SEEDS Moving Group Status Update

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McElwain, Michael

2011-01-01

I will summarize the current status of the SEEDS Moving Group category and describe the importance of this sub-sample for the entire SEEDS survey. This presentation will include analysis of the sensitivity for the Moving Groups with general a comparison to other the other sub-categories. I will discuss the future impact of the Subaru SCExAO system for these targets and the advantage of using a specialized integral field spectrograph. Finally, I will present the impact of a pupil grid mask in order to produce fiducial spots in the focal plane that can be used for both photometry and astrometry.

Castor Oil: Properties, Uses, and Optimization of Processing Parameters in Commercial Production

PubMed Central

Patel, Vinay R.; Dumancas, Gerard G.; Kasi Viswanath, Lakshmi C.; Maples, Randall; Subong, Bryan John J.

2016-01-01

Castor oil, produced from castor beans, has long been considered to be of important commercial value primarily for the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, and coatings, among others. Global castor oil production is concentrated primarily in a small geographic region of Gujarat in Western India. This region is favorable due to its labor-intensive cultivation method and subtropical climate conditions. Entrepreneurs and castor processors in the United States and South America also cultivate castor beans but are faced with the challenge of achieving high castor oil production efficiency, as well as obtaining the desired oil quality. In this manuscript, we provide a detailed analysis of novel processing methods involved in castor oil production. We discuss novel processing methods by explaining specific processing parameters involved in castor oil production. PMID:27656091

An ASCA observation of the Castor system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gotthelf, Eric V.; Jalota, Lalit; Mukai, Koji; White, Nicholas E.

1994-01-01

We report on a day-long ASCA broadband (1-10 keV) spectro-imaging observation of the X-ray emission from the Castor multibinary system. Significant flares were detected from both the flare star system YY Gem (Castor C) and from Castor AB located 73 sec away. Using an optimal viewing geometry and image restoration techniques, we are able to spatially resolve the emission from the two X-ray components. Broadband flare activity from Castor AB is confirmed, and quiescent flux is detected. The quiescent spectrum of YY Gem is a complex blend of emission lines across the ASCA bandpass which requires multitemperature components or two-temperature variable metal-poor abundances (approximately 5-10 below solar) to obtain a satisfactory fit to both the Mewe-Kaastra and Raymond-Smith models. The flare spectrum is consistent with an increase in the emissivity of the hotter component.

Rapid development of a castor cultivar with increased oil content

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor seed oil contains 90% ricinoleic acid which has a wide range of industrial applications. Improvement in oil content would be of great benefit to castor growers and oil processers. Two cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection were conducted through screening for high oil content castor seeds u...

Chemical Investigations of the Castor Bean Plant Ricinus communis

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-12-01

of the castor bean plant Ricinus communis. A major focus of this grant was to understand the chemical composition of the seeds, and to ascertain if...UNCLASSIFIED Chemical Investigations of the Castor Bean Plant Ricinus communis Simon P. B. Ovenden, Christina K. Bagas, David J...investigation of several forensic aspects of the castor bean plant Ricinus communis. A major focus of this grant was to understand the chemical

Quantitative proteomics of seed filling in castor: comparison with soybean and rapeseed reveals differences between photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic seed metabolism.

PubMed

Houston, Norma L; Hajduch, Martin; Thelen, Jay J

2009-10-01

Seed maturation or seed filling is a phase of development that plays a major role in the storage reserve composition of a seed. In many plant seeds photosynthesis plays a major role in this process, although oilseeds, such as castor (Ricinus communis), are capable of accumulating oil without the benefit of photophosphorylation to augment energy demands. To characterize seed filling in castor, a systematic quantitative proteomics study was performed. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to resolve and quantify Cy-dye-labeled proteins expressed at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 weeks after flowering in biological triplicate. Expression profiles for 660 protein spot groups were established, and of these, 522 proteins were confidently identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry by mining against the castor genome. Identified proteins were classified according to function, and the most abundant groups of proteins were involved in protein destination and storage (34%), energy (19%), and metabolism (15%). Carbon assimilatory pathways in castor were compared with previous studies of photosynthetic oilseeds, soybean (Glycine max) and rapeseed (Brassica napus). These comparisons revealed differences in abundance and number of protein isoforms at numerous steps in glycolysis. One such difference was the number of enolase isoforms and their sum abundance; castor had approximately six times as many isoforms as soy and rapeseed. Furthermore, Rubisco was 11-fold less prominent in castor compared to rapeseed. These and other differences suggest some aspects of carbon flow, carbon recapture, as well as ATP and NADPH production in castor differs from photosynthetic oilseeds.

CASTOR: Cathode/Anode Satellite Thruster for Orbital Repositioning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mruphy, Gloria A.

2010-01-01

The purpose of CASTOR (Cathode/Anode Satellite Thruster for Orbital Repositioning) satellite is to demonstrate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) a nanosatellite that uses a Divergent Cusped Field Thruster (DCFT) to perform orbital maneuvers representative of an orbital transfer vehicle. Powered by semi-deployable solar arrays generating 165W of power, CASTOR will achieve nearly 1 km/s of velocity increment over one year. As a technology demonstration mission, success of CASTOR in LEO will pave the way for a low cost, high delta-V orbital transfer capability for small military and civilian payloads in support of Air Force and NASA missions. The educational objective is to engage graduate and undergraduate students in critical roles in the design, development, test, carrier integration and on-orbit operations of CASTOR as a supplement to their curricular activities. This program is laying the foundation for a long-term satellite construction program at MIT. The satellite is being designed as a part of AFRL's University Nanosatellite Program, which provides the funding and a framework in which student satellite teams compete for a launch to orbit. To this end, the satellite must fit within an envelope of 50cmx50cmx60cm, have a mass of less than 50kg, and meet stringent structural and other requirements. In this framework, the CASTOR team successfully completed PDR in August 2009 and CDR in April 2010 and will compete at FCR (Flight Competition Review) in January 2011. The complexity of the project requires implementation of many systems engineering techniques which allow for development of CASTOR from conception through FCR and encompass the full design, fabrication, and testing process.

Novel alpha-hydroxy phosphonic acids via castor oil

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs) have found a number of uses in today’s market, with uses ranging from materials to pharmaceuticals. Castor oil has served as a versatile HFA; its principle component, ricinoleic acid, can be isolated from castor oil and has been modified extensively for a number of applica...

Identification of minor acylglycerols less polar than triricinolein in castor oil by mass spectrometry and the proposed biosynthetic pathway of castor oil

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ricinoleate (OH18:1), a monohydroxy fatty acid, has many industrial uses such as the manufacture of biodegradable plastics, nylon, plasticizers, lubricants, cosmetics and paints. Castor oil is the only commericial source of ricinoleate which occurs as triacylglycerols. Triacylglycerols in castor oil...

Efficiency of Castor Oil as a Storage Medium for Avulsed Teeth in Maintaining the Viability of Periodontal Ligament Cells.

PubMed

Nabavizadeh, Mohammadreza; Abbaszadegan, Abbas; Khodabakhsi, Afrooz; Ahzan, Shamseddin; Mehrabani, Davood

2018-03-01

Researchers always seek a new storage medium for avulsed teeth. Castor oil is a vegetable oil with several advantages such as antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, low toxicity, and glutathione preservation capability, low cost, and high availability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the capacity of castor oil as a new storage medium in preserving the viability of periodontal ligament (PDL) cells compared to Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) and milk. Forty freshly extracted human teeth were divided into 3 experimental and 2 control groups. The experimental teeth were stored dry for 30 min and then immersed for 45 min in one of the following media; castor oil, HBSS, and milk. The positive and negative control groups were exposed to 0 min and 2 h of dry time respectively with no immersion in any storage medium. The teeth were then treated with dispase grade II and collagenase and the number of viable PDL cells were counted. Data were analyzed using Kruskal- Wallis test. The percentage of viable cells treated with castor oil, HBSS and milk counted immediately after removal from these media were 46.93, 51.02 and 55.10 % respectively. The statistical analysis revealed that the value for castor oil was significantly lower than HBSS and milk ( p > 0.05). Within the parameters of this study, it appears that castor oil cannot be served as an ideal medium for storage of avulsed tooth. More investigations under in vivo conditions are required to justify the results of this study.

The CASTOR proteins are arginine sensors for the mTORC1 pathway

PubMed Central

Chantranupong, Lynne; Scaria, Sonia M.; Saxton, Robert A.; Gygi, Melanie P.; Shen, Kuang; Wyant, Gregory A.; Wang, Tim; Harper, J. Wade; Gygi, Steven P.; Sabatini, David M.

2016-01-01

Amino acids signal to the mTOR complex I (mTORC1) growth pathway through the Rag GTPases. Multiple distinct complexes regulate the Rags, including GATOR1, a GTPase activating protein (GAP), and GATOR2, a positive regulator of unknown molecular function. Arginine stimulation of cells activates mTORC1, but how it is sensed is not well understood. Recently, SLC38A9 was identified as a putative lysosomal arginine sensor required for arginine to activate mTORC1 but how arginine deprivation represses mTORC1 is unknown. Here, we show that CASTOR1, a previously uncharacterized protein, interacts with GATOR2 and is required for arginine deprivation to inhibit mTORC1. CASTOR1 homodimerizes and can also heterodimerize with the related protein, CASTOR2. Arginine disrupts the CASTOR1-GATOR2 complex by binding to CASTOR1 with a dissociation constant of ~30 μM, and its arginine-binding capacity is required for arginine to activate mTORC1 in cells. Collectively, these results establish CASTOR1 as an arginine sensor for the mTORC1 pathway. PMID:26972053

The effect of oral castor oil on the disposition of methyprylon in intoxicated dogs.

PubMed

Gwilt, P R; Pankaskie, M C; Mitala, J J

1982-07-01

Clinical observations indicate that large oral doses of castor oil are effective in reducing the time of coma resulting from acute intoxication with lipophilic drugs. It has been further suggested that the rate of removal of these drugs from the body is increased by castor oil. In order to investigate the effect of castor oil on the disposition of lipophilic drugs, five dogs were given toxic doses of methyprylon by intravenous infusion. Each dog was treated with a large oral dose of castor oil in a cross-over fashion. No significant difference was observed in the sleep times of the dogs treated with castor oil, or in the methyprylon pharmacokinetics compared to controls. It was concluded that castor oil does not affect the disposition of methyprylon.

A high-oil castor cultivar developed through recurrent selection

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The purpose of this paper is to present and interpret the data obtained from field-grown castor seeds. Under greenhouse conditions, a previous recurrent selection for high-oil castor seeds from a base population resulted in a new population with an increased mean oil content from 50.33 to 54.47% dry...

Improved Membership Probability for Moving Groups: Bayesian and Machine Learning Approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jinhee; Song, Inseok

2018-01-01

Gravitationally unbound loose stellar associations (i.e., young nearby moving groups: moving groups hereafter) have been intensively explored because they are important in planet and disk formation studies, exoplanet imaging, and age calibration. Among the many efforts devoted to the search for moving group members, a Bayesian approach (e.g.,using the code BANYAN) has become popular recently because of the many advantages it offers. However, the resultant membership probability needs to be carefully adopted because of its sensitive dependence on input models. In this study, we have developed an improved membership calculation tool focusing on the beta-Pic moving group. We made three improvements for building models used in BANYAN II: (1) updating a list of accepted members by re-assessing memberships in terms of position, motion, and age, (2) investigating member distribution functions in XYZ, and (3) exploring field star distribution functions in XYZUVW. Our improved tool can change membership probability up to 70%. Membership probability is critical and must be better defined. For example, our code identifies only one third of the candidate members in SIMBAD that are believed to be kinematically associated with beta-Pic moving group.Additionally, we performed cluster analysis of young nearby stars using an unsupervised machine learning approach. As more moving groups and their members are identified, the complexity and ambiguity in moving group configuration has been increased. To clarify this issue, we analyzed ~4,000 X-ray bright young stellar candidates. Here, we present the preliminary results. By re-identifying moving groups with the least human intervention, we expect to understand the composition of the solar neighborhood. Moreover better defined moving group membership will help us understand star formation and evolution in relatively low density environments; especially for the low-mass stars which will be identified in the coming Gaia release.

Deciphering interactions in moving animal groups.

PubMed

Gautrais, Jacques; Ginelli, Francesco; Fournier, Richard; Blanco, Stéphane; Soria, Marc; Chaté, Hugues; Theraulaz, Guy

2012-01-01

Collective motion phenomena in large groups of social organisms have long fascinated the observer, especially in cases, such as bird flocks or fish schools, where large-scale highly coordinated actions emerge in the absence of obvious leaders. However, the mechanisms involved in this self-organized behavior are still poorly understood, because the individual-level interactions underlying them remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate the power of a bottom-up methodology to build models for animal group motion from data gathered at the individual scale. Using video tracks of fish shoal in a tank, we show how a careful, incremental analysis at the local scale allows for the determination of the stimulus/response function governing an individual's moving decisions. We find in particular that both positional and orientational effects are present, act upon the fish turning speed, and depend on the swimming speed, yielding a novel schooling model whose parameters are all estimated from data. Our approach also leads to identify a density-dependent effect that results in a behavioral change for the largest groups considered. This suggests that, in confined environment, the behavioral state of fish and their reaction patterns change with group size. We debate the applicability, beyond the particular case studied here, of this novel framework for deciphering interactions in moving animal groups.

LACEwING: A New Moving Group Analysis Code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Riedel, Adric R.; Blunt, Sarah C.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.

We present a new nearby young moving group (NYMG) kinematic membership analysis code, LocAting Constituent mEmbers In Nearby Groups (LACEwING), a new Catalog of Suspected Nearby Young Stars, a new list of bona fide members of moving groups, and a kinematic traceback code. LACEwING is a convergence-style algorithm with carefully vetted membership statistics based on a large numerical simulation of the Solar Neighborhood. Given spatial and kinematic information on stars, LACEwING calculates membership probabilities in 13 NYMGs and three open clusters within 100 pc. In addition to describing the inputs, methods, and products of the code, we provide comparisons ofmore » LACEwING to other popular kinematic moving group membership identification codes. As a proof of concept, we use LACEwING to reconsider the membership of 930 stellar systems in the Solar Neighborhood (within 100 pc) that have reported measurable lithium equivalent widths. We quantify the evidence in support of a population of young stars not attached to any NYMGs, which is a possible sign of new as-yet-undiscovered groups or of a field population of young stars.« less

Pyruvate metabolism in castor-bean mitochondria.

PubMed Central

Brailsford, M A; Thompson, A G; Kaderbhai, N; Beechey, R B

1986-01-01

We report the isolation of mitochondria from the endosperm of castor beans (Ricinus communis). These mitochondria oxidized succinate, external NADH, malate and pyruvate with respiratory-control and ADP/O ratios consistent with those found previously with mitochondria from other plant sources. The mitochondria exhibited considerable sensitivity to the electron-transport-chain inhibitors antimycin A and cyanide when oxidizing succinate and external NADH. Pyruvate-dependent O2 uptake was relatively insensitive to these inhibitors, although the residual O2 uptake could be inhibited by salicylhydroxamic acid. We conclude that a cyanide-insensitive alternative terminal oxidase is functional in these mitochondria. However, electrons from the succinate dehydrogenase or external NADH dehydrogenase seem to have no access to this pathway. There is little interconnection between the salicylhydroxamic acid-sensitive and cyanide-sensitive pathways of electron transport. alpha-Cyanocinnamate and its analogues, compound UK5099 [alpha-cyano-beta-(1-phenylindol-3-yl)acrylate] and alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate, were all found to be potent non-competitive inhibitors of pyruvate oxidation in castor-bean mitochondria. The accumulation of pyruvate by castor-bean mitochondria was determined by using a silicone-oil-centrifugation technique. The accumulation was shown to observe Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with a Km for pyruvate of 0.10 mM and a Vmax. of 0.95 nmol/min per mg of mitochondrial protein. However, the observed rates of pyruvate accumulation were insufficient to account for the pyruvate oxidation rates found in the oxygen-electrode studies. We were able to demonstrate that this is due to the immediate export of the accumulated radiolabel in the form of malate and citrate. Compound UK5099 inhibited the accumulation of [2-14C]pyruvate by castor-bean mitochondria at concentrations similar to those required to inhibit pyruvate oxidation. PMID:3814077

Improved method for extraction of castor seed for toxin determination

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The effort to identify castor seeds with low ricin content is considered to be a key to increasing cultivation of the castor plant for industrial applications. The procedure used to obtain soluble protein from the seed is a limiting factor for screening large numbers of seeds. Usually, the seed is...

Deciphering Interactions in Moving Animal Groups

PubMed Central

Gautrais, Jacques; Ginelli, Francesco; Fournier, Richard; Blanco, Stéphane; Soria, Marc; Chaté, Hugues; Theraulaz, Guy

2012-01-01

Collective motion phenomena in large groups of social organisms have long fascinated the observer, especially in cases, such as bird flocks or fish schools, where large-scale highly coordinated actions emerge in the absence of obvious leaders. However, the mechanisms involved in this self-organized behavior are still poorly understood, because the individual-level interactions underlying them remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate the power of a bottom-up methodology to build models for animal group motion from data gathered at the individual scale. Using video tracks of fish shoal in a tank, we show how a careful, incremental analysis at the local scale allows for the determination of the stimulus/response function governing an individual's moving decisions. We find in particular that both positional and orientational effects are present, act upon the fish turning speed, and depend on the swimming speed, yielding a novel schooling model whose parameters are all estimated from data. Our approach also leads to identify a density-dependent effect that results in a behavioral change for the largest groups considered. This suggests that, in confined environment, the behavioral state of fish and their reaction patterns change with group size. We debate the applicability, beyond the particular case studied here, of this novel framework for deciphering interactions in moving animal groups. PMID:23028277

Naturally occurring and experimentally induced castor bean (Ricinus communis) poisoning in ducks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jensen, Wayne I.; Allen, J.P.

1981-01-01

Castor bean (Ricinus communis) poisoning accounted for the death of several thousand ducks in the Texas panhandle in the fall and winter months of 1969-1971.Signs of intoxication resembled those of botulism, except for mucoid, blood-tinged excreta. The most common lesions were severe fatty change in the liver, widely distributed internal petechial hemorrhages or ecchymoses, and catarrhal enteritis.Nearly intact castor beans were found in the stomach of one duck during field necropsy. Fragments of seed coat resembling castor bean were found in the stomachs of 10 of 14 ducks examined in the laboratory.Clinical signs and postmortem lesions observed in wild ducks were induced experimentally in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) by force-feeding intact castor beans. Toxicity titrations were erratic, but the LD50 appeared to be between three and four seeds.The mouse toxicity test, used to detect Clostridium botulinum toxin in the blood serum of intoxicated ducks, was negative in every case. Hemagglutination and precipitin tests generally failed to detect castor bean in extracts of excreta or intestinal contents of experimentally intoxicated ducks.

Identifying New Members of Nearby Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holmbeck, Erika; Vican, Laura

2014-06-01

Our group has assembled a sample of 14,000 stars of spectral types B9-M9 with measured UVW Galactic space velocities and lying within 125 pc of Earth. We have identified candidate members of three nearby young (less than 100 Myr) moving groups. For stars of spectral types G5 and later, we have used the Kast spectrometer on the Shane 3m telescope at Lick Observatory to measure lithium abundance in order to determine stellar ages. With the data we have obtained from this run, we will be able to establish whether our candidates are bona fide members of the moving groups in question. I will be presenting the preliminary results from this survey, including spectra of the ~50 stars observed thus far. These nearby young stars will make excellent targets for direct imaging followup surveys, since any giant planets around young stars will still be warm, and will therefore be bright enough to detect with instruments like GPI.

Regiospecific Quantification of Triacylglycerols Containing Ricinoleate and Dihydroxy Fatty Acids in Castor Oil by Mass Spectrometry

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ricinoleate, a monohydroxy fatty acid, has many industrial uses such as the manufacture of aviation lubricant, plastic, paint and cosmetics. Ricinoleate occurs as acylglycerols (AG) in castor oil, and about 70% of castor oil is triricinolein. Castor oil is the only commercial source of ricinoleate. ...

Analysis of acylglycerols containing mono- and dihydroxy fatty acids in castor oil by HPLC and MS

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ricinoleate, a monohydroxy fatty acid, has many industrial uses such as the manufacture of aviation lubricant, plastic, paint and cosmetics. Ricinoleate occurs as acylglycerols (AG) in castor oil, and about 70% of castor oil is triricinolein. Castor oil is the only commercial source of ricinoleate. ...

Leadership in moving human groups.

PubMed

Boos, Margarete; Pritz, Johannes; Lange, Simon; Belz, Michael

2014-04-01

How is movement of individuals coordinated as a group? This is a fundamental question of social behaviour, encompassing phenomena such as bird flocking, fish schooling, and the innumerable activities in human groups that require people to synchronise their actions. We have developed an experimental paradigm, the HoneyComb computer-based multi-client game, to empirically investigate human movement coordination and leadership. Using economic games as a model, we set monetary incentives to motivate players on a virtual playfield to reach goals via players' movements. We asked whether (I) humans coordinate their movements when information is limited to an individual group member's observation of adjacent group member motion, (II) whether an informed group minority can lead an uninformed group majority to the minority's goal, and if so, (III) how this minority exerts its influence. We showed that in a human group--on the basis of movement alone--a minority can successfully lead a majority. Minorities lead successfully when (a) their members choose similar initial steps towards their goal field and (b) they are among the first in the whole group to make a move. Using our approach, we empirically demonstrate that the rules of swarming behaviour apply to humans. Even complex human behaviour, such as leadership and directed group movement, follow simple rules that are based on visual perception of local movement.

Castor oil as a natural alternative to labor induction: A retrospective descriptive study.

PubMed

DeMaria, Andrea L; Sundstrom, Beth; Moxley, Grace E; Banks, Kendall; Bishop, Ashlan; Rathbun, Lesley

2018-04-01

To describe birthing outcomes among women who consumed castor oil cocktail as part of a freestanding birth center labor induction protocol. De-identified data from birth logs and electronic medical records were entered into SPSS Statistics 22.0 for analysis for all women who received the castor oil cocktail (n=323) to induce labor between January 2008 and May 2015 at a birth center in the United States. Descriptive statistics were analyzed for trends in safety and birthing outcomes. Of the women who utilized the castor oil cocktail to stimulate labor, 293 (90.7%) birthed vaginally at the birth center or hospital. The incidence of maternal adverse effects (e.g., nausea, vomiting, extreme diarrhea) was less than 7%, and adverse effects of any kind were reported in less than 15% of births. An independent sample t-test revealed that parous women were more likely to birth vaginally at the birth center after using the castor oil cocktail than their nulliparous counterparts (p<.010), while gestational age (p=.26), woman's age (p=.23), and body mass index (p=.28) were not significantly associated. Nearly 91% of women in the study who consumed the castor oil cocktail to induce labor were able to give birth vaginally with little to no maternal or fetal complications. Findings indicate further research is needed to compare the safety and effectiveness of natural labor induction methodologies, including castor oil, to commonly used labor induction techniques in a prospective study or clinical trial. Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mitochondrial Genomes Reveal Slow Rates of Molecular Evolution and the Timing of Speciation in Beavers (Castor), One of the Largest Rodent Species

PubMed Central

Horn, Susanne; Durka, Walter; Wolf, Ronny; Ermala, Aslak; Stubbe, Annegret; Stubbe, Michael; Hofreiter, Michael

2011-01-01

Background Beavers are one of the largest and ecologically most distinct rodent species. Little is known about their evolution and even their closest phylogenetic relatives have not yet been identified with certainty. Similarly, little is known about the timing of divergence events within the genus Castor. Methodology/Principal Findings We sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes from both extant beaver species and used these sequences to place beavers in the phylogenetic tree of rodents and date their divergence from other rodents as well as the divergence events within the genus Castor. Our analyses support the phylogenetic position of beavers as a sister lineage to the scaly tailed squirrel Anomalurus within the mouse related clade. Molecular dating places the divergence time of the lineages leading to beavers and Anomalurus as early as around 54 million years ago (mya). The living beaver species, Castor canadensis from North America and Castor fiber from Eurasia, although similar in appearance, appear to have diverged from a common ancestor more than seven mya. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that a migration of Castor from Eurasia to North America as early as 7.5 mya could have initiated their speciation. We date the common ancestor of the extant Eurasian beaver relict populations to around 210,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. Finally, the substitution rate of Castor mitochondrial DNA is considerably lower than that of other rodents. We found evidence that this is correlated with the longer life span of beavers compared to other rodents. Conclusions/Significance A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial genome sequences suggests a sister-group relationship between Castor and Anomalurus, and allows molecular dating of species divergence in congruence with paleontological data. The implementation of a relaxed molecular clock enabled us to estimate mitochondrial substitution rates and to evaluate the effect of life history traits

Identification of acylglycerols containing dihydroxy fatty acids in castor oil by mass spectrometry

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ricinoleate, a monohydroxy fatty acid, in castor oil has many industrial uses. Dihydroxy fatty acids can also be used in industry. The C18 HPLC fractions of castor oil were used for mass spectrometry of lithium addicts to identify the acylglycerols containing dihydroxy fatty acids. Four diacylglycer...

Do Perturbations from Dwarf Galaxies Produce Moving Groups in the Milky Way Disk?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craig, Peter; Newberg, Heidi Jo; Chakrabarti, Sukanya

2018-01-01

We compare Solar neighborhood disk moving groups with velocity perturbations produced in hydrodynamic simulations of dwarf galaxy interactions with the disk. The hydrodynamic simulations were generated using Gadget 2, and mimic the interaction of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and several others with the Milky Way. The properties of the identified moving groups change as the simulations evolve. We identified moving groups in regions of the simulation that are within 1 kpc of the nominal location of the Sun (8 kpc from the Galactic center) that are similar to moving groups observed within the Milky Way. Such groups are found at locations all the way around the disk. This suggests that some of the groups that are observed near our sun are a result of an interaction between the Milky Way and a colliding dwarf galaxy. It also suggests that the existence of such groups here implies the existence of similar groups in other parts of the Milky Way.

Mass spectrometry of the lithium adducts of diacylglycerols containing hydroxy FA in castor oil and two normal FA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor oil can be used in industry. The molecular species of triacylglycerols containing hydroxy fatty acids (FA) in castor oil have been identified. We report here the identification of twelve diacylglycerols (DAG) containing hydroxy FA in castor oil using positive ion electrospray ionization mass ...

Oil content among the diverse castor genetic resources in the U.S. collection

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) contains oil used for medicine, as an ingredient in shampoo, soap, hand lotion, high-speed lubricants, and as a coating material. Due to its high oil content, oil derived from castor seeds is currently proposed to be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production. The USDA...

Identification of minor acylglycerols less polar than triricinolein in castor oil by mass spectrometry

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Triacylglycerols in castor oil less polar than triricinolein were identified by electrospray ionization – mass spectrometry using the lithium adducts of the acylglycerols from the HPLC fractions of castor oil. Thirty four new molecular species of acylglycerols containing hydroxy fatty acids in casto...

Mit castor satellite: Design, implementation, and testing of the communication system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babuscia, Alessandra; McCormack, Matthew Michael; Munoz, Michael; Parra, Spencer; Miller, David W.

2012-12-01

Cathode Anode Satellite Thruster for Orbital Reposition (CASTOR) is an orbital manoeuvre and transfer micro-satellite bus developed at MIT Space System Laboratory. The technical objective of the mission is achieving 1 km/s of delta-V over a 1 year mission in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This will be accomplished using a novel electric propulsion system, the Diverging Cusped Field Thruster (DCFT), which enables high efficiency orbital changes of the ESPA-ring class satellite. CASTOR is capable of improving rapid access to space capabilities by providing an orbital transfer platform with a very high performance to mass ratio, thus greatly reducing launch costs and allowing for highly efficient orbital manoeuvre. Furthermore, CASTOR is highly scalable and modular, allowing it to be adapted to a wide range of scales and applications. CASTOR is developed as part of the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) funded by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). In order to accomplish CASTOR mission objective, a highly optimized, scalable, light weight, and low cost communication system needed to be developed. These constraints imply the development of trade studies to select the final communication system architecture able to maximize the amount of data transmitted, while guaranteeing reliability, redundancy and limited mass, power consumption, and cost. A special attention is also required to guarantee a reliable communication system in cases of tumbling, or in case of strong Doppler shift which is inevitable due to the high delta-V capabilities of the vehicle. In order to accomplish all the mission requirements, different features have been introduced in the design of the communication system for this mission. Specifically, customized patch antennas have been realized, and a customized communication protocol has been designed and implemented. The communication subsystem has been validated through an intense testing campaign which included software tests in the laboratory, hardware

New Low-Mass Members of Nearby Young Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schlieder, Joshua; Simon, Michal; Rice, Emily; Lepine, Sebastien

2012-08-01

We are now ready to expand our program to identify new low-mass members of nearby young moving groups (NYMGs) to stars of mass ≤0.3 M_⊙. This is important to: (1) complete the census of low-mass stars near the Sun, (2) provide high priority targets for disk and exoplanet studies by direct imaging, and (3) provide a well- characterized sample of nearby, young stars for detailed study of their physical and kinematic properties. Our proven technique starts with a proper motion selection algorithm, proceeds to vet the sample for indicators of youth, and requires as its last step the measurement of candidate member radial velocities (RVs). So far, we have measured more than 100 candidate RVs using CSHELL on the NASA-IRTF and PHOENIX on Gemini-South, yielding more than 50 likely new moving group members. Here we propose to continue our RV follow-up of candidate NYMG members using PHOENIX on the KPNO 4m. We aim to measure RVs and determine spectral types of 23 faint (V≥15, H≥9), late-type (≥M4) candidates of the (beta) Pic (10 Myrs), AB Dor (70 Myrs), Tuc/Hor (30 Myrs), and TW Hydrae (8 Myrs) moving groups.

SPECTROSCOPIC ABUNDANCES AND MEMBERSHIP IN THE WOLF 630 MOVING GROUP

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bubar, Eric J.; King, Jeremy R., E-mail: ebubar@gmail.co, E-mail: jking2@ces.clemson.ed

The concept of kinematic assemblages evolving from dispersed stellar clusters has remained contentious since Eggen's initial formulation of moving groups in the 1960s. With high-quality parallaxes from the Hipparcos space astrometry mission, distance measurements for thousands of nearby, seemingly isolated stars are currently available. With these distances, a high-resolution spectroscopic abundance analysis can be brought to bear on the alleged members of these moving groups. If a structure is a relic of an open cluster, the members can be expected to be monolithic in age and abundance in as much as homogeneity is observed in young open clusters. In thismore » work, we have examined 34 putative members of the proposed Wolf 630 moving group using high-resolution stellar spectroscopy. The stars of the sample have been chemically tagged to determine abundance homogeneity and confirm the existence of a homogeneous subsample of 19 stars. Fitting the homogeneous subsample with Yale-Yonsei isochrones yields a single evolutionary sequence of {approx}2.7 {+-} 0.5 Gyr. It is concluded that this 19 star subsample of the Wolf 630 moving group sample of 34 stars could represent a dispersed cluster with an ([Fe/H]) = -0.01 {+-} 0.02 and an age of 2.7 {+-} 0.5 Gyr. In addition, chemical abundances of Na and Al in giants are examined for indications of enhancements as observed in field giants of old open clusters; overexcitation/ionization effects are explored in the cooler dwarfs of the sample; and oxygen is derived from the infrared triplet and the forbidden line at {lambda}6300.« less

Castor bean allergy in the upholstery department of a furniture factory.

PubMed Central

Topping, M D; Tyrer, F H; Lowing, R K

1981-01-01

In this study, undertaken to identify the cause of allergy in several upholstery workers in a furniture factory, the workers were handling several different materials, including glue, silicone spray, upholstery fabrics, and felt. Radio-allergo-sorbent test (RAST) assays showed that sera from sensitised workers contained specific IgE towards the felt; however, further investigations using RAST showed that the allergen was not the felt itself but a contaminant of the felt. The felt was manufactured from sacks, some of which had been used to store castor beans. The sera with raised IgE to the felt also had raised IgE to the castor bean extract. By means of RAST inhibition we confirmed that castor bean allergens in the felt were solely responsible for the raised IgE in the sera. The in-vitro RAST results were found to correlate well with the in-vivo pick tests and clinical symptoms. PMID:7272244

Group cohesion in foraging meerkats: follow the moving 'vocal hot spot'.

PubMed

Gall, Gabriella E C; Manser, Marta B

2017-04-01

Group coordination, when 'on the move' or when visibility is low, is a challenge faced by many social living animals. While some animals manage to maintain cohesion solely through visual contact, the mechanism of group cohesion through other modes of communication, a necessity when visual contact is reduced, is not yet understood. Meerkats ( Suricata suricatta ), a small, social carnivore, forage as a cohesive group while moving continuously. While foraging, they frequently emit 'close calls', soft close-range contact calls. Variations in their call rates based on their local environment, coupled with individual movement, produce a dynamic acoustic landscape with a moving 'vocal hotspot' of the highest calling activity. We investigated whether meerkats follow such a vocal hotspot by playing back close calls of multiple individuals to foraging meerkats from the front and back edge of the group simultaneously. These two artificially induced vocal hotspots caused the group to spatially elongate and split into two subgroups. We conclude that meerkats use the emergent dynamic call pattern of the group to adjust their movement direction and maintain cohesion. Our study describes a highly flexible mechanism for the maintenance of group cohesion through vocal communication, for mobile species in habitats with low visibility and where movement decisions need to be adjusted continuously to changing environmental conditions.

