon bulk. (authors)

Current density redistribution from no current crowding to current crowding in Pb-free solder joints with an extremely thick Cu layer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Jung Kyu; Choi, Daechul; Fujiyoshi, Masaru; Chiwata, Nobuhiko; Tu, King-Ning

2012-01-01

In order to remove the effect of current crowding on electromigration, thick Cu under-bump metallization has been widely adopted in the electronics industry. Three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuits, using through Si via Cu column interconnects, is being developed, and it seems that current crowding may not be a reliability issue. However, statistical experiments and 3-D finite element simulation indicate that there is a transition from no current crowding to current crowding, caused by void growth at the cathode. An analysis of the electromigration-induced failure mechanism in solder joints having a very thick Cu layer is presented. It is a unique failure mechanism, different from that in flip chip technology. Moreover, the study of marker displacement shows two different stages of drift velocity, which clearly demonstrates the back-stress effect and the development of compressive stress.

Socialization of Social Anxiety in Adolescent Crowds

Science.gov (United States)

Van Zalk, Nejra; Van Zalk, Maarten Herman Walter; Kerr, Margaret

2011-01-01

In this study, we looked at whether social anxiety is socialized, or influenced by peers' social anxiety, more in some peer crowds than others. Adolescents in crowds with eye-catching appearances such as Goths and Punks (here termed "Radical"), were compared with three comparison groups. Using data from 796 adolescents (353 girls and 443 boys; M…

The obtaining a high-grade gadolinium concentrate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soltysiak, I.; Ozga, W.

1982-01-01

Gadolinium concentrates obtained by the fractional precipitation of lanthanon-potassium double chromates were separated by ion exchange with 0,4 M lactic acid solution in the presence of 0,1 M ammonium nitrate at pH of the medium 2,95-3,4. It was found out, that using the fractional precipitation of lanthanon-potassium double chromates (as the fast and cheap method that does not need special equipment) together with ion exchange separation with lactic acid solution as the eluent gave a highgrade gadolinium concentrate in a quick and economical way. (author)

Use of gadolinium as neutron poison in 540 MWe PHWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nag, P.K.; Fernando, M.P.S.; Kumar, A.N.

2006-01-01

In Pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs), neutron poison in the moderator is used to compensate the excess reactivity present in the core on different occasions such as xenon decay during synchronization just after poison out period or start ups from xenon free conditions. It is also used in secondary shutdown system (SDS-2), where required amount of neutron poison is injected directly into the moderator within 2.5 seconds. Further, it is also used for over poisoning the moderator to achieve the guaranteed shutdown state when the regular shutdown systems are taken for maintenance. Generally, two types of moderator poisons are used in power reactors to balance the reactivity of the core and they are boron and gadolinium. Gadolinium is used in the form of gadolinium nitrate (Gd(NO 3 ) 3 .6H 2 O). The paper gives the details of estimation of reactivity coefficients of gadolinium for 540 MWe PHWR for different operating conditions. These neutron poisons are converted into non-absorbing elements and therefore their effective worth will decrease as reactor operation proceeds. The rate of burning of neutron absorbing isotopes depends on its magnitude of absorption cross-section and thermal flux seen by them. The present study discusses the burning characteristics of gadolinium during power operation in 540 MWe PHWR. It is established by detailed analysis that the rate of positive reactivity realized due to burning of neutron absorbing Gd isotopes almost match with the build up rate of xenon. The burning half lives of boron and gadolinium is worked out for different power levels. (author)

College Crowd-In: How Private Donations Positively Affect Alumni Giving

Science.gov (United States)

Gottfried, Michael A.

2008-01-01

The issue of donor behavior and crowding out has been pertinent in the economics literature, both theoretically and empirically. Aggregate research has not been decisive, nor have many studies analyzed education institutions. I begin with a theoretical model of crowding-out versus crowding-in donor behavior. I then employ a fixed effects…

Study of burnable poisons and gadolinium qualification in light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nasr, Mohamed.

1981-09-01

The aim of this work is to develop a calculation procedure for analyzing light water moderated reactors utilizing gadolinium as a burnable poison. The main points of this work can be summarized as follows: the available cross section data of gadolinium were analysed and corrected whenever it was necessary. The processes which include required precautions for obtaining multigroup cross sections were defined; an exhaustive study of the assumptions used in multicell calculation methods allowed the definition of option to be used for obtaining good results without excessive calculation cost. This study was followed by the interpretation of experimental results; when gadolinium is used in grain structure, a problem of double heterogeneity is encountered. A new calculation method was developed for such situations. Its validity was confirmed by a comparison with the Monte Carlo method; the problems encountered in performing a study of burn up of fuel elements containing gadolinium were analysed and the necessary precautions were established. The effect of the initial charge and geometrical form of the gadolinium and the behavior of lattices during the burn up were examined [fr

The contrasting effect of macromolecular crowding on amyloid fibril formation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qian Ma

Full Text Available Amyloid fibrils associated with neurodegenerative diseases can be considered biologically relevant failures of cellular quality control mechanisms. It is known that in vivo human Tau protein, human prion protein, and human copper, zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1 have the tendency to form fibril deposits in a variety of tissues and they are associated with different neurodegenerative diseases, while rabbit prion protein and hen egg white lysozyme do not readily form fibrils and are unlikely to cause neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we have investigated the contrasting effect of macromolecular crowding on fibril formation of different proteins.As revealed by assays based on thioflavin T binding and turbidity, human Tau fragments, when phosphorylated by glycogen synthase kinase-3β, do not form filaments in the absence of a crowding agent but do form fibrils in the presence of a crowding agent, and the presence of a strong crowding agent dramatically promotes amyloid fibril formation of human prion protein and its two pathogenic mutants E196K and D178N. Such an enhancing effect of macromolecular crowding on fibril formation is also observed for a pathological human SOD1 mutant A4V. On the other hand, rabbit prion protein and hen lysozyme do not form amyloid fibrils when a crowding agent at 300 g/l is used but do form fibrils in the absence of a crowding agent. Furthermore, aggregation of these two proteins is remarkably inhibited by Ficoll 70 and dextran 70 at 200 g/l.We suggest that proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases are more likely to form amyloid fibrils under crowded conditions than in dilute solutions. By contrast, some of the proteins that are not neurodegenerative disease-associated are unlikely to misfold in crowded physiological environments. A possible explanation for the contrasting effect of macromolecular crowding on these two sets of proteins (amyloidogenic proteins and non-amyloidogenic proteins has been

Extraction of gadolinium from high flux isotope reactor control plates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kohring, M.W.

1987-04-01

Gadolinium-153 is an important radioisotope used in the diagnosis of various bone disorders. Recent medical and technical developments in the detection and cure of osteoporosis, a bone disease affecting an estimated 50 million people, have greatly increased the demand for this isotope. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has produced 153 Gd since 1980 primarily through the irradiation of a natural europium-oxide powder followed by the chemical separation of the gadolinium fraction from the europium material. Due to the higher demand for 153 Gd, an alternative production method to supplement this process has been investigated. This process involves the extraction of gadolinium from the europium-bearing region of highly radioactive, spent control plates used at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) with a subsequent re-irradiation of the extracted material for the production of the 153 Gd. Based on the results of experimental and calculational analyses, up to 25 grams of valuable gadolinium (≥60% enriched in 152 Gd) resides in the europium-bearing region of the HFIR control components of which 70% is recoverable. At a specific activity yield of 40 curies of 153 Gd for each gram of gadolinium re-irradiated, 700 one-curie sources can be produced from each control plate assayed

Chemical aspects of gadolinium nitrate as soluble nuclear poison in Savannah River Plant reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumann, E.W.

1978-01-01

The aqueous solution chemistry of gadolinium nitrate was studied to identify conditions that interfere with successful cleanup of gadolinium in Savannah River Plant reactor systems. Injecting a gadolinium nitrate solution into the D 2 O coolant-moderator constitutes a supplementary mode of reactor shutdown. The resulting approximately 0.001M gadolinium nitrate solution is then deionized by recirculation through mixed-bed ion exchange resins before reactor operation is resumed

Crowd behaviour during high-stress evacuations in an immersive virtual environment

Science.gov (United States)

Kapadia, Mubbasir; Thrash, Tyler; Sumner, Robert W.; Gross, Markus; Helbing, Dirk; Hölscher, Christoph

2016-01-01

Understanding the collective dynamics of crowd movements during stressful emergency situations is central to reducing the risk of deadly crowd disasters. Yet, their systematic experimental study remains a challenging open problem due to ethical and methodological constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the viability of shared three-dimensional virtual environments as an experimental platform for conducting crowd experiments with real people. In particular, we show that crowds of real human subjects moving and interacting in an immersive three-dimensional virtual environment exhibit typical patterns of real crowds as observed in real-life crowded situations. These include the manifestation of social conventions and the emergence of self-organized patterns during egress scenarios. High-stress evacuation experiments conducted in this virtual environment reveal movements characterized by mass herding and dangerous overcrowding as they occur in crowd disasters. We describe the behavioural mechanisms at play under such extreme conditions and identify critical zones where overcrowding may occur. Furthermore, we show that herding spontaneously emerges from a density effect without the need to assume an increase of the individual tendency to imitate peers. Our experiments reveal the promise of immersive virtual environments as an ethical, cost-efficient, yet accurate platform for exploring crowd behaviour in high-risk situations with real human subjects. PMID:27605166

Crowd behaviour during high-stress evacuations in an immersive virtual environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Moussaïd, Mehdi; Kapadia, Mubbasir; Thrash, Tyler; Sumner, Robert W; Gross, Markus; Helbing, Dirk; Hölscher, Christoph

2016-09-01

Understanding the collective dynamics of crowd movements during stressful emergency situations is central to reducing the risk of deadly crowd disasters. Yet, their systematic experimental study remains a challenging open problem due to ethical and methodological constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the viability of shared three-dimensional virtual environments as an experimental platform for conducting crowd experiments with real people. In particular, we show that crowds of real human subjects moving and interacting in an immersive three-dimensional virtual environment exhibit typical patterns of real crowds as observed in real-life crowded situations. These include the manifestation of social conventions and the emergence of self-organized patterns during egress scenarios. High-stress evacuation experiments conducted in this virtual environment reveal movements characterized by mass herding and dangerous overcrowding as they occur in crowd disasters. We describe the behavioural mechanisms at play under such extreme conditions and identify critical zones where overcrowding may occur. Furthermore, we show that herding spontaneously emerges from a density effect without the need to assume an increase of the individual tendency to imitate peers. Our experiments reveal the promise of immersive virtual environments as an ethical, cost-efficient, yet accurate platform for exploring crowd behaviour in high-risk situations with real human subjects. © 2016 The Authors.

Towards Detecting the Crowd Involved in Social Events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Huang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Knowing how people interact with urban environments is fundamental for a variety of fields, ranging from transportation to social science. Despite the fact that human mobility patterns have been a major topic of study in recent years, a challenge to understand large-scale human behavior when a certain event occurs remains due to a lack of either relevant data or suitable approaches. Psychological crowd refers to a group of people who are usually located at different places and show different behaviors, but who are very sensitively driven to take the same act (gather together by a certain event, which has been theoretically studied by social psychologists since the 19th century. This study aims to propose a computational approach using a machine learning method to model psychological crowds, contributing to the better understanding of human activity patterns under events. Psychological features and mental unity of the crowd are computed to detect the involved individuals. A national event happening across the USA in April, 2015 is analyzed using geotagged tweets as a case study to test our approach. The result shows that 81% of individuals in the crowd can be successfully detected. Through investigating the geospatial pattern of the involved users, not only can the event related users be identified but also those unobserved users before the event can be uncovered. The proposed approach can effectively represent the psychological feature and measure the mental unity of the psychological crowd, which sheds light on the study of large-scale psychological crowd and provides an innovative way to understanding human behavior under events.

Retinal Photoisomerization in Rhodopsin: Electrostatic and Steric Catalysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomasello, Gaia; Altoe, Piero; Stenta, Marco; Olaso-Gonzalez, Gloria; Garavelli, Marco; Orlandi, Giorgio

2007-01-01

Excited state QM(CASPT2//CASSCF)/MM(GAFF) calculations, by our recently developed code COBRAMM (Computations at Bologna Relating Ab-initio and Molecular Mechanic Methods), were carried out in rhodopsin to investigate on the steric and electrostatic effects in retinal photoisomerization catalysis due to the β-ionone ring and glutammate 181 (GLU 181), respectively. The excited state photoisomerization channel has been mapped and a new christallographyc structure (2.2 Aa resolution) has been used for this purpose. Two different set-ups have been used to evaluate the electrostatic effects of GLU 181 (which is very close to the central double bond of the chromophore): the first with a neutral GLU 181 (as commonly accepted), the second with a negatively charged (i.e. deprotonated) GLU 181 (as very recent experimental findings seem to suggest). On the other hand, β-ionone ring steric effects were evaluated by calculating the photoisomerization path of a modified chromophore, where the ring double bond has been saturated. Spectroscopic properties were calculated and compared with the available experimental data

MR imaging of gestational trophoblastic tumor: role of gadolinium enhancement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Si Young; Byun, Jae Young; Kim, Bum Su; Yun, Young Hyun; Mun, Kyung Mi; Park, Kyung Sin; Kim, Byung Kee; Bae, Seog Nyeon; Shinn, Kyung Sub.

1997-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of gadolinium enhanced MR imaging in the evaluation of gestational trophoblastic tumors (invasive mole and choriocarcinoma). Pre-enhanced T1-and T2-weighted images and gadolinium enhanced T1-weighted images of 34 gestational trophoblastic tumors (15 choriocarcinomas, 19 invasive moles) were retrospectively evaluated and enhancement patterns were analyzed. Morphologica differences and structural characteristics were analyzed by the evaluation of tumor margin, patterns of hemorrhagic necroses, the development of intratumoral vascularity, and molar villi. Graded scores of MR findings between pre- and gadolinium enhanced images were based on the following criteria : 1) visualization of tumor margin 2) distinction between tumor necrosis and zone of trophoblastic proliferation ; and 3) molar villi. Statistical differences between graded scores of pre- and post-enhanced images were analyzed. Gadolinium enhanced MR imaging was helpful for the visualization of tumor characteristics in gestational trophoblastic tumors and in differential diagnosis between invasive mole and choriocarcinoma. (author). 16 refs., 4 tabs., 4 figs

Optimal crowd evacuation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoogendoorn, S.P.; Daamen, W.; Duives, D.C.; Van Wageningen-Kessels, F.L.M.

2013-01-01

This paper deals with the optimal allocation of routes, destination, and departure times to members of a crowd, for instance in case of an evacuation or another hazardous situation in which the people need to leave the area as quickly as possible. The generic approach minimizes the evacuation times,

Use of gadolinium-DTPA in inflammatory skeletal diseases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller-Miny, H.; Reiser, M.; Erlemann, R.; Peters, P.E.

1989-01-01

In bacterial osteomyelitis and arthritis paraossal spreading is sensitively detected by gadolinium-DTPA. Abscessous cavities and membranes are better imaged than with T1- and T2-weighted MRT sequences without contrast medium. In chronic osteomylitis it is of advantage, that also florid inflammatory processes can be detected. Gadolinium-DTPA selectively induces a signal increase in the synovitic pannus, that allows the differentiation from articular effusion. In inflammed particular soft tissue only a retarded signal increase is detectable. (author)

Macromolecular crowding-assisted fabrication of liquid-crystalline imprinted polymers.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chen; Zhang, Jing; Huang, Yan-Ping; Liu, Zhao-Sheng

2015-04-01

A macromolecular crowding-assisted liquid-crystalline molecularly imprinted monolith (LC-MIM) was prepared successfully for the first time. The imprinted stationary phase was synthesized with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or polystyrene (PS) as the crowding agent, 4-cyanophenyl dicyclohexyl propylene (CPCE) as the liquid-crystal monomer, and hydroquinidine as the pseudo-template for the chiral separation of cinchona alkaloids in HPLC. A low level of cross-linker (26%) has been found to be sufficient to achieve molecular recognition on the crowding-assisted LC-MIM due to the physical cross-linking of mesogenic groups in place of chemical cross-linking, and baseline separation of quinidine and quinine could be achieved with good resolution (R(s) = 2.96), selectivity factor (α = 2.16), and column efficiency (N = 2650 plates/m). In contrast, the LC-MIM prepared without crowding agents displayed the smallest diastereoselectivity (α = 1.90), while the crowding-assisted MIM with high level of cross-linker (80%) obtained the greatest selectivity factor (α = 7.65), but the lowest column efficiency (N = 177 plates/m).

Global crowd data to understand risk taking behavior: Understanding the costs of crowd sourcing

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrikx, J.; Johnson, J.

2016-12-01

Crowd sourcing is an increasingly common approach to collect data from a large number of places, people, or both, for a given phenomenon or observation. It is often thought of as a very cost effective approach to collect data from large spatial domains, or from difficult to reach areas, or for spatially discrete observations. While crowd sourcing data can provide a wealth of data beyond that which most research teams can collect themselves, there are many associated, and sometime unexpected costs with this approach. We present a case study of a crowd-sourced data collection campaign to collect GPS tracks of back country recreationalists in avalanche terrain. We ask the volunteers to track their outings using the GPS on their smart phone using a free application, and on the completion of their trip email us their track. On receipt of this track we automatically reply with a link to a decision making survey. In this way we collect data on both the physical attributes of their trip, as well as the social, psychological and demographic data about the person. While this approach has been very successful, it has come at a high cost time-wise. Much like the role of an online course instructor, instructor (or in this case researcher) presence is essential. Replying to emails, updating webpages, posting on social media, and connecting with your volunteer data collectors can become a full time job - and that's even before you start the data analysis. We encourage future researchers to plan ahead for this when starting a crowd sourcing project involving the general public, and seek advice and training in social media, web site development and communication techniques like semi-automated email.

Actual clinical use of gadolinium-chelates for non-MRI applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Strunk, Holger M; Schild, H [Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, 53105, Bonn (Germany)

2004-06-01

For many years, alternatives to iodinated X-ray contrast media have been sought. Of the contrast media investigated to date, only CO{sub 2} and the gadolinium-chelates have been shown to be viable alternatives for selected X-ray examinations. Therefore, we have reviewed the general literature and that specific for gadopentetate (Magnevist) in particular, since this agent has been studied the most. This review indicates that diagnostic CT examinations can be achieved following the intravenous administration of gadolinium-containing contrast media (CM) for evaluation of aortic abnormalities. Gadolinium-containing CM at the dose approved for MR imaging are not useful for CT evaluation of the abdominal parenchymal organs. Intravenous/intraarterial injections have also been used in a variety of angiographic and interventional procedures. Image quality, however, is generally inferior to iodinated contrast media. Gadolinium-containing CM require no special handling and can be administered by hand injection or via conventional angiographic automated injectors with the same flow rates and pressures as are used with iodinated contrast media. For CT, a peripheral bolus injection of a diluted gadolinium agent (1:1 with saline) of 60-90 ml at 3-5 ml/s is usually performed. Similar to all other gadolinium-chelates, the non-MRI use of gadopentetate (Magnevist) is not approved by regulatory agencies. However, the literature suggests that a dose of 0.3-0.4 mmol/kg b.w. has been safely administered for CT as well as for angiography and interventional procedures intravenously and intraarterially. Even at this dose, though, this results in a relatively small overall volume to be injected, which limits utility somewhat. (orig.)

Actual clinical use of gadolinium-chelates for non-MRI applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strunk, Holger M.; Schild, H.

2004-01-01

For many years, alternatives to iodinated X-ray contrast media have been sought. Of the contrast media investigated to date, only CO 2 and the gadolinium-chelates have been shown to be viable alternatives for selected X-ray examinations. Therefore, we have reviewed the general literature and that specific for gadopentetate (Magnevist) in particular, since this agent has been studied the most. This review indicates that diagnostic CT examinations can be achieved following the intravenous administration of gadolinium-containing contrast media (CM) for evaluation of aortic abnormalities. Gadolinium-containing CM at the dose approved for MR imaging are not useful for CT evaluation of the abdominal parenchymal organs. Intravenous/intraarterial injections have also been used in a variety of angiographic and interventional procedures. Image quality, however, is generally inferior to iodinated contrast media. Gadolinium-containing CM require no special handling and can be administered by hand injection or via conventional angiographic automated injectors with the same flow rates and pressures as are used with iodinated contrast media. For CT, a peripheral bolus injection of a diluted gadolinium agent (1:1 with saline) of 60-90 ml at 3-5 ml/s is usually performed. Similar to all other gadolinium-chelates, the non-MRI use of gadopentetate (Magnevist) is not approved by regulatory agencies. However, the literature suggests that a dose of 0.3-0.4 mmol/kg b.w. has been safely administered for CT as well as for angiography and interventional procedures intravenously and intraarterially. Even at this dose, though, this results in a relatively small overall volume to be injected, which limits utility somewhat. (orig.)

Agent Based Modeling and Simulation of Pedestrian Crowds In Panic Situations

KAUST Repository

Alrashed, Mohammed

2016-11-01

The increasing occurrence of panic stampedes during mass events has motivated studying the impact of panic on crowd dynamics and the simulation of pedestrian flows in panic situations. The lack of understanding of panic stampedes still causes hundreds of fatalities each year, not to mention the scarce methodical studies of panic behavior capable of envisaging such crowd dynamics. Under those circumstances, there are thousands of fatalities and twice that many of injuries every year caused be crowd stampede worldwide, despite the tremendous efforts of crowd control and massive numbers of safekeeping forces. Pedestrian crowd dynamics are generally predictable in high-density crowds where pedestrians cannot move freely and thus gives rise to self-propelling interactions between pedestrians. Although every pedestrian has personal preferences, the motion dynamics can be modeled as a social force in such crowds. These forces are representations of internal preferences and objectives to perform certain actions or movements. The corresponding forces can be controlled for each individual to represent a different variety of behaviors that can be associated with panic situations such as escaping danger, clustering, and pushing. In this thesis, we use an agent-based model of pedestrian behavior in panic situations to predict the collective human behavior in such crowd dynamics. The proposed simulations suggests a practical way to alleviate fatalities and minimize the evacuation time in panic situations. Moreover, we introduce contagious panic and pushing behavior, resulting in a more realistic crowd dynamics model. The proposed methodology describes the intensity and spread of panic for each individual as a function of distances between pedestrians.

Microwave and optical diagnostics in a gadolinium plasma; Diagnostics hyperfrequence et optique dans un plasma magnetise de gadolinium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larousse, B. [CEA Centre d`Etudes de Saclay, 91 - Gif-sur-Yvette (France). Dept. des Procedes d`Enrichissement]|[Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (CNAM), 75 - Paris (France)

1997-12-31

The optimization of the separation process of the gadolinium isotopes by Ion Cyclotron Resonance requires a precise knowledge of the physical characteristics of the plasma. Thus, two kinds of diagnostics have been developed: the first one to estimate the microwave power inside the source and the second one to measure the density of atomic and ionic of the gadolinium inside the plasma source and in front of the collector. Microwave diagnostic: A microstrip antenna has been designed and developed in order to characterize the microwave at 36 GHz frequency in the plasma source. The experimental results for different plasma regimes are presented. The measurements inside the plasma source show a maximum of microwave absorption for an argon pressure of 10{sup -4} mb (93% of absorption of the incident wave in the conditions of isotope separation). Laser absorption diagnostic: The theory of laser absorption in presence of a magnetic field is recalled and the first results are presented. In the spectral range between 560 and 620 nm, corresponding to high energy levels of gadolinium, no signal is obtained so that the density is below the detection limit 10{sup 10} cm{sup -3}. In the spectral range between 380 and 400 nm, two lines are observed, issue from the fundamental and metastable (633 cm{sup -1}) levels. The density of metastable level of gadolinium ions is about 10{sup 10} cm{sup -3} with a relative precision of 15 % and its variation is studied as a function of argon pressure, at different sections of the plasma column (source, collector). The achieved set of measurements has been performed in order to check the theoretical models. (author) 32 refs.

Magnetic resonance ventriculography with gadolinium DTPA: report of two cases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siebner, H.R.; Einsiedel, H. von; Conrad, B.

1997-01-01

We report intrathecal use of gadolinium DTPA for MRI of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In two patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, we injected 0.01 mmol gadolinium DTPA into the lateral ventricle via an Ommaya device. Coronal T1-weighted images of the head were obtained at 0.2 T prior to and after injection. There was pronounced enhancement of CSF close to the injection site, allowing good delineation of CSF and surrounding brain tissue. No side effects occurred. MRI with intrathecal administration of highly diluted gadolinium DTPA may be a promising alternative to conventional investigation of CSF-filled cavities using iodinated X-ray contrast media or radionuclides. (orig.). With 3 figs

Contemporary understanding of riots: Classical crowd psychology, ideology and the social identity approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Stott, Clifford; Drury, John

2016-04-01

This article explores the origins and ideology of classical crowd psychology, a body of theory reflected in contemporary popularised understandings such as of the 2011 English 'riots'. This article argues that during the nineteenth century, the crowd came to symbolise a fear of 'mass society' and that 'classical' crowd psychology was a product of these fears. Classical crowd psychology pathologised, reified and decontextualised the crowd, offering the ruling elites a perceived opportunity to control it. We contend that classical theory misrepresents crowd psychology and survives in contemporary understanding because it is ideological. We conclude by discussing how classical theory has been supplanted in academic contexts by an identity-based crowd psychology that restores the meaning to crowd action, replaces it in its social context and in so doing transforms theoretical understanding of 'riots' and the nature of the self. © The Author(s) 2016.

Household Crowding During Childhood and Long-Term Education Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopoo, Leonard M; London, Andrew S

2016-06-01

Household crowding, or having more household members than rooms in one's residence, could potentially affect a child's educational attainment directly through a number of mechanisms. We use U.S. longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to derive new measures of childhood crowding and estimate negative associations between crowding during one's high school years and, respectively, high school graduation by age 19 and maximum education at age 25. These negative relationships persist in multivariate models in which we control for the influence of a variety of factors, including socioeconomic status and housing-cost burden. Given the importance of educational attainment for a range of midlife and later-life outcomes, this study suggests that household crowding during one's high school years is an engine of cumulative inequality over the life course.

Parameterization of phosphine ligands demonstrates enhancement of nickel catalysis via remote steric effects

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Kevin; Doyle, Abigail G.

2017-08-01

The field of Ni-catalysed cross-coupling has seen rapid recent growth because of the low cost of Ni, its earth abundance, and its ability to promote unique cross-coupling reactions. Whereas advances in the related field of Pd-catalysed cross-coupling have been driven by ligand design, the development of ligands specifically for Ni has received minimal attention. Here, we disclose a class of phosphines that enable the Ni-catalysed Csp3 Suzuki coupling of acetals with boronic acids to generate benzylic ethers, a reaction that failed with known ligands for Ni and designer phosphines for Pd. Using parameters to quantify phosphine steric and electronic properties together with regression statistical analysis, we identify a model for ligand success. The study suggests that effective phosphines feature remote steric hindrance, a concept that could guide future ligand design tailored to Ni. Our analysis also reveals that two classic descriptors for ligand steric environment—cone angle and % buried volume—are not equivalent, despite their treatment in the literature.

Adolescent peer crowds and patterns of belief in the boundaries of personal authority.

Science.gov (United States)

Daddis, Christopher

2010-10-01

Patterns of authority beliefs were examined among peer crowds in 598 middle school (M=12.97 years), early high school (M=15.10 years), and late high school adolescents (M=18.25 years). Participants reported beliefs regarding the boundaries of personal authority across personal, prudential, conventional, moral, and multifaceted issues. As expected, analyses revealed persistent differences in belief patterns among crowds within each age group. Tough and Alternative crowds asserted personal authority across all issues, while Prep and Outcast crowds endorsed parental authority. Jock, Hip Hop, and Normal crowds presented with shared-control patterns, but each crowd ceded and asserted authority over different issues. Discussion focused on crowds' roles in the development of group differences in the boundaries of personal authority.

How to Mitigate Theme Park Crowding? A Prospective Coordination Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuguo Yuan

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Crowding is a key factor in tourists’ experience in theme parks, and mitigating crowding makes parks more competitive. This study examines how to effectively mitigate crowding in theme parks. First, a Markov-based method is developed to predict the spatial-temporal distribution of tourists in the park. Then, a prospective coordination approach based on the tourist distribution prediction is proposed. To evaluate the performance of this approach, an experiment is constructed using an agent-based simulation platform. The results indicate that the proposed method significantly outperforms existing methods. Furthermore, we conduct two experiments and, based on the results, offer several recommendations for crowd management.

Virtual Crowds Methods, Simulation, and Control

CERN Document Server

Pelechano, Nuria; Allbeck, Jan

2008-01-01

There are many applications of computer animation and simulation where it is necessary to model virtual crowds of autonomous agents. Some of these applications include site planning, education, entertainment, training, and human factors analysis for building evacuation. Other applications include simulations of scenarios where masses of people gather, flow, and disperse, such as transportation centers, sporting events, and concerts. Most crowd simulations include only basic locomotive behaviors possibly coupled with a few stochastic actions. Our goal in this survey is to establish a baseline o

Impact of New Gadolinium Cross Sections on Reaction Rate Distributions in 10 * 10 BWR Assemblies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perret, G.; Murphy, M.F.; Jatuff, F.; Chawla, R. [Paul Scherrer Inst, CH-5232 Villigen, (Switzerland); Sublet, J.Ch.; Bouland, O. [DEN, Commissariat Energie Atom, F-13108 St Paul Les Durance, (France); Chawla, R. [Ecole Polytech Fed Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, (Switzerland)

2009-07-01

Radial distributions of the total fission rate and the {sup 238}U-capture-to-total-fission (C{sub 8}/F{sub tot}) ratio were measured in SVEA-96+ and SVEA-96 Optima2 assemblies during the LWR-PROTEUS program. Fission rates predicted using MCNPX with JEFF-3.1 cross sections underestimated the measured values in the gadolinium-poisoned pins of the SVEA-96 Optima2 assembly; similarly, C{sub 8}/F{sub tot} ratios were overestimated in some gadolinium-poisoned pins of the SVEA-96+ assembly. A considerable effort was invested at the Paul Scherrer Institut to explain the discrepancies in gadolinium pins, without success. Recently, gadolinium cross sections were measured at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by Leinweber et al. and differed significantly from current library values. ENDF/B-VII.0 gadolinium cross sections have currently been modified to include the new measurements, and these data have been processed with NJOY to yield files usable by MCNPX. Fission rates in the gadolinium-poisoned fuel pins of the SVEA-96 Optima2 pins were increased by 1.4 to 2.0% using the newly produced cross sections, yielding to a better agreement with the experimental values. Predicted C{sub 8}/F{sub tot} ratios were decreased on average by 1.7% in both clustered and un-clustered groups of gadolinium-poisoned fuel pins of the SVEA-96+ assembly correcting the over predictions previously reported in the clustered gadolinium pins. Earlier reported discrepancies observed in PROTEUS integral experiments, between measured and calculated reaction rates in the gadolinium-poisoned pins, might thus be due to inaccurate gadolinium cross sections. The PROTEUS results support the new thermal and epithermal gadolinium data measured by Leinweber et al. (authors)

Gadolinium-Based GaN for Neutron Detection with Gamma Discrimination

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-01

Gadolinium-Based GaN for Neutron Detection with Gamma Discrimination Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release; distribution is...Final Technical Report BRBAA08-Per5-Y-1-2-0030 Title: “Gadolinium-Based GaN for Neutron Detection with Gamma Discrimination ” Grant...Analysis  .............................................................................................  23   6.   Gamma-ray Discrimination

Directing the wisdom of the crowd

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clauss, Thomas; Breitenecker, Robert J.; Kraus, Sascha

2018-01-01

and the community as well as among community members into account. We empirically investigated potential success factors for crowdfunding projects of entrepreneurs on the base of 430 projects from the German crowdfunding platform Visionbakery. Our results show that social interaction during a crowdfunding campaign...... indeed increases the likelihood of its success. As comments from crowd members on particular projects might be positive or negative and can also provide additional argumentation or raise questions, comments can cause a dialog among crowd members. This shows that herding might not only be related...

Modulation of calmodulin plasticity by the effect of macromolecular crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Homouz, Dirar; Sanabria, Hugo; Waxham, M Neal; Cheung, Margaret S

2009-09-04

In vitro biochemical reactions are most often studied in dilute solution, a poor mimic of the intracellular space of eukaryotic cells, which are crowded with mobile and immobile macromolecules. Such crowded conditions exert volume exclusion and other entropic forces that have the potential to impact chemical equilibria and reaction rates. In this article, we used the well-characterized and ubiquitous molecule calmodulin (CaM) and a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches to address how crowding impacts CaM's conformational plasticity. CaM is a dumbbell-shaped molecule that contains four EF hands (two in the N-lobe and two in the C-lobe) that each could bind Ca(2+), leading to stabilization of certain substates that favor interactions with other target proteins. Using coarse-grained molecular simulations, we explored the distribution of CaM conformations in the presence of crowding agents. These predictions, in which crowding effects enhance the population of compact structures, were then confirmed in experimental measurements using fluorescence resonance energy transfer techniques of donor- and acceptor-labeled CaM under normal and crowded conditions. Using protein reconstruction methods, we further explored the folding-energy landscape and examined the structural characteristics of CaM at free-energy basins. We discovered that crowding stabilizes several different compact conformations, which reflects the inherent plasticity in CaM's structure. From these results, we suggest that the EF hands in the C-lobe are flexible and can be thought of as a switch, while those in the N-lobe are stiff, analogous to a rheostat. New combinatorial signaling properties may arise from the product of the differential plasticity of the two distinct lobes of CaM in the presence of crowding. We discuss the implications of these results for modulating CaM's ability to bind Ca(2+) and target proteins.

Deep Learning from Crowds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodrigues, Filipe; Pereira, Francisco Camara

Over the last few years, deep learning has revolutionized the field of machine learning by dramatically improving the stateof-the-art in various domains. However, as the size of supervised artificial neural networks grows, typically so does the need for larger labeled datasets. Recently...... networks from crowds. We begin by describing an EM algorithm for jointly learning the parameters of the network and the reliabilities of the annotators. Then, a novel general-purpose crowd layer is proposed, which allows us to train deep neural networks end-to-end, directly from the noisy labels......, crowdsourcing has established itself as an efficient and cost-effective solution for labeling large sets of data in a scalable manner, but it often requires aggregating labels from multiple noisy contributors with different levels of expertise. In this paper, we address the problem of learning deep neural...

performance calculations of gadolinium oxide and boron nitride coated fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanker, E.; Uslu, I.; Disbudak, H.; Guenduez, G.

1997-01-01

A comparative study was performed on the behaviour of natural uranium dioxide-gadolinium oxide mixture fuel and boron nitride coated low enriched fuel in a pressurized water reactor. A fuel element containing one burnable poison fuel pins was modeled with the computer code WIMS, and burn-up dependent critically, fissile isotope inventory and two dimensional power distribution were obtained. Calculations were performed for burnable poison fuels containing 5% and 10% gadolinium oxide and for those coated with 1μ,5μ and 10μ of boron nitride. Boron nitride coating was found superior to gadolinium oxide on account of its smoother criticality curve, lower power peaks and insignificant change in fissile isotope content

Steric and Stereochemical Modulation in Pyridyl- and Quinolyl-Containing Ligands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaohua Dai

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Nitrogen-containing pyridine and quinoline are outstanding platforms on which excellent ionophores and sensors for metal ions can be built. Steric and stereochemical effects can be used to modulate the affinity and selectivity of such ligands toward different metal ions on the coordination chemistry front. On the signal transduction front, such effects can also be used to modulate optical responses of these ligands in metal sensing systems. In this review, steric modulation of achiral ligands and stereochemical modulation in chiral ligands, especially ionophores and sensors for zinc, copper, silver, and mercury, are examined using published structural and spectral data. Although it might be more challenging to construct chiral ligands than achiral ones, isotropic and anisotropic absorption signals from a single chiroptical fluorescent sensor provide not only detection but also differentiation of multiple analytes with high selectivity.

Social dynamics in emergency evacuations: Disentangling crowd's attraction and repulsion effects

Science.gov (United States)

Haghani, Milad; Sarvi, Majid

2017-06-01

The social dynamics of crowds in emergency escape scenarios have been conventionally modelled as the net effect of virtual forces exerted by the crowd on each individual (as self-driven particles), with the magnitude of the influence formulated as decreasing functions of inter-individual distances and the direction of effect assumed to be transitioning from repulsion to attraction by distance. Here, we revisit this conventional assumption using laboratory experimental data. We show based on robust econometric hypothesis-testing methods that individuals' perception of other escapees differs based on whether those individuals are jamming around exit destinations or are on the move towards the destinations. Also, for moving crowds, it differs based on whether the escape destination chosen by the moving flow is visible or invisible to the individual. The presence of crowd jams around a destination, also the movement of crowd flows towards visible destinations are both perceived on average as repulsion (or disutility) effects (with the former showing significantly larger magnitude than the latter). The movement of crowd flows towards an invisible destination, however, is on average perceived as attraction (or utility) effect. Yet, further hypothesis testing showed that neither of those effects in isolation determines adequately whether an individual would merge with or diverge from the crowd. Rather, the social interaction factors act (at significant levels) in conjunction with the physical factors of the environments (including spatial distances to exit destinations and destinations' visibility). In brief, our finding disentangles the conditions under which individuals are more likely to show mass behaviour from the situations where they are more likely to break from the herd. It identifies two factors that moderate the perception of social interactions, ;crowds' jam/movement status; and ;environmental setup;. Our results particularly challenge the taxonomy of

Using the crowd as an innovation partner.

Science.gov (United States)

Boudreau, Kevin J; Lakhani, Karim R

2013-04-01

From Apple to Merck to Wikipedia, more and more organizations are turning to crowds for help in solving their most vexing innovation and research questions, but managers remain understandably cautious. It seems risky and even unnatural to push problems out to vast groups of strangers distributed around the world, particularly for companies built on a history of internal innovation. How can intellectual property be protected? How can a crowd-sourced solution be integrated into corporate operations? What about the costs? These concerns are all reasonable, the authors write, but excluding crowdsourcing from the corporate innovation tool kit means losing an opportunity. After a decade of study, they have identified when crowds tend to outperform internal organizations (or not). They outline four ways to tap into crowd-powered problem solving--contests, collaborative communities, complementors, and labor markets--and offer a system for picking the best one in a given situation. Contests, for example, are suited to highly challenging technical, analytical, and scientific problems; design problems; and creative or aesthetic projects. They are akin to running a series of independent experiments that generate multiple solutions--and if those solutions cluster at some extreme, a company can gain insight into where a problem's "technical frontier" lies. (Internal R&D may generate far less information.)

Crowd science and engineering: concept and research framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yueting Chai

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The synthetic application and interaction of/between the internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, Industry 4.0 and other new patterns and new technologies shall breed future Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns, manifesting as a crowd cyber eco-system composed of multiple interconnected intelligent agents (enterprises, individuals and governmental agencies and its dynamic behaviors. This paper aims to explore the basic principles and laws of such a system and its behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose the concepts of crowd science and engineering (CSE and expound its main content, thus forming a research framework of theories and methodologies of crowd science. Findings – CSE is expected to substantially promote the formation and development of crowd science and thus lay a foundation for the advancement of Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns. Originality/value – This paper is the first one to propose the concepts of CSE, which lights the beacon for the future research in this area.

Selective photoionization of gadolinium isotopes with a polarized laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Guyadec, E.

1990-06-01

The aim of this study is the use of gadolinium 157 as burnable poison in nuclear reactors. Spectroscopic isotopic displacements between Gd 156 and Gd 157 are low and the separation method studied is based on differentiated behavior, concerning polarized light, of even and odd gadolinium isotopes coming from their difference of nuclear spin. On this principle is based the simplest photoionization scheme. Selective ionization of odd isotopes is realized from the fundamental state with three resonating photons colinearly polarized. The experimental study confirms the possibility of efficient photoionization. The measured selectivity between Gd 157 and even isotope is over 48 in defined conditions because it can be destroyed by a magnetic field or if photons are not well polarized. Calculations and observations are in good agreement. Odd gadolinium isotope separation is feasible and effects preventing separation are evidenced [fr

Crowd Behavior Algorithm Development for COMBAT XXI

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-30

non-combatants to military operations in an urban area. We show how to link this model with COMBATXXI at the application programming interface (API...level so that the model can be run in tight conjunction with COMBATXXI. TRAC and other anaytic organizations can use this type of crowd model to... organizations , and materiel. crowd, agent-based modeling , combat models , COMBATXXI, NetLogo, mega-cities, civilians on the battlefield Unclassified U U U U 39

Crowd-based innovaties: verschuivende verantwoordelijkheden in een institutional void

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slot, M.J.; Cuppen, E.H.W.J.; Doorn, N.; Galeano Galvan, M.J.; Klievink, A.J.

2017-01-01

The crowd increasingly plays a key role in facilitating innovations in a variety of sectors, spurred on by IT developments and the concomitant increase in connectivity. Initiatives in this direction, captured under the umbrella term ‘crowd-based innovations’, offer novel opportunities in

Contrast effects of a gadolinium filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgess, A.E.

1981-01-01

Several authors have suggested using heavy metal filters with K edges in the diagnostic energy range to reduce the width of the x-ray spectrum and hence reduce patient radiation exposure. This spectral narrowing also increases subject contrast and permits an increase in tube potential. Results of contrast measurements are presented for a 250 mu gadolinium filter. It was found that aluminum filter contrast could be matched by using 8 to 10 kVp higher potential with the gadolinium filter. Similar results were found for calcium tungstate and rare-earth screens. Measurements were also done to determine skin exposure and mAs ratios for both constant contrast and constant kVp technique conversion methods. A simple theory with one adjustable parameter gives a reasonable fit to the experimental results

Is Malnutrition Associated with Crowding in Permanent Dentition?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika B. A. F. Thomaz

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Evidence suggests that energy-protein malnutrition is associated with impaired growth and development of facial bones. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between nutritional status and reduced space for dental eruption (crowding in permanent dentition. A cross-sectional study with probabilistic sampling design was used. We evaluated 2,060 students aged 12 to 15 years enrolled in schools in the northeast of Brazil. Crowding was defined according to World Health Organization (WHO as misalignment of teeth due to lack of space for them to erupt in the correct position. Nutritional status was evaluated by means of body mass index and height-for-age, using the WHO’s reference curves. Parents and adolescents responded to a questionnaire about demographic, socioeconomic, biological and behavioral characteristics. The associations were estimated by odds ratio (OR in multivariate logistic regression analysis (alpha = 0.05. Confounding and effect-modification were taken into account. An association between low height-for-age (z-score < –1SD and crowding was only observed in adolescents with a prolonged history of mouth breathing (OR = 3.1. No association was observed between underweight and crowding. Malnutrition is related to crowding in permanent dentition among mouth-breathing adolescents. Policy actions aimed at reducing low height-for-age and unhealthy oral habits are strongly recommended. However, further studies are needed to increase the consistency of these findings and improve understanding of the subject.

Hailstorms over Switzerland: Verification of Crowd-sourced Data

Science.gov (United States)

Noti, Pascal-Andreas; Martynov, Andrey; Hering, Alessandro; Martius, Olivia

2016-04-01

The reports of smartphone users, witnessing hailstorms, can be used as source of independent, ground-based observation data on ground-reaching hailstorms with high temporal and spatial resolution. The presented work focuses on the verification of crowd-sourced data collected over Switzerland with the help of a smartphone application recently developed by MeteoSwiss. The precise location, time of hail precipitation and the hailstone size are included in the crowd-sourced data, assessed on the basis of the weather radar data of MeteoSwiss. Two radar-based hail detection algorithms, POH (Probability of Hail) and MESHS (Maximum Expected Severe Hail Size), in use at MeteoSwiss are confronted with the crowd-sourced data. The available data and investigation time period last from June to August 2015. Filter criteria have been applied in order to remove false reports from the crowd-sourced data. Neighborhood methods have been introduced to reduce the uncertainties which result from spatial and temporal biases. The crowd-sourced and radar data are converted into binary sequences according to previously set thresholds, allowing for using a categorical verification. Verification scores (e.g. hit rate) are then calculated from a 2x2 contingency table. The hail reporting activity and patterns corresponding to "hail" and "no hail" reports, sent from smartphones, have been analyzed. The relationship between the reported hailstone sizes and both radar-based hail detection algorithms have been investigated.

Advantages of gadolinium based ultrasmall nanoparticles vs molecular gadolinium chelates for radiotherapy guided by MRI for glioma treatment

OpenAIRE

Le Duc, G.; Roux, S.; Paruta-Tuarez, A.; Dufort, S.; Bräuer, E.; Marais, A.; Truillet, C.; Sancey, L.; Perriat, P.; Lux, F.; Tillement, O.

2014-01-01

AGuIX nanoparticles are formed of a polysiloxane network surrounded by gadolinium chelates. They present several characteristics. They are easy to produce, they present very small hydrodynamic diameters (

Electromyographic characteristic of orbicularis oris in patients with dental crowding in permanent occlusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Dmytrenko, Maryna I; Kuroiedowa, Vira D

2016-01-01

electromyographic indices were developed for complex analysis of functional condition of orbicularis oris. to study electromyographic indices of orbicularis oris in patients with dental crowding in permanent occlusion. thirty four patients with malocclusion and a severe degree of severity of dental crowding (15 males, 19 females, aged 16-29 years) who underwent orthodontic examination. The treatment group was divided into three: Group Ia comprised 11 subjects with mandibular crowding (mean age 19,27 ± 1,08 years); group Ib, 10 patients with maxillary dental crowding (mean age 20,10 ± 1,60 years) and group Ic, 13 subjects with both maxillary and mandibular crowding (mean age 20,15 ± 1,45 years). The control group consisted of 10 patients with malocclusions but without dental crowding (mean age 20,70 ± 1,32 years). The findings were compared with similar indices in subjects with normal occlusion (mean age 21,3 ± 1,25 years). The index of orbicularis oris activity (ACTIV,%) was determined for each patient. A Student's t-test was used to analyze statistical difference between different groups. patients having crowding of maxillary teeth showed greater activity of muscles of the upper lip during maximum voluntary clenching (АCTІV= -0,99±7,44%). Activity of the muscles of the lower lip in patients with crowding of mandibular teeth (АСTІV=20,52±4,22%) and crowding of maxillary and mandibular teeth (АСTІV=17,93±4,33%) is prevailing. аctivity of the orbicularis oris in patients with malocclusion, complicated by dental crowding depend on clinical localization of crowding.