21 CFR 178.3280 - Castor oil, hydrogenated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Castor oil, hydrogenated. 178.3280 Section 178.3280 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED) INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: ADJUVANTS, PRODUCTION AIDS, AND...

21 CFR 178.3280 - Castor oil, hydrogenated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Castor oil, hydrogenated. 178.3280 Section 178.3280 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED) INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: ADJUVANTS, PRODUCTION AIDS, AND...

21 CFR 178.3280 - Castor oil, hydrogenated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Castor oil, hydrogenated. 178.3280 Section 178.3280 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED) INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: ADJUVANTS, PRODUCTION AIDS, AND SANITIZERS...

21 CFR 178.3280 - Castor oil, hydrogenated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Castor oil, hydrogenated. 178.3280 Section 178.3280 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (CONTINUED) INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: ADJUVANTS, PRODUCTION AIDS, AND...

Binaries among low-mass stars in nearby young moving groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Janson, Markus; Durkan, Stephen; Hippler, Stefan; Dai, Xiaolin; Brandner, Wolfgang; Schlieder, Joshua; Bonnefoy, Mickaël; Henning, Thomas

2017-03-01

The solar galactic neighborhood contains a number of young co-moving associations of stars (known as young moving groups) with ages of 10-150 Myr, which are prime targets for a range of scientific studies, including direct imaging planet searches. The late-type stellar populations of such groups still remain in their pre-main sequence phase, and are thus well suited for purposes such as isochronal dating. Close binaries are particularly useful in this regard since they allow for a model-independent dynamical mass determination. Here we present a dedicated effort to identify new close binaries in nearby young moving groups, through high-resolution imaging with the AstraLux Sur Lucky Imaging camera. We surveyed 181 targets, resulting in the detection of 61 companions or candidates, of which 38 are new discoveries. An interesting example of such a case is 2MASS J00302572-6236015 AB, which is a high-probability member of the Tucana-Horologium moving group, and has an estimated orbital period of less than 10 yr. Among the previously known objects is a serendipitous detection of the deuterium burning boundary circumbinary companion 2MASS J01033563-5515561 (AB)b in the z' band, thereby extending the spectral coverage for this object down to near-visible wavelengths. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile (Programs 096.C-0243 and 097.C-0135).Tables 1-3 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/599/A70

March 2017 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

MOVES Model Review Work Group meeting on March 201 included plans for updating running exhaust criteria pollutant emission rates for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, emission rates for extended idle and auxiliary power units, onroad vehicle population.

Solid-State Treatment of Castor Cake Employing the Enzymatic Cocktail Produced from Pleurotus djamor Fungi.

PubMed

Sánchez-Cantú, Manuel; Ortiz-Moreno, Liliana; Ramos-Cassellis, María E; Marín-Castro, Marco; De la Cerna-Hernández, C

2018-06-01

In this work, the enzymatic cocktail produced by Pleurotus djamor fungi extracted at pH of 4.8 and 5.3 was employed for castor cake solid-state treatment. Proximal, X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis of the pristine castor cake were carried out. First, Pleurotus djamor stain was inoculated in castor cake for the enzymatic production and the enzymatic activity was determined. The maximum enzymatic activity was identified at days 14 (65.9 UI/gss) and 11 (140.3 UI/gss) for the enzymatic cocktail obtained at pH 5.3 and 4.8, respectively. Then, the enzymatic cocktail obtained at the highest enzymatic activity days was employed directly over castor cake. Lignin was degraded throughout incubation time achieving a 47 and 45% decrease for the cocktail produced at pH 4.8 and 5.3, correspondingly. These results were corroborated by the SEM and XRD analysis where a higher porosity and xylan degradation were perceived throughout the enzymatic treatment.

BROWN DWARFS IN YOUNG MOVING GROUPS FROM PAN-STARRS1. I. AB DORADUS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aller, Kimberly M.; Liu, Michael C.; Magnier, Eugene A.

Substellar members of young (≲150 Myr) moving groups are valuable benchmarks to empirically define brown dwarf evolution with age and to study the low-mass end of the initial mass function. We have combined Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) proper motions with optical–IR photometry from PS1, Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and WISE to search for substellar members of the AB Dor Moving Group within ≈50 pc and with spectral types of late M to early L, corresponding to masses down to ≈30 M {sub Jup} at the age of the group (≈125 Myr). Including both photometry and proper motions allows us tomore » better select candidates by excluding field dwarfs whose colors are similar to young AB Dor Moving Group members. Our near-IR spectroscopy has identified six ultracool dwarfs (M6–L4; ≈30–100 M {sub Jup}) with intermediate surface gravities (int-g) as candidate members of the AB Dor Moving Group. We find another two candidate members with spectra showing hints of youth but consistent with field gravities. We also find four field brown dwarfs unassociated with the AB Dor Moving Group, three of which have int-g gravity classification. While signatures of youth are present in the spectra of our ≈125 Myr objects, neither their J – K nor W 1 – W 2 colors are significantly redder than field dwarfs with the same spectral types, unlike younger ultracool dwarfs. We also determined PS1 parallaxes for eight of our candidates and one previously identified AB Dor Moving Group candidate. Although radial velocities (and parallaxes, for some) are still needed to fully assess membership, these new objects provide valuable insight into the spectral characteristics and evolution of young brown dwarfs.« less

December 2016 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

MOVES Model Review Work Group meeting on December 7th, 2016 included plans for updating running exhaust criteria pollutant emission rates for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, emission rates for extended idle and auxiliary power units, onroad vehicle population.

21 CFR 178.3280 - Castor oil, hydrogenated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... polymers used in the manufacture of articles or components of articles authorized for food-contact use For... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Castor oil, hydrogenated. 178.3280 Section 178.3280 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED...

July 2012 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) meeting on 31 July 2012 began with a summary of the work group's focus, which included the next version of MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator), and its data sources and analysis methods.

THE VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION OF NEARBY STARS FROM HIPPARCOS DATA. II. THE NATURE OF THE LOW-VELOCITY MOVING GROUPS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bovy, Jo; Hogg, David W., E-mail: jo.bovy@nyu.ed

2010-07-10

The velocity distribution of nearby stars ({approx}<100 pc) contains many overdensities or 'moving groups', clumps of comoving stars, that are inconsistent with the standard assumption of an axisymmetric, time-independent, and steady-state Galaxy. We study the age and metallicity properties of the low-velocity moving groups based on the reconstruction of the local velocity distribution in Paper I of this series. We perform stringent, conservative hypothesis testing to establish for each of these moving groups whether it could conceivably consist of a coeval population of stars. We conclude that they do not: the moving groups are neither trivially associated with their eponymousmore » open clusters nor with any other inhomogeneous star formation event. Concerning a possible dynamical origin of the moving groups, we test whether any of the moving groups has a higher or lower metallicity than the background population of thin disk stars, as would generically be the case if the moving groups are associated with resonances of the bar or spiral structure. We find clear evidence that the Hyades moving group has higher than average metallicity and weak evidence that the Sirius moving group has lower than average metallicity, which could indicate that these two groups are related to the inner Lindblad resonance of the spiral structure. Further, we find weak evidence that the Hercules moving group has higher than average metallicity, as would be the case if it is associated with the bar's outer Lindblad resonance. The Pleiades moving group shows no clear metallicity anomaly, arguing against a common dynamical origin for the Hyades and Pleiades groups. Overall, however, the moving groups are barely distinguishable from the background population of stars, raising the likelihood that the moving groups are associated with transient perturbations.« less

Glutathione Preservation during Storage of Rat Lenses in Optisol-GS and Castor Oil

PubMed Central

Holm, Thomas; Brøgger-Jensen, Martin Rocho; Johnson, Leif; Kessel, Line

2013-01-01

Background Glutathione concentration in the lens decreases in aging and cataractous lenses, providing a marker for tissue condition. Experimental procedures requiring unfrozen lenses from donor banks rely on transportation in storage medium, affecting lens homeostasis and alterations in glutathione levels. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of Optisol-GS and castor oil on lens condition, determined from their ability to maintain glutathione concentrations. Methodology/Principal Findings Rat lenses were stored in the two types of storage media at varying time intervals up to 3 days. Glutathione concentration was afterwards determined in an enzymatic detection assay, specific for both reduced and oxidized forms. Lenses removed immediately after death exhibited a glutathione concentration of 4.70±0.29 mM. In vitro stored lenses in Optisol-GS lost glutathione quickly, ending with a concentration of 0.60±0.34 mM after 3 days while castor oil stored lenses exhibited a slower decline and ended at 3 times the concentration. A group of lenses were additionally stored under post mortem conditions within the host for 6 hours before its removal. Total glutathione after 6 hours was similar to that of lenses removed immediately after death, but with altered GSH and GSSG concentrations. Subsequent storage of these lenses in media showed changes similar to those in the first series of experiments, albeit to a lesser degree. Conclusions/Significance It was determined that storage in Optisol-GS resulted in a higher loss of glutathione than lenses stored in castor oil. Storage for more than 12 hours reduced glutathione to half its original concentration, and was considered unusable after 24 hours. PMID:24260265

Detoxification of castor meal through reactive seed crushing

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Non-edible oil crops, such as castor or jatropha, contain several toxic components. Post-harvest treatments should be used to reduce the risks associated with the possible dispersion of toxic compounds in the environment. A new processing technology named Reactive Seed Crushing was developed, which ...

Experimental investigation on performance and exhaust emissions of castor oil biodiesel from a diesel engine.

PubMed

Shojaeefard, M H; Etgahni, M M; Meisami, F; Barari, A

2013-01-01

Biodiesel, produced from plant and animal oils, is an important alternative to fossil fuels because, apart from dwindling supply, the latter are a major source of air pollution. In this investigation, effects of castor oil biodiesel blends have been examined on diesel engine performance and emissions. After producing castor methyl ester by the transesterification method and measuring its characteristics, the experiments were performed on a four cylinder, turbocharged, direct injection, diesel engine. Engine performance (power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption and thermal efficiency) and exhaust emissions were analysed at various engine speeds. All the tests were done under 75% full load. Furthermore, the volumetric blending ratios of biodiesel with conventional diesel fuel were set at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30%. The results indicate that lower blends of biodiesel provide acceptable engine performance and even improve it. Meanwhile, exhaust emissions are much decreased. Finally, a 15% blend of castor oil-biodiesel was picked as the optimized blend of biodiesel-diesel. It was found that lower blends of castor biodiesel are an acceptable fuel alternative for the engine.

Mechanism of arginine sensing by CASTOR1 upstream of mTORC1

PubMed Central

Saxton, Robert A.; Chantranupong, Lynne; Knockenhauer, Kevin E.; Schwartz, Thomas U.; Sabatini, David M.

2016-01-01

Summary The mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) is a major regulator of eukaryotic growth that coordinates anabolic and catabolic cellular processes with inputs such as growth factors and nutrients, including amino acids1–3. In mammals, arginine is particularly important and promotes diverse physiological effects including immune cell activation, insulin secretion, and muscle growth, largely through activation of mTORC14–7. Arginine activates mTORC1 upstream of the Rag GTPases8, through either the lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 or the GATOR2-interacting CASTOR1 (Cellular Arginine Sensor for mTORC1)9–12. However, the mechanism by which the mTORC1 pathway detects and transmits the arginine signal has been elusive. Here, we present the 1.8 Å crystal structure of arginine-bound CASTOR1. Homodimeric CASTOR1 binds arginine at the interface of two ACT domains, enabling allosteric control of the adjacent GATOR2-binding site to trigger dissociation from GATOR2 and the downstream activation of mTORC1. Our data reveal that CASTOR1 shares substantial structural homology with the lysine-binding regulatory domain of prokaryotic aspartate kinases, suggesting that the mTORC1 pathway exploited an ancient amino-acid-dependent allosteric mechanism to acquire arginine sensitivity. Together, these results establish a structural basis for arginine sensing by the mTORC1 pathway and provide insights into the evolution of a mammalian nutrient sensor. PMID:27487210

NEW DEBRIS DISKS IN NEARBY YOUNG MOVING GROUPS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moór, A.; Kóspál, Á.; Ábrahám, P.

A significant fraction of nearby young moving group members harbor circumstellar debris dust disks. Due to their proximity and youth, these disks are attractive targets for studying the early evolution of debris dust and planetesimal belts. Here we present 70 and 160 μ m observations of 31 systems in the β Pic moving group, and in the Tucana–Horologium, Columba, Carina, and Argus associations, using the Herschel Space Observatory . None of these stars were observed at far-infrared wavelengths before. Our Herschel measurements were complemented by photometry from the WISE satellite for the whole sample, and by submillimeter/millimeter continuum data formore » one source, HD 48370. We identified six stars with infrared excess, four of them are new discoveries. By combining our new findings with results from the literature, we examined the incidence and general characteristics of debris disks around Sun-like members of the selected groups. With their dust temperatures of <45 K the newly identified disks around HD 38397, HD 48370, HD 160305, and BD-20 951 represent the coldest population within this sample. For HD 38397 and HD 48370, the emission is resolved in the 70 μ m Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrograph images, the estimated radius of these disks is ∼90 au. Together with the well-known disk around HD 61005, these three systems represent the highest mass end of the known debris disk population around young G-type members of the selected groups. In terms of dust content, they resemble the hypothesized debris disk of the ancient solar system.« less

Gene Structures, Evolution and Transcriptional Profiling of the WRKY Gene Family in Castor Bean (Ricinus communis L.).

PubMed

Zou, Zhi; Yang, Lifu; Wang, Danhua; Huang, Qixing; Mo, Yeyong; Xie, Guishui

2016-01-01

WRKY proteins comprise one of the largest transcription factor families in plants and form key regulators of many plant processes. This study presents the characterization of 58 WRKY genes from the castor bean (Ricinus communis L., Euphorbiaceae) genome. Compared with the automatic genome annotation, one more WRKY-encoding locus was identified and 20 out of the 57 predicted gene models were manually corrected. All RcWRKY genes were shown to contain at least one intron in their coding sequences. According to the structural features of the present WRKY domains, the identified RcWRKY genes were assigned to three previously defined groups (I-III). Although castor bean underwent no recent whole-genome duplication event like physic nut (Jatropha curcas L., Euphorbiaceae), comparative genomics analysis indicated that one gene loss, one intron loss and one recent proximal duplication occurred in the RcWRKY gene family. The expression of all 58 RcWRKY genes was supported by ESTs and/or RNA sequencing reads derived from roots, leaves, flowers, seeds and endosperms. Further global expression profiles with RNA sequencing data revealed diverse expression patterns among various tissues. Results obtained from this study not only provide valuable information for future functional analysis and utilization of the castor bean WRKY genes, but also provide a useful reference to investigate the gene family expansion and evolution in Euphorbiaceus plants.

Organic acids, amino acids compositions in the root exudates and Cu-accumulation in castor (Ricinus communis L.) Under Cu stress.

PubMed

Huang, Guoyong; Guo, Guangguang; Yao, Shiyuan; Zhang, Na; Hu, Hongqing

2016-01-01

Ricinus communis L. is a hyperaccumulation plant newly discovered in an abandoned land of Cu mine in China. A hydroponic experiment was then carried out to determine the root exudates in the Cu-tolerant castor (Ricinus communis L.). Plants were grown in nutrient solution with increasing level of Cu doses (0, 100, 250, 500, and 750 μmol/L Cu) in the form of CuSO4. Cu accumulation in the roots and shoots of castor, and root exudates collected from the castor were measured. The results indicated that the castor had a high Cu accumulation capacity and the Cu concentrations in the shoots and roots of the castor treated with 750 μmol/L Cu were 177.1, 14586.7 mg/kg, respectively. Tartaric was the largest in the root exudates in terms of concentrations, which reached up to 329.13 μmol/g (dry plant) in the level of 750 μmol/L Cu. There was a significantly positive linear relationship between the Cu concentration in root and the concentration of succinic (R = 0.92, P < 0.05), tartaric (R = 0.96, P < 0.01), and citric (R = 0.89, P < 0.05). These results indicated that the difference in root exudation from castor could affect their Cu tolerance. What is more, significant is that the high tartaric and citric, the low oxalic and cysteine in the root exudation of castor contributed to toleration of high Cu concentrations.

Reconnaissance of Young M Dwarfs: Locating the Elusive Majority of Nearby Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowler, Brendan; Liu, Michael; Riaz, Basmah; Gizis, John; Shkolnik, Evgenya

2013-08-01

With ages between ~8-120 Myr and distances lsim;80 pc, young moving group members make excellent targets for detailed studies of pre-main sequence evolution and exoplanet imaging surveys. We propose a multi-semester spectroscopic program to confirm our sample of ~1300 X-ray-selected active M dwarfs, about one-third of which are expected to be members of young moving groups. Our program consists of three parts: a reconnaissance phase of low-resolution spectroscopy to vet unlikely association members, radial velocity observations to confirm group membership, and deep adaptive optics imaging to study the architecture and demographics of giant planets around low-mass stars. We will also exploit our rich sample to study the evolution of chromospheric and coronal activity in low-mass stars with unprecedented precision. Altogether, this program will roughly double the population of M dwarfs in young moving groups, providing new targets for a broad range of star and planet formation studies in the near-future.

Subcellular distribution of gluconeogenetic enzymes in germinating castor bean endosperm

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nishimura, M.; Beevers, H.

1979-07-01

The intracellular distribution of enzymes capable of catalyzing the reactions from oxaloacetate to sucrose in germinating castor bean endosperm has been studied by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. One set of glycolytic enzyme activities was detected in the plastids and another in the cytosol. The percentages of their activities in the plastids were less than 10% of total activities except for aldolase and fructose diphosphatase. The activities of several of the enzymes present in the plastids seem to be too low to account for the in vivo rate of gluconeogenesis whereas those in the cytosol are quite adequate. Furthermore, phosphoenolypyruvate carboxykinase,more » sucrose phosphate synthetase, and sucrose synthetase, which catalyze the first and final steps in the conversion of oxaloacetate to sucrose, were found only in the cytosol. It is deduced that in germinating castor bean endosperm the complete conversion of oxaloacetate to sucrose and CO/sub 2/ occurs in the cytosol. The plastids contain some enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway, pyruvate dehydrogenase and fatty acid synthetase in addition to the set of glycolytic enzymes. This suggests that the role of the plastid in the endosperm of germinating castor bean is the production of fatty acids from sugar phosphates, as it is known to be in the endosperm during seed development.« less

Influence of a Teacher's Scaffolding Moves during Child-Led Small-Group Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jadallah, May; Anderson, Richard C.; Nguyen-Jahiel, Kim; Miller, Brian W.; Kim, Il-Hee; Kuo, Li-Jen; Dong, Ting; Wu, Xiaoying

2011-01-01

The influence of one teacher's scaffolding moves on children's performance in free-flowing child-led small-group discussions was investigated. Three moves were examined: prompting for and praising the use of evidence, asking for clarification, and challenging. Lag sequential analysis was applied to a corpus of over 5,300 speaking turns during 30…

Intercropping for Management of Insect Pests of Castor, Ricinus communis, in the Semi—Arid Tropics of India

PubMed Central

Srinivasa Rao, M.; Venkateswarlu, B.

2012-01-01

Intercropping is one of the important cultural practices in pest management and is based on the principle of reducing insect pests by increasing the diversity of an ecosystem. On—farm experiments were conducted in villages of semi—arid tropical (SAT) India to identify the appropriate combination of castor (Ricinus communis L.) (Malpighiales: Euphorbiaceae) and intercropping in relation to pest incidence. The diversity created by introducing cluster bean, cowpea, black gram, or groundnut as intercrops in castor (1:2 ratio proportions) resulted in reduction of incidence of insect pests, namely semilooper (Achaea janata L.), leaf hopper (Empoasca flavescens Fabricius), and shoot and capsule borer (Conogethes punctiferalis Guenee). A buildup of natural enemies (Microplitis, coccinellids, and spiders) of the major pests of castor was also observed in these intercropping systems and resulted in the reduction of insect pests. Further, these systems were more efficient agronomically and economically, and were thus more profitable than a castor monocrop. PMID:22934569

Evaluation of castor oil samples for potential toxin contamination

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor oil and its derivatives are widely used as a chemical feedstock for production of lubricants and greases, and for engineering plastics, plasticizers and surfactants. They also have wide application in consumer goods such as lipstick, deodorants and medicinal products. Due to concerns about th...

Phosphatidylcholine Synthesis in Castor Bean Endosperm 1

PubMed Central

Kinney, Anthony J.; Moore, Thomas S.

1987-01-01

Endosperm halves from 3-day-old castor bean (Ricinus communis var Hale) were incubated for 30 minutes with l-[14C]serine, after which label was observed in ethanolamine, choline, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, ethanolaminephosphate, and CDPethanolamine, but not in cholinephosphate or CDPcholine. Only later did significant amounts of isotope become incorporated into cholinephosphate and CDPcholine. The choline kinase inhibitor hemicholinium-3 prevented the incorporation of label from serine into cholinephosphate and CDPcholine, reduced the incorporation of [14C]choline into phosphatidylcholine by 65%, but inhibited the incorporation of label into phosphatidylcholine from serine by only 15%. The inhibitor did not prevent the incorporation of labeled methyl groups from S-adenosyl-l-methionine into phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine plus phosphatidylcholine. The amount of incorporation of label from the methyl donor was only 8% of that from choline into phosphatidylcholine. The implications of these results for the pathway and regulation of phosphatidylcholine synthesis from the water-soluble precursors are discussed. PMID:16665410

Mg II chromospheric-emission dating of HR 1614 moving-group stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hufnagel, Beth; Smith, Graeme H.

1994-01-01

A 2800 A Mg II line index I(Mg II) that is sensitive to chromospheric activity has been measured from International Ultraviolet Explorer spectra of a sample of eight HR 1614 moving-group dwarfs. All of these dwarfs have values of I(Mg II) indicative of ages greater than or equal to 3 Gyr. The relatively old ages of these dwarfs, together with their similar and peculiar kinematics and high metal abundance, is consistent with, although not conclusive proof of, coeval formation in close physical proximity to each other. The age, chemical abundance, and kinematics of the HR 1614 moving group -- with the notable exception of height above the Galactic plane -- are similar to the properties of the old open cluster NGC 6791.

Changes in antioxidant and biochemical activities in castor oil-coated Capsicum annuum L. during postharvest storage.

PubMed

Panigrahi, Jitendriya; Patel, Mansi; Patel, Niyati; Gheewala, Bhumi; Gantait, Saikat

2018-06-01

This study, for the first time, evaluates the efficiency of castor oil when used as an external coating on Capsicum annuum L., to increase postharvest storage-life at 4 ± 1 °C. The castor oil-coated fruits were successfully stored for 36 days, while the non-coated fruits could only sustain for 18 days. Throughout the storage period (at 9-day intervals), different antioxidants and biochemical assays (allied with storage) such as titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, ferrous ion chelating activity, reducing power, DPPH scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, total phenolic content, total sugar estimation, and enzymatic study of polyphenol oxidase and pectate lyase, were assessed. During storage, the castor oil-coated fruits showed a substantial decrease in titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, total phenolic content, including antioxidant activities such as reducing power and DPPH activity; however, an increase in ferrous ion chelating activity, total soluble sugar content, polyphenol oxidase activity and initial pectate lyase activity was observed, in contrast to that of the non-coated fruits. The application of castor oil proved to be effective in delaying the ripening process of fruits during storage.

Bayesian assessment of moving group membership: importance of models and prior knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jinhee; Song, Inseok

2018-04-01

Young nearby moving groups are important and useful in many fields of astronomy such as studying exoplanets, low-mass stars, and the stellar evolution of the early planetary systems over tens of millions of years, which has led to intensive searches for their members. Identification of members depends on the used models sensitively; therefore, careful examination of the models is required. In this study, we investigate the effects of the models used in moving group membership calculations based on a Bayesian framework (e.g. BANYAN II) focusing on the beta-Pictoris moving group (BPMG). Three improvements for building models are suggested: (1) updating a list of accepted members by re-assessing memberships in terms of position, motion, and age, (2) investigating member distribution functions in XYZ, and (3) exploring field star distribution functions in XYZ and UVW. The effect of each change is investigated, and we suggest using all of these improvements simultaneously in future membership probability calculations. Using this improved MG membership calculation and the careful examination of the age, 57 bona fide members of BPMG are confirmed including 12 new members. We additionally suggest 17 highly probable members.

AB Dor Moving Group Stars Resolved with the CHARA Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaefer, G. H.; White, R. J.; Baines, E. K.; Boyajian, T. S.; ten Brummelaar, T. A.; Farrington, C. D.; Sturmann, J.; Sturmann, L.; Turner, N. H.

2018-05-01

We present interferometric measurements obtained with the CHARA Array of 13 adolescent-age stars in nearby moving groups. The motivation was to spatially resolve the largest stars and to search for binary companions. Nine stars have diameters smaller than the resolution limit and no evidence for companions within 0.5–50 mas and ΔH < 2.0 mag. The diameters of three stars were spatially resolved: GJ 159 (0.582 ± 0.016 mas) and GJ 393 (0.564 ± 0.021 mas) in the AB Dor moving group, and former member HD 89744 (0.556 ± 0.032 mas). Combining the angular diameters with their distances and bolometric fluxes, we measured radii and effective temperatures. The temperatures of GJ 159 (6286 ± 123 K) and GJ 393 (3515 ± 68 K) are consistent with spectroscopic measurements. Comparisons with evolutionary models show that HD 89744 has evolved off the main sequence. GJ 159 and GJ 393 lie within 1.5σ of the zero-age main sequence, complicating their age estimates because it is unclear whether the stars are contracting or expanding. GJ 159 has a mass of 1.2 ± 0.1 {M}ȯ with an age spanning 0.021–3.0 Gyr. Its debris disk and lithium abundance favor a young age. GJ 393 has a mass of 0.42 ± 0.03 {M}ȯ and a lower limit on its age 0.06 Gyr. This overlaps with the age of the moving group; however, an older age would be more consistent with its slow rotation, low activity, and luminosity, suggesting that GJ 393 is a kinematic interloper.

Reconnaissance of Young M Dwarfs: Locating the Elusive Majority of Nearby Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowler, Brendan; Liu, Michael; Riaz, Basmah; Gizis, John; Shkolnik, Evgenya

2014-02-01

With ages between ~8-120 Myr and distances ≲80 pc, young moving group members make excellent targets for detailed studies of pre-main sequence evolution and exoplanet imaging surveys. We propose to finish a low-resolution spectroscopic program started in 2013B to confirm our sample of ~1300 X-ray-selected active M dwarfs, about one-third of which are expected to be members of young moving groups. Our larger program consists of three parts: an initial reconnaissance phase of low-resolution spectroscopy to vet unlikely association members, radial velocity observations to confirm group membership, and deep adaptive optics imaging to study the architecture and demographics of giant planets around low-mass stars. Our observations in 2014A will finish the phase of low-resolution spectroscopy covering the second half of the sky. We will also exploit our rich sample to study the evolution of chromospheric and coronal activity in low-mass stars with unprecedented precision. Altogether, this program will roughly double the population of M dwarfs in young moving groups, providing new targets for a broad range of star and planet formation studies in the near-future.

Allergic axillary dermatitis due to hydrogenated castor oil in a deodorant.

PubMed

Taghipour, Kathy; Tatnall, Frances; Orton, David

2008-03-01

We present a case of axillary dermatitis caused by hydrogenated castor oil (HCO) in a commercially available deodorant. Patch testing with constituents obtained from the manufacturer showed allergic reaction to HCO 'as is', whereas there was no reaction to HCO 30% in pet. Testing 10 controls with HCO 'as is' did not cause irritant contact dermatitis. Allergic contact dermatitis to non-HCO in cosmetics has been described previously but sensitization to HCO seems to be rare. Most common allergens identified in deodorants are fragrances, and this case illustrates that HCO is another possible allergen found in this group of personal care products. It is important that it is tested 'as is' to avoid false-negative results.

Composition of acylglycerols in castor oil and their biosynthetic pathway

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor oil has many industrial uses, such as the manufacture of aviation lubricant, plastics, paints, coatings, and cosmetics, because of its high content of ricinoleate (hydroxy fatty acid). We have identified many molecular species of acylglycerols using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry o...

Early plasma exchange for treating ricin toxicity in children after castor bean ingestion.

PubMed

Wang, Cheng-feng; Nie, Xiao-jing; Chen, Guang-ming; Yu, Zi-hua; Li, Zheng; Sun, Zhi-wen; Weng, Zeng-feng; Yang, Yu-ying; Chen, Shu-lian; Zheng, Si-rui; Luo, Ying-yun; Lu, Yan-ting; Cao, Hui-qin; Zhan, Hai-xia

2015-06-01

Plasma exchange (PE) for the treatment of ricin toxicity has not been previously reported. Here we describe the use of PE to treat children who experienced ricin toxicity after ingesting castor beans. Seven children (median age: 8.1 years) who consumed castor beans (median: 5 beans) were treated with PE. All had bradycardia and sinus arrhythmia, and most had experienced episodes of vomiting and/or diarrhea. PE settings were blood flow, 50-80 mL/min; PE rate, 600-800 mL/h; volume of exchange, 1440-1950 mL. Median time from ingestion to PE was 73 h. All clinical symptoms disappeared and vital signs rapidly returned to normal after PE; no severe organ dysfunction occurred. All children were discharged and recovered uneventfully. Concentrations of all serum biochemical parameters significantly decreased immediately after PE. Some, but not all, of these parameters were also significantly decreased at 48 and 72 h after PE compared with before PE. Our findings suggest that PE can be an effective early intervention in the treatment of ricin toxicity due to castor bean ingestion. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Simultaneous allergen inactivation and detoxification of castor bean cake by treatment with calcium compounds

PubMed Central

Fernandes, K.V.; Deus-de-Oliveira, N.; Godoy, M.G.; Guimarães, Z.A.S.; Nascimento, V.V.; de Melo, E.J.T.; Freire, D.M.G.; Dansa-Petretski, M.; Machado, O.L.T.

2012-01-01

Ricinus communis L. is of great economic importance due to the oil extracted from its seeds. Castor oil has been used for pharmaceutical and industrial applications, as a lubricant or coating agent, as a component of plastic products, as a fungicide or in the synthesis of biodiesel fuels. After oil extraction, a castor cake with a large amount of protein is obtained. However, this by-product cannot be used as animal feed due to the presence of toxic (ricin) and allergenic (2S albumin) proteins. Here, we propose two processes for detoxification and allergen inactivation of the castor cake. In addition, we establish a biological test to detect ricin and validate these detoxification processes. In this test, Vero cells were treated with ricin, and cell death was assessed by cell counting and measurement of lactate dehydrogenase activity. The limit of detection of the Vero cell assay was 10 ng/mL using a concentration of 1.6 × 105 cells/well. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) and treatment with calcium compounds were used as cake detoxification processes. For SSF, Aspergillus niger was grown using a castor cake as a substrate, and this cake was analyzed after 24, 48, 72, and 96 h of SSF. Ricin was eliminated after 24 h of SSF treatment. The cake was treated with 4 or 8% Ca(OH)2 or CaO, and both the toxicity and the allergenic properties were entirely abolished. A by-product free of toxicity and allergens was obtained. PMID:22911344

Dirt-binding particles consisting of hydrogenated castor oil beads constitute a nonirritating alternative for abrasive cleaning of recalcitrant oily skin contamination in a three-step programme of occupational skin protection.

PubMed

Mahler, V; Erfurt-Berge, C; Schiemann, S; Michael, S; Egloffstein, A; Kuss, O

2010-04-01

In occupational fields with exposure to grease, oil, metal particles, coal, black lead or soot, cleansing formulations containing abrasive bodies (e.g. refined walnut shell, corn, wood, plastic or pumice) are used. These may constitute an irritant per se. As an alternative, hydrogenated castor oil (also known as castor wax) beads have been developed as dirt-binding particles. A polar surface contributes to their mechanical cleaning effects in removal of oily grime. Standardized examination of the in vivo effects upon the skin barrier of castor wax beads in comparison with abrasive bodies and pure detergent. Three cleansing preparations - (i) detergent, (ii) detergent containing castor wax beads, (iii) detergent containing walnut shell powder - were each repetitively applied in vivo (four times daily for 3 weeks), mimicking workplace conditions, in 30 healthy volunteers (15 with and 15 without an atopic skin diathesis) and compared vs. (iv) no treatment. The treatment effects upon the skin barrier were monitored by repeated measurements of functional parameters [transepidermal water loss (TEWL), redness] and surface topography. After a 3-week treatment, a significant global treatment effect (P < 0.0001) was found in the atopic group concerning TEWL as indicator for barrier function. A significantly higher TEWL and increasing erythema in the area treated with detergent containing walnut shell powder reflected its irritant effect compared with castor wax beads dispensed in the identical detergent. Cleaning properties of the two formulas were comparably superior to detergent alone. Castor wax beads constitute a novel nonirritating alternative for abrasive cleaning of recalcitrant oily skin contamination appropriate for individuals with an atopic skin diathesis in a three-step programme of occupational skin protection. As the skin barrier may additionally be influenced by the composition of dirt and use of skin protection and skin care measures under real workplace

A castor oil-containing dental luting agent: effects of cyclic loading and storage time on flexural strength

PubMed Central

DERCELI, Juliana dos Reis; FAIS, Laiza Maria Grassi; PINELLI, Lígia Antunes Pereira

2014-01-01

Favorable results in the use of castor oil polyurethane (COP) as pulp capping, membrane material, sealer, mouthwash and in bone repair, associated with the fact that Ricinus communis is not derived from petroleum and it is abundant in Brazil, encourage researches in the development of luting agents. Objectives This study compared the flexural strength (FS) of a castor oil-containing dental luting agent with a weight percentage of 10% (wt%) of calcium carbonate (COP10) with RelyX ARC (RX) after mechanical cycling (MC) and distilled water storage. Material and Methods Sixty-four specimens (25x2x2 mm) were fabricated and divided into two groups, COP10 and RX (control). Each group was divided into 4 subgroups (n=8) according to the storage time, 24 hours (24 h) or 60 days (60 d), and the performance (MC+FS) or not (only FS) of the mechanical cycling test. The FS (10 kN; 0.5 mm/min) and MC tests (10,000 cycles, 5 Hz, 0.5 mm/min) were carried out using an MTS-810 machine. The data were analyzed using ANOVA (α=0.05). Results The obtained FS (MPa) values were: COP10 24h- 19.04±2.41; COP10 60d- 17.92±3.54; RX 24h- 75.19±3.43; RX 60d- 88.77±6.89. All the RX specimens submitted to MC fractured, while the values for COP10 after MC were as follows: COP10 24h- 17.90±1.87 and COP10 60d- 18.60±1.60. Conclusions A castor oil-containing dental luting agent with a weight percentage of 10% (wt%) of calcium carbonate is resistant to mechanical cycling without decreases in flexural strength. However, mean COP10 showed only about 25% of the RelyX ARC mean flexural strength. PMID:25591018

Design and development of low cost polyurethane biopolymer based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications

PubMed Central

Tan, A. C. W.; Polo‐Cambronell, B. J.; Provaggi, E.; Ardila‐Suárez, C.; Ramirez‐Caballero, G. E.; Baldovino‐Medrano, V. G.

2017-01-01

Abstract In the current study, we present the synthesis of novel low cost bio‐polyurethane compositions with variable mechanical properties based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications. A detailed investigation of the physicochemical properties of the polymer was carried out by using mechanical testing, ATR‐FTIR, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Polymers were also tested in short term in‐vitro cell culture with human mesenchymal stem cells to evaluate their biocompatibility for potential applications as biomaterial. FTIR analysis confirmed the synthesis of castor oil and glycerol based PU polymers. FTIR also showed that the addition of glycerol as co‐polyol increases crosslinking within the polymer backbone hence enhancing the bulk mechanical properties of the polymer. XPS data showed that glycerol incorporation leads to an enrichment of oxidized organic species on the surface of the polymers. Preliminary investigation into in vitro biocompatibility showed that serum protein adsorption can be controlled by varying the glycerol content with polymer backbone. An alamar blue assay looking at the metabolic activity of the cells indicated that castor oil based PU and its variants containing glycerol are non‐toxic to the cells. This study opens an avenue for using low cost bio‐polyurethane based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications. PMID:29159831

A review on the challenges for increassed production of castor

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The oil produced by castor (Ricinus communis) is an important raw material for chemical industry for its unique properties such as the only commercial source of a hydroxilated fatty acid that composes around 90% of the oil. This crop has a remarkable potential for increasing importance as a raw mate...

Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Acari: Ixodidae) female ticks exposed to castor oil (Ricinus communis): an ultrastructural overview.

PubMed

Sampieri, B R; Furquim, K C S; Nunes, P H; Camargo-Mathias, M I

2013-02-01

Tick control has been accomplished through the use of synthetic acaricides, which has created resistant individuals, as well as contaminating the environment and nontarget organisms. Substances of plant origin, such as oils and extracts of eucalyptus and neem leaves, have been researched as an alternative to replace the synthetic acaricides. Ricinoleic acid esters from castor oil have recently been shown as a promising alternative in eliminating bacterial contamination during ethanol fermentation, by acting as an effective biocide. The same positive results have been observed when these esters are added to the food given to tick-infested rabbits. This study tested the effect of these substance on the reproductive system of Rhipicephalus sanguineus females, added to rabbit food, more specifically on oogenesis. For this, four groups were established: four control groups (CG1, CG2, CG3, and CG4) and four treatment groups (TG1, TG2, TG3, and TG4) with one rabbit in each (New Zealand White), used as hosts. After full 4 days feeding (semi-engorgement), the females were collected and had their ovaries extracted. In this study, it was observed that R. sanguineus females exposed to esters had their ovaries modified, which was demonstrated through transmission electron microscopy techniques. The addition of ricinoleic esters to the diet of tick-infested rabbits revealed how toxic such substances are for the cytoplasmic organelles of oocytes and pedicel cells. These compounds can change the morphophysiology of germ and somatic cells, consequently influencing their viability and, therefore, confirming that the ricinoleic acid esters from castor oil are a promising substance in the control of R. sanguineus.

Genetic diversity and population structure of castor (Ricinus communis L.) germplasm within the U.S. collection assessed with EST-SSR markers

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor is an important oilseed crop and although its oil is inedible, it has multiple industrial and pharmaceutical applications. The entire U.S. castor germplasm collection was previously screened for oil content and fatty acid composition, but its genetic diversity and population structure has not...

LDPE/PHB blends filled with castor oil cake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burlein, Gustavo A.; Rocha, Marisa C. G.

2015-05-01

The response surface methodology (RSM) is a collection of mathematical techniques useful for developing, improving and optimizing process. In this study, RSM technique was applied to evaluate the effect of the components proportion on the mechanical properties of low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ poly (3-hydroxy-butyrate) (PHB) blends filled with castor oil cake (CC). The blends were prepared by melt mixing in a twin screw extruder. Low density polyethylene, poly (3-hydroxy-butyrate) and castor oil pressed cake were represented by the input variables designated as LDPE, PHB and CC, respectively. As it was desirable to consider the largest LDPE content in the ternary system, the components of the mixture were subjected to the following constraints: 0.7 ≤ LDPE ≤ 1.0, 0≤ PHB≤0.3 e 0 ≤ CC ≤0.3. The mechanical properties of the different mixtures were determined by conventional ASTM tests and were evaluated through analysis of variance performed by the Minitab software. Some polynomial equations were tested in order to describe the mechanical behavior of the samples. The quadratic model in pseudo components was selected for describing the tensile behavior because it was the most efficient from a statistical point of view (p-value ≤ 0.05; coefficient of determination (r2) close to 1 and variation inflation factor (VIF) values < 5). The results showed that the LDPE Young's modulus increases but the other tensile properties and impact resistance deteriorate with the addition of PHB or CC. The tensile strength values of binary mixtures of LDPE lie in the range from 8.9 to 10 MPa. As some commercial grades of LDPE have mechanical strength in this range, it may be inferred that the addition of a certain amount of PHB or CC to LDPE may be considered as a possibility for obtaining LDPE based materials with increased susceptibility to biodegradation. The cubic model in pseudo components was selected for describe the flexural strength of the samples because it was

Castor Oil Based Polyurethanes: Synthesis and Characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macalino, AD; Salen, VA; Reyes, LQ

2017-09-01

In this study, polyurethanes based on castor oil and 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) were synthesized with varying weight ratio of the castor oil and HMDI. The formation of urethane linkages was verified through the use of a fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The hydrophilicity of the films was evaluated through the use of a contact angle meter and it was found that the contact angle of all the films were below 90 degrees which confirms their hydrophilicity. The thermal stability of the PU films were studies through the use of a thermal gravimetric analyzer and found that all of the polyurethane films exhibited two weight loss events at elevated temperatures wherein the first weight loss event was observed to occur at 285°C to 384°C while the second weight loss event was observed at around 521°C to 551°C. The hardness, elastic modulus, and tensile elongation of the PU films were determined by using a universal testing machine (UTM) where it was found out that the hardness and the elastic modulus of the film is directly proportional with HMDI loading while the tensile elongation is inversely proportional to it. Lastly, it was known through the swelling studies of the PU films that it does not swell, this is due to the presence of unreacted triglycerides in the material, which prevents water from permeating to the films.

Design and development of low cost polyurethane biopolymer based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Tan, A C W; Polo-Cambronell, B J; Provaggi, E; Ardila-Suárez, C; Ramirez-Caballero, G E; Baldovino-Medrano, V G; Kalaskar, D M

2018-02-01

In the current study, we present the synthesis of novel low cost bio-polyurethane compositions with variable mechanical properties based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications. A detailed investigation of the physicochemical properties of the polymer was carried out by using mechanical testing, ATR-FTIR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Polymers were also tested in short term in-vitro cell culture with human mesenchymal stem cells to evaluate their biocompatibility for potential applications as biomaterial. FTIR analysis confirmed the synthesis of castor oil and glycerol based PU polymers. FTIR also showed that the addition of glycerol as co-polyol increases crosslinking within the polymer backbone hence enhancing the bulk mechanical properties of the polymer. XPS data showed that glycerol incorporation leads to an enrichment of oxidized organic species on the surface of the polymers. Preliminary investigation into in vitro biocompatibility showed that serum protein adsorption can be controlled by varying the glycerol content with polymer backbone. An alamar blue assay looking at the metabolic activity of the cells indicated that castor oil based PU and its variants containing glycerol are non-toxic to the cells. This study opens an avenue for using low cost bio-polyurethane based on castor oil and glycerol for biomedical applications. © 2017 The Authors Biopolymers Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Biodiesel production from castor oil using heterogeneous Ni doped ZnO nanocatalyst.

PubMed

Baskar, G; Aberna Ebenezer Selvakumari, I; Aiswarya, R

2018-02-01

In the present study, castor oil with high free fatty acid was used for biodiesel production using heterogeneous Ni doped ZnO nanocatalyst. Ni doped ZnO nanocomposite calcinated at 800 °C has shown better catalytic activity. Process parameters on heterogeneous catalysis of castor oil into biodiesel were optimized using conventional and Response Surface Methodology (RSM). RSM was found more accurate in estimating the optimum conditions with higher biodiesel yield (95.20%). The optimum conditions for transesterification was found to be oil to methanol molar ratio of 1:8, catalyst loading 11% (w/w), reaction temperature of 55 °C for 60 min of reaction time by response surface method. The reusability studies showed that the nanocatalyst can be reused efficiently for 3 cycles. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new compact young moving group around V1062 Scorpii

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Röser, Siegfried; Schilbach, Elena; Goldman, Bertrand; Henning, Thomas; Moor, Attila; Derekas, Aliz

2018-06-01

Aims: We are searching for new open clusters or moving groups in the solar neighbourhood. Methods: We used the Gaia-TGAS catalogue, cut it into narrow proper motion and parallax slices and searched for significant spatial over-densities of stars in each slice. We then examined stars forming over-densities in optical and near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams to determine if they are compatible with isochrones of a cluster. Results: We detected a hitherto unknown moving group or cluster in the Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) section of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association (Sco-Cen) at a distance of 175 pc from the Sun. It is a group of 63 comoving stars of less than 10 to about 25 Myr in age. For the brightest stars that are present in the Gaia-TGAS catalogue, the mean difference between kinematic and trigonometric distance moduli is - 0.01 mag with a standard deviation of 0.11 mag. Fainter cluster candidates are found in the HSOY catalogue, where no trigonometric parallaxes are available. For a subset of our candidate stars, we obtained radial velocity measurements at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope in La Silla. Altogether we found 12 members with confirmed radial velocities and parallaxes, 31 with parallaxes or radial velocities, and 20 candidates from the convergent point method. The isochrone masses of our 63 members range from 2.6 to 0.7 M⊙.

Inferring influence and leadership in moving animal groups.

PubMed

Strandburg-Peshkin, Ariana; Papageorgiou, Danai; Crofoot, Margaret C; Farine, Damien R

2018-05-19

Collective decision-making is a daily occurrence in the lives of many group-living animals, and can have critical consequences for the fitness of individuals. Understanding how decisions are reached, including who has influence and the mechanisms by which information and preferences are integrated, has posed a fundamental challenge. Here, we provide a methodological framework for studying influence and leadership in groups. We propose that individuals have influence if their actions result in some behavioural change among their group-mates, and are leaders if they consistently influence others. We highlight three components of influence (influence instances, total influence and consistency of influence), which can be assessed at two levels (individual-to-individual and individual-to-group). We then review different methods, ranging from individual positioning within groups to information-theoretic approaches, by which influence has been operationally defined in empirical studies, as well as how such observations can be aggregated to give insight into the underlying decision-making process. We focus on the domain of collective movement, with a particular emphasis on methods that have recently been, or are being, developed to take advantage of simultaneous tracking data. We aim to provide a resource bringing together methodological tools currently available for studying leadership in moving animal groups, as well as to discuss the limitations of current methodologies and suggest productive avenues for future research.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Phytoextraction of metals and rhizoremediation of PAHs in co-contaminated soil by co-planting of Sedum alfredii with ryegrass (Lolium perenne) or castor (Ricinus communis).

PubMed

Wang, Kai; Huang, Huagang; Zhu, Zhiqiang; Li, Tingqiang; He, Zhenli; Yang, Xiaoe; Alva, Ashok

2013-01-01

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the potential for phytoextraction of heavy metals and rhizoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in co-contaminated soil by co-planting a cadmium/zinc (Cd/Zn) hyperaccumulator and lead (Pb) accumulator Sedum alfredii with ryegrass (Lolium perenne) or castor (Ricinus communis). Co-planting with castor decreased the shoot biomass of S. alfredii as compared to that in monoculture. Cadmium concentration in S. alfredii shoot significantly decreased when grown with ryegrass or castor as compared to that in monoculture. However, no reduction of Zn or Pb concentration in S. alfredii shoot was detected in co-planting treatments. Total removal of either Cd, Zn, or Pb by plants was similar across S. alfredii monoculture or co-planting with ryegrass or castor, except enhanced Pb removal in S. alfredii and ryegrass co-planting treatment. Co-planting of S. alfredii with ryegrass or castor significantly enhanced the pyrene and anthracene dissipation as compared to that in the bare soil or S. alfredii monoculture. This appears to be due to the increased soil microbial population and activities in both co-planting treatments. Co-planting of S. alfredii with ryegrass or castor provides a promising strategy to mitigate both metal and PAH contaminants from co-contaminated soils.

Synthesis and characterization of dialkanolamides from castor oil (Ricinus communis) as nonionic surfactant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anwar, M.; Wahyuningsih, T. D.

2017-12-01

Nonionic surfactant of dialkanolamide derivates was synthesized and characterized from castor oil (Ricinus comunnis). Ricinoleic acid was isolated from castor oil by hydrolysis in alkaline (KOH) condition at 65 °C. Oxidation of ricinoleic acid by dilute potassium permanganate (KMnO4) in alkaline condition at 75-90 °C gave dicarboxylic acid which was then reacted with ethanolamine at 140-160 °C for 6 hours. The product was recrystallized with isopropanol, and the structure elucidation was performed by FTIR, 1HNMR spectrometer, and GC-MS with silylation method. Characterization of surfactants was carried out by surface tension measurement (capillary rise method), Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC) based on turbidity method and calculation of Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) value with Griffin method and Bancroft rule. The result showed that ricinoleic acid in castor oil is 86.19 % and it is oxidation give an azelaic acid and octanedioic acid in 53.25 %. Amidation of a dicarboxylic acid and ethanolamine at 140-160 °C for 6 hours yielded of N1,N9-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)nona diamide in 49.35 %. Surfactant characterization indicates that dialkanolamide derivates can be used as a surfactant due to its ability to reduce the surface tension of ethanol with CMC at 1.2 g/L, HLB value is 5.58 and can be used as emulsifier water in oil (W/O).

Optimization of Ultrasonic-Microwave Synergistic Extraction of Ricinine from Castor Cake by Response Surface Methodology.

PubMed

Xu, Wei; Yan, Xiuhua; Shao, Rong; Chen, Ligen; Ke, Zengguang

Castor cake is the residue in castor oil production in which many active components exist and the major one among them is ricinine. In this study, optimization of extraction of ricinine from castor cake using ultrasonic-microwave synergistic extraction (UMSE) was investigated to obtain high yield and purity by Box-Behnken design (BBD) response surface design. The optimal conditions of extraction were: ultrasound power 342 W, extracting time 5 min, microwave power 395 W, and non-significant factor of liquid/solid ratio 1:10. The crude extraction was recrystallized from ethanol. As a result, the maximum yield of ricinine was approximately 67.52%. The purity of ricinine was 99.39% which was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Additionally, the structure of purified ricinine was identified by fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to characterize the prismatic crystals morphology of ricinine. Results demonstrated that the present method combined the advantages of ultrasonic extraction and microwave extraction, which is time-saving with high extraction yield. Our results offer a suitable method for large-scale isolation of ricinine.

WISEP J004701.06+680352.1: An Intermediate Surface Gravity, Dusty Brown Dwarf in the AB Dor Moving Group

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

reserved. WISEP J004701.06+680352.1: AN INTERMEDIATE SURFACE GRAVITY, DUSTY BROWN DWARF IN THE AB DOR MOVING GROUP John E. Gizis1,9, Katelyn N...pc. The three-dimensional space mo- tion identifies it as a member of the AB Dor Moving Group, an identification supported by our classification of...SUBTITLE WISEP J004701+680352.1: An Intermediate Surface Gravity, Dusty Brown Dwarf In The AB Dor Moving Group 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER

Characterizing a New Candidate Benchmark Brown Dwarf Companion in the β Pic Moving Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Caprice; Bowler, Brendan; Liu, Michael C.; Mace, Gregory N.; Sokal, Kimberly R.

2018-01-01

Benchmark brown dwarfs are objects that have at least two measured fundamental quantities such as luminosity and age, and therefore can be used to test substellar atmospheric and evolutionary models. Nearby, young, loose associations such as the β Pic moving group represent some of the best regions in which to identify intermediate-age benchmark brown dwarfs due to their well-constrained ages and metallicities. We present a spectroscopic study of a new companion at the hydrogen-burning limit orbiting a low-mass star at a separation of 9″ (650 AU) in the 23 Myr old β Pic moving group. The medium-resolution near-infrared spectrum of this companion from IRTF/SpeX shows clear signs of low surface gravity and yields an index-based spectral type of M6±1 with a VL-G gravity on the Allers & Liu classification system. Currently, there are four known brown dwarf and giant planet companions in the β Pic moving group: HR 7329 B, PZ Tel B, β Pic b, and 51 Eri b. Depending on its exact age and accretion history, this new object may represent the third brown dwarf companion and fifth substellar companion in this association.

Film-forming properties of castor oil polyol ester blends in elastohydrodynamic conditions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The viscosities and elastohydrodynamic (EHD) film thickness properties of binary blends of castor oil with polyol esters were determined experimentally. Predicted blend viscosity was calculated from the viscosity of the pure blend components. Measured viscosity values were closer to the values pre...

Influence of phosphorous fertilization on copper phytoextraction and antioxidant defenses in castor bean (Ricinus communis L.).

PubMed

Huang, Guoyong; Rizwan, Muhammad Shahid; Ren, Chao; Guo, Guangguang; Fu, Qingling; Zhu, Jun; Hu, Hongqing

2018-01-01

Application of fertilizers to supply appropriate nutrients has become an essential agricultural strategy for enhancing the efficiency of phytoremediation in heavy metal contaminated soils. The present study was conducted to investigate the beneficial effects of three types of phosphate fertilizers (i.e., oxalic acid-activated phosphate rock (APR), Ca(H 2 PO 4 ) 2 , and NaH 2 PO 4 ) in the range of 0-600 mg P kg -1 soil, on castor bean growth, antioxidants [antioxidative enzymes and glutathione (GSH)], and Cu uptake. Results showed that with the addition of phosphorus fertilizers, the dry weight of castor bean and the Cu concentration in roots increased significantly, resulting in increased Cu extraction. The phosphorus concentration in both shoots and roots was increased as compared with the control, and the Ca(H 2 PO 4 ) 2 treatment had the greatest effect. Application of APR, NaH 2 PO 4 , and Ca(H 2 PO 4 ) 2 reduced the malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and the activity of the two antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismustase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) and catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) in the leaves of castor bean. GSH concentration in leaves increased with the increasing levels of phosphorus applied to soil as well as the accumulation of phosphorus in shoots, compared to the control. These results demonstrated that the addition of phosphorus fertilizers can enhance the resistance of castor bean to Cu and increase the Cu extraction efficiency of the plant from contaminated soils.

A survey of the castor oil content, seed weight and seed-coat colour on the United States Department of Agriculture germplasm collection.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor bean is an important non-edible oilseed crop that can potentially be used as feedstock for biodiesel production. Cultivars with a high percentage of oil content in seeds are preferred for biodiesel production. There are 1033 accessions in the USDA castor bean germplasm collection. The range o...

Biosynthesis of Nonspecific Lipid Transfer Proteins in Germinating Castor Bean Seeds 1

PubMed Central

Tsuboi, Shigeru; Watanabe, Shin-ichiro; Ozeki, Yoshihiro; Yamada, Mitsuhiro

1989-01-01

The biosynthesis of nonspecific lipid transfer proteins (ns-LTPs) in germinating castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) seeds were investigated. Lipid transfer activities of ns-LTPs in the cotyledons, axis, and endosperm increased with growth after germination. The activity increases were accompanied by increased amounts of ns-LTPs in each tissue, as measured by immunoblot using anti-ns-LTP serum. These results suggest that the ns-LTPs are synthesized de novo in each tissue after germination and not activated from inactive proteins synthesized before germination. Comparison of the immunoblot products in each tissue from 4-day-old seedlings indicate the occurrence of tissue-specific isoforms of ns-LTPs; 9 kilodaltons (major) and 7 kilodaltons (minor) in the cotyledons, and 7 kilodaltons (major) and 9 kilodaltons (minor) in the axis, whereas only the 8-kilodalton ns-LTP is present in the endosperm. In vitro translation from poly(A)+ RNAs from three tissues of castor bean seedlings and the detection of immunoprecipitated products indicate that translatable mRNAs for ns-LTPs exist in the three tissues a day before the synthesis of ns-LTPs; the translation products, which are 3.5 to 4.0 kilodaltons larger than ns-LTPs, were processed to the mature ns-LTPs. The production of mature ns-LTPs from translatable mRNAs without any delay suggests that gene expression of ns-LTPs in castor bean seedlings is controlled at a step before the formation of translatable mRNAs. Images Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 PMID:16666886

A global review on the influence of beavers (Castor fiber, Castor canadensis) on river and floodplain dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larsen, Annegret; Lane, Stuart; Larsen, Joshua

2017-04-01

Beavers (Castor fiber, Castor canadensis) have the ability to actively engineer their habitat, which they can do most effectively in lower order streams and their floodplains. Hence, this engineering has the potential to alter the hydrology, geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and ecology of river systems and the feedbacks between them. Thus, the beaver is often referred to as an 'ecosystem engineer' and is reflected in their recognition as a key species when restoring ecosystems. This capacity to engineer low order streams also shapes a range of positive and negative perceptions on their influence. On the one hand they may be perceived as capable of undermining existing river engineering schemes and the land use of associated floodplains, and on the other hand beavers may provide an alternative to traditional 'hard' engineering, potentially improving river restoration success. The aim of this review is to summarize research to date on the impacts of beavers on stream and floodplain hydrology, geomorphology, water-quality and ecology, and the feedbacks between them. Our review shows that: (1) research has been focused heavily on North American streams, with far less research outside this North American context; (2) there is a tendency to investigate beaver impacts from the perspective of individual disciplines, to the detriment of considering broader process feedbacks, notably at the interface of hydro-geomorphology and riparian ecology; (3) it remains unclear to which extent beavers genuinely engineered streams prior to human impact, pointing to the need for longer term (millennium scale) studies on how beavers have changed river-floodplain systems. Crucially, we conclude that the investigation of the effects of beavers on streams and floodplains, especially in a longer-term, and their use for river restoration can only be understood through the thorough investigation of antecedent hydro-geomorphic conditions which takes account of the ways in which beavers and humans

A Kine-chemical Investigation of the AB Dor Moving Group "Stream"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barenfeld, Scott A.; Bubar, Eric J.; Mamajek, Eric E.; Young, Patrick A.

2013-03-01

The AB Dor Moving Group consists of a "nucleus" of ~10 stars at d ~= 20 pc, along with dozens of purported "stream" members distributed across the sky. We perform a chemical and kinematic analysis of a subsample of AB Dor stream stars to test whether they constitute a physical stellar group. We use the NEMO Galactic kinematic code to investigate the orbits of the stream members, and perform a chemical abundance analysis using high resolution spectra taken with the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. Using a χ2 test with the measured abundances for 10 different elements, we find that only half of the purported AB Dor stream members could possibly constitute a statistically chemically homogeneous sample. Some stream members with three-dimensional velocities were hundreds of parsecs from the AB Dor nucleus ~108 yr ago, and hence were unlikely to share a common origin. We conclude that the published lists of AB Dor moving group stream members are unlikely to represent the dispersed remnant of a single star formation episode. A subsample of the stream stars appears to be both statistically chemically homogeneous and in the vicinity of the AB Dor nucleus at birth. Their mean metallicity is [Fe/H] = 0.02 ± 0.02 dex, which we consider representative for the AB Dor group. Finally, we report a strong lower limit on the age of the AB Dor nucleus of >110 Myr based on the pre-main sequence contraction times for K-type members which have reached the main sequence.

Bio-inspired hydrophobic modification of cellulose nanocrystals with castor oil.

PubMed

Shang, Qianqian; Liu, Chengguo; Hu, Yun; Jia, Puyou; Hu, Lihong; Zhou, Yonghong

2018-07-01

This work presents an efficient and environmentally friendly approach to generate hydrophobic cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) using thiol-containing castor oil (CO-SH) as a renewable hydrophobe with the assist of bio-inspired dopamine at room temperature. The modification process included the formation of the polydopamine (PDA) buffer layer on CNC surfaces and the Michael addition reaction between the catechol moieties of PDA coating and thiol groups of CO-SH. The morphology, crystalline structure, surface chemistry, thermal stability and hydrophobicity of the modified CNC were charactered by TEM, XRD, FT-IR, solid-state 13 C NMR, XPS, TGA and contact angle analysis. The modified CNC preserved cellulose crystallinity, displayed higher thermal stability than unmodified CNC, and was highly hydrophobic with a water contact angle of 95.6°. The simplicity and versatility of the surface modification strategy inspired by adhesive protein of mussel may promote rapid development of hydrophobic bio-based nanomaterials for various applications. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genome-wide comparative analysis of papain-like cysteine protease family genes in castor bean and physic nut.

PubMed

Zou, Zhi; Huang, Qixing; Xie, Guishui; Yang, Lifu

2018-01-10

Papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) are a class of proteolytic enzymes involved in many plant processes. Compared with the extensive research in Arabidopsis thaliana, little is known in castor bean (Ricinus communis) and physic nut (Jatropha curcas), two Euphorbiaceous plants without any recent whole-genome duplication. In this study, a total of 26 or 23 PLCP genes were identified from the genomes of castor bean and physic nut respectively, which can be divided into nine subfamilies based on the phylogenetic analysis: RD21, CEP, XCP, XBCP3, THI, SAG12, RD19, ALP and CTB. Although most of them harbor orthologs in Arabidopsis, several members in subfamilies RD21, CEP, XBCP3 and SAG12 form new groups or subgroups as observed in other species, suggesting specific gene loss occurred in Arabidopsis. Recent gene duplicates were also identified in these two species, but they are limited to the SAG12 subfamily and were all derived from local duplication. Expression profiling revealed diverse patterns of different family members over various tissues. Furthermore, the evolution characteristics of PLCP genes were also compared and discussed. Our findings provide a useful reference to characterize PLCP genes and investigate the family evolution in Euphorbiaceae and species beyond.

Derivatization of castor oil based estolide esters: Preparation of epoxides and cyclic carbonates

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Estolides that are based on castor oil and oleic acid are versatile starting points for the production of industrial fluids with new properties. A variety of unsaturated estolides were derivatized by epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide. The epoxidized estolides were further modified using supercritic...

A KINE-CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE AB DOR MOVING GROUP 'STREAM'

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barenfeld, Scott A.; Bubar, Eric J.; Mamajek, Eric E.

2013-03-20

The AB Dor Moving Group consists of a 'nucleus' of {approx}10 stars at d {approx_equal} 20 pc, along with dozens of purported 'stream' members distributed across the sky. We perform a chemical and kinematic analysis of a subsample of AB Dor stream stars to test whether they constitute a physical stellar group. We use the NEMO Galactic kinematic code to investigate the orbits of the stream members, and perform a chemical abundance analysis using high resolution spectra taken with the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. Using a {chi}{sup 2} test with the measured abundances for 10 different elements, we findmore » that only half of the purported AB Dor stream members could possibly constitute a statistically chemically homogeneous sample. Some stream members with three-dimensional velocities were hundreds of parsecs from the AB Dor nucleus {approx}10{sup 8} yr ago, and hence were unlikely to share a common origin. We conclude that the published lists of AB Dor moving group stream members are unlikely to represent the dispersed remnant of a single star formation episode. A subsample of the stream stars appears to be both statistically chemically homogeneous and in the vicinity of the AB Dor nucleus at birth. Their mean metallicity is [Fe/H] = 0.02 {+-} 0.02 dex, which we consider representative for the AB Dor group. Finally, we report a strong lower limit on the age of the AB Dor nucleus of >110 Myr based on the pre-main sequence contraction times for K-type members which have reached the main sequence.« less

Analysis of castor by ELISAs that distinguish Ricin and Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

To facilitate the analysis of castor (Ricinus communis L.) seed fractions and germplasm for ricin content, we investigated the use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods to differentiate between ricin toxin and the related Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA). Both proteins are based on ...

Surveillance of Space Concept Demonstrator. Presentation of One Sensor: CASTOR-V

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-01

30ºC to minimize the significant dark count (noise) gradient, and that the highest binning mode that will not incur resolution loss must be selected...38 5.1.4 Dome issue 3: Shutter malfunctioning...Dome motor and its controller used to rotate the observatory dome of CASTOR-V10 Figure 8. Dome shutter and wind screen motors and the controller

Role of biotechnological interventions in the improvement of castor (Ricinus communis L.) and Jatropha curcas L.

PubMed

Sujatha, M; Reddy, T P; Mahasi, M J

2008-01-01

Castor and Jatropha belong to the Euphorbiaceae family. This review highlights the role of biotechnological tools in the genetic improvement of castor and jatropha. Castor is monotypic and breeding programmes have mostly relied on the variability available in the primary gene pool. The major constraints limiting profitable cultivation are: vulnerability to insect pests and diseases, and the press cake is toxic which restrict its use as cattle feed. Conventional breeding techniques have limited scope in improvement of resistance to biotic stresses and in quality improvement owing to low genetic variability for these traits. Genetic diversity was assessed using protein based markers while use of molecular markers is at infancy. In vitro studies in castor have been successful in shoot proliferation from meristematic explants, but not callus-mediated regeneration. Genetic transformation experiments have been initiated for development of insect resistant and ricin-free transgenics with very low transformation frequency. In tropical and subtropical countries jatropha is viewed as a potential biofuel crop. The limitations in available germplasm include; lack of knowledge of the genetic base, poor yields, low genetic diversity and vulnerability to a wide array of insects and diseases. Great scope exists for genetic improvement through conventional methods, induced mutations, interspecific hybridization and genetic transformation. Reliable and highly efficient tissue culture protocols for direct and callus-mediated shoot regeneration and somatic embryogenesis are established for jatropha which indicates potential for widening the genetic base through biotechnological tools. Assessment of genetic diversity using molecular markers disclosed low interaccessional variability in local Jatropha curcas germplasm. The current status and future prospects of in vitro regeneration, genetic transformation and the role of molecular tools in the genetic enhancement of the two

BONE REGENERATION AFTER DEMINERALIZED BONE MATRIX AND CASTOR OIL (RICINUS COMMUNIS) POLYURETHANE IMPLANTATION

PubMed Central

Leite, Fábio Renato Manzolli; Ramalho, Lizeti Toledo de Oliveira

2008-01-01

Innocuous biocompatible materials have been searched to repair or reconstruct bone defects. Their goal is to restore the function of live or dead tissues. This study compared connective tissue and bone reaction when exposed to demineralized bovine bone matrix and a polyurethane resin derived from castor bean (Ricinus communis). Forty-five rats were assigned to 3 groups of 15 animals (control, bovine bone and polyurethane). A cylindrical defect was created on mandible base and filled with bovine bone matrix and the polyurethane. Control group received no treatment. Analyses were performed after 15, 45 and 60 days (5 animals each). Histological analysis revealed connective tissue tolerance to bovine bone with local inflammatory response similar to that of the control group. After 15 days, all groups demonstrated similar outcomes, with mild inflammatory reaction, probably due to the surgical procedure rather than to the material. In the polymer group, after 60 days, scarce multinucleated cells could still be observed. In general, all groups showed good stability and osteogenic connective tissue with blood vessels into the surgical area. The results suggest biocompatibility of both materials, seen by their integration into rat mandible. Moreover, the polyurethane seems to be an alternative in bone reconstruction and it is an inexhaustible source of biomaterial. PMID:19089203

SEEDS Moving Groups and CHARIS Status Updates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McElwain, Michael

2012-01-01

We present the status update for the SEEDS Moving Groups category. To date, we have observed 59 targets and currently have more than 20 candidates. We also present the expected scientific capabilities of CHARIS, the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph, which is being built for the Subaru 8.2 m telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. CHARIS will be implemented behind the new extreme adaptive optics system at Subaru, SCExAO, and the existing 188-actuator system AO188. CHARIS will offer three observing modes over nearinfrared wavelengths from 0.9 to 2.4 microns (the y-, J-, H-, and K-bands), including a low-spectral-resolution mode covering this entire wavelength range and a high-resolution mode within a single band. With these capabilities, CHARIS will offer exceptional sensitivity for discovering giant exoplanets, and will enable detailed characterization of their atmospheres, CHARIS, the only planned high-contrast integral field spectrograph on an 8m-class telescope in the Northern Hemisphere, will complement the similar instruments such as Project 1640 at Palomar, and GPI and SPHERE in Chile.