Navigation for Characters and Crowds in Complex Virtual Environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Toll, W.G.

2017-01-01

In a crowd simulation, virtual walking characters need to compute and traverse paths through a virtual environment while avoiding collisions. Simulations of large crowds occur increasingly often in computer games, in which real-time performance is required. Also, there is an increasing demand for

Jammed Humans in High-Density Crowd Disasters

Science.gov (United States)

Bottinelli, Arianna; Sumpter, David; Silverberg, Jesse

When people gather in large groups like those found at Black Friday sales events, pilgrimages, heavy metal concerts, and parades, crowd density often becomes exceptionally high. As a consequence, these events can produce tragic outcomes such as stampedes and ''crowd crushes''. While human collective motion has been studied with active particle simulations, the underlying mechanisms for emergent behavior are less well understood. Here, we use techniques developed to study jammed granular materials to analyze an active matter model inspired by large groups of people gathering at a point of common interest. In the model, a single behavioral rule combined with body-contact interactions are sufficient for the emergence of a self-confined steady state, where particles fluctuate around a stable position. Applying mode analysis to this system, we find evidence for Goldstone modes, soft spots, and stochastic resonance, which may be the preferential mechanisms for dangerous emergent collective motions in crowds.

Crowd science : it is not just a matter of time (or funding)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vasileiadou, E.

2014-01-01

The last years, citizen science, or crowd science, has increased tremendously, both in number of projects, and number of participants. Most literature on crowd science focuses on its advantages, for both scientists, and the participating citizens. The challenges of crowd science come mainly from

A protocol for amide bond formation with electron deficient amines and sterically hindered substrates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Due-Hansen, Maria E; Pandey, Sunil K; Christiansen, Elisabeth

2016-01-01

A protocol for amide coupling by in situ formation of acyl fluorides and reaction with amines at elevated temperature has been developed and found to be efficient for coupling of sterically hindered substrates and electron deficient amines where standard methods failed.......A protocol for amide coupling by in situ formation of acyl fluorides and reaction with amines at elevated temperature has been developed and found to be efficient for coupling of sterically hindered substrates and electron deficient amines where standard methods failed....

Direct crowding out, optimal taxation and pollution abatement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van der Ploeg, Frederick [FEE, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Bovenberg, A. Lans [CentER, Tilburg University, Tilburg (Netherlands)

1993-05-01

The interactions between direct crowding out, the provision of public goods, optimal taxation and environmental policy are explored. Greener preferences induce a larger tax rate by raising the non-distortionary level of the tax rate. If the marginal productivity of public abatement diminishes rapidly environmental quality improves mainly through a fall in economic activity and emissions. In this case, public consumption increases which crowds out labour supply and private consumption. However, if environmental policy is very effective public consumption falls in order to make room for public abatement. In this case, if labour supply is inelastic with respect to the after-tax wage and direct crowding in is strong, labour supply and economic activity may expand. 1 fig., 7 refs.

Designing for crowd well-being : Needs and design suggestions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, J.; De Ridder, H.; Vermeeren, A.P.O.S.; Conrado, C.; Martella, C.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the needs or criteria for sustaining well-being in crowded situations through two focus group discussions with a total of ten participants. We conclude that pursuing crowd well-being could be divided into two different cases: one is obtaining the enhancement of the current

Effect of Households' Socio-Economic Condition on Crowding in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The results indicate a preponderance of gentrification, with attendant policy implications. The results also show that there is no significant difference in the degree of crowding among the different socio-economic classifications. This is inconsistent with the generally held understanding in urban housing studies that crowding ...

Kinetic models for crowd dynamics. Comment on "Human behaviours in evacuation crowd dynamics: From modelling to "big data" toward crisis management" by N. Bellomo et al.

Science.gov (United States)

Banasiak, J.

2016-09-01

There has been a hierarchy of models of crowd behaviour. One can consider the crowd at the so called microscopic level, as a collection of individuals, and derive its description in the form of a (large) system of ordinary differential equations describing the position and velocity of each individual, in parallel to the Newton's description of matter, see e.g. [10]. Another possibility is to describe crowd, in analogy to fluid dynamics, by providing its density and velocity at a given point, see e.g. [11,12]. At the same time, it is recognized that crowd is 'living, social' system that is prone to exhibit rare, not easily predictable, behaviour in response to stress induced by the perception of danger, or of the action of specific agents, see e.g. [1,2]. This high probability of the occurrence of events that are far from average, makes the crowd behaviour similar to the processes with fat-tailed distribution of events. Such unlikely events have been metaphorically termed black swans in [14], or Lévy flights in [13]. While microscopic and macroscopic models can capture many features of crowd dynamics, including obstacles, see [3,8], such models are described by differential equations that inherently are local in space. At the same time, black swan events are often caused by non-local interactions such as self-organization, learning or adherence to some averaged group behaviour. It is known that such interactions are well described by mean field models best represented by integro-differential equations, such as the Boltzmann equation of the rarefied gas theory. This has made plausible to introduce crowd models at the intermediate, (meso) scale by describing the crowd by the one particle distribution function that gives the density of individuals at any particular state; that is, at a given point in the domain and moving with a specific velocity.

The allocation of attention and working memory in visual crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Bacigalupo, Felix; Luck, Steven J

2015-06-01

When the distance between a visual target and nearby flankers falls below a critical distance, target discrimination declines precipitously. This is called "crowding." Many researchers have proposed that selective attention plays a role in crowding. However, although some research has examined the effects of directing attention toward versus away from the targets, no previous research has assessed how attentional allocation varies as a function of target-flanker distance in crowding. Here, we used ERPs to assess the operation of attention during crowding, focusing on the attention-related N2pc component. We used a typical crowding task in which participants were asked to report the category (vowel/consonant) of a lateralized target letter flanked by distractor letters at different distances. We tested the hypothesis that attention fails when the target-flanker distance becomes too small for attention to operate effectively. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that N2pc amplitude was maximal at intermediate target-flanker distances and decreased substantially when crowding became severe. In addition, we examined the sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), which reflects the amount of information being maintained in working memory. Unlike the N2pc component, the SPCN increased in amplitude at small target-flanker distances, suggesting that observers stored information about the target and flankers in working memory when attention failed to select the target. Together, the N2pc and SPCN results suggest that attention and working memory play distinctive roles in crowding: Attention operates to minimize interference from the flankers at intermediate target-flanker distances, whereas working memory may be recruited when attention fails to select the target at small target-flanker distances.

A model to calculate the burn of gadolinium in PWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sannazzaro, L.R.

1983-01-01

A cell model to calculate the burnup of a PWR fuel element with gadolinium as a poison, projected by KWU, is presented. With the model proposed, the burn of the gadolinium isotopes is analyzed, as well as the effect of these isotopes in the fuel element behaviour. The results obtained with this cell model are compared with those obtained by a conventional cell model. (E.G.) [pt

Motivating crowding theory - opening the black box of intrinsic motivation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Christian Bøtcher

2010-01-01

Public employees work for many other reasons than because they are paid for it. In other words, intrinsic motivation is an important determinant for their performance. Nonetheless, public sector organizations increasingly rely on extrinsic motivation factors such as monetary incentives to motivate...... employees. Motivation crowding theory claims that this may be at the expense of intrinsic motivation, if the extrinsic motivation factor is perceived to be controlling. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation will be enhanced (crowded in), if the extrinsic motivation factor is perceived to be supportive......, monetary incentives are found to cause different crowding effects for these different types of intrinsic motivation. The results call for more theoretical work on the drivers of motivation crowding effects and for practitioners to pay more attention to what type of intrinsic motivation is at stake, when...

Game theoretic aspects of crowd renting | Nwobi-Okoye | Science ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Politicians and businessmen use various strategies to outwit their opponents. One such strategy is crowd renting, a powerful virtual strategy. A mathematical model developed by Nwobi-Okoye using game theory is used to show that crowd renting would always be the equilibrium strategy in strategic interactions involving ...

The wisdom of the crowd in funding: information heterogeneity and social networks of crowdfunders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Polzin, Friedemann; Toxopeus, Helen; Stam, Erik

2018-01-01

Crowdfunding has enabled large crowds to fund innovative projects. This type of funding might tap into the wisdom of crowds who were previously disconnected from the funding process. We distinguish between in-crowd and out-crowd funders (with and without ties to project creators) in order to test

The wisdom of the crowd in funding: : Information heterogeneity and social networks of crowdfunder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Polzin, F.H.J.; Toxopeus, H.S.; Stam, F.C.

2016-01-01

Crowdfunding has enabled large crowds to fund innovative projects. This type of funding might tap into the wisdom of crowds who were previously disconnected from the funding process. We distinguish between in-crowd and out-crowd funders (with and without ties to project creators) in order to test

The Crowd in Mind and Crowded Minds: An Experimental Investigation of Crowding Effects on Students' Views Regarding Tuition Fees in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Hellmann, Jens H.; Jucks, Regina

2017-01-01

In higher education, just amounts of tuition fees are often a topic of heated debate among different groups such as students, university teachers, administrative staff, and policymakers. We investigated whether unpleasant situations that students often experience at university due to social crowding can affect students' views on the justified…

Mass-induced sea level variations in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry, GRACE, in-situ bottom pressure records, and hydrographic observations

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Wei; Lemoine, Jean-Michel; Zhong, Min; Xu, Houze

2014-05-01

An annual amplitude of ~18 cm mass-induced sea level variations (SLV) in the Red Sea is detected from steric-corrected altimetry and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites from 2003 to 2011, which dominates the mean sea level in the region. Seawater mass variations here generally reach maximum in late January/early February. The steric component of SLV calculated from oceanographic temperature and salinity data is relatively small and peaks about seven months later than mass variations. The phase difference between the steric SLV and the mass-induced SLV indicates that when the Red Sea gains the mass from inflow water in winter, the steric SLV fall, and vice versa in summer. In-situ bottom pressure records in the eastern coast of the Red Sea validate the high mass variability observed by steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE. Furthermore, we compare the horizontal water mass flux in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE with that estimated from hydrographic observations.

CROWDING AND SHOPPING VALUE IN LOW-INCOME RETAIL CENTERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Izabelle Quezado

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Considering the great potential of low-income consumption, this research is based on the scales developed by Babin, Darden and Griffin (1994 and by Machleit, Kellaris and Eroglu (1994, aiming to investigate hedonic and utilitarian consumer behavior and its relation with low-income perception of crowding. A research was performed with 404 consumers in real store environment and the results showed that consumers revealed being prone to utilitarian behavior in both centers. About crowding phenomenon, the consumers felt more uncomfortable by crowding at the commercial center with less infrastructure. There were indices that this discomfort was less intense in hedonic consumers.

Standard test methods for analysis of sintered gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets

CERN Document Server

American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia

2006-01-01

1.1 These test methods cover procedures for the analysis of sintered gadolinium oxide-uranium dioxide pellets to determine compliance with specifications. 1.2 The analytical procedures appear in the following order: Section Carbon (Total) by Direct CombustionThermal Conductivity Method C1408 Test Method for Carbon (Total) in Uranium Oxide Powders and Pellets By Direct Combustion-Infrared Detection Method Chlorine and Fluorine by Pyrohydrolysis Ion-Selective Electrode Method C1502 Test Method for Determination of Total Chlorine and Fluorine in Uranium Dioxide and Gadolinium Oxide Gadolinia Content by Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry C1456 Test Method for Determination of Uranium or Gadolinium, or Both, in Gadolinium Oxide-Uranium Oxide Pellets or by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Hydrogen by Inert Gas Fusion C1457 Test Method for Determination of Total Hydrogen Content of Uranium Oxide Powders and Pellets by Carrier Gas Extraction Isotopic Uranium Composition by Multiple-Filament Surface-Ioni...

Macromolecular crowding directs extracellular matrix organization and mesenchymal stem cell behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam S Zeiger

Full Text Available Microenvironments of biological cells are dominated in vivo by macromolecular crowding and resultant excluded volume effects. This feature is absent in dilute in vitro cell culture. Here, we induced macromolecular crowding in vitro by using synthetic macromolecular globules of nm-scale radius at physiological levels of fractional volume occupancy. We quantified the impact of induced crowding on the extracellular and intracellular protein organization of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs via immunocytochemistry, atomic force microscopy (AFM, and AFM-enabled nanoindentation. Macromolecular crowding in extracellular culture media directly induced supramolecular assembly and alignment of extracellular matrix proteins deposited by cells, which in turn increased alignment of the intracellular actin cytoskeleton. The resulting cell-matrix reciprocity further affected adhesion, proliferation, and migration behavior of MSCs. Macromolecular crowding can thus aid the design of more physiologically relevant in vitro studies and devices for MSCs and other cells, by increasing the fidelity between materials synthesized by cells in vivo and in vitro.

Macromolecular crowding directs extracellular matrix organization and mesenchymal stem cell behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeiger, Adam S; Loe, Felicia C; Li, Ran; Raghunath, Michael; Van Vliet, Krystyn J

2012-01-01

Microenvironments of biological cells are dominated in vivo by macromolecular crowding and resultant excluded volume effects. This feature is absent in dilute in vitro cell culture. Here, we induced macromolecular crowding in vitro by using synthetic macromolecular globules of nm-scale radius at physiological levels of fractional volume occupancy. We quantified the impact of induced crowding on the extracellular and intracellular protein organization of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) via immunocytochemistry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and AFM-enabled nanoindentation. Macromolecular crowding in extracellular culture media directly induced supramolecular assembly and alignment of extracellular matrix proteins deposited by cells, which in turn increased alignment of the intracellular actin cytoskeleton. The resulting cell-matrix reciprocity further affected adhesion, proliferation, and migration behavior of MSCs. Macromolecular crowding can thus aid the design of more physiologically relevant in vitro studies and devices for MSCs and other cells, by increasing the fidelity between materials synthesized by cells in vivo and in vitro.

Demonstration of pulmonary embolism with gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coche, E.E.; Hammer, F.D.; Goffette, P.P. [Dept. of Radiology, St. Luc University Hospital, Brussels (Belgium)

2001-11-01

The authors report a case of successful detection of pulmonary embolism using gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT (Gadodiamide, 0.4 mmol/kg, 2 ml/s, delay 18 s) in a 77-year-old woman, with previous allergy to iodinated contrast medium, and renal failure, who presented with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Doppler ultrasound of the lower limbs was first performed and revealed a deep venous thrombosis of the right lower limb. To establish if venous thrombosis was the cause of pulmonary hypertension and to confirm that pulmonary endarterectomy was not indicated in this situation, several imaging modalities were performed. Lung scintigraphy and MRI were non-diagnostic. Gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT demonstrated a large thrombus located proximally and in a segmental artery of the right lower lobe. This case illustrates the potential usefulness of gadolinium as alternative contrast agent with spiral CT to diagnose pulmonary embolism and elucidate the cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension in a patient with some contraindications for iodinated contrast medium injection. (orig.)

Demonstration of pulmonary embolism with gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coche, E.E.; Hammer, F.D.; Goffette, P.P.

2001-01-01

The authors report a case of successful detection of pulmonary embolism using gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT (Gadodiamide, 0.4 mmol/kg, 2 ml/s, delay 18 s) in a 77-year-old woman, with previous allergy to iodinated contrast medium, and renal failure, who presented with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Doppler ultrasound of the lower limbs was first performed and revealed a deep venous thrombosis of the right lower limb. To establish if venous thrombosis was the cause of pulmonary hypertension and to confirm that pulmonary endarterectomy was not indicated in this situation, several imaging modalities were performed. Lung scintigraphy and MRI were non-diagnostic. Gadolinium-enhanced spiral CT demonstrated a large thrombus located proximally and in a segmental artery of the right lower lobe. This case illustrates the potential usefulness of gadolinium as alternative contrast agent with spiral CT to diagnose pulmonary embolism and elucidate the cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension in a patient with some contraindications for iodinated contrast medium injection. (orig.)

Developing an emergency department crowding dashboard: A design science approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Niels; Bergs, Jochen; Eerdekens, Dorien; Depaire, Benoît; Verelst, Sandra

2017-08-30

As an emergency department (ED) is a complex adaptive system, the analysis of continuously gathered data is valuable to gain insight in the real-time patient flow. To support the analysis and management of ED operations, relevant data should be provided in an intuitive way. Within this context, this paper outlines the development of a dashboard which provides real-time information regarding ED crowding. The research project underlying this paper follows the principles of design science research, which involves the development and study of artifacts which aim to solve a generic problem. To determine the crowding indicators that are desired in the dashboard, a modified Delphi study is used. The dashboard is implemented using the open source Shinydashboard package in R. A dashboard is developed containing the desired crowding indicators, together with general patient flow characteristics. It is demonstrated using a dataset of a Flemish ED and fulfills the requirements which are defined a priori. The developed dashboard provides real-time information on ED crowding. This information enables ED staff to judge whether corrective actions are required in an effort to avoid the adverse effects of ED crowding. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimal Acceleration-Velocity-Bounded Trajectory Planning in Dynamic Crowd Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fu Yue-wen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Creating complex and realistic crowd behaviors, such as pedestrian navigation behavior with dynamic obstacles, is a difficult and time consuming task. In this paper, we study one special type of crowd which is composed of urgent individuals, normal individuals, and normal groups. We use three steps to construct the crowd simulation in dynamic environment. The first one is that the urgent individuals move forward along a given path around dynamic obstacles and other crowd members. An optimal acceleration-velocity-bounded trajectory planning method is utilized to model their behaviors, which ensures that the durations of the generated trajectories are minimal and the urgent individuals are collision-free with dynamic obstacles (e.g., dynamic vehicles. In the second step, a pushing model is adopted to simulate the interactions between urgent members and normal ones, which ensures that the computational cost of the optimal trajectory planning is acceptable. The third step is obligated to imitate the interactions among normal members using collision avoidance behavior and flocking behavior. Various simulation results demonstrate that these three steps give realistic crowd phenomenon just like the real world.

Gadolinium enhances the sensitivity of SW-1573 cells for thermal neutron irradiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Franken, N. A. P.; Bergs, J. W. J.; Kok, T. T.; Kuperus, R. R. N.; Stecher-Rasmussen, F.; Haveman, J.; van Bree, C.; Stalpers, L. J. A.

2006-01-01

Gadolinium neutron capture therapy (Gd-NCT) is an experimental cancer treatment based on the physical principal that neutron capture by gadolinium-157 ensures the release of focal high-dose radiation, such as gamma-rays and electrons. Survival and induction of chromosomal aberrations of human

Emergency department crowding in Singapore: Insights from a systems thinking approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoenenberger, Lukas K; Bayer, Steffen; Ansah, John P; Matchar, David B; Mohanavalli, Rajagopal L; Lam, Sean Sw; Ong, Marcus Eh

2016-01-01

Emergency Department crowding is a serious and international health care problem that seems to be resistant to most well intended but often reductionist policy approaches. In this study, we examine Emergency Department crowding in Singapore from a systems thinking perspective using causal loop diagramming to visualize the systemic structure underlying this complex phenomenon. Furthermore, we evaluate the relative impact of three different policies in reducing Emergency Department crowding in Singapore: introduction of geriatric emergency medicine, expansion of emergency medicine training, and implementation of enhanced primary care. The construction of the qualitative causal loop diagram is based on consultations with Emergency Department experts, direct observation, and a thorough literature review. For the purpose of policy analysis, a novel approach, the path analysis, is applied. The path analysis revealed that both the introduction of geriatric emergency medicine and the expansion of emergency medicine training may be associated with undesirable consequences contributing to Emergency Department crowding. In contrast, enhancing primary care was found to be germane in reducing Emergency Department crowding; in addition, it has apparently no negative side effects, considering the boundary of the model created. Causal loop diagramming was a powerful tool for eliciting the systemic structure of Emergency Department crowding in Singapore. Additionally, the developed model was valuable in testing different policy options.

Reversible Redox-Induced Modulation of Sterics in an α-Diimine Ligand Coordinated to Gallium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zarkesh, Ryan A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Foster, Michael E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Ichimura, Andrew S. [San Francisco State Univ., CA (United States); Anstey, Mitchell R. [Davidson College, Davidson, NC (United States)

2017-07-01

The ability to tune the steric envelope through redox events post-synthetically or in tandem with other chemical processes is a powerful tool that could assist in enabling new catalytic methodologies and understanding potential pitfalls in ligand design. The α-diimine ligand, dmp-BIAN, exhibits the peculiar and previously unreported feature of varying steric profiles depending on oxidation state when paired with a main group element. A study of the factors that give rise to this behaviour as well as its impact on the incorporation of other ligands is performed.

Glioblastoma, gadolinium (III) and NCT. An in vitro study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mercanti, D.; Casalbore, P.; Sanita, F.; Rosi, F.; Festinesi, A.; Pallini, R.; Gilbert, B.; Stasio, G. de

2000-01-01

We treated cultured human glioblastoma cells with gadolinium (III) [gadopentetic acid] and we found that: a) cells do internalise this element; b) gadolinium can be localised in the cells nuclei; c) exposure of the cultures to a neutron beam produced a significant and immediate cell death. Although cell survival was also influenced in the irradiated controls it was further reduced (about 50%) in cells pre-exposed to 10 mg/ml gadopentetic acid. We also found that Gd uptake, as measured by ICP-AES, was concentration dependent. (author)

Editorial Bias in Crowd-Sourced Political Information.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua L Kalla

Full Text Available The Internet has dramatically expanded citizens' access to and ability to engage with political information. On many websites, any user can contribute and edit "crowd-sourced" information about important political figures. One of the most prominent examples of crowd-sourced information on the Internet is Wikipedia, a free and open encyclopedia created and edited entirely by users, and one of the world's most accessed websites. While previous studies of crowd-sourced information platforms have found them to be accurate, few have considered biases in what kinds of information are included. We report the results of four randomized field experiments that sought to explore what biases exist in the political articles of this collaborative website. By randomly assigning factually true but either positive or negative and cited or uncited information to the Wikipedia pages of U.S. senators, we uncover substantial evidence of an editorial bias toward positivity on Wikipedia: Negative facts are 36% more likely to be removed by Wikipedia editors than positive facts within 12 hours and 29% more likely within 3 days. Although citations substantially increase an edit's survival time, the editorial bias toward positivity is not eliminated by inclusion of a citation. We replicate this study on the Wikipedia pages of deceased as well as recently retired but living senators and find no evidence of an editorial bias in either. Our results demonstrate that crowd-sourced information is subject to an editorial bias that favors the politically active.

Editorial Bias in Crowd-Sourced Political Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalla, Joshua L; Aronow, Peter M

2015-01-01

The Internet has dramatically expanded citizens' access to and ability to engage with political information. On many websites, any user can contribute and edit "crowd-sourced" information about important political figures. One of the most prominent examples of crowd-sourced information on the Internet is Wikipedia, a free and open encyclopedia created and edited entirely by users, and one of the world's most accessed websites. While previous studies of crowd-sourced information platforms have found them to be accurate, few have considered biases in what kinds of information are included. We report the results of four randomized field experiments that sought to explore what biases exist in the political articles of this collaborative website. By randomly assigning factually true but either positive or negative and cited or uncited information to the Wikipedia pages of U.S. senators, we uncover substantial evidence of an editorial bias toward positivity on Wikipedia: Negative facts are 36% more likely to be removed by Wikipedia editors than positive facts within 12 hours and 29% more likely within 3 days. Although citations substantially increase an edit's survival time, the editorial bias toward positivity is not eliminated by inclusion of a citation. We replicate this study on the Wikipedia pages of deceased as well as recently retired but living senators and find no evidence of an editorial bias in either. Our results demonstrate that crowd-sourced information is subject to an editorial bias that favors the politically active.

Nest-crowdcontrol: Advanced video-based crowd monitoring for large public events

OpenAIRE

Monari, Eduardo; Fischer, Yvonne; Anneken, Mathias

2015-01-01

Current video surveillance systems still lack of intelligent video and data analysis modules for supporting situation awareness of decision makers. Especially in mass gatherings like large public events, the decision maker would benefit from different views of the area, especially from crowd density estimations. This article describes a multi-camera system called NEST and its application for crowd density analysis. First, the overall system design is presented. Based on this, the crowd densit...

Crowd-Sourcing (Semantically) Structured Multilingual Educational Content (CoSMEC)

Science.gov (United States)

Tarasowa, Darya; Auer, Sören; Khalili, Ali; Unbehauen, Jörg

2014-01-01

The support of multilingual content becomes crucial for educational platforms due to the benefits it offers. In this paper we propose a concept that allows content authors to use the power of the crowd to create (semantically) structured multilingual educational content out of their material. To enable the collaboration of the crowd, we expand our…

Feasibility and accuracy of dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography for quantification of gadolinium: a phantom study.

Science.gov (United States)

van Hamersvelt, Robbert W; Willemink, Martin J; de Jong, Pim A; Milles, Julien; Vlassenbroek, Alain; Schilham, Arnold M R; Leiner, Tim

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of dual-layer spectral detector CT (SDCT) for the quantification of clinically encountered gadolinium concentrations. The cardiac chamber of an anthropomorphic thoracic phantom was equipped with 14 tubular inserts containing different gadolinium concentrations, ranging from 0 to 26.3 mg/mL (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.1, 10.6, 15.7, 20.7 and 26.3 mg/mL). Images were acquired using a novel 64-detector row SDCT system at 120 and 140 kVp. Acquisitions were repeated five times to assess reproducibility. Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on three slices per insert. A spectral plot was extracted for every ROI and mean attenuation profiles were fitted to known attenuation profiles of water and pure gadolinium using in-house-developed software to calculate gadolinium concentrations. At both 120 and 140 kVp, excellent correlations between scan repetitions and true and measured gadolinium concentrations were found (R > 0.99, P  0.99, CI 0.99-1.00). Relative mean measurement errors stayed below 10% down to 2.0 mg/mL true gadolinium concentration at 120 kVp and below 5% down to 1.0 mg/mL true gadolinium concentration at 140 kVp. SDCT allows for accurate quantification of gadolinium at both 120 and 140 kVp. Lowest measurement errors were found for 140 kVp acquisitions. • Gadolinium quantification may be useful in patients with contraindication to iodine. • Dual-layer spectral detector CT allows for overall accurate quantification of gadolinium. • Interscan variability of gadolinium quantification using SDCT material decomposition is excellent.

Microwave and optical diagnostics in a gadolinium plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larousse, B.

1997-01-01

The optimization of the separation process of the gadolinium isotopes by Ion Cyclotron Resonance requires a precise knowledge of the physical characteristics of the plasma. Thus, two kinds of diagnostics have been developed: the first one to estimate the microwave power inside the source and the second one to measure the density of atomic and ionic of the gadolinium inside the plasma source and in front of the collector. Microwave diagnostic: A microstrip antenna has been designed and developed in order to characterize the microwave at 36 GHz frequency in the plasma source. The experimental results for different plasma regimes are presented. The measurements inside the plasma source show a maximum of microwave absorption for an argon pressure of 10 -4 mb (93% of absorption of the incident wave in the conditions of isotope separation). Laser absorption diagnostic: The theory of laser absorption in presence of a magnetic field is recalled and the first results are presented. In the spectral range between 560 and 620 nm, corresponding to high energy levels of gadolinium, no signal is obtained so that the density is below the detection limit 10 10 cm -3 . In the spectral range between 380 and 400 nm, two lines are observed, issue from the fundamental and metastable (633 cm -1 ) levels. The density of metastable level of gadolinium ions is about 10 10 cm -3 with a relative precision of 15 % and its variation is studied as a function of argon pressure, at different sections of the plasma column (source, collector). The achieved set of measurements has been performed in order to check the theoretical models. (author)

Metal-Free Approaches to Sterically-Hindered Bonds

Science.gov (United States)

Dunham, Veronica Vin-yi

Developing methods to perform cross coupling reactions by means of catalysis is highly desirable in chemistry. Many industries in today's society, such as the petroleum, agriculture, pharmaceutical, electronics, and polymer industry, use catalysis to some extent whether it is to make molecules that offer crop protection or toward the synthesis of the active ingredient of a medication. It is noteworthy that over 90% of chemicals are made through catalytic processes and that the catalyst market reached $17 billion in 2014, which demonstrates the demand for such methods. While transition metal catalysts have advantages such as low catalyst loading, broad reactivity, and that they have been well studied, some disadvantages are that they can be relatively expensive and sometimes air sensitive which can make them challenging to use. Organocatalysis, specifically noncovalent catalysis operating through hydrogen bond donating interactions, offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to transition metal catalysis. Our lab utilizes organocatalysis as a strategy to synthesize challenging, sterically-hindered bonds. Nitrimines have been identified as powerful coupling partners for the sustainable construction of new sterically congested carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. Using urea catalysis, a metal-free method to synthesize previously inaccessible enamines has been developed. Conventional routes to synthesize enamines as important building blocks toward target molecules generally require Lewis/Bronsted acids or expensive transition metals; however, these methods are often unsuccessful when stericallyhindered substrates are used. To address this synthetic challenge, it was hypothesized that hydrogen bonding interactions between a urea organocatalyst and nitrimine would generate a reactive species suited for the effective carbon-nitrogen coupling with amines to give the desired enamine products. This reaction provides high yields (up to 99%) of enamines using a

Conflict management by hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) during crowding: a tension-reduction strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Judge, P G; Griffaton, N S; Fincke, A M

2006-10-01

Primates change a variety of behavioral responses during short-term exposure to crowding. Under crowded conditions, rates of aggression, submissive behavior, and affiliative behavior may increase or decrease. Different patterns of change among these three categories of response have been interpreted as various coping "strategies" for managing the increased risk of conflict under crowded conditions. Grooming is of particular interest because this behavior is known to have a calming influence on the recipient and could be used to manage conflict under tense situations. A captive group of nine hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) composed of two harems was observed under short-term crowding to determine whether this species adopts conflict-management strategies similar to those described in other primates. The aggression, submission, affiliation, and displacement activities of the six adults in the group (two males and four females) were recorded, and behaviors in their small indoor quarters was compared with baseline behaviors in the outdoor section of their enclosure, which had over 10 times more space. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare behavioral rates during crowding with baseline rates recorded immediately after crowding and during matched controls collected at the same time of day as the crowding sessions. Aggression and submission rates did not change significantly across conditions. Huddling together and proximity increased during crowding, and females increased grooming of their harem male during crowding. Displacement activities (e.g., pacing and self-grooming) increased during crowding, but scratching, an indicator of anxiety in primates, did not. The pattern of behavior exhibited by this group conforms to an active "tension-reduction" strategy in which animals successfully reduce the higher risk of aggression during crowding.

Isotope shift studies in gadolinium spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, S.A.; Saksena, G.D.; Venugopalan, A.

1976-01-01

Isotope shift studies have been carried out in the gadolinium spectrum using a recording Fabry-Perot spectrometer and gadolinium samples enriched in 156 Gd and 160 Gd isotopes. Isotope shifts Δsigma(156-160) have been recorded in 134 lines in the region 3930-4140 A. Some of these lines involve the recently identified even configuration 4f 8 5d6s of Gd I and the newly classified transition 4f 8 6s-4f 8 6p of Gd II. From the isotope shift measurements of lines involving the 4f 8 6s-4f 8 6p transition in Gd II, the isotope shift, ΔT(156-160)=87 mK, has been obtained for the 4f 8 6s configuration. Electronic configurations have been suggested for a number of energy levels and configuration mixing has been pointed out in certain cases. (Auth.)

Characteristics of Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles Using Terahertz Spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Dongkyu; Maeng, Inhee; Son, Joo-Hiuk; Oh, Seung Jae; Kim, Taekhoon; Cho, Byung Kyu; Lee, Kwangyeol

2009-01-01

The penetration property of the terahertz electromagnetic (THz) wave is relevant to its use. We used the THz wave spectroscopy system which easily penetrates some materials that do not contain water, e.g., plastic and ceramics. The system has been developed for several purposes, including measuring the properties of semiconductors and bio-materials, and detecting plastic bombs and ceramic knives at airports. It is also used for medical imaging systems, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), at some research institutes. It can show not only the difference in amplitude, but also the difference of the phase of each point of sample. MRI technology usually uses contrast agents to enhance the quality of the image. Gadolinium diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), made with a heavy metal ion, is commonly used as a clinical MRI contrast agent. Gadolinium oxide (Gd 2 O 3 ) nanoparticle is a new contrast agent. It serves to equip the core of each particle with antibodies or ligands. It can freely circulate in blood vessels without amassing in the liver or lungs. This study shows the characteristics of gadolinium oxide nanoparticles to further advance terahertz medical imaging.

Influence of the addition of gadolinium on the microstructure and mechanical properties of duplex stainless steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Ji-Ho; Jung, Hyun-Do; Im, Jae-Han; Jung, Ki Ho; Moon, Byung-Moon

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of gadolinium addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of duplex stainless steel (DSS) fabricated using a normal casting method. The oxygen content in the cast DSS alloy with gadolinium decreased because of the high reactivity of gadolinium with oxygen. The area fraction and size of non-intermetallic inclusions in the alloy decreased from 0.80±0.12% to 0.58±0.04% and from 6.9±0.7 to 5.8±0.4 μm upon gadolinium addition, respectively. Notably, the ultimate tensile strength and strain at break of the cast alloy significantly increased with the addition of gadolinium from 919±25 to 969±8 MPa and from 24.8±1.9% to 28.4±1.1%, respectively. The hardness of the cast alloy with gadolinium increased from 23.6±1.3 to 25.0±1.2 HRC. A significant increase in the impact energy of the cast alloy was observed and the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature slightly decreased by approximately 10 °C with the addition of gadolinium.

Fluorescence Dynamics of a FRET Probe Designed for Crowding Studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Currie, Megan; Leopold, Hannah; Schwarz, Jacob; Boersma, Arnold J; Sheets, Erin D; Heikal, Ahmed A

2017-01-01

Living cells are crowded with macromolecules and organelles. As a result, there is an urgent need for molecular sensors for quantitative, site-specific assessment of the macromolecular crowding effects on a myriad of biochemical processes toward quantitative cell biology and biophysics. Here we

Quantitative Comparison Between Crowd Models for Evacuation Planning and Evaluation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Viswanathan, V.; Lee, C.E.; Lees, M.H.; Cheong, S.A.; Sloot, P.M.A.

2014-01-01

Crowd simulation is rapidly becoming a standard tool for evacuation planning and evaluation. However, the many crowd models in the literature are structurally different, and few have been rigorously calibrated against real-world egress data, especially in emergency situations. In this paper we

Patterns of residential crowding among Hispanics in later life: immigration, assimilation, and housing market factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Burr, Jeffrey A; Mutchler, Jan E; Gerst, Kerstin

2010-11-01

We describe patterns of residential crowding among older Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. We also examine hypotheses about the relationship of residential crowding with assimilation (language and duration of residence) and housing market characteristics. We employ a multilevel research design, using data from the 2000 U.S. Census of Population. Hierarchical linear models are utilized to estimate the association between residential crowding and both individual and housing market factors. Approximately one third of older Hispanics in metropolitan areas live in crowded housing compared with only one tenth of older non-Hispanic Whites. Foreign-born older persons report higher levels of crowding than U.S.-born older persons. Residential crowding differences between older Hispanics and non-Hispanics are not eliminated after controls are included. Older Hispanics who report better English language skills and a longer duration of residence in the United States live in less crowded housing. We do not find evidence for a relationship between crowding and residential segregation, but we find consistent evidence for an association between residential crowding and relative size of the Hispanic population. The forces that shape household composition and access to housing among older Hispanics appear to result in higher levels of residential crowding for this population.

Physical and chemical properties of calcium doped gadolinium cobaltite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhuk, P.P.; Kharton, V.V.; Tonoyan, A.A.; Naumovich, E.N.

1991-01-01

The effect of calcium doping additions on electrical and tharmal properties of gadolinium cobaltite was investigated. It was established that solid solutions of Gd 1-x Ca x CoO 3 (x=0-0.5) composition had cubic perovskite structure with orthorhombic distortion. Calcium doping of gadolinium cobaltite increases its conductivity by two orders. Parameter of resistance of electronic layer of ρ/d for a sample of Gd 0.9 Ca 0.1 CoO 3 composition at d≥40mg/sm 2 was by an order higher than in compact samples

Substituent effects in heterogeneous catalysis--5. The steric hindrance of bulky alkyl substituents in cyclohexanone hydrogenation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chihara, T; Tanaka, K

1979-02-01

The steric hindrance of bulky alkyl substituents in cyclohexanone hydrogenation was demonstrated by the reactivities of 2-isopropyl and 2-tert.-butyl cyclohexanone relative to cyclohexanone in individual and competitive hydrogenation at 30/sup 0/C over alumina-supported ruthenium, rhodium, and platinum catalysts. The results indicate that the ketone adsorption onto the catalyst is sterically hindered by the alkyl substitution significantly more than the surface reaction which follows the adsorption.

How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, Jan; Rauhut, Heiko; Schweitzer, Frank; Helbing, Dirk

2011-01-01

Social groups can be remarkably smart and knowledgeable when their averaged judgements are compared with the judgements of individuals. Already Galton [Galton F (1907) Nature 75:7] found evidence that the median estimate of a group can be more accurate than estimates of experts. This wisdom of crowd effect was recently supported by examples from stock markets, political elections, and quiz shows [Surowiecki J (2004) The Wisdom of Crowds]. In contrast, we demonstrate by experimental evidence (N = 144) that even mild social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect in simple estimation tasks. In the experiment, subjects could reconsider their response to factual questions after having received average or full information of the responses of other subjects. We compare subjects’ convergence of estimates and improvements in accuracy over five consecutive estimation periods with a control condition, in which no information about others’ responses was provided. Although groups are initially “wise,” knowledge about estimates of others narrows the diversity of opinions to such an extent that it undermines the wisdom of crowd effect in three different ways. The “social influence effect” diminishes the diversity of the crowd without improvements of its collective error. The “range reduction effect” moves the position of the truth to peripheral regions of the range of estimates so that the crowd becomes less reliable in providing expertise for external observers. The “confidence effect” boosts individuals’ confidence after convergence of their estimates despite lack of improved accuracy. Examples of the revealed mechanism range from misled elites to the recent global financial crisis. PMID:21576485

Reaction of ammonium triphosphate with gadolinium nitrate in aqueous solution at 273K

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodicheva, G.V.; Tananaev, I.V.; Romanova, N.M.

1982-01-01

The solubility in the system (NW 4 ) 5 P 3 O 10 -Gd(NO 3 ) 3 - H 2 O (273 K) is studied. Depending on the reagent ratio formation of the compounds Gd 5 (P 3 O 10 ) 3 x22H 2 O, NH 4 Gd 3 (P 3 O 10 ) 2 x12H 2 O and (NH 4 ) 3 Gd 4 (P 3 O 10 ) 3 x14H 2 O is established. Gadolinium triphosphates, separated from solution, are studied using the methods of paper chromatography, X-ray diffractometry, thermography. Simultaneously with thermal dehydration of gadolinium triphosphates the processes of triphosphate decomposition and phosphate anion condensation take place. A mixture of crystalline ortho-phosphate and long- chain polyphosphate of gadolinium is the final product of thermal decomposition (1063 K) of normal and doubl e ammonium- containing gadolinium triphosphates [ru

Achieving external validity in home advantage research: generalizing crowd noise effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tony D Myers

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Different factors have been postulated to explain the home advantage phenomenon in sport. One plausible explanation investigated has been the influence of a partisan home crowd on sports officials’ decisions. Different types of studies have tested the crowd influence hypothesis including purposefully designed experiments. However, while experimental studies investigating crowd influences have high levels of internal validity, they suffer from a lack of external validity; decision-making in a laboratory setting bearing little resemblance to decision-making in live sports settings. This focused review initially considers threats to external validity in applied and theoretical experimental research. Discussing how such threats can be addressed using representative design by focusing on a recently published study that arguably provides the first experimental evidence of the impact of live crowd noise on officials in sport. The findings of this controlled experiment conducted in a real tournament setting offer some confirmation of the validity of laboratory experimental studies in the area. Finally directions for future research and the future conduct of crowd noise studies are discussed.

Achieving external validity in home advantage research: generalizing crowd noise effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Tony D

2014-01-01

Different factors have been postulated to explain the home advantage phenomenon in sport. One plausible explanation investigated has been the influence of a partisan home crowd on sports officials' decisions. Different types of studies have tested the crowd influence hypothesis including purposefully designed experiments. However, while experimental studies investigating crowd influences have high levels of internal validity, they suffer from a lack of external validity; decision-making in a laboratory setting bearing little resemblance to decision-making in live sports settings. This focused review initially considers threats to external validity in applied and theoretical experimental research. Discussing how such threats can be addressed using representative design by focusing on a recently published study that arguably provides the first experimental evidence of the impact of live crowd noise on officials in sport. The findings of this controlled experiment conducted in a real tournament setting offer a level of confirmation of the findings of laboratory studies in the area. Finally directions for future research and the future conduct of crowd noise studies are discussed.

Crowding and delivery of healthcare in emergency departments: the European perspective.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Jayaprakash, Namita

2009-11-01

Emergency department (ED) crowding is a multifactorial problem, resulting in increased ED waiting times, decreased patient satisfaction and deleterious domino effects on the entire hospital. Although difficult to define and once limited to anecdotal evidence, crowding is receiving more attention as attempts are made to quantify the problem objectively. It is a worldwide phenomenon with regional influences, as exemplified when analyzing the problem in Europe compared to that of the United States. In both regions, an aging population, limited hospital resources, staff shortages and delayed ancillary services are key contributors; however, because the structure of healthcare differs from country to country, varying influences affect the issue of crowding. The approach to healthcare delivery as a right of all people, as opposed to a free market commodity, depends on governmental organization and appropriation of funds. Thus, public funding directly influences potential crowding factors, such as number of hospital beds, community care facilities, and staffing. Ultimately ED crowding is a universal problem with distinctly regional root causes; thus, any approach to address the problem must be tailored to regional influences.

Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd-MRA) of thoracic vasculature in an animal model using double-dose gadolinium and quiet breathing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hernandez, R.J.; Strouse, P.J. [Section of Pediatric Radiology, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor (United States); Londy, F.J. [Dept. of Radiology, University of Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Wakefield, T.W. [Dept. of Surgery, Section of Vascular Surgery, University of Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2001-08-01

Objective. To evaluate a gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd-MRA) imaging protocol for the assessment of thoracic vessels using double-dose gadolinium and quiet breathing. An animal model was used to simulate imaging in infants and young children. Material and methods. Six baboons (Papio anubis), mean weight 5.7 kg, were sedated and intubated. After the injection of double-dose Gd-DTPA (0.2 mmol/kg) through a peripheral vein, a coronal spoiled 3D gradient-echo volume acquisition was obtained during quiet breathing. Two radiologists reviewed the images for visualization of aortic arch, brachiocephalic vessel origins, pulmonary arteries (central, upper lobe and descending branches), and pulmonary veins (upper and lower). Results. Visualization was excellent for the aortic arch, brachiocephalic vessel origins, and pulmonary arteries, including the hilar branches. Visualization was excellent for the lower and right upper pulmonary veins and fair for the left upper pulmonary vein. There was excellent agreement between radiologists. Conclusion. Imaging of thoracic vessels with Gd-MRA using double gadolinium during quiet breathing was effective in our animal model. The advantages of this technique include a short imaging time and depiction of vascular segments - branches of pulmonary arteries and intraparenchymal segments of pulmonary veins - not optimally visualized with other non-invasive imaging techniques. (orig.)

Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd-MRA) of thoracic vasculature in an animal model using double-dose gadolinium and quiet breathing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez, R.J.; Strouse, P.J.; Londy, F.J.; Wakefield, T.W.

2001-01-01

Objective. To evaluate a gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd-MRA) imaging protocol for the assessment of thoracic vessels using double-dose gadolinium and quiet breathing. An animal model was used to simulate imaging in infants and young children. Material and methods. Six baboons (Papio anubis), mean weight 5.7 kg, were sedated and intubated. After the injection of double-dose Gd-DTPA (0.2 mmol/kg) through a peripheral vein, a coronal spoiled 3D gradient-echo volume acquisition was obtained during quiet breathing. Two radiologists reviewed the images for visualization of aortic arch, brachiocephalic vessel origins, pulmonary arteries (central, upper lobe and descending branches), and pulmonary veins (upper and lower). Results. Visualization was excellent for the aortic arch, brachiocephalic vessel origins, and pulmonary arteries, including the hilar branches. Visualization was excellent for the lower and right upper pulmonary veins and fair for the left upper pulmonary vein. There was excellent agreement between radiologists. Conclusion. Imaging of thoracic vessels with Gd-MRA using double gadolinium during quiet breathing was effective in our animal model. The advantages of this technique include a short imaging time and depiction of vascular segments - branches of pulmonary arteries and intraparenchymal segments of pulmonary veins - not optimally visualized with other non-invasive imaging techniques. (orig.)

Does Temporal Integration Occur for Unrecognizable Words in Visual Crowding?

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jifan; Lee, Chia-Lin; Li, Kuei-An; Tien, Yung-Hsuan; Yeh, Su-Ling

2016-01-01

Visual crowding—the inability to see an object when it is surrounded by flankers in the periphery—does not block semantic activation: unrecognizable words due to visual crowding still generated robust semantic priming in subsequent lexical decision tasks. Based on the previous finding, the current study further explored whether unrecognizable crowded words can be temporally integrated into a phrase. By showing one word at a time, we presented Chinese four-word idioms with either a congruent or incongruent ending word in order to examine whether the three preceding crowded words can be temporally integrated to form a semantic context so as to affect the processing of the ending word. Results from both behavioral (Experiment 1) and Event-Related Potential (Experiment 2 and 3) measures showed congruency effect in only the non-crowded condition, which does not support the existence of unconscious multi-word integration. Aside from four-word idioms, we also found that two-word (modifier + adjective combination) integration—the simplest kind of temporal semantic integration—did not occur in visual crowding (Experiment 4). Our findings suggest that integration of temporally separated words might require conscious awareness, at least under the timing conditions tested in the current study. PMID:26890366

Growth, characterization and dielectric studies of gadolinium ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

solution of higher pH. After complete gelation, an .... between the gadolinium and fumarate ions because at higher ..... Department of Higher Education, Government of Jammu and. Kashmir, for providing and facilitating the teacher fellowship.

Modeling gadolinium-bearing fuel in Ringhals PWRs using CASMO/SIMULATE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurcyusz, E.