The use of castor oil and ricinoleic acid in lead chalcogenide nanocrystal synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kyobe, Joseph W. M.; Mubofu, Egid B.; Makame, Yahya M. M.; Mlowe, Sixberth; Revaprasadu, Neerish

2016-08-01

A green solution-based thermolysis method for the synthesis of lead chalcogenide (PbE, E = S, Se, Te) nanocrystals in castor oil (CSTO) and its isolate ricinoleic acid (RA) is described. The blue shift observed from the optical spectra of CSTO and RA-capped PbE nanocrystals (NCs) confirmed the evidence of quantum confinement. The dimensions of PbE NCs obtained from NIR absorption spectra, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were in good agreement. The particle sizes estimated were in the range of 20, 25, and 130 nm for castor oil-capped PbS, PbSe, and PbTe, respectively. Well-defined close to cubic-shaped particles were observed in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of PbSe and PbTe nanocrystals. The high-resolution TEM and selective area electron diffraction (SAED) micrographs of the as-synthesized crystalline PbE NCs showed distinct lattice fringes with d-spacing distances corroborating with the standard values reported in literature.

Simple Synthesis Hydrogenated Castor Oil Fatty Amide Wax and Its Coating Characterization.

PubMed

Yu, Xiuzhu; Wang, Ning; Zhang, Rui; Zhao, Zhong

2017-07-01

A simple method for incorporating amine groups in hydrogenated castor oil (HCO) to produce wax for beeswax or carnauba wax substitution in packaging and coating was developed. From the conversion rate of the products, HCO was reacted with ethanolamine at 150°C for 5 h, and the molar ratio of HCO and ethanolamine was 1:4. The hardness of the final product was seven times higher than that of beeswax, the cohesiveness of the final product was 1.3 times higher than that of beeswax and approximately one half of that of carnauba wax, and the melting point of the final product is 98°C. The Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy showed that the amide groups were incorporated to form the amide products. In coating application, the results showed that the force of the final product coating cardboard was higher than that of beeswax and paraffin wax and less than that of carnauba wax. After 24 h soaking, the compression forces were decreased. HCO fatty acid wax can be an alternative wax for carnauba wax and beeswax in coating applications.

Meat quality assessment from young goats fed for long periods with castor de-oiled cake.

PubMed

Oliveira, C H A; Silva, A M; Silva, L M; van Tilburg, M F; Fernandes, C C L; Moura, A A; Moreno, F B M B; Monteiro-Moreira, A C O; Moreira, R A; Bezerra, F J; Rondina, D

2015-08-01

Diet can influence both the qualitative and quantitative traits of ruminant meat. This study evaluated the effects of castor de-oiled cake on the meat of mixed-breed male goat kids. After 165days of diet treatment, no alterations (p>0.05) were observed in the in vivo performance, anatomic components, dissection and proximate composition of the Longissimus dorsi muscle, as well as in the color and pH of the carcasses. However, diet had an effect (p<0.05) on energy metabolites, fatty acid profile, and expression of certain proteins of the Longissimus dorsi muscle. To conclude, this study showed that the establishment of castor de-oiled cake diet for a long period to goats led to alterations in meat quality, without compromising its consumption qualities. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NTP technical report on the toxicity studies of Castor Oil (CAS No. 8001-79-4) in F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (Dosed Feed Studies).

PubMed

Irwin, R

1992-03-01

Castor oil is a natural oil derived from the seeds of the castor bean, Ricinus communis. It is comprised largely of triglycerides with a high ricinolin content. Toxicity studies with castor oil were performed by incorporating the material at concentrations as high as 10% in diets given to F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice of both sexes for 13 weeks. Genetic toxicity studies also were performed and were negative for mutation induction in Salmonella typhimurium, for induction of sister chromatid exchanges or chromosomal aberrations in Chinese hamster ovary cells, and for induction of micronuclei in the peripheral blood erythrocytes of mice evaluated at the end of the 13-week studies. Exposure to castor oil at dietary concentrations as high as 10% in 13-week studies did not affect survival or body weight gains of rats or mice (10 per sex and dose). There were no biologically significant effects noted in hematologic analyses in rats. Mild increases in total bile acids and in serum alkaline phosphatase were noted at various times during the studies in rats receiving the higher dietary concentrations of castor oil. Liver weights were increased in male rats receiving the 10% dietary concentration and in male and female mice receiving diets containing 5% or 10% castor oil. However, there were no histopathologic lesions associated with these liver changes, nor were there any compound-related morphologic changes in any organ in rats or mice. No significant changes were noted in a screening for male reproductive endpoints, including sperm count and motility, and no changes were observed in the length of estrous cycles of rats or mice given diets containing castor oil. Thus, no significant adverse effects of castor oil administration were noted in these studies. Synonyms: Ricinus Oil, oil of Palma Christi, tangantangan oil, phorboyl, Neoloid.

Lipase activities in castor bean endosperm during germinaion. [Ricinus communis; glyoxysomes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muto, S.; Beevers, H.

1974-01-01

Two lipases were found in extracts from castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) endosperm. One, with optimal activity at pH 5.0 (acid lipase), was present in dry seeds and displayed high activity during the first 2 days of germination. The second, with an alkaline pH optimum (alkaline lipase), was particularly active during days 3 to 5. When total homogenates of endosperm were fractionated into fat layer, supernatant, and particulate fractions, the acid lipase was recovered in the fat layer, and the alkaline lipase was located primarily in the particulate fraction. Sucrose density gradient centrifugation showed that the alkaline lipase was locatedmore » mainly in glyoxysomes, with some 30 percent of the activity in the endoplasmic reticulum. When glyoxysomes were broken by osmotic shock and exposed to KCl, which solubilizes most of the enzymes, the alkaline lipase remained particulate and was recovered with the glyoxysomal ''ghosts'' at equilibrium density 1.21 g/cm/sup 3/ on the sucrose gradient. Association of the lipase with the glyoxysomal membrane was supported by the responses to detergents and to butanol. The alkaline lipase hydrolyzed only monosubstituted glycerols. The roles of the two lipases in lipid utilization during germination of castor bean are discussed.« less

Bioplastic from Chitosan and Yellow Pumpkin Starch with Castor Oil as Plasticizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, M.; Rahmayani, R. F. I.; Munandar

2018-03-01

This study has been conducted on bioplastic synthesis of chitosan and yellow pumpkin starch (Cucurbita moschata) with castor oil as plasticizer. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of the effect of chitosan and starch composition of pumpkins against solvent absorption, tensile strength and biodegradable. The first stage of the research is the making of bioplastic by blending yellow pumpkin starch, chitosan and castor oil. Further, it tested the absorption capacity of the solvent, tensile strength test, and biodegradable analysis. The optimum absorption capacity of the solvent is obtained on the composition of Pumpkin/Chitosan was 50/50 in H2O and C2H5OH solvent. Meanwhile the optimum absorbency in HCl and NaOH solvents is obtained by 60/40 composition. The characterization of the optimum tensile strength test was obtained on the 40/60 composition of 6.787 ± 0.274 Mpa and the fastest biodegradation test process within 5-10 days occurred in the 50/50 composition. The more chitosan content the higher the value of tensile strength test obtained, while the fastest biodegradation rate occureds in the composition of yellow pumpkin starch and chitosan balanced 50:50.

Local sustained delivery of bupivacaine HCl from a new castor oil-based nanoemulsion system.

PubMed

Rachmawati, Heni; Arvin, Yang Aryani; Asyarie, Sukmadjaja; Anggadiredja, Kusnandar; Tjandrawinata, Raymond Rubianto; Storm, Gert

2018-06-01

Bupivacaine HCl (1-butyl-2',6'-pipecoloxylidide hydrochloride), an amide local anesthetic compound, is a local anesthetic drug utilized for intraoperative local anesthesia, post-operative analgesia and in the treatment of chronic pain. However, its utility is limited by the relative short duration of analgesia after local administration (approximately 9 h after direct injection) and risk for side effects. This work is aimed to develop a nanoemulsion of bupivacaine HCl with sustained local anesthetics release kinetics for improved pain management, by exhibiting extended analgesic action and providing reduced peak levels in the circulation to minimize side effects. Herein, biodegradable oils were evaluated for use in nanoemulsions to enable sustained release kinetics of bupivacaine HCl. Only with castor oil, a clear and stable nanoemulsion was obtained without the occurrence of phase separation over a period of 3 months. High loading of bupivacaine HCl into the castor oil-based nanoemulsion system was achieved with about 98% entrapment efficiency and the resulting formulation showed high stability under stress conditions (accelerated stability test) regarding changes in visual appearance, drug content, and droplet size. We show herein that the in vitro release and in vivo pharmacokinetic profiles as well as pharmacodynamic outcome (pain relief test) after subcutaneous administration in rats correlate well and clearly demonstrate the prolonged release and extended duration of activity of our novel nanoformulation. In addition, the lower C max value achieved in the blood compartment suggests the possibility that the risk for systemic side effects is reduced. We conclude that castor oil-based nanomulsion represents an attractive pain treatment possibility to achieve prolonged local action of bupivacaine HCl.

What we learn from TGAS about the moving groups of the Solar neighbourhood

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldman, B.; Schilbach, E.; Röser, S.; Schöfer, P.; Derekas, A.; Moor, A.; Brandner, W.; Henning, T.

2018-04-01

We use the TGAS proper motions and parallaxes as well as published and new radial velocities to study the dynamics of nearby moving groups. In particular we try to determine their age using backtracing of the individual members to a common origin. We find that the current data, probably the radial velocities, do not allow to reach a successful conclusion.

Direct imaging and new technologies to search for substellar companions around MGs cool dwarfs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gálvez-Ortiz, M. C.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Pinfield, D. J.; Folkes, S. L.; Jenkins, J. S.; García Pérez, A. E.; Burningham, B.; Day-Jones, A. C.; Jones, H. R. A.

2011-07-01

We describe here our project based in a search for sub-stellar companions (brown dwarfs and exo-planets) around young ultra-cool dwarfs (UCDs) and characterise their properties. We will use current and future technology (high contrast imaging, high-precision Doppler determinations) from the ground and space (VLT, ELT and JWST), to find companions to young objects. Members of young moving groups (MGs) have clear advantages in this field. We compiled a catalogue of young UCD objects and studied their membership to five known young moving groups: Local Association (Pleiades moving group, 20-150 Myr), Ursa Mayor group (Sirius supercluster, 300 Myr), Hyades supercluster (600 Myr), IC 2391 supercluster (35 Myr) and Castor moving group (200 Myr). To assess them as members we used different kinematic and spectroscopic criteria.

Low Mass Members in Nearby Young Moving Groups Revealed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schlieder, Joshua; Simon, Michal; Rice, Emily; Lepine, Sebastien

2010-08-01

We are now ready to expand our program that identifies highly probable low-mass members of the nearby young moving groups (NYMGs) to stars of mass ~ 0.1 Msun. This is important 1) To provide high priority targets for exoplanet searches by direct imaging, 2) To complete the census of the membership in the NYMGs, and 3) To provide a well-characterized sample of nearby young stars for detailed study of their physical properties and multiplicity (the median distances of the (beta) Pic and AB Dor groups are ~ 35 pc with ages ~ 12 and 50 Myr respectively). Our proven technique starts with a proper motion selection algorithm, proceeds to vet the sample for indicators of youth, and requires as its last step the measurement of candidate member radial velocities (RVs). So far, we have obtained all RV measurements with the high resolution IR spectrometer at the NASA-IRTF and have reached the limits of its applicability. To identify probable new members in the south, and also those of the lowest mass, we need the sensitivity of PHOENIX at Gemini-S and NIRSPEC at Keck-II.

Histologic and immunohistochemical evaluation of biocompatibility of castor oil polyurethane polymer with calcium carbonate in equine bone tissue.

PubMed

Nóbrega, Fernanda S; Selim, Mariana B; Arana-Chavez, Victor E; Correa, Luciana; Ferreira, Márcio P; Zoppa, André L V

2017-10-01

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of castor oil polyurethane polymer with calcium carbonate for use in a unicortical ostectomy on the dorsal surface of the third metacarpal bone of horses. ANIMALS 6 adult horses. PROCEDURES A unicortical ostectomy was created on the dorsal surface of both third metacarpal bones of each horse. Castor bean (Ricinus communis) oil polyurethane polymer with calcium carbonate was implanted into the ostectomy on 1 limb, and the ostectomy of the contralateral limb was left unfilled and served as a control sample. Ostectomy sites were evaluated histologically 120 days later. Biopsy specimens were obtained from the interface of bone and polymer or the interface of bone and newly formed tissue; specimens were processed for histomorphometric evaluation by use of light microscopy, immunohistochemical analysis, histochemical analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS Osteoconductive activity of the biomaterial was confirmed by the presence of osteoblasts in the biopsy specimens. Absence of a chronic inflammatory response or foreign body reaction indicated biocompatibility. Expression of osteoblast markers was detected in the newly formed tissue. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that castor oil polyurethane polymer with calcium carbonate could be an acceptable compound for use as a bone substitute in horses with fractures in which bone filling is necessary.

Phosphatidylethanolamine Synthesis by Castor Bean Endosperm 1

PubMed Central

Shin, Sungho; Moore, Thomas S.

1990-01-01

A base exchange reaction for synthesis of phosphatidylethanolamine by the endoplasmic reticulum of castor bean (Ricinus comminus L. var Hale) endosperm has been examined. The calculated Michaelis-Menten constant of the enzyme for ethanolamine was 5 micromolar and the optimal pH was 7.8 in the presence of 2 millimolar CaCl2. l-Serine, N-methylethanolamine and N,N-dimethylethanolamine all reduced ethanolamine incorporation, while d-serine and myo-inositol had little effect. These inhibitions of ethanolamine incorporation were found to be noncompetitive and ethanolamine also noncompetitively inhibited l-serine incorporation by exchange. The activity of the ethanolamine base exchange enzyme was affected by several detergents, with the best activity being obtained with the zwitterionic defjtergent 3-3-cholamidopropyl) dimethylammonio-2-hydroxyl-1-propanesulfonate. PMID:16667427

Everything moves on: referral trends to a leavers' group in a high secure hospital and trial leave progress of group graduates.

PubMed

Adshead, Gwen; Pyszora, Natalie; Wilson, Claire; Gopie, Ramesh; Thomas, Deryk; Smith, Julia; Glorney, Emily; Moore, Estelle; Tapp, James

2017-04-01

Moving on from high secure psychiatric care can be a complex and potentially stressful experience, which may hinder progression. A leavers' group in a UK high secure hospital is offered to support patients with this transition. The aims of this study are to investigate characteristics of patients referred for the leavers' group and compare outcomes for leavers' group graduates with those for patients who never attended a leavers' group for any reason. A retrospective quasi-experimental design was applied to data extracted from various records sources - within and outside the high security hospital. About one-fifth of patients who left the hospital on trial leave during the study were referred to the leavers' group (N = 109). Referred patients were significantly more likely to have either been admitted from another high-security hospital or transferred from prison for treatment and have a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Patients not referred had a significantly higher rate of previously refusing to participate in groups. There was a tendency for rate of return from trial leave for group graduates to be lower than that of patients who did not attend the leavers' group, but this just failed to reach statistical significance (rate ratio [RR] = 1.04; CI 0.97-1.11). A leavers' group appeared to be a valued therapy option for people who had spent a long time in high secure psychiatric care, or those who continued to require hospital treatment beyond prison tariffs. There was a low return rate from trial leave, which made the evaluation of this outcome difficult. A detailed study into both the reasons for return from trial leave and successes would provide further information on ideal preparation for moving on. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The multigene family of lysophosphatidate acyltransferase (LPAT)-related enzymes in Ricinus communis: cloning and molecular characterization of two LPAT genes that are expressed in castor seeds.

PubMed

Arroyo-Caro, José María; Chileh, Tarik; Kazachkov, Michael; Zou, Jitao; Alonso, Diego López; García-Maroto, Federico

2013-02-01

The multigene family encoding proteins related to lysophosphatidyl-acyltransferases (LPATs) has been analyzed in the castor plant Ricinus communis. Among them, two genes designated RcLPAT2 and RcLPATB, encoding proteins with LPAT activity and expressed in the developing seed, have been cloned and characterized in some detail. RcLPAT2 groups with well characterized members of the so-called A-class LPATs and it shows a generalized expression pattern in the plant and along seed development. Enzymatic assays of RcLPAT2 indicate a preference for ricinoleoyl-CoA over other fatty acid thioesters when ricinoleoyl-LPA is used as the acyl acceptor, while oleoyl-CoA is the preferred substrate when oleoyl-LPA is employed. RcLPATB groups with B-class LPAT enzymes described as seed specific and selective for unusual fatty acids. However, RcLPATB exhibit a broad specificity on the acyl-CoAs, with saturated fatty acids (12:0-16:0) being the preferred substrates. RcLPATB is upregulated coinciding with seed triacylglycerol accumulation, but its expression is not restricted to the seed. These results are discussed in the light of a possible role for LPAT isoenzymes in the channelling of ricinoleic acid into castor bean triacylglycerol. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Performance of maleated castor oil based plasticizer on rubber: rheology and curing characteristic studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Indrajati, I. N.; Dewi, I. R.

2017-07-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of maleated castor oil (MACO) as plasticizer on natural rubber (NR), ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). The parameter studied were involving rheological, curing and swelling properties. The MACOs were prepared by an esterification reaction between castor oil (CO) and maleic anhydride (MAH) with the help of xylene as water entrainer to improve water removal. Resulting oils then applied as a plasticizer in each of those rubbers within a fixed loading of 5 phr. Comparison has been made to evaluate the performance of MACO and conventional plasticizer (paraffinic oil for NR and EPDM, DOP for NBR) on each rubber. Rheology, curing characteristic and swelling of each rubber were studied. The results showed that rubber (NR/EPDM/NBR) plasticized with MACO had given similar flow characteristic to conventional plasticizers. MACO exhibited slow curing, confirmed by higher t90, but the scorch safety was of the same magnitude. MAH loading tended to decrease the flow properties and curing rate, while scorch time (ts2) was independent.

Searching for new young stars in the Northern hemisphere: the Pisces moving group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Binks, A. S.; Jeffries, R. D.; Ward, J. L.

2018-01-01

Using the kinematically unbiased technique described in Binks, Jeffries & Maxted (2015), we present optical spectra for a further 122 rapidly rotating (rotation periods <6 d), X-ray active FGK stars, selected from the SuperWASP survey. We identify 17 new examples of young, probably single stars with ages of <200 Myr and provide additional evidence for a new Northern hemisphere kinematic association: the Pisces moving group (MG). The group consists of 14 lithium-rich G- and K-type stars that have a dispersion of only ∼3 km s-1 in each Galactic space velocity coordinate. The group members are approximately coeval in the colour-magnitude diagram, with an age of 30-50 Myr, and have similar, though not identical, kinematics to the Octans-Near MG.

Phosphatidylcholine synthesis in castor bean endosperm. I. Metabolism of L-serine. [Ricinus communis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kinney, A.J.; Moore, T.S. Jr.

1987-05-01

Endosperm halves from 3-day-old castor bean (Ricinus communis var Hale) were incubated for 30 minutes with L(/sup 14/C)serine, after which label was observed in ethanolamine, choline, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, ethanolaminephosphate, and CDPethanolamine, but not in cholinephosphate or CDPcholine. Only later did significant amounts of isotope become incorporated into cholinephosphate and CDPcholine. The choline kinase inhibitor hemicholinium-3 prevented the incorporation of label from serine into choline-phosphate and CDPcholine, reduced the incorporation of (/sup 14/C)choline into phosphatidylcholine by 65%, but inhibited the incorporation of label into phosphatidylcholine from serine by only 15%. The inhibitor did not prevent the incorporation of labeled methylmore » groups from S-adenosyl-L-methionine into phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine plus phosphatidyl-choline. The amount of incorporation of label from the methyl donor was only 8% of that from choline into phosphatidylcholine. The implications of these results for the pathway and regulation of phosphatidylcholine synthesis from the water-soluble precursors are discussed.« less

Chemical tagging of the Ursa Major moving group. A northern selection of FGK stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tabernero, H. M.; Montes, D.; González Hernández, J. I.; Ammler-von Eiff, M.

2017-01-01

Context. Stellar kinematic groups are kinematically coherent groups of stars that might have a common origin. These groups spread through the Galaxy over time owing to tidal effects caused by Galactic rotation and disk heating. However, the chemical information survives these processes. Aims: The information provided by analysis of chemical elements can reveal the origin of these kinematic groups. Here we investigate the origin of the stars that belong to the Ursa Major (UMa) moving group (MG). Methods: We present high-resolution spectroscopic observations obtained from three different spectrographs of kinematically selected FGK stars of the Ursa Major moving group. Stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, ξ, and [Fe/H]) were determined using our own automatic code (StePar), which makes use of the sensitivity of iron equivalent widths (EWs) measured in the spectra. We critically compared the StePar results with other methods (Teff values derived using the infrared flux method (IRFM) and log g values based on Hipparcos parallaxes). We derived the chemical abundances of 20 elements and their [X/Fe] ratios for all stars in the sample. We performed a differential abundance analysis with respect to a reference star of the UMa MG (HD 115043). We also carried out a systematic comparison of the abundance pattern of the Ursa Major MG and the Hyades SC with the thin disk stellar abundances. Results: Our chemical tagging analysis indicates that the Ursa Major MG is less affected by field star contamination than other moving groups (such as the Hyades SC). We find a roughly solar iron composition [Fe/H] = 0.03 ± 0.07 dex for the finally selected stars, whereas the [X/Fe] ratios are roughly subsolar except for super-solar Barium abundance. Conclusions: We conclude that 29 out of 44 (I.e., 66%) candidate stars have similar chemical compositions. In addition, we find that the abundance pattern of the Ursa Major MG might be marginally different from that of the Hyades SC

Calculation of equivalent friction coefficient for castor seed by single screw press

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, R.; Xiao, Z.; Li, C.; Zhang, L.; Li, P.; Li, H.; Zhang, A.; Tang, S.; Sun, F.

2017-08-01

Based on the traction angle and transportation rate equation, castor beans were pressed by application of single screw under different cake diameter and different screw speed. The results showed that the greater the cake diameter and screw rotation speed, the greater the actual transmission rate was. The equivalent friction coefficient was defined and calculated as 0.4136, and the friction coefficients between press material and screw, bar cage were less than the equivalent friction coefficient value.

Castor diacylglycerol acyltransferase type1(DGAT1)displays greater activity with diricinolein than Arabidopsis DGAT1

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Castor oil contains the hydroxy fatty acid ricinoleate as a major (90%) component. The diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) carries out the final reaction step in the biosynthesis of triacylglycerol, the principal constituent of seed oil, and has been considered to be the step that controls the oil...

Resonance Trapping in the Galactic Disc and Halo and its Relation with Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pichardo, Barbara; Moreno, Edmundo; william, schuster B.

2015-08-01

With the use of a detailed Milky Way nonaxisymmetric potential, observationally and dynamically constrained, the eects of the bar and the spiral arms in the Galaxy are studied in the disc and in the stellar halo. Especially the trapping of stars in the disk and Galactic halo by resonances on the Galactic plane created by the Galactic bar has been analysed in detail. To this purpose, a new method is presented to delineate the trapping regions using empirical diagrams of some orbital properties obtained in the Galactic potential. In these diagrams we plot in the inertial Galactic frame a characteristic orbital energy versus a characteristic orbital angular momentum, or versus the orbital Jacobi constant in the reference frame of the bar, when this is the only nonaxisymmetric component in the Galactic potential. With these diagrams some trapping regions are obtained in the disc and halo using a sample of disc stars and halo stars in the solar neighborhood. We compute several families of periodic orbits on the Galactic plane, some associated with this resonant trapping. In particular, we nd that the trapping eect of these resonances on the Galactic plane can extend some kpc from this plane, trapping stars in the Galactic halo. The purpose of our analysis is to investigate if the trapping regions contain some known moving groups in our Galaxy. We have applied our method to the Kapteyn group, a moving group in the halo, and we have found that this group appears not to be associated with a particular resonance on the Galactic plane.

Analysis of active ricin and castor bean proteins in a ricin preparation, castor bean extract, and surface swabs from a public health investigation.

PubMed

Schieltz, David M; McGrath, Sara C; McWilliams, Lisa G; Rees, Jon; Bowen, Michael D; Kools, John J; Dauphin, Leslie A; Gomez-Saladin, Eduardo; Newton, Bruce N; Stang, Heather L; Vick, Michael J; Thomas, Jerry; Pirkle, James L; Barr, John R

2011-06-15

In late February 2008, law enforcement officials in Las Vegas, Nevada, discovered in a hotel room, a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook, suspected castor beans and a "white powder" thought to be a preparation of ricin. Ricin is a deadly toxin from the seed of the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis). The United States regulates the possession, use, and transfer of ricin and it is the only substance considered a warfare agent in both the Chemical and the Biological Weapons Conventions. Six samples obtained from the hotel room were analyzed by laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using a panel of biological and mass spectrometric assays. The biological assays (real time-PCR, time resolved fluorescence and cytotoxicity) provided presumptive evidence of active ricin in each of the samples. This initial screen was followed by an in-depth analysis using a novel, state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based ricin functional assay and high sensitivity tandem mass spectrometry for protein identification. Mass spectrometric analysis positively identified ricin and confirmed that in each of the samples it was enzymatically active. The tandem mass spectrometry analysis used here is the most selective method available to detect ricin toxin. In each sample, ricin was unequivocally identified along with other R. communis plant proteins, including the highly homologous protein RCA120. Although database searches using tandem mass spectra acquired from the samples indicated that additional controlled substances were not present in these samples, the mass spectrometric results did provide extensive detail about the sample contents. To the best of our knowledge following a review of the available literature, this report describes the most detailed analysis of a white powder for a public health or forensic investigation involving ricin. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

THE GEMINI/NICI PLANET-FINDING CAMPAIGN: THE FREQUENCY OF PLANETS AROUND YOUNG MOVING GROUP STARS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Biller, Beth A.; Ftaclas, Christ; Liu, Michael C.

2013-11-10

We report results of a direct imaging survey for giant planets around 80 members of the β Pic, TW Hya, Tucana-Horologium, AB Dor, and Hercules-Lyra moving groups, observed as part of the Gemini/NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. For this sample, we obtained median contrasts of ΔH = 13.9 mag at 1'' in combined CH{sub 4} narrowband ADI+SDI mode and median contrasts of ΔH = 15.1 mag at 2'' in H-band ADI mode. We found numerous (>70) candidate companions in our survey images. Some of these candidates were rejected as common-proper motion companions using archival data; we reobserved with Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI)more » all other candidates that lay within 400 AU of the star and were not in dense stellar fields. The vast majority of candidate companions were confirmed as background objects from archival observations and/or dedicated NICI Campaign followup. Four co-moving companions of brown dwarf or stellar mass were discovered in this moving group sample: PZ Tel B (36 ± 6 M{sub Jup}, 16.4 ± 1.0 AU), CD–35 2722B (31 ± 8 M{sub Jup}, 67 ± 4 AU), HD 12894B (0.46 ± 0.08 M{sub ☉}, 15.7 ± 1.0 AU), and BD+07 1919C (0.20 ± 0.03 M{sub ☉}, 12.5 ± 1.4 AU). From a Bayesian analysis of the achieved H band ADI and ASDI contrasts, using power-law models of planet distributions and hot-start evolutionary models, we restrict the frequency of 1-20 M{sub Jup} companions at semi-major axes from 10-150 AU to <18% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to <6% at a 95.4% using COND models. Our results strongly constrain the frequency of planets within semi-major axes of 50 AU as well. We restrict the frequency of 1-20 M{sub Jup} companions at semi-major axes from 10-50 AU to <21% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to <7% at a 95.4% using COND models. This survey is the deepest search to date for giant planets around young moving group stars.« less

Adding value to a toxic residue from the biodiesel industry: production of two distinct pool of lipases from Penicillium simplicissimum in castor bean waste.

PubMed

Godoy, Mateus G; Gutarra, Melissa L E; Castro, Aline M; Machado, Olga L T; Freire, Denise M G

2011-08-01

In countries with a strong agricultural base, such as Brazil, the generation of solid residues is very high. In some cases, these wastes present no utility due to their toxic and allergenic compounds, and so are an environmental concern. The castor bean (Ricinus communis) is a promising candidate for biodiesel production. From the biodiesel production process developed in the Petrobras Research Center using castor bean seeds, a toxic and alkaline waste is produced. The use of agroindustrial wastes in solid-state fermentation (SSF) is a very interesting alternative for obtaining enzymes at low cost. Therefore, in this work, castor bean waste was used, without any treatment, as a culture medium for fungal growth and lipase production. The fungus Penicillium simplicissimum was able to grow and produce an enzyme in this waste. In order to maximize the enzyme production, two sequential designs-Plackett-Burman (variable screening) followed by central composite rotatable design (CCRD)-were carried out, attaining a considerable increase in lipase production, reaching an activity of 155.0 U/g after 96 h of fermentation. The use of experimental design strategy was efficient, leading to an increase of 340% in the lipase production. Zymography showed the presence of different lipases in the crude extract. The partial characterization of such extract showed the occurrence of two lipase pools with distinct characteristics of pH and temperature of action: one group with optimal action at pH 6.5 and 45°C and another one at pH 9.0 and 25°C. These results demonstrate how to add value to a toxic and worthless residue through the production of lipases with distinct characteristics. This pool of enzymes, produced through a low cost methodology, can be applied in different areas of biotechnology.

Chemical Abundance Analysis of Moving Group W11450 (Latham 1)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Connell, Julia E.; Martens, Kylee; Frinchaboy, Peter M.

2016-12-01

We present elemental abundances for all seven stars in Moving Group W11450 (Latham 1) to determine if they may be chemically related. These stars appear to be both spatially and kinematically related, but no spectroscopic abundance analysis exists in literature. Abundances for eight elements were derived via equivalent width analyses of high-resolution (R ˜ 60,000), high-signal-to-noise ratio (< {{S}}/{{N}}> ˜ 100) spectra obtained with the Otto Struve 2.1 m telescope and the Sandiford Echelle Spectrograph at McDonald Observatory. The large star-to-star scatter in metallicity, -0.55 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤slant 0.06 dex (σ = 0.25), implies these stars were not produced from the same chemically homogeneous molecular cloud, and are therefore not part of a remnant or open cluster as previously proposed. Prior to this analysis, it was suggested that two stars in the group, W11449 and W11450, are possible wide binaries. The candidate wide binary pair show similar chemical abundance patterns with not only iron but with other elements analyzed in this study, suggesting the proposed connection between these two stars may be real.

Evaluation of the cadmium and lead phytoextraction by castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) in hydroponics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niu, Z. X.; Sun, L. N.