1993-01-01

Ringhals units 2, 3, and 4 are Westinghouse three-loop, 157-assembly pressurized water reactors (PWRs) operated by Vattenfall. Originally, all three reactors were loaded in an out-in scheme using reload fuel without burnable poisons. In recent cycles, gadolinium-bearing fuel was introduced to enable a low-leakage loading pattern and minimize fuel cycle costs. This paper focuses on the Fragema 17 x 17 AFA design with peripheral gadolinium rods loaded in units 3 and 4. The Ringhals units are modeled using the Studsvik core management system, consisting of the CASMO-3 transport theory lattice physics code,and the SIMULATE-3 advanced nodal reactor analysis code. The results of the studies verifying the accuracy of CASMO-3/SIMULATE-3 on the assemblies with peripheral gadolinium rods are presented in this paper. The verification was carried out against CASMO-3 color-set calculations and measured reactor data

Spectral, Electrochemical, Fluorescence, Kinetic and Anti-microbial Studies of Acyclic Schiff-base Gadolinium(III) Complexes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vijayaraj, A.; Prabu, R.; Suresh, R.; Narayanan, V.; Sangeetha Kumari, R.; Kaviyarasan, V.

2012-01-01

A new series of acyclic mononuclear gadolinium(III) complexes have been prepared by Schiff-base condensation derived from 5-methylsalicylaldehyde, diethylenetriamine, tris(2-aminoethyl) amine, triethylenetetramine, N,N-bis(3-aminopropyl)ethylene diamine, N,N-bis(aminopropyl) piperazine, and gadolinium nitrate. All the complexes were characterized by elemental and spectral analyses. Electronic spectra of the complexes show azomethine (CH=N) within the range of 410-420 nm. The fluorescence efficiency of Gd(III) ion in the cavity was completely quenched by the higher chain length ligands. Electrochemical studies of the complexes show irreversible one electron reduction process around -2.15 to -1.60 V. The reduction potential of gadolinium(III) complexes shifts towards anodic directions respectively upon increasing the chain length. The catalytic activity of the gadolinium(III) complexes on the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenylphosphate was determined. All gadolinium(III) complexes were screened for antibacterial activity

Spectral, Electrochemical, Fluorescence, Kinetic and Anti-microbial Studies of Acyclic Schiff-base Gadolinium(III) Complexes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vijayaraj, A.; Prabu, R.; Suresh, R.; Narayanan, V.; Sangeetha Kumari, R.; Kaviyarasan, V. [Univ. of Madras, Madras (India)

2012-11-15

A new series of acyclic mononuclear gadolinium(III) complexes have been prepared by Schiff-base condensation derived from 5-methylsalicylaldehyde, diethylenetriamine, tris(2-aminoethyl) amine, triethylenetetramine, N,N-bis(3-aminopropyl)ethylene diamine, N,N-bis(aminopropyl) piperazine, and gadolinium nitrate. All the complexes were characterized by elemental and spectral analyses. Electronic spectra of the complexes show azomethine (CH=N) within the range of 410-420 nm. The fluorescence efficiency of Gd(III) ion in the cavity was completely quenched by the higher chain length ligands. Electrochemical studies of the complexes show irreversible one electron reduction process around -2.15 to -1.60 V. The reduction potential of gadolinium(III) complexes shifts towards anodic directions respectively upon increasing the chain length. The catalytic activity of the gadolinium(III) complexes on the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenylphosphate was determined. All gadolinium(III) complexes were screened for antibacterial activity.

Stability analysis of predator-prey interaction with a crowding effect ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The mathematical modeling of species interactions usually relies on competition models. However, it is known that species interactions may exhibit more complicated patterns with a crowding effect and this can be particularly important in benign environments. In this paper we discuss competition models with a crowding ...

Intracellular crowding effects on the self-association of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ.

Science.gov (United States)

Naddaf, Lamis; Sayyed-Ahmad, Abdallah

2014-12-15

The dimerization rate of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ is strongly affected by the intracellular crowding. Yet the complexity of the intracellular environment makes it difficult to investigate via all-atom molecular dynamics or other detailed theoretical methods. We study the crowding effect on FtsZ dimerization which is the first step of an oligomerization process that results in more elaborate supramolecular structures. In particular, we consider the effect of intracellular crowding on the reaction rates, and their dependence on the different concentrations of crowding agents. We achieved this goal by using Brownian dynamics (BD) simulation techniques and a modified post-processing approach in which we decompose the rate constant in crowded media as a product of the rate constant in the dilute solution times a factor that incorporates the crowding effect. The latter factor accounts for the diffusion reduction and crowder induced energy. In addition we include the crowding effects on water viscosity in the BD simulations of crowded media. We finally show that biomolecular crowding has a considerable effect on the FtsZ dimerization by increasing the dimerization rate constant from 2.6×10(7)M(-1)s(-1) in the absence of crowders to 1.0×10(8)M(-1)s(-1) at crowding level of 0.30. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Steric effects on the primary isotope dependence of secondary kinetic isotope effects in hydride transfer reactions in solution: caused by the isotopically different tunneling ready state conformations?

Science.gov (United States)

Maharjan, Binita; Raghibi Boroujeni, Mahdi; Lefton, Jonathan; White, Ormacinda R; Razzaghi, Mortezaali; Hammann, Blake A; Derakhshani-Molayousefi, Mortaza; Eilers, James E; Lu, Yun

2015-05-27

The observed 1° isotope effect on 2° KIEs in H-transfer reactions has recently been explained on the basis of a H-tunneling mechanism that uses the concept that the tunneling of a heavier isotope requires a shorter donor-acceptor distance (DAD) than that of a lighter isotope. The shorter DAD in D-tunneling, as compared to H-tunneling, could bring about significant spatial crowding effect that stiffens the 2° H/D vibrations, thus decreasing the 2° KIE. This leads to a new physical organic research direction that examines how structure affects the 1° isotope dependence of 2° KIEs and how this dependence provides information about the structure of the tunneling ready states (TRSs). The hypothesis is that H- and D-tunneling have TRS structures which have different DADs, and pronounced 1° isotope effect on 2° KIEs should be observed in tunneling systems that are sterically hindered. This paper investigates the hypothesis by determining the 1° isotope effect on α- and β-2° KIEs for hydride transfer reactions from various hydride donors to different carbocationic hydride acceptors in solution. The systems were designed to include the interactions of the steric groups and the targeted 2° H/D's in the TRSs. The results substantiate our hypothesis, and they are not consistent with the traditional model of H-tunneling and 1°/2° H coupled motions that has been widely used to explain the 1° isotope dependence of 2° KIEs in the enzyme-catalyzed H-transfer reactions. The behaviors of the 1° isotope dependence of 2° KIEs in solution are compared to those with alcohol dehydrogenases, and sources of the observed "puzzling" 2° KIE behaviors in these enzymes are discussed using the concept of the isotopically different TRS conformations.

Routing in Dense Human Crowds Using Smartphone Movement Data and Optical Aerial Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian Hillen

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a navigation approach for smartphones that enables visitors of major events to avoid crowded areas or narrow streets and to navigate out of dense crowds quickly. Two types of sensor data are integrated. Real-time optical images acquired and transmitted by an airborne camera system are used to compute an estimation of a crowd density map. For this purpose, a patch-based approach with a Gabor filter bank for texture classification in combination with an interest point detector and a smoothing function is applied. Furthermore, the crowd density is estimated based on location and movement speed of in situ smartphone measurements. This information allows for the enhancement of the overall crowd density layer. The composed density information is input to a least-cost routing workflow. Two possible use cases are presented, namely (i an emergency application and (ii a basic routing application. A prototypical implementation of the system is conducted as proof of concept. Our approach is capable of increasing the security level for major events. Visitors are able to avoid dense crowds by routing around them, while security and rescue forces are able to find the fastest way into the crowd.

Crowding depression of UV-mutagenesis in E. coli

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bockrath, R.; Harper, D.; Kristoff, S.; Stanford Univ., CA

1980-01-01

Strains of E. coli Br were exposed to UV radiation and assayed for reversion mutation, using a standard selection medium. If more irradiated bacteria were assayed per petri dish, a proportional increase in the number of indicated reversion mutants was oud only up to a limiting plating density. Beyond a density of about 10 8 viable bacteria per petri dish, the number of indicated revertants per viable bacteriy assayed (the mutation frequency) decreased as the plating density was increased. The crowding depression of mutagenesis was more severe for de novo and converted suppressor mutations, the mutation frequency being reduced 100-fold at a plating density of about 6 x 10 9 viable bacteria per plate. The effect on backmutation was 10 times less. Crowding depression of mutagenesis occured in excision-proficient and -deficient strains, with identical effects in the 2 strains on de novo and converted suppressor mutation, but different effects on backmutations. There were no accompanying effects on viability. Irreversible loss of potential mutants during crowded growth was indicated in wash-off experiments. The kinetics suggested a half-life of approximately 1 h. Kinetics for accumulation by the bacteria of the limiting metabolite (tyrosine) on the assay plate indicated a short period of time for protein synthesis, but direct examination of the proteins synthesized during early growth on a crowded plate demonstrated successful induction of recA protein. (orig.)

Solitary hepatic infantile hemangioendothelioma: dynamic gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging findings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mortele, Koenraad J.; Vanzieleghem, Bart; Mortele, Bart; Benoit, Yves; Ros, Pablo R.

2002-01-01

We report the MRI findings of a solitary hepatic infantile hemangioendothelioma (IHE) diagnosed in a 14-day-old girl. To the best of our knowledge, only one report has illustrated the dynamic gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging features of IHE previously. Compounding the rarity of presentation as a solitary mass, the gadolinium-enhanced MRI appearance in our case is unique, because the IHE showed an early rim-like pseudocapsular enhancement followed by progressive fill-in of the lesion on delayed imaging. (orig.)

Multiscale diffusion of a molecular probe in a crowded environment: a concept

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Megan; Thao, Chang; Timerman, Randi; Welty, Robb; Berry, Brenden; Sheets, Erin D.; Heikal, Ahmed A.

2015-08-01

Living cells are crowded with macromolecules and organelles. Yet, it is not fully understood how macromolecular crowding affects the myriad of biochemical reactions, transport and the structural stability of biomolecules that are essential to cellular function and survival. These molecular processes, with or without electrostatic interactions, in living cells are therefore expected to be distinct from those carried out in test tube in dilute solutions where excluded volumes are absent. Thus there is an urgent need to understand the macromolecular crowding effects on cellular and molecular biophysics towards quantitative cell biology. In this report, we investigated how biomimetic crowding affects both the rotational and translation diffusion of a small probe (rhodamine green, RhG). For biomimetic crowding agents, we used Ficoll-70 (synthetic polymer), bovine serum albumin and ovalbumin (proteins) at various concentrations in a buffer at room temperature. As a control, we carried out similar measurements on glycerolenriched buffer as an environment with homogeneous viscosity as a function of glycerol concentration. The corresponding bulk viscosity was measured independently to test the validity of the Stokes-Einstein model of a diffusing species undergoing a random walk. For rotational diffusion (ps-ns time scale), we used time-resolved anisotropy measurements to examine potential binding of RhG as a function of the crowding agents (surface structure and size). For translational diffusion (μs-s time scale), we used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for single-molecule fluctuation analysis. Our results allow us to examine the diffusion model of a molecular probe in crowded environments as a function of concentration, length scale, homogeneous versus heterogeneous viscosity, size and surface structures. These biomimetic crowding studies, using non-invasive fluorescence spectroscopy methods, represent an important step towards understanding cellular biophysics and

Gadolinium-based contrast agents in pediatric magnetic resonance imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gale, Eric M.; Caravan, Peter [Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Radiology, The Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA (United States); Rao, Anil G. [Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Charleston, SC (United States); McDonald, Robert J. [College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Department of Radiology, Rochester, MN (United States); Winfeld, Matthew [University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA (United States); Fleck, Robert J. [Cincinnati Children' s Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Cincinnati, OH (United States); Gee, Michael S. [MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Harvard Medical School, Division of Pediatric Imaging, Department of Radiology, Boston, MA (United States)

2017-05-15

Gadolinium-based contrast agents can increase the accuracy and expediency of an MRI examination. However the benefits of a contrast-enhanced scan must be carefully weighed against the well-documented risks associated with administration of exogenous contrast media. The purpose of this review is to discuss commercially available gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) in the context of pediatric radiology. We discuss the chemistry, regulatory status, safety and clinical applications, with particular emphasis on imaging of the blood vessels, heart, hepatobiliary tree and central nervous system. We also discuss non-GBCA MRI contrast agents that are less frequently used or not commercially available. (orig.)

Gadolinium Use in Spine Pain Management Procedures for Patients with Contrast Allergies: Results in 527 Procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Safriel, Yair; Ang, Roberto; Ali, Muhammed

2008-01-01

Introduction. To review the safety and efficacy of gadolinium in spine pain management procedures in patients at high risk for a contrast reaction and who are not suitable candidates for the use of standard non-ionic contrast. Methods. We reviewed records over a 61-month period of all image-guided spinal pain management procedures where patients had allergies making them unsuitable candidates for standard non-ionic contrast and where gadolinium was used to confirm needle tip placement prior to injection of medication. Results. Three hundred and four outpatients underwent 527 procedures. A spinal needle was used in all but 41 procedures. Gadolinium was visualized using portable C-arm fluoroscopy in vivo allowing for confirmation of needle tip location. The gadolinium dose ranged from 0.2 to 10 ml per level. The highest dose received by one patient was 15.83 ml intradiscally during a three-level discogram. Three hundred and one patients were discharged without complication or known delayed complications. One patient had documented intrathecal injection but without sequelae and 2 patients who underwent cervical procedures experienced seizures requiring admission to the intensive care unit. Both the latter patients were discharged without any further complications. Conclusion. Based on our experience we recommend using gadolinium judiciously for needle tip confirmation. We feel more confident using gadolinium in the lumbar spine and in cervical nerve blocks. Gadolinium should probably not be used as an injectate volume expander. The indications for gadolinium use in cervical needle-guided spine procedures are less clear and use of a blunt-tipped needle should be considered

Household crowding associated with childhood otitis media hospitalisations in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowie, Christopher; Pearson, Amber L; Campbell, Malcolm; Barnett, Ross

2014-06-01

To examine the association between hospitalisations for otitis media and area-level measures of household crowding among children in New Zealand. Counts of hospital admissions for otitis media by census area unit were offset against population data from the 2006 national census. Area-level household crowding, exposure to tobacco smoke in the home, equivalised income and individual-level characteristics age and sex were adjusted for. To examine effect modification by ethnicity, three separate poisson models were examined for the total, Māori and non-Māori populations. Household crowding was significantly associated with hospital admissions for otitis media after adjustment in all three models. Neighbourhoods with the highest compared to the lowest proportion of crowded homes exhibited incidence rate ratios of 1.25 (95%CI 1.12-1.37) in the total population, 1.59 (95%CI 1.21-2.04) in the Māori restricted model and 1.17 (95%CI 1.06-1.32) in the non-Māori restricted model. Otitis media hospitalisations are associated with area-level measures of household crowding and other risk factors in this ecological study. The largest increase in otitis media incidence relative to neighbourhood rates of household crowding was exhibited among Māori cases of otitis media. This study adds weight to the growing body of literature linking infectious disease risk to overcrowding in the home. © 2014 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2014 Public Health Association of Australia.

Mixed emotions: Sensitivity to facial variance in a crowd of faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Haberman, Jason; Lee, Pegan; Whitney, David

2015-01-01

The visual system automatically represents summary information from crowds of faces, such as the average expression. This is a useful heuristic insofar as it provides critical information about the state of the world, not simply information about the state of one individual. However, the average alone is not sufficient for making decisions about how to respond to a crowd. The variance or heterogeneity of the crowd--the mixture of emotions--conveys information about the reliability of the average, essential for determining whether the average can be trusted. Despite its importance, the representation of variance within a crowd of faces has yet to be examined. This is addressed here in three experiments. In the first experiment, observers viewed a sample set of faces that varied in emotion, and then adjusted a subsequent set to match the variance of the sample set. To isolate variance as the summary statistic of interest, the average emotion of both sets was random. Results suggested that observers had information regarding crowd variance. The second experiment verified that this was indeed a uniquely high-level phenomenon, as observers were unable to derive the variance of an inverted set of faces as precisely as an upright set of faces. The third experiment replicated and extended the first two experiments using method-of-constant-stimuli. Together, these results show that the visual system is sensitive to emergent information about the emotional heterogeneity, or ambivalence, in crowds of faces.

Bone marrow blood supply in gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saifuddin, A.; Bann, K.; Ridgway, J.P.; Butt, W.P.

1994-01-01

A retrospective study was performed to determine whether bone blood supply can be assessed on gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. Lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of 49 patients attending for post-laminectomy examination were reviewed (30 male, 19 female, mean age 46.4 years, age range 23-84 years). Each study included sagittal T1-weighted spin echo sequences before and after gadolinium administration. Regions of interest were drawn within the L3 vertebral body from a parasagittal slice from each sequence. Signal intensity (SI) values were ascertained and the percentage increase in SI was calculated. For each patient, changes in receiver gain for pre- and post-gadolinium images were corrected by an image scaling factor. In all cases, a measurable increase in SI was found (mean 15.3%, range 4.4-55.7) due to bone vascularity. The results give no indication of the quantity or timing of blood supply but provide a basis for further work. (orig.)

Gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of musculoskeletal infectious processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hopkins, K.L.; Li, K.C.P.; Bergman, G.

1995-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides diagnostic information beyond that given by nonenhanced imaging in the evaluation of musculoskeletal infectious processes and whether it can be used for differentiating infectious from noninfectious inflammatory lesions. Magnetic resonance images performed with and without intravenous gadolinium-DTPA in 34 cases in which musculoskeletal infection had been clinically suspected were reviewed. Infectious lesions-including osteomyelitis, pyarthrosis, abscess, and cellulitis-were confirmed in a total of 22 cases: in 15 by biopsy or drainage and in 7 by clinical course. Our results show that gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced MRI is a highly sensitive technique in diagnosing musculoskeletal infectious lesions. It is especially useful in distinguishing abscesses from surrounding cellulitis/myositis. Lack of contrast enhancement rules out infection with a high degree of certainty. However, contrast enhancement cannot be used to reliably distinguish infectious from noninfectious inflammatory conditions. (orig.)

Gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of musculoskeletal infectious processes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hopkins, K.L. [Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology, Stanford Univ. Medical Center, CA (United States); Li, K.C.P. [Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology, Stanford Univ. Medical Center, CA (United States); Bergman, G. [Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology, Stanford Univ. Medical Center, CA (United States)

1995-07-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides diagnostic information beyond that given by nonenhanced imaging in the evaluation of musculoskeletal infectious processes and whether it can be used for differentiating infectious from noninfectious inflammatory lesions. Magnetic resonance images performed with and without intravenous gadolinium-DTPA in 34 cases in which musculoskeletal infection had been clinically suspected were reviewed. Infectious lesions-including osteomyelitis, pyarthrosis, abscess, and cellulitis-were confirmed in a total of 22 cases: in 15 by biopsy or drainage and in 7 by clinical course. Our results show that gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced MRI is a highly sensitive technique in diagnosing musculoskeletal infectious lesions. It is especially useful in distinguishing abscesses from surrounding cellulitis/myositis. Lack of contrast enhancement rules out infection with a high degree of certainty. However, contrast enhancement cannot be used to reliably distinguish infectious from noninfectious inflammatory conditions. (orig.)

Tuning and Quantifying Steric and Electronic Effects of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes

KAUST Repository

Falivene, Laura; Poater, Albert; Cavallo, Luigi

2014-01-01

This chapter states that the main handles for tuning steric and electronic effects are the substituents on N atoms, the nature of the C4-C5 bridge (either saturated or unsaturated), and the substituents on the C4 and C5 atoms. The initial intuition

Household crowding and psychosocial health among Inuit in Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riva, Mylène; Larsen, Christina Viskum Lytken; Bjerregaard, Peter

2014-01-01

men and women are differently influenced by their housing conditions. METHODS: Data on more than 3,000 Inuit aged 18 years and older are from the Inuit health in transition Greenland survey. Associations between household crowding and composition, and mental well-being and binge drinking were examined......OBJECTIVES: Poor housing conditions experienced by many Indigenous peoples threaten their health and well-being. This study examines whether household crowding is associated with poorer psychosocial health among Greenlanders, and the mediating role of social support. It also assesses whether Inuit...... using logistic regression models, adjusting for individuals' characteristics. RESULTS: Household crowding was associated with poorer mental well-being. Binge drinking was more common among people living in households without children. These effects were more important for women than for men...

Social crowding in the night-time reduces an anxiety-like behavior and increases social interaction in adolescent mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ago, Yukio; Tanaka, Tatsunori; Ota, Yuki; Kitamoto, Mari; Imoto, Emina; Takuma, Kazuhiro; Matsuda, Toshio

2014-08-15

Rearing in crowded conditions is a psychosocial stressor that affects biological functions. The effects of continuous crowding for many days have been studied, but those of crowding over a limited time have not. In this study, we examined the effects of night-time or daytime crowding over 2 weeks on behavior in adolescent and adult mice. Crowding (20 mice/cage) in either the night-time or daytime did not affect locomotor activity in the open field test or cognitive function in the fear conditioning test. In contrast, night-time crowding, but not daytime crowding, had an anxiolytic effect in the elevated plus-maze test and increased social interaction in adolescent mice, but not in adult mice. The first night-time, but not daytime, crowding increased plasma corticosterone levels in adolescent mice, although night-time crowding over 2 weeks did not affect the corticosterone levels. Furthermore, no significant effects of the first crowding were observed in adult mice. In a second crowding condition (six mice/small cage), the anxiolytic-like effects of night-time crowding and the change in plasma corticosterone levels were not observed, suggesting that the density of mice is not important for the behavioral consequences of crowding. Night-time crowding did not affect neurotrophic/growth factor levels and hippocampal neurogenesis in adolescent mice. These findings suggest that night-time crowding leads to anxiolytic-like behaviors in adolescent mice, and imply that night-time crowding stress in adolescence may be beneficial to brain functions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Crowds and Crisis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borch, Christian

The November Revolution in 1918 made manifest and further unleashed a political crisis in Germany, the consequences of which have been thoroughly examined. What has attracted less attention is how the Revolution also triggered a semantic crisis within sociology, namely with regard to conceptions...... selected aspects of classical crowd semantics – in particular notions of imitation and suggestibility – and for placing them centrally in the understanding of the social, in times of crisis and not....

The use of iodinated and gadolinium contrast media during pregnancy and lactation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Webb, Judith A.W. [St. Bartholomew' s Hospital, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, London (United Kingdom); Thomsen, Henrik S. [Copenhagen University Hospital at Herlev, Department of Diagnostic Radiology 54E2, Herlev (Denmark); Morcos, Sameh K. [Northern General Hospital, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheffield (United Kingdom)

2005-06-01

The use of iodinated or gadolinium-based contrast media in pregnant or lactating women often causes concerns in the radiology department because of the principle of not exposing a fetus or neonate to any drugs. Because of the uncertainty about the use of contrast media during pregnancy and lactation, the Contrast Media Safety Committee of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology decided to review the literature and draw up guidelines. An extensive literature search was carried out and summarized in a report. Based on the limited information available, simple guidelines have been drawn up. The report and guidelines were discussed at the 11th European Symposium on Urogenital Radiology in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Mutagenic and teratogenic effects have not been described after administration of gadolinium or iodinated contrast media. Free iodide in radiographic contrast medium given to the mother has the potential to depress fetal/neonatal thyroid function. Neonatal thyroid function should be checked during the 1st week if iodinated contrast media have been given during pregnancy. No effect on the fetus has been seen after gadolinium contrast media. Only tiny amounts of iodinated or gadolinium-based contrast medium given to a lactating mother reach the milk, and only a minute proportion entering the baby's gut is absorbed. The very small potential risk associated with absorption of contrast medium may be considered insufficient to warrant stopping breast-feeding for 24 h following either iodinated or gadolinium contrast agents. (orig.)

The use of iodinated and gadolinium contrast media during pregnancy and lactation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Webb, Judith A.W.; Thomsen, Henrik S.; Morcos, Sameh K.

2005-01-01

The use of iodinated or gadolinium-based contrast media in pregnant or lactating women often causes concerns in the radiology department because of the principle of not exposing a fetus or neonate to any drugs. Because of the uncertainty about the use of contrast media during pregnancy and lactation, the Contrast Media Safety Committee of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology decided to review the literature and draw up guidelines. An extensive literature search was carried out and summarized in a report. Based on the limited information available, simple guidelines have been drawn up. The report and guidelines were discussed at the 11th European Symposium on Urogenital Radiology in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Mutagenic and teratogenic effects have not been described after administration of gadolinium or iodinated contrast media. Free iodide in radiographic contrast medium given to the mother has the potential to depress fetal/neonatal thyroid function. Neonatal thyroid function should be checked during the 1st week if iodinated contrast media have been given during pregnancy. No effect on the fetus has been seen after gadolinium contrast media. Only tiny amounts of iodinated or gadolinium-based contrast medium given to a lactating mother reach the milk, and only a minute proportion entering the baby's gut is absorbed. The very small potential risk associated with absorption of contrast medium may be considered insufficient to warrant stopping breast-feeding for 24 h following either iodinated or gadolinium contrast agents. (orig.)

ICP-oa TOFMS utilisation to determine the Gd isotopic abundance in gadolinium nitrate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dragomir, M.; Ohai, D.; Dumitrescu, I.; Furtuna, I.

2010-01-01

This paper is describes the development of a method that should permit the determination of isotope abundance of gadolinium in gadolinium nitrate, used as burnable poison at Cernavoda NPP. To determine the isotopic abundance of gadolinium the inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ICP-oa TOFMS) was used. The ICP-oa TOFMS allows the elimination of noise associated with instrumental drift and instability (flicker noise). The absence of flicker noise in the ICP-oa TOFMS means that the isotope ratios can be measured up to the statistical limit of ion counting. With TOFMS, each spectrum acquired represents signals from ions extracted from the plasma during the same time interval, formed from identical plasma and sample introduction events. Therefore, the ICP-oa TOFMS, Optimass 8000, has been successfully used for isotope ratio measurements of Gd in gadolinium nitrate [Gd (NO 3 ) 3 x 6H 2 O] sample solutions. (authors)

Correlation between late gadolinium enhancement and diastolic function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy assessed by magnetic resonance imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Motoyasu, Munenobu; Kurita, Tairo; Onishi, Katsuya

2008-01-01

Diastolic dysfunction is common in patients with overt hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Steady-state cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enables measurement of the diastolic function of the left ventricle (LV), and late gadolinium enhanced MRI can delineate the presence and extent of fibrosis in HCM. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the extent of myocardial fibrosis demonstrated by late gadolinium-enhanced MRI and diastolic dysfunction. Seventeen patients (13 men, mean age 57.7±9.8 years) with HCM were studied. The severity index of late gadolinium enhancement was determined by scoring the extent of enhanced tissue in 30 myocardial segments. The peak filling rate (PFR), LV ejection fraction and LV mass were determined by cine MRI. Contrast-enhanced MRI demonstrated late gadolinium enhancement in 97 of 510 segments (19%) and 13 of the 17 patients (77%). The severity index of late gadolinium enhancement demonstrated a significant negative correlation with PFR (r=-0.86, p<0.01) and with the LV ejection fraction (r=-0.59, p<0.05). No significant correlation was observed between the severity index of late gadolinium enhancement and LV mass (r=0.23, p=0.30). The extent of myocardial fibrosis revealed by late gadolinium-enhanced MRI has a strong relationship to diastolic dysfunction in patients with HCM. (author)

Traffic instabilities in self-organized pedestrian crowds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehdi Moussaïd

Full Text Available In human crowds as well as in many animal societies, local interactions among individuals often give rise to self-organized collective organizations that offer functional benefits to the group. For instance, flows of pedestrians moving in opposite directions spontaneously segregate into lanes of uniform walking directions. This phenomenon is often referred to as a smart collective pattern, as it increases the traffic efficiency with no need of external control. However, the functional benefits of this emergent organization have never been experimentally measured, and the underlying behavioral mechanisms are poorly understood. In this work, we have studied this phenomenon under controlled laboratory conditions. We found that the traffic segregation exhibits structural instabilities characterized by the alternation of organized and disorganized states, where the lifetime of well-organized clusters of pedestrians follow a stretched exponential relaxation process. Further analysis show that the inter-pedestrian variability of comfortable walking speeds is a key variable at the origin of the observed traffic perturbations. We show that the collective benefit of the emerging pattern is maximized when all pedestrians walk at the average speed of the group. In practice, however, local interactions between slow- and fast-walking pedestrians trigger global breakdowns of organization, which reduce the collective and the individual payoff provided by the traffic segregation. This work is a step ahead toward the understanding of traffic self-organization in crowds, which turns out to be modulated by complex behavioral mechanisms that do not always maximize the group's benefits. The quantitative understanding of crowd behaviors opens the way for designing bottom-up management strategies bound to promote the emergence of efficient collective behaviors in crowds.

A novel steric effect-regulated isothermal exponential amplification technology for the one-step homogeneous sensing of proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wanghua; Pan, Wufan; Yu, Dongdong; Yuan, Zhen; Qin, Yazhou; Lu, Yuxiang; Zhang, Tao; Zhou, Jianguang

2018-02-12

A simple and homogeneous technology, the steric effect-regulated isothermal exponential amplification reaction (SER-EXPAR), was developed to sense proteins. By using a small molecule linked DNA nanostructure, termed enzyme-binding hairpin (EBH), the protein-small molecule binding events could be readily sensed by utilizing the steric effect generated between the protein and enzyme. It set free the enzyme to be active again, thus regulating the amplification rate of EXPAR.

MR arthrography gadolinium versus standard MR imaging in rotator cuff pathology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hodler, J.; Brahme, S.K.; Karzel, R.; Cervilla, V.; Snyder, S.; Schweitzer, M.; Flannigan, B.; Resnick, D.

1990-01-01

This paper compares the accuracy of MR imaging with and without intraarticular gadolinium in the diagnosis of rotator cuff pathology, using arthroscopy as the gold standard. The authors examined 36 patients, first with T2-weighted sequences and then with T1-weighted sequences after the injection of 15-20 mL of diluted gadolinium. The images were read blindly by three radiologists experienced in musculoskeletal MR imaging. The results were compared with those of arthroscopy. In 16 of 19 arthroscopically intact rotator cuffs, both sequences demonstrated no evidence of rotator cuff tear. The remaining three cases were interpreted as partial or full-thickness tears. Of 12 partial tears, T1-weighted images with intraarticular gadolinium demonstrated a partial tear in five, degeneration in four, a full thickness tear in two, and a normal rotator cuff in one

Diffusion in crowded biological environments: applications of Brownian dynamics

OpenAIRE

Długosz, Maciej; Trylska, Joanna

2011-01-01

Biochemical reactions in living systems occur in complex, heterogeneous media with total concentrations of macromolecules in the range of 50 - 400 mg/ml. Molecular species occupy a significant fraction of the immersing medium, up to 40% of volume. Such complex and volume-occupied environments are generally termed 'crowded' and/or 'confined'. In crowded conditions non-specific interactions between macromolecules may hinder diffusion - a major process determining metabolism, transport, and sign...

Experimental determination of electron shock excitation cross sections for a singly charged gadolinium ion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smirnov, Yu.M.

1995-01-01

The trends observed in the processes of excitation with simultaneous ionization have received little study. This is particularly so for rare-earth elements having electron shells of complex structure and optical spectra very rich in lines. Among the basic factors responsible for such a situation, we should mention two: the difficulty presented by theoretical analysis of the processes discussed and the absence of factual information about the excitation cross sections with simultaneous ionization for the majority of rare-earth elements. The aim of the present work is to investigate the excitation of a singly charged gadolinium ion in the collisions of monokinetic electrons with gadolinium atoms. Up to the present time, only the excitation cross sections of a gadolinium atom have been measured, where investigation of the electron shock excitation of gadolinium atoms in their free state is associated with overcoming large experimental difficulties. About 160 crosss sections for the excitation of a singly charged gadolinium ion were measured and for a third of the cross sections; the energy dependences were recorded for the change in energy of the elecrons from the excitation threshold up to 200 eV. Included are tables of the wavelength, transistion, internal quantum number, the energy of the lowere and upper levels, and the values of cross sections for the charged gadolinium ion. Diagrams of the transistion energy states of Gd (II) and spectroscopy are presented and explained

Polymer Crowding in Confined Polymer-Nanoparticle Mixtures

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Wyatt J.; Denton, Alan R.

Crowding can influence the conformations and thus functionality of macromolecules in quasi-two-dimensional environments, such as DNA or proteins confined to a cell membrane. We explore such crowding within a model of polymers as penetrable ellipses, whose shapes are governed by the statistics of a 2D random walk. The principal radii of the polymers fluctuate according to probability distributions of the eigenvalues of the gyration tensor. Within this coarse-grained model, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of mixtures of polymers and hard nanodisks, including trial changes in polymer conformation (shape and orientation). Penetration of polymers by nanodisks is incorporated with a free energy cost predicted by polymer field theory. Over ranges of size ratio and nanodisk density, we analyze the influence of crowding on polymer shape by computing eigenvalue distributions, mean radius of gyration, and mean asphericity of the polymer. We compare results with predictions of free-volume theory and with corresponding results in three dimensions. Our approach may help to interpret recent (and motivate future) experimental studies of biopolymers interacting with cell membranes, with relevance for drug delivery and gene therapy. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR-1106331.

Mass-induced sea level variations in the Red Sea from GRACE, steric-corrected altimetry, in situ bottom pressure records, and hydrographic observations

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, W.; Lemoine, J.-M.; Zhong, M.; Hsu, H. T.

2014-08-01

An annual amplitude of ∼18 cm mass-induced sea level variations (SLV) in the Red Sea is detected from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites and steric-corrected altimetry from 2003 to 2011. The annual mass variations in the region dominate the mean SLV, and generally reach maximum in late January/early February. The annual steric component of the mean SLV is relatively small (mass-induced SLV. In situ bottom pressure records at the eastern coast of the Red Sea validate the high mass variability observed by steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE. In addition, the horizontal water mass flux of the Red Sea estimated from GRACE and steric-corrected altimetry is validated by hydrographic observations.

Dynamics-Based Stranded-Crowd Model for Evacuation in Building Bottlenecks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lidi Huang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In high-density public buildings, it is difficult to evacuate. So in this paper, we propose a novel quantitative evacuation model to insure people’s safety and reduce the risk of crowding. We analyze the mechanism of arch-like clogging phenomena during evacuation and the influencing factors in emergency situations at bottleneck passages; then we design a model based on crowd dynamics and apply the model to a stadium example. The example is used to compare evacuation results of crowd density with different egress widths in stranded zones. The results show this model proposed can guide the safe and dangerous egress widths in performance design and can help evacuation routes to be selected and optimized.

Crowd-sourcing with Uncertain Quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Papakonstantinou, Athanasios; Bogetoft, Peter

This article addresses two important issues in crowd-sourcing: ex ante uncertainty about the quality and cost of different workers and strategic behaviour. We present a novel multi-dimensional auction that incentivises the workers to make partial enquiry into the task and to honestly report quality...

Purification of cerium, neodymium and gadolinium for low background experiments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boiko R.S.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cerium, neodymium and gadolinium contain double beta active isotopes. The most interesting are 150Nd and 160Gd (promising for 0ν2β search, 136Ce (2β+ candidate with one of the highest Q2β. The main problem of compounds containing lanthanide elements is their high radioactive contamination by uranium, radium, actinium and thorium. The new generation 2β experiments require development of methods for a deep purification of lanthanides from the radioactive elements. A combination of physical and chemical methods was applied to purify cerium, neodymium and gadolinium. Liquid-liquid extraction technique was used to remove traces of Th and U from neodymium, gadolinium and for purification of cerium from Th, U, Ra and K. Co-precipitation and recrystallization methods were utilized for further reduction of the impurities. The radioactive contamination of the samples before and after the purification was tested by using ultra-low-background HPGe gamma spectrometry. As a result of the purification procedure the radioactive contamination of gadolinium oxide (a similar purification efficiency was reached also with cerium and neodymium oxides was decreased from 0.12 Bq/kg to 0.007 Bq/kg in 228Th, from 0.04 Bq/kg to <0.006 Bq/kg in 226Ra, and from 0.9 Bq/kg to 0.04 Bq/kg in 40K. The purification methods are much less efficient for chemically very similar radioactive elements like actinium, lanthanum and lutetium.

Crowd science user contribution patterns and their implications

Science.gov (United States)

Sauermann, Henry; Franzoni, Chiara

2015-01-01

Scientific research performed with the involvement of the broader public (the crowd) attracts increasing attention from scientists and policy makers. A key premise is that project organizers may be able to draw on underused human resources to advance research at relatively low cost. Despite a growing number of examples, systematic research on the effort contributions volunteers are willing to make to crowd science projects is lacking. Analyzing data on seven different projects, we quantify the financial value volunteers can bring by comparing their unpaid contributions with counterfactual costs in traditional or online labor markets. The volume of total contributions is substantial, although some projects are much more successful in attracting effort than others. Moreover, contributions received by projects are very uneven across time-a tendency toward declining activity is interrupted by spikes typically resulting from outreach efforts or media attention. Analyzing user-level data, we find that most contributors participate only once and with little effort, leaving a relatively small share of users who return responsible for most of the work. Although top contributor status is earned primarily through higher levels of effort, top contributors also tend to work faster. This speed advantage develops over multiple sessions, suggesting that it reflects learning rather than inherent differences in skills. Our findings inform recent discussions about potential benefits from crowd science, suggest that involving the crowd may be more effective for some kinds of projects than others, provide guidance for project managers, and raise important questions for future research.

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on magnetic phase transitions and magnetization in gadolinium monocrystal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nikitin, S.A.; Bezdushnyj, R.V.

1989-01-01

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on magnetization in gadolinium monocrystal (Δσ-effect) was investigated. Dependences of spesific magnetization, Δσ-effect and bulk magnetostriction of gadolinium monocrystal on temperatures were studied. Results of conducted investigation have shown that in gadolinium the change of specific magnetization under the hydrostatic pressure effect is caused in general case by three effects: a)change of spontaneous magnetization under the effect of hydrostatic pressure; b)change of magnetization within technical magnetization range due to the effect of hydrostatic pressure on magnetic anisotropy constants; c)change of magnetization due to the effect of hydrostatic pressure on temperature of spin-reoriented transition

A Crowd Avoidance Method Using Circular Avoidance Path for Robust Person Following

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kohei Morishita

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A life-support service robot must avoid both static and dynamic obstacles for working in a real environment. Here, a static obstacle means an obstacle that does not move, and a dynamic obstacle is the one that moves. Assuming the robot is following a target person, we discuss how the robot avoids a crowd through which the target person passes and arrives at the target position. The purpose of this paper is to propose a crowd avoidance method that makes a robot to be able to avoid both static and dynamic obstacles. The method uses the surface points of the obstacles to form an avoidance region, and the robot moves along the edge of the region. We conducted experiments assuming various situations such that the robot was blocked, there was a wide gap in the crowd, or a person in the crowd yielded for the robot to pass through. As an experimental result, it was confirmed the robot could avoid the crowd even when the obstacles were aligned in an “inverted wedge” shape.

Characteristics of Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles Using Terahertz Spectroscopy (abstract)

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Dongkyu; Maeng, Inhee; Oh, Seung Jae; Kim, Taekhoon; Cho, Byung Kyu; Lee, Kwangyeol; Son, Joo-Hiuk

2009-04-01

The penetration property of the terahertz electromagnetic (THz) wave is relevant to its use. We used the THz wave spectroscopy system which easily penetrates some materials that do not contain water, e.g., plastic and ceramics. The system has been developed for several purposes, including measuring the properties of semiconductors and bio-materials, and detecting plastic bombs and ceramic knives at airports. It is also used for medical imaging systems, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), at some research institutes. It can show not only the difference in amplitude, but also the difference of the phase of each point of sample. MRI technology usually uses contrast agents to enhance the quality of the image. Gadolinium diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), made with a heavy metal ion, is commonly used as a clinical MRI contrast agent. Gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) nanoparticle is a new contrast agent. It serves to equip the core of each particle with antibodies or ligands. It can freely circulate in blood vessels without amassing in the liver or lungs. This study shows the characteristics of gadolinium oxide nanoparticles to further advance terahertz medical imaging.

13C and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance of methyl-substituted acetophenones and methyl benzoates: steric hindrance and inhibited conjugation.

Science.gov (United States)

Budesínský, Milos; Kulhánek, Jirí; Böhm, Stanislav; Cigler, Petr; Exner, Otto

2004-10-01

The 1H and 13C NMR spectra of 14 methyl-substituted acetophenones and 14 methyl-substituted methyl benzoates were assigned and interpreted with respect to the conformation of the C(ar)-C(O) bond. The substituent effects are proportional in the two series and can be divided into polar and steric: each has different effects on the 13C SCS of the individual atoms. In the case of C atoms C(O), C(1) and CH3(CO), the steric effects were quantitatively separated by comparing SCS in the ortho and para positions. The steric effects are proportional for the individual C atoms and also to steric effects estimated from other physical quantities. However, they do not depend simply on the angle of torsion phi of the functional group as anticipated hitherto. A better description distinguishes two classes of compounds: sterically not hindered or slightly hindered planar molecules and strongly sterically hindered, markedly non-planar. In order to confirm this reasoning without empirical correlations, the J(C,C) coupling constants were measured for three acetophenone derivatives labeled with 13C in the acetyl methyl group. The constants confirm unambiguously the conformation of 2-methylacetophenone; their zero values are in accord with the conformation of 2,6-dimethylacetophenone. The zero values in the unsubstituted acetophenone are at variance with previous erroneous report but all J(C,C) values are in accord with calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,2p)//B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of demagnetization on the magnetocaloric properties of gadolinium

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahl, Christian Robert Haffenden; Nielsen, Kaspar Kirstein

2009-01-01

of gadolinium. The adiabatic temperature change DeltaTad of gadolinium sheets upon application of a magnetic field has been measured at a range of applied magnetic fields and sample orientations. A significant dependence of DeltaTad on the sample orientation is observed. This can be accounted...... for by the demagnetization factor. Also, the temperature dependence of DeltaTad has been measured experimentally and modeled by mean field theory. Corrections to mean field theory modeling due to the demagnetization field are proposed and discussed. ©2009 American Institute of Physics...

Towards Believable Crowds : A Generic Multi-Level Framework for Agent Navigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Toll, Wouter; Jaklin, Norman; Geraerts, Roland

2015-01-01

Path planning and crowd simulation are important computational tasks in computer games and applications of high social relevance, such as crowd management and safety training. Virtual characters (agents) need to autonomously find a path from their current position to a designated goal position. This

Perceptual learning eases crowding by reducing recognition errors but not position errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Ying-Zi; Yu, Cong; Zhang, Jun-Yun

2015-08-01

When an observer reports a letter flanked by additional letters in the visual periphery, the response errors (the crowding effect) may result from failure to recognize the target letter (recognition errors), from mislocating a correctly recognized target letter at a flanker location (target misplacement errors), or from reporting a flanker as the target letter (flanker substitution errors). Crowding can be reduced through perceptual learning. However, it is not known how perceptual learning operates to reduce crowding. In this study we trained observers with a partial-report task (Experiment 1), in which they reported the central target letter of a three-letter string presented in the visual periphery, or a whole-report task (Experiment 2), in which they reported all three letters in order. We then assessed the impact of training on recognition of both unflanked and flanked targets, with particular attention to how perceptual learning affected the types of errors. Our results show that training improved target recognition but not single-letter recognition, indicating that training indeed affected crowding. However, training did not reduce target misplacement errors or flanker substitution errors. This dissociation between target recognition and flanker substitution errors supports the view that flanker substitution may be more likely a by-product (due to response bias), rather than a cause, of crowding. Moreover, the dissociation is not consistent with hypothesized mechanisms of crowding that would predict reduced positional errors.

Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography of the thoracoabdominal aorta diseases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Ippolito, Giuseppe; Wolosker, Nelson; Galvao Filho, Mario; Kalil, Jorge A.; Wolosker, Angela; Borri, Maria Lucia

1998-01-01

Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (GEMRA) of the thoracoabdominal aorta is a noninvasive technique that can rapidly delineate the branch vessels diseases, without flow or respiration artifacts, obtained with non contrast MRA. The objective of this paper is to show the main clinical applications of GEMRA, compared to non contrast sequences. We have evaluated 30 patients with thorocoabdominal aorta diseases. These patients have been examined with GEMRA (3D, FFE sequences) obtained after 30 mlIV contrast injection and non contrast MRA (2D-TOF sequences). In our experience, gadolinium-enhanced MRA is a high resolution and speedy technique with advantages over non contrast MRA. (author)

Crowd-sourced Archaeological Research: The MicroPasts Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Bonacchi

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This paper offers a brief introduction to MicroPasts, a web-enabled crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding project whose overall goal is to promote the collection and use of high quality research data via institutional and community collaborations, both on- and off-line. In addition to introducing this initiative, the discussion below is a reflection of its lead author’s core contribution to the project and will dwell in more detail on one particular aspect of MicroPasts: its relevance to research and practice in public archaeology, cultural policy and heritage studies.

First experiences with the application of oral gadolinium-DTPA in MR of the minor pelvis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoetzinger, H.; Salbeck, R.; Toedt, C.; Beyer, H.K.