2017-06-01

Phytoextraction has been considered as an innovative method to remove toxic metals from soil; higher biomass plants such as castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) have already been considered as a hyperaccumulating candidate. In the present study, castor bean was used to accumulate the cadmium and lead in hydroponic culture, and the root exudates and biomass changes were analyzed. Results demonstrated that ratios of aerial biomass/ root biomass (AW/RW) in treatments declined with concentrations of Cd or Pb. Optical density (OD) at 190 nm and 280 nm of root exudates observed in Cd and Pb treatments were lower than the control. In single Cd or Pb treatments, bioconcentration factors (BCF) of Cd or Pb increased with time and decreased with concentrations, the highest BCFs appeared in Cd5 (14.36) and Pb50 (6.48), respectively. Cd-BCF or Pb-BCF showed positive correlations with AW/RW ratios and OD values, and they were negative correlated with Cd and Pb concentration. Results in this study may supply useful information for phytoremediation of soil contaminated with cadmium and lead in situ.

Detection of intact ricin in crude and purified extracts from castor beans using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Brinkworth, Craig S; Pigott, Eloise J; Bourne, David J

2009-02-15

Ricin is a highly toxic protein from the seeds of the castor bean plant. Crude extracts from castor beans are toxic by several routes, and there is international concern about the use of these extracts by terrorist organizations. Lethality in aerosolized form has spurred the development of methods for the rapid detection of this protein from air samples that is critical in determining the illicit use of this material. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass measurement with an automated laser firing sequence was used to detect intact ricin from solutions containing less than 4 microg/mL of ricin in the presence of other endogenous seed proteins. This sensitivity was attained with the addition of 0.01% Tween 80 to the extracts that greatly enhanced the ricin signal. Importantly, this treatment substantially reduces the interference from the castor bean seed storage proteins. Commonly the ricin signal can be completely obscured by the oligomers of seed storage proteins, and this treatment reveals the ricin molecular ion, allowing the analyst to make a judgment as to the ricin content of the extract. This method provides for sensitive and rapid identification of intact ricin from aqueous samples with little sample preparation and is amenable to automatic acquisition.

Expert system for generating initial layouts of zoom systems with multiple moving lens groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Xuemin; Wang, Yongtian; Hao, Qun; Sasián, José M.

2005-01-01

An expert system is developed for the automatic generation of initial layouts for the design of zoom systems with multiple moving lens groups. The Gaussian parameters of the zoom system are optimized using the damped-least-squares method to achieve smooth zoom cam curves, with the f-number of each lens group in the zoom system constrained to a rational value. Then each lens group is selected automatically from a database according to its range of f-number, field of view, and magnification ratio as it is used in the zoom system. The lens group database is established from the results of analyzing thousands of zoom lens patents. Design examples are given, which show that the scheme is a practical approach to generate starting points for zoom lens design.

THE CONVERSION OF FAT TO CARBOHYDRATE IN THE GERMINATING CASTOR BEAN

PubMed Central

Murlin, John R.

1933-01-01

1. Respiration studies on single castor beans, made by means of the Brodie-Warburg method, at various times after the start of germination, as well as studies on groups of germinating beans over periods of 3 to 8 days, made by a simple procedure involving analysis of the respired air by the Haldane method, consistently give respiratory quotients from 0.30 to 0.58, indicating the conversion of the oil to carbohydrate. 2. The R.Q. varies with the stage of germination, the lowest point occurring when the new growth (hypocotyl) measures from 20 to 35 mm. in length. 3. The R.Q. of the young plant (cotyledons and hypocotyl), separated from the endosperm and studied in the same apparatus, varies from 0.78 to 1.00. It is invariably high enough to indicate considerable combustion of sugar. The R.Q. of the endosperm alone is low, but usually somewhat higher than that of the entire germinating structure. 4. On the same unit of moist weight the young plant (cotyledons and hypocotyl) produces about 2.6 times as much CO2 as the endosperm, whereas it absorbs only 1.3 times as much O2. PMID:19872779

Effects of ricinoleic acid esters from castor oil of Ricinus communis on the vitellogenesis of Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks.

PubMed

Arnosti, André; Brienza, Paula Desjardins; Furquim, Karim Christina Scopinho; Chierice, Gilberto Orivaldo; Bechara, Gervásio Henrique; Calligaris, Izabela Braggião; Camargo-Mathias, Maria Izabel

2011-02-01

This study examines the effects of ricinoleic acid esters from Ricinus communis castor oil on the vitellogenesis of Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks attached to hosts that were fed with commercial rabbit food containing these esters. The oocytes of ticks from the treatment group (TG) showed cytoplasmic changes that inhibited the development of oocytes I and II to the advanced stages (IV and V) in addition to preventing the maturation of oocytes V, resulting in small ones. In addition, sperm was not observed in ampoules. Our findings confirm the acaricide potential of ricinoleic acid esters. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Forensic determination of ricin and the alkaloid marker ricinine from castor bean extracts.

PubMed

Darby, S M; Miller, M L; Allen, R O

2001-09-01

Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/ MS) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) MS methods were developed for the presumptive identification of ricin toxin and the alkaloid marker ricinine from crude plant materials. Ricin is an extremely potent poison, which is of forensic interest due to its appearance in terrorism literature and its potential for use as a homicide agent. Difficulties arise in attempting to analyze ricin because it is a large heterogeneous protein with glycosylation. The general protein identification scheme developed uses LC/MS or MALDI-TOF for size classification followed by the use of the same instrumentation for the analysis of the tryptic digest. Fragments of the digest can be searched in an online database for tentative identification of the unknown protein and then followed by comparison to authentic reference materials. LC fractionation or molecular weight cutoff filtration was used for preparation of the intact toxin before analysis. Extracts from two types of castor beans were prepared using a terrorist handbook procedure and determined to contain 1% ricin. Additionally, a forensic sample suspected to contain ricin was analyzed using the presented identification scheme (data not shown). The identification of the alkaloid ricinine by GC/MS and LC/MS was shown to be a complementary technique for the determination of castor bean extracts.

July 2013 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Presentations from the Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) meeting on July 9th of 2013 include MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) updates; data regarding vehicle populations and activity, PM speciation, and hazardous air pollutants.

September 2016 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Presentations from the Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) meeting on Sep. 14th of 2016 include MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) updates; data regarding vehicle populations and activity, PM speciation, and hazardous air pollutants.

Ricinus communis L. (castor bean) as a potential candidate for revegetating industrial waste contaminated sites in peri-urban Greater Hyderabad: remarks on seed oil.

PubMed

Boda, Ravi Kiran; Majeti, Narasimha Vara Prasad; Suthari, Sateesh

2017-08-01

Ricinus communis L. (castor bean or castor oil plant) was found growing on metal-contaminated sites (4) of peri-urban Greater Hyderabad comprises of erstwhile industrial areas viz Bollaram, Patancheru, Bharatnagar, and Kattedan industrial areas. During 2013-2017, about 60 research papers have appeared focusing the role of castor bean in phytoremediation of co-contaminated soils, co-generation of biomaterials, and environmental cleanup, as bioenergy crop and sustainable development. The present study is focused on its use as a multipurpose phytoremediation crop for phytostabilization and revegetation of waste disposed peri-urban contaminated soils. To determine the plant tolerance level, metal accumulation, chlorophyll, protein, proline, lipid peroxidation, oil content, and soil properties were characterized. It was noticed that the castor plant and soils have high concentration of metals such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn). The soils have high phosphorous (P), adequate nitrogen (N), and low concentration of potassium (K). Iron (Fe) concentrations ranged from1672±50.91 to 2166±155.78 mg kg -1 in the soil. The trend of metal accumulation Fe>Zn>Mn>Pb>Cd was found in different plant parts at polluted sites. The translocation of Cd and Pb showed values more than one in industrial areas viz Bollaram, Kattedan, and Bharatnagar indicating the plants resistance to metal toxicity. Chlorophyll and protein content reduced while proline and malondialdehyde increased due to its tolerance level under metal exposure. The content of ricinoleic acid was higher, and the fatty acids composition of polluted areas was almost similar to that of the control area. Thus, R. communis L. can be employed for reclamation of heavy metal contaminated soils.

September 2012 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The agenda and focus of the Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) on 25 September 2012 included testing MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator) data against actual measured emission rates, GHG rule implementation, and bus fleet emissions.

A stellar census of the Tucana-Horologium moving group

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kraus, Adam L.; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Allers, Katelyn N.

2014-06-01

We report the selection and spectroscopic confirmation of 129 new late-type (SpT = K3-M6) members of the Tucana-Horologium moving group, a nearby (d ∼ 40 pc), young (τ ∼ 40 Myr) population of comoving stars. We also report observations for 13 of the 17 known Tuc-Hor members in this spectral type range, and that 62 additional candidates are likely to be unassociated field stars; the confirmation frequency for new candidates is therefore 129/191 = 67%. We have used radial velocities, Hα emission, and Li{sub 6708} absorption to distinguish between contaminants and bona fide members. Our expanded census of Tuc-Hor increasesmore » the known population by a factor of ∼3 in total and by a factor of ∼8 for members with SpT ≥ K3, but even so, the K-M dwarf population of Tuc-Hor is still markedly incomplete. Our expanded census allows for a much more detailed study of Tuc-Hor than was previously feasible. The spatial distribution of members appears to trace a two-dimensional sheet, with a broad distribution in X and Y, but a very narrow distribution (±5 pc) in Z. The corresponding velocity distribution is very small, with a scatter of ±1.1 km s{sup –1} about the mean UVW velocity for stars spanning the entire 50 pc extent of Tuc-Hor. We also show that the isochronal age (τ ∼ 20-30 Myr) and the lithium depletion boundary age (τ ∼ 40 Myr) disagree, following the trend in other pre-main-sequence populations for isochrones to yield systematically younger ages. The Hα emission line strength follows a trend of increasing equivalent width with later spectral type, as is seen for young clusters. We find that moving group members have been depleted of measurable lithium for spectral types of K7.0-M4.5. None of our targets have significant infrared excesses in the WISE W3 band, yielding an upper limit on warm debris disks of F < 0.7%. Finally, our purely kinematic and color-magnitude selection procedure allows us to test the efficiency and completeness for

A Novel Methodology for the Synthesis of Acyloxy Castor Polyol Esters: Low Pour Point Lubricant Base Stocks.

PubMed

Kamalakar, Kotte; Mahesh, Goli; Prasad, Rachapudi B N; Karuna, Mallampalli S L

2015-01-01

Castor oil, a non-edible oil containing hydroxyl fatty acid, ricinoleic acid (89.3 %) was chemically modified employing a two step procedure. The first step involved acylation (C(2)-C(6) alkanoic anhydrides) of -OH functionality employing a green catalyst, Kieselguhr-G and solvent free medium. The catalyst after reaction was filtered and reused several times without loss in activity. The second step is esterification of acylated castor fatty acids with branched mono alcohol, 2-ethylhexanol and polyols namely neopentyl glycol (NPG), trimethylolpropane (TMP) and pentaerythritol (PE) to obtain 16 novel base stocks. The base stocks when evaluated for different lubricant properties have shown very low pour points (-30 to -45°C) and broad viscosity ranges 20.27 cSt to 370.73 cSt, higher viscosity indices (144-171), good thermal and oxidative stabilities, and high weld load capacities suitable for multi-range industrial applications such as hydraulic fluids, metal working fluids, gear oil, forging and aviation applications. The study revealed that acylated branched mono- and polyol esters rich in monounsaturation is desirable for developing low pour point base stocks.

Detoxification of castor bean residues and the simultaneous production of tannase and phytase by solid-state fermentation using Paecilomyces variotii.

PubMed

Madeira, Jose Valdo; Macedo, Juliana Alves; Macedo, Gabriela Alves

2011-08-01

In this work, we introduce a biological detoxification method that converts toxic waste from castor beans into animal feed material. This method simultaneously induces the production of tannase and phytase by Paecilomyces variotii; both enzymes have high levels of activity and have the potential to be used in feedstuffs because they decrease overall anti-nutritional factors. The maximum tannase and phytase activities obtained were 2600 and 260 U/g after 48 and 72 h, respectively. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis of the fermented castor cake extracts revealed a reduction in ricin bands during fermentation, and the bands were no longer visible after 48 h. The cytotoxicity of the extracts was evaluated by MTT testing on RAW cells, and a progressive increase in cellular viability was obtained, reaching almost 100% after 72 h of fermentation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Moving on in life after intensive care--partners' experience of group communication.

PubMed

Ahlberg, Mona; Bäckman, Carl; Jones, Christina; Walther, Sten; Hollman Frisman, Gunilla

2015-09-01

Partners have a burdensome time during and after their partners' intensive care period. They may appear to be coping well outwardly but inside feel vulnerable and lost. Evaluated interventions for partners on this aspect are limited. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of participating in group communication with other partners of former intensive care patients. The study has a descriptive intervention-based design where group communication for partners of former, surviving intensive care unit (ICU) patients was evaluated. A strategic selection was made of adult partners to former adult intensive care patients (n = 15), 5 men and 10 women, aged 37-89 years. Two group communication sessions lasting 2 h were held at monthly intervals with three to five partners. The partners later wrote, in a notebook, about their feelings of participating in group communications. To deepen the understanding of the impact of the sessions, six of the partners were interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyse the notebooks and the interviews. Three categories were identified: (1) Emotional impact, the partners felt togetherness and experienced worries and gratitude, (2) Confirmation, consciousness through insight and reflection and (3) The meeting design, group constellation and recommendation to participate in group communication. Partners of an intensive care patient are on a journey, constantly trying to adapt to the new situation and find new strategies to ever-changing circumstances. Group communications contributed to togetherness and confirmation. To share experiences with others is one way for partners to be able to move forward in life. Group communication with other patients' partners eases the process of going through the burden of being a partner to an intensive care patient. Group communications needs to be further developed and evaluated to obtain consensus and evidence for the best practice. © 2015 British Association of Critical Care Nurses.

April 2013 MOVES Model Review Work Group Meeting Materials

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Presentations from the meeting on April 30th of 2013 include a focus on the next version of MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES), evaluating proposed data sources and analysis methods, and commenting on or suggesting features or enhancements.

The Kapteyn Moving Group Is Not Tidal Debris From ω Centauri

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navarrete, Camila; Chanamé, Julio; Ramírez, Iván; Meza, Andrés; Anglada-Escudé, Guillem; Shkolnik, Evgenya

2015-07-01

The Kapteyn moving group has been postulated as tidal debris from ω Centauri. If true, members of the group should show some of the chemical abundance patterns known for stars in the cluster. We present an optical and near-infrared high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic study of 14 stars of the Kapteyn group, plus 10 additional stars (the ω Cen group) that, while not listed as members of the Kapteyn group as originally defined, have nevertheless been associated dynamically with ω Centauri. Abundances for Na, O, Mg, Al, Ca, and Ba were derived from the optical spectra, while the strength of the chromospheric He i 10830 Å line is studied as a possible helium abundance indicator. The resulting Na-O and Mg-Al patterns for stars of the combined Kapteyn and ω Cen group samples do not resemble those of ω Centauri, and are not different from those of field stars of the Galactic halo. The distribution of equivalent widths of the He i 10830 Å line is consistent with that found among non-active field stars. Therefore, no evidence is found for second-generation stars within our samples, which most likely rules out a globular-cluster origin. Moreover, no hint of the unique barium overabundance at the metal-rich end, well established for ω Centauri stars, is seen among stars of the combined samples. Because this specific Ba pattern is present in ω Centauri irrespective of stellar generation, this would rule out the possibility that our entire sample might be composed of only first-generation stars from the cluster. Finally, for the stars of the Kapteyn group, the possibility of an origin in the hypothetical parent galaxy of ω Centauri is disfavored by the different run of α-elements with metallicity between our targets and stars from present-day dwarf galaxies. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile (ESO Program 090.B-0605) and observations gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory

Phosphatidylglycerol synthesis in castor bean endosperm. [Ricinus communis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moore, T.S. Jr.

1974-01-01

The synthesis of phosphatidylglycerol in castor bean (Ricinus communis var. Hale) endosperm tissue was found to be located in both the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrial fractions separated on sucrose density gradients. The enzyme of both fractions attained maximum activity at 5 mM Mn/sup 2 +/, 0.075 percent Triton X-100, and pH 7.3. The addition of dithiothreitol produced little effect, but sulfhydryl inhibitors reduced activity in both systems. Cytidine diphosphate-diglyceride exhibited an apparent Michaelis constant for the endoplasmic reticulum enzyme of 2.8 ..mu..M and for the mitochondrial enzyme of 2.0 ..mu..M; the maximum reaction rate was achieved at about 20 ..mu..M.more » For the second substrate, glycerol-phosphate, the apparent Michaelis constant for both fractions was about 50 ..mu..M and maximum velocity was reached at 400 ..mu..M. The specific activity of the mitochondrial enzyme was generally twice that of the endoplasmic reticulum.« less

One-pot conjugated linoleic acid production from castor oil by Rhizopus oryzae lipase and resting cells of Lactobacillus plantarum.

PubMed

Khaskheli, Abid Ali; Talpur, Farah Naz; Cebeci Aydin, Aysun; Jawaid, Sana; Surhio, Muhammad Ali; Afridi, Hassan Imran

2017-10-01

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has attracted as novel type of fatty acids having unusual health-promoting properties such as anticarcinogenic and antiobesitic effects. The present work employed castor oil as substrate for one-pot production of CLA using washed cells of Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) and lipases as catalysts. Among the screened lipases, the lipase Rhizopus oryzae (ROL) greatly assisted resting cells to produce CLA. Mass spectral analysis of the product showed that two major isomers of CLA were produced in the reaction mixture i.e. cis-9, trans-11 56.55% and trans-10, cis-12 43.45%. Optimum factors for CLA synthesis were found as substrate concentration (8 mg/mL), pH (6.5), washed cell concentration (12% w/v), and incubation time of 20 h. Hence, the combination of ROL with L. plantarum offers one pot production of CLA selectively using castor oil as a cost-effective substrate.

The Gemini/NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: The Frequency of Planets around Young Moving Group Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biller, Beth A.; Liu, Michael C.; Wahhaj, Zahed; Nielsen, Eric L.; Hayward, Thomas L.; Males, Jared R.; Skemer, Andrew; Close, Laird M.; Chun, Mark; Ftaclas, Christ; Clarke, Fraser; Thatte, Niranjan; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Reid, I. Neill; Hartung, Markus; Boss, Alan; Lin, Douglas; Alencar, Silvia H. P.; de Gouveia Dal Pino, Elisabete; Gregorio-Hetem, Jane; Toomey, Douglas

2013-11-01

We report results of a direct imaging survey for giant planets around 80 members of the β Pic, TW Hya, Tucana-Horologium, AB Dor, and Hercules-Lyra moving groups, observed as part of the Gemini/NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. For this sample, we obtained median contrasts of ΔH = 13.9 mag at 1'' in combined CH4 narrowband ADI+SDI mode and median contrasts of ΔH = 15.1 mag at 2'' in H-band ADI mode. We found numerous (>70) candidate companions in our survey images. Some of these candidates were rejected as common-proper motion companions using archival data; we reobserved with Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) all other candidates that lay within 400 AU of the star and were not in dense stellar fields. The vast majority of candidate companions were confirmed as background objects from archival observations and/or dedicated NICI Campaign followup. Four co-moving companions of brown dwarf or stellar mass were discovered in this moving group sample: PZ Tel B (36 ± 6 M Jup, 16.4 ± 1.0 AU), CD-35 2722B (31 ± 8 M Jup, 67 ± 4 AU), HD 12894B (0.46 ± 0.08 M ⊙, 15.7 ± 1.0 AU), and BD+07 1919C (0.20 ± 0.03 M ⊙, 12.5 ± 1.4 AU). From a Bayesian analysis of the achieved H band ADI and ASDI contrasts, using power-law models of planet distributions and hot-start evolutionary models, we restrict the frequency of 1-20 M Jup companions at semi-major axes from 10-150 AU to <18% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to <6% at a 95.4% using COND models. Our results strongly constrain the frequency of planets within semi-major axes of 50 AU as well. We restrict the frequency of 1-20 M Jup companions at semi-major axes from 10-50 AU to <21% at a 95.4% confidence level using DUSTY models and to <7% at a 95.4% using COND models. This survey is the deepest search to date for giant planets around young moving group stars. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc

Synthesis and application of a novel environmental C26 diglycidyl ester plasticizer based on castor oil for poly(vinyl chloride)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

In this work, for the first time, a castor oil derived diglycidyl ester plasticizer (C26-DGE) was prepared and incorporated into poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). The chemical structure of the product was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (...

Kinetic and Thermodynamics studies for Castor Oil Extraction Using Subcritical Water Technology.

PubMed

Abdelmoez, Wael; Ashour, Eman; Naguib, Shahenaz M; Hilal, Amr; Al Mahdy, Dalia A; Mahrous, Engy A; Abdel-Sattar, Essam

2016-06-01

In this work both kinetic and thermodynamics of castor oil extraction from its seeds using subcritical water technique were studied. It was found that the extraction process followed two consecutive steps. In these steps, the oil was firstly extracted from inside the powder by diffusion mechanism. Then the extracted oil, due to extending the extraction time under high temperature and pressure, was subjected to a decomposition reaction following first order mechanism. The experimental data correlated well with the irreversible consecutive unimolecular-type first order mechanism. The values of both oil extraction rate constants and decomposition rate constants were calculated through non-linear fitting using DataFit software. The extraction rate constants were found to be 0.0019, 0.024, 0.098, 0.1 and 0.117 min(-1), while the decomposition rate constants were 0.057, 0.059, 0.014, 0.019 and 0.17 min(-1) at extraction temperatures of 240, 250, 260, 270 and 280°C, respectively. The thermodynamic properties of the oil extraction process were investigated using Arrhenius equation. The values of the activation energy, Ea, and the frequency factor, A, were 73 kJ mol(-1) and 946, 002 min(-1), respectively. The physicochemical properties of the extracted castor oil including the specific gravity, viscosity, acid value, pH value and calorific value were found to be 0.947, 7.487, 1.094 mg KOH/g, 6.1, and 41.5 MJ/Kg, respectively. Gas chromatography analysis showed that ricinoleic acid (83.6%) appears as the predominant fatty acid in the extracted oil followed by oleic acid (5.5%) and linoleic acid (2.3%).

Expression of castor LPAT2 enhances ricinoleic acid content at the sn-2 position of triacylglycerols in lesquerella seed

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Lesquerella (Physaria fendelri) is a potential crop for hydroxy fatty acid (HFA) production. Its seed triacylglcerols (TAGs) contain 55–60% lesquerolic acid (20:1OH), mostly at the sn-1 and the sn-3 positions of TAG. Castor (Ricinus communis) TAGs contain 90% of ricinoleic acid (18:1OH) which is est...

SIMP J013656.5+093347 Is Likely a Planetary-mass Object in the Carina-Near Moving Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gagné, Jonathan; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Burgasser, Adam J.; Artigau, Étienne; Bouchard, Sandie; Albert, Loïc; Lafrenière, David; Doyon, René; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella C.

2017-05-01

We report on the discovery that the nearby (˜6 pc) photometrically variable T2.5 dwarf SIMP J013656.5+093347 is a likely member of the ˜200 Myr old Carina-Near moving group with a probability of >99.9% based on its full kinematics. Our v\\sin I measurement of 50.9 ± 0.8 km s-1 combined with the known rotation period inferred from variability measurements provide a lower limit of 1.01 ± 0.02 {R}{Jup} on the radius of SIMP 0136+0933, an independent verification that it must be younger than ˜950 Myr, according to evolution models. We estimate a field interloper probability of 0.2% based on the density of field T0-T5 dwarfs. At the age of Carina-Near, SIMP 0136+0933 has an estimated mass of 12.7 ± 1.0 {M}{Jup} and is predicted to have burned roughly half of its original deuterium. SIMP 0136+0933 is the closest known young moving group member to the Sun and is one of only a few known young T dwarfs, making it an important benchmark for understanding the atmospheres of young planetary-mass objects.

Responses of beaver (Castor canadensis Kuhl) to predator chemicals.

PubMed

Engelhart, A; Müller-Schwarze, D

1995-09-01

Free-ranging beaver (Castor canadensis) in two different beaver populations in New York State were exposed to predator chemicals to test feeding inhibition. Solvent extracts of feces were applied to stem sections of aspen, the preferred food tree of beavers, permitting smelling and tasting the samples. Predator odors were from wolf (Canis lupus), coyote (Canis latrans), dog (Canis familiaris), black bear (Ursus americanus), river otter (Lutra canadensis), lynx (Lynx canadensis), and African lion (Panthera leo). The experiment was repeated. The predator odors reduced feeding compared to untreated or solvent-treated controls. One population consumed 17.0% of the samples with predator odor and 27.0% of the controls in summer, and 48.4% and 60.0%, respectively, in autumn. The other population accepted 3.15% of the predator odor samples and 11.05% of the controls in summer. Coyote, lynx, and river otter odors had the strongest effects. Diesel oil and bitter-tasting neem extract had weaker effects. Predator odors are promising as feeding repellents for beaver.

40 CFR 721.10297 - Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor-oil fatty acids complexes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 32 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty... SUBSTANCES Significant New Uses for Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10297 Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd... to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified as tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor...

40 CFR 721.10297 - Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor-oil fatty acids complexes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty... SUBSTANCES Significant New Uses for Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10297 Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd... to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified as tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor...

40 CFR 721.10297 - Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor-oil fatty acids complexes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 32 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty... SUBSTANCES Significant New Uses for Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10297 Tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd... to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified as tin, C16-18 and C18-unsatd. fatty acids castor...

NMR-based metabolomics approach to study the chronic toxicity of crude ricin from castor bean kernels on rats.

PubMed

Guo, Pingping; Wang, Junsong; Dong, Ge; Wei, Dandan; Li, Minghui; Yang, Minghua; Kong, Lingyi

2014-07-29

Ricin, a large, water soluble toxic glycoprotein, is distributed majorly in the kernels of castor beans (the seeds of Ricinus communis L.) and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or other folk remedies throughout the world. The toxicity of crude ricin (CR) from castor bean kernels was investigated for the first time using an NMR-based metabolomic approach complemented with histopathological inspection and clinical chemistry. The chronic administration of CR could cause kidney and lung impairment, spleen and thymus dysfunction and diminished nutrient intake in rats. An orthogonal signal correction partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OSC-PLSDA) of metabolomic profiles of rat biofluids highlighted a number of metabolic disturbances induced by CR. Long-term CR treatment produced perturbations on energy metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, amino acid metabolism and kynurenine pathway, and evoked oxidative stress. These findings could explain well the CR induced nephrotoxicity and pulmonary toxicity, and provided several potential biomarkers for diagnostics of these toxicities. Such a (1)H NMR based metabolomics approach showed its ability to give a systematic and holistic view of the response of an organism to drugs and is suitable for dynamic studies on the toxicological effects of TCM.

Transition to independence by subadult beavers (Castor canadensis) in an unexploited, exponentially growing population

USGS Publications Warehouse

DeStefano, S.; Koenen, Kiana K. G.; Henner, C.M.; Strules, J.

2006-01-01

We conducted a 4-year study of beavers Castor canadensis to compare the movements, survival and habitat of adults established in existing colonies to juveniles dispersing to new sites in a region with high beaver densities along a suburban-rural gradient. Estimates of annual survival were high for adult and juvenile beavers. Of nine known mortalities, seven (78%) were juveniles. Mortalities occurred during spring-summer, and none during fall-winter. There was a trend toward higher-to-lower survival along the suburban-rural gradient, respectively. Human-induced mortality (e.g. trapping and shooting) was higher in rural areas, whereas nonhuman-induced mortality (e.g. disease, accidents) was higher in suburban areas. Fifteen (14 subadults and one adult) beavers moved from natal colonies to other areas. The average dispersal distance for subadults was 4.5 km (SE = 1.0) along streams or rivers, or 3.5 km (SE = 0.7) straight-line point-to-point. Most dispersal movements were made in spring (April-June). In two cases, individual subadults made return movements from their dispersal sites back to their natal colonies. Dispersal sites tended to be in smaller, shallower wetlands or streams and in areas with higher overstorey canopy closure compared with natal colonies. Woody vegetation usually preferred by beavers for food tended to be less common at dispersal sites than at natal colonies. In regions with high densities of beaver, dispersing juveniles are likely to attempt to colonize lower quality sites. High densities of beavers also lead to more human-beaver conflicts and, in Massachusetts, the pest control management options in place during the past decade have been ineffectual at controlling population levels. Alternately, in regions with no beavers or very low densities and where reintroductions are being attempted, the landscape matrix surrounding release sites should include suitable sites for dispersing young to establish colonies.

Mining whole genomes and transcriptomes of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas) and Castor bean (Ricinus communis) for NBS-LRR genes and defense response associated transcription factors.

PubMed

Sood, Archit; Jaiswal, Varun; Chanumolu, Sree Krishna; Malhotra, Nikhil; Pal, Tarun; Chauhan, Rajinder Singh

2014-11-01

Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) and Castor bean (Ricinus communis) are oilseed crops of family Euphorbiaceae with the potential of producing high quality biodiesel and having industrial value. Both the bioenergy plants are becoming susceptible to various biotic stresses directly affecting the oil quality and content. No report exists as of today on analysis of Nucleotide Binding Site-Leucine Rich Repeat (NBS-LRR) gene repertoire and defense response transcription factors in both the plant species. In silico analysis of whole genomes and transcriptomes identified 47 new NBS-LRR genes in both the species and 122 and 318 defense response related transcription factors in Jatropha and Castor bean, respectively. The identified NBS-LRR genes and defense response transcription factors were mapped onto the respective genomes. Common and unique NBS-LRR genes and defense related transcription factors were identified in both the plant species. All NBS-LRR genes in both the species were characterized into Toll/interleukin-1 receptor NBS-LRRs (TNLs) and coiled-coil NBS-LRRs (CNLs), position on contigs, gene clusters and motifs and domains distribution. Transcript abundance or expression values were measured for all NBS-LRR genes and defense response transcription factors, suggesting their functional role. The current study provides a repertoire of NBS-LRR genes and transcription factors which can be used in not only dissecting the molecular basis of disease resistance phenotype but also in developing disease resistant genotypes in Jatropha and Castor bean through transgenic or molecular breeding approaches.

Finding the elusive substellar members of young moving groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aller, Kimberly Mei

Young moving groups (YMGs) consist of coeval, comoving stars, with ages between 10-100Myrs, that have migrated from their origins after formation. They provide a valuable link between ongoing star formation in molecular clouds (˜1Myr) and old field stars (≥1Gyr). However, previous searches based on optical surveys such as Hipparcos and the Palomar Sky Survey were insensitive to these very faint cool dwarfs. More recent surveys with GALEX have begun to reveal the nearby (<25 pc) low-mass members (≥ 0.1 M solar massses) but the cool, substellar members have remained elusive. We have increased the search volume by a factor of ˜10 using a novel combination of photometry and proper motions from Pan-STARRS, WISE, and 2MASS in order to uncover the missing substellar members down to ≥ 00.1 M solar massses (at 10Myr). We have obtained NIR low-resolution spectroscopy and confirmed the youth of 65 new ultracool dwarf YMG candidates. We also obtained high-resolution NIR spectroscopy to determine radial velocities for our young brown dwarfs. With our RVs and PS1 parallaxes, we have nearly doubled the number of confirmed bona fide substellar YMG members, which are also brown dwarf age benchmarks. Our new young brown dwarfs empirically define the substellar spectral evolution with age and provide us with a snapshot of brown dwarf evolution. Finally, our resulting young brown dwarfs will be valuable targets for future surveys of brown dwarf binarity and young exoplanet characterization.

Realism and Effectiveness of Robotic Moving Targets

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-01

scenario or be manually controlled . The targets can communicate with other nearby targets, which means they can move independently, as a group , or...present a realistic three- dimensional human-sized target that can freely move with semi-autonomous control . The U.S. Army Research Institute for...Procedure: Performance and survey data were collected during multiple training exercises from Soldiers who engaged the RHTTs. Different groups

Acute toxicity study of tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil-solid lipid nanoparticles.