1990-01-01

The use of an oral contrast medium has so far not become a matter of routine in MR of the abdomen. In the present study the use of orally applied gadolinium-DTPA was examined in respect of tumorous diseases in the minor pelvis. 18 patients with tumours in the minor pelvis were examined before and after oral administration of gadolinium-DTPA (Gd-DTPA). 10 ml/kg body weight of a gadolinium DTPA solution were applied in a concentration of 1.0 mmol/l. T 1 -weighted and T 2 -weighted sequences were carried out before application and T 1 -weighted sequences after application. Oral application of gadolinium-DTPA resulted in enhancing the signals of the filled intestinal portions. In 54% of the cases the sequences showed a sharper delineation between tumour and intestine. In 19% the delineation between pathological tissue and intestine on contrast examination was a well defined as in T 2 -weighted contrast images; in 27% of the cases oral administration of gadolinium-DTPA did not yield any additional information. No significant side effects were seen. (orig.) [de

PetroSim - a system to simulate crowd behaviors in emergency situations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Musse, Soraia R.; Silva, Andre T. da; Hardt, Katia; Barros, Leandro M.; Tonietto, Leandro [Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), Sao Leopoldo, RS (Brazil). Dept. de Ciencia da Computacao; Roth, Bruno [Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Sao Jose dos Campos, SP (Brazil); Rolim, Tuerte Amaral; Melo, Ricardo U.M.; Felipe, Luiz A.B. [PETROBRAS, Natal/Fortaleza, RN/CE (Brazil). Unidade de Negocios RN/CE

2004-07-01

This paper presents a framework to simulate the behaviors of crowds in panic situations. The main motivation for this work is to provide to safety engineers the possibility of simulating several aspects of panic situations involving crowds in real time. To accomplish this, we propose a complete framework to model the semantically informed environment as well as the intelligent virtual agents (IVA), which form the crowd who lives in the simulated virtual city. This work includes the integration of many knowledge areas such as VR, behavioral and visualization aspects required to the development of PetroSim. (author)

Porphyrin-containing polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes as potential magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Guo-Ping; Li, Zhen; Xu, Wei; Zhou, Cheng-Kai; Yang, Lian; Zhang, Qiao; Li, Liang; Liu, Fan; Han, Lin; Ge, Yuan-Xing; Guo, Jun-Fang

2011-04-04

Porphyrin-containing polyaspartamide ligands (APTSPP-PHEA-DTPA) were synthesized by the incorporation of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and 5-(4'-aminophenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4'-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin, trisodium salt (APTSPP) into poly-α,β-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-l-aspartamide] (PHEA). These ligands were further reacted with gadolinium chloride to produce macromolecule-gadolinium complexes (APTSPP-PHEA-DTPA-Gd). Experimental data of (1)H NMR, IR, UV and elemental analysis evidenced the formation of the polyaspartamide ligands and gadolinium complexes. In vitro and in vivo property tests indicated that APTSPP-PHEA-DTPA-Gd possessed noticeably higher relaxation effectiveness, less toxicity to HeLa cells, and significantly higher enhanced signal intensities (SI) of the VX2 carcinoma in rabbits with lower injection dose requirement than that of Gd-DTPA. Moreover, APTSPP-PHEA-DTPA-Gd was found to greatly enhance the contrast of MR images of the VX2 carcinoma, providing prolonged intravascular duration, and distinguished the VX2 carcinoma and normal tissues in rabbits according to MR image signal enhancements. These porphyrin-containing polyaspartamide gadolinium complexes can be used as the candidates of contrast agents for targeted MRI to tumors. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

NIH Abroad: Pictures Are Crowd Pullers

Science.gov (United States)

... turn Javascript on. "Pictures Are Crowd Pullers …" Art, culture, and the Internet combine to intervene against malaria ... Not ripe mangoes. Not witchcraft. The images and words, which speak directly to local beliefs in villages ...

Crowdings betydning for antallet af tvangsfikseringer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bak, Jesper; Nielsen, Lea Marie; Hæssum, Birte

2017-01-01

I denne artikel vil vi beskrive et par af resultaterne fra forskningsprojektet ”Mechanical restraint. Preventive Factors in Theory and Practice” samt et eksempel fra praksis om crowdings betydning for hvor meget der bliver tvangsfikseret....

Characterization of composite metal-ceramic of nickel-oxide cerium doped gadolinium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, M.L.A. da; Varela, M.C.R.S.

2016-01-01

Composite nickel doped cerium oxide are used in SOFC anode materials. In this study we evaluated the effect of the presence of gadolinium on the properties of composite nickel and ceria and. The supports were synthesized by sol-gel method. The impregnation with nickel nitrate was taken sequentially, followed by calcination. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, measurement of specific surface area, temperature programmed reduction, Raman spectroscopy. The presence of gadolinium retained the fluorite structure of ceria by forming a solid solution, also not influencing significantly on the specific surface area of the support. On the other hand, there was a decrease in the area catalysts, which can be attributed to sintering of nickel. Furthermore, addition of gadolinium favored the formation of intrinsic and extrinsic vacancies in cerium oxide, which leads to an increase in the ionic conductivity of the solid, desirable property for an SOFC anode catalyst. (author)

The walking behaviour of pedestrian social groups and its impact on crowd dynamics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehdi Moussaïd

Full Text Available Human crowd motion is mainly driven by self-organized processes based on local interactions among pedestrians. While most studies of crowd behaviour consider only interactions among isolated individuals, it turns out that up to 70% of people in a crowd are actually moving in groups, such as friends, couples, or families walking together. These groups constitute medium-scale aggregated structures and their impact on crowd dynamics is still largely unknown. In this work, we analyze the motion of approximately 1500 pedestrian groups under natural condition, and show that social interactions among group members generate typical group walking patterns that influence crowd dynamics. At low density, group members tend to walk side by side, forming a line perpendicular to the walking direction. As the density increases, however, the linear walking formation is bent forward, turning it into a V-like pattern. These spatial patterns can be well described by a model based on social communication between group members. We show that the V-like walking pattern facilitates social interactions within the group, but reduces the flow because of its "non-aerodynamic" shape. Therefore, when crowd density increases, the group organization results from a trade-off between walking faster and facilitating social exchange. These insights demonstrate that crowd dynamics is not only determined by physical constraints induced by other pedestrians and the environment, but also significantly by communicative, social interactions among individuals.

Feasibility and accuracy of dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography for quantification of gadolinium: a phantom study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamersvelt, Robbert W. van; Willemink, Martin J.; Jong, Pim A. de; Schilham, Arnold M.R.; Leiner, Tim [University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Radiology, P.O. Box 85500, Utrecht (Netherlands); Milles, Julien [CT Clinical Science, Philips HealthCare, Best (Netherlands); Vlassenbroek, Alain [CT Clinical Science, Philips HealthCare, Brussels (Belgium)

2017-09-15

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of dual-layer spectral detector CT (SDCT) for the quantification of clinically encountered gadolinium concentrations. The cardiac chamber of an anthropomorphic thoracic phantom was equipped with 14 tubular inserts containing different gadolinium concentrations, ranging from 0 to 26.3 mg/mL (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.1, 10.6, 15.7, 20.7 and 26.3 mg/mL). Images were acquired using a novel 64-detector row SDCT system at 120 and 140 kVp. Acquisitions were repeated five times to assess reproducibility. Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on three slices per insert. A spectral plot was extracted for every ROI and mean attenuation profiles were fitted to known attenuation profiles of water and pure gadolinium using in-house-developed software to calculate gadolinium concentrations. At both 120 and 140 kVp, excellent correlations between scan repetitions and true and measured gadolinium concentrations were found (R > 0.99, P < 0.001; ICCs > 0.99, CI 0.99-1.00). Relative mean measurement errors stayed below 10% down to 2.0 mg/mL true gadolinium concentration at 120 kVp and below 5% down to 1.0 mg/mL true gadolinium concentration at 140 kVp. SDCT allows for accurate quantification of gadolinium at both 120 and 140 kVp. Lowest measurement errors were found for 140 kVp acquisitions. (orig.)

Agnosic vision is like peripheral vision, which is limited by crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Strappini, Francesca; Pelli, Denis G; Di Pace, Enrico; Martelli, Marialuisa

2017-04-01

Visual agnosia is a neuropsychological impairment of visual object recognition despite near-normal acuity and visual fields. A century of research has provided only a rudimentary account of the functional damage underlying this deficit. We find that the object-recognition ability of agnosic patients viewing an object directly is like that of normally-sighted observers viewing it indirectly, with peripheral vision. Thus, agnosic vision is like peripheral vision. We obtained 14 visual-object-recognition tests that are commonly used for diagnosis of visual agnosia. Our "standard" normal observer took these tests at various eccentricities in his periphery. Analyzing the published data of 32 apperceptive agnosia patients and a group of 14 posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) patients on these tests, we find that each patient's pattern of object recognition deficits is well characterized by one number, the equivalent eccentricity at which our standard observer's peripheral vision is like the central vision of the agnosic patient. In other words, each agnosic patient's equivalent eccentricity is conserved across tests. Across patients, equivalent eccentricity ranges from 4 to 40 deg, which rates severity of the visual deficit. In normal peripheral vision, the required size to perceive a simple image (e.g., an isolated letter) is limited by acuity, and that for a complex image (e.g., a face or a word) is limited by crowding. In crowding, adjacent simple objects appear unrecognizably jumbled unless their spacing exceeds the crowding distance, which grows linearly with eccentricity. Besides conservation of equivalent eccentricity across object-recognition tests, we also find conservation, from eccentricity to agnosia, of the relative susceptibility of recognition of ten visual tests. These findings show that agnosic vision is like eccentric vision. Whence crowding? Peripheral vision, strabismic amblyopia, and possibly apperceptive agnosia are all limited by crowding, making it

Anatomy of the Crowd4Discovery crowdfunding campaign.

Science.gov (United States)

Perlstein, Ethan O

2013-01-01

Crowdfunding allows the public to fund creative projects, including curiosity-driven scientific research. Last Fall, I was part of a team that raised $25,460 from an international coalition of "micropatrons" for an open, pharmacological research project called Crowd4Discovery. The goal of Crowd4Discovery is to determine the precise location of amphetamines inside mouse brain cells, and we are sharing the results of this project on the Internet as they trickle in. In this commentary, I will describe the genesis of Crowd4Discovery, our motivations for crowdfunding, an analysis of our fundraising data, and the nuts and bolts of running a crowdfunding campaign. Science crowdfunding is in its infancy but has already been successfully used by an array of scientists in academia and in the private sector as both a supplement and a substitute to grants. With traditional government sources of funding for basic scientific research contracting, an alternative model that couples fundraising and outreach - and in the process encourages more openness and accountability - may be increasingly attractive to researchers seeking to diversify their funding streams.

Cluster Risk of Walking Scenarios Based on Macroscopic Flow Model and Crowding Force Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaohong Li

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In recent years, accidents always happen in confined space such as metro stations because of congestion. Various researchers investigated the patterns of dense crowd behaviors in different scenarios via simulations or experiments and proposed methods for avoiding accidents. In this study, a classic continuum macroscopic model was applied to simulate the crowded pedestrian flow in typical scenarios such as at bottlenecks or with an obstacle. The Lax–Wendroff finite difference scheme and artificial viscosity filtering method were used to discretize the model to identify high-density risk areas. Furthermore, we introduced a contact crowding force test of the interactions among pedestrians at bottlenecks. Results revealed that in the most dangerous area, the individual on the corner position bears the maximum pressure in such scenarios is 90.2 N, and there is an approximate exponential relationship between crowding force and density indicated by our data. The results and findings presented in this paper can facilitate more reasonable and precise simulation models by utilizing crowding force and crowd density and ensure the safety of pedestrians in high-density scenarios.

Learning Multimodal Deep Representations for Crowd Anomaly Event Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shaonian Huang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Anomaly event detection in crowd scenes is extremely important; however, the majority of existing studies merely use hand-crafted features to detect anomalies. In this study, a novel unsupervised deep learning framework is proposed to detect anomaly events in crowded scenes. Specifically, low-level visual features, energy features, and motion map features are simultaneously extracted based on spatiotemporal energy measurements. Three convolutional restricted Boltzmann machines are trained to model the mid-level feature representation of normal patterns. Then a multimodal fusion scheme is utilized to learn the deep representation of crowd patterns. Based on the learned deep representation, a one-class support vector machine model is used to detect anomaly events. The proposed method is evaluated using two available public datasets and compared with state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results show its competitive performance for anomaly event detection in video surveillance.

On current crowd management practices and the need for increased situation awareness, prediction, and intervention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martella, C.; Li, J.; Conrado, C.; Vermeeren, A.

2017-01-01

Recent accidents (News, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2015) show that crowded events can quickly turn into tragedies. The goal of crowd management is to avoid such accidents through careful planning and implementation. Crowd management practices are collaborative efforts between the different actors of the

Effect of crowd size on patient volume at a large, multipurpose, indoor stadium.

Science.gov (United States)

De Lorenzo, R A; Gray, B C; Bennett, P C; Lamparella, V J

1989-01-01

A prediction of patient volume expected at "mass gatherings" is desirable in order to provide optimal on-site emergency medical care. While several methods of predicting patient loads have been suggested, a reliable technique has not been established. This study examines the frequency of medical emergencies at the Syracuse University Carrier Dome, a 50,500-seat indoor stadium. Patient volume and level of care at collegiate basketball and football games as well as rock concerts, over a 7-year period were examined and tabulated. This information was analyzed using simple regression and nonparametric statistical methods to determine level of correlation between crowd size and patient volume. These analyses demonstrated no statistically significant increase in patient volume for increasing crowd size for basketball and football events. There was a small but statistically significant increase in patient volume for increasing crowd size for concerts. A comparison of similar crowd size for each of the three events showed that patient frequency is greatest for concerts and smallest for basketball. The study suggests that crowd size alone has only a minor influence on patient volume at any given event. Structuring medical services based solely on expected crowd size and not considering other influences such as event type and duration may give poor results.

CrowdMapping: A Crowdsourcing-Based Terminology Mapping Method for Medical Data Standardization.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Huajian; Chi, Chenyang; Huang, Boyu; Meng, Haibin; Yu, Jinghui; Zhao, Dongsheng

2017-01-01

Standardized terminology is the prerequisite of data exchange in analysis of clinical processes. However, data from different electronic health record systems are based on idiosyncratic terminology systems, especially when the data is from different hospitals and healthcare organizations. Terminology standardization is necessary for the medical data analysis. We propose a crowdsourcing-based terminology mapping method, CrowdMapping, to standardize the terminology in medical data. CrowdMapping uses a confidential model to determine how terminologies are mapped to a standard system, like ICD-10. The model uses mappings from different health care organizations and evaluates the diversity of the mapping to determine a more sophisticated mapping rule. Further, the CrowdMapping model enables users to rate the mapping result and interact with the model evaluation. CrowdMapping is a work-in-progress system, we present initial results mapping terminologies.

A crowd of pedestrian dynamics - The perspective of physics. Comment on "Human behaviours in evacuation crowd dynamics: From modelling to "big data" toward crisis management" by Nicola Bellomo et al.

Science.gov (United States)

Miguel, António F.

2016-09-01

Walking is the most basic form of transportation. A good understanding of pedestrian's dynamics is essential in meeting the mobility and accessibility needs of people by providing a safe and quick walking flow [1]. Advances in the dynamics of pedestrians in crowds are of great theoretical and practical interest, as they lead to new insights regarding the planning of pedestrian facilities, crowd management, or evacuation analysis. Nicola Bellomo's et al. article [2] is a very timely review of the related research on modelling approaches, computational simulations, decision-making and crisis response. It also includes an attempt to accurately define commonly used terms, as well as a critical analysis of crowd dynamics and safety problems. As noted by the authors, ;models and simulations offer a virtual representation of real dynamics; that are essential to understand and predict the ;behavioural dynamics of crowds; [2]. As a physicist, I would like to put forward some additional theoretical and practical contributions that could be interesting to explore, regarding the perspective of physics on about human crowd dynamics (panic as a specific form of behaviour excluded).

Steric Maps to Evaluate the Role of Steric Hindrance on the IPr NHC Ligand

KAUST Repository

Poater, Albert

2013-06-01

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to predict and rationalize the effect of the modification of the structure of the prototype 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) (IPr) N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand. The modification consists in the substitution of the methyl groups of ortho isopropyl substituent with phenyl groups, and here we plan to describe how such significant changes effect the metal environment and therefore the related catalytic behaviour by simple steric maps. Bearing in mind that there is a significant structural difference between IPr and IPr* ligands, that translated in different reactivity for several olefin metathesis reactions, here by means of DFT we characterize where the NHC ligand plays a more active role and where it is a simple spectator, or at least its modification does not significantly change its catalytic role/performance. Furthermore, this communication endeavours to modify further the skeleton of the IPr NHC ligand. The optimization of these bulky new systems go to the limits of the DFT computational method.

Thermodynamics of Macromolecular Association in Heterogeneous Crowding Environments: Theoretical and Simulation Studies with a Simplified Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ando, Tadashi; Yu, Isseki; Feig, Michael; Sugita, Yuji

2016-11-23

The cytoplasm of a cell is crowded with many different kinds of macromolecules. The macromolecular crowding affects the thermodynamics and kinetics of biological reactions in a living cell, such as protein folding, association, and diffusion. Theoretical and simulation studies using simplified models focus on the essential features of the crowding effects and provide a basis for analyzing experimental data. In most of the previous studies on the crowding effects, a uniform crowder size is assumed, which is in contrast to the inhomogeneous size distribution of macromolecules in a living cell. Here, we evaluate the free energy changes upon macromolecular association in a cell-like inhomogeneous crowding system via a theory of hard-sphere fluids and free energy calculations using Brownian dynamics trajectories. The inhomogeneous crowding model based on 41 different types of macromolecules represented by spheres with different radii mimics the physiological concentrations of macromolecules in the cytoplasm of Mycoplasma genitalium. The free energy changes of macromolecular association evaluated by the theory and simulations were in good agreement with each other. The crowder size distribution affects both specific and nonspecific molecular associations, suggesting that not only the volume fraction but also the size distribution of macromolecules are important factors for evaluating in vivo crowding effects. This study relates in vitro experiments on macromolecular crowding to in vivo crowding effects by using the theory of hard-sphere fluids with crowder-size heterogeneity.

Criticality experiments with low enriched UO2 fuel rods in water containing dissolved gadolinium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bierman, S.R.; Murphy, E.S.; Clayton, E.D.; Keay, R.T.

1984-02-01

The results obtained in a criticality experiments program performed for British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd. (BNFL) under contract with the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) are presented in this report along with a complete description of the experiments. The experiments involved low enriched UO 2 and PuO 2 -UO 2 fuel rods in water containing dissolved gadolinium, and are in direct support of BNFL plans to use soluble compounds of the neutron poison gadolinium as a primary criticality safeguard in the reprocessing of low enriched nuclear fuels. The experiments were designed primarily to provide data for validating a calculation method being developed for BNFL design and safety assessments, and to obtain data for the use of gadolinium as a neutron poison in nuclear chemical plant operations - particularly fuel dissolution. The experiments program covers a wide range of neutron moderation (near optimum to very under-moderated) and a wide range of gadolinium concentration (zero to about 2.5 g Gd/l). The measurements provide critical and subcritical k/sub eff/ data (1 greater than or equal to k/sub eff/ greater than or equal to 0.87) on fuel-water assemblies of UO 2 rods at two enrichments (2.35 wt % and 4.31 wt % 235 U) and on mixed fuel-water assemblies of UO 2 and PuO 2 -UO 2 rods containing 4.31 wt % 235 U and 2 wt % PuO 2 in natural UO 2 respectively. Critical size of the lattices was determined with water containing no gadolinium and with water containing dissolved gadolinium nitrate. Pulsed neutron source measurements were performed to determine subcritical k/sub eff/ values as additional amounts of gadolinium were successively dissolved in the water of each critical assembly. Fission rate measurements in 235 U using solid state track recorders were made in each of the three unpoisoned critical assemblies, and in the near-optimum moderated and the close-packed poisoned assemblies of this fuel

Breath-hold gadolinium-enhanced MRA : clinical application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Sung Gwon; Kang, Ji Hee; Kim, Won Hong; Lim, Myung Kwan; Cho, Young Kook; Cho, Soon Gu; Suh, Chang Hae

1998-01-01

The purpose of this study is to compare breath-hold gadolinium enhanced MR angiography (MRA) with digital subtraction angiography. Ten patients underwent angiography and breath-hold gadolinium enhanced MRA; the latter performed at 1.5T with 3D FSPGR after a bolus injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine (0.4m mol/kg). Seven of ten pathologic conditions (70%) evaluated by both techniques had a similar appearance. The conditions examined were as follows: the artery feeding renal cell carcinoma(n=2); renal artery stenosis (n=2); pulmonary AVM(n=2); abdominal aortic aneurysm (n=1); atheromatous plaque in the lower abdominal aorta (n=1); an enlarged bronchial artery (n=1); and an aberrant renal artery (n=1). For evaluating an anatomic relationship, a reconstructed 3D image obtained by MRA is more advantageous. Breath hold contrast enhanced MRA is a potentially useful noninvasive screening method for detecting vascular abnormality of the aorta and its branches. (author). 13 refs., 1 tab., 4 figs

Breath-hold gadolinium-enhanced MRA : clinical application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Sung Gwon; Kang, Ji Hee; Kim, Won Hong; Lim, Myung Kwan; Cho, Young Kook; Cho, Soon Gu; Suh, Chang Hae [Inha University Hospital, Inchon (Korea, Republic of)

1998-05-01

The purpose of this study is to compare breath-hold gadolinium enhanced MR angiography (MRA) with digital subtraction angiography. Ten patients underwent angiography and breath-hold gadolinium enhanced MRA; the latter performed at 1.5T with 3D FSPGR after a bolus injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine (0.4m mol/kg). Seven of ten pathologic conditions (70%) evaluated by both techniques had a similar appearance. The conditions examined were as follows: the artery feeding renal cell carcinoma(n=2); renal artery stenosis (n=2); pulmonary AVM(n=2); abdominal aortic aneurysm (n=1); atheromatous plaque in the lower abdominal aorta (n=1); an enlarged bronchial artery (n=1); and an aberrant renal artery (n=1). For evaluating an anatomic relationship, a reconstructed 3D image obtained by MRA is more advantageous. Breath hold contrast enhanced MRA is a potentially useful noninvasive screening method for detecting vascular abnormality of the aorta and its branches. (author). 13 refs., 1 tab., 4 figs.

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in neonates and infants suspected of caval or aortic thrombosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenberg, S. Bruce; Bhutta, Sadaf T.; Buchmann, Robert F.

2004-01-01

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)is a well-established technique in older children and adults. No studies have focused on its use in neonates and small infants. Our objective was to study the use of gadolinium-enhanced MRA in neonates and infants suspected of caval or aortic thrombosis. Materials and Methods:Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography was performed on seven neonates and small infants for the evaluation of caval or aortic thrombosis. Gadolinium-DTPA at a dose of 0.3 mmol/kg (minimum dose 1 ml) was injected using a power injector (0.2 ml/s). Contrast-enhanced MRA was performed using a 3-D, fast, radiofrequency spoiled gradient-echo sequence (TR/TE: 4.8/1.1, flip angle 45 , matrix 256 x 128, slice thickness 2.6 mm interpolated to 1.3 mm, FOV variable, NEX=1.0). Diagnostic-quality angiograms were obtained in all seven neonates. Superior vena cava thrombosis was identified in two neonates, and abdominal aortic thrombosis was present in one neonate. It is practical to perform gadolinium-enhanced MRA in neonates weighing as little as 600 g for the detection of caval or aortic thrombosis. (orig.)

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in neonates and infants suspected of caval or aortic thrombosis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greenberg, S. Bruce; Bhutta, Sadaf T.; Buchmann, Robert F. [University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children' s Hospital, Little Rock, AR (United States)

2004-12-01

Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)is a well-established technique in older children and adults. No studies have focused on its use in neonates and small infants. Our objective was to study the use of gadolinium-enhanced MRA in neonates and infants suspected of caval or aortic thrombosis. Materials and Methods:Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography was performed on seven neonates and small infants for the evaluation of caval or aortic thrombosis. Gadolinium-DTPA at a dose of 0.3 mmol/kg (minimum dose 1 ml) was injected using a power injector (0.2 ml/s). Contrast-enhanced MRA was performed using a 3-D, fast, radiofrequency spoiled gradient-echo sequence (TR/TE: 4.8/1.1, flip angle 45 , matrix 256 x 128, slice thickness 2.6 mm interpolated to 1.3 mm, FOV variable, NEX=1.0). Diagnostic-quality angiograms were obtained in all seven neonates. Superior vena cava thrombosis was identified in two neonates, and abdominal aortic thrombosis was present in one neonate. It is practical to perform gadolinium-enhanced MRA in neonates weighing as little as 600 g for the detection of caval or aortic thrombosis. (orig.)

Steric parameters and excess properties of hydroxamic acids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patre, Sandhya; Thakur, Piyush; Pande, Rama

2012-01-01

Graphical abstract: Plot of excess molar volume, V E , vs X 2 of (A) PBHA in DMF, (B) PMNHA in DMF, and (C) PNHA in DMF, at (■), 298.15 K; (▪), 303.15 K; (▪), 308.15 K; and (▪), 313.15 K. Highlights: ► Apparent molar volume indicates greater solute–solvent interactions. ► Excess properties show higher dispersion force in solution than pure solvent. ► Excess parameters suggest strong solute–solvent and solute–solute interactions. ► Limiting apparent molar expansibilities instigate highly hydrophobic characters. ► Hepler’s constant suggest the structure promoter nature of hydroxamic acids. - Abstract: Steric parameters of N-phenylbenzo-, N-phenyl-4-methyl-3-nitrobenzo-, and N-phenyl-4-nitrobenzo-, hydroxamic acids were measured in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as a function of their concentrations at T = (298.15, 303.15, 308.15, and 313.15) K. The apparent molar volume (V φ ), limiting apparent molar volume (V φ 0 ) at infinite dilution and the slope (S V ∗ ) are calculated from the experimental values of density (ρ) by applying the Masson’s equation. The apparent molar expansibility at infinite dilution (φ E 0 ), molar volume (V) and the excess molar volume (V E ) are also computed. The refractive indices (n) have been used to calculate the steric parameters, viz. molar refraction (R M ), polarizability (α) and excess molar refraction (R) of these molecules. The results show the strong solute–solvent interactions present in the system and thus, help to explore the molecular structure.

Giant cisterna chyli: MRI depiction with gadolinium-DTPA enhancement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, K.C.Y.; Cassar-Pullicino, V.N.

2000-01-01

AIM: To demonstrate the use of MRI with Gadolinium-DTPA enhancement in the diagnosis of giant cisterna chyli. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study consisted of contrast enhanced MRI with ultrasound and CT correlation in three patients with a giant cisterna chyli. An analysis of the morphology, location and post-contrast MR signal characteristics in relation to time was performed. RESULTS: Cisterna chyli has a characteristic lobulated morphology and location but the unenhanced MRI appearances are not specific. The post-Gadolinium-DTPA MRI appearances are critically dependent on the time elapsed after injection of contrast medium. Within the first 5 min, there is no enhancement at all, but by 10 min there is early layering of contrast medium evident, which by 30 min produces a clear fluid-fluid level. Delayed images at 4-5 h demonstrate a uniform enhancement of the cisternal contents producing a homogeneous intermediate signal. All of these features are best visualized on T1 fast saturation sequences. CONCLUSION: MRI with Gadolinium-DTPA enhancement is valuable in confirming the nature of the lymphatic ducts in the retroperitoneal space and helps to differentiate these normal structures from alternative lesions such as lymphadenopathy and tumour recurrence. Lee, K.C.Y., Cassar-Pullicino, V.N. (2000)

The Crowding out Effect on the Labor Market in Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihaela Hrisanta DOBRE

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Discrimination expresses any distinction, exclusion, restriction, preference or different treatment that disadvantages a person or group, in comparison with others in similar situations. The crowding out effect was first formulated by Bergmann (1974 and explains that an individual can obtain lower returns if he belongs to a branch dominated by the members of another group. The difference in pay between women and men is also reinforced by the segregation in the labor market, which may explain the crowding out effect. In this article we analyzed the level of segregation in the Romanian labor market starting from the workers professional status and their distribution by branch from 2003 to 2008. Crowding out effect was analyzed based on the gain function of the two groups (women and men.

Feasibility of using gadolinium as a burnable poison in PWR cores. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rothleder, B.M.

1981-02-01

As an alternative to the use of lumped burnable absorbers in PWR cores, distributed burnable absorbers are being considered for generic application. These burnable absorbers take the form of Gd 2 O 3 mixed with UO 2 in selected fuel rods (as is currently done in BWR cores). The work discussed herein concerns a three-dimensional feasibility study of the use of such distributed burnable absorbers in PWR cores. This study of distributed burnable absorbers was performed for the first cycle of a typical current design PWR using the following steps: analysis of a generic reference core design; determination of gadolinium assembly designs; determination of a generic gadolinium core design; evaluation of feasibility by examining selected parameters; and redesign of the generic gadolinium core, using axial zoning

Correlation between gadolinium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid contrast enhancement and thallium-201 chloride uptake in pediatric brainstem glioma.

Science.gov (United States)

Maria, B L; Drane, W B; Quisling, R J; Hoang, K B

1997-09-01

We previously showed that thallium-201 (201Tl) chloride is accumulated in over 75% of brain tumors, including brainstem gliomas. The imaging of 201Tl with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) may require an abnormal increase in permeability of tumor vessels to allow penetration of the blood-brain barrier. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the correlation between gadolinium enhancement and the degree of 201Tl uptake on SPECT and the contributions of either gadolinium enhancement or 201Tl uptake to the prognosis in children with brainstem gliomas. Forty-two sets of paired SPECT scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained longitudinally in 13 cases. Altogether, 31 of 42 pairs (74%) of scans showed concordance between the presence of gadolinium enhancement and 201Tl uptake. There were no cases that demonstrated 201Tl uptake but lacked gadolinium enhancement. The results indicate that 201Tl SPECT is of value primarily when brainstem tumors have vessels that are demonstrably permeable to gadolinium, prior to or as a result of radiotherapy.

Crowd-sourced assessment of technical skills: an adjunct to urology resident surgical simulation training.

Science.gov (United States)

Holst, Daniel; Kowalewski, Timothy M; White, Lee W; Brand, Timothy C; Harper, Jonathan D; Sorenson, Mathew D; Kirsch, Sarah; Lendvay, Thomas S

2015-05-01

Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining services from a large group of people, typically an online community. Validated methods of evaluating surgical video are time-intensive, expensive, and involve participation of multiple expert surgeons. We sought to obtain valid performance scores of urologic trainees and faculty on a dry-laboratory robotic surgery task module by using crowdsourcing through a web-based grading tool called Crowd Sourced Assessment of Technical Skill (CSATS). IRB approval was granted to test the technical skills grading accuracy of Amazon.com Mechanical Turk™ crowd-workers compared to three expert faculty surgeon graders. The two groups assessed dry-laboratory robotic surgical suturing performances of three urology residents (PGY-2, -4, -5) and two faculty using three performance domains from the validated Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills assessment tool. After an average of 2 hours 50 minutes, each of the five videos received 50 crowd-worker assessments. The inter-rater reliability (IRR) between the surgeons and crowd was 0.91 using Cronbach's alpha statistic (confidence intervals=0.20-0.92), indicating an agreement level between the two groups of "excellent." The crowds were able to discriminate the surgical level, and both the crowds and the expert faculty surgeon graders scored one senior trainee's performance above a faculty's performance. Surgery-naive crowd-workers can rapidly assess varying levels of surgical skill accurately relative to a panel of faculty raters. The crowds provided rapid feedback and were inexpensive. CSATS may be a valuable adjunct to surgical simulation training as requirements for more granular and iterative performance tracking of trainees become mandated and commonplace.

Changing attitudes toward smoking and smoking susceptibility through peer crowd targeting: more evidence from a controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Meghan Bridgid; Sussman, Steve

2015-01-01

Peer crowd identification consistently predicts an adolescent's smoking behavior. As such, several interventions have targeted adolescents and young adults based on their identification with a specific crowd (e.g., Hipsters). This study uses a controlled experimental design to isolate and test the effect of peer crowd targeting in an antismoking ad on antismoking attitudes and smoking susceptibility. Two hundred and thirty-nine adolescents, age 13-15 years, completed a baseline survey and then viewed an antismoking ad targeting one of eight crowds; 1 week later they completed a posttest. Participants were assessed on antismoking attitudes and smoking susceptibility. Adolescents who strongly identified with the crowd targeted by the ad reported stronger antismoking attitudes and lower levels of smoking susceptibility. Those who disidentified with the crowd targeted in the ad exhibited not statistically significant increases in smoking susceptibility and weaker antismoking attitudes at posttest. These findings indicate that targeting youths based on their peer crowd is a useful strategy for antismoking interventions. Additional research should further examine whether youths who disidentify with the targeted crowd in an ad exhibit reactance against the message.

The problem of crowd crimes: the approach of P.N. Obninskiy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorbatov D.S.

2014-09-01

Full Text Available We describe the specific approach to crowd crimes proposed by prominent Russian lawyer and public figure of the XIX century P.N. Obninskiy. We clarify its fundamental differences from other concepts of Russian and foreign psychologists and lawyers. Particular attention is paid to the P.N. Obninskiy treatment of possible sanity and responsibility of participants of mass cholera riots of the late XIX century in various regions of the Russian Empire. We reveal the moral potential of his views. Crowd as a social associations, the personality changes in the crowd, the crowd propensity to violate the law, the issue of punishment for crimes committed by it – these are some of the questions that interested the public opinion of the time. The article emphasizes that the lack of trust and lack of equal dialogue between representatives of different social groups have played a negative role in the development of «contagion morale», and later became reasons for the even more tragic events of Russian history.

Accelerated recovery of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from effects of crowding by swimming.

Science.gov (United States)

Veiseth, Eva; Fjaera, Svein Olav; Bjerkeng, Bjørn; Skjervold, Per Olav

2006-07-01

The effects of post-crowding swimming velocity (0, 0.35, and 0.70 m/s) and recovery time (1.5, 6, and 12 h) on physiological recovery and processing quality parameters of adult Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were determined. Atlantic salmon crowded to a density similar to that of a commercial slaughter process (>200 kg/m(3), 40 min) were transferred to a swimming chamber for recovery treatment. Osmolality and concentrations of cortisol, glucose and lactate in blood plasma were used as physiological stress indicators, whereas image analyses of extent and duration of rigor contraction, and fillet gaping were used as measures of processing quality. Crowded salmon had a 5.8-fold higher plasma cortisol concentration than control salmon (Prigor mortis contraction. However, subjecting crowded salmon to active swimming for 6 h before slaughter delayed the onset of rigor mortis contraction from 2.5 to 7.5 h post mortem. The extent of rigor mortis contraction was also affected by crowding and post-stress swimming activity (Prigor mortis contraction, which has a positive technological implication for the salmon processing industry.

The crowd in the Occupy movement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ossewaarde, Marinus R.R.

2013-01-01

In this article, I recast Elias Canetti's notion of crowds by placing it in the framework provided by Friedrich Nietzsche's Heraclitean dialectic of Apollonian and Dionysian opposites. The argument is introduced that, in European societies, the forms of social existence are mainly Apollonian,

Crowded letter and crowded picture logMAR acuity in children with amblyopia: a quantitative comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Boyle, Cathy; Chen, Sean I; Little, Julie-Anne

2017-04-01

Clinically, picture acuity tests are thought to overestimate visual acuity (VA) compared with letter tests, but this has not been systematically investigated in children with amblyopia. This study compared VA measurements with the LogMAR Crowded Kay Picture test to the LogMAR Crowded Keeler Letter acuity test in a group of young children with amblyopia. 58 children (34 male) with amblyopia (22 anisometropic, 18 strabismic and 18 with both strabismic/anisometropic amblyopia) aged 4-6 years (mean=68.7, range=48-83 months) underwent VA measurements. VA chart testing order was randomised, but the amblyopic eye was tested before the fellow eye. All participants wore up-to-date refractive correction. The Kay Picture test significantly overestimated VA by 0.098 logMAR (95% limits of agreement (LOA), 0.13) in the amblyopic eye and 0.088 logMAR (95% LOA, 0.13) in the fellow eye, respectively (pocclusion therapy, refractive correction or type of amblyopia on VA results (p>0.23). For both the amblyopic and fellow eyes, Bland-Altman plots demonstrated a systematic and predictable difference between Kay Picture and Keeler Letter charts across the range of acuities tested (Keeler acuity: amblyopic eye 0.75 to -0.05 logMAR; fellow eye 0.45 to -0.15 logMAR). Linear regression analysis (pamblyopia. Due to the predictable difference found between both crowded logMAR acuity tests, it is reasonable to adjust Kay Picture acuity thresholds by +0.10 logMAR to compute expected Keeler Letter acuity scores. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Nickel-based gadolinium alloy for neutron adsorption application in ram packages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robino, C.; McConnell, P.; Mizia, R.

2004-01-01

This paper will outline the results of a metallurgical development program that is investigating the alloying of gadolinium into a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy matrix. Gadolinium has been chosen as the neutron absorption alloying element due to its high thermal neutron absorption cross section and low solubility in the expected U.S. repository environment. The nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy family was chosen for its known corrosion performance, mechanical properties, and weldability. The workflow of this program includes chemical composition definition, primary and secondary melting studies, ingot conversion processes, properties testing, and national consensus codes and standards work. The microstructural investigation of these alloys shows that the gadolinium addition is not soluble in the primary austenite metallurgical phase and is present in the alloy as gadolinium-rich second phase. This is similar to what is observed in a stainless steel alloyed with boron. The mechanical strength values are similar to those expected for commercial Ni-Cr-Mo alloys. The alloys have been corrosion tested in simulated Yucca Mountain aqueous chemistries with acceptable results. The initial results of weldability tests have also been acceptable. Neutronic testing in a moderated critical array has generated favorable results. An American Society for Testing and Materials material specification has been issued for the alloy and a Code Case has been submitted to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for code qualification. The ultimate goal is acceptance of the alloy for use at the Yucca Mountain repository

Taming Crowded Visual Scenes

Science.gov (United States)

2014-08-12

Nolan Warner, Mubarak Shah. Tracking in Dense Crowds Using Prominenceand Neighborhood Motion Concurrence, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis...of  computer  vision,   computer   graphics  and  evacuation  dynamics  by  providing  a  common  platform,  and  provides...areas  that  includes  Computer  Vision,  Computer   Graphics ,  and  Pedestrian   Evacuation  Dynamics.  Despite  the

Gadolinium Deposition in Human Brain Tissues after Contrast-enhanced MR Imaging in Adult Patients without Intracranial Abnormalities.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Robert J; McDonald, Jennifer S; Kallmes, David F; Jentoft, Mark E; Paolini, Michael A; Murray, David L; Williamson, Eric E; Eckel, Laurence J

2017-11-01

Purpose To determine whether gadolinium deposits in neural tissues of patients with intracranial abnormalities following intravenous gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) exposure might be related to blood-brain barrier integrity by studying adult patients with normal brain pathologic characteristics. Materials and Methods After obtaining antemortem consent and institutional review board approval, the authors compared postmortem neuronal tissue samples from five patients who had undergone four to 18 gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) examinations between 2005 and 2014 (contrast group) with samples from 10 gadolinium-naive patients who had undergone at least one MR examination during their lifetime (control group). All patients in the contrast group had received gadodiamide. Neuronal tissues from the dentate nuclei, pons, globus pallidus, and thalamus were harvested and analyzed with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and light microscopy to quantify, localize, and assess the effects of gadolinium deposition. Results Tissues from the four neuroanatomic regions of gadodiamide-exposed patients contained 0.1-19.4 μg of gadolinium per gram of tissue in a statistically significant dose-dependent relationship (globus pallidus: ρ = 0.90, P = .04). In contradistinction, patients in the control group had undetectable levels of gadolinium with ICP-MS. All patients had normal brain pathologic characteristics at autopsy. Three patients in the contrast group had borderline renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate the contrast group was localized to the capillary endothelium and neuronal interstitium and, in two cases, within the nucleus of the cell. Conclusion Gadolinium deposition in neural tissues after GBCA administration occurs in the absence of intracranial abnormalities that might affect the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. These findings

On Streams and Incentives : A Synthesis of Individual and Collective Crowd Motion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Goethem, Arthur; Jaklin, Norman; Cook IV, Atlas; Geraerts, Roland|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304830291

2015-01-01

We present a novel crowd simulation model that combines the advantages of agent-based and ow-based paradigms while only relying on local information. Our model can handle arbitrary and dynamically changing crowd densities, and it enables agents to gradually interpolate between individual and

Gadolinium-enhanced MRI in central nervous system Behcet's disease

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Erdem, E. (Dept. of Radiology (Neuroradiology), Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Carlier, R. (Dept. of Radiology (Neuroradiology), Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Idir, A.B.C. (Dept. of Radiology (Neuroradiology), Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Masnou, P.O. (Dept. of Neurology, Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Moulonguet, A. (Dept. of Neurology, Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Adams, D. (Dept. of Neurology, Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France)); Doyon, D. (Dept. of Radiology (Neuroradiology), Hopital de Bicetre, Paris-Sud Univ. (France))

1993-02-01

Two cases of central nervous system Behcet's disease, studied by gadolinium-enhanced MRI, are presented. In one patient, whose clinical picture was dominated by a brain stem syndrome, the gadolinium enhancement resolved with clinical improvement, although the hyperintense areas in the mesencephalon on T2-weighted images persisted. In the second, who had a pseudobulbar palsy and a mild right hemiparesis, there were many abnormal areas, but an enhancing focus in the posterior limb of the left internal capsule was probably the lesion responsible for the hemiparesis. (orig.)

Accurate late gadolinium enhancement prediction by early T1- based quantitative synthetic mapping

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dijk, Randy van; Harst, Pim van der [University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Centre for Medical Imaging, Groningen (Netherlands); University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Department of Cardiology, Groningen (Netherlands); Kuijpers, Dirkjan [University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Centre for Medical Imaging, Groningen (Netherlands); Department of Cardiovascular Imaging HMC-Bronovo, The Hague (Netherlands); Kaandorp, Theodorus A.M.; Dijkman, Paul R.M. van [Department of Cardiovascular Imaging HMC-Bronovo, The Hague (Netherlands); Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn [University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Radiology, Groningen (Netherlands); Oudkerk, Matthijs [University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Centre for Medical Imaging, Groningen (Netherlands); University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Medical Imaging, Groningen (Netherlands)

2018-02-15

Early synthetic gadolinium enhancement (ESGE) imaging from post-contrast T1 mapping after adenosine stress-perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) was compared to conventional late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging for assessing myocardial scar. Two hundred fourteen consecutive patients suspected of myocardial ischaemia were referred for stress-perfusion CMR. Myocardial infarct volume was quantified on a per-subsegment basis in both synthetic (2-3 min post-gadolinium) and conventional (9 min post-gadolinium) images by two independent observers. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were calculated on a per-patient and per-subsegment basis. Both techniques detected 39 gadolinium enhancement areas in 23 patients. The median amount of scar was 2.0 (1.0-3.1) g in ESGE imaging and 2.2 (1.1-3.1) g in LGE imaging (p=0.39). Excellent correlation (r=0.997) and agreement (mean absolute difference: -0.028±0.289 ml) were found between ESGE and LGE images. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of ESGE imaging were 96 (78.9-99.9), 99 (97.1-100.0)%, 96 (76.5-99.4) and 99.5 (96.6-99.9) in patient-based and 99 (94.5-100.0), 100 (99.9-100.0)%, 97.0 (91.3-99.0) and 100.0 (99.8-100.0) in subsegment-based analysis. ESGE based on post-contrast T1 mapping after adenosine stress-perfusion CMR imaging shows excellent agreement with conventional LGE imaging for assessing myocardial scar, and can substantially shorten clinical acquisition time. (orig.)

Accurate late gadolinium enhancement prediction by early T1- based quantitative synthetic mapping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dijk, Randy van; Harst, Pim van der; Kuijpers, Dirkjan; Kaandorp, Theodorus A.M.; Dijkman, Paul R.M. van; Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn; Oudkerk, Matthijs

2018-01-01

Early synthetic gadolinium enhancement (ESGE) imaging from post-contrast T1 mapping after adenosine stress-perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) was compared to conventional late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging for assessing myocardial scar. Two hundred fourteen consecutive patients suspected of myocardial ischaemia were referred for stress-perfusion CMR. Myocardial infarct volume was quantified on a per-subsegment basis in both synthetic (2-3 min post-gadolinium) and conventional (9 min post-gadolinium) images by two independent observers. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were calculated on a per-patient and per-subsegment basis. Both techniques detected 39 gadolinium enhancement areas in 23 patients. The median amount of scar was 2.0 (1.0-3.1) g in ESGE imaging and 2.2 (1.1-3.1) g in LGE imaging (p=0.39). Excellent correlation (r=0.997) and agreement (mean absolute difference: -0.028±0.289 ml) were found between ESGE and LGE images. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of ESGE imaging were 96 (78.9-99.9), 99 (97.1-100.0)%, 96 (76.5-99.4) and 99.5 (96.6-99.9) in patient-based and 99 (94.5-100.0), 100 (99.9-100.0)%, 97.0 (91.3-99.0) and 100.0 (99.8-100.0) in subsegment-based analysis. ESGE based on post-contrast T1 mapping after adenosine stress-perfusion CMR imaging shows excellent agreement with conventional LGE imaging for assessing myocardial scar, and can substantially shorten clinical acquisition time. (orig.)

Chenang Beach and its Crowding Capacity: A Malaysian Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Diana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This working paper focuses in enjoyment factors, specifically: number of beach users, perceived maximum number of beach users accepted, perceived maximum number of beach users that affects the tourism experience and perceived maximum number of beach users that affects the beach quality. At a deeper extent, the evaluation is categorized by number of visitation, visitation motivations, and Chenang Island’s push and pull factors. Relationships between variables were assessed using a two-phase evaluation framework where interestingly, only one demographic factor works with all the studied independent variables. It is also learned that the density of an area number of people seen is considered as a n accepted crowding factor, as opposed to this working paper scope experienced crowding . A unique relationship was observed for crowding level, and visitation satisfaction level and overall evaluation of Chenang beach quality. This working paper further supports the previous literature on the significance of beach carrying capacity management and it is learned that the idea of crowding standard is interlinks with ‘gender, ‘time spend’ and ‘number of boaters’. From findings, this working paper envisages the preferences polar exchange where this should be of interest to tourism-related personnel. It is within this working paper interest to highlight the pressing need in brandishing the image of Chenang Beach. This is to ensure that Chenang Beach, as a field, is maintaining its importance and popularity.

Peptide Probes Reveal a Hydrophobic Steric Ratchet in the Anthrax Toxin Protective Antigen Translocase.