PubMed

Xie, Shuyu; Wang, Fenghua; Wang, Yan; Zhu, Luyan; Dong, Zhao; Wang, Xiaofang; Li, Xihe; Zhou, Wenzhong

2011-11-20

Our previous studies demonstrated that tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil solid lipid nanoparticles (Til-HCO-SLN) are a promising formulation for enhanced pharmacological activity and therapeutic efficacy in veterinary use. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the acute toxicity of Til-HCO-SLN. Two nanoparticle doses were used for the study in ICR mice. The low dose (766 mg/kg.bw) with tilmicosin 7.5 times of the clinic dosage and below the median lethal dose (LD(50)) was subcutaneously administered twice on the first and 7th day. The single high dose (5 g/kg.bw) was the practical upper limit in an acute toxicity study and was administered subcutaneously on the first day. Blank HCO-SLN, native tilmicosin, and saline solution were included as controls. After medication, animals were monitored over 14 days, and then necropsied. Signs of toxicity were evaluated via mortality, symptoms of treatment effect, gross and microscopic pathology, and hematologic and biochemical parameters. After administration of native tilmicosin, all mice died within 2 h in the high dose group, in the low dose group 3 died after the first and 2 died after the second injections. The surviving mice in the tilmicosin low dose group showed hypoactivity, accelerated breath, gloomy spirit and lethargy. In contrast, all mice in Til-HCO-SLN and blank HCO-SLN groups survived at both low and high doses. The high nanoparticle dose induced transient clinical symptoms of treatment effect such as transient reversible action retardation, anorexy and gloomy spirit, increased spleen and liver coefficients and decreased heart coefficients, microscopic pathological changes of liver, spleen and heart, and minor changes in hematologic and biochemical parameters, but no adverse effects were observed in the nanoparticle low dose group. The results revealed that the LD50 of Til-HCO-SLN and blank HCO-SLN exceeded 5 g/kg.bw and thus the nanoparticles are considered low toxic according to the toxicity

Acute toxicity study of tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil-solid lipid nanoparticles

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Our previous studies demonstrated that tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil solid lipid nanoparticles (Til-HCO-SLN) are a promising formulation for enhanced pharmacological activity and therapeutic efficacy in veterinary use. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the acute toxicity of Til-HCO-SLN. Methods Two nanoparticle doses were used for the study in ICR mice. The low dose (766 mg/kg.bw) with tilmicosin 7.5 times of the clinic dosage and below the median lethal dose (LD50) was subcutaneously administered twice on the first and 7th day. The single high dose (5 g/kg.bw) was the practical upper limit in an acute toxicity study and was administered subcutaneously on the first day. Blank HCO-SLN, native tilmicosin, and saline solution were included as controls. After medication, animals were monitored over 14 days, and then necropsied. Signs of toxicity were evaluated via mortality, symptoms of treatment effect, gross and microscopic pathology, and hematologic and biochemical parameters. Results After administration of native tilmicosin, all mice died within 2 h in the high dose group, in the low dose group 3 died after the first and 2 died after the second injections. The surviving mice in the tilmicosin low dose group showed hypoactivity, accelerated breath, gloomy spirit and lethargy. In contrast, all mice in Til-HCO-SLN and blank HCO-SLN groups survived at both low and high doses. The high nanoparticle dose induced transient clinical symptoms of treatment effect such as transient reversible action retardation, anorexy and gloomy spirit, increased spleen and liver coefficients and decreased heart coefficients, microscopic pathological changes of liver, spleen and heart, and minor changes in hematologic and biochemical parameters, but no adverse effects were observed in the nanoparticle low dose group. Conclusions The results revealed that the LD50 of Til-HCO-SLN and blank HCO-SLN exceeded 5 g/kg.bw and thus the nanoparticles are considered low

Reaching the boundary between stellar kinematic groups and very wide binaries. III. Sixteen new stars and eight new wide systems in the β Pictoris moving group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alonso-Floriano, F. J.; Caballero, J. A.; Cortés-Contreras, M.; Solano, E.; Montes, D.

2015-11-01

Aims: We look for common proper motion companions to stars of the nearby young β Pictoris moving group. Methods: First, we compiled a list of 185 β Pictoris members and candidate members from 35 representative works. Next, we used the Aladin and STILTS virtual observatory tools and the PPMXL proper motion and Washington Double Star catalogues to look for companion candidates. The resulting potential companions were subjects of a dedicated astro-photometric follow-up using public data from all-sky surveys. After discarding 67 sources by proper motion and 31 by colour-magnitude diagrams, we obtained a final list of 36 common proper motion systems. The binding energy of two of them is perhaps too small to be considered physically bound. Results: Of the 36 pairs and multiple systems, eight are new, 16 have only one stellar component previously classified as a β Pictoris member, and three have secondaries at or below the hydrogen-burning limit. Sixteen stars are reported here for the first time as moving group members. The unexpected large number of high-order multiple systems, 12 triples and two quadruples among 36 systems, may suggest a biased list of members towards close binaries or an increment of the high-order-multiple fraction for very wide systems.

Crowd of individuals walking in opposite directions. A toy model to study the segregation of the group into lanes of individuals moving in the same direction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldsztein, Guillermo H.

2017-08-01

Consider a corridor, street or bridge crowded with pedestrians walking in both directions. The individuals do not walk in a completely straight line. They adjust their path to avoid colliding with incoming pedestrians. As a result of these adjustments, the whole group sometimes end up split into lanes of individuals moving in the same direction. While this formation of lanes facilitates the flow and benefits the whole group, it is believed that results from the actions of the individuals acting only on their behalf, without considering others. This phenomenon is an example of self-organization. We analyze a simple model. We assume that individuals move around a two-lane circular track. All of them at the same speed. Half of them in one direction and the rest in the opposite direction. Each time two individuals collide, one of them moves to the other lane. The individual changing lanes is selected randomly. The system self-organizes. Eventually each lane is occupied with individuals moving in only one direction. We show that the time required for the system to self-organize is bounded by a linear function on the number of individuals. This toy model provides an example where global self-organization occurs even though each member of the group acts without considering the rest.

The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) is apparently not a host to blood parasites in Norway.

PubMed

Cross, Hannah B; Campbell-Palmer, Róisín; Girling, Simon; Rosell, Frank

2012-11-23

Parasites can alter the physiology and behaviour of host species and negatively impact on their fitness thus affecting population densities. This is the first investigation into the presence of blood parasites in the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber); a species that has been the subject of many translocation and reintroduction programmes. Two hundred and seventy blood slides prepared from the blood of 27 beavers from southern Norway were microscopically analysed for the presence of blood parasites. This study reports an absence of blood parasites in the Norwegian Eurasian beavers sampled. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A New M Dwarf Debris Disk Candidate in a Young Moving Group Discovered with Disk Detective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Silverberg, Steven M.; Kuchner, Marc J.; Wisniewski, John P.; Gagne, Jonathan; Bans, Alissa S.; Bhattacharjee, Shambo; Currie, Thayne R.; Debes, John R.; Biggs, Joseph R; Bosch, Milton

2016-01-01

We used the Disk Detective citizen science project and the BANYAN II Bayesian analysis tool to identify a new candidate member of a nearby young association with infrared excess. WISE J080822.18-644357.3, an M5.5-type debris disk system with significant excess at both 12 and 22 microns, is a likely member (approx.90% BANYAN II probability) of the approx.45 Myr old Carina association. Since this would be the oldest M dwarf debris disk detected in a moving group, this discovery could be an important constraint on our understanding of M dwarf debris disk evolution.

Estimates of underwater and aerial visual acuity in the European beaver Castor fiber L. based on morphological data.

PubMed

Mass, A M; Supin, A Ya

2017-03-01

The eye optics and topographic distribution of ganglion cells were studied using whole mount preparations from European beaver Castor fiber L. The beaver eye optics provides emmetropia in air and hypermetropia in water. The optometrical measurements predict retinal resolution of the beaver eye around 17' in air and 9' in water. In air, retinal resolution corresponds to the real visual acuity, whereas in water, visual acuity is below the retinal resolution because of the non-precise focusing.

Moving into green healthy housing.

PubMed

Jacobs, David E; Ahonen, Emily; Dixon, Sherry L; Dorevitch, Samuel; Breysse, Jill; Smith, Janet; Evens, Anne; Dobrez, Doborah; Isaacson, Marjie; Murphy, Colin; Conroy, Lorraine; Levavi, Peter

2015-01-01

Green building systems have proliferated but health outcomes and associated costs and benefits remain poorly understood. To compare health before and after families moved into new green healthy housing with a control group in traditionally repaired housing. Mixed methods study in 3 Chicago housing developments. Public housing and low-income subsidized households (n = 325 apartments with 803 individuals). Self-reported health status, visual assessment of housing condition, indoor air sampling, and Medicaid expenditure and diagnostic data. Medicaid expenditures and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes were modeled using a generalized linear model with γ distribution and log-link. Housing conditions and self-reported physical and mental health improved significantly in the green healthy housing study group compared with both the control group and the dilapidated public housing from which the residents moved, as did hay fever, headaches, sinusitis, angina, and respiratory allergy. Asthma severity measured by self-reported lost school/work days, disturbed sleep, and symptoms improved significantly, as did sadness, nervousness, restlessness, and child behavior. Medicaid data in this exploratory study were inconclusive and inconsistent with self-reported health outcomes and visual assessment data on housing quality but hold promise for future investigation. Possible sources of bias in the Medicaid data include older age in the study group, changes in Medicaid eligibility over time, controlling for Medicaid costs in an urban area, and the increased stress associated with moving, even if the move is into better housing. The mixed method approach employed here describes the complex relationships among self-reported health, housing conditions, environmental measures, and clinical data. Housing conditions and self-reported physical and mental health improved in green healthy housing. Health care cost savings in Medicaid due to improved housing could

Differential Adhesion between Moving Particles as a Mechanism for the Evolution of Social Groups

PubMed Central

Garcia, Thomas; Brunnet, Leonardo Gregory; De Monte, Silvia

2014-01-01

The evolutionary stability of cooperative traits, that are beneficial to other individuals but costly to their carrier, is considered possible only through the establishment of a sufficient degree of assortment between cooperators. Chimeric microbial populations, characterized by simple interactions between unrelated individuals, restrain the applicability of standard mechanisms generating such assortment, in particular when cells disperse between successive reproductive events such as happens in Dicyostelids and Myxobacteria. In this paper, we address the evolutionary dynamics of a costly trait that enhances attachment to others as well as group cohesion. By modeling cells as self-propelled particles moving on a plane according to local interaction forces and undergoing cycles of aggregation, reproduction and dispersal, we show that blind differential adhesion provides a basis for assortment in the process of group formation. When reproductive performance depends on the social context of players, evolution by natural selection can lead to the success of the social trait, and to the concomitant emergence of sizeable groups. We point out the conditions on the microscopic properties of motion and interaction that make such evolutionary outcome possible, stressing that the advent of sociality by differential adhesion is restricted to specific ecological contexts. Moreover, we show that the aggregation process naturally implies the existence of non-aggregated particles, and highlight their crucial evolutionary role despite being largely neglected in theoretical models for the evolution of sociality. PMID:24586133

The hypothesis of the local supercloud and the nearby moving groups of stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olano, C. A.

2016-06-01

The velocity distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood can be globally characterized by the presence of two stellar streams (I and II). Stream I contains kinematic substructures, named moving groups of stars, such us the Pleiades and Hyades groups. While Stream II is essentially associated with the Sirius group. The origin and nature of these two stellar streams are still not completely clear. We propose that Streams I and II were gravitationally linked to an old gas supercloud that was disintegrated in parts that formed new subsystems, viz., the Orion arm and Gould's belt. On the basis of this idea, we constructed a dynamical model of the supercloud in order to explain the kinematic and structural characteristics of the local system of gas and stars. For the study of the relative orbits of the two stellar streams with respect to the supercloud's centre and of the Galactic orbit of the supercloud, we developed appropriate epicyclic motion equations. The results of the model indicate the possibility that about 75-100 Myr ago the supercloud crossed the Perseus arm and as a consequence was strongly braked. Besides, around 60 Myr ago, the position of the supercloud coincided approximately with that of the Big Dent, a huge depression of the Galactic disc. We suggest that the cause that originated the Big Dent could be the same that perturbed the supercloud starting the formation of the Orion arm and Gould's belt. In this context, we derived the theoretical distributions of positions and velocities for the stars of Streams I and II.

Potential of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) for phytoremediation of mine tailings and oil production.

PubMed

Ruiz Olivares, Alejandro; Carrillo-González, Rogelio; González-Chávez, Ma del Carmen A; Soto Hernández, Ramón Marcos

2013-01-15

Bioenergy production combined with phytoremediation has been suggested to help in solving two critical world problems: the gradual reduction of fossil fuels and soil contamination. The aim of this research was to investigate the potential for the use of Ricinus communis L. (castor oil plant) as an energy crop and plant species to remediate metal-polluted sites. This study was performed in mine tailings containing high concentrations of Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb and Cd. Physico-chemical characterization, total, DTPA-extractable and water-soluble metals in rhizospheric tailings heap samples were carried. Metal concentrations in plant tissues and translocation factors (TFs) were also determined. The Ricinus seed-oil content was high between 41 and 64%, seeds from San Francisco site 6 had the highest oil content, while these from site 7 had the lowest. No trend between oil yield vs seed origin site was observed. Seed-oil content was negatively correlated with root concentration of Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd, but no correlation was observed with the extractable-metals. According to its shoot metal concentrations and TFs, castor bean is not a metal accumulator plant. This primary colonizing plant is well suited to cope with the local toxic conditions and can be useful for the stabilization of these residues, and for then decreasing metal bioavailability, dispersion and human health risks on these barren tailings heaps and in the surrounding area. Our work is the first report regarding combined oil production and a phytostabilization role for Ricinus plants in metal mine tailings and may give a new value to suitable metal-polluted areas. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of MgO on Performance and Emissions of DI Engine using blends of Castor oil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganesan, S.; Padmanabhan, s.; Senthil kumar, J.; Polina, Navakanth; Krishna kumar, Sanivada

2017-05-01

With the technological development, the research over alternate fuels is increasing day by day in order to help the upcoming generation with a bright and greener future. In order to preserve the existing petroleum resources for future generation, it is necessary to soon switch to any alternate source which is easily available, renewable as well as environment friendly. In this paper I would like to highlight upon the usage of Diesel, Castor Oil and Nano Particles for a compression ignition engine and study the emission characteristics of this fuel at different mixing ratios and analyze the different levels of residue particles.

Effects of reintroduced beaver (Castor canadensis) on riparian bird community structure along the upper San Pedro River, southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Glenn E.; van Riper, Charles

2014-01-01

Chapter 1.—We measured bird abundance and richness along the upper San Pedro River in 2005 and 2006, in order to document how beavers (Castor canadensis) may act as ecosystem engineers after their reintroduction to a desert riparian area in the Southwestern United States. In areas where beavers colonized, we found higher bird abundance and richness of bird groups, such as all breeding birds, insectivorous birds, and riparian specialists, and higher relative abundance of many individual species—including several avian species of conservation concern. Chapter 2.—We conducted bird surveys in riparian areas along the upper San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona (United States) and northern Sonora (Mexico) in order to describe factors influencing bird community dynamics and the distribution and abundance of species, particularly those of conservation concern. These surveys were also used to document the effects of the ecosystem-altering activities of a recently reintroduced beavers (Castor canadensis). Chapter 3.—We reviewed Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) nest records and investigated the potential for future breeding along the upper San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona, where in July 2005 we encountered the southernmost verifiable nest attempt for the species. Continued conservation and management of the area’s riparian vegetation and surface water has potential to contribute additional breeding sites for this endangered Willow Flycatcher subspecies. Given the nest record along the upper San Pedro River and the presence of high-density breeding sites to the north, the native cottonwood-willow forests of the upper San Pedro River could become increasingly important to E. t. extimus recovery, especially considering the anticipated effect of the tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda carinulata) on riparian habitat north of the region.

Bayesian Integration of Isotope Ratio for Geographic Sourcing of Castor Beans

PubMed Central

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo; Kreuzer, Helen; Hart, Garret; Ehleringer, James; West, Jason; Gill, Gary; Duckworth, Douglas

2012-01-01

Recent years have seen an increase in the forensic interest associated with the poison ricin, which is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis plant. Both light element (C, N, O, and H) and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios have previously been used to associate organic material with geographic regions of origin. We present a Bayesian integration methodology that can more accurately predict the region of origin for a castor bean than individual models developed independently for light element stable isotopes or Sr isotope ratios. Our results demonstrate a clear improvement in the ability to correctly classify regions based on the integrated model with a class accuracy of 60.9 ± 2.1% versus 55.9 ± 2.1% and 40.2 ± 1.8% for the light element and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios, respectively. In addition, we show graphically the strengths and weaknesses of each dataset in respect to class prediction and how the integration of these datasets strengthens the overall model. PMID:22919270

Group solution for unsteady free-convection flow from a vertical moving plate subjected to constant heat flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kassem, M.

2006-03-01

The problem of heat and mass transfer in an unsteady free-convection flow over a continuous moving vertical sheet in an ambient fluid is investigated for constant heat flux using the group theoretical method. The nonlinear coupled partial differential equation governing the flow and the boundary conditions are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. The obtained ordinary differential equations are solved numerically using the shooting method. The effect of Prandlt number on the velocity and temperature of the boundary-layer is plotted in curves. A comparison with previous work is presented.

Moving Hands, Moving Entities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setti, Annalisa; Borghi, Anna M.; Tessari, Alessia

2009-01-01

In this study we investigated with a priming paradigm whether uni and bimanual actions presented as primes differently affected language processing. Animals' (self-moving entities) and plants' (not self-moving entities) names were used as targets. As prime we used grasping hands, presented both as static images and videos. The results showed an…

Bio-aviation fuel production from hydroprocessing castor oil promoted by the nickel-based bifunctional catalysts.

PubMed

Liu, Siyang; Zhu, Qingqing; Guan, Qingxin; He, Liangnian; Li, Wei

2015-05-01

Bio-aviation fuel was firstly synthesized by hydroprocessing castor oil in a continuous-flow fixed-bed microreactor with the main objective to obtain the high yield of aviation fuel and determine the elemental compositions of the product phases as well as the reaction mechanism. Highest aviation range alkane yields (91.6 wt%) were achieved with high isomer/n-alkane ratio (i/n) 4.4-7.2 over Ni supported on acidic zeolites. In addition, different fuel range alkanes can be obtained by adjusting the degree of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and hydrocracking. And the observations are rationalized by a set of reaction pathways for the various product phases. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The performance of the CASTOR calorimeter during LHC Run 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van de Klundert, Merijn H. F.; CMS Collaboration

2017-11-01

CASTOR is an electromagnetic and hadronic tungsten-quartz sampling Cerenkov calorimeter located at the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The detector has pseudorapidity borders at -5.2 and -6.6. An overview is presented on the various aspects of CASTOR’s performance and their relations during LHC Run 2. The equalisation of CASTOR’s channels is performed using beam-halo muons. Thereafter, CASTOR’s pedestal spectrum is studied. It is shown that noise estimates which are extracted using a fit, give on average a 10% lower threshold than statistical estimates. Gain correction factors, which are needed for the intercalibration, are obtained using a statistical, in-situ applicable method. The results of this method are shown to be reasonably consistent with laboratory measurements. Penultimately the absolute calibration is discussed, with emphasis on the relation between the scale uncertainty and CASTOR’s alignment. It is shown that the alignment’s contribution to the systematic uncertainty is decreased by over 50% in LHC Run 2 w.r.t. LHC Run 1. Finally generalisations of the conclusions to other subsystems and future improvements are discussed.

Bayesian Integration of Isotope Ratio for Geographic Sourcing of Castor Beans

DOE PAGES

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo; Kreuzer, Helen; Hart, Garret; ...

2012-01-01

Recenmore » t years have seen an increase in the forensic interest associated with the poison ricin, which is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis plant. Both light element (C, N, O, and H) and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios have previously been used to associate organic material with geographic regions of origin. We present a Bayesian integration methodology that can more accurately predict the region of origin for a castor bean than individual models developed independently for light element stable isotopes or Sr isotope ratios. Our results demonstrate a clear improvement in the ability to correctly classify regions based on the integrated model with a class accuracy of 60.9 ± 2.1 % versus 55.9 ± 2.1 % and 40.2 ± 1.8 % for the light element and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios, respectively. In addition, we show graphically the strengths and weaknesses of each dataset in respect to class prediction and how the integration of these datasets strengthens the overall model.« less

Bayesian Integration of Isotope Ratios for Geographic Sourcing of Castor Beans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo M.; Kreuzer, Helen W.; Hart, Garret L.

Recent years have seen an increase in the forensic interest associated with the poison ricin, which is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis plant. Both light element (C, N, O, and H) and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios have previously been used to associate organic material with geographic regions of origin. We present a Bayesian integration methodology that can more accurately predict the region of origin for a castor bean than individual models developed independently for light element stable isotopes or Sr isotope ratios. Our results demonstrate a clear improvement in the ability to correctly classify regions based onmore » the integrated model with a class accuracy of 6 0 . 9 {+-} 2 . 1 % versus 5 5 . 9 {+-} 2 . 1 % and 4 0 . 2 {+-} 1 . 8 % for the light element and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios, respectively. In addition, we show graphically the strengths and weaknesses of each dataset in respect to class prediction and how the integration of these datasets strengthens the overall model.« less

Bayesian Integration of Isotope Ratio for Geographic Sourcing of Castor Beans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo; Kreuzer, Helen; Hart, Garret

Recenmore » t years have seen an increase in the forensic interest associated with the poison ricin, which is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis plant. Both light element (C, N, O, and H) and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios have previously been used to associate organic material with geographic regions of origin. We present a Bayesian integration methodology that can more accurately predict the region of origin for a castor bean than individual models developed independently for light element stable isotopes or Sr isotope ratios. Our results demonstrate a clear improvement in the ability to correctly classify regions based on the integrated model with a class accuracy of 60.9 ± 2.1 % versus 55.9 ± 2.1 % and 40.2 ± 1.8 % for the light element and strontium (Sr) isotope ratios, respectively. In addition, we show graphically the strengths and weaknesses of each dataset in respect to class prediction and how the integration of these datasets strengthens the overall model.« less

Do transmitters affect survival and body condition of American beavers Castor canadensis?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Joshua B.; Windels, Steve K.; Wolf, Tiffany; Klaver, Robert W.; Belant, Jerrold L.

2016-01-01

One key assumption often inferred with using radio-equipped individuals is that the transmitter has no effect on the metric of interest. To evaluate this assumption, we used a known fate model to assess the effect of transmitter type (i.e. tail-mounted or peritoneal implant) on short-term (one year) survival and a joint live—dead recovery model and results from a mark—recapture study to compare long-term (eight years) survival and body condition of ear-tagged only American beavers Castor canadensis to those equipped with radio transmitters in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA. Short-term (1-year) survival was not influenced by transmitter type (wi = 0.64). Over the 8-year study period, annual survival was similar between transmitter-equipped beavers (tail-mounted and implant transmitters combined; 0.76; 95% CI = 0.45–0.91) versus ear-tagged only (0.78; 95% CI = 0.45–0.93). Additionally, we found no difference in weight gain (t9 = 0.25, p = 0.80) or tail area (t11 = 1.25, p = 0.24) from spring to summer between the two groups. In contrast, winter weight loss (t22 = - 2.03, p = 0.05) and tail area decrease (t30 = - 3.04, p = 0.01) was greater for transmitterequipped (weight = - 3.09 kg, SE = 0.55; tail area = - 33.71 cm2, SE = 4.80) than ear-tagged only (weight = - 1.80 kg, SE = 0.33; tail area = - 12.38 cm2, SE = 5.13) beavers. Our results generally support the continued use of transmitters on beavers for estimating demographic parameters, although we recommend additional assessments of transmitter effects under different environmental conditions.

Young, active radio stars in the AB Doradus moving group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azulay, R.; Guirado, J. C.; Marcaide, J. M.; Martí-Vidal, I.; Ros, E.; Tognelli, E.; Hormuth, F.; Ortiz, J. L.

2017-06-01

Context. Precise determination of stellar masses is necessary to test the validity of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stellar evolutionary models, whose predictions are in disagreement with measurements for masses below 1.2 M⊙. To improve such a test, and based on our previous studies, we selected the AB Doradus moving group (AB Dor-MG) as the best-suited association on which to apply radio-based high-precision astrometric techniques to study binary systems. Aims: We seek to determine precise estimates of the masses of a set of stars belonging to the AB Dor-MG using radio and infrared observations. Methods: We observed in phase-reference mode with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 5 GHz and with the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 8.4 GHz the stars HD 160934, EK Dra, PW And, and LO Peg. We also observed some of these stars with the near-infrared CCD AstraLux camera at the Calar Alto observatory to complement the radio observations. Results: We determine model-independent dynamical masses of both components of the star HD 160934, A and c, which are 0.70 ± 0.07 M⊙ and 0.45 ± 0.04 M⊙, respectively. We revised the orbital parameters of EK Dra and we determine a sum of the masses of the system of 1.38 ± 0.08 M⊙. We also explored the binarity of the stars LO Peg and PW And. Conclusions: We found observational evidence that PMS evolutionary models underpredict the mass of PMS stars by 10%-40%, as previously reported by other authors. We also inferred that the origin of the radio emission must be similar in all observed stars, that is, extreme magnetic activity of the stellar corona that triggers gyrosynchrotron emission from non-thermal, accelerated electrons.

Streamlining CASTOR to manage the LHC data torrent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo Presti, G.; Espinal Curull, X.; Cano, E.; Fiorini, B.; Ieri, A.; Murray, S.; Ponce, S.; Sindrilaru, E.

2014-06-01

This contribution describes the evolution of the main CERN storage system, CASTOR, as it manages the bulk data stream of the LHC and other CERN experiments, achieving over 90 PB of stored data by the end of LHC Run 1. This evolution was marked by the introduction of policies to optimize the tape sub-system throughput, going towards a cold storage system where data placement is managed by the experiments' production managers. More efficient tape migrations and recalls have been implemented and deployed where bulk meta-data operations greatly reduce the overhead due to small files. A repack facility is now integrated in the system and it has been enhanced in order to automate the repacking of several tens of petabytes, required in 2014 in order to prepare for the next LHC run. Finally the scheduling system has been evolved to integrate the internal monitoring. To efficiently manage the service a solid monitoring infrastructure is required, able to analyze the logs produced by the different components (about 1 kHz of log messages). A new system has been developed and deployed, which uses a transport messaging layer provided by the CERN-IT Agile Infrastructure and exploits technologies including Hadoop and HBase. This enables efficient data mining by making use of MapReduce techniques, and real-time data aggregation and visualization. The outlook for the future is also presented. Directions and possible evolution will be discussed in view of the restart of data taking activities.

Adsorption properties of cationic rhodamine B dye onto metals chloride-activated castor bean residue carbons.

PubMed

Zhi, Lee Lin; Zaini, Muhammad Abbas Ahmad

2017-02-01

This work was aimed to evaluate the feasibility of castor bean residue based activated carbons prepared through metals chloride activation. The activated carbons were characterized for textural properties and surface chemistry, and the adsorption data of rhodamine B were established to investigate the removal performance. Zinc chloride-activated carbon with specific surface area of 395 m 2 /g displayed a higher adsorption capacity of 175 mg/g. Magnesium chloride and iron(III) chloride are less toxic and promising agents for composite chemical activation. The adsorption data obeyed Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics model. The rate-limiting step in the adsorption of rhodamine B is film diffusion. The positive values of enthalpy and entropy indicate that the adsorption is endothermic and spontaneous at high temperature.

PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS (PALMS). V. AGE-DATING LOW-MASS COMPANIONS TO MEMBERS AND INTERLOPERS OF YOUNG MOVING GROUPS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bowler, Brendan P.; Montet, Benjamin T.; Riddle, Reed

2015-06-10

We present optical and near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging and spectroscopy of 13 ultracool (>M6) companions to late-type stars (K7–M4.5), most of which have recently been identified as candidate members of nearby young moving groups (YMGs; 8–120 Myr) in the literature. Three of these are new companions identified in our AO imaging survey, and two others are confirmed to be comoving with their host stars for the first time. The inferred masses of the companions (∼10–100 M{sub Jup}) are highly sensitive to the ages of the primary stars; therefore we critically examine the kinematic and spectroscopic properties of each systemmore » to distinguish bona fide YMG members from old field interlopers. The new M7 substellar companion 2MASS J02155892–0929121 C (40–60 M{sub Jup}) shows clear spectroscopic signs of low gravity and, hence, youth. The primary, possibly a member of the ∼40 Myr Tuc-Hor moving group, is visually resolved into three components, making it a young low-mass quadruple system in a compact (≲100 AU) configuration. In addition, Li i λ6708 absorption in the intermediate-gravity M7.5 companion 2MASS J15594729+4403595 B provides unambiguous evidence that it is young (≲200 Myr) and resides below the hydrogen-burning limit. Three new close-separation (<1″) companions (2MASS J06475229–2523304 B, PYC J11519+0731 B, and GJ 4378 Ab) orbit stars previously reported as candidate YMG members, but instead are likely old (≳1 Gyr) tidally locked spectroscopic binaries without convincing kinematic associations with any known moving group. The high rate of false positives in the form of old active stars with YMG-like kinematics underscores the importance of radial velocity and parallax measurements to validate candidate young stars identified via proper motion and activity selection alone. Finally, we spectroscopically confirm the cool temperature and substellar nature of HD 23514 B, a recently discovered M8 benchmark brown dwarf orbiting

Planets Around Low-mass Stars (PALMS). V. Age-dating Low-mass Companions to Members and Interlopers of Young Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowler, Brendan P.; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Liu, Michael C.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Mann, Andrew W.; Dupuy, Trent J.; Hinkley, Sasha; Crepp, Justin R.; Johnson, John Asher; Howard, Andrew W.; Flagg, Laura; Weinberger, Alycia J.; Aller, Kimberly M.; Allers, Katelyn N.; Best, William M. J.; Kotson, Michael C.; Montet, Benjamin T.; Herczeg, Gregory J.; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed; Law, Nicholas M.; Nielsen, Eric L.; Wahhaj, Zahed; Biller, Beth A.; Hayward, Thomas L.

2015-06-01

We present optical and near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging and spectroscopy of 13 ultracool (>M6) companions to late-type stars (K7-M4.5), most of which have recently been identified as candidate members of nearby young moving groups (YMGs; 8-120 Myr) in the literature. Three of these are new companions identified in our AO imaging survey, and two others are confirmed to be comoving with their host stars for the first time. The inferred masses of the companions (˜10-100 MJup) are highly sensitive to the ages of the primary stars; therefore we critically examine the kinematic and spectroscopic properties of each system to distinguish bona fide YMG members from old field interlopers. The new M7 substellar companion 2MASS J02155892-0929121 C (40-60 MJup) shows clear spectroscopic signs of low gravity and, hence, youth. The primary, possibly a member of the ˜40 Myr Tuc-Hor moving group, is visually resolved into three components, making it a young low-mass quadruple system in a compact (≲100 AU) configuration. In addition, Li i λ6708 absorption in the intermediate-gravity M7.5 companion 2MASS J15594729+4403595 B provides unambiguous evidence that it is young (≲200 Myr) and resides below the hydrogen-burning limit. Three new close-separation (<1″) companions (2MASS J06475229-2523304 B, PYC J11519+0731 B, and GJ 4378 Ab) orbit stars previously reported as candidate YMG members, but instead are likely old (≳1 Gyr) tidally locked spectroscopic binaries without convincing kinematic associations with any known moving group. The high rate of false positives in the form of old active stars with YMG-like kinematics underscores the importance of radial velocity and parallax measurements to validate candidate young stars identified via proper motion and activity selection alone. Finally, we spectroscopically confirm the cool temperature and substellar nature of HD 23514 B, a recently discovered M8 benchmark brown dwarf orbiting the dustiest-known member of the

Beaver (Castor canadensis) in heavily browsed environments

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baker, Bruce W.

2003-01-01

Beaver (Castor canadensis) populations have declined or failed to recover in heavily browsed environments. I suggest that intense browsing by livestock or ungulates can disrupt beaver-willow (Salix spp.) mutualisms that likely evolved under relatively low herbivory in a more predator-rich environment, and that this interaction may explain beaver and willow declines. Field experiments in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA, found the interaction of beaver and elk (Cervus elaphus) herbivory suppressed compensatory growth in willow. Intense elk browsing of simulated beaver-cut willow produced plants which were small and hedged with a high percentage of dead stems, whereas protected plants were large and highly branched with a low percentage of dead stems. Evaluation of a winter food cache showed beaver had selected woody stems with a lower percentage of leaders browsed by elk. A lack of willow stems suitable as winter beaver food may cause beaver populations to decline, creating a negative feedback mechanism for beaver and willow. In contrast, if browsing by livestock or ungulates can be controlled, and beaver can disperse from a nearby source population, then beaver may build dams in marginal habitat which will benefit willow and cause a positive riparian response that restores proper function to degraded habitat. In a shrub-steppe riparian ecosystem of northwestern Colorado, USA, rest from overgrazing of livestock released herbaceous vegetation initiating restoration of a beaver-willow community. Thus, competition from livestock or ungulates can cause beaver and willow to decline and can prevent their restoration in heavily browsed riparian environments, but beaver and willow populations can recover under proper grazing management.

The Ages of A-Stars. I. Interferometric Observations and Age Estimates for Stars in the Ursa Major Moving Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Jeremy; White, R. J.; Boyajian, T.; Schaefer, G.; Baines, E.; Ireland, M.; Patience, J.; ten Brummelaar, T.; McAlister, H.; Ridgway, S. T.; Sturmann, J.; Sturmann, L.; Turner, N.; Farrington, C.; Goldfinger, P. J.