Science.gov (United States)

Colby, Jennifer M; Krantz, Bryan A

2015-11-06

Anthrax toxin is a tripartite virulence factor produced by Bacillus anthracis during infection. Under acidic endosomal pH conditions, the toxin's protective antigen (PA) component forms a transmembrane channel in host cells. The PA channel then translocates its two enzyme components, lethal factor and edema factor, into the host cytosol under the proton motive force. Protein translocation under a proton motive force is catalyzed by a series of nonspecific polypeptide binding sites, called clamps. A 10-residue guest/host peptide model system, KKKKKXXSXX, was used to functionally probe polypeptide-clamp interactions within wild-type PA channels. The guest residues were Thr, Ala, Leu, Phe, Tyr, and Trp. In steady-state translocation experiments, the channel blocked most tightly with peptides that had increasing amounts of nonpolar surface area. Cooperative peptide binding was observed in the Trp-containing peptide sequence but not the other tested sequences. Trp substitutions into a flexible, uncharged linker between the lethal factor amino-terminal domain and diphtheria toxin A chain expedited translocation. Therefore, peptide-clamp sites in translocase channels can sense large steric features (like tryptophan) in peptides, and while these steric interactions may make a peptide translocate poorly, in the context of folded domains, they can make the protein translocate more rapidly presumably via a hydrophobic steric ratchet mechanism. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Crowding and experience-use history: a study of the moderating effect of place attachment among water-based recreationists.

Science.gov (United States)

Budruk, Megha; Wilhem Stanis, Sonja A; Schneider, Ingrid E; Heisey, Jennifer J

2008-04-01

Effective recreation resource management relies on understanding visitor perceptions and behaviors. Given current and increasing pressures on water resources, understanding crowding evaluations seems important. Beyond crowding, however, variables that possibly relate to or influence crowding are of interest and in particular, place attachment and experience-use history (EUH). As EUH is related to place attachment and likely affects crowding, this study explored the moderating effect of place attachment dimensions on the relationships between EUH and visitor crowding evaluations. Water based recreationists at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers site were contacted onsite and asked questions related to experience-use history, crowding evaluations, place attachment, and activity participation. Anglers and campers at the site identified similar crowding perceptions and place attachments. Only one of eight models tested revealed a moderating effect. Specifically, place identity moderated the relationship between the total times visited in the past twelve months and expected crowding among anglers. As such, the quest continues to understand the relationship among these important variables.

Efficacy of gadolinium enhanced MR imaging for the diagnosis of Legg-Calve-Perthes disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jee Eun; Kim, Hyung Sik; Kim, Ji Hye

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of gadolinium enhanced MR imaging for making the diagnosis of Legg-Calve-Perthes (LCP) disease. We studied the gadolinium enhanced MR images of 14 hips in 12 children who had the diagnosis of LCP disease. We retrospectively analyzed the extent of necrosis, the epiphyseal revascularization pathways and the metaphyseal changes. The absence of enhancement on gadolinium enhanced MRI was noted in all cases of LCP disease. Diffuse absence of enhancement was observed in 9 femoral epiphyses. Two of them showed normal bone marrow signal intensity on the T1 and T1-weighted images. Focal absence of enhancement was observed in 5 femoral epiphyses. Enhanced MRI showed better epiphyseal revascularization in the lateral column (five cases), in the lateral and medial columns (four cases) and in the transphyseal pathway (three cases). Metaphyseal change was observed in two cases. Gadolinium enhanced MRI allows detection of LCP disease and an accurate analysis of the different revascularization patterns, and this helpful for predicting the prognosis

Myocardial late gadolinium enhancement in specific cardiomyopathies by cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a preliminary experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Caterina; Moon, James C; Elkington, Andrew G; John, Anna S; Mohiaddin, Raad H; Pennell, Dudley J

2007-12-01

Late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) can visualize myocardial interstitial abnormalities. The aim of this study was to assess whether regions of abnormal myocardium can also be visualized by late enhancement gadolinium CMR in the specific cardiomyopathies. A retrospective review of all referrals for gadolinium CMR with specific cardiomyopathy over 20 months. Nine patients with different specific cardiomyopathies were identified. Late enhancement was demonstrated in all patients, with a mean signal intensity of 390 +/- 220% compared with normal regions. The distribution pattern of late enhancement was unlike the subendocardial late enhancement related to coronary territories found in myocardial infarction. The affected areas included papillary muscles (sarcoid), the mid-myocardium (Anderson-Fabry disease, glycogen storage disease, myocarditis, Becker muscular dystrophy) and the global sub-endocardium (systemic sclerosis, Loeffler's endocarditis, amyloid, Churg-Strauss). Focal myocardial late gadolinium enhancement is found in the specific cardiomyopathies, and the pattern is distinct from that seen in infarction. Further systematic studies are warranted to assess whether the pattern and extent of late enhancement may aid diagnosis and prognostic assessment.

Leveraging the wisdom of the crowd in software testing

CERN Document Server

Sharma, Mukesh

2015-01-01

Its scale, flexibility, cost effectiveness, and fast turnaround are just a few reasons why crowdsourced testing has received so much attention lately. While there are a few online resources that explain what crowdsourced testing is all about, there's been a need for a book that covers best practices, case studies, and the future of this technique.Filling this need, Leveraging the Wisdom of the Crowd in Software Testing shows you how to leverage the wisdom of the crowd in your software testing process. Its comprehensive coverage includes the history of crowdsourcing and crowdsourced testing, im

Biodistribution of ultra small gadolinium-based nanoparticles as theranostic agent: application to brain tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Miladi, Imen; Duc, Géraldine Le; Kryza, David; Berniard, Aurélie; Mowat, Pierre; Roux, Stéphane; Taleb, Jacqueline; Bonazza, Pauline; Perriat, Pascal; Lux, François; Tillement, Olivier; Billotey, Claire; Janier, Marc

2013-09-01

Gadolinium-based nanoparticles are novel objects with interesting physical properties, allowing their use for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Gadolinium-based nanoparticles were imaged following intravenous injection in healthy rats and rats grafted with 9L gliosarcoma tumors using magnetic resonance imaging and scintigraphic imaging. Quantitative biodistribution using gamma-counting of each sampled organ confirmed that these nanoparticles were rapidly cleared essentially by renal excretion. Accumulation of these nanoparticles in 9L gliosarcoma tumors implanted in the rat brain was quantitated. This passive and long-duration accumulation of gadolinium-based nanoparticles in tumor, which is related to disruption of the blood-brain barrier, is in good agreement with the use of these nanoparticles as radiosensitizers for brain tumors.

Parallel Motion Simulation of Large-Scale Real-Time Crowd in a Hierarchical Environmental Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin Wang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a parallel real-time crowd simulation method based on a hierarchical environmental model. A dynamical model of the complex environment should be constructed to simulate the state transition and propagation of individual motions. By modeling of a virtual environment where virtual crowds reside, we employ different parallel methods on a topological layer, a path layer and a perceptual layer. We propose a parallel motion path matching method based on the path layer and a parallel crowd simulation method based on the perceptual layer. The large-scale real-time crowd simulation becomes possible with these methods. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the methods and results.

Pediatric Patients Demonstrate Progressive T1-Weighted Hyperintensity in the Dentate Nucleus following Multiple Doses of Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agent.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, D R; Chatterjee, A R; Yazdani, M; Marebwa, B; Brown, T; Collins, H; Bolles, G; Jenrette, J M; Nietert, P J; Zhu, X

2016-12-01

While there have been recent reports of brain retention of gadolinium following gadolinium-based contrast agent administration in adults, a retrospective series of pediatric patients has not previously been reported, to our knowledge. We investigated the relationship between the number of prior gadolinium-based contrast agent doses and increasing T1 signal in the dentate nucleus on unenhanced T1-weighted MR imaging. We hypothesized that despite differences in pediatric physiology and the smaller gadolinium-based contrast agent doses that pediatric patients are typically administered based on weighted-adjusted dosing, the pediatric brain would also demonstrate dose-dependent increasing T1 signal in the dentate nucleus. We included children with multiple gadolinium-based contrast agent administrations at our institution. A blinded reader placed ROIs within the dentate nucleus and adjacent cerebellar white matter. To eliminate reader bias, we also performed automated ROI delineation of the dentate nucleus, cerebellar white matter, and pons. Dentate-to-cerebellar white matter and dentate-to pons ratios were compared with the number of gadolinium-based contrast agent administrations. During 20 years at our institution, 280 patients received at least 5 gadolinium-based contrast agent doses, with 1 patient receiving 38 doses. Sixteen patients met the inclusion/exclusion criteria for ROI analysis. Blinded reader dentate-to-cerebellar white matter ratios were significantly associated with gadolinium-based contrast agent doses (r s = 0.77, P = .001). The dentate-to-pons ratio and dentate-to-cerebellar white matter ratios based on automated ROI placement were also significantly correlated with gadolinium-based contrast agent doses (t = 4.98, P contrast agent doses is significantly correlated with progressive T1-weighted dentate hyperintensity. Definitive confirmation of gadolinium deposition requires tissue analysis. Any potential clinical sequelae of gadolinium retention in

In vitro radiosensitizing effects of ultrasmall gadolinium based particles on tumour cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Mowat, P; Mignot, A; Rima, W; Lux, F; Tillement, O; Roulin, C; Dutreix, M; Bechet, D; Huger, S; Humbert, L; Barberi-Heyob, M; Aloy, M T; Armandy, E; Rodriguez-Lafrasse, C; Le Duc, G; Roux, S; Perriat, P

2011-09-01

Since radiotherapy is widely used in cancer treatment, it is essential to develop strategies which lower the irradiation burden while increasing efficacy and become efficient even in radio resistant tumors. Our new strategy is relying on the development of solid hybrid nanoparticles based on rare-earth such as gadolinium. In this paper, we then evidenced that gadolinium-based particles can be designed to enter efficiently into the human glioblastoma cell line U87 in quantities that can be tuned by modifying the incubation conditions. These sub-5 nm particles consist in a core of gadolinium oxide, a shell of polysiloxane and are functionalized by diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). Although photoelectric effect is maximal in the [10-100 keV] range, such particles were found to possess efficient in-vitro radiosensitizing properties at an energy of 660 keV by using the "single-cell gel electrophoresis comet assay," an assay that measures the number of DNA damage that occurs during irradiation. Even more interesting, the particles have been evidenced by MTT assays to be also efficient radiosensitizers at an energy of 6 MeV for doses comprised between 2 and 8 Gy. The properties of the gadolinium-based particles give promising opening to a particle-assisted radio-therapy by using irradiation systems already installed in the majority of hospitals.

Data For: Heading Through A Crowd

OpenAIRE

Riddell, Hugh; Lappe, Markus

2018-01-01

Data and analysis scripts to accompany the article "Heading Through A Crowd" by Dr. Hugh Riddell and Prof. Dr. Markus Lappe. All analysis scripts are in SPSS format. Data has been provided in SPSS and .txt formats. Any correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Dr. Markus Lappe.

Stochastic reaction-diffusion algorithms for macromolecular crowding

Science.gov (United States)

Sturrock, Marc

2016-06-01

Compartment-based (lattice-based) reaction-diffusion algorithms are often used for studying complex stochastic spatio-temporal processes inside cells. In this paper the influence of macromolecular crowding on stochastic reaction-diffusion simulations is investigated. Reaction-diffusion processes are considered on two different kinds of compartmental lattice, a cubic lattice and a hexagonal close packed lattice, and solved using two different algorithms, the stochastic simulation algorithm and the spatiocyte algorithm (Arjunan and Tomita 2010 Syst. Synth. Biol. 4, 35-53). Obstacles (modelling macromolecular crowding) are shown to have substantial effects on the mean squared displacement and average number of molecules in the domain but the nature of these effects is dependent on the choice of lattice, with the cubic lattice being more susceptible to the effects of the obstacles. Finally, improvements for both algorithms are presented.

Fumonisin B1 hepatotoxicity in mice is attenuated by depletion of Kupffer cells by gadolinium chloride

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He, Quanren; Kim, Jiyoung; Sharma, Raghubir P.

2005-01-01

Fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ) is a toxic and carcinogenic mycotoxin produced by Fusarium verticillioides found on corn worldwide. The biological effects of FB 1 are attributed to sphingolipid metabolism disruption as a result of ceramide synthase inhibition. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) is an important modulator of FB 1 hepatotoxicity. Kupffer cells are major source of cytokine production in liver. In the present study we investigated the effects of Kupffer cell depletion by gadolinium on FB 1 hepatotoxicity in female BALB/c mice. Mice were given saline or 50 mg/kg of gadolinium chloride once via the tail vein; 16 h later they were treated with subcutaneous injections of vehicle or 2.25 mg/kg/day FB 1 in saline for three successive days. Gadolinium significantly attenuated FB 1 -induced increases in the activities of circulating alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase and reduced the FB 1 -induced hepatocyte apoptosis and free sphinganine accumulation in liver. Both gadolinium and FB 1 treatments individually increased the expression of selected cell signal factors; e.g., TNFα, TNF receptor 1, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, lymphotoxin β, interferon γ, and transforming growth factor β1; gadolinium chloride did not alter FB 1 -induced expression of the above genes. Results indicated that Kupffer cells play a role in FB 1 hepatotoxicity. Decreased FB 1 -induced sphinganine accumulation and increased protective TNFα signaling by gadolinium chloride may in part account for its ameliorating effect on FB 1 liver damage

Fat-suppressed MRI of musculoskeletal infection: fast T2-weighted techniques versus gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, T.T.; Randolph, D.A. Jr.; Staron, R.B.; Feldman, F.; Cushin, S.

1997-01-01

Purpose. To investigate gadolinium's role in imaging musculoskeletal infection by comparing the conspicuity and extent of inflammatory changes demonstrated on gadolinium-enhanced fat-suppressed T1-weighted images versus fat-suppressed fast T2-weighted sequences. Design. Eighteen patients with infection were imaged in a 1.5-T unit, using frequency-selective and/or inversion recovery fat-suppressed fast T2-weighted images (T2WI) and gadolinium-enhanced frequency-selective fat-suppressed T1-weighted images (T1WI). Thirty-four imaging planes with both a fat-suppressed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted sequence and a fat-suppressed T2-weighted sequence were obtained. Comparison of the extent and conspicuity of signal intensity changes was made for both bone and soft tissue in each plane. Results. In bone, inflammatory change was equal in extent and conspicuity on fat-suppressed T2WI and fat-suppressed T1WI with gadolinium in 19 planes, more extensive or conspicuous on T2WI in three planes, and less so on T2WI in two planes. Marrow was normal on all three sequences in 10 cases. In soft tissue, inflammatory change was seen equally well in 20 instances, more extensively or conspicuously on the T2WI in 11 instances, and less so on T2WI in 2 instances. One case had no soft tissue involvement on any of the sequences. Five abscesses and three joint effusions were present, all more conspicuously delineated from surrounding inflammatory change on the fat-saturated T1WI with gadolinium. The average imaging time for the fat-saturated T1WI with gadolinium was 6.75 min, while that of the T2-weighted sequences was 5.75 min. Conclusion. Routine use of gadolinium is not warranted. Instead, gadolinium should be reserved for clinically suspected infection in or around a joint, and in cases refractory to medical or surgical treatment due to possible abscess formation. (orig.)

Growth, characterization and dielectric studies of gadolinium ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

nitrogen atmosphere leads to the formation of gadolinium oxide as the final product. ... from Chengdu Haoxuan Technology Co. Ltd, China ..... by metal cations. A band centered at 1534.78 cm. −1 is due to asymmetric stretching of coordinated carboxylate group vas(COO. −. ). Another absorption band at 1398.38 cm. −1 is.

The Wisdom of e-crowds: Can Masses Create Value?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wieczerzycki Marcin

2016-09-01

Full Text Available With the rising popularity of the Internet, interactions between companies and their consumers have become more common and meaningful. Researchers often tend to apply the metaphor of community to these on-line networks of B2C relationships. However, this term implies durability and a long-term orientation. It does not cover more incidental, short-lived groups of consumers, who therefore should not be treated as communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of these short-term, collective consumer phenomena (addressed as e-crowds within the scope of this paper to create value. Based on a critical literature analysis that considers works from several different fields of knowledge (including management, economics, psychology and media studies and empirical examples, we argue that while lacking a complex internal organization, e-crowds are capable of creating use, exchange and sign value when certain conditions are met. However, they are equally likely to perform value-destroying activities, which present real risks for companies that interact with e-crowds.

Gadolinium-DTPA and gadodiamide as an alternative contrast medium for CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Engelbrecht, V.; Koch, J.A.; Rassek, M.; Moedder, U.

1996-01-01

To evaluate the effect of intravenously applied gadolinium-based contrast medium in computed tomographic (CT) studies. Serial dilutions of iohexol 300, Gd-DTPA and gadodiamide were scanned with CT in a phantom study using water filled tubes. For quantification of X-ray attenuation, the mean Hounsfield units (HU) were calculated from the CT scans. Five patients with contraindications against iodine contrast agents were examined with abdominal or thoracic CT before and after application of 0.2 mmol/kg body weight of a gadolinium-based contrast agent. In these patients attenuation values were obtained in ROI from unenhanced and enhanced CT scans. The phantom study revealed a 38,4% enhancement for Gd-DTPA and a 35.7% enhancement for gadodiamide scaled on the reference measurements with iohexol 300. Thus, 130.2 ml Gd-DTPA or 140.1 ml gadodiamide are needed to achieve the same attenuation as an i.v. injection of 50 ml iohexol 300. Consequently the corresponding dose of 1 mmol/kg body weight would exceed the manufacturer's recommended dose. In four patients with complete thoracic or abdominal CT, i.v. applied gadolinium-based contrast medium (0.2 mmol/kg) yielded no visible advantage. In these patients parenchymal enhancement did not exceed 25%. Dynamic CT of a patient with focal liver lesion revealed an arterial enhancement peak of 75%. Sufficient parenchymal enhancement in CT studies cannot be achieved with the available gadolinium-based contrast mediums. They might be helpful if only short time vascular enhancement is required. (orig.) [de

Gadolinium-hydrogen ion exchange of zirconium phosphate

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, D. C.; Power, J. L.

1972-01-01

The Gd(+3)/H(+) ion exchange on a commercial zirconium phosphate ion exchanger was investigated in chloride, sulfate, and phosphate solutions of Gd(+3) at gadolinium concentrations of 0.001 to 1 millimole per cc and in the pH range of 0 to 3.5. Relatively low Gd(+3) capacities, in the range of 0.01 to 0.1 millimole per g of ion exchanger were found at room temperature. A significant difference in Gd(+3) sorption was observed, depending on whether the ion exchanger was converted from initial conditions of greater or lesser Gd(+3) sorption than the specific final conditions. Correlations were found between decrease in Gd(+3) capacity and loss of exchanger phosphate groups due to hydrolysis during washing and between increase in capacity and treatment with H3PO4. Fitting of the experimental data to ideal ion exchange equilibrium expressions indicated that each Gd(+3) ion is sorbed on only one site of the ion exchanger. The selectivity quotient was determined to be 2.5 + or - 0.4 at room temperature on gadolinium desorption in chloride solutions.

Household crowding is associated with higher allostatic load among the Inuit.

Science.gov (United States)

Riva, Mylene; Plusquellec, Pierrich; Juster, Robert-Paul; Laouan-Sidi, Elhadji A; Abdous, Belkacem; Lucas, Michel; Dery, Serge; Dewailly, Eric

2014-04-01

Household crowding is an important problem in some aboriginal communities that is reaching particularly high levels among the circumpolar Inuit. Living in overcrowded conditions may endanger health via stress pathophysiology. This study examines whether higher household crowding is associated with stress-related physiological dysregulations among the Inuit. Cross-sectional data on 822 Inuit adults were taken from the 2004 Qanuippitaa? How are we? Nunavik Inuit Health Survey. Chronic stress was measured using the concept of allostatic load (AL) representing the multisystemic biological 'wear and tear' of chronic stress. A summary index of AL was constructed using 14 physiological indicators compiled into a traditional count-based index and a binary variable that contrasted people at risk on at least seven physiological indicators. Household crowding was measured using indicators of household size (total number of people and number of children per house) and overcrowding defined as more than one person per room. Data were analysed using weighted Generalised Estimating Equations controlling for participants' age, sex, income, diet and involvement in traditional activities. Higher household crowding was significantly associated with elevated AL levels and with greater odds of being at risk on at least seven physiological indicators, especially among women and independently of individuals' characteristics. This study demonstrates that household crowding is a source of chronic stress among the Inuit of Nunavik. Differential housing conditions are shown to be a marker of health inequalities among this population. Housing conditions are a critical public health issue in many aboriginal communities that must be investigated further to inform healthy and sustainable housing strategies.

Laser spectroscopy and laser isotope separation of atomic gadolinium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Y. W.; Yamanaka, C.; Nomaru, K.; Kou, K.; Niki, H.; Izawa, Y.; Nakai, S.

1994-01-01

Atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) is a process which uses intense pulsed lasers to selectively photoionize one isotopic species of a chemical element, after which these ions are extracted electromagnetically. The AVLIS has several advantages over the traditional methods based on the mass difference, such as high selectivity, low energy consumption, short starting time and versatility to any atoms. The efforts for atomic vapor laser isotope separation at ILT and ILE, Osaka University have been concentrated into the following items: 1) studies on laser spectroscopy and laser isotope separation of atomic gadolinium, 2) studies on interaction processes including coherent dynamics, propagation effects and atom-ion collision in AVLIS system, 3) development of laser systems for AVLIS. In this paper, we present experimental results on the laser spectroscopy and laser isotope separation of atomic gadolinium.

MRI with gadolinium DTPA in the diagnosis of spinal intradural masses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kahn, T.; Fuerst, G.; Moedder, U.; Roosen, N.; Lins, E.; Bock, W.J.; Lenard, H.G.

1989-01-01

The results of contrast enhanced MRI in 36 patients with suspected spinal intradural tumours are described. All intramedullary tumours showed distinctive enhancement and solid tumors could be delineated clearly, even if they were not clearly visible on unenhanced scans. The differentiation between neoplasm and non-neoplastic syrinx was markedly improved. The sensitivity of MRI for demonstrating intradural extramedullary tumours was greatly improved by gadolinium DTPA and even small lesions or flat meningeal infiltrates could be visualised. In addition, gadolinium DTPA improved the delineation and localisation of larger lesions, even if they had already been seen on unenhanced images. (orig.) [de

Indoor guided evacuation: TIN for graph generation and crowd evacuation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mengchao Xu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents two complementary methods: an approach to compute a network data-set for indoor space of a building by using its two-dimensional (2D floor plans and limited semantic information, combined with an optimal crowd evacuation method. The approach includes three steps: (1 generate critical points in the space, (2 connect neighbour points to build up the network, and then (3 run the optimal algorithm for optimal crowd evacuation from a room to the exit gates of the building. Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN is used in the first two steps. The optimal evacuation crowd is not based on the nearest evacuation gate for a person but relies on optimal sorting of the waiting lists at each gate of the room to be evacuated. As an example case, a rectangular room with 52 persons with two gates is evacuated in 102 elementary interval times (one interval corresponds to the time for one step for normal velocity walking, whereas it would have been evacuated in not less than 167 elementary steps. The procedure for generating the customized network involves the use of 2D floor plans of a building and some common Geographic Information System (GIS functions. This method combined with the optimal sorting lists will be helpful for guiding crowd evacuation during any emergency.

Improved Point-source Detection in Crowded Fields Using Probabilistic Cataloging

Science.gov (United States)

Portillo, Stephen K. N.; Lee, Benjamin C. G.; Daylan, Tansu; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.

2017-10-01

Cataloging is challenging in crowded fields because sources are extremely covariant with their neighbors and blending makes even the number of sources ambiguous. We present the first optical probabilistic catalog, cataloging a crowded (˜0.1 sources per pixel brighter than 22nd mag in F606W) Sloan Digital Sky Survey r-band image from M2. Probabilistic cataloging returns an ensemble of catalogs inferred from the image and thus can capture source-source covariance and deblending ambiguities. By comparing to a traditional catalog of the same image and a Hubble Space Telescope catalog of the same region, we show that our catalog ensemble better recovers sources from the image. It goes more than a magnitude deeper than the traditional catalog while having a lower false-discovery rate brighter than 20th mag. We also present an algorithm for reducing this catalog ensemble to a condensed catalog that is similar to a traditional catalog, except that it explicitly marginalizes over source-source covariances and nuisance parameters. We show that this condensed catalog has a similar completeness and false-discovery rate to the catalog ensemble. Future telescopes will be more sensitive, and thus more of their images will be crowded. Probabilistic cataloging performs better than existing software in crowded fields and so should be considered when creating photometric pipelines in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope era.

Prominent effects and neural correlates of visual crowding in a neurodegenerative disease population.

Science.gov (United States)

Yong, Keir X X; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Cash, Dave; Henley, Susie M D; Nicholas, Jennifer M; Ridgway, Gerard R; Golden, Hannah L; Warrington, Elizabeth K; Carton, Amelia M; Kaski, Diego; Schott, Jonathan M; Warren, Jason D; Crutch, Sebastian J

2014-12-01

Crowding is a breakdown in the ability to identify objects in clutter, and is a major constraint on object recognition. Crowding particularly impairs object perception in peripheral, amblyopic and possibly developing vision. Here we argue that crowding is also a critical factor limiting object perception in central vision of individuals with neurodegeneration of the occipital cortices. In the current study, individuals with posterior cortical atrophy (n=26), typical Alzheimer's disease (n=17) and healthy control subjects (n=14) completed centrally-presented tests of letter identification under six different flanking conditions (unflanked, and with letter, shape, number, same polarity and reverse polarity flankers) with two different target-flanker spacings (condensed, spaced). Patients with posterior cortical atrophy were significantly less accurate and slower to identify targets in the condensed than spaced condition even when the target letters were surrounded by flankers of a different category. Importantly, this spacing effect was observed for same, but not reverse, polarity flankers. The difference in accuracy between spaced and condensed stimuli was significantly associated with lower grey matter volume in the right collateral sulcus, in a region lying between the fusiform and lingual gyri. Detailed error analysis also revealed that similarity between the error response and the averaged target and flanker stimuli (but not individual target or flanker stimuli) was a significant predictor of error rate, more consistent with averaging than substitution accounts of crowding. Our findings suggest that crowding in posterior cortical atrophy can be regarded as a pre-attentive process that uses averaging to regularize the pathologically noisy representation of letter feature position in central vision. These results also help to clarify the cortical localization of feature integration components of crowding. More broadly, we suggest that posterior cortical atrophy

Radio response of human lymphocytes pretreated with boron and gadoliniums assessed by the, comet assay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, J. K.; Park, T. W.; Cebulska-Wasiewska, A.; Nili, M.

2009-01-01

Boron and gadolinium are among the nuclides that hold a unique property of being a neutron capture therapy agent. Neutron beams have often a considerable portion of gamma rays with fast neutrons. Gamma rays, as beam contaminants, can cause considerable damage to normal tissues even if such tissues do contain high boron concentrations. Materials and Methods: The modification of radio response in human lymphocytes pretreated with boron or gadolinium compound was studied by assessing the DNA damage using single cell gel electrophoresis, the comet assay. The lymphocytes from the human peripheral blood were irradiated with 0, 1, 2 and 4 Gy of gamma rays from a 60 Co isotopic source with or without pretreatment of boron or gadolinium compound for 10 minutes at 4 d egree C . Post-irradiation procedures included slide preparation, cell-lysing, unwinding and electrophoresis, neutralization, staining, and analytic steps, gel electrophoresis. Results: The results indicate that pretreatment with boron compound (50 n M or 250 n M of 10 B) is effective in reducing the radiosensitivity of the lymphocyte DNA. Conversely, pretreatment with gadolinium compound (50 n M) led to a dose-dependent increase in the radiosensitivity, most prominently with a dose of 4 Gy (P<0.001). Furthermore, when the lymphocytes were pretreated with a Combined mixture (1:1) of boron (250 n M) and gadolinium (50 n M) compounds, the reduced radiosensitivity was also observed.

Waiting room crowding and agitation in a dedicated psychiatric emergency service.

Science.gov (United States)

El-Mallakh, Rif S; Whiteley, Amanda; Wozniak, Tanya; Ashby, McCray; Brown, Shawn; Colbert-Trowel, Danya; Pennington, Tammy; Thompson, Michael; Tasnin, Rokeya; Terrell, Christina L

2012-05-01

Emergency department crowding is a growing problem that impacts patient care and safety. The effect of crowding has not been examined in emergency psychiatric services. The association between patient census and use of restraints, seclusion, and anti-agitation medications as needed was examined for 1 month. A total of 689 patients were seen in 31 days. The average hourly census was 6.8 ± 2.8 (range 0 to 18). There were 33 incidences of seclusion or restraint and an additional 15 instances of medications administered for agitation. The use of seclusion, restraint, or medication for agitation was significantly associated with census (r2 = 0.3, F = 5.47, P = .036). Crowding in emergency psychiatric waiting rooms may increase the need for seclusion, restraint, or medications for agitation.

Crowding Valuation in Urban Tram and Bus Transportation based on Smart Card Data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yap, M.D.; Cats, O.; Yu, S; van Arem, B.

2017-01-01

Crowding in public transport can be of major influence on passengers’ travel experience and therefore affect route and mode choice. Therefore, it is important to understand how crowding in urban public transport is perceived by passengers. The availability of individual smart card transactions

Structure, function and folding of phosphoglycerate kinase are strongly perturbed by macromolecular crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Samiotakis, Antonios; Dhar, Apratim; Ebbinghaus, Simon; Nienhaus, Lea; Homouz, Dirar; Gruebele, Martin; Cheung, Margaret

2010-10-01

We combine experiment and computer simulation to show how macromolecular crowding dramatically affects the structure, function and folding landscape of phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK). Fluorescence labeling shows that compact states of yeast PGK are populated as the amount of crowding agents (Ficoll 70) increases. Coarse-grained molecular simulations reveal three compact ensembles: C (crystal structure), CC (collapsed crystal) and Sph (spherical compact). With an adjustment for viscosity, crowded wild type PGK and fluorescent PGK are about 15 times or more active in 200 mg/ml Ficoll than in aqueous solution. Our results suggest a new solution to the classic problem of how the ADP and diphosphoglycerate binding sites of PGK come together to make ATP: rather than undergoing a hinge motion, the ADP and substrate sites are already located in proximity under crowded conditions that mimic the in vivo conditions under which the enzyme actually operates.

Comparison of digital subtraction angiography with gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thornton, J.; O'Callaghan, J.; Varghese, J.C.; Lee, M.J.; Walshe, J.; O'Brien, E.

1999-01-01

Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is a treatable cause of hypertension and renal failure for which no ideal screening technique is currently available. We evaluated the use of dynamic gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) for the diagnosis of RAS. Sixty-two patients with secondary hypertension were enrolled in the study. All patients had conventional renal angiography and gadolinium enhanced MRA. The sequence used was a 3D FMP SPGR sequence with the following parameters (TR: 26 ms, TE: 6.9 ms, flip angle 40 , field of view 36 x 36 cm, matrix 246 x 256, 1 excitation). Gadolinium 0.3 mmol/kg was administered and 60 1.5-mm-thick partitions were obtained over a duration of 3.5 min. The MRA images were then compared with conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) images. Conventional DSA demonstrated 138 renal arteries, whereas gadolinium-enhanced MRA demonstrated 129 (93 %). Twenty-one renal artery stenoses and four occluded arteries were seen at conventional DSA. Gadolinium-enhanced MRA had a sensitivity of 88 %, specificity of 98 %, accuracy of 96 %, positive predictive value of 92 % and negative predictive value of 97 % when compared with conventional DSA. Gadolinium-enhanced MRA is an accurate technique for identifying patients with RAS. It is less sensitive in picking up accessory renal arteries. (orig.)

Abstraction of iodine from aromatic iodides by alkyl radicals: steric and electronic effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolenc, Darko; Plesnicar, Bozo

2006-10-13

Abstraction of the iodine atom from aryl iodides by alkyl radicals takes place in some cases very efficiently despite the unfavorable difference in bond dissociation energies of C-I bonds in alkyl and aryl iodides. The abstraction is most efficient in iodobenzenes, ortho-substituted with bulky groups. The ease of abstraction can be explained by the release of steric strain during the elimination of the iodine atom. The rate of abstraction correlates fairly well with the strain energy, calculated by density functional theory (DFT) and Hartree-Fock (HF) methods as a difference in the total energy of ortho and para isomers. However, besides the steric bulk, the presence of some other functional groups in an ortho substituent also influences the rate. The stabilization of the transition state, resembling a 9-I-2 iodanyl radical, by electron-withdrawing groups seems to explain a positive sign of the Hammett rho value in the radical abstraction of halogen atoms.

Crowd-Sourcing the Aesthetics of Platform Games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaker, Noor; Yannakakis, Georgios N.; Togelius, Julian

2014-01-01

What are the aesthetics of platform games and what makes a platform level engaging, challenging and/or frustrating? We attempt to answer such questions through mining a large-set of crowd-sourced gameplay data of a clone of the classic platform game Super Mario Bros. The data consists of 40 short...... game levels that differ along six key level design parameters. Collectively, these levels are played 1560 times over the Internet and the perceived experience is annotated by experiment participants via self-reported ranking (pairwise preferences). Given the wealth of this crowd-sourced data, as all...... details about players’ in-game behaviour are logged, the problem becomes one of extracting meaningful numerical features at the appropriate level of abstraction for the construction of generic computational models of player experience and, thereby, game aesthetics. We explore dissimilar types of features...

Complications from the use of intravenous gadolinium-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Elias Junior, Jorge; Santos, Antonio Carlos dos; Nogueira-Barbosa, Marcello Henrique; Muglia, Valdair Francisco; Koenigkam-Santos, Marcel [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Ribeirao Preto, SP (Brazil). Hospital das Clinicas. Centro de Ciencias das Imagens e Fisica Medica]. E-mail: jejunior@fmrp.usp.br

2008-07-15

Gadolinium-based contrast agents are much safer than the iodinated ones; however complications may occur and should be recognized for appropriate orientation and management. The total incidence of adverse reactions to contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging ranges between 2% and 4%. Cases of severe acute reactions to gadolinium, such as laryngospasm and anaphylactic shock, are rare. Chronic complications secondary to the use of gadolinium also can occur and, recently an association between its use and a rare dermatologic disease occurring in patients with renal failure has been reported. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis was the subject of an official health notification issued by the American Food and Drug Administration. This progressive disease is characterized by hardened skin with fibrotic nodules and plaques which may involve other parts of the body. Patients who have been affected by this disorder presented chronic renal failure, with metabolic acidosis and had been submitted to magnetic resonance angiography, probably involving exposure to large amounts of intravenous paramagnetic contrast. This review is aimed at presenting a succinct description of the gadolinium-based contrast agent types, possible secondary complications, their preventive measures and management. (author)

The wisdom of the crowd playing The Price Is Right.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Michael D; Zhang, Shunan; Shi, Jenny

2011-07-01

In The Price Is Right game show, players compete to win a prize, by placing bids on its price. We ask whether it is possible to achieve a "wisdom of the crowd" effect, by combining the bids to produce an aggregate price estimate that is superior to the estimates of individual players. Using data from the game show, we show that a wisdom of the crowd effect is possible, especially by using models of the decision-making processes involved in bidding. The key insight is that, because of the competitive nature of the game, what people bid is not necessarily the same as what they know. This means better estimates are formed by aggregating latent knowledge than by aggregating observed bids. We use our results to highlight the usefulness of models of cognition and decision-making in studying the wisdom of the crowd, which are often approached only from non-psychological statistical perspectives.

Disaster Risk Reduction through Innovative Uses of Crowd Sourcing (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, J.; Greene, M.

2010-12-01

Crowd sourcing can be described as a method of distributed problem-solving. It takes advantage of the power of the crowd, which can in some cases be a community of experts and in other cases the collective insight of a broader range of contributors with varying degrees of domain knowledge. The term crowd sourcing was first used by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” and is a combination of the terms “crowd” and “outsourcing.” Some commonly known examples of crowd sourcing, in its broadest sense, include Wikepedia, distributed participatory design projects, and consumer websites such as Yelp and Angie’s List. The popularity and success of early large-scale crowd sourcing activities is made possible through leveraging Web 2.0 technologies that allow for mass participation from distributed individuals. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in Oakland, California recently participated in two crowd sourcing projects. One was initiated and coordinated by EERI, while in the second case EERI was invited to contribute once the crowd sourcing activity was underway. In both projects there was: 1) the determination of a problem or set of tasks that could benefit immediately from the engagement of an informed volunteer group of professionals; 2) a segmenting of the problem into discrete pieces that could be completed in a short period of time (from ten minutes to four hours); 3) a call to action, where an interested community was made aware of the project; and 4) the collection, aggregation, vetting and ultimately distribution of the results in a relatively short period of time. The first EERI crowd sourcing example was the use of practicing engineers and engineering students in California to help estimate the number of pre-1980 concrete buildings in the high seismic risk counties in the state. This building type is known to perform poorly in earthquakes, and state officials were interested in understanding

Influence of nonelectrostatic ion-ion interactions on double-layer capacitance

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Hui

2012-11-01

Recently a Poisson-Helmholtz-Boltzmann (PHB) model [Bohinc , Phys. Rev. EPLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.85.031130 85, 031130 (2012)] was developed by accounting for solvent-mediated nonelectrostatic ion-ion interactions. Nonelectrostatic interactions are described by a Yukawa-like pair potential. In the present work, we modify the PHB model by adding steric effects (finite ion size) into the free energy to derive governing equations. The modified PHB model is capable of capturing both ion specificity and ion crowding. This modified model is then employed to study the capacitance of the double layer. More specifically, we focus on the influence of nonelectrostatic ion-ion interactions on charging a double layer near a flat surface in the presence of steric effects. We numerically compute the differential capacitance as a function of the voltage under various conditions. At small voltages and low salt concentrations (dilute solution), we find out that the predictions from the modified PHB model are the same as those from the classical Poisson-Boltzmann theory, indicating that nonelectrostatic ion-ion interactions and steric effects are negligible. At moderate voltages, nonelectrostatic ion-ion interactions play an important role in determining the differential capacitance. Generally speaking, nonelectrostatic interactions decrease the capacitance because of additional nonelectrostatic repulsion among excess counterions inside the double layer. However, increasing the voltage gradually favors steric effects, which induce a condensed layer with crowding of counterions near the electrode. Accordingly, the predictions from the modified PHB model collapse onto those computed by the modified Poisson-Boltzmann theory considering steric effects alone. Finally, theoretical predictions are compared and favorably agree with experimental data, in particular, in concentrated solutions, leading one to conclude that the modified PHB model adequately predicts the diffuse

The challenges of launching a crowd based platform : A single case study of a Swedish service provider

OpenAIRE

Eliasson, Robert; Viklund, Tobias

2013-01-01

Using the concept of open innovation companies have started to look beyond their own borders using the crowd as a source for labour, knowledge and innovation. During the last few years the phenomena of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding have become increasingly popular as sources of competitive advantage through the crowd. While several studies have examined crowd based platforms focusing on the users, little attention has been brought to the companies starting these crowd based services. This st...

Investigating the In-Vehicle Crowding Cost Functions for Public Transit Modes

OpenAIRE

Qin, Feifei

2014-01-01

In the densely populated metropolitan area, empirical studies have found that overcrowding inside transit vehicles has become substantially worse and worse over recent years. Chronic in-vehicle crowding is not only caused by a lack of physical infrastructure, but also triggered by inadequate service provisions. Given the prevalence of overcrowded transit vehicles, this paper conducts both quantitative and qualitative studies, especially focusing on remodeling the in-vehicle crowding cost func...

Can unenhanced multiparametric MRI substitute gadolinium-enhanced MRI in the characterization of vertebral marrow infiltrative lesions?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalia Z. Zidan

2014-06-01

Conclusion: Unenhanced-multiparametric MRI is compatible with gadolinium-enhanced MRI in reliable characterization of marrow infiltrative lesions. The routine MRI protocol of cancer patients should be altered to accommodate the evolving MRI technology and cost effectively substitute the need for a gadolinium enhanced scan.

Ultrafast Dynamics in Light-Driven Molecular Rotary Motors Probed by Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hall, Christopher R.; Conyard, Jamie; Heisler, Ismael A.; Jones, Garth; Frost, James; Browne, Wesley R.; Feringa, Ben L.; Meech, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

Photochemical isomerization in sterically crowded chiral alkenes is the driving force for molecular rotary motors in nanoscale machines. Here the excited-state dynamics and structural evolution of the prototypical light-driven rotary motor are followed on the ultrafast time scale by femtosecond

The impact of crowd noise on officiating in Muay Thai: achieving external validity in an experimental setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tony D Myers

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Numerous factors have been proposed to explain the home advantage in sport. Several authors have suggested that a partisan home crowd enhances home advantage and that this is at least in part a consequence of their influence on officiating. However, while experimental studies examining this phenomenon have high levels of internal validity (since only the ‘crowd noise’ intervention is allowed to vary, they suffer from a lack of external validity, with decision-making in a laboratory setting typically bearing little resemblance to decision-making in live sports settings. Conversely, observational and quasi-experimental studies with high levels of external validity suffer from low levels of internal validity as countless factors besides crowd noise vary. The present study provides a unique opportunity to address these criticisms, by conducting a controlled experiment on the impact of crowd noise on officiating in a live tournament setting. Seventeen qualified judges officiated on thirty Thai boxing bouts in a live international tournament setting featuring ‘home’ and ‘away’ boxers. In each bout, judges were randomised into a ‘noise’ (live sound or ‘no crowd noise’ (noise cancelling headphones and white noise condition, resulting in 59 judgements in the ‘no crowd noise’ and 61 in the ‘crowd noise’ condition. The results provide the first experimental evidence of the impact of live crowd noise on officials in sport. A cross-classified statistical model indicated that crowd noise had a statistically significant impact, equating to just over half a point per bout (in the context of five round bouts with the ‘ten point must’ scoring system shared with professional boxing. The practical significance of the findings, their implications for officiating and for the future conduct of crowd noise studies are discussed.

The impact of crowd noise on officiating in muay thai: achieving external validity in an experimental setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Tony; Balmer, Nigel

2012-01-01

Numerous factors have been proposed to explain the home advantage in sport. Several authors have suggested that a partisan home crowd enhances home advantage and that this is at least in part a consequence of their influence on officiating. However, while experimental studies examining this phenomenon have high levels of internal validity (since only the "crowd noise" intervention is allowed to vary), they suffer from a lack of external validity, with decision-making in a laboratory setting typically bearing little resemblance to decision-making in live sports settings. Conversely, observational and quasi-experimental studies with high levels of external validity suffer from low levels of internal validity as countless factors besides crowd noise vary. The present study provides a unique opportunity to address these criticisms, by conducting a controlled experiment on the impact of crowd noise on officiating in a live tournament setting. Seventeen qualified judges officiated on thirty Thai boxing bouts in a live international tournament setting featuring "home" and "away" boxers. In each bout, judges were randomized into a "noise" (live sound) or "no crowd noise" (noise-canceling headphones and white noise) condition, resulting in 59 judgments in the "no crowd noise" and 61 in the "crowd noise" condition. The results provide the first experimental evidence of the impact of live crowd noise on officials in sport. A cross-classified statistical model indicated that crowd noise had a statistically significant impact, equating to just over half a point per bout (in the context of five round bouts with the "10-point must" scoring system shared with professional boxing). The practical significance of the findings, their implications for officiating and for the future conduct of crowd noise studies are discussed.

Crowding in Visual Working Memory Reveals Its Spatial Resolution and the Nature of Its Representations.

Science.gov (United States)

Tamber-Rosenau, Benjamin J; Fintzi, Anat R; Marois, René

2015-09-01

Spatial resolution fundamentally limits any image representation. Although this limit has been extensively investigated for perceptual representations by assessing how neighboring flankers degrade the perception of a peripheral target with visual crowding, the corresponding limit for representations held in visual working memory (VWM) is unknown. In the present study, we evoked crowding in VWM and directly compared resolution in VWM and perception. Remarkably, the spatial resolution of VWM proved to be no worse than that of perception. However, mixture modeling of errors caused by crowding revealed the qualitatively distinct nature of these representations. Perceptual crowding errors arose from both increased imprecision in target representations and substitution of flankers for targets. By contrast, VWM crowding errors arose exclusively from substitutions, which suggests that VWM transforms analog perceptual representations into discrete items. Thus, although perception and VWM share a common resolution limit, exceeding this limit reveals distinct mechanisms for perceiving images and holding them in mind. © The Author(s) 2015.

The critical thermal expansion of gadolinium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, K.; Lanchester, P.C.

1978-01-01

Measurements have been made of the critical thermal expansion of single crystals of gadolinium, prepared by solid state electrotransport processing. Although the expansion data can be fitted to a simple power law with exponents lambda + =-0.25, lambda - =-0.33, these values are not predicted by theory and a discontinuity remains at Tsub(c)=293.620 K. It is suggested that the results relate to a region of crossover to uniaxial dipolar behaviour. (Auth.)

A polymeric fastener can easily functionalize liposome surfaces with gadolinium for enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Cartney E; Shkumatov, Artem; Withers, Sarah G; Yang, Binxia; Glockner, James F; Misra, Sanjay; Roy, Edward J; Wong, Chun-Ho; Zimmerman, Steven C; Kong, Hyunjoon

2013-11-26

Common methods of loading magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents into nanoparticles often suffer from challenges related to particle formation, complex chemical modification/purification steps, and reduced contrast efficiency. This study presents a simple, yet advanced process to address these issues by loading gadolinium, an MRI contrast agent, exclusively on a liposome surface using a polymeric fastener. The fastener, so named for its ability to physically link the two functional components together, consisted of chitosan substituted with diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) to chelate gadolinium, as well as octadecyl chains to stabilize the modified chitosan on the liposome surface. The assembly strategy, mimicking the mechanisms by which viruses and proteins naturally anchor to a cell, provided greater T1 relaxivity than liposomes loaded with gadolinium in both the interior and outer leaflet. Gadolinium-coated liposomes were ultimately evaluated in vivo using murine ischemia models to highlight the diagnostic capability of the system. Taken together, this process decouples particle assembly and functionalization and, therefore, has considerable potential to enhance imaging quality while alleviating many of the difficulties associated with multifunctional particle fabrication.

Nuclear orientation experiments on the magnetic moments of europium and gadolinium nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berg, F.G. van den.

1984-01-01

In this thesis, experimental results on the ground state nuclear magnetic moments of europium and gadolinium isotopes are presented. The nuclear orientation experiments were performed on europium and gadolinium nuclei embedded in several host lattices. Attention is paid to the hyperfine interactions of the ions. Nuclear moments are discussed in the context of nuclear shell model. The theoretical framework is described for nuclear structure and low temperature nuclear orientation. Furthermore, the experimental techniques, the technical arrangement of the orientation apparatus, the methods for radiative detection and the use of nuclear orientation thermometry are described. (Auth.)