2015-11-01

We have observed and spatially resolved a set of seven A-type stars in the nearby Ursa Major moving group with the Classic, CLIMB, and PAVO beam combiners on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy Array. At least four of these stars have large rotational velocities (v{sin}i ≳ 170 {km} {{{s}}}-1) and are expected to be oblate. These interferometric measurements, the stars’ observed photometric energy distributions, and v{sin}i values are used to computationally construct model oblate stars from which stellar properties (inclination, rotational velocity, and the radius and effective temperature as a function of latitude, etc.) are determined. The results are compared with MESA stellar evolution models to determine masses and ages. The value of this new technique is that it enables the estimation of the fundamental properties of rapidly rotating stars without the need to fully image the star. It can thus be applied to stars with sizes comparable to the interferometric resolution limit as opposed to those that are several times larger than the limit. Under the assumption of coevality, the spread in ages can be used as a test of both the prescription presented here and the MESA evolutionary code for rapidly rotating stars. With our validated technique, we combine these age estimates and determine the age of the moving group to be 414 ± 23 Myr, which is consistent with, but much more precise than previous estimates.

Dog days of summer: Influences on decision of wolves to move pups

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ausband, David E.; Mitchell, Michael S.; Bassing, Sarah B.; Nordhagen, Matthew; Smith, Douglas W.; Stahler, Daniel R.

2016-01-01

For animals that forage widely, protecting young from predation can span relatively long time periods due to the inability of young to travel with and be protected by their parents. Moving relatively immobile young to improve access to important resources, limit detection of concentrated scent by predators, and decrease infestations by ectoparasites can be advantageous. Moving young, however, can also expose them to increased mortality risks (e.g., accidents, getting lost, predation). For group-living animals that live in variable environments and care for young over extended time periods, the influence of biotic factors (e.g., group size, predation risk) and abiotic factors (e.g., temperature and precipitation) on the decision to move young is unknown. We used data from 25 satellite-collared wolves ( Canis lupus ) in Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park to evaluate how these factors could influence the decision to move pups during the pup-rearing season. We hypothesized that litter size, the number of adults in a group, and perceived predation risk would positively affect the number of times gray wolves moved pups. We further hypothesized that wolves would move their pups more often when it was hot and dry to ensure sufficient access to water. Contrary to our hypothesis, monthly temperature above the 30-year average was negatively related to the number of times wolves moved their pups. Monthly precipitation above the 30-year average, however, was positively related to the amount of time wolves spent at pup-rearing sites after leaving the natal den. We found little relationship between risk of predation (by grizzly bears, humans, or conspecifics) or group and litter sizes and number of times wolves moved their pups. Our findings suggest that abiotic factors most strongly influence the decision of wolves to move pups, although responses to unpredictable biotic events (e.g., a predator encountering pups) cannot be ruled out.

Diametral tensile strength and film thickness of an experimental dental luting agent derived from castor oil.

PubMed

Carmello, Juliana Cabrini; Fais, Laiza Maria Grassi; Ribeiro, Lígia Nunes de Moraes; Claro Neto, Salvador; Guaglianoni, Dalton Geraldo; Pinelli, Lígia Antunes Pereira

2012-02-01

The need to develop new dental luting agents in order to improve the success of treatments has greatly motivated research. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diametral tensile strength (DTS) and film thickness (FT) of an experimental dental luting agent derived from castor oil (COP) with or without addition of different quantities of filler (calcium carbonate - CaCO3). Eighty specimens were manufactured (DTS N=40; FT N=40) and divided into 4 groups: Pure COP; COP 10%; COP 50% and zinc phosphate (control). The cements were mixed according to the manufacturers' recommendations and submitted to the tests. The DTS test was performed in the MTS 810 testing machine (10 KN, 0.5 mm/min). For FT test, the cements were sandwiched between two glass plates (2 cm²) and a load of 15 kg was applied vertically on the top of the specimen for 10 min. The data were analyzed by means of one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (α=0.05). The values of DTS (MPa) were: Pure COP- 10.94 ± 1.30; COP 10%- 30.06 ± 0.64; COP 50%- 29.87 ± 0.27; zinc phosphate- 4.88 ± 0.96. The values of FT (µm) were: Pure COP- 31.09 ± 3.16; COP 10%- 17.05 ± 4.83; COP 50%- 13.03 ± 4.83; Zinc Phosphate- 20.00 ± 0.12. One-way ANOVA showed statistically significant differences among the groups (DTS - p=1.01E-40; FT - p=2.4E-10). The experimental dental luting agent with 50% of filler showed the best diametral tensile strength and film thickness.

A single mutation in the castor Delta9-18:0-desaturase changes reaction partitioning from desaturation to oxidase chemistry.

PubMed

Guy, Jodie E; Abreu, Isabel A; Moche, Martin; Lindqvist, Ylva; Whittle, Edward; Shanklin, John

2006-11-14

Sequence analysis of the diiron cluster-containing soluble desaturases suggests they are unrelated to other diiron enzymes; however, structural alignment of the core four-helix bundle of desaturases to other diiron enzymes reveals a conserved iron binding motif with similar spacing in all enzymes of this structural class, implying a common evolutionary ancestry. Detailed structural comparison of the castor desaturase with that of a peroxidase, rubrerythrin, shows remarkable conservation of both identity and geometry of residues surrounding the diiron center, with the exception of residue 199. Position 199 is occupied by a threonine in the castor desaturase, but the equivalent position in rubrerythrin contains a glutamic acid. We previously hypothesized that a carboxylate in this location facilitates oxidase chemistry in rubrerythrin by the close apposition of a residue capable of facilitating proton transfer to the activated oxygen (in a hydrophobic cavity adjacent to the diiron center based on the crystal structure of the oxygen-binding mimic azide). Here we report that desaturase mutant T199D binds substrate but its desaturase activity decreases by approximately 2 x 10(3)-fold. However, it shows a >31-fold increase in peroxide-dependent oxidase activity with respect to WT desaturase, as monitored by single-turnover stopped-flow spectrometry. A 2.65-A crystal structure of T199D reveals active-site geometry remarkably similar to that of rubrerythrin, consistent with its enhanced function as an oxidase enzyme. That a single amino acid substitution can switch reactivity from desaturation to oxidation provides experimental support for the hypothesis that the desaturase evolved from an ancestral oxidase enzyme.

A single mutation in the castor Δ9-18:0-desaturase changes reaction partitioning from desaturation to oxidase chemistry

PubMed Central

Guy, Jodie E.; Abreu, Isabel A.; Moche, Martin; Lindqvist, Ylva; Whittle, Edward; Shanklin, John

2006-01-01

Sequence analysis of the diiron cluster-containing soluble desaturases suggests they are unrelated to other diiron enzymes; however, structural alignment of the core four-helix bundle of desaturases to other diiron enzymes reveals a conserved iron binding motif with similar spacing in all enzymes of this structural class, implying a common evolutionary ancestry. Detailed structural comparison of the castor desaturase with that of a peroxidase, rubrerythrin, shows remarkable conservation of both identity and geometry of residues surrounding the diiron center, with the exception of residue 199. Position 199 is occupied by a threonine in the castor desaturase, but the equivalent position in rubrerythrin contains a glutamic acid. We previously hypothesized that a carboxylate in this location facilitates oxidase chemistry in rubrerythrin by the close apposition of a residue capable of facilitating proton transfer to the activated oxygen (in a hydrophobic cavity adjacent to the diiron center based on the crystal structure of the oxygen-binding mimic azide). Here we report that desaturase mutant T199D binds substrate but its desaturase activity decreases by ≈2 × 103-fold. However, it shows a >31-fold increase in peroxide-dependent oxidase activity with respect to WT desaturase, as monitored by single-turnover stopped-flow spectrometry. A 2.65-Å crystal structure of T199D reveals active-site geometry remarkably similar to that of rubrerythrin, consistent with its enhanced function as an oxidase enzyme. That a single amino acid substitution can switch reactivity from desaturation to oxidation provides experimental support for the hypothesis that the desaturase evolved from an ancestral oxidase enzyme. PMID:17088542

The Effects of Military Change of Station Moves on Spousal Earnings

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-01

within the literature on tied migration, military wives are an ideal “ quasi - experimental group , because such women represent perhaps the ideal typical...moves (one or two years prior to the current year) as part of the control group . Table 5.3 reports results from an extended model that also controls ...for effects of moves one or two years earlier, removing those spouse-year observations from the control group . Among spouses who ever appear in our

Collective conflict resolution in groups on the move

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinkoviezky, Itai; Couzin, Iain D.; Gov, Nir S.

2018-03-01

Collective decision-making regarding direction of travel is observed during natural motion of animal and cellular groups. This phenomenon is exemplified, in the simplest case, by a group that contains two informed subgroups that hold conflicting preferred directions of motion. Under such circumstances, simulations, subsequently supported by experimental data with birds and primates, have demonstrated that the resulting motion is either towards a compromise direction or towards one of the preferred targets (even when the two subgroups are equal in size). However, the nature of this transition is not well understood. We present a theoretical study that combines simulations and a spin model for mobile animal groups, the latter providing an equilibrium representation, and exact solution in the thermodynamic limit. This allows us to identify the nature of this transition at a critical angular difference between the two preferred directions: in both flocking and spin models the transition coincides with the change in the group dynamics from Brownian to persistent collective motion. The groups undergo this transition as the number of uninformed individuals (those in the group that do not exhibit a directional preference) increases, which acts as an inverse of the temperature (noise) of the spin model. When the two informed subgroups are not equal in size, there is a tendency for the group to reach the target preferred by the larger subgroup. We find that the spin model captures effectively the essence of the collective decision-making transition and allows us to reveal a noise-dependent trade-off between the decision-making speed and the ability to achieve majority (democratic) consensus.

Collective conflict resolution in groups on the move.

PubMed

Pinkoviezky, Itai; Couzin, Iain D; Gov, Nir S

2018-03-01

Collective decision-making regarding direction of travel is observed during natural motion of animal and cellular groups. This phenomenon is exemplified, in the simplest case, by a group that contains two informed subgroups that hold conflicting preferred directions of motion. Under such circumstances, simulations, subsequently supported by experimental data with birds and primates, have demonstrated that the resulting motion is either towards a compromise direction or towards one of the preferred targets (even when the two subgroups are equal in size). However, the nature of this transition is not well understood. We present a theoretical study that combines simulations and a spin model for mobile animal groups, the latter providing an equilibrium representation, and exact solution in the thermodynamic limit. This allows us to identify the nature of this transition at a critical angular difference between the two preferred directions: in both flocking and spin models the transition coincides with the change in the group dynamics from Brownian to persistent collective motion. The groups undergo this transition as the number of uninformed individuals (those in the group that do not exhibit a directional preference) increases, which acts as an inverse of the temperature (noise) of the spin model. When the two informed subgroups are not equal in size, there is a tendency for the group to reach the target preferred by the larger subgroup. We find that the spin model captures effectively the essence of the collective decision-making transition and allows us to reveal a noise-dependent trade-off between the decision-making speed and the ability to achieve majority (democratic) consensus.

Determination of fatty acid methyl esters in cosmetic castor oils by flow injection - electrospray ionization - high resolution mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Arroyo Negrete, Missael Antonio; Wrobel, Kazimierz; Acevedo Aguilar, Francisco Javier; Yanez Barrientos, Eunice; Corrales Escobosa, Alma Rosa; Wrobel, Katarzyna

2018-05-09

The goal of this work was to set up a high throughput procedure for the determination of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) in cosmetic castor oils using flow injection - electrospray ionization - high resolution mass spectrometry, and to demonstrate the need of such analysis for the quality control purposes. The sample aliquot was mixed with isooctane:chloroform (1:1) and submitted to transesterification; the obtained FAMEs were appropriately diluted using water:isopropanol:acetonitrile (20:50:30) with addition of sodium formate which served as an internal standard, lock mass calibrant and promoted the formation of sodium adducts during electrospray ionization (ESI). The principle of flow injection analysis (FIA) was applied for sample introduction to an ESI - quadrupole- time of flight mass spectrometer (ESI-QTOFMS). The carrier solution was composed of water:isopropanol:acetonitrile (20:50:30). From the acquired MS data, flowgrams of the extracted [M+Na] + ions were obtained using the following m/z values for individual FAMEs: 293.2451 (C16:0); 315.2295 (C18:3); 317.2451 (C18:2); 319.2608 (C18:1); 321.2764 (C18:0); 335.2557 (C18:1,OH); 349.3077 (C20:0); 377.3390 (C22:0) and m/z 226.9515 for IS. Baseline-subtracted and filtered signals were integrated and the list of peaks intensities was exported to Excel, where calibration functions were obtained and quantification carried out. Gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) was used as an alternative analytical tool. The calibration detection limits for FAMEs of unsaturated fatty acids were in the range 3.61 - 8.62 μg L -1 and for saturated compounds in the range 8.51 - 82.4 μg L -1 . The results obtained for commercial were in good agreement with GC-FID data; among nine cosmetic oils analyzed, three contained low concentrations of ricinoleic acid (C18:1, OH), indicating adulteration of castor bean oil with other vegetable oils. Application of FIA for the sample introduction to ESI-QTOFMS enabled

Moving In, Moving Through, and Moving Out: The Transitional Experiences of Foster Youth College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamez, Sara I.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the transitional experiences of foster youth college students. The study explored how foster youth experienced moving into, moving through, and moving out of the college environment and what resources and strategies they used to thrive during their college transitions. In addition, this study…

Simulations of moving effect of coastal vegetation on tsunami damping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Ching-Piao; Chen, Ying-Chi; Octaviani Sihombing, Tri; Lin, Chang

2017-05-01

A coupled wave-vegetation simulation is presented for the moving effect of the coastal vegetation on tsunami wave height damping. The problem is idealized by solitary wave propagation on a group of emergent cylinders. The numerical model is based on general Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with renormalization group turbulent closure model by using volume of fluid technique. The general moving object (GMO) model developed in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Flow-3D is applied to simulate the coupled motion of vegetation with wave dynamically. The damping of wave height and the turbulent kinetic energy along moving and stationary cylinders are discussed. The simulated results show that the damping of wave height and the turbulent kinetic energy by the moving cylinders are clearly less than by the stationary cylinders. The result implies that the wave decay by the coastal vegetation may be overestimated if the vegetation was represented as stationary state.

MOVES2014a: Latest Version of MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

MOVES2014a is the latest version of MOVES. It incorporates significant improvements in calculating onroad and nonroad equipment emissions. MOVES2014a does not significantly change the criteria pollutant emissions results of MOVES2014.

Antidiarrheal activity of methanolic extract of the root bark of Cordia africana

PubMed Central

Asrie, Assefa Belay; Abdelwuhab, Mohammedbrhan; Shewamene, Zewdneh; Gelayee, Desalegn Asmelashe; Adinew, Getnet Mequanint; Birru, Eshetie Melese

2016-01-01

An ethnobotanical study in Agew-Awi and Amhara peoples in northwest Ethiopia reported that Cordia africana is used traditionally in the treatment of liver disease, amebiasis, stomachache, and diarrhea. The root and root bark are reported to be used in the treatment of diarrhea. Therefore, this study was intended to evaluate the antidiarrheal effect of C. africana against castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice. The antidiarrheal effect of the plant was tested on castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice (23–25 g) of either sex. Number of diarrheic defecations, intestinal length traveled by the charcoal meal, and weight of intestinal fluid were taken as important parameters to evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of the plant extract. In preliminary phytochemical screening tests, the methanolic extract of C. africana was found to contain phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, and saponins. Reduction in the number of diarrheic drops was observed in groups of mice that received 200 mg/kg (P<0.05) and 400 mg/kg (P<0.01) of the extract compared to the negative controls. The percent inhibition of intestinal fluid accumulation was 26.83%, 46.34%, and 53.66% at the doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the extract, respectively. Relative to the negative control group, the mean percent of intestinal length moved by the charcoal meal was decreased by 24.41%, 39.89%, and 51.66% in groups of mice given 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the plant extract, respectively. To iterate the finding, the root bark extract of C. africana was found to be effective in preventing castor oil-induced diarrhea and intestinal motility in a dose-dependent manner. This reveals that the plant material has promising antidiarrheal activity as it is claimed in traditional medical practice. PMID:27799833

Antidiarrheal activity of methanolic extract of the root bark of Cordia africana.

PubMed

Asrie, Assefa Belay; Abdelwuhab, Mohammedbrhan; Shewamene, Zewdneh; Gelayee, Desalegn Asmelashe; Adinew, Getnet Mequanint; Birru, Eshetie Melese

2016-01-01

An ethnobotanical study in Agew-Awi and Amhara peoples in northwest Ethiopia reported that Cordia africana is used traditionally in the treatment of liver disease, amebiasis, stomachache, and diarrhea. The root and root bark are reported to be used in the treatment of diarrhea. Therefore, this study was intended to evaluate the antidiarrheal effect of C. africana against castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice. The antidiarrheal effect of the plant was tested on castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice (23-25 g) of either sex. Number of diarrheic defecations, intestinal length traveled by the charcoal meal, and weight of intestinal fluid were taken as important parameters to evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of the plant extract. In preliminary phytochemical screening tests, the methanolic extract of C. africana was found to contain phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, and saponins. Reduction in the number of diarrheic drops was observed in groups of mice that received 200 mg/kg ( P <0.05) and 400 mg/kg ( P <0.01) of the extract compared to the negative controls. The percent inhibition of intestinal fluid accumulation was 26.83%, 46.34%, and 53.66% at the doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the extract, respectively. Relative to the negative control group, the mean percent of intestinal length moved by the charcoal meal was decreased by 24.41%, 39.89%, and 51.66% in groups of mice given 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the plant extract, respectively. To iterate the finding, the root bark extract of C. africana was found to be effective in preventing castor oil-induced diarrhea and intestinal motility in a dose-dependent manner. This reveals that the plant material has promising antidiarrheal activity as it is claimed in traditional medical practice.

Job Surfing: Move On to Move Up.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Justin

1997-01-01

Looks at the process of switching jobs and changing careers. Discusses when to consider options and make the move as well as the need to be flexible and open minded. Provides a test for determining the chances of promotion and when to move on. (JOW)

Diametral tensile strength and film thickness of an experimental dental luting agent derived from castor oil

PubMed Central

CARMELLO, Juliana Cabrini; FAIS, Laiza Maria Grassi; RIBEIRO, Lígia Nunes de Moraes; CLARO NETO, Salvador; GUAGLIANONI, Dalton Geraldo; PINELLI, Lígia Antunes Pereira

2012-01-01

The need to develop new dental luting agents in order to improve the success of treatments has greatly motivated research. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the diametral tensile strength (DTS) and film thickness (FT) of an experimental dental luting agent derived from castor oil (COP) with or without addition of different quantities of filler (calcium carbonate - CaCO3). Material and Methods Eighty specimens were manufactured (DTS N=40; FT N=40) and divided into 4 groups: Pure COP; COP 10%; COP 50% and zinc phosphate (control). The cements were mixed according to the manufacturers' recommendations and submitted to the tests. The DTS test was performed in the MTS 810 testing machine (10 KN, 0.5 mm/min). For FT test, the cements were sandwiched between two glass plates (2 cm2) and a load of 15 kg was applied vertically on the top of the specimen for 10 min. The data were analyzed by means of one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (α=0.05). Results The values of DTS (MPa) were: Pure COP- 10.94±1.30; COP 10%- 30.06±0.64; COP 50%- 29.87±0.27; zinc phosphate- 4.88±0.96. The values of FT (µm) were: Pure COP- 31.09±3.16; COP 10%- 17.05±4.83; COP 50%- 13.03±4.83; Zinc Phosphate- 20.00±0.12. One-way ANOVA showed statistically significant differences among the groups (DTS - p=1.01E-40; FT - p=2.4E-10). Conclusion The experimental dental luting agent with 50% of filler showed the best diametral tensile strength and film thickness. PMID:22437672

Where and How Wolves (Canis lupus) Kill Beavers (Castor canadensis).

PubMed

Gable, Thomas D; Windels, Steve K; Bruggink, John G; Homkes, Austin T

2016-01-01

Beavers (Castor canadensis) can be a significant prey item for wolves (Canis lupus) in boreal ecosystems due to their abundance and vulnerability on land. How wolves hunt beavers in these systems is largely unknown, however, because observing predation is challenging. We inferred how wolves hunt beavers by identifying kill sites using clusters of locations from GPS-collared wolves in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. We identified 22 sites where wolves from 4 different packs killed beavers. We classified these kill sites into 8 categories based on the beaver-habitat type near which each kill occurred. Seasonal variation existed in types of kill sites as 7 of 12 (58%) kills in the spring occurred at sites below dams and on shorelines, and 8 of 10 (80%) kills in the fall occurred near feeding trails and canals. From these kill sites we deduced that the typical hunting strategy has 3 components: 1) waiting near areas of high beaver use (e.g., feeding trails) until a beaver comes near shore or ashore, 2) using vegetation, the dam, or other habitat features for concealment, and 3) immediately attacking the beaver, or ambushing the beaver by cutting off access to water. By identifying kill sites and inferring hunting behavior we have provided the most complete description available of how and where wolves hunt and kill beavers.

Where and How Wolves (Canis lupus) Kill Beavers (Castor canadensis)

PubMed Central

Gable, Thomas D.; Windels, Steve K.; Bruggink, John G.; Homkes, Austin T.

2016-01-01

Beavers (Castor canadensis) can be a significant prey item for wolves (Canis lupus) in boreal ecosystems due to their abundance and vulnerability on land. How wolves hunt beavers in these systems is largely unknown, however, because observing predation is challenging. We inferred how wolves hunt beavers by identifying kill sites using clusters of locations from GPS-collared wolves in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. We identified 22 sites where wolves from 4 different packs killed beavers. We classified these kill sites into 8 categories based on the beaver-habitat type near which each kill occurred. Seasonal variation existed in types of kill sites as 7 of 12 (58%) kills in the spring occurred at sites below dams and on shorelines, and 8 of 10 (80%) kills in the fall occurred near feeding trails and canals. From these kill sites we deduced that the typical hunting strategy has 3 components: 1) waiting near areas of high beaver use (e.g., feeding trails) until a beaver comes near shore or ashore, 2) using vegetation, the dam, or other habitat features for concealment, and 3) immediately attacking the beaver, or ambushing the beaver by cutting off access to water. By identifying kill sites and inferring hunting behavior we have provided the most complete description available of how and where wolves hunt and kill beavers. PMID:27992441

Control of Photosynthesis and Stomatal Conductance in Ricinus communis L. (Castor Bean) by Leaf to Air Vapor Pressure Deficit 1

PubMed Central

Dai, Ziyu; Edwards, Gerald E.; Ku, Maurice S. B.

1992-01-01

Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) has a high photosynthetic capacity under high humidity and a pronounced sensitivity of photosynthesis to high water vapor pressure deficit (VPD). The sensitivity of photosynthesis to varying VPD was analyzed by measuring CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance (gs), quantum yield of photosystem II (φII), and nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence (qN) under different VPD. Under both medium (1000) and high (1800 micromoles quanta per square meter per second) light intensities, CO2 assimilation decreased as the VPD between the leaf and the air around the leaf increased. The gs initially dropped rapidly with increasing VPD and then showed a slower decrease above a VPD of 10 to 20 millibars. Over a temperature range from 20 to 40°C, CO2 assimilation and gs were inhibited by high VPD (20 millibars). However, the rate of transpiration increased with increasing temperature at either low or high VPD due to an increase in gs. The relative inhibition of photosynthesis under photorespiring (atmospheric levels of CO2 and O2) versus nonphotorespiring (700 microbars CO2 and 2% O2) conditions was greater under high VPD (30 millibars) than under low VPD (3 millibars). Also, with increasing light intensity the relative inhibition of photosynthesis by O2 increased under high VPD, but decreased under low VPD. The effect of high VPD on photosynthesis under various conditions could not be totally accounted for by the decrease in the intercellular CO2 in the leaf (Ci) where Ci was estimated from gas exchange measurements. However, estimates of Ci from measurements of φII and qN suggest that the decrease in photosynthesis and increase in photorespiration under high VPD can be totally accounted for by stomatal closure and a decrease in Ci. The results also suggest that nonuniform closure of stomata may occur in well-watered plants under high VPD, causing overestimates in the calculation of Ci from gas exchange measurements. Under low VPD

Prevalence of Microsporidia, Cryptosporidium spp., and Giardia spp. in beavers (Castor canadensis) in Massachusetts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fayer, R.; Santin, M.; Trout, J.M.; DeStefano, S.; Koenen, K.; Kaur, T.

2006-01-01

Feces from 62 beavers (Castor canadensis) in Massachusetts were examined by fluorescence microscopy (IFA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Microsporidia species, Cryptosporidium spp., and Giardia spp. between January 2002 and December 2004. PCR-positive specimens were further examined by gene sequencing. Protist parasites were detected in 6.4% of the beavers. All were subadults and kits. Microsporidia species were not detected. Giardia spp. was detected by IFA from four beavers; Cryptosporidium spp. was also detected by IFA from two of these beavers. However, gene sequence data for the ssrRNA gene from these two Cryptosporidium spp.-positive beavers were inconclusive in identifying the species. Nucleotide sequences of the TPI, ssrRNA, and ??-giardin genes for Giardia spp. (deposited in GenBank) indicated that the four beavers were excreting Giardia duodenalis Assemblage B, the zoonotic genotype representing a potential source of waterborne Giardia spp. cysts. Copyright 2006 by American Association of Zoo Veterinarians.

Effects of Computer Skill on Mouse Move and Click Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Panagiotakopoulos, Chris; Sarris, Menelaos

2008-01-01

This study focuses on the use of computers in the field of education. It reports a series of experimental mouse move and click tasks on constant and moving stimuli. These experiments attempt to explore the efficiency with which individuals of different skill level and age group perform using a mouse. Differences in performance between high-skill…

Challenges of Moving IPG into Production

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schulbach, Cathy

2004-01-01

Over the past 5-6 years, NASA has been developing the Information Power Grid and has a persistent testbed currently based on GT2.4.2. This presentation will begin with an overview of IPG status and services, discuss key milestones in IPG development, and present early as well as expected applications. The presentation will discuss some of the issues encountered in developing a grid including the tension between providing centralized and distributed computing. These issues also affect how the grid is moved into full production. Finally, the presentation will provide current plans for moving IPG into full production, including gaining broad user input, developing acceptance criteria from the production operations group, planning upgrades, and training users.

Camouflaging moving objects: crypsis and masquerade.

PubMed

Hall, Joanna R; Baddeley, Roland; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E; Shohet, Adam J; Cuthill, Innes C

2017-01-01

Motion is generally assumed to "break" camouflage. However, although camouflage cannot conceal a group of moving animals, it may impair a predator's ability to single one out for attack, even if that discrimination is not based on a color difference. Here, we use a computer-based task in which humans had to detect the odd one out among moving objects, with "oddity" based on shape. All objects were either patterned or plain, and either matched the background or not. We show that there are advantages of matching both group-mates and the background. However, when patterned objects are on a plain background (i.e., no background matching), the advantage of being among similarly patterned distractors is only realized when the group size is larger (10 compared to 5). In a second experiment, we present a paradigm for testing how coloration interferes with target-distractor discrimination, based on an adaptive staircase procedure for establishing the threshold. We show that when the predator only has a short time for decision-making, displaying a similar pattern to the distractors and the background affords protection even when the difference in shape between target and distractors is large. We conclude that, even though motion breaks camouflage, being camouflaged could help group-living animals reduce the risk of being singled out for attack by predators.

Camouflaging moving objects: crypsis and masquerade

PubMed Central

Hall, Joanna R; Baddeley, Roland; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E; Shohet, Adam J; Cuthill, Innes C

2017-01-01

Abstract Motion is generally assumed to “break” camouflage. However, although camouflage cannot conceal a group of moving animals, it may impair a predator’s ability to single one out for attack, even if that discrimination is not based on a color difference. Here, we use a computer-based task in which humans had to detect the odd one out among moving objects, with “oddity” based on shape. All objects were either patterned or plain, and either matched the background or not. We show that there are advantages of matching both group-mates and the background. However, when patterned objects are on a plain background (i.e., no background matching), the advantage of being among similarly patterned distractors is only realized when the group size is larger (10 compared to 5). In a second experiment, we present a paradigm for testing how coloration interferes with target-distractor discrimination, based on an adaptive staircase procedure for establishing the threshold. We show that when the predator only has a short time for decision-making, displaying a similar pattern to the distractors and the background affords protection even when the difference in shape between target and distractors is large. We conclude that, even though motion breaks camouflage, being camouflaged could help group-living animals reduce the risk of being singled out for attack by predators. PMID:29622927

Participant Retention in the Veterans Health Administration’s MOVE! Weight Management Program, 2010

PubMed Central

Sohn, Min-Woong; Spring, Bonnie; Hadi, Sattar; Weaver, Frances M.

2012-01-01

Introduction Participant retention is a frequent concern in structured weight-management programs. Although research has explored participant characteristics influencing retention, little attention has been given to the influence of program characteristics. The objective of this study was to examine how program characteristics relate to participant retention in the Veterans Health Administration’s weight-management program, MOVE! Methods We conducted semistructured interviews with coordinators of 12 MOVE! programs located throughout the United States, 5 with high participant retention rates and 7 with low rates. We transcribed and descriptively coded interviews and compared responses from high- and low-retention programs. Results Characteristics related to retention were provider knowledge of and referral to the program, reputation of the program within the medical facility, the MOVE! meeting schedule, inclusion of physical activity in group meetings, and involvement of the MOVE! physician champion. MOVE! introductory sessions, frequency of group meetings, and meeting topics were not related to retention. Coordinators described efforts to improve retention, including participant contracts and team competitions. Coordinators at 5 high-retention facilities and 1 low-retention facility discussed efforts to improve retention. Conclusion Coordinators identified important program characteristics that could guide improvements to retention in group-based weight-management programs. Training for providers is needed to assist with referral decisions, and program planners should consider incorporating physical activity in group meetings. PMID:22814235

Studies on biodegradable and crosslinkable poly(castor oil fumarate)/poly(propylene fumarate) composite adhesive as a potential injectable biomaterial.

PubMed

Mitha, M K; Jayabalan, M

2009-12-01

Biodegradable hydroxyl terminated-poly(castor oil fumarate) (HT-PCF) and poly(propylene fumarate) (HT-PPF) resins were synthesized as an injectable and in situ-cross linkable polyester resins for orthopedic applications. An injectable adhesive formulation containing this resin blend, N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP), hydroxy apatite, free radical initiator and accelerator was developed. The Composite adhesives containing the ratio of resin blend and NVP, 2.1:1.5, 2.1:1.2 and 2.1:1.0 set fast with tolerable exothermic temperature as a three dimensionally cross linked toughened material. Crosslink density and mechanical properties of the crosslinked composite increase with increase of NVP. The present crosslinked composite has hydrophilic character and cytocompatibility with L929 fibroblast cells.

MOVES2014 and MOVES2010b: Versions in Limited Current Use

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This is for users who are completing work already started with MOVES2014 or MOVES2010b, who are using MOVES2010b for transportation conformity determinations during the conformity grace period, or who need to review documentation for these models.

Variability of the lowest mass objects in the AB Doradus moving group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vos, Johanna M.; Allers, Katelyn N.; Biller, Beth A.; Liu, Michael C.; Dupuy, Trent J.; Gallimore, Jack F.; Adenuga, Iyadunni J.; Best, William M. J.

2018-02-01

We present the detection of [3.6 μm] photometric variability in two young, L/T transition brown dwarfs, WISE J004701.06+680352.1 (W0047) and 2MASS J2244316+204343 (2M2244) using the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find a period of 16.4 ± 0.2 h and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1.07 ± 0.04 per cent for W0047, and a period of 11 ± 2 h and amplitude of 0.8 ± 0.2 per cent for 2M2244. This period is significantly longer than that measured previously during a shorter observation. We additionally detect significant J-band variability in 2M2244 using the Wide-Field Camera on UKIRT. We determine the radial and rotational velocities of both objects using Keck NIRSPEC data. We find a radial velocity of -16.0_{-0.9}^{+0.8} km s-1 for 2M2244, and confirm it as a bona fide member of the AB Doradus moving group. We find rotational velocities of v sin i = 9.8 ± 0.3 and 14.3^{+1.4}_{-1.5} km s-1 for W0047 and 2M2244, respectively. With inclination angles of 85°+5-9 and 76°+14-20, W0047 and 2M2244 are viewed roughly equator-on. Their remarkably similar colours, spectra and inclinations are consistent with the possibility that viewing angle may influence atmospheric appearance. We additionally present Spitzer [4.5 μm] monitoring of the young, T5.5 object SDSS111010+011613 (SDSS1110) where we detect no variability. For periods <18 h, we place an upper limit of 1.25 per cent on the peak-to-peak variability amplitude of SDSS1110.

Prevalence of agglutinating antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis neurona in beavers (Castor canadensis) from Massachusetts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jordan, C.N.; Kaur, T.; Koenen, K.; DeStefano, S.; Zajac, A.M.; Lindsay, D.S.

2005-01-01

The present study examined the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystls neurona in a population of beavers (Castor canadensis) from Massachusetts. Sixty-two blood samples were collected during the field seasons over 3 consecutive years from different animals. Blood was collected onto filter paper and shipped to the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, for parasite testing. The samples were tested at dilutions of 1:25, 1:50, and 1:100 against each parasite antigen by modified agglutination tests to determine whether antibodies to either parasite were present in the blood. Six of 62 samples (10%) were positive for T. gondii, with 2 samples having titers of 1:25 and 4 having titers of 1:50. Four of 62 samples (6%) were positive for S. neurona, with 2 samples having titers of 1:25 and 2 having titers of 1:50. ?? American Society of Pathologists 2005.