Modeling, simulation and visual analysis of crowds a multidisciplinary perspective

CERN Document Server

Ali, Saad; Manocha, Dinesh; Shah, Mubarak

2013-01-01

Over the last several years there has been a growing interest in developing computational methodologies for modeling and analyzing movements and behaviors of 'crowds' of people. This interest spans several scientific areas that includes Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, and Pedestrian Evacuation Dynamics. Despite the fact that these different scientific fields are trying to model the same physical entity (i.e. a crowd of people), research ideas have evolved independently. As a result each discipline has developed techniques and perspectives that are characteristically their own.

Gadolinium retention after administration of contrast agents based on linear chelators and the recommendations of the European Medicines Agency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dekkers, Ilona A.; Roos, Rick; Molen, Aart J. van der

2018-01-01

The Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) earlier this year recommended to suspend some marketing authorisations for Gadolinium Containing Contrast Agents (GCCAs) based on linear chelators due to the potential risk of gadolinium retention in the human body. These recommendations have recently been re-evaluated by EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), and confirmed the final opinion of the European Medicines Agency. This editorial provides an overview of the available GCCAs and summarises the recent evidence of gadolinium retention. Moreover, a critical appraisal of the strengths and limitations of the scientific evidence currently available on gadolinium retention is given. (orig.)

Basic study of gadolinium neutron capture therapy for malignant brain tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oda, Yoshifumi; Takagaki, Masao; Miyatake, Shin-ichi; Kikuchi, Haruhiko

1994-01-01

We measured the time-course of gadolinium take up in 91 brain tumor tissues obtained during surgical operations, and compared those results against measurements of gadolinium concentration changes in serum in 31 cases of both malignant and benign brain tumors. The contents of gadolinium in tissues were measured using the ICP spectroscopic method. The results shown wide variations in each class. In malignant gliomas, the maximum Tumor/Blood (T/B) ratio is around 10-30%, reached in 30-40 minutes after i.v. injection of Gd-DTPA, but it is rapidly excreted from the tissue and decreased to lower than 10% at 60 minutes after the injection. There is no measurable correlation between the tissue concentration of gadolinium and the histological grading of astrocytomas. In the case of meningiomas, T/B ratio is 20-30%, and has a tendency to increase gradually even 60 minutes after administration. In one case of rapid recurrent meningioma, the T/B ratio beyond 100% and became 640% at 85 minutes after the injection. In this case, Gd-NC therapy will promise the best result. The main clinical effect of Gd-NCT is due to the 6.30MeV γ-rays, which have a long pathway, and 1.53MeV high-RBE Auger electron. Intraparenchynal capillaries in the brain usually have a thickness of 3.5μm of endothelial cells. The capillaries occupate about 4% of the area of any cross-sectional plane of the brain. Under these conditions, Gd has full therapeutic effect without damaging either normal brain tissues or vascular components, provided the T/B ratio is kept higher than 10%. The further problem of the Gd-NCT is that (1) Gd is situated exclusively in the extracellular spaces as opposed to intracellular-or intranuclearspaces. The development of Gd compounds which will be incorporated into the nucleus is required. (2) It is necessary to keep a high gadolinium T/B ratio during the whole irradiation period, which is 1-2 hours in a 5MW reactor such as the one being used at Kyoto University. (J.P.N.)

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) and gadolinium-based contrast ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), unknown before March 1997 and first described in 2000, is a systemic disorder characterised by widespread tissue fibrosis. The first known case occurred in 1997, after the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) at high doses in patients with renal failure had become routine.

Kinetics of zigzag domain boundaries in gadolinium molybdate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alekseev, A.N.; Proklov, A.L.; Tikhomirova, N.A.; Shuvalov, L.A.; AN SSSR, Moscow. Inst. Kristallografii)

1987-01-01

Kinetics of zigzag domain boundaries (3DB) in ferroelectric gadolinium molybdate (GMO) crystal was investigated at different amplitude, duration and growth rate of external electric field. The results verify the difference between shifting rates of two 3DB constituents of wedge-shaped systems, growing with field change rate increase

Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Castet, Eric; Descamps, Marine; Denis-Noël, Ambre; Colé, Pascale

2017-09-01

It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

Crowding-facilitated macromolecular transport in attractive micropost arrays.

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Fan-Tso; Lin, Po-Keng; Chien, Wei; Hung, Cheng-Hsiang; Yu, Ming-Hung; Chou, Chia-Fu; Chen, Yeng-Long

2017-05-02

Our study of DNA dynamics in weakly attractive nanofabricated post arrays revealed crowding enhances polymer transport, contrary to hindered transport in repulsive medium. The coupling of DNA diffusion and adsorption to the microposts results in more frequent cross-post hopping and increased long-term diffusivity with increased crowding density. We performed Langevin dynamics simulations and found maximum long-term diffusivity in post arrays with gap sizes comparable to the polymer radius of gyration. We found that macromolecular transport in weakly attractive post arrays is faster than in non-attractive dense medium. Furthermore, we employed hidden Markov analysis to determine the transition of macromolecular adsorption-desorption on posts and hopping between posts. The apparent free energy barriers are comparable to theoretical estimates determined from polymer conformational fluctuations.

Quality-Aware Incentive Mechanism for Mobile Crowd Sensing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ling-Yun Jiang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile crowd sensing (MCS is a novel sensing paradigm which can sense human-centered daily activities and the surrounding environment. The impact of mobility and selfishness of participants on the data reliability cannot be ignored in most mobile crowd sensing systems. To address this issue, we present a universal system model based on the reverse auction framework and formulate the problem as the Multiple Quality Multiple User Selection (MQMUS problem. The quality-aware incentive mechanism (QAIM is proposed to meet the quality requirement of data reliability. We demonstrate that the proposed incentive mechanism achieves the properties of computational efficiency, individual rationality, and truthfulness. And meanwhile, we evaluate the performance and validate the theoretical properties of our incentive mechanism through extensive simulation experiments.

Study on Evaluation Indicators System of Crowd Management for Transfer Stations Based on Pedestrian Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guanghou Zhang

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Improving safety and convenience of transfer is one of the most vital tasks in subway system planning, design and operation management. Because of complicated space layout and crowded pedestrian, crowd control is a big challenge for management of transfer stations. Thus, a quantitative evaluation should be done before improvement measures are carried out. Literature review showed that present evaluation indicators about crowd management in subway system were all based on fixed value or experience. Dynamic effect caused by pedestrian congestion and various facility combination cannot be represented based on these indicators. Thus, in this paper, based on the pedestrian simulation tool, dynamic evaluation indicators system of crowd management was established from the point of safety, cost-effectiveness and comfort. In order to aid decision makers to identify the most appropriate scenario to improve the effectiveness of crowd management, Matter-Element Analysis (MEA was used to rate different scenarios. A pedestrian simulation model of a designing intermodal transfer station was built and four different scenarios were tested to demonstrate how to use this indicators system. Simulation results were evaluated based on the dynamic indicators system and MEA. The application results show that the dynamic evaluation indicators system is operational and can reflect level of the crowd management in transfer station comprehensively and precisely.

A systematic review on ‘Foveal Crowding’ in visually impaired children and perceptual learning as a method to reduce Crowding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huurneman Bianca

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This systematic review gives an overview of foveal crowding (the inability to recognize objects due to surrounding nearby contours in foveal vision and possible interventions. Foveal crowding can have a major effect on reading rate and deciphering small pieces of information from busy visual scenes. Three specific groups experience more foveal crowding than adults with normal vision (NV: 1 children with NV, 2 visually impaired (VI children and adults and 3 children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI. The extent and magnitude of foveal crowding as well as interventions aimed at reducing crowding were investigated in this review. The twofold goal of this review is : [A] to compare foveal crowding in children with NV, VI children and adults and CVI children and [B] to compare interventions to reduce crowding. Methods Three electronic databases were used to conduct the literature search: PubMed, PsycINFO (Ovid, and Cochrane. Additional studies were identified by contacting experts. Search terms included visual perception, contour interaction, crowding, crowded, and contour interactions. Results Children with normal vision show an extent of contour interaction over an area 1.5–3× as large as that seen in adults NV. The magnitude of contour interaction normally ranges between 1–2 lines on an acuity chart and this magnitude is even larger when stimuli are arranged in a circular configuration. Adults with congenital nystagmus (CN show interaction areas that are 2× larger than those seen adults with NV. The magnitude of the crowding effect is also 2× as large in individuals with CN as in individuals with NV. Finally, children with CVI experience a magnitude of the crowding effect that is 3× the size of that experienced by adults with NV. Conclusions The methodological heterogeneity, the diversity in paradigms used to measure crowding, made it impossible to conduct a meta-analysis. This is the first systematic review to

The multi-niche crowding genetic algorithm: Analysis and applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cedeno, Walter [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

1995-09-01

The ability of organisms to evolve and adapt to the environment has provided mother nature with a rich and diverse set of species. Only organisms well adapted to their environment can survive from one generation to the next, transferring on the traits, that made them successful, to their offspring. Competition for resources and the ever changing environment drives some species to extinction and at the same time others evolve to maintain the delicate balance in nature. In this disertation we present the multi-niche crowding genetic algorithm, a computational metaphor to the survival of species in ecological niches in the face of competition. The multi-niche crowding genetic algorithm maintains stable subpopulations of solutions in multiple niches in multimodal landscapes. The algorithm introduces the concept of crowding selection to promote mating among members with qirnilar traits while allowing many members of the population to participate in mating. The algorithm uses worst among most similar replacement policy to promote competition among members with similar traits while allowing competition among members of different niches as well. We present empirical and theoretical results for the success of the multiniche crowding genetic algorithm for multimodal function optimization. The properties of the algorithm using different parameters are examined. We test the performance of the algorithm on problems of DNA Mapping, Aquifer Management, and the File Design Problem. Applications that combine the use of heuristics and special operators to solve problems in the areas of combinatorial optimization, grouping, and multi-objective optimization. We conclude by presenting the advantages and disadvantages of the algorithm and describing avenues for future investigation to answer other questions raised by this study.

Demotivating incentives and motivation crowding out in charitable giving.

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Matthew

2017-07-11

Research has shown that extrinsic incentives can crowd out intrinsic motivation in many contexts. Despite this, many nonprofits offer conditional thank-you gifts, such as mugs or tote bags, in exchange for donations. In collaboration with a nonprofit, this study implements a direct mail field experiment and demonstrates that thank-you gifts reduced donation rates in a fundraising campaign. Attention-based multiattribute choice models suggest that this is because prospective donors shift attention to the salient gift offer, causing them to underweight less salient intrinsic motives. Attention to the gift may also cause individuals to adopt a more cost-benefit mindset, further de-emphasizing intrinsic motives. Consistent with these hypotheses, crowding out was driven by those who donated higher amounts in the previous year (i.e., those who likely had higher intrinsic motivation). In a complementary online experiment, thank-you gifts also reduced donation rates but only when the gift was visually salient. This corroborates the mediating role of attention in crowding out. Taken together, the laboratory and field results demonstrate that this fundraising technique can be demotivating in some contexts and that this may occur through an attention-based mechanism.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis after application of gadolinium-based contrast agents - a status paper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinrich, M.; Uder, M.

2007-01-01

Recently the association of a rare disease named ''nephrogenic systemic fibrosis'' (NSF) with the administration of gadolinium-containing contrast media, especially gadodiamide (Omniscan, GE-Healthcare), was described. NSF is a scleroderma-like disease characterised by widespread tissue fibrosis. Until now, NSF cases were observed only in patients with kidney disease. Almost all patients were suffering from chronic renal insufficiency, 90 % of them required renal replacement therapy. The true incidence of the disease is unknown. First retrospective analyses of selected collectives of patients with end-stage renal disease showed 2 - 5 % cases of NSF after administration of Gadolinium-containing contrast agents with an odds ratio of 20 - 50 in comparison to non-exposed controls. NSF is a serious adverse reaction, which may result in severe disabilities and even death. Therefore all radiologists applying gadolinium-based contrast agents should be informed about this disease and the recent recommendations for its prevention. On the basis of the published data, Omniscan should not be used in patients with severe renal impairment (GFR 2 ) and those who have had or are undergoing liver transplantation. In neonates and infants up to 1 year of age, Omniscan should only be used after careful consideration. Also the other gadolinium-based contrast agents should be used in high-risk patients only after careful consideration using the lowest dose possible

Clinical impact of gadolinium in the MRI diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection in children

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kan, J.H.; Young, Robert S.; Hernanz-Schulman, Marta [Vanderbilt University, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt Children' s Hospital, Nashville, TN (United States); Yu, Chang [Vanderbilt University, Department of Biostatistics, Nashville, TN (United States)

2010-07-15

The incremental value of gadolinium in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection by MRI is controversial. To compare diagnostic utility of noncontrast with contrast MRI in the evaluation of pediatric musculoskeletal infections. We reviewed 90 gadolinium-enhanced MRIs in children with suspected musculoskeletal infection. Noncontrast and contrast MRI scans were evaluated to determine sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection and identification of abscesses. Pre- and post-contrast diagnosis of osteomyelitis sensitivity was 89% and 91% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 96% and 96% (P = 1.00), respectively; septic arthritis sensitivity was 50% and 67% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 98% and 98% (P = 1.00), respectively; cellulitis/myositis sensitivity was 100% and 100% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 84% and 88% (P = 0.59), respectively; abscess for the total group was 22 (24.4%) and 42 (46.6%), respectively (P < 0.0001). Abscesses identified only on contrast sequences led to intervention in eight additional children. No child with a final diagnosis of infection had a normal pre-contrast study. Intravenous gadolinium should not be routinely administered in the imaging work-up of nonspinal musculoskeletal infections, particularly when pre-contrast images are normal. However, gadolinium contrast significantly increases the detection of abscesses, particularly small ones that might not require surgical intervention. (orig.)

Clinical impact of gadolinium in the MRI diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection in children

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kan, J.H.; Young, Robert S.; Hernanz-Schulman, Marta; Yu, Chang

2010-01-01

The incremental value of gadolinium in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection by MRI is controversial. To compare diagnostic utility of noncontrast with contrast MRI in the evaluation of pediatric musculoskeletal infections. We reviewed 90 gadolinium-enhanced MRIs in children with suspected musculoskeletal infection. Noncontrast and contrast MRI scans were evaluated to determine sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal infection and identification of abscesses. Pre- and post-contrast diagnosis of osteomyelitis sensitivity was 89% and 91% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 96% and 96% (P = 1.00), respectively; septic arthritis sensitivity was 50% and 67% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 98% and 98% (P = 1.00), respectively; cellulitis/myositis sensitivity was 100% and 100% (P = 1.00) and specificity was 84% and 88% (P = 0.59), respectively; abscess for the total group was 22 (24.4%) and 42 (46.6%), respectively (P < 0.0001). Abscesses identified only on contrast sequences led to intervention in eight additional children. No child with a final diagnosis of infection had a normal pre-contrast study. Intravenous gadolinium should not be routinely administered in the imaging work-up of nonspinal musculoskeletal infections, particularly when pre-contrast images are normal. However, gadolinium contrast significantly increases the detection of abscesses, particularly small ones that might not require surgical intervention. (orig.)

Gadolinium-based Contrast Media, Cerebrospinal Fluid and the Glymphatic System: Possible Mechanisms for the Deposition of Gadolinium in the Brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Taoka, Toshiaki; Naganawa, Shinji

2018-04-10

After Kanda's first report in 2014 on gadolinium (Gd) deposition in brain tissue, a considerable number of studies have investigated the explanation for the observation. Gd deposition in brain tissue after repeated administration of gadolinium-based contrast medium (GBCM) has been histologically proven, and chelate stability has been shown to affect the deposition. However, the mechanism for this deposition has not been fully elucidated. Recently, a hypothesis was introduced that involves the 'glymphatic system', which is a coined word that combines 'gl' for glia cell and 'lymphatic' system. According to this hypothesis, the perivascular space functions as a conduit for cerebrospinal fluid to flow into the brain parenchyma. The perivascular space around the arteries allows cerebrospinal fluid to enter the interstitial space of the brain tissue through water channels controlled by aquaporin 4. The cerebrospinal fluid entering the interstitial space clears waste proteins from the tissue. It then flows into the perivascular space around the vein and is discharged outside the brain. In addition to the hypothesis regarding the glymphatic system, some reports have described that after GBCM administration, some of the GBCM distributes through systemic blood circulation and remains in other compartments including the cerebrospinal fluid. It is thought that the GBCM distributed into the cerebrospinal fluid cavity via the glymphatic system may remain in brain tissue for a longer duration compared to the GBCM in systemic circulation. Glymphatic system may of course act as a clearance system for GBCM from brain tissue. Based on these findings, the mechanism for Gd deposition in the brain will be discussed in this review. The authors speculate that the glymphatic system may be the major contributory factor to the deposition and clearance of gadolinium in brain tissue.

Noncanonical structures and their thermodynamics of DNA and RNA under molecular crowding: beyond the Watson-Crick double helix.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugimoto, Naoki

2014-01-01

How does molecular crowding affect the stability of nucleic acid structures inside cells? Water is the major solvent component in living cells, and the properties of water in the highly crowded media inside cells differ from that in buffered solution. As it is difficult to measure the thermodynamic behavior of nucleic acids in cells directly and quantitatively, we recently developed a cell-mimicking system using cosolutes as crowding reagents. The influences of molecular crowding on the structures and thermodynamics of various nucleic acid sequences have been reported. In this chapter, we discuss how the structures and thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids differ under various conditions such as highly crowded environments, compartment environments, and in the presence of ionic liquids, and the major determinants of the crowding effects on nucleic acids are discussed. The effects of molecular crowding on the activities of ribozymes and riboswitches on noncanonical structures of DNA- and RNA-like quadruplexes that play important roles in transcription and translation are also described. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nuclear magnetic resonance diagnosis of cerebral tumours with the use of the contrast medium gadolinium-DTPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schoerner, W.; Felix, R.; Claussen, C.; Fiegler, W.; Kazner, E.; Speck, U.; Niendorf, H.P.

1984-01-01

This study examines the effect of the NMR contrast medium gadolinium-DTPA on image contrast in cerebral tumours. Sixteen patients with space-occupying cerebral lesions were examined on a 0.35 Tesla superconducting scanner, using a T1-weighted spinecho sequence prior to and after the intravenous application of gadolinium-DTPA. In 8 patients T2-weighted spinecho-sequences were obtained before the administration of contrast. The tomograms were evaluated visually and according to quantitative criteria. The use of gadolinium-DTPA helps to evaluate the blood-brain barrier and improves diagnosis by differentiating tumour tissue from edema and from normal brain tissue. (orig.) [de

Generation and selected reactions of chlorinated thiocarbonyl S-imides*

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mloston, Grzegorz; Pipiak, Paulina; Voss, Jürgen

2017-01-01

N-Aryl-1,1,1-trichloromethanesulfenamides ArNH-SCCl3 easily undergo dehydrochlorination upon treatment with potassium hydroxide in ethanolic solution. The intermediate thiocarbonyl S-imides formed thereby behave differently depending on the type of the N-aryl group. The sterically crowded N-(2,6-...

Effects of the steric hindrance of micropores in the hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbent on the adsorption of p-nitroaniline in aqueous solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiao, Guqing; Wen, Ruimin; Wei, Dongmei; Wu, Dan

2014-01-01

Graphical abstract: The hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbents (GQ-05 and GQ-03) with different steric hindrance of micropores were designed. The adsorption capacity and adsorption rate of PNA onto the two adsorbents followed the order GQ-05 > GQ-03. The steric hindrance of micropores was a crucial factor for the adsorption capacity and adsorption rate order. - Highlights: • Two adsorbents with different steric hindrance of micropores were designed. • The adsorption capacity and adsorption rate followed the order GQ-05 > GQ-03. • The steric hindrance of micropores was a crucial factor for the order. - Abstract: A hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbent with “-CH 2 -phenol-CH 2 -” as the cross-linked bridge (denoted GQ-05), and another hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbent with “-CH 2 -p-cresol-CH 2 -” as the cross-linked bridge (denoted GQ-03) were synthesized to reveal the effect of the steric hindrance of micropores in the hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbent on adsorption capacity and adsorption rate of p-nitroaniline (PNA) from aqueous solution. The results of adsorption kinetics indicated the order of the adsorption rate GQ-05 > GQ-03. The pseudo-first-order rate equation could describe the entire adsorption process of PNA onto GQ-05 while the equation characterized the adsorption process of GQ-03 in two stages. The order of the adsorption capacity GQ-05 > GQ-03 was demonstrated by thermodynamic analysis and dynamic adsorption. The steric hindrance of micropores in the hyper-cross-linked polymeric adsorbent was a crucial factor for the order of the adsorption capacity and adsorption rate

Theoretical study of hyperfine fields due to S-P and transition impurities in gadolinium matrix

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos Leal, C.E. dos.

1985-01-01

This work presents a systematic theoretical study for the hyperfine field due to diluted s-p-and transition impurities in metallic gadolinium matrices. The peculiarities de a gadolinium matrix are shown, they are characterized by a semi-completed 4f-shell, which is far from (below) the energetic levels such as the type s-p and d-conduction bands. (author)

Accumulation of MRI contrast agents in malignant fibrous histiocytoma for gadolinium neutron capture therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujimoto, T.; Ichikawa, H.; Akisue, T.; Fujita, I.; Kishimoto, K.; Hara, H.; Imabori, M.; Kawamitsu, H.; Sharma, P.; Brown, S.C.; Moudgil, B.M.; Fujii, M.; Yamamoto, T.; Kurosaka, M.; Fukumori, Y.

2009-01-01

Neutron-capture therapy with gadolinium (Gd-NCT) has therapeutic potential, especially that gadolinium is generally used as a contrast medium in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The accumulation of gadolinium in a human sarcoma cell line, malignant fibrosis histiocytoma (MFH) Nara-H, was visualized by the MRI system. The commercially available MRI contrast medium Gd-DTPA (Magnevist, dimeglumine gadopentetate aqueous solution) and the biodegradable and highly gadopentetic acid (Gd-DTPA)-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (Gd-nanoCPs) were prepared as MRI contrast agents. The MFH cells were cultured and collected into three falcon tubes that were set into the 3-tesra MRI system to acquire signal intensities from each pellet by the spin echo method, and the longitudinal relaxation time (T1) was calculated. The amount of Gd in the sample was measured by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrography (ICP-AES). The accumulation of gadolinium in cells treated with Gd-nanoCPs was larger than that in cells treated with Gd-DTPA. In contrast, and compared with the control, Gd-DTPA was more effective than Gd-nanoCPs in reducing T1, suggesting that the larger accumulation exerted the adverse effect of lowering the enhancement of MRI. Further studies are warranted to gain insight into the therapeutic potential of Gd-NCT.

VGI, crowd-sourcing, citizen science and neogeography are not the same!

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Cooper, Antony K

2015-11-01

Full Text Available StreetMap Real-time traffic monitoring Brown Moses Arab Spring Cyber-bullying Foldit Online Protein Puzzle SETI@Home Amateur astronomer Zooniverse: Planet Hunters Mappiness WideNoise 2nd South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) Household consumption diary...SMS PPGIS ABCD Transparency and accountability Empower communities Brown Moses Virtual land art Cyber-bullying Crisis mapping Arab Spring Neogeography © CSIR 2015 Crowd sourcing ≠ CiCrowd sourcing Amazon Mechanical Turk Wikipedia Brown Moses...

CrowdWater - Can people observe what models need?

Science.gov (United States)

van Meerveld, I. H. J.; Seibert, J.; Vis, M.; Etter, S.; Strobl, B.

2017-12-01

CrowdWater (www.crowdwater.ch) is a citizen science project that explores the usefulness of crowd-sourced data for hydrological model calibration and prediction. Hydrological models are usually calibrated based on observed streamflow data but it is likely easier for people to estimate relative stream water levels, such as the water level above or below a rock, than streamflow. Relative stream water levels may, therefore, be a more suitable variable for citizen science projects than streamflow. In order to test this assumption, we held surveys near seven different sized rivers in Switzerland and asked more than 450 volunteers to estimate the water level class based on a picture with a virtual staff gauge. The results show that people can generally estimate the relative water level well, although there were also a few outliers. We also asked the volunteers to estimate streamflow based on the stick method. The median estimated streamflow was close to the observed streamflow but the spread in the streamflow estimates was large and there were very large outliers, suggesting that crowd-based streamflow data is highly uncertain. In order to determine the potential value of water level class data for model calibration, we converted streamflow time series for 100 catchments in the US to stream level class time series and used these to calibrate the HBV model. The model was then validated using the streamflow data. The results of this modeling exercise show that stream level class data are useful for constraining a simple runoff model. Time series of only two stream level classes, e.g. above or below a rock in the stream, were already informative, especially when the class boundary was chosen towards the highest stream levels. There was hardly any improvement in model performance when more than five water level classes were used. This suggests that if crowd-sourced stream level observations are available for otherwise ungauged catchments, these data can be used to constrain

Critical Questions Regarding Gadolinium Deposition in the Brain and Body After Injections of the Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents, Safety, and Clinical Recommendations in Consideration of the EMA's Pharmacovigilance and Risk Assessment Committee Recommendation for Suspension of the Marketing Authorizations for 4 Linear Agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Runge, Val M

2017-06-01

For magnetic resonance, the established class of intravenous contrast media is the gadolinium-based contrast agents. In the 3 decades since initial approval, these have proven in general to be very safe for human administration. However, in 2006, a devastating late adverse reaction to administration of the less stable gadolinium-based contrast agents was identified, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. The result of actions taken by the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration, stratifying the agents by risk and contraindicating specific agents in severe renal dysfunction, has led to no new cases being identified in North America or Europe. Subsequently, in 2014, long-term deposition in the brain of gadolinium was first shown, after administration of 2 nonionic linear chelates, gadodiamide, and gadopentetate dimeglumine. This has led to an intense focus on the question of in vivo distribution, possible dechelation, and subsequent deposition of gadolinium, together with substantial clarification of the phenomenon as well as stratification of the agents on this basis. This review focuses on 8 critical questions regarding gadolinium deposition in the brain and body, with the answers and discussion therein important for future regulatory decisions and clinical practice. It is now clear that dechelation of gadolinium occurs in vivo with the linear agents and is responsible for this phenomenon, with key experts in the field recommending, except where there is no suitable alternative, a shift in clinical practice from the linear to macrocyclic agents. In addition, on March 10, 2017, the Pharmacovigilance and Risk Assessment Committee of the European Medicines Agency recommended suspension of the marketing authorization for 4 linear gadolinium contrast agents-specifically Omniscan, Optimark, Magnevist, and MultiHance (gadodiamide, gadoversetamide, gadopentetate dimeglumine, and gadobenate dimeglumine)-for intravenous injection. Cited in the report was

Applying Crowd Psychology to Develop Recommendations for the Management of Mass Decontamination

Science.gov (United States)

Drury, John; Rubin, G. James; Williams, Richard; Amlôt, Richard

2015-01-01

Mass decontamination is a public health intervention employed by emergency responders following a chemical, biological, or radiological release. It involves a crowd of people whose interactions with each other and with the emergency responders managing the incident are likely to affect the success of the decontamination process. The way in which members of the public collectively experience decontamination is likely to affect their behavior and hence is crucial to the success of the decontamination process. Consequently, responders and the responsible authorities need to understand crowd psychology during mass emergencies and disasters. Recently, the social identity approach to crowd psychology has been applied to explain public perceptions and behavior during mass emergencies. This approach emphasizes that crowd events are characteristically intergroup encounters, in which the behavior of one group can affect the perceptions and behavior of another. We summarize the results from a program of research in which the social identity approach was applied to develop and test recommendations for the management of mass decontamination. The findings from this program of research show that (1) responders' perceptions of crowd behavior matter; (2) participants value greater communication and this affects their compliance; and (3) social identity processes explain the relationship between effective responder communication and relevant outcome variables, such as public compliance, public cooperation, and public anxiety. Based on this program of research, we recommend 4 responder management strategies that focus on increasing public compliance, increasing orderly and cooperative behavior among members of the public, reducing public anxiety, and respecting public needs for privacy. PMID:25812428

Relationship of crowded teeth and Oral Hygiene among urban population in Medan

Science.gov (United States)

Bahirrah, Siti

2018-03-01

Crowded teeth could present a challenge in maintaining oral hygiene through brushing, as it is difficult to remove food debris in the interdental area, causing plaque accumulation and calculus formation, which leads to caries and gingivitis, or even destruction of the supporting tissue, which leads to tooth mobility. This study aims to determine the relationship of crowded teeth and oral hygiene among the urban population in Medan. This research is an analytic study with a cross-sectional design. The samples of this research consists of 100 adolescents in Medan. Based on the examination result of 100 subjects, 50 subjects with normal tooth arrangement, and 50 subjects with crowded teeth. This information was determined by examination of the dental condition and Oral Hygiene Index Simplified (OHI-S) measurement. The examination was performed by placing the explorer on 1/3 incisal or occlusal area and gently moving it to the 1/3 gingival or cervical area on a specific tooth. The results of the study were tested with the Chi-square test. The result shows that subjects with normal tooth arrangement present average OHI-S score of 0.66 which is categorized as good oral hygiene. Subjects with a crowded dentition exhibit an average OHI-S score of 1.33 which was categorized as moderate oral hygiene. The findings of this research reveal that there is a significant correlation between of crowded teeth and oral hygiene among adolescents in Medan. Abnormal tooth arrangement influences the condition of oral hygiene among adolescents.

Applying crowd psychology to develop recommendations for the management of mass decontamination.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Holly; Drury, John; Rubin, G James; Williams, Richard; Amlôt, Richard

2015-01-01

Mass decontamination is a public health intervention employed by emergency responders following a chemical, biological, or radiological release. It involves a crowd of people whose interactions with each other and with the emergency responders managing the incident are likely to affect the success of the decontamination process. The way in which members of the public collectively experience decontamination is likely to affect their behavior and hence is crucial to the success of the decontamination process. Consequently, responders and the responsible authorities need to understand crowd psychology during mass emergencies and disasters. Recently, the social identity approach to crowd psychology has been applied to explain public perceptions and behavior during mass emergencies. This approach emphasizes that crowd events are characteristically intergroup encounters, in which the behavior of one group can affect the perceptions and behavior of another. We summarize the results from a program of research in which the social identity approach was applied to develop and test recommendations for the management of mass decontamination. The findings from this program of research show that (1) responders' perceptions of crowd behavior matter; (2) participants value greater communication and this affects their compliance; and (3) social identity processes explain the relationship between effective responder communication and relevant outcome variables, such as public compliance, public cooperation, and public anxiety. Based on this program of research, we recommend 4 responder management strategies that focus on increasing public compliance, increasing orderly and cooperative behavior among members of the public, reducing public anxiety, and respecting public needs for privacy.

Revisiting Gustave Le Bon’s crowd theory in light of present-day critique

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laursen, Rasmus Beedholm; Møller, Verner

2017-01-01

understanding of crowd or mass behaviour that proves Le Bon’s crowd theory wrong. However, in this paper, we challenge this perception not only by questioning Drury, Reicher and Stott’s interpretation of Le Bon, but also suggesting that the dialogue strategy that is based upon the ESIM, in fact, validates Le...

Fumonisin B{sub 1} hepatotoxicity in mice is attenuated by depletion of Kupffer cells by gadolinium chloride

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

He, Quanren [Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7389 (United States); Kim, Jiyoung [Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7389 (United States); Sharma, Raghubir P [Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7389 (United States)

2005-02-01

Fumonisin B{sub 1} (FB{sub 1}) is a toxic and carcinogenic mycotoxin produced by Fusarium verticillioides found on corn worldwide. The biological effects of FB{sub 1} are attributed to sphingolipid metabolism disruption as a result of ceramide synthase inhibition. Tumor necrosis factor {alpha} (TNF{alpha}) is an important modulator of FB{sub 1} hepatotoxicity. Kupffer cells are major source of cytokine production in liver. In the present study we investigated the effects of Kupffer cell depletion by gadolinium on FB{sub 1} hepatotoxicity in female BALB/c mice. Mice were given saline or 50 mg/kg of gadolinium chloride once via the tail vein; 16 h later they were treated with subcutaneous injections of vehicle or 2.25 mg/kg/day FB{sub 1} in saline for three successive days. Gadolinium significantly attenuated FB{sub 1}-induced increases in the activities of circulating alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase and reduced the FB{sub 1}-induced hepatocyte apoptosis and free sphinganine accumulation in liver. Both gadolinium and FB{sub 1} treatments individually increased the expression of selected cell signal factors; e.g., TNF{alpha}, TNF receptor 1, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, lymphotoxin {beta}, interferon {gamma}, and transforming growth factor {beta}1; gadolinium chloride did not alter FB{sub 1}-induced expression of the above genes. Results indicated that Kupffer cells play a role in FB{sub 1} hepatotoxicity. Decreased FB{sub 1}-induced sphinganine accumulation and increased protective TNF{alpha} signaling by gadolinium chloride may in part account for its ameliorating effect on FB{sub 1} liver damage.

Solving the worldwide emergency department crowding problem - what can we learn from an Israeli ED?

Science.gov (United States)

Pines, Jesse M; Bernstein, Steven L

2015-01-01

ED crowding is a prevalent and important issue facing hospitals in Israel and around the world, including North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. ED crowding is associated with poorer quality of care and poorer health outcomes, along with extended waits for care. Crowding is caused by a periodic mismatch between the supply of ED and hospital resources and the demand for patient care. In a recent article in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, Bashkin et al. present an Ishikawa diagram describing several factors related to longer length of stay (LOS), and higher levels of ED crowding, including management, process, environmental, human factors, and resource issues. Several solutions exist to reduce ED crowding, which involve addressing several of the issues identified by Bashkin et al. This includes reducing the demand for and variation in care, and better matching the supply of resources to demands in care in real time. However, what is needed to reduce crowding is an institutional imperative from senior leadership, implemented by engaged ED and hospital leadership with multi-disciplinary cross-unit collaboration, sufficient resources to implement effective interventions, access to data, and a sustained commitment over time. This may move the culture of a hospital to facilitate improved flow within and across units and ultimately improve quality and safety over the long-term.

Visualization of isolated trigeminal nerve invasion by lymphoma using gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manon-Espaillat, R.; Lanska, D.J.; Ruff, R.L.; Cleveland Veteran's Administration Medical Center, OH; Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH; Masaryk, T.; University Hospitals of Cleveland, OH; Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH

1990-01-01

A 50-year-old man with active histiocytic lymphoma for 12 years developed an isolated right trigeminal neuropathy. Initial evaluation with head computed tomography, X-rays of the skull base, bone scan, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis including cytology were normal. Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed enlargement of the proximal third of the right trigeminal nerve. Gadolinium-enhanced MRI can be useful for the early demonstration of cranial nerve invasion by lymphoma. (orig.)

The CrowdMag App - turning your smartphone into a travelling magnetic observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Saltus, Richard; Nair, Manoj

2017-04-01

In 2014, we started the "CrowdMag" Project to collect vector magnetic data from digital magnetometers in smartphones. In October 2014, we released our first-generation Android and iOS apps. Currently, the CrowdMag Project has more than 15,000 enthusiastic users contributing more than 12 million magnetic data points from around the world. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), in partnership with the University of Colorado's Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES) develops magnetic field models to aid navigation, resource exploration and scientific research. We use observatories, satellites and ship/airborne surveys to measure the magnetic data. However, the measurements leave gaps in coverage, particularly for short-wavelength urban noise. Our ultimate goal is to use data from the CrowdMag Project to improve global magnetic data coverage. Here we present some early results from the analysis of the crowdsourced magnetic data. A global magnetic model derived solely based on CrowdMag data is generally consistent with satellite-derived models such as World Magnetic Model. A unique contribution of the CrowdMag Project is the collection of ground level magnetic data in densely populated regions with an unprecedented spatial resolution. For example, we show a magnetic map (by binning the data collected into 100x100m cells) of central Boulder using 170,000 data points collected by about 60 devices over the duration October 2014- January 2016. The median magnetic field value is consistent with the expected magnitude of the Earth's background magnetic field. The standard deviation of the CrowdMag total field (F) values is much higher than the expected natural (i.e., diurnal and geologic) magnetic field variation. However, the phone's magnetometer is sensitive enough to capture the larger magnitude magnetic signature from the urban magnetic sources. We discuss the reliability of crowdsourced magnetic maps and their

The Effect of Pressure and Temperature on Separation of Free Gadolinium(III) From Gd-DTPA Complex by Nanofiltration-Complexation Method

Science.gov (United States)

Rahayu, Iman; Anggraeni, Anni; Ukun, MSS; Bahti, Husein H.

2017-05-01

Nowdays, the utilization of rare earth elements has been carried out widely in industry and medicine, one of them is gadolinium in Gd-DTPA complex is used as a contrast agent in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnostic to increase the visual contrast between normal tissue and diseased. Although the stability of a given complex may be high enough, the complexation step couldnot have been completed, so there is possible to gadolinium(III) in the complex compound. Therefore, the function of that compounds should be dangerous because of the toxicity of gadolinium(III) in human body. So, it is necessarry to separate free gadolinium(III) from Gd-DTPA complex by nanofiltration-complexation. The method of this study is complexing of Gd2O3 with DTPA ligand by reflux and separation of Gd-DTPA complex from gadolinium(III) with a nanofiltration membrane on the variation of pressures(2, 3, 4, 5, 6 bars) and temperature (25, 30, 35, 40 °C) and determined the flux and rejection. The results of this study are the higher of pressures and temperatures, permeation flux are increasing and ion rejections are decreasing and gave the free gadolinium(III) rejection until 86.26%.

Deep learning enables reduced gadolinium dose for contrast-enhanced brain MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Enhao; Pauly, John M; Wintermark, Max; Zaharchuk, Greg

2018-02-13

There are concerns over gadolinium deposition from gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA) administration. To reduce gadolinium dose in contrast-enhanced brain MRI using a deep learning method. Retrospective, crossover. Sixty patients receiving clinically indicated contrast-enhanced brain MRI. 3D T 1 -weighted inversion-recovery prepped fast-spoiled-gradient-echo (IR-FSPGR) imaging was acquired at both 1.5T and 3T. In 60 brain MRI exams, the IR-FSPGR sequence was obtained under three conditions: precontrast, postcontrast images with 10% low-dose (0.01mmol/kg) and 100% full-dose (0.1 mmol/kg) of gadobenate dimeglumine. We trained a deep learning model using the first 10 cases (with mixed indications) to approximate full-dose images from the precontrast and low-dose images. Synthesized full-dose images were created using the trained model in two test sets: 20 patients with mixed indications and 30 patients with glioma. For both test sets, low-dose, true full-dose, and the synthesized full-dose postcontrast image sets were compared quantitatively using peak-signal-to-noise-ratios (PSNR) and structural-similarity-index (SSIM). For the test set comprised of 20 patients with mixed indications, two neuroradiologists scored blindly and independently for the three postcontrast image sets, evaluating image quality, motion-artifact suppression, and contrast enhancement compared with precontrast images. Results were assessed using paired t-tests and noninferiority tests. The proposed deep learning method yielded significant (n = 50, P 5 dB PSNR gains and >11.0% SSIM). Ratings on image quality (n = 20, P = 0.003) and contrast enhancement (n = 20, P deep learning method, gadolinium dose can be reduced 10-fold while preserving contrast information and avoiding significant image quality degradation. 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Explaining effervescence: Investigating the relationship between shared social identity and positive experience in crowds.

Science.gov (United States)

Hopkins, Nick; Reicher, Stephen D; Khan, Sammyh S; Tewari, Shruti; Srinivasan, Narayanan; Stevenson, Clifford

2016-01-01

We investigated the intensely positive emotional experiences arising from participation in a large-scale collective event. We predicted such experiences arise when those attending a collective event are (1) able to enact their valued collective identity and (2) experience close relations with other participants. In turn, we predicted both of these to be more likely when participants perceived crowd members to share a common collective identity. We investigated these predictions in a survey of pilgrims (N = 416) attending a month-long Hindu pilgrimage festival in north India. We found participants' perceptions of a shared identity amongst crowd members had an indirect effect on their positive experience at the event through (1) increasing participants' sense that they were able to enact their collective identity and (2) increasing the sense of intimacy with other crowd members. We discuss the implications of these data for how crowd emotion should be conceptualised.

Heat pretreatment-induced activation of gadolinium surfaces towards the initial precipitation of hydrides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benamar, G.; Schweke, D.; Shamir, N.; Zalkind, S.; Livneh, T.; Danon, A.; Kimmel, G.; Mintz, M.H.

2010-01-01

A vacuum heat pretreatment is applied, in order to enhance the reactivity of hydride-forming metals towards hydrogen reaction. For gadolinium, as for other rare-earth metals and some actinides, pretreatment temperatures of about 470 K are sufficient to induce such activation. The different factors that may be involved in that activation mechanism are identified and analyzed for gadolinium and their role is evaluated. It is concluded that the most prominent effect is desorption of surface hydroxyl groups, which impede the dissociative chemisorptions of hydrogen.

Gadolinium Contrast Agent is of Limited Value for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Assessment of Synovial Hypertrophy in Hemophiliacs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lundin, B.; Berntorp, E.; Pettersson, H.; Wirestam, R.; Jonsson, K.; Staahlberg, F.; Ljung, R. [Dept. of Radiology, Univ Hospital of Lund, Lund (Sweden)

2007-07-15

Purpose: To examine the influence of different doses of gadolinium contrast agent on synovial enhancement, to compare magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of synovial hypertrophy and radiographic joint changes in hemophiliacs, and to investigate the value of gadolinium in MRI assessment of synovial hypertrophy in hemophiliacs using dynamic MRI and MRI scoring. Material and Methods: Twenty-one hemophiliacs on prophylactic factor treatment without recent bleeds were subjected to radiography and gadolinium contrast-enhanced dynamic and static MRI of the knee using a standard dose of 0.1 mmol/kg b.w. gadoteridol. In 17 of the patients, the MRI procedure was repeated after a triple dose of gadoteridol. Results: MRI findings of synovial hypertrophy were significantly correlated with Pettersson radiographic scores. In 19 of the 21 MRI investigated joints, administration of contrast agent did not alter the result of the evaluation of synovial hypertrophy. Conclusion: The optimal time interval for volume assessment of synovial hypertrophy after injection of gadolinium contrast agent is dose dependent. Hemophiliacs without recent bleeds have minor to abundant synovial hypertrophy in joints with pronounced radiographic changes. Dynamic MRI is not useful for evaluating hemophilic arthropathy, and gadolinium contrast agent is not routinely indicated for MRI scoring of joints in hemophiliacs.

Gadolinium Contrast Agent is of Limited Value for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Assessment of Synovial Hypertrophy in Hemophiliacs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundin, B.; Berntorp, E.; Pettersson, H.; Wirestam, R.; Jonsson, K.; Staahlberg, F.; Ljung, R.

2007-01-01

Purpose: To examine the influence of different doses of gadolinium contrast agent on synovial enhancement, to compare magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of synovial hypertrophy and radiographic joint changes in hemophiliacs, and to investigate the value of gadolinium in MRI assessment of synovial hypertrophy in hemophiliacs using dynamic MRI and MRI scoring. Material and Methods: Twenty-one hemophiliacs on prophylactic factor treatment without recent bleeds were subjected to radiography and gadolinium contrast-enhanced dynamic and static MRI of the knee using a standard dose of 0.1 mmol/kg b.w. gadoteridol. In 17 of the patients, the MRI procedure was repeated after a triple dose of gadoteridol. Results: MRI findings of synovial hypertrophy were significantly correlated with Pettersson radiographic scores. In 19 of the 21 MRI investigated joints, administration of contrast agent did not alter the result of the evaluation of synovial hypertrophy. Conclusion: The optimal time interval for volume assessment of synovial hypertrophy after injection of gadolinium contrast agent is dose dependent. Hemophiliacs without recent bleeds have minor to abundant synovial hypertrophy in joints with pronounced radiographic changes. Dynamic MRI is not useful for evaluating hemophilic arthropathy, and gadolinium contrast agent is not routinely indicated for MRI scoring of joints in hemophiliacs

Synergistic rate boosting of collagen fibrillogenesis in heterogeneous mixtures of crowding agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Dewavrin, Jean-Yves; Abdurrahiem, Muhammed; Blocki, Anna; Musib, Mrinal; Piazza, Francesco; Raghunath, Michael

2015-03-26

The competition for access to space that arises between macromolecules is the basis of the macromolecular crowding phenomenon, known to modulate biochemical reactions in subtle ways. Crowding is a highly conserved physiological condition in and around cells in metazoans, and originates from a mixture of heterogeneous biomolecules. Here, using collagen fibrillogenesis as an experimental test platform and ideas from the theory of nonideal solutions, we show that an entropy-based synergy is created by a mixture of two different populations of artificial crowders, providing small crowders with extra volume occupancy when in the vicinity of bigger crowders. We present the physiological mechanism by which synergistic effects maximize volume exclusion with the minimum amount of heterogeneous crowders, demonstrating how the evolutionarily optimized crowded conditions found in vivo can be reproduced effectively in vitro.

Hydrophilic luminescent silicon nanoparticles in steric colloidal solutions: their size, agglomeration and toxicity

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Herynková, Kateřina; Šimáková, Petra; Cibulka, Ondřej; Fučíková, Anna; Kalbáčová, M.H.

2017-01-01

Roč. 14, č. 12 (2017), s. 1-4, č. článku 1700195. ISSN 1862-6351 Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) DAAD-16-18 Program:Bilaterální spolupráce Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : silicon nanocrystals * colloidal solutions * steric stabilization * cytotoxicity Subject RIV: BO - Biophysics OBOR OECD: Biophysics

Comparison of RSYST and WIMSD-4 performance for gadolinium poisoned lattices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kulikowska, T; Szczesna, B; Sadowska, B

1992-06-01

The participation in the Co-ordinated Research Programme on `Safe Core Management with Burnable Absorbers in VVERs` has created a possibility of validation of our basic calculational tools for advanced lattice calculations. A systematic analysis of the performance of WIMSD-4 and the recently adapted RSYST modular systems has been carried out on the basis of two benchmarks with gadolinium bearing pins. The report consists of a detailed comparison of methods and models available in RSYST and WIMSD-4 followed by calculational results and their discussion. Finally, the conclusions are drawn concerning the applicability of the two codes for clean fuel and gadolinium poisoned reactor lattices. (author). 26 refs, 19 figs, 19 tabs.

Phantom experiment of depth-dose distributions for gadolinium neutron capture therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsumoto, T.; Kato, K.; Sakuma, Y.; Tsuruno, A.; Matsubayashi, M.

1993-01-01

Depth-dose distributions in a tumor simulated phantom were measured for thermal neutron flux, capture gamma-ray and internal conversion electron dose rates for gadolinium neutron capture therapy. The results show that (i) a significant dose enhancement can be achieved in the tumor by capture gamma-rays and internal conversion electrons but the dose is mainly due to capture gamma-rays from the Gd(n, γ) reactions, therefore, is not selective at the cellular level, (ii) the dose distribution was a function of strongly interrelated parameters such as gadolinium concentrations, tumor site and neutron beam size (collimator aperture size), and (iii) the Gd-NCT by thermal neutrons appears to be a potential for treatment of superficial tumor. (author)

Clinical application of gadolinium-enhanced three-dimensional pulmonary MR angiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takano, Katsuyuki

1999-01-01

Twenty-nine patients with suspected pulmonary lesions, and three normal volunteers, underwent gadolinium-enhanced three-dimensional (3D) pulmonary MR angiography (MRA). The MRA were obtained during intravenous administration of gadolinium-based contrast material, in a single breath-hold. Conspicuity of the normal pulmonary segmental arteries was estimated on the MRA. Abnormal findings such as ''vascular involvement'', ''abnormal connection'', stenosis'', or ''dilatation'' on the MRA were compared with those on conventional angiography or CT. Normal pulmonary segmental arteries, except for A 4,5,6,8and9 of the left pulmonary artery, could be clearly visualized. Blind reading of four different findings lead to characteristic findings for each pulmonary disease that can be aid in their differential diagnoses. This technique shows promise as a noninvasive diagnosis of lung diseases. (author)

Study of points defects produced by irradiation of monocrystalline nickel and polycrystalline gadolinium; Etude des defauts ponctuels crees par irradiation dans: - le nickel monocristallin - le gadolinium polycristallin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cope, R [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Grenoble (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

1969-07-01

The work described in this thesis falls into two parts: the first comprises a study of magnetocrystalline nickel by resistivity measurements; the second is a description of resistivity and magnetic after effect measurements on an h.c.p. ferromagnetic crystal other than cobalt, namely gadolinium. For the first part we have demonstrated the existence of a small but definite orientation dependence in the creation of point defects by electron irradiation (20 deg. K) of a nickel single crystal. In particular, the effect is manifested in the form of the stage I{sub C}, II and III in the resistivity recovery. In the second part an important result has emerged: namely that there is no magnetic after effect phenomenon in a neutron irradiated (27 deg. K) ferromagnetic metal. Several considerations are discussed by way of a preliminary interpretation of this important difference between gadolinium and cobalt. (author) [French] Le travail qui a fait l'objet de ce memoire comporte deux parties distinctes: une premiere constituee de l'etude du nickel sous la forme de monocristaux, a l'aide de mesures de resistivite; la seconde partie est composee d'experiences de resistivite et de trainage magnetique sur un cristal h.c.p. ferromagnetique autre que le cobalt, le gadolinium. Dans la premiere partie, nous avons mis en evidence un effet sensible de la direction de l'irradiation electronique (a 20 deg. K) sur la creation des defauts ponctuels dans le nickel monocristallin, en particulier au niveau des stades I{sub C}, II et III des courbes de revenu de la resistivite. Dans la deuxieme partie, un point particulier a ete mis en evidence: l'absence de phenomene de trainage magnetique dans un metal ferromagnetique irradie par des neutrons (a 27 deg. K). Quelques points d'interpretations preliminaires sont avances pour expliquer la difference notable entre le gadolinium et le cobalt. (auteur)

Crowd innovation : The role of uncertainty for opening up the innovation process in the public sector

OpenAIRE

Collm, Alexandra; Schedler, Kuno

2011-01-01

Innovations are complex processes that can be created internally, caused externally or generated collectively with stakeholders. Integrating crowdsourcing and open innovation and supported by Web 2.0 technologies, a new innovation practice, crowd innovation, has emerged. In this paper, we illustrate empirically the practice of crowd innovation and discuss institutional obstacles, which exist for implementing crowd innovation in the public sector. Referring to the normative mode of publicness ...

The Hip Hop peer crowd: An opportunity for intervention to reduce tobacco use among at-risk youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Matthew W; Navarro, Mario A; Hoffman, Leah; Wagner, Dana E; Stalgaitis, Carolyn A; Jordan, Jeffrey W

2018-07-01

Peer crowds, peer groups with macro-level connections and shared norms that transcend geography and race/ethnicity, have been linked to risky health behaviors. Research has demonstrated that Hip Hop peer crowd identification, which is common among multicultural youth, is associated with increased risk of tobacco use. To address this, the FDA Center for Tobacco Products created Fresh Empire, the first national tobacco education campaign tailored for Hip Hop youth aged 12-17 who are multicultural (Hispanic, African American, Asian-Pacific Islander, or Multiracial). As part of campaign development, peer crowd (Hip Hop, Mainstream, Popular, Alternative, Country) and cigarette smoking status were examined for the first time with a nationally recruited sample. Youth were recruited via targeted social media advertisements. Participants aged 13-17 (n = 5153) self-reported peer crowd identification via the I-Base Survey™ and cigarette smoking status. Differences in smoking status by peer crowd were examined using chi-square and followed up with z-tests to identify specific differences. Alternative youth were most at risk of cigarette smoking, followed by Hip Hop. Specifically, Hip Hop youth were significantly less likely to be Non-susceptible Non-triers than Popular, Mainstream, and Country youth, and more likely to be Experimenters than Popular and Mainstream youth. Representative studies show that Alternative is relatively small compared to other high-risk crowds, such as the Hip Hop peer crowd. The current research underscores the potential utility of interventions tailored to larger at-risk crowds for campaigns like Fresh Empire. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Exploring electronic and steric effects on the insertion and polymerization reactivity of phosphinesulfonato pdii catalysts

KAUST Repository

Neuwald, Boris; Falivene, Laura; Caporaso, Lucia; Cavallo, Luigi; Mecking, Stefan

2013-01-01

incorporation at low MA concentrations in the copolymerization; and 3) steric shielding leads to a pronounced increase in polymer molecular weight in the copolymerization. The catalyst properties induced by a given P-aryl (alkyl) moiety were combined effectively

Determination of integrated neutron flux by the measurement of the isotopic ratios of cadmium and gadolinium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomiyoshi, Irene Akemy

1982-01-01

In this work, the possibility of the indirect determination of the integrated neutron flux, through the change of isotopic ratios of cadmium and gadolinium was investigated. The samples of cadmium we/e gadolinium were irradiated in the IEA-Rl reactor. These elements were chosen because they have high thermal neutron absorption cross section which permit the change in the isotopic composition during a short irradiation time to be measured accurately. The isotopic ratios were measured with a thermionic mass spectrometer the silica-gel technique and arrangement with single filament were used for the cadmium analysis, where as the oxi - reduction technique and arrangement with double filaments were used for gadolinium analysis. The mass fractionation effects for cadmium and gadolinium were corrected respectively by the exponential and potential expansion of the isotopic fractionation factor per atomic mass unit. The flux values supplied by the Centro de Operacao e Utilizacao do Reator de Pesquisas do IPEN were extrapolated. These values and the integrated flux values obtained experimentally were compared. (author)

Hyperfine coupling in gadolinium-praseodymium alloys by specific heat measurements; Etude du couplage hyperfin dans les alliages gadolinium-praseodyme par mesures de chaleur specifique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michel, J [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Grenoble (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

1967-12-01

We have studied the hyperfine coupling in gadolinium-praseodymium alloys by specific heat measurements down to 0.3 K. In the first part we describe the apparatus used to perform our measurements. The second part is devoted to some theoretical considerations. We have studied in detail the case of praseodymium which is an exception in the rare earth series. The third part shows the results we have obtained. (author) [French] Nous avons etudie le couplage hyperfin d'alliages de gadolinium-praseodyme par des mesures de chaleur specifique jusqu'a 0.3 K. Dans la premiere partie de cette etude nous decrivons le dispositif experimental. La deuxieme partie est consacree a des considerations theoriques. Nous avons etudie en detail le cas du praseodyme qui est une exception dans la serie des terres rares. La troisieme partie est consacree aux resultats experimentaux. (auteur)

SambVca 2. A Web Tool for Analyzing Catalytic Pockets with Topographic Steric Maps

KAUST Repository

Falivene, Laura; Credendino, Raffaele; Poater, Albert; Petta, Andrea; Serra, Luigi; Oliva, Romina; Scarano, Vittorio; Cavallo, Luigi

2016-01-01

Developing more efficient catalysts remains one of the primary targets of organometallic chemists. To accelerate reaching this goal, effective molecular descriptors and visualization tools can represent a remarkable aid. Here, we present a Web application for analyzing the catalytic pocket of metal complexes using topographic steric maps as a general and unbiased descriptor that is suitable for every class of catalysts. To show the broad applicability of our approach, we first compared the steric map of a series of transition metal complexes presenting popular mono-, di-, and tetracoordinated ligands and three classic zirconocenes. This comparative analysis highlighted similarities and differences between totally unrelated ligands. Then, we focused on a recently developed Fe(II) catalyst that is active in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines. Finally, we expand the scope of these tools to rationalize the inversion of enantioselectivity in enzymatic catalysis, achieved by point mutation of three amino acids of mononuclear p-hydroxymandelate synthase.

SambVca 2. A Web Tool for Analyzing Catalytic Pockets with Topographic Steric Maps

KAUST Repository

Falivene, Laura

2016-06-27

Developing more efficient catalysts remains one of the primary targets of organometallic chemists. To accelerate reaching this goal, effective molecular descriptors and visualization tools can represent a remarkable aid. Here, we present a Web application for analyzing the catalytic pocket of metal complexes using topographic steric maps as a general and unbiased descriptor that is suitable for every class of catalysts. To show the broad applicability of our approach, we first compared the steric map of a series of transition metal complexes presenting popular mono-, di-, and tetracoordinated ligands and three classic zirconocenes. This comparative analysis highlighted similarities and differences between totally unrelated ligands. Then, we focused on a recently developed Fe(II) catalyst that is active in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones and imines. Finally, we expand the scope of these tools to rationalize the inversion of enantioselectivity in enzymatic catalysis, achieved by point mutation of three amino acids of mononuclear p-hydroxymandelate synthase.

Macromolecular crowding: chemistry and physics meet biology (Ascona, Switzerland, 10-14 June 2012)

Science.gov (United States)

Foffi, G.; Pastore, A.; Piazza, F.; Temussi, P. A.

2013-08-01

More than 60 years of biochemical and biophysical studies have accustomed us to think of proteins as highly purified entities that act in isolation, more or less freely diffusing until they find their cognate partner to bind to. While in vitro experiments that reproduce these conditions largely remain the only way to investigate the intrinsic properties of molecules, this approach ignores an important factor: in their natural milieu , proteins are surrounded by several other molecules of different chemical nature, and this crowded environment can considerably modify their behaviour. About 40% of the cellular volume on average is occupied by all sorts of molecules. Furthermore, biological macromolecules live and operate in an extremely structured and complex environment within the cell (endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, cytoskeletal structures, etc). Hence, to further complicate the picture, the interior of the cell is by no means a simply crowded medium, rather, a most crowded and confining one. In recent times, several approaches have been developed in the attempt to take into account important factors such as the ones mentioned above, at both theoretical and experimental levels, so that this field of research is now emerging as one of the most thriving in molecular and cell biology (see figure 1). Figure 1. Figure 1. Left: number of articles containing the word 'crowding' as a keyword limited to the biological and chemical science domains (source: ISI Web of Science). The arrow flags the 2003 'EMBO Workshop on Biological Implications of Macromolecular Crowding' (Embo, 2012). Right: number of citations to articles containing the word 'crowding' limited to the same domains (bars) and an exponential regression curve (source: Elsevier Scopus). To promote the importance of molecular crowding and confinement and provide researchers active in this field an interdisciplinary forum for meeting and exchanging ideas, we recently organized an international conference

Macromolecular crowding: chemistry and physics meet biology (Ascona, Switzerland, 10-14 June 2012).

Science.gov (United States)

Foffi, G; Pastore, A; Piazza, F; Temussi, P A

2013-08-02

More than 60 years of biochemical and biophysical studies have accustomed us to think of proteins as highly purified entities that act in isolation, more or less freely diffusing until they find their cognate partner to bind to. While in vitro experiments that reproduce these conditions largely remain the only way to investigate the intrinsic properties of molecules, this approach ignores an important factor: in their natural milieu , proteins are surrounded by several other molecules of different chemical nature, and this crowded environment can considerably modify their behaviour. About 40% of the cellular volume on average is occupied by all sorts of molecules. Furthermore, biological macromolecules live and operate in an extremely structured and complex environment within the cell (endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, cytoskeletal structures, etc). Hence, to further complicate the picture, the interior of the cell is by no means a simply crowded medium, rather, a most crowded and confining one. In recent times, several approaches have been developed in the attempt to take into account important factors such as the ones mentioned above, at both theoretical and experimental levels, so that this field of research is now emerging as one of the most thriving in molecular and cell biology (see figure 1). [Formula: see text] Figure 1. Left: number of articles containing the word 'crowding' as a keyword limited to the biological and chemical science domains (source: ISI Web of Science). The arrow flags the 2003 'EMBO Workshop on Biological Implications of Macromolecular Crowding' (Embo, 2012). Right: number of citations to articles containing the word 'crowding' limited to the same domains (bars) and an exponential regression curve (source: Elsevier Scopus). To promote the importance of molecular crowding and confinement and provide researchers active in this field an interdisciplinary forum for meeting and exchanging ideas, we recently organized an international

Wise Crowd Content Assessment and Educational Rubrics

Science.gov (United States)

Passonneau, Rebecca J.; Poddar, Ananya; Gite, Gaurav; Krivokapic, Alisa; Yang, Qian; Perin, Dolores

2018-01-01

Development of reliable rubrics for educational intervention studies that address reading and writing skills is labor-intensive, and could benefit from an automated approach. We compare a main ideas rubric used in a successful writing intervention study to a highly reliable wise-crowd content assessment method developed to evaluate…

A novel application of 2-silylated 1,3-dithiolanes for the synthesis of aryl/hetaryl-substituted ethenes and dibenzofulvenes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grzegorz Mlostoń

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Trimethylsilyldiazomethane (TMS-CHN2 reacts readily with hetaryl thioketones to give sterically crowded 2-trimethylsilyl-4,4,5,5-tetrahetaryl-1,3-dithiolanes with complete regioselectivity at −75 °C as well as at rt. Thiofluorenone, a relatively stable and highly reactive aryl thioketone, yields upon treatment with TMS-CHN2 at −60 °C the corresponding 1,3,4-thiadiazoline. This unstable cycloadduct undergoes decomposition at ca. −45 °C and the silylated thiocarbonyl S-methanide generated thereby is trapped with complete regioselectivity by aryl or hetaryl thioketones forming also sterically crowded 2-trimethylsilyl-1,3-dithiolanes. The obtained 1,3-dithiolanes, by treatment with an equimolar amount of TBAF in a one-pot procedure, are converted in high yields into hetaryl/aryl-substituted ethenes or dibenzofulvenes, respectively, via a cycloreversion reaction of the intermediate 1,3-dithiolane carbanion. The presented protocol offers a new, highly efficient approach to tetrasubstituted ethenes and dibenzofulvenes bearing aryl and/or hetaryl substituents.

Experimental and thermodynamic study of the erbium-oxygen-zirconium and gadolinium-oxygen-zirconium systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jourdan, J.

2009-11-01

This work is a contribution to the development of innovative concepts for fuel cladding in pressurized water nuclear reactors. This concept implies the insertion of rare earth (erbium and gadolinium) in the zirconium fuel cladding. The determination of phase equilibria in the systems is essential prior to the implementation of such a promising solution. This study consisted in an experimental determination of the erbium-zirconium phase diagram. For this, we used many different techniques in order to obtain diagram data such as solubility limits, solidus, liquidus or invariant temperatures. These data allowed us to present a new diagram, very different from the previous one available in the literature. We also assessed the diagram using the CALPHAD approach. In the gadolinium-zirconium system, we determined experimentally the solubility limits. Those limits had never been determined before, and the values we obtained showed a very good agreement with the experimental and assessed versions of the diagram. Because these alloys are subjected to oxygen diffusion throughout their life, we focused our attention on the erbium-oxygen-zirconium and gadolinium-oxygen-zirconium systems. The first system has been investigated experimentally. The alloys fabrication has been performed using powder metallurgy. In order to obtain pure raw materials, we fabricated powder from erbium and zirconium bulk metals using hydrogen absorption/desorption. The characterisation of the ternary pellets allowed the determination of two ternary isothermal sections at 800 and 1100 C. For the gadolinium-oxygen-zirconium system, we calculated the phase equilibria at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1100 C, using a homemade database compiled from literature assessments of the oxygen-zirconium, gadolinium-zirconium and gadolinia-zirconia systems. Finally, we determined the mechanical properties, in connexion with the microstructure, of industrial quality alloys in order to identify the influence of

Does Prison Crowding Predict Higher Rates of Substance Use Related Parole Violations? A Recurrent Events Multi-Level Survival Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruderman, Michael A; Wilson, Deirdra F; Reid, Savanna

2015-01-01

This administrative data-linkage cohort study examines the association between prison crowding and the rate of post-release parole violations in a random sample of prisoners released with parole conditions in California, for an observation period of two years (January 2003 through December 2004). Crowding overextends prison resources needed to adequately protect inmates and provide drug rehabilitation services. Violence and lack of access to treatment are known risk factors for drug use and substance use disorders. These and other psychosocial effects of crowding may lead to higher rates of recidivism in California parolees. Rates of parole violation for parolees exposed to high and medium levels of prison crowding were compared to parolees with low prison crowding exposure. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using a Cox model for recurrent events. Our dataset included 13070 parolees in California, combining individual level parolee data with aggregate level crowding data for multilevel analysis. Comparing parolees exposed to high crowding with those exposed to low crowding, the effect sizes from greatest to least were absconding violations (HR 3.56 95% CI: 3.05-4.17), drug violations (HR 2.44 95% CI: 2.00-2.98), non-violent violations (HR 2.14 95% CI: 1.73-2.64), violent and serious violations (HR 1.88 95% CI: 1.45-2.43), and technical violations (HR 1.86 95% CI: 1.37-2.53). Prison crowding predicted higher rates of parole violations after release from prison. The effect was magnitude-dependent and particularly strong for drug charges. Further research into whether adverse prison experiences, such as crowding, are associated with recidivism and drug use in particular may be warranted.

A Steric-inhibition model for regulation of nucleotide exchange via the Dock180 family of GEFs.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Mingjian; Kinchen, Jason M; Rossman, Kent L; Grimsley, Cynthia; Hall, Matthew; Sondek, John; Hengartner, Michael O; Yajnik, Vijay; Ravichandran, Kodi S

2005-02-22

CDM (CED-5, Dock180, Myoblast city) family members have been recently identified as novel, evolutionarily conserved guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for Rho-family GTPases . They regulate multiple processes, including embryonic development, cell migration, apoptotic-cell engulfment, tumor invasion, and HIV-1 infection, in diverse model systems . However, the mechanism(s) of regulation of CDM proteins has not been well understood. Here, our studies on the prototype member Dock180 reveal a steric-inhibition model for regulating the Dock180 family of GEFs. At basal state, the N-terminal SH3 domain of Dock180 binds to the distant catalytic Docker domain and negatively regulates the function of Dock180. Further studies revealed that the SH3:Docker interaction sterically blocks Rac access to the Docker domain. Interestingly, ELMO binding to the SH3 domain of Dock180 disrupted the SH3:Docker interaction, facilitated Rac access to the Docker domain, and contributed to the GEF activity of the Dock180/ELMO complex. Additional genetic rescue studies in C. elegans suggested that the regulation of the Docker-domain-mediated GEF activity by the SH3 domain and its adjoining region is evolutionarily conserved. This steric-inhibition model may be a general mechanism for regulating multiple SH3-domain-containing Dock180 family members and may have implications for a variety of biological processes.

The T2-Shortening Effect of Gadolinium and the Optimal Conditions for Maximizing the CNR for Evaluating the Biliary System: a Phantom Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Mi Jung; Kim, Myung Joon; Yoon, Choon Sik; Song, Si Young; Park, Kyung Soo; Kim, Woo Sun

2011-01-01

Clear depiction of the common bile duct is important when evaluating neonatal cholestasis in order to differentiate biliary atresia from other diseases. During MR cholangiopancreatography, the T2-shortening effect of gadolinium can increase the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the bile duct and enhance its depiction. The purpose of this study was to confirm, by performing a phantom study, the T2-shortening effect of gadolinium, to evaluate the effect of different gadolinium chelates with different gadolinium concentrations and different magnetic field strengths for investigating the optimal combination of these conditions, and for identifying the maximum CNR for the evaluation of the biliary system. MR imaging using a T2-weighted single-shot fast spin echo sequence and T2 relaxometry was performed with a sponge phantom in a syringe tube. Two kinds of contrast agents (Gd-DTPA and Gd-EOB-DTPA) with different gadolinium concentrations were evaluated with 1.5T and 3T scanners. The signal intensities, the CNRs and the T2 relaxation time were analyzed. The signal intensities significantly decreased as the gadolinium concentrations increased (p < 0.001) with both contrast agents. These signal intensities were higher on a 3T (p < 0.001) scanner. The CNRs were higher on a 1.5T (p < 0.001) scanner and they showed no significant change with different gadolinium concentrations. The T2 relaxation time also showed a negative correlation with the gadolinium concentrations (p < 0.001) and the CNRs showed decrease more with Gd-EOB-DTPA (versus Gd-DTPA; p < 0.001) on a 3T scanner (versus 1.5T; p < 0.001). A T2-shortening effect of gadolinium exhibits a negative correlation with the gadolinium concentration for both the signal intensities and the T2 relaxation time. A higher CNR can be obtained with Gd-DTPA on a 1.5T MRI scanner.

Use of gadolinium-DTPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bydder, G.

1990-01-01

Early in the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) it was apparent that a high level of soft tissue contrast was available de novo and it was thought that the need for externally administered contrast agents might be small. This observation was tempered by the fact that separation of tumor from edema was frequently better with contrast-enhanced X-ray computed tomography (CT) than with unenhanced MRI. It was therefore felt that a contrast agent might be needed for MRI. At the end of 1983 the first parenteral agent, gadolinium diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) was used in volunteers, and clinical studies began in 1984. This paper discusses how, at present, Gd-DTPA, oral, and intravenous iron compounds are in clinical use

The feasibility study of using deuterated gadolinium nitrate for moderator-poisoned shutdown and excess reactivity control in CANDU reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, J.; Everatt, A.

2006-01-01

Gadolinium nitrate is used in CANDU stations as moderator poison for reactor shutdowns and excess reactivity control. The use of the light-water hydrate introduces significant quantities of light water into the moderator system, which must be removed from the moderator by periodically upgrading the moderator (isotopic maintenance). The benefit of using a deuterated gadolinium nitrate would be a higher moderator isotopic and/or a lesser isotopic maintenance requirement. This study evaluated the economics of using deuterated gadolinium nitrate, as opposed to the light-water hydrate, for moderator-poisoned shutdowns and excess reactivity control in CANDU-6 reactors. Normal gadolinium nitrate (i.e., the light-water hydrate) is available from suppliers at ∼125 $/kg. Supplier quotes for deuterated gadolinium nitrate ranged from 1900 to 4000 $/kg. To examine the possibility of producing deuterated gadolinium nitrate in-house at a lower cost than commercially available, a three-stage dissolution/evaporation manufacturing process was conceived and costed. Depending on the assumed demand for the product (i.e., the number of reactors adopting the use of the product) and the capital recovery period, the estimated unit cost for the dissolution/evaporation process ranged from 730 to 2500 $/kg. The determination of economic benefit from using deuterated gadolinium nitrate in existing CANDU stations was based on the cost savings resulting from a higher fuel burn-up (i.e., the higher moderator isotopic would give a higher fuel burn-up). The net benefit of using deuterated gadolinium nitrate for most CANDU stations was determined to be marginal (i.e., <20 k$/a). Only for those CANDU stations where the moderator isotopic was relatively low (e.g., 99.85 wt%) was there a potential significant benefit (20-100 k$/a). However, if the reason for the low moderator isotopic is a relatively high moderator light-water ingress rate from sources other than the use of the light-water hydrate

The experimental and theoretical investigations on the structure of the gadolinium-lead-tellurate glasses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rada, S., E-mail: Simona.Rada@phys.utcluj.ro [Physics Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Culea, E.; Rada, M. [Physics Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

2011-08-15

Highlights: {yields} Pronounced affinities of the lead and gadolinium ions towards [TeO{sub 3}] structural units. {yields} The reorganization of the tellurate structural units and the formation of new [Te{sub 3}O{sub 8}]{sup -4} and [Te{sub 6}O{sub 15}]{sup -6} structural units. {yields} Pb{sub 2}Te{sub 3}O{sub 8} and Gd{sub 2}Te{sub 6}O{sub 15} crystalline phases. - Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to approach the structure of gadolinium-lead-tellurate glasses with compositions xGd{sub 2}O{sub 3} (100 - x)[7TeO{sub 2}.3PbO], x = 0-90 mol% using the X-ray diffraction, DFT calculations, FTIR, EPR and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Our results show that the doping with gadolinium ions will deform the Te-O-Te linkages, will affect the length of Te=O bonds and the accommodation of the network with excess of oxygen will be realized by the reorganization of the tellurate structural units. These affinities pronounced of the lead and gadolinium cations towards tellurium atoms yield the formation of the Pb{sub 2}Te{sub 3}O{sub 8} and Gd{sub 2}Te{sub 6}O{sub 15} crystalline phases because tellurate structural units can adopt a variety of structures due to the presence of the lone-pair electrons.

Interaction with virtual crowd in Immersive and semi‐Immersive Virtual Reality systems

OpenAIRE

Kyriakou, Marios; Pan, Xueni; Chrysanthou, Yiorgos

2016-01-01

This study examines attributes of virtual human behavior that may increase the plausibility of a simulated crowd and affect the user's experience in Virtual Reality. Purpose-developed experiments in both Immersive and semi-Immersive Virtual Reality systems queried the impact of collision and basic interaction between real-users and the virtual crowd and their effect on the apparent realism and ease of navigation within Virtual Reality (VR). Participants' behavior and subjective measurements i...

Deposit of isotopically modified gadolinium suitable to detect solar neutrinos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cribier, M

1999-04-01

Consideration on the possibility to find gadolinium with a modified isotopic composition are envisaged, in particular with respect to the important use of this element by the nuclear energy. These possibility could exist in the far future. (author)

Double Crowding-Out Effects of Means-Tested Public Provision for Long-Term Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Courbage

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Publicly provided long-term care (LTC insurance with means-tested benefits is suspected to crowd out either private saving or informal care. This contribution predicts crowding-out effects for both private saving and informal care for policy measures designed to relieve the public purse from LTC expenditure such as more stringent means testing and increased taxation of inheritance. These effects result from the interaction of a parent who decides on the amount of saving in retirement and a caregiver who decides on the effort devoted to informal care which lowers the probability of admission to a nursing home. Double crowding-out effects are also found to be the consequence of exogenous influences, notably a higher opportunity cost of caregiving.

The role of crowding in parallel search: Peripheral pooling is not responsible for logarithmic efficiency in parallel search.

Science.gov (United States)

Madison, Anna; Lleras, Alejandro; Buetti, Simona

2018-02-01

Recent results from our laboratory showed that, in fixed-target parallel search tasks, reaction times increase in a logarithmic fashion with set size, and the slope of this logarithmic function is modulated by lure-target similarity. These results were interpreted as being consistent with a processing architecture where early vision (stage one) processes elements in the display in exhaustive fashion with unlimited capacity and with a limitation in resolution. Here, we evaluate the contribution of crowding to our recent logarithmic search slope findings, considering the possibility that peripheral pooling of features (as observed in crowding) may be responsible for logarithmic efficiency. Factors known to affect the strength of crowding were varied, specifically: item spacing and similarity. The results from three experiments converge on the same pattern of results: reaction times increased logarithmically with set size and were modulated by lure-target similarity even when crowding was minimized within displays through an inter-item spacing manipulation. Furthermore, we found logarithmic search efficiencies were overall improved in displays where crowding was minimized compared to displays where crowding was possible. The findings from these three experiments suggest logarithmic efficiency in efficient search is not the result peripheral pooling of features. That said, the presence of crowding does tend to reduce search efficiency, even in "pop-out" search situations.

Unpaid Crowd Complementors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boudreau, Kevin J.; Jeppesen, Lars Bo

2014-01-01

on network effects and strategies to attract large numbers of complementors remain advisable in such contexts? We test hypotheses related to these issues using data from 85 online multi-player game platforms with unpaid complementors. We find that complementor development responds to platform growth even......Platforms have evolved beyond just being organized as multi-sided markets with complementors selling to users. Complementors are often unpaid, working outside of a price system and driven by heterogeneous sources of motivation— which should affect how they respond to platform growth. Does reliance...... without sales incentives, but that attracting complementors has a net zero effect on on-going development and fails to stimulate network effects. We discuss conditions under which a strategy of using unpaid crowd complementors remains advantageous....

Biocompatible Polyhydroxyethylaspartamide-based Micelles with Gadolinium for MRI Contrast Agents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Hyo Jeong

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Biocompatible poly-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl-d,l-aspartamide]-methoxypoly(ethyleneglycol-hexadecylamine (PHEA-mPEG-C16 conjugated with 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecan-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid-gadolinium (DOTA-Gd via ethylenediamine (ED was synthesized as a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI contrast agent. Amphiphilic PHEA-mPEG-C16-ED-DOTA-Gd forms micelle in aqueous solution. All the synthesized materials were characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR. Micelle size and shape were examined by dynamic light scattering (DLS and atomic force microscopy (AFM. Micelles with PHEA-mPEG-C16-ED-DOTA-Gd showed higher relaxivities than the commercially available gadolinium contrast agent. Moreover, the signal intensity of a rabbit liver was effectively increased after intravenous injection of PHEA-mPEG-C16-ED-DOTA-Gd.

First measurements with new high-resolution gadolinium-GEM neutron detectors

CERN Document Server

Pfeiffer, Dorothea; Birch, Jens; Etxegarai, Maddi; Hall-Wilton, Richard; Höglund, Carina; Hultman, Lars; Llamas-Jansa, Isabel; Oliveri, Eraldo; Oksanen, Esko; Robinson, Linda; Ropelewski, Leszek; Schmidt, Susann; Streli, Christina; Thuiner, Patrik

2016-05-17

European Spallation Source instruments like the macromolecular diffractometer, NMX, require an excellent neutron detection efficiency, high-rate capabilities, time resolution, and an unprecedented spatial resolution in the order of a few hundred micrometers over a wide angular range of the incoming neutrons. For these instruments solid converters in combination with Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGDs) are a promising option. A GEM detector with gadolinium converter was tested on a cold neutron beam at the IFE research reactor in Norway. The {\\mu}TPC analysis, proven to improve the spatial resolution in the case of $^{10}$B converters, is extended to gadolinium based detectors. For the first time, a Gd-GEM was successfully operated to detect neutrons with an estimated efficiency of 10% at a wavelength of 2 {\\AA} and a position resolution better than 350 {\\mu}m.

The Effect of Attractive Interactions and Macromolecular Crowding on Crystallins Association.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiachen Wei

Full Text Available In living systems proteins are typically found in crowded environments where their effective interactions strongly depend on the surrounding medium. Yet, their association and dissociation needs to be robustly controlled in order to enable biological function. Uncontrolled protein aggregation often causes disease. For instance, cataract is caused by the clustering of lens proteins, i.e., crystallins, resulting in enhanced light scattering and impaired vision or blindness. To investigate the molecular origins of cataract formation and to design efficient treatments, a better understanding of crystallin association in macromolecular crowded environment is needed. Here we present a theoretical study of simple coarse grained colloidal models to characterize the general features of how the association equilibrium of proteins depends on the magnitude of intermolecular attraction. By comparing the analytic results to the available experimental data on the osmotic pressure in crystallin solutions, we identify the effective parameters regimes applicable to crystallins. Moreover, the combination of two models allows us to predict that the number of binding sites on crystallin is small, i.e. one to three per protein, which is different from previous estimates. We further observe that the crowding factor is sensitive to the size asymmetry between the reactants and crowding agents, the shape of the protein clusters, and to small variations of intermolecular attraction. Our work may provide general guidelines on how to steer the protein interactions in order to control their association.

Crowding and hopping in a protein’s diffusive transport on DNA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koslover, Elena F; Spakowitz, Andrew J; Díaz de la Rosa, Mario

2017-01-01

Diffusion is a ubiquitous phenomenon that impacts virtually all processes that involve random fluctuations, and as such, the foundational work of Smoluchowski has proven to be instrumental in addressing innumerable problems. Here, we focus on a critical biological problem that relies on diffusive transport and is analyzed using a probabilistic treatment originally developed by Smoluchowski. The search of a DNA binding protein for its specific target site is believed to rely on non-specific binding to DNA with transient hops along the chain. In this work, we address the impact of protein crowding along the DNA on the transport of a DNA-binding protein. The crowders dramatically alter the dynamics of the protein while bound to the DNA, resulting in single-file transport that is subdiffusive in nature. However, transient unbinding and hopping results in a long-time behavior (shown to be superdiffusive) that is qualitatively unaffected by the crowding on the DNA. Thus, hopping along the chain mitigates the role that protein crowding has in restricting the translocation dynamics along the chain. The superdiffusion coefficient is influenced by the quantitative values of the effective binding rate, which is influenced by protein crowding. We show that vacancy fraction and superdiffusion coefficient exhibits a non-monotonic relationship under many circumstances. We leverage analytical theory and dynamic Monte Carlo simulations to address this problem. With several additional contributions, the core of our modeling work adopts a reaction-diffusion framework that is based on Smoluchowski’s original work. (paper)

Specific features of the WWER Uranium-Gadolinium fuel behavior at BOL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shcheglov, A.; Proselkov, V.; Volkov, B.

2013-01-01

The calculated-experimental analysis of the WWER fuel behavior with 5%wt of gadolinium oxide at the beginning of life (BOL) is presented. The results are based on the data on fuel centerline temperature measurements, gas media pressure inside the cladding and fuel elongation obtained during irradiation of the test fuel rods in HBWR (Halden). Computer analysis of experimental data is performed with TOPRA-2, version 2 code. It is shown that specific features of the uranium-gadolinium fuel behavior at the early of life is due to presence of burnable absorber influencing the average linear heat rating, radial power distribution and lower thermal conductivity. In particular, the analysis of “late” relocation effect on the maximum Gd fuel temperature is presented. (authors)

Does Prison Crowding Predict Higher Rates of Substance Use Related Parole Violations? A Recurrent Events Multi-Level Survival Analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael A Ruderman

Full Text Available This administrative data-linkage cohort study examines the association between prison crowding and the rate of post-release parole violations in a random sample of prisoners released with parole conditions in California, for an observation period of two years (January 2003 through December 2004.Crowding overextends prison resources needed to adequately protect inmates and provide drug rehabilitation services. Violence and lack of access to treatment are known risk factors for drug use and substance use disorders. These and other psychosocial effects of crowding may lead to higher rates of recidivism in California parolees.Rates of parole violation for parolees exposed to high and medium levels of prison crowding were compared to parolees with low prison crowding exposure. Hazard ratios (HRs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs were estimated using a Cox model for recurrent events. Our dataset included 13070 parolees in California, combining individual level parolee data with aggregate level crowding data for multilevel analysis.Comparing parolees exposed to high crowding with those exposed to low crowding, the effect sizes from greatest to least were absconding violations (HR 3.56 95% CI: 3.05-4.17, drug violations (HR 2.44 95% CI: 2.00-2.98, non-violent violations (HR 2.14 95% CI: 1.73-2.64, violent and serious violations (HR 1.88 95% CI: 1.45-2.43, and technical violations (HR 1.86 95% CI: 1.37-2.53.Prison crowding predicted higher rates of parole violations after release from prison. The effect was magnitude-dependent and particularly strong for drug charges. Further research into whether adverse prison experiences, such as crowding, are associated with recidivism and drug use in particular may be warranted.

Does Prison Crowding Predict Higher Rates of Substance Use Related Parole Violations? A Recurrent Events Multi-Level Survival Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ruderman, Michael A.; Wilson, Deirdra F.; Reid, Savanna

2015-01-01

Objective This administrative data-linkage cohort study examines the association between prison crowding and the rate of post-release parole violations in a random sample of prisoners released with parole conditions in California, for an observation period of two years (January 2003 through December 2004). Background Crowding overextends prison resources needed to adequately protect inmates and provide drug rehabilitation services. Violence and lack of access to treatment are known risk factors for drug use and substance use disorders. These and other psychosocial effects of crowding may lead to higher rates of recidivism in California parolees. Methods Rates of parole violation for parolees exposed to high and medium levels of prison crowding were compared to parolees with low prison crowding exposure. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using a Cox model for recurrent events. Our dataset included 13070 parolees in California, combining individual level parolee data with aggregate level crowding data for multilevel analysis. Results Comparing parolees exposed to high crowding with those exposed to low crowding, the effect sizes from greatest to least were absconding violations (HR 3.56 95% CI: 3.05–4.17), drug violations (HR 2.44 95% CI: 2.00–2.98), non-violent violations (HR 2.14 95% CI: 1.73–2.64), violent and serious violations (HR 1.88 95% CI: 1.45–2.43), and technical violations (HR 1.86 95% CI: 1.37–2.53). Conclusions Prison crowding predicted higher rates of parole violations after release from prison. The effect was magnitude-dependent and particularly strong for drug charges. Further research into whether adverse prison experiences, such as crowding, are associated with recidivism and drug use in particular may be warranted. PMID:26492490

The effect of macromolecular crowding on the electrostatic component of barnase-barstar binding: a computational, implicit solvent-based study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helena W Qi

Full Text Available Macromolecular crowding within the cell can impact both protein folding and binding. Earlier models of cellular crowding focused on the excluded volume, entropic effect of crowding agents, which generally favors compact protein states. Recently, other effects of crowding have been explored, including enthalpically-related crowder-protein interactions and changes in solvation properties. In this work, we explore the effects of macromolecular crowding on the electrostatic desolvation and solvent-screened interaction components of protein-protein binding. Our simple model enables us to focus exclusively on the electrostatic effects of water depletion on protein binding due to crowding, providing us with the ability to systematically analyze and quantify these potentially intuitive effects. We use the barnase-barstar complex as a model system and randomly placed, uncharged spheres within implicit solvent to model crowding in an aqueous environment. On average, we find that the desolvation free energy penalties incurred by partners upon binding are lowered in a crowded environment and solvent-screened interactions are amplified. At a constant crowder density (fraction of total available volume occupied by crowders, this effect generally increases as the radius of model crowders decreases, but the strength and nature of this trend can depend on the water probe radius used to generate the molecular surface in the continuum model. In general, there is huge variation in desolvation penalties as a function of the random crowder positions. Results with explicit model crowders can be qualitatively similar to those using a lowered "effective" solvent dielectric to account for crowding, although the "best" effective dielectric constant will likely depend on multiple system properties. Taken together, this work systematically demonstrates, quantifies, and analyzes qualitative intuition-based insights into the effects of water depletion due to crowding on the

MRT of experimental liver abscesses - comparison of a new blood pool contrast agent with gadolinium-DTPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dick, A.; Adam, G.; Spuentrup, E.; Prescher, A.; Muehler, A.; Guenther, R.W.

1996-01-01

Purpose: In an experimental pyogenic liver abscess model, the signal intensities were compared intraindividually and interindividually after the application of a new blood pool contrast agent, 24-gadolinium-DTPA (diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid) cascade polymer, and after the application of gadopentetate dimeglumine. Methods: In 20 rabbits with experimentally induced liver abscesses, the relative signal intensities of the liver, abscess centre, abscess wall and portal vein were assessed before and between 30 seconds and 60 minutes after injection of a 25 μmol/kg dose of gadolinium polymer and of 100 μmol/kg of gadolinium-DTPA, respectively. Measurements were performed at 1.5 Tesla, using a head coil and a Flash-2-D sequence. Results: The interindividual comparison (unpaired T-test, p [de

Multiple scales modelling approaches to social interaction in crowd dynamics and crisis management. Comment on "Human behaviours in evacuation crowd dynamics: From modelling to "big data" toward crisis management" by Nicola Bellomo et al.

Science.gov (United States)

Trucu, Dumitru

2016-09-01

In this comprehensive review concerning the modelling of human behaviours in crowd dynamics [3], the authors explore a wide range of mathematical approaches spanning over multiple scales that are suitable to describe emerging crowd behaviours in extreme situations. Focused on deciphering the key aspects leading to emerging crowd patterns evolutions in challenging times such as those requiring an evacuation on a complex venue, the authors address this complex dynamics at both microscale (individual level), mesoscale (probability distributions of interacting individuals), and macroscale (population level), ultimately aiming to gain valuable understanding and knowledge that would inform decision making in managing crisis situations.

Solid solutions of gadolinium doped zinc oxide nanorods by combined microwave-ultrasonic irradiation assisted crystallization

Science.gov (United States)

Kiani, Armin; Dastafkan, Kamran; Obeydavi, Ali; Rahimi, Mohammad

2017-12-01

Nanocrystalline solid solutions consisting of un-doped and gadolinium doped zinc oxide nanorods were fabricated by a modified sol-gel process utilizing combined ultrasonic-microwave irradiations. Polyvinylpyrrolidone, diethylene glycol, and triethylenetetramine respectively as capping, structure directing, and complexing agents were used under ultrasound dynamic aging and microwave heating to obtain crystalline nanorods. Crystalline phase monitoring, lattice parameters and variation, morphology and shape, elemental analysis, functional groups, reducibility, and the oxidation state of emerged species were examined by PXRD, FESEM, TEM, EDX, FTIR, micro Raman, H2-TPR, and EPR techniques. Results have verified that irradiation mechanism of gelation and crystallization reduces the reaction time, augments the crystal quality, and formation of hexagonal close pack structure of Wurtzite morphology. Besides, dissolution of gadolinium within host lattice involves lattice deformation, unit cell distortion, and angular position variation. Structure related shape and growth along with compositional purity were observed through microscopic and spectroscopic surveys. Furthermore, TPR and EPR studies elucidated more detailed behavior upon exposure to the exerted irradiations and subsequent air-annealing including the formed oxidation states and electron trapping centers, presence of gadolinium, zinc, and oxygen disarrays and defects, as well as alteration in the host unit cell via gadolinium addition.

SPITZER IRAC PHOTOMETRY FOR TIME SERIES IN CROWDED FIELDS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Novati, S. Calchi; Beichman, C. [NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, MS 100-22, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Gould, A.; Fausnaugh, M.; Gaudi, B. S.; Pogge, R. W.; Wibking, B.; Zhu, W.; Poleski, R. [Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Yee, J. C. [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States); Bryden, G.; Henderson, C. B.; Shvartzvald, Y. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Carey, S. [Spitzer, Science Center, MS 220-6, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States); Udalski, A.; Pawlak, M.; Szymański, M. K.; Skowron, J.; Mróz, P.; Kozłowski, S. [Warsaw University Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa (Poland); Collaboration: Spitzer team; OGLE group; and others

2015-12-01

We develop a new photometry algorithm that is optimized for the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Spitzer time series in crowded fields and that is particularly adapted to faint or heavily blended targets. We apply this to the 170 targets from the 2015 Spitzer microlensing campaign and present the results of three variants of this algorithm in an online catalog. We present detailed accounts of the application of this algorithm to two difficult cases, one very faint and the other very crowded. Several of Spitzer's instrumental characteristics that drive the specific features of this algorithm are shared by Kepler and WFIRST, implying that these features may prove to be a useful starting point for algorithms designed for microlensing campaigns by these other missions.

Social.Water--Open Source Citizen Science Software for CrowdHydrology

Science.gov (United States)

Fienen, M. N.; Lowry, C.

2013-12-01

CrowdHydrology is a crowd-sourced citizen science project in which passersby near streams are encouraged to read a gage and send an SMS (text) message with the water level to a number indicated on a sign. The project was initially started using free services such as Google Voice, Gmail, and Google Maps to acquire and present the data on the internet. Social.Water is open-source software, using Python and JavaScript, that automates the acquisition, categorization, and presentation of the data. Open-source objectives pervade both the project and the software as the code is hosted at Github, only free scripting codes are used, and any person or organization can install a gage and join the CrowdHydrology network. In the first year, 10 sites were deployed in upstate New York, USA. In the second year, expansion to 44 sites throughout the upper Midwest USA was achieved. Comparison with official USGS and academic measurements have shown low error rates. Citizen participation varies greatly from site to site, so surveys or other social information is sought for insight into why some sites experience higher rates of participation than others.

POI Summarization by Aesthetics Evaluation From Crowd Source Social Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Xueming; Li, Cheng; Lan, Ke; Hou, Xingsong; Li, Zhetao; Han, Junwei

2018-03-01

Place-of-Interest (POI) summarization by aesthetics evaluation can recommend a set of POI images to the user and it is significant in image retrieval. In this paper, we propose a system that summarizes a collection of POI images regarding both aesthetics and diversity of the distribution of cameras. First, we generate visual albums by a coarse-to-fine POI clustering approach and then generate 3D models for each album by the collected images from social media. Second, based on the 3D to 2D projection relationship, we select candidate photos in terms of the proposed crowd source saliency model. Third, in order to improve the performance of aesthetic measurement model, we propose a crowd-sourced saliency detection approach by exploring the distribution of salient regions in the 3D model. Then, we measure the composition aesthetics of each image and we explore crowd source salient feature to yield saliency map, based on which, we propose an adaptive image adoption approach. Finally, we combine the diversity and the aesthetics to recommend aesthetic pictures. Experimental results show that the proposed POI summarization approach can return images with diverse camera distributions and aesthetics.

Influence of gadolinium concentration on the EMR spectrum of Gd{sup 3+} in zircon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biasi, R.S. de, E-mail: rsbiasi@ime.eb.b [Secao de Engenharia Mecanica e de Materiais, Instituto Militar de Engenharia, 22290-270 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Grillo, M.L.N., E-mail: mluciag@uerj.b [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 20550-013 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2009-11-01

Electron magnetic resonance (EMR) spectra of gadolinium-doped zircon (ZrSiO{sub 4}) powders have been studied at room temperature for gadolinium concentrations between 0.20 and 1.0 mol%. The results suggest that Gd{sup 3+} ions occupy substitutional sites in the zircon lattice, that the electron magnetic resonance linewidth increases with increasing gadolinium concentration and that the range of the exchange interaction between Gd{sup 3+} ions is about 1.17 nm, larger than that of the same ion in other host lattices, such as ceria (CeO{sub 2}), strontium oxide (SrO) and calcium oxide (CaO). The fact that the electron magnetic resonance linewidth of the Gd{sup 3+} ion in polycrystalline zircon increases, regularly and predictably, with Gd concentration, shows that the Gd{sup 3+} ion can be used as a probe to study, rapidly and non-destructively, the crystallinity and degradation of ZrSiO{sub 4}.

The effects of crowding agents Dextran-70k and PEG-8k on actin structure and unfolding reaction

Science.gov (United States)

Gagarskaia, Iuliia A.; Povarova, Olga I.; Uversky, Vladimir N.; Kuznetsova, Irina M.; Turoverov, Konstantin K.

2017-07-01

Recently, an increasing number of studies on proteins' structure, stability and folding are trying to bring the experimental conditions closer to those existing in a living cell, namely to the conditions of macromolecular crowding. In vitro such conditions are typically imitated by the ;inert; highly water-soluble polymers with different hydrodynamic dimensions. In this work, the effects of crowded milieu on the structure and conformational stability of actin, which is a key component of the muscle contraction system, was examined. The crowded milieu was simulated by high concentrations of PEG-8k or Dextran-70k. It was revealed that both crowding agents decelerated but not inhibited actin unfolding and made a compact state of inactivated actin thermodynamically more favorable in comparison with the unfolded state. At the same time, the high viscosity of the solution of crowding agents slowed down all processes and especially inactivated actin formation, since it involves the interaction of 14-16 partially unfolded actin molecules. The effects of crowding agent were larger when its hydrodynamic dimensions were closer to the size of globular actin.

Clinical experience of gadolinium-DTPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takemoto, Kazumasa; Inoue, Yuichi; Hashimoto, Hiromi

1986-01-01

Magnetic resonance imaging was performed before and after intravenous administration of gadolinium-DTPA (Gd-DTPA) in 9 patients with intracranial tumors (8) and a spinal tumor (1). In this study IR (2100/600) and short SE (600/40) were used. After administration of Gd-DTPA, signal intensity of tumors increased in all cases. Contrast enhanced MRI with Gd-DTPA was useful in metastatic brain tumor, cerebeller astrocytoma and glioblastoma to differentiate the tumor from edema. Since meningiomas were clearly demonstrated and differentiated from edema. Gd-DTPA seems to be not required for the diagnosis of meningiomas. No severe side effect were encountered after injection of Gd-DTPA. (author)

Sensitive and transportable gadolinium-core plastic scintillator sphere for neutron detection and counting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dumazert, Jonathan; Coulon, Romain; Carrel, Frédérick; Corre, Gwenolé; Normand, Stéphane [CEA, LIST, Laboratoire Capteurs Architectures Electroniques, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Méchin, Laurence [CNRS, UCBN, Groupe de Recherche en Informatique, Image, Automatique et Instrumentation de Caen, 14050 Caen (France); Hamel, Matthieu [CEA, LIST, Laboratoire Capteurs Architectures Electroniques, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

2016-08-21

Neutron detection forms a critical branch of nuclear-related issues, currently driven by the search for competitive alternative technologies to neutron counters based on the helium-3 isotope. The deployment of plastic scintillators shows a high potential for efficient detectors, safer and more reliable than liquids, more easily scalable and cost-effective than inorganic. In the meantime, natural gadolinium, through its 155 and mostly 157 isotopes, presents an exceptionally high interaction probability with thermal neutrons. This paper introduces a dual system including a metal gadolinium core inserted at the center of a high-scale plastic scintillator sphere. Incident fast neutrons are thermalized by the scintillator shell and then may be captured with a significant probability by gadolinium 155 and 157 nuclei in the core. The deposition of a sufficient fraction of the capture high-energy prompt gamma signature inside the scintillator shell will then allow discrimination from background radiations by energy threshold, and therefore neutron detection. The scaling of the system with the Monte Carlo MCNPX2.7 code was carried out according to a tradeoff between the moderation of incident fast neutrons and the probability of slow neutron capture by a moderate-cost metal gadolinium core. Based on the parameters extracted from simulation, a first laboratory prototype for the assessment of the detection method principle has been synthetized. The robustness and sensitivity of the neutron detection principle are then assessed by counting measurement experiments. Experimental results confirm the potential for a stable, highly sensitive, transportable and cost-efficient neutron detector and orientate future investigation toward promising axes.

Sensitive and transportable gadolinium-core plastic scintillator sphere for neutron detection and counting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dumazert, Jonathan; Coulon, Romain; Carrel, Frédérick; Corre, Gwenolé; Normand, Stéphane; Méchin, Laurence; Hamel, Matthieu

2016-01-01

Neutron detection forms a critical branch of nuclear-related issues, currently driven by the search for competitive alternative technologies to neutron counters based on the helium-3 isotope. The deployment of plastic scintillators shows a high potential for efficient detectors, safer and more reliable than liquids, more easily scalable and cost-effective than inorganic. In the meantime, natural gadolinium, through its 155 and mostly 157 isotopes, presents an exceptionally high interaction probability with thermal neutrons. This paper introduces a dual system including a metal gadolinium core inserted at the center of a high-scale plastic scintillator sphere. Incident fast neutrons are thermalized by the scintillator shell and then may be captured with a significant probability by gadolinium 155 and 157 nuclei in the core. The deposition of a sufficient fraction of the capture high-energy prompt gamma signature inside the scintillator shell will then allow discrimination from background radiations by energy threshold, and therefore neutron detection. The scaling of the system with the Monte Carlo MCNPX2.7 code was carried out according to a tradeoff between the moderation of incident fast neutrons and the probability of slow neutron capture by a moderate-cost metal gadolinium core. Based on the parameters extracted from simulation, a first laboratory prototype for the assessment of the detection method principle has been synthetized. The robustness and sensitivity of the neutron detection principle are then assessed by counting measurement experiments. Experimental results confirm the potential for a stable, highly sensitive, transportable and cost-efficient neutron detector and orientate future investigation toward promising axes.

The Effects of Molecular Crowding on the Structure and Stability of G-Quadruplexes with an Abasic Site

Science.gov (United States)

Fujimoto, Takeshi; Nakano, Shu-ichi; Miyoshi, Daisuke; Sugimoto, Naoki

2011-01-01

Both cellular environmental factors and chemical modifications critically affect the properties of nucleic acids. However, the structure and stability of DNA containing abasic sites under cell-mimicking molecular crowding conditions remain unclear. Here, we investigated the molecular crowding effects on the structure and stability of the G-quadruplexes including a single abasic site. Structural analysis by circular dichroism showed that molecular crowding by PEG200 did not affect the topology of the G-quadruplex structure with or without an abasic site. Thermodynamic analysis further demonstrated that the degree of stabilization of the G-quadruplex by molecular crowding decreased with substitution of an abasic site for a single guanine. Notably, we found that the molecular crowding effects on the enthalpy change for G-quadruplex formation had a linear relationship with the abasic site effects depending on its position. These results are useful for predicting the structure and stability of G-quadruplexes with abasic sites in the cell-mimicking conditions. PMID:21949901

Luminescence study on Eu or Tb doped lanthanum-gadolinium pyrosilicate crystal

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kurosawa, S.; Shishido, T.; Sugawara, T.; Nomura, A.; Yubuta, K.; Pejchal, Jan; Murakami, R.; Yokota, Y.; Shoji, Y.; Ohashi, Y.; Kamada, K.; Yoshikawa, A.

2015-01-01

Roč. 41, Mar (2015), s. 80-83 ISSN 0925-3467 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : scintillator * gadolinium pyrosilicate Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 2.183, year: 2015

A behavioral economics perspective on the overjustification effect: Crowding-in and crowding-out of intrinsic motivation.

OpenAIRE

Weibel, Antoinette; Wiemann, Meike; Osterloh, Margit

2014-01-01

In the last two decades, economic motivation research has undergone a paradigm shift when it comes to the effect of incentive schemes on individual performance and motivation. Inspired by self-determination theory, a new branch in economics evolved called behavioral economics. Especially by evidencing the negative effect of “pay-for-performance” on intrinsic motivation, called the “crowding-out” or “overjustification” effect, it challenges the economic paradigm of the relative price-effect an...

Long-term retention of gadolinium in the skin of rodents following the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pietsch, Hubertus; Jost, Gregor; Frenzel, Thomas; Huetter, Joachim; Sieber, Martin A.; Lengsfeld, Philipp

2009-01-01

Several publications suggest a potential association between the administration of Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) and the onset of a rare but serious disease, Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF). The aim of this study was to determine the elimination time-course of Gadolinium (Gd) from skin tissue after application of GBCAs in rats. Seven different marketed GBCAs were injected on five consecutive days at a dose of 2.5 mmol/kg bodyweight into the tail vein of Han-Wistar rats and the Gd concentrations were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in skin biopsies taken at various time-points up to a year after the last injection. Most of the administered Gd was eliminated from the skin within a time-period of about 2 months. However, the repeated administration of linear GBCAs resulted in long-term retention of a small portion of the administered Gd in the skin tissue of rats, with substantially higher values observed in animals treated with non-ionic linear agents than in those that received ionic linear GBCAs. Following treatment with macrocyclic GBCAs, Gd values in the skin were in the same range as observed in the controls from day 24 post-injection onwards. In summary, we observed a correlation between the complex stability of GBCAs and the amount of residual Gd in the skin up to a year after application of GBCAs. (orig.)

Long-term retention of gadolinium in the skin of rodents following the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pietsch, Hubertus; Jost, Gregor; Frenzel, Thomas; Huetter, Joachim; Sieber, Martin A. [Media Research, Bayer Schering Pharma AG Contrast, Berlin (Germany); Lengsfeld, Philipp [Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Global Medical Affairs Diagnostic Imaging, Berlin (Germany)

2009-06-15

Several publications suggest a potential association between the administration of Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) and the onset of a rare but serious disease, Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF). The aim of this study was to determine the elimination time-course of Gadolinium (Gd) from skin tissue after application of GBCAs in rats. Seven different marketed GBCAs were injected on five consecutive days at a dose of 2.5 mmol/kg bodyweight into the tail vein of Han-Wistar rats and the Gd concentrations were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in skin biopsies taken at various time-points up to a year after the last injection. Most of the administered Gd was eliminated from the skin within a time-period of about 2 months. However, the repeated administration of linear GBCAs resulted in long-term retention of a small portion of the administered Gd in the skin tissue of rats, with substantially higher values observed in animals treated with non-ionic linear agents than in those that received ionic linear GBCAs. Following treatment with macrocyclic GBCAs, Gd values in the skin were in the same range as observed in the controls from day 24 post-injection onwards. In summary, we observed a correlation between the complex stability of GBCAs and the amount of residual Gd in the skin up to a year after application of GBCAs. (orig.)

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of gadolinium cationic lipids as tools for biodistribution studies of gene delivery complexes.

Science.gov (United States)

Leclercq, Francoise; Cohen-Ohana, Mirit; Mignet, Nathalie; Sbarbati, Andrea; Herscovici, Jean; Scherman, Daniel; Byk, Gerardo

2003-01-01

Gadolinium-chelating cationic lipids have been synthesized to obtain lipoplexes with MRI contrast properties. These compounds were designed to follow the biodistribution of synthetic DNA for gene delivery by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. The lipid MCO-I-68 was synthesized, and chelate complexes with gadolinium were formed and characterized in terms of physicochemical and DNA binding properties. The transfection activity of MCO-I-68-Gd/DNA complexes was assayed in vitro on NIH 3T3. Different formulations of the product were tested. When up to 5% of the gadolinium lipid complexes were co-formulated with the cationic lipid RPR120535 used as a reference, the transfection levels were maintained as compared to RPR120535 alone. To date, only a liposomal formulation of a gadolinium-cationic lipid chelate without DNA had been observed using magnetic resonance imaging. In vivo intratumoral administration of MCO-I-68-Gd/DNA lipoplexes to tumor model led to an important increase of the NMR signal. It was demonstrated that the new complexes also acted as transfection carriers when they were formulated from liposomes.

Magnetic resonance tomography for focal lesions in the liver using the para-magnetic contrast medium gadolinium DTPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamm, B.; Roemer, T.; Felix, R.; Wolf, K.J.; Klinikum Charlottenburg, Berlin

1986-01-01

The use of the para-magnetic contrast medium gadolinium DTPA for magnetic resonance tomography of focal lesions in the liver was investigated in 31 patients. Two dosage schedules of the contrast medium (0.1 and 0.2 mmol/kg body weight) were used with field strengths of 0.35 and 0.5 Tesla. Using T 1 sequences, gadolinium DTPA showed increased signal intensity in the liver and in tumours, but this was significantly more marked in the tumour. On T 1 spin-echo sequences, previously iso-intense lesions became visible after administration of contrast. On the other hand, contrast-enhanced lesions were less well seen on inversion recovery sequences because of a reduction in the contrast between tumour and liver tissue. The contrast between tumour and liver tissue was not improved by gadolinium DTPA in comparison with precontrast inversion recovery sequences and T 2 spin-echo sequences. The perfusion of intra-hepatic tumours could be elucidated by magnetic resonance tomography after the administration of gadolinium DTPA. (orig.) [de

The Financial Impact of Emergency Department Crowding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Foley, Mathew

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Objective: The economic benefits of reducing emergency department (ED crowding are potentially substantial as they may decrease hospital length of stay. Hospital administrators and public officials may therefore be motivated to implement crowding protocols. We sought to identify a potential cost of ED crowding by evaluating the contribution of excess ED length of stay (LOS to overall hospital length of stay. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of administrative data of adult patients from two urban hospitals (one county and one university in Brooklyn, New York from 2006-2007. Data was provided by each facility. Extrapolating from prior research (Krochmal and Riley, 2005, we determined the increase in total hospital LOS due to extended ED lengths of stay, and applied cost and charge analyses for the two separate facilities. Results: We determined that 6,205 (5.0% admitted adult patients from the county facility and 3,017 (3.4% patients from the university facility were held in the ED greater than one day over a one-year period. From prior research, it has been estimated that each of these patient’s total hospital length of stay was increased on average by 11.7% (0.61 days at the county facility, and 0.71 days at the university facility. The increased charges over one year at the county facility due to the extended ED LOS was therefore approximately $9.8 million, while the increased costs at the university facility were approximately $3.9 million. Conclusion: Based on extrapolations from Krochmal and Riley applied to two New York urban hospitals, the county hospital could potentially save $9.8 million in charges and the university hospital $3.9 million in costs per year if they eliminate ED boarding of adult admitted patients by improving movement to the inpatient setting. [West J Emerg Med. 2011;12(2:192-197.

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry analysis of lanthanum, samarium and gadolinium oxides for rare earths impurities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reino, L.C.P.; Lordello, A.R.

1990-09-01

An inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry method is described for the determination of Sm, Eu, La, Gd, Dy, Pr, Ho, Nd, Tb and Y in purified oxides of lanthanum, samarium and gadolinium. The method enables a simple, precise and readily available determination. Dissolution of the samples is achieved with diluted hydrochloric acid (1:1). The solutions are diluted to volume for a concentration of 1mg/ml. The lowest determination limit is 0,01% for most elements and 0,05 or 0,1% for a few rare earths in samarium and gadolinium matrices. Lanthanum, Samarium and Gadolinium concentrates with purity grade of 99,9%, 99,6% and 99,8%, respectively, can be analysed by this procedure. (author)

Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency: Prototyping counterveillance

OpenAIRE

Jennifer Gradecki; Derek Curry

2017-01-01

This paper discusses how an interactive artwork, the Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency (CSIA), can contribute to discussions of Big Data intelligence analytics. The CSIA is a publicly accessible Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) system that was constructed using information gathered from technical manuals, research reports, academic papers, leaked documents, and Freedom of Information Act files. Using a visceral heuristic, the CSIA demonstrates how the statistical correlations made by automate...

Gadolinium-DTPA (Magnevist) as a contrast medium for arterial DSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schild, H.H.; Weber, W.; Boeck, E.; Mildenberger, P.; Strunk, H.; Dueber, C.; Grebe, P.; Schadmand-Fischer, S.; Thelen, M.

1994-01-01

16 DSA investigations using intra-arterial Gd-DTPA were performed on 12 patients. The contrast medium was administered either as a 0.5 molar gadolinium solution (commercially available) or diluted with distilled water to a 0.2 -0.4 molar gadolinium solution. The injection was made either by pressure injector or by hand. The aortic arch, abdominal aorta and pelvic and lower limb arteries were examined. 14 of the 16 procedures were diagnostically adequate, but compared with iodinated contrast materials, contrast was less marked. There were no cardiovascular, neurological or allergic side effects. Three patients suffered a feeling of heat and one patient had mild pain during the injection. Even large volumes rapidly injected (up to 20 ml/s of the commercially available solution) were well tolerated. DSA with intra-arterial Gd-DTPA seems to be a suitable alternative for vascular imaging if iodine-containing contrast materials are contraindicated. (orig.) [de

Nonlinear Effects in Examples of Crowd Evacuation Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starke, Jens; Berg Thomsen, Kristian; Sørensen, Asger

2014-01-01

Severe accidents with many fatalities have occurred when too many pedestrians had to maneuver in too tight surroundings, as during evacuations of mass events. This demonstrates the importance of a better general understanding of pedestrians and emergent complex behavior in crowds. To this end, we...

Improvement of imprinting effect of ionic liquid molecularly imprinted polymers by use of a molecular crowding agent.

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Man; Yang, Jian; Sun, Ya Kun; Bai, Xi; Wu, Tao; Liu, Zhao Sheng; Aisa, Haji Akber

2018-01-01

We aimed to improve the imprinting effect of ionic liquid molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) by use of a molecular crowding agent. The ionic liquid 1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([VEIm][BF 4 ]) was used as the functional monomer and aesculetin was used as the template molecule in a crowding environment, which was made up of a tetrahydrofuran solution of polystyrene. The ionic liquid MIPs that were prepared in the crowding environment displayed an enhanced imprinting effect. NMR peak shifts of active hydrogen of aesculetin suggested that interaction between the functional monomer and the template could be increased by the use of a crowding agent in the self-assembly process. The retention and selectivity of aesculetin were affected greatly by high molecular crowding, the amount of high molecular weight crowding agent, and the ratio of [VEIm][BF 4 ] to aesculetin. The optimal MIPs were used as solid-phase extraction sorbents to extract aesculetin from Cichorium glandulosum. A calibration curve was obtained with aesculetin concentrations from 0.0005 to 0.05 mg mL -1 (correlation coefficient R 2 of 0.9999, y = 1519x + 0.0923). The limit of quantification was 0.12 μg mL -1 , and the limit of detection was 0.05 μg mL -1 . The absolute recovery of aesculetin was (80 ± 2)% (n = 3), and the purity of aesculetin was (92 ± 0.5)% (n = 5). As a conclusion, molecular crowding is an effective approach to obtain ionic liquid MIPs with high selectivity even in a polar solvent environment.

Light deflection in gadolinium molybdate ferroelastic crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staniorowski, Piotr; Bornarel, Jean

2000-01-01

The deflection of a He-Ne light beam by polydomain gadolinium molybdate (GMO) crystals has been studied with respect to incidence angle α i on the sample at room temperature. The A and B deflected beams do not cross each other during the α i variation, in contrast to results and calculations previously published. The model using the Fresnel equation confirms this result. The model presented is more accurate for numerical calculation than that using the Huygens construction. (author)

Heterobimetallic gadolinium(III)-iron(III) complex of DTPA-bis(3-hydroxytyramide)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parac-Vogt, Tatjana N.; Kimpe, Kristof; Binnemans, Koen

2004-01-01

A derivative of diethylenetriamine-N,N,N',N'',N''-pentaacetic acid (DTPA), carrying two catechol functional groups has been synthesised by the reaction between DTPA-bis(anhydride) and 3-hydroxytyramine (dopamine). The ligand DTPA-bis(3-hydroxytyramide), [DTPA(HTA) 2 ], is able to form stable heterobimetallic complexes with gadolinium(III) and iron(III) ions. The gadolinium(III) occupies the internal coordination cage of DTPA formed by three nitrogens, two carboxylate and two amide oxygens, while the [Fe(NTA)(H 2 O) 2 ] (nitrilotriacetic acid, NTA) binds to catechol units by the substitution of two water ligands. The formation of polymeric species was avoided by using the tripodal NTA ligand. The heterobimetallic complex was characterised by means of visible absorption spectroscopy, electron spray ionisation-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy

How to Move in a Jostling Crowd

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

For people living in big cities it is an ordeal to walk in a bus stand or a railway station. They get stuck helplessly in a crowd. They are simply pushed around and all their efforts to move forward appear futile. Only the most energetic can wade through the constantly moving sea of people. How about the weaker ones?

Crowd Sourcing for Challenging Technical Problems and Business Model

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Jeffrey R.; Richard, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Crowd sourcing may be defined as the act of outsourcing tasks that are traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, generally large group of people or community (a crowd) in the form of an open call. The open call may be issued by an organization wishing to find a solution to a particular problem or complete a task, or by an open innovation service provider on behalf of that organization. In 2008, the Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD), with the support of Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering, established and implemented pilot projects in open innovation (crowd sourcing) to determine if these new internet-based platforms could indeed find solutions to difficult technical challenges. These unsolved technical problems were converted to problem statements, also called "Challenges" or "Technical Needs" by the various open innovation service providers, and were then posted externally to seek solutions. In addition, an open call was issued internally to NASA employees Agency wide (10 Field Centers and NASA HQ) using an open innovation service provider crowd sourcing platform to post NASA challenges from each Center for the others to propose solutions). From 2008 to 2010, the SLSD issued 34 challenges, 14 externally and 20 internally. The 14 external problems or challenges were posted through three different vendors: InnoCentive, Yet2.com and TopCoder. The 20 internal challenges were conducted using the InnoCentive crowd sourcing platform designed for internal use by an organization. This platform was customized for NASA use and promoted as NASA@Work. The results were significant. Of the seven InnoCentive external challenges, two full and five partial awards were made in complex technical areas such as predicting solar flares and long-duration food packaging. Similarly, the TopCoder challenge yielded an optimization algorithm for designing a lunar medical kit. The Yet2.com challenges yielded many new industry and academic contacts in bone

Do public works programs crowd-out pro-environmental behavior?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kahsay, Goytom Abraha; Kassie, Workineh Asmare; Beyene, Abebe Damte

The Ethiopian food for work program typically induces forest conservation work. While economic outcomes have been studied before, little is known about the program’s environmental impact. We run a choice experiment among Ethiopian farmers eliciting preferences in a hypothetical afforestation...... program that mimics the Ethiopian food-for-work program. We find that introducing food incentives decreases willingness to participate in the program and participation rate increases with an increase in the proportion of individuals selected for food incentive. We also find that the crowding-out effect...... is stronger when food incentive recipients are selected based on income compared to lottery-based selection. Our data points to pro-social signaling as the most likely channel for the crowding-out effect. These results suggest that (1) food-for-work programs could have unintended negative environmental...

Structures and functions in the crowded nucleus: new biophysical insights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald eHancock

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Concepts and methods from the physical sciences have catalysed remarkable progress in understanding the cell nucleus in recent years. To share this excitement with physicists and encourage their interest in this field, this review offers an overview of how the physics which underlies structures and functions in the nucleus is becoming more clear thanks to methods which have been developed to simulate and study macromolecules, polymers, and colloids. The environment in the nucleus is very crowded with macromolecules, making entropic (depletion forces major determinants of interactions. Simulation and experiments are consistent with their key role in forming membraneless compartments such as nucleoli, PML and Cajal bodies, and discrete territories for chromosomes. The chromosomes, giant linear polyelectrolyte polymers, exist in vivo in a state like a polymer melt. Looped conformations are predicted in crowded conditions, and have been confirmed experimentally and are central to the regulation of gene expression. Polymer theory has revealed how the chromosomes are so highly compacted in the nucleus, forming a crumpled globule with fractal properties which avoids knots and entanglements in DNA while allowing facile accessibility for its replication and transcription. Entropic repulsion between looped polymers can explain the confinement of each chromosome to a discrete region of the nucleus. Crowding and looping are predicted to facilitate finding the specific targets of factors which modulate activities of DNA. Simulation shows that entropic effects contribute to finding and repairing potentially lethal double-strand breaks in DNA by increasing the mobility of the broken ends, favouring their juxtaposition for repair. Signaling pathways are strongly influenced by crowding, which favours a processive mode of response (consecutive reactions without releasing substrates. This new information contributes to understanding the sometimes counter

A case report on a severe anaphylaxis reaction to Gadolinium-based MR contrast media

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Juil; Kim, Tae Hyung; Park, Chang Min; Yoon, Soon Ho; Lee, Whal; Kang, Hye Ryun; Choi, Young Hun [Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2017-02-15

Acute hypersensitivity reactions to gadolinium-based magnetic resonance (MR) contrast media have been shown to have a much lower incidence and they are generally milder in terms of severity than acute adverse reactions associated with the use of iodinated contrast media for computed tomography scans. However, even though it is rare, a severe hypersensitivity reaction to MR contrast media can occur. Here we present the case of a 66-year-old woman who experienced a severe hypersensitivity reaction after administration of gadolinium-based contrast media without a previous history of allergies.

Standard test methods for chemical and mass spectrometric analysis of nuclear-grade gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) powder

CERN Document Server

American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia

2006-01-01

1.1 These test methods cover procedures for the chemical and mass spectrometric analysis of nuclear-grade gadolinium oxide powders to determine compliance with specifications. 1.2 The analytical procedures appear in the following order: Sections Carbon by Direct CombustionThermal Conductivity C1408 Test Method for Carbon (Total) in Uranium Oxide Powders and Pellets By Direct Combustion-Infrared Detection Method Total Chlorine and Fluorine by Pyrohydrolysis Ion Selective Electrode C1502 Test Method for Determination of Total Chlorine and Fluorine in Uranium Dioxide and Gadolinium Oxide Loss of Weight on Ignition 7-13 Sulfur by CombustionIodometric Titration Impurity Elements by a Spark-Source Mass Spectrographic C761 Test Methods for Chemical, Mass Spectrometric, Spectrochemical,Nuclear, and Radiochemical Analysis of Uranium Hexafluoride C1287 Test Method for Determination of Impurities In Uranium Dioxide By Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Gadolinium Content in Gadolinium Oxid...

An evaluation of self-esteem and quality of life in orthodontic patients: effects of crowding and protrusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Min-Ho

2015-09-01

To evaluate the effect of dental crowding and lip protrusion on self-esteem and quality of life (QOL) in female orthodontic patients with Class I malocclusion. The study sample consisted of 201 patients (mean age 22.6 ± 3.0 years) who sought orthodontic treatment. All the patients were evaluated before treatment in terms of their degree of dental crowding and lip protrusion. Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale and the Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire (OQLQ) were used to determine self-esteem and QOL and to evaluate whether these values were related to malocclusion severity. The results indicated that severe crowding and severe protrusion can result in lower self-esteem and poorer QOL (P self-esteem and QOL scores than severe crowding or protrusion patients.

Colloidal stabilization of cerium-gadolinium oxide (CGO) suspensions via rheology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marani, Debora; Sudireddy, Bhaskar Reddy; Bentzen, Janet Jonna

2015-01-01

colloidally stable state. The method was applied to explore the ability of four commercial dispersants (acidic affine, neutral, basic affine, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)) to disperse cerium-gadolinium oxide (CGO) in ethanol. Only the acidic affine and the PVP dispersants were found to efficiently disperse...

Simple method for quantification of gadolinium magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents using ESR spectroscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeshita, Keizo; Kinoshita, Shota; Okazaki, Shoko

2012-01-01

To develop an estimation method of gadolinium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, the effect of concentration of Gd compounds on the ESR spectrum of nitroxyl radical was examined. A solution of either 4-oxo-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPONE) or 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPOL) was mixed with a solution of Gd compound and the ESR spectrum was recorded. Increased concentration of gadolinium-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid chelate (Gd-DTPA), an MRI contrast agent, increased the peak-to-peak line widths of ESR spectra of the nitroxyl radicals, in accordance with a decrease of their signal heights. A linear relationship was observed between concentration of Gd-DTPA and line width of ESR signal, up to approximately 50 mmol/L Gd-DTPA, with a high correlation coefficient. Response of TEMPONE was 1.4-times higher than that of TEMPOL as evaluated from the slopes of the lines. The response was slightly different among Gd compounds; the slopes of calibration curves for acua[N,N-bis[2-[(carboxymethyl)[(methylcarbamoyl)methyl]amino]ethyl]glycinato(3-)]gadolinium hydrate (Gd-DTPA-BMA) (6.22 μT·L/mmol) and gadolinium-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid chelate (Gd-DOTA) (6.62 μT·L/mmol) were steeper than the slope for Gd-DTPA (5.45 μT·L/mmol), whereas the slope for gadolinium chloride (4.94 μT·L/mmol) was less steep than that for Gd-DTPA. This method is simple to apply. The results indicate that this method is useful for rough estimation of the concentration of Gd contrast agents if calibration is carried out with each standard compound. It was also found that the plot of the reciprocal square root of signal height against concentrations of contrast agents could be useful for the estimation if a constant volume of sample solution is taken and measured at the same position in the ESR cavity every time.

Extended diagnosis of liver tumor with gadolinium DTPA supplementary to routine procedure in nuclear medicine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ehrenheim, C.; Heintz, P.; Schwarzrock, R.; Schober, O.; Hundeshagen, H.

1988-01-01

Several imaging methods and especially their combined application are proven to be useful in the diagnosis and differentiation of liver tumors: Ultrasound, roentgen computed tomography, sequential hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBSS), blood pool scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging. 38 patients with liver tumors (hemangioma, hepatocellular carcinoma, focal nodular hyperplasia) underwent MRI of the liver before and after i.v. injection of 0.2 mmol/kg Gadolinium-DTPA in addition to other imaging methods. Written informed consent we achieved in all cases. The normal and pathological findings in MRI were documented in T1- and T2-weighted images, proton density image, calculated T1- and T2-images and a T1-weighted image after application of the contrast agent. The application of Gadolinium-DTPA as contrast agent improves the delimitation of the most intrahepatic lesions. Concerning the hemangiomas of the liver the improved contrast behaviour induced by Gadolinium-DTPA does not reach the contrast and sensitivity of a native T2-weighted SE image. The demarcation of focal nodular hyperplasia is not improved by use of the contrast agent. This finding supports the assumption that the FNH is not basically different from normal liver tissue. Gadolinium-DTPA provides additional information concerning the delineation of internal tumor details in hepatocellular carcinoma (hyperperfused areas, necroses, fibrous capsular structures). (orig.)

Influence of Music on the Behaviors of Crowd in Urban Open Public Spaces.

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Meng, Qi; Zhao, Tingting; Kang, Jian

2018-01-01

Sound environment plays an important role in urban open spaces, yet studies on the effects of perception of the sound environment on crowd behaviors have been limited. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore how music, which is considered an important soundscape element, affects crowd behaviors in urban open spaces. On-site observations were performed at a 100 m × 70 m urban leisure square in Harbin, China. Typical music was used to study the effects of perception of the sound environment on crowd behaviors; then, these behaviors were classified into movement (passing by and walking around) and non-movement behaviors (sitting). The results show that the path of passing by in an urban leisure square with music was more centralized than without music. Without music, 8.3% of people passing by walked near the edge of the square, whereas with music, this percentage was zero. In terms of the speed of passing by behavior, no significant difference was observed with the presence or absence of background music. Regarding the effect of music on walking around behavior in the square, the mean area and perimeter when background music was played were smaller than without background music. The mean speed of those exhibiting walking around behavior with background music in the square was 0.296 m/s slower than when no background music was played. For those exhibiting sitting behavior, when background music was not present, crowd density showed no variation based on the distance from the sound source. When music was present, it was observed that as the distance from the sound source increased, crowd density of those sitting behavior decreased accordingly.

High fat diet prevents over-crowding induced decrease of sex ratio in mice.

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Madhukar Shivajirao Dama

Full Text Available Adaptive theory predicts that mothers would be advantaged by adjusting the sex ratio of their offspring in relation to their offspring's future reproductive success. In the present study, we tested the effect of housing mice under crowded condition on the sex ratio and whether the fat content of the diet has any influence on the outcome of pregnancies. Three-week-old mice were placed on the control diet (NFD for 3 weeks. Thereafter the mice were allotted randomly to two groups of 7 cages each with 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 mice in every cage to create increasing crowding gradient and fed either NFD or high fat diet (HFD. After 4 weeks, dams were bred and outcomes of pregnancy were analyzed. The average dam body weight (DBW at conception, litter size (LS and SR were significantly higher in HFD fed dams. Further, male biased litters declined with increasing crowding in NFD group but not in HFD. The LS and SR in NFD declined significantly with increasing crowding, whereas only LS was reduced in HFD group. We conclude that female mice housed under overcrowding conditions shift offspring SR in favor of daughters in consistent with the TW hypothesis and high fat diet reduces this influence of overcrowding.

Depletion of gadolinium burnable poison in a PWR assembly with high burnup fuel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Refeat, Riham Mahmoud [Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (NRRA), Cairo (Egypt). Safety Engineering Dept.

2015-12-15

A tendency to increase the discharge burnup of nuclear fuel for Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) has been a characteristic of its operation for many years. It will be able to burn at very high burnup of about 70 GWd/t with UO{sub 2} fuels. The U-235 enrichment must be higher than 5 %, which leads to the necessity of using an extremely efficient burnable poison like Gadolinium oxide. Using gadolinium isotope is significant due to its particular depletion behavior (''Onion-Skin'' effect). In this paper, the MCNPX2.7 code is used to calculate the important neutronic parameters of the next generation fuels of PWR. K-infinity, local peaking factor and fission rate distributions are calculated for a PWR assembly which burn at very high burnup reaching 70 GWd/t. The calculations are performed using the recently released evaluated Gadolinium cross section data. The results obtained are close to those of a LWR next generation fuel benchmark problem. This demonstrates that the calculation scheme used is able to accurately model a PWR assembly that operates at high burnup values.

Added diagnostic value of T2-weighted MR imaging to gadolinium-enhanced three-dimensional dynamic MR imaging for the detection of small hepatocellular carcinomas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Young Kon; Lee, Young Hwan; Kim, Chong Soo; Han, Young Min

2008-01-01

Purpose: To assess the added value of T2-weighted MRI to gadolinium-enhanced dynamic MRI for detection of HCCs. Materials and methods: Two readers retrospectively analyzed MRIs of 115 patients with 131 HCCs (size; 0.6-2.0 cm) that had been diagnosed by histology (n = 41) or imaging findings (n = 90). Two separate blind image analyses of the gadolinium set and the combined T2-weighted imaging and gadolinium sets were performed. Diagnostic accuracy was evaluated using the alternative-free response receiver operating characteristic method with four-point scale. Sensitivity and positive predictive value were also calculated. Results: For both observers, the Az values and sensitivities with the combined T2-weighed imaging and gadolinium set (mean Az 0.806, sensitivity 84.7) were significantly higher than those with the gadolinium set (mean Az 0.660, sensitivity 59.9) (p < 0.05). The addition of T2-weighted imaging led to a change in diagnosis for 27 lesions by both observers, which at gadolinium set were assigned a confidence level of 1 or 2 but at additional reading of T2-weighted imaging were assigned a confidence level of 3 or 4. For the positive predictive values, each image set showed a similar value for each observer. Conclusion: The addition of T2-weighted imaging to gadolinium-enhanced 3D dynamic imaging could be helpful in the detection of HCC by increasing reader confidence for HCCs with equivocal findings on gadolinium-enhanced MRIs

A natural and readily available crowding agent: NMR studies of proteins in hen egg white.

Science.gov (United States)

Martorell, Gabriel; Adrover, Miquel; Kelly, Geoff; Temussi, Piero Andrea; Pastore, Annalisa

2011-05-01

In vitro studies of biological macromolecules are usually performed in dilute, buffered solutions containing one or just a few different biological macromolecules. Under these conditions, the interactions among molecules are diffusion limited. On the contrary, in living systems, macromolecules of a given type are surrounded by many others, at very high total concentrations. In the last few years, there has been an increasing effort to study biological macromolecules directly in natural crowded environments, as in intact bacterial cells or by mimicking natural crowding by adding proteins, polysaccharides, or even synthetic polymers. Here, we propose the use of hen egg white (HEW) as a simple natural medium, with all features of the media of crowded cells, that could be used by any researcher without difficulty and inexpensively. We present a study of the stability and dynamics behavior of model proteins in HEW, chosen as a prototypical, readily accessible natural medium that can mimic cytosol. We show that two typical globular proteins, dissolved in HEW, give NMR spectra very similar to those obtained in dilute buffers, although dynamic parameters are clearly affected by the crowded medium. The thermal stability of one of these proteins, measured in a range comprising both heat and cold denaturation, is also similar to that in buffer. Our data open new possibilities to the study of proteins in natural crowded media. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Study on the thermodynamics of the gadolinium-hydrogen binary system (H/Gd = 0.0–2.0) and implications to metallic gadolinium purification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fu, Kai; Li, Guoling [Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Department of Materials Physics and Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, NO. 30, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083 (China); Li, Jigang [Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Liu, Yang [Department of Food Science, College of Arts and Science, Beijing Union University, Beijing, 100101 (China); Tian, Wenhuai, E-mail: wenhuaitian@ustb.edu.cn [Department of Materials Physics and Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, NO. 30, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083 (China); Zheng, Jie [Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Li, Xingguo, E-mail: xgli@pku.edu.cn [Beijing National Laboratory of Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)

2016-07-15

The thermodynamics of the gadolinium-hydrogen (Gd–H) binary system (H/Gd = 0.0–2.0) between 650 and 900 °C is studied by pressure composition isotherm measurement. Significant H dissolution in Gd is observed, up to H/Gd = 0.34 at 650 °C and 0.55 at 900 °C. The metal-rich phase boundary of nonstoichiometric gadolinium dihydride was found to occur with nominal composition of GdH{sub 1.80} at 650 °C and GdH{sub 1.53} at 900 °C. The results are in fairly good agreement with previous experimental work but with improved accuracy. The binary phase diagram is obtained using the CALPHAD method. The thermodynamic study here assists the understanding on the efficient deoxygenation effect by the H in Gd for Gd purification. - Highlights: • PCI measurements with high accuracy has been carried out. • A first assessment of Gd–H system has been carried out by the CALPHAD method. • A set of self-consistent thermodynamic parameters was derived for this system.

Coordination chemistry of gadolinium complexes having pyridine carboxylate units in relation with the medical imagery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gateau, C.; Chatterton, N.; Nonat, A.; Mazzanti, M.; Pecaut, J.; Borel, A.; Merbach, A.; Heim, L.

2005-01-01

In order to study the influence of the coordination sphere on the properties which govern the relaxivity, ligands containing pyridine carboxylates units have been particularly studied. It has been shown that the tripodal ligand tpaa forms with gadolinium (III) a neutral complex having a relaxivity (r1p=13.3 mM -1 at 298 K and 60 MHz) which is three times superior to the contrast agents currently used in NMR Imaging. To explain this remarkably relaxivity, two new ligands analogous to the tpaa: the tpatcn and the bpeda containing pyridine carboxylate units bound to one or several aliphatic nitrogen have been studied in modulating the number of coordination sites and the symmetry degree. The study of the relaxivity of the corresponding gadolinium (III) complexes gives precious data on the understanding of the results in the case of the complex [Gd(tpaa)]. The synthesis and the properties of these gadolinium (III) complexes will be presented during this conference. (O.M.)

Importance of the use of gadolinium in neurocysticercosis diagnosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Machado Junior, M.A.; Costa, G.; Barbosa, V.A.; Rubin, J.C.

1994-01-01

Magnetic Resonance (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) features of neurocysticercosis are variable and depend fundamentally on the stage in evolution of the infection, location, number and size of the cysts. The authors retrospectively evaluated MRI obtained on O.5 Tesla superconducting unit in four neurocysticercosis patients and observed new MRI features only after Gadolinium enhancement. (author)

A simple quantitative model of macromolecular crowding effects on protein folding: Application to the murine prion protein(121-231)

Science.gov (United States)

Bergasa-Caceres, Fernando; Rabitz, Herschel A.

2013-06-01

A model of protein folding kinetics is applied to study the effects of macromolecular crowding on protein folding rate and stability. Macromolecular crowding is found to promote a decrease of the entropic cost of folding of proteins that produces an increase of both the stability and the folding rate. The acceleration of the folding rate due to macromolecular crowding is shown to be a topology-dependent effect. The model is applied to the folding dynamics of the murine prion protein (121-231). The differential effect of macromolecular crowding as a function of protein topology suffices to make non-native configurations relatively more accessible.

Gadolinium-DTPA: value in MR imaging of extraspinal musculoskeletal infections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haddad, M.C.; Sharif, H.S.; Aabed, M.Y.; Al Shahed, M.S.; Sammak, B.M.; Clark, D.C.

1993-01-01

To determine if paramagnetic contrast agents can improve the detection, delineation, and characterization of extraspinal musculoskeletal infections (MSI) on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, 42 patients with clinical suspicion of MSI underwent MR imaging before and after intravenous administration of gadolinium-DTPA. The lesions consisted of 27 proven infections and 15 noninfective conditions. Specificity and accuracy in identifying infective lesions averaged 80% and 84%, respectively, on precontrast studies and 80% and 89% on the enhanced examinations, with no statistically significant difference. Rim enhancement around abscess loculi was the only pathognomonic sign of infection seen in ten patients with chronic osteomyelitis and pyogenic or tuberculous infections. In 17 patients with acute osteomyelitis, brucellosis, or mycetoma, detection and delineation of the lesions were best on precontrast studies, while postcontrast examinations resulted in underestimation of the extent of abnormalities in all cases. We conclude that intravenous gadolinium-DTPA has limited usefulness in the MR evaluation of extraspinal MSI. (orig.)

Gadolinium-DTPA: value in MR imaging of extraspinal musculoskeletal infections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haddad, M.C. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); Sharif, H.S. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); Aabed, M.Y. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); Al Shahed, M.S. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); Sammak, B.M. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); Clark, D.C. [Dept. of Radiology, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)

1993-12-01

To determine if paramagnetic contrast agents can improve the detection, delineation, and characterization of extraspinal musculoskeletal infections (MSI) on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, 42 patients with clinical suspicion of MSI underwent MR imaging before and after intravenous administration of gadolinium-DTPA. The lesions consisted of 27 proven infections and 15 noninfective conditions. Specificity and accuracy in identifying infective lesions averaged 80% and 84%, respectively, on precontrast studies and 80% and 89% on the enhanced examinations, with no statistically significant difference. Rim enhancement around abscess loculi was the only pathognomonic sign of infection seen in ten patients with chronic osteomyelitis and pyogenic or tuberculous infections. In 17 patients with acute osteomyelitis, brucellosis, or mycetoma, detection and delineation of the lesions were best on precontrast studies, while postcontrast examinations resulted in underestimation of the extent of abnormalities in all cases. We conclude that intravenous gadolinium-DTPA has limited usefulness in the MR evaluation of extraspinal MSI. (orig.)

High Signal Intensity in the Dentate Nucleus and Globus Pallidus on Unenhanced T1-Weighted MR Images: Comparison between Gadobutrol and Linear Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Moser, F G; Watterson, C T; Weiss, S; Austin, M; Mirocha, J; Prasad, R; Wang, J

2018-02-01

In view of the recent observations that gadolinium deposits in brain tissue after intravenous injection, our aim of this study was to compare signal changes in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus on unenhanced T1-weighted MR images in patients receiving serial doses of gadobutrol, a macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agent, with those seen in patients receiving linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. This was a retrospective analysis of on-site patients with brain tumors. Fifty-nine patients received only gadobutrol, and 60 patients received only linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. Linear gadolinium-based contrast agents included gadoversetamide, gadobenate dimeglumine, and gadodiamide. T1 signal intensity in the globus pallidus, dentate nucleus, and pons was measured on the precontrast portions of patients' first and seventh brain MRIs. Ratios of signal intensity comparing the globus pallidus with the pons (globus pallidus/pons) and dentate nucleus with the pons (dentate nucleus/pons) were calculated. Changes in the above signal intensity ratios were compared within the gadobutrol and linear agent groups, as well as between groups. The dentate nucleus/pons signal ratio increased in the linear gadolinium-based contrast agent group ( t = 4.215, P linear gadolinium-based contrast agent group ( t = 2.931, P linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. © 2018 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.

Bayesian network model of crowd emotion and negative behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Ramli, Nurulhuda; Ghani, Noraida Abdul; Hatta, Zulkarnain Ahmad; Hashim, Intan Hashimah Mohd; Sulong, Jasni; Mahudin, Nor Diana Mohd; Rahman, Shukran Abd; Saad, Zarina Mat

2014-12-01

The effects of overcrowding have become a major concern for event organizers. One aspect of this concern has been the idea that overcrowding can enhance the occurrence of serious incidents during events. As one of the largest Muslim religious gathering attended by pilgrims from all over the world, Hajj has become extremely overcrowded with many incidents being reported. The purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of human emotion and negative behavior resulting from overcrowding during Hajj events from data gathered in Malaysian Hajj Experience Survey in 2013. The sample comprised of 147 Malaysian pilgrims (70 males and 77 females). Utilizing a probabilistic model called Bayesian network, this paper models the dependence structure between different emotions and negative behaviors of pilgrims in the crowd. The model included the following variables of emotion: negative, negative comfortable, positive, positive comfortable and positive spiritual and variables of negative behaviors; aggressive and hazardous acts. The study demonstrated that emotions of negative, negative comfortable, positive spiritual and positive emotion have a direct influence on aggressive behavior whereas emotion of negative comfortable, positive spiritual and positive have a direct influence on hazardous acts behavior. The sensitivity analysis showed that a low level of negative and negative comfortable emotions leads to a lower level of aggressive and hazardous behavior. Findings of the study can be further improved to identify the exact cause and risk factors of crowd-related incidents in preventing crowd disasters during the mass gathering events.