Formulation, characterization and pharmacokinetics of praziquantel-loaded hydrogenated castor oil solid lipid nanoparticles.

PubMed

Xie, Shuyu; Pan, Baoliang; Wang, Ming; Zhu, Luyan; Wang, Fenghua; Dong, Zhao; Wang, Xiaofang; Zhou, WenZhong

2010-07-01

The purpose of this study was to formulate praziquantel (PZQ)-loaded hydrogenated castor oil (HCO) solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) to enhance the bioavailability and prolong the systemic circulation of the drug. PZQ was encapsulated into HCO nanoparticles by a hot homogenization and ultrasonication method. The physicochemical characteristics of SLN were investigated by optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy and photon correlation spectroscopy. Pharmacokinetics were studied after oral, subcutaneous and intramuscular administration in mice. The diameter, polydispersivity index, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the nanoparticles were 344.0 +/- 15.1 nm, 0.31 +/- 0.08, -16.7 +/- 0.5 mV, 62.17 +/- 6.53% and 12.43 +/- 1.31%, respectively. In vitro release of PZQ-loaded HCO-SLN exhibited an initial burst release followed by a sustained release. SLN increased the bioavailability of PZQ by 14.9-, 16.1- and 2.6-fold, and extended the mean residence time of the drug from 7.6, 6.6 and 8.2 to 95.9, 151.6 and 48.2 h after oral, subcutaneous and intramuscular administration, respectively. The PZQ-loaded HCO-SLN could be a promising formulation to enhance the pharmacological activity of PZQ.

Histological Evaluation of Selected Organs of the Eurasian Beavers (Castor fiber) Inhabiting Poland.

PubMed

Dolka, I; Giżejewska, A; Giżejewski, Z; Kluciński, W; Kołodziejska, J

2015-10-01

There is a general scarcity of data on the histological structure of major organs in the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). This study presents the histological characteristics of beaver organs such as the liver, spleen, cardiac muscle, lungs and kidneys. Tissue samples were collected from 21 beavers and analysed. Selected samples of tail tissue were additionally examined. Tissue samples were placed in neutral buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin. 4-μm-thick sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin, and other staining techniques were also used. Scant amounts of inter-lobular connective tissue were found in the liver. Ion or copper deposition was not observed, but scattered cytoplasmic glycogen deposits were present in hepatocytes. Our results suggest that beavers have defensive rather than storage spleens. Interestingly, the presence of melanin in splenic red pulp was noted. The histological structure of the examined organs closely resembled that of other rodent species. According to our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the histological structure of beaver organs. Nevertheless, precise characterization of the evaluated organs requires further work with the involvement of accurate and reliable techniques, such as molecular biology or electron microscopy methods. © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Identification of differentially expressed placental transcripts during multiple gestations in the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber L.).

PubMed

Lipka, A; Paukszto, L; Majewska, M; Jastrzebski, J P; Myszczynski, K; Panasiewicz, G; Szafranska, B

2017-09-01

The Eurasian beaver is one of the largest rodents that, despite its high impact on the environment, is a non-model species that lacks a reference genome. Characterising genes critical for pregnancy outcome can serve as a basis for identifying mechanisms underlying effective reproduction, which is required for the success of endangered species conservation programs. In the present study, high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to analyse global changes in the Castor fiber subplacenta transcriptome during multiple pregnancy. De novo reconstruction of the C. fiber subplacenta transcriptome was used to identify genes that were differentially expressed in placentas (n=5) from two females (in advanced twin and triple pregnancy). Analyses of the expression values revealed 124 contigs with significantly different expression; of these, 55 genes were identified using MegaBLAST. Within this group of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 18 were upregulated and 37 were downregulated in twins. Most DEGs were associated with the following gene ontology terms: cellular process, single organism process, response to stimulus, metabolic process and biological regulation. Some genes were also assigned to the developmental process, the reproductive process or reproduction. Among this group, four genes (namely keratin 19 (Krt19) and wingless-type MMTV integration site family - member 2 (Wnt2), which were downregulated in twins, and Nik-related kinase (Nrk) and gap junction protein β2 (Gjb2), which were upregulated in twins) were assigned to placental development and nine (Krt19, Wnt2 and integrin α 7 (Itga7), downregulated in twins, and Nrk, gap junction protein β6 (Gjb6), GATA binding protein 6 (Gata6), apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA1), apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and haemoglobin subunit α 1 (HbA1), upregulated in twins) were assigned to embryo development. The results of the present study indicate that the number of fetuses affects the expression profile in the C. fiber

A comparison of moving object detection methods for real-time moving object detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roshan, Aditya; Zhang, Yun

2014-06-01

Moving object detection has a wide variety of applications from traffic monitoring, site monitoring, automatic theft identification, face detection to military surveillance. Many methods have been developed across the globe for moving object detection, but it is very difficult to find one which can work globally in all situations and with different types of videos. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate existing moving object detection methods which can be implemented in software on a desktop or laptop, for real time object detection. There are several moving object detection methods noted in the literature, but few of them are suitable for real time moving object detection. Most of the methods which provide for real time movement are further limited by the number of objects and the scene complexity. This paper evaluates the four most commonly used moving object detection methods as background subtraction technique, Gaussian mixture model, wavelet based and optical flow based methods. The work is based on evaluation of these four moving object detection methods using two (2) different sets of cameras and two (2) different scenes. The moving object detection methods have been implemented using MatLab and results are compared based on completeness of detected objects, noise, light change sensitivity, processing time etc. After comparison, it is observed that optical flow based method took least processing time and successfully detected boundary of moving objects which also implies that it can be implemented for real-time moving object detection.

MOVES Workshops and Presentations

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The U.S. EPA held a three-day workshop including EPA presentations on MOVES 2010 algorithms and default data, information on ways to use MOVES more efficiently for various purposes, and discussion of ideas and plans for MOVES future development.

Identifying the Young Low-mass Stars within 25 pc. II. Distances, Kinematics, and Group Membership

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Anglada-Escudé, Guillem; Liu, Michael C.; Bowler, Brendan P.; Weinberger, Alycia J.; Boss, Alan P.; Reid, I. Neill; Tamura, Motohide

2012-10-01

We have conducted a kinematic study of 165 young M dwarfs with ages of lsim300 Myr. Our sample is composed of stars and brown dwarfs with spectral types ranging from K7 to L0, detected by ROSAT and with photometric distances of lsim25 pc assuming that the stars are single and on the main sequence. In order to find stars kinematically linked to known young moving groups (YMGs), we measured radial velocities for the complete sample with Keck and CFHT optical spectroscopy and trigonometric parallaxes for 75 of the M dwarfs with the CAPSCam instrument on the du Pont 2.5 m Telescope. Due to their youthful overluminosity and unresolved binarity, the original photometric distances for our sample underestimated the distances by 70% on average, excluding two extremely young (lsim3 Myr) objects found to have distances beyond a few hundred parsecs. We searched for kinematic matches to 14 reported YMGs and identified 10 new members of the AB Dor YMG and 2 of the Ursa Majoris group. Additional possible candidates include six Castor, four Ursa Majoris, two AB Dor members, and one member each of the Her-Lyr and β Pic groups. Our sample also contains 27 young low-mass stars and 4 brown dwarfs with ages lsim150 Myr that are not associated with any known YMG. We identified an additional 15 stars that are kinematic matches to one of the YMGs, but the ages from spectroscopic diagnostics and/or the positions on the sky do not match. These warn against grouping stars together based only on kinematics and that a confluence of evidence is required to claim that a group of stars originated from the same star-forming event. Based on observations collected at the W. M. Keck Observatory, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, and the Subaru Telescope. The Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial

Detection of Acetone Processing of Castor Bean Mash for Forensic Investigation of Ricin Preparation Methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kreuzer-Martin, Helen W.; Wahl, Jon H.; Metoyer, Candace N.

The toxic protein ricin is of concern as a potential biological threat agent (BTA) Recently, several samples of ricin have been seized in connection with biocriminal activity. Analytical methods are needed that enable federal investigators to determine how the samples were prepared, to match seized samples to potential source materials, and to identify samples that may have been prepared by the same method using the same source materials. One commonly described crude ricin preparation method is acetone extraction of crushed castor beans. Here we describe the use of solid-phase microextraction and headspace analysis of crude ricin preparation samples to determinemore » whether they were processed by acetone extraction. In all cases, acetone-extracted bean mash could be distinguished from un-extracted mash or mash extracted with other organic solvents. Statistical analysis showed that storage in closed containers for up to 109 days had no effect on acetone signal intensity. Signal intensity in acetone-extracted mash decreased during storage in open containers, but extracted mash could still be distinguished from un-extracted mash after 94 days.« less

Teachers' and Students' Negotiation Moves When Teachers Scaffold Group Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

González, Gloriana; DeJarnette, Anna F.

2015-01-01

Group work has been a main activity recommended by mathematics education reform. We aim at describing the patterns of interaction between teachers and students during group work. We ask: How do teachers scaffold group work during a problem-based lesson? We use data from a problem-based lesson taught in six geometry class periods by two teachers…

Polyurethane Foams for Thermal Insulation Uses Produced from Castor Oil and Crude Glycerol Biopolyols.

PubMed

Carriço, Camila S; Fraga, Thaís; Carvalho, Vagner E; Pasa, Vânya M D

2017-07-02

Rigid polyurethane foams were synthesized using a renewable polyol from the simple physical mixture of castor oil and crude glycerol. The effect of the catalyst (DBTDL) content and blowing agents in the foams' properties were evaluated. The use of physical blowing agents (cyclopentane and n-pentane) allowed foams with smaller cells to be obtained in comparison with the foams produced with a chemical blowing agent (water). The increase of the water content caused a decrease in density, thermal conductivity, compressive strength, and Young's modulus, which indicates that the increment of CO₂ production contributes to the formation of larger cells. Higher amounts of catalyst in the foam formulations caused a slight density decrease and a small increase of thermal conductivity, compressive strength, and Young's modulus values. These green foams presented properties that indicate a great potential to be used as thermal insulation: density (23-41 kg·m -3 ), thermal conductivity (0.0128-0.0207 W·m -1 ·K -1 ), compressive strength (45-188 kPa), and Young's modulus (3-28 kPa). These biofoams are also environmentally friendly polymers and can aggregate revenue to the biodiesel industry, contributing to a reduction in fuel prices.

Previous MOVES Versions and Documentation

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Find all software, user guides, and download and installation instructions for MOVES2010a and MOVES2010. Note that these version are not valid for SIP and transportation conformity purposes: MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a are the latest versions.

Beyond Group: Multiple Person Tracking via Minimal Topology-Energy-Variation.

PubMed

Gao, Shan; Ye, Qixiang; Xing, Junliang; Kuijper, Arjan; Han, Zhenjun; Jiao, Jianbin; Ji, Xiangyang

2017-12-01

Tracking multiple persons is a challenging task when persons move in groups and occlude each other. Existing group-based methods have extensively investigated how to make group division more accurately in a tracking-by-detection framework; however, few of them quantify the group dynamics from the perspective of targets' spatial topology or consider the group in a dynamic view. Inspired by the sociological properties of pedestrians, we propose a novel socio-topology model with a topology-energy function to factor the group dynamics of moving persons and groups. In this model, minimizing the topology-energy-variance in a two-level energy form is expected to produce smooth topology transitions, stable group tracking, and accurate target association. To search for the strong minimum in energy variation, we design the discrete group-tracklet jump moves embedded in the gradient descent method, which ensures that the moves reduce the energy variation of group and trajectory alternately in the varying topology dimension. Experimental results on both RGB and RGB-D data sets show the superiority of our proposed model for multiple person tracking in crowd scenes.

MOVES sensitivity study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-01-01

Purpose: : To determine ranking of important parameters and the overall sensitivity to values of variables in MOVES : To allow a greater understanding of the MOVES modeling process for users : Continued support by FHWA to transportation modeling comm...

Embodied affectivity: on moving and being moved

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Thomas; Koch, Sabine C.

2014-01-01

There is a growing body of research indicating that bodily sensation and behavior strongly influences one's emotional reaction toward certain situations or objects. On this background, a framework model of embodied affectivity1 is suggested: we regard emotions as resulting from the circular interaction between affective qualities or affordances in the environment and the subject's bodily resonance, be it in the form of sensations, postures, expressive movements or movement tendencies. Motion and emotion are thus intrinsically connected: one is moved by movement (perception; impression; affection2) and moved to move (action; expression; e-motion). Through its resonance, the body functions as a medium of emotional perception: it colors or charges self-experience and the environment with affective valences while it remains itself in the background of one's own awareness. This model is then applied to emotional social understanding or interaffectivity which is regarded as an intertwinement of two cycles of embodied affectivity, thus continuously modifying each partner's affective affordances and bodily resonance. We conclude with considerations of how embodied affectivity is altered in psychopathology and can be addressed in psychotherapy of the embodied self. PMID:24936191

Method and apparatus for a combination moving bed thermal treatment reactor and moving bed filter

DOEpatents

Badger, Phillip C.; Dunn, Jr., Kenneth J.

2015-09-01

A moving bed gasification/thermal treatment reactor includes a geometry in which moving bed reactor particles serve as both a moving bed filter and a heat carrier to provide thermal energy for thermal treatment reactions, such that the moving bed filter and the heat carrier are one and the same to remove solid particulates or droplets generated by thermal treatment processes or injected into the moving bed filter from other sources.

Impact of a Moving Noise Masker on Speech Perception in Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Weissgerber, Tobias; Rader, Tobias; Baumann, Uwe

2015-01-01

Objectives Previous studies investigating speech perception in noise have typically been conducted with static masker positions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of spatial separation of source and masker (spatial release from masking, SRM) in a moving masker setup and to evaluate the impact of adaptive beamforming in comparison with fixed directional microphones in cochlear implant (CI) users. Design Speech reception thresholds (SRT) were measured in S0N0 and in a moving masker setup (S0Nmove) in 12 normal hearing participants and 14 CI users (7 subjects bilateral, 7 bimodal with a hearing aid in the contralateral ear). Speech processor settings were a moderately directional microphone, a fixed beamformer, or an adaptive beamformer. The moving noise source was generated by means of wave field synthesis and was smoothly moved in a shape of a half-circle from one ear to the contralateral ear. Noise was presented in either of two conditions: continuous or modulated. Results SRTs in the S0Nmove setup were significantly improved compared to the S0N0 setup for both the normal hearing control group and the bilateral group in continuous noise, and for the control group in modulated noise. There was no effect of subject group. A significant effect of directional sensitivity was found in the S0Nmove setup. In the bilateral group, the adaptive beamformer achieved lower SRTs than the fixed beamformer setting. Adaptive beamforming improved SRT in both CI user groups substantially by about 3 dB (bimodal group) and 8 dB (bilateral group) depending on masker type. Conclusions CI users showed SRM that was comparable to normal hearing subjects. In listening situations of everyday life with spatial separation of source and masker, directional microphones significantly improved speech perception with individual improvements of up to 15 dB SNR. Users of bilateral speech processors with both directional microphones obtained the highest benefit. PMID:25970594

Attentional bias to moving spiders in spider fearful individuals.

PubMed

Vrijsen, Janna N; Fleurkens, Pascal; Nieuwboer, Wieteke; Rinck, Mike

2009-05-01

We investigated if an attentional bias for spiders in spider fearful individuals (SFs) can also be found for moving spiders, rather than static images. In Study 1, 28 SFs and 33 non-anxious controls (NACs) participated in a modified version of the dot probe paradigm: they had to react to a probe that appeared either in the next, previous, or side position of a spider's or a wheel's path. 24 SFs and 29 NACs participated in Study 2, in which a fourth, highly predictable, probe position was added. We expected that moving spiders would capture the attention of SFs. In addition, we tested whether SFs try to predict the movement of the spider to make it less threatening. As expected, SFs showed an attentional bias towards moving spiders. However, both groups reacted fastest to unpredictable movements, indicating that SFs and NACs alike anticipate unpredictable spider movements.

Real-time detection of moving objects from moving vehicles using dense stereo and optical flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Talukder, Ashit; Matthies, Larry

2004-01-01

Dynamic scene perception is very important for autonomous vehicles operating around other moving vehicles and humans. Most work on real-time object tracking from moving platforms has used sparse features or assumed flat scene structures. We have recently extended a real-time, dense stereo system to include realtime, dense optical flow, enabling more comprehensive dynamic scene analysis. We describe algorithms to robustly estimate 6-DOF robot egomotion in the presence of moving objects using dense flow and dense stereo. We then use dense stereo and egomotion estimates to identify & other moving objects while the robot itself is moving. We present results showing accurate egomotion estimation and detection of moving people and vehicles under general 6-DOF motion of the robot and independently moving objects. The system runs at 18.3 Hz on a 1.4 GHz Pentium M laptop, computing 160x120 disparity maps and optical flow fields, egomotion, and moving object segmentation. We believe this is a significant step toward general unconstrained dynamic scene analysis for mobile robots, as well as for improved position estimation where GPS is unavailable.

Real-time detection of moving objects from moving vehicles using dense stereo and optical flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Talukder, Ashit; Matthies, Larry

2004-01-01

Dynamic scene perception is very important for autonomous vehicles operating around other moving vehicles and humans. Most work on real-time object tracking from moving platforms has used sparse features or assumed flat scene structures. We have recently extended a real-time, dense stereo system to include real-time, dense optical flow, enabling more comprehensive dynamic scene analysis. We describe algorithms to robustly estimate 6-DOF robot egomotion in the presence of moving objects using dense flow and dense stereo. We then use dense stereo and egomotion estimates to identity other moving objects while the robot itself is moving. We present results showing accurate egomotion estimation and detection of moving people and vehicles under general 6-DOF motion of the robot and independently moving objects. The system runs at 18.3 Hz on a 1.4 GHz Pentium M laptop, computing 160x120 disparity maps and optical flow fields, egomotion, and moving object segmentation. We believe this is a significant step toward general unconstrained dynamic scene analysis for mobile robots, as well as for improved position estimation where GPS is unavailable.

Real-time Detection of Moving Objects from Moving Vehicles Using Dense Stereo and Optical Flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Talukder, Ashit; Matthies, Larry

2004-01-01

Dynamic scene perception is very important for autonomous vehicles operating around other moving vehicles and humans. Most work on real-time object tracking from moving platforms has used sparse features or assumed flat scene structures. We have recently extended a real-time. dense stereo system to include realtime. dense optical flow, enabling more comprehensive dynamic scene analysis. We describe algorithms to robustly estimate 6-DOF robot egomotion in the presence of moving objects using dense flow and dense stereo. We then use dense stereo and egomotion estimates to identify other moving objects while the robot itself is moving. We present results showing accurate egomotion estimation and detection of moving people and vehicles under general 6DOF motion of the robot and independently moving objects. The system runs at 18.3 Hz on a 1.4 GHz Pentium M laptop. computing 160x120 disparity maps and optical flow fields, egomotion, and moving object segmentation. We believe this is a significant step toward general unconstrained dynamic scene analysis for mobile robots, as well as for improved position estimation where GPS is unavailable.

Synthesis and characterization of gold nanotube/nanowire-polyurethane composite based on castor oil and polyethylene glycol.

PubMed

Ganji, Yasaman; Kasra, Mehran; Salahshour Kordestani, Soheila; Bagheri Hariri, Mohiedin

2014-09-01

Gold nanotubes/nanowires (GNT/NW) were synthesized by using the template-assisted electrodeposition technique and mixed with castor oil-polyethylene glycol based polyurethane (PU) to fabricate porous composite scaffolds for biomedical application. 100 and 50 ppm of GNT/NW were used to synthesize composites. The composite scaffolds were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. Cell attachment on polyurethane-GNT/NW composites was investigated using fat-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Addition of 50 or 100 ppm GNT/NW had significant effects on thermal, mechanical, and cell attachment of polyurethane. Higher crosslink density and better cell attachment and proliferation were observed in polyurethane containing 50 ppm GNT/NW. The results revealed that GNT/NW formed hydrogen bonding with the polyurethane matrix and improved the thermomechanical properties of nanocomposites. Compared with pure PU, better cellular attachment on polyurethane-GNT/NW composites was observed resulting from the improved surface properties of composites. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-order-harmonic generation from solids: The contributions of the Bloch wave packets moving at the group and phase velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Tao-Yuan; Huang, Xiao-Huan; Bian, Xue-Bin

2018-01-01

We study numerically the Bloch electron wave-packet dynamics in periodic potentials to simulate laser-solid interactions. We introduce an alternative perspective in the coordinate space combined with the motion of the Bloch electron wave packets moving at group and phase velocities under the laser fields. This model interprets the origins of the two contributions (intra- and interband transitions) in the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) processes by investigating the local and global behaviours of the wave packets. It also elucidates the underlying physical picture of the HHG intensity enhancement by means of carrier-envelope phase, chirp, and inhomogeneous fields. It provides a deep insight into the emission of high-order harmonics from solids. This model is instructive for experimental measurements and provides an alternative avenue to distinguish mechanisms of the HHG from solids in different laser fields.

Identification of moving vehicle forces on bridge structures via moving average Tikhonov regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Chu-Dong; Yu, Ling; Liu, Huan-Lin

2017-08-01

Traffic-induced moving force identification (MFI) is a typical inverse problem in the field of bridge structural health monitoring. Lots of regularization-based methods have been proposed for MFI. However, the MFI accuracy obtained from the existing methods is low when the moving forces enter into and exit a bridge deck due to low sensitivity of structural responses to the forces at these zones. To overcome this shortcoming, a novel moving average Tikhonov regularization method is proposed for MFI by combining with the moving average concepts. Firstly, the bridge-vehicle interaction moving force is assumed as a discrete finite signal with stable average value (DFS-SAV). Secondly, the reasonable signal feature of DFS-SAV is quantified and introduced for improving the penalty function (∣∣x∣∣2 2) defined in the classical Tikhonov regularization. Then, a feasible two-step strategy is proposed for selecting regularization parameter and balance coefficient defined in the improved penalty function. Finally, both numerical simulations on a simply-supported beam and laboratory experiments on a hollow tube beam are performed for assessing the accuracy and the feasibility of the proposed method. The illustrated results show that the moving forces can be accurately identified with a strong robustness. Some related issues, such as selection of moving window length, effect of different penalty functions, and effect of different car speeds, are discussed as well.

Commentary: Moving towards policy coherence in trade and health.

PubMed

Walls, Helen; Baker, Phillip; Smith, Richard

2015-11-01

International trade has brought economic benefits to many countries, but the association of trade and investment liberalisation with poor health outcomes concerns the public health community. The need to secure more 'healthy' trade is a recognised priority, especially as countries move from global to regional/bilateral trade agreements - with greater public health risks. However, a transition towards 'healthier trade' may be hindered by worldview differences between the trade and health communities. There is a tendency for health actors to perceive trade as a threat to population health, and for trade actors to view health as a constraint to trade objectives of reducing barriers to cross-border commercial flows and economic growth. Unless such differing worldviews can be aligned, finding ways forward for addressing public health in trade policy is likely to be difficult. Moving forward will involve understanding the values and drivers of the respective groups, and developing solutions palatable to their various interests. Given the power imbalances between the two areas, it is likely that the health community will have to make the first moves in this respect. This article outlines the key issues involved and suggests areas where such moves have been, and may be made.

BANYAN. V. A SYSTEMATIC ALL-SKY SURVEY FOR NEW VERY LATE-TYPE LOW-MASS STARS AND BROWN DWARFS IN NEARBY YOUNG MOVING GROUPS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gagné, Jonathan; Lafrenière, David; Doyon, René

2015-01-10

We present the BANYAN All-Sky Survey (BASS) catalog, consisting of 228 new late-type (M4-L6) candidate members of nearby young moving groups (YMGs) with an expected false-positive rate of ∼13%. This sample includes 79 new candidate young brown dwarfs and 22 planetary-mass objects. These candidates were identified through the first systematic all-sky survey for late-type low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in YMGs. We cross-matched the Two Micron All Sky Survey and AllWISE catalogs outside of the galactic plane to build a sample of 98,970 potential ≥M5 dwarfs in the solar neighborhood and calculated their proper motions with typical precisions of 5-15more » mas yr{sup –1}. We selected highly probable candidate members of several YMGs from this sample using the Bayesian Analysis for Nearby Young AssociatioNs II tool (BANYAN II). We used the most probable statistical distances inferred from BANYAN II to estimate the spectral type and mass of these candidate YMG members. We used this unique sample to show tentative signs of mass segregation in the AB Doradus moving group and the Tucana-Horologium and Columba associations. The BASS sample has already been successful in identifying several new young brown dwarfs in earlier publications, and will be of great interest in studying the initial mass function of YMGs and for the search of exoplanets by direct imaging; the input sample of potential close-by ≥M5 dwarfs will be useful to study the kinematics of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs and search for new proper motion pairs.« less

A Center Moves toward Multiage Grouping: What Have We Learned?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schrier, Deborah; Mercado, Betsy

1994-01-01

Notes that, despite concerns from parents and caregivers, recent research suggests that major benefits result from multiage grouping. Examines the concept of multiage grouping and explores practical issues raised by parents, teachers, and administrators in the Early Childhood Research Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo as it…

MOVES regional level sensitivity analysis

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-01-01

The MOVES Regional Level Sensitivity Analysis was conducted to increase understanding of the operations of the MOVES Model in regional emissions analysis and to highlight the following: : the relative sensitivity of selected MOVES Model input paramet...

Moving Field Guides

Treesearch

Cassie Meador; Mark Twery; Meagan Leatherbury

2011-01-01

The Moving Field Guides (MFG) project is a creative take on site interpretation. Moving Field Guides provide an example of how scientific and artistic endeavors work in parallel. Both begin with keen observations that produce information that must be analyzed, understood, and interpreted. That interpretation then needs to be communicated to others to complete the...

Polygalacturonase from Rhizopus stolonifer, an Elicitor of Casbene Synthetase Activity in Castor Bean (Ricinus communis L.) Seedlings 1

PubMed Central

Lee, Sung-Chul; West, Charles A.

1981-01-01

Apparently homogeneous polygalacturonase-elicitor purified from the filtrates of Rhizopus stolonifer cultures stimulates germinating castor bean seedlings to produce greatly increased levels of casbene synthetase activity. The purification procedure involved gel-filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-25 and G-75 columns followed by cation-exchange chromatography on a Sephadex CM C-50 column. Homogeneity of the purified preparation was indicated by the results of cationic polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing (pI = 8.0). The identity of the casbene elicitor activity and polygalacturonase were indicated by the coincidence of the two activities at all stages of purification, the coincidence of both activities with the single protein-staining band detected on a cationic polyacrylamide disc gel and an isoelectric focusing gel, and the identical behavior of both activities on an agarose gel affinity column. The purified polygalacturonase-elicitor is a glycoprotein with approximately 20% carbohydrate content and an estimated molecular weight of 32,000 by polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis. PMID:16661728

Trunk-arm coordination in reaching for moving targets in people with Parkinson's disease: comparison between virtual and physical reality.

PubMed

Ma, Hui-Ing; Hwang, Wen-Juh; Wang, Ching-Yi; Fang, Jing-Jing; Leong, Iat-Fai; Wang, Tsui-Ying

2012-10-01

We used a trunk-assisted prehension task to examine the effect of task (reaching for stationary vs. moving targets) and environmental constraints (virtual reality [VR] vs. physical reality) on the temporal control of trunk and arm motions in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Twenty-four participants with PD and 24 age-matched controls reached for and grasped a ball that was either stationary or moving along a ramp 120% of arm length away. In a similar VR task, participants reached for a virtual ball that was either stationary or moving. Movement speed was measured as trunk and arm movement times (MTs); trunk-arm coordination was measured as onset interval and offset interval between trunk and arm motions, as well as a summarized index-desynchrony score. In both VR and physical reality, the PD group had longer trunk and arm MTs than the control group when reaching for stationary balls (p<.001). When reaching for moving balls in VR and physical reality, however, the PD group had lower trunk and arm MTs, onset intervals, and desynchrony scores (p<.001). For the PD group, VR induced shorter trunk MTs, shorter offset intervals, and lower desynchrony scores than did physical reality when reaching for moving balls (p<.001). These findings suggest that using real moving targets in trunk-assisted prehension tasks improves the speed and synchronization of trunk and arm motions in people with PD, and that using virtual moving targets may induce a movement termination strategy different from that used in physical reality. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Accounting for the move to ambulatory patient groups.

PubMed

Boyagian, H R; Dessingue, R F

1998-07-01

This article focuses on the cost accounting challenge an ambulatory patient group (APG)-like-based prospective payment system presents to providers and the issues associated with that challenge. In particular, how can costs be identified, how can the differences in costs be associated with alternative settings, and how do costs identified through a detailed resource costing methodology compare to estimates using alternative measures? The results presented suggest that decisions made based on current measures of ambulatory cost (i.e., charge-based measures) need to be reexamined. These decisions could include which services to provide, what setting is appropriate, and where marketshare opportunities exist.

De Novo Genome and Transcriptome Assembly of the Canadian Beaver (Castor canadensis)

PubMed Central

Lok, Si; Paton, Tara A.; Wang, Zhuozhi; Kaur, Gaganjot; Walker, Susan; Yuen, Ryan K. C.; Sung, Wilson W. L.; Whitney, Joseph; Buchanan, Janet A.; Trost, Brett; Singh, Naina; Apresto, Beverly; Chen, Nan; Coole, Matthew; Dawson, Travis J.; Ho, Karen; Hu, Zhizhou; Pullenayegum, Sanjeev; Samler, Kozue; Shipstone, Arun; Tsoi, Fiona; Wang, Ting; Pereira, Sergio L.; Rostami, Pirooz; Ryan, Carol Ann; Tong, Amy Hin Yan; Ng, Karen; Sundaravadanam, Yogi; Simpson, Jared T.; Lim, Burton K.; Engstrom, Mark D.; Dutton, Christopher J.; Kerr, Kevin C. R.; Franke, Maria; Rapley, William; Wintle, Richard F.; Scherer, Stephen W.

2017-01-01

The Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) is the largest indigenous rodent in North America. We report a draft annotated assembly of the beaver genome, the first for a large rodent and the first mammalian genome assembled directly from uncorrected and moderate coverage (< 30 ×) long reads generated by single-molecule sequencing. The genome size is 2.7 Gb estimated by k-mer analysis. We assembled the beaver genome using the new Canu assembler optimized for noisy reads. The resulting assembly was refined using Pilon supported by short reads (80 ×) and checked for accuracy by congruency against an independent short read assembly. We scaffolded the assembly using the exon–gene models derived from 9805 full-length open reading frames (FL-ORFs) constructed from the beaver leukocyte and muscle transcriptomes. The final assembly comprised 22,515 contigs with an N50 of 278,680 bp and an N50-scaffold of 317,558 bp. Maximum contig and scaffold lengths were 3.3 and 4.2 Mb, respectively, with a combined scaffold length representing 92% of the estimated genome size. The completeness and accuracy of the scaffold assembly was demonstrated by the precise exon placement for 91.1% of the 9805 assembled FL-ORFs and 83.1% of the BUSCO (Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs) gene set used to assess the quality of genome assemblies. Well-represented were genes involved in dentition and enamel deposition, defining characteristics of rodents with which the beaver is well-endowed. The study provides insights for genome assembly and an important genomics resource for Castoridae and rodent evolutionary biology. PMID:28087693

Ultrastructural changes in the ovary cells of engorged Rhipicephalus sanguineus female ticks treated with esters of ricinoleic acid from castor oil (Ricinus communis).

PubMed

Sampieri, Bruno Rodrigues; Arnosti, André; Nunes, Pablo Henrique; Furquim, Karim Christina Scopinho; Chierice, Gilberto Orivaldo; Mathias, Maria Izabel Camargo

2012-05-01

Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a widely distributed tick species that has adapted to the urban environment, and the dog is its main host. This species is also known as a vector and reservoir of diseases caused by bacteria, protozoa, and viruses. Currently, acaricides of synthetic chemical origin have been widely and indiscriminately used, leading to the development of resistance to these products by ticks and causing damage to the environment. Thus, these issues have made it necessary to seek other forms of controlling these ectoparasites. R. sanguineus was artificially infested in host New Zealand White rabbits, which were divided into four treatment groups: control (CG1 and CG2) and treatment (TG1 and TG2) groups. TG1 and TG2 hosts were provided with feed supplemented with esters of ricinoleic acid from castor oil at a concentration of 5 g/kg of feed for 7 and 15 days. Afterward, the ovaries of the female ticks were removed for analysis by transmission electron microscopy. The results showed ultrastructural changes in the somatic and germ cells of ovaries from TG1 and TG2 females, particularly with respect to chorion deposition, a protective membrane of the oocyte, as well as in the transport process of vitellogenic materials via the hemolymph and pedicel cells. Moreover, the mitochondria were less electron-dense and had cristae that were more disorganized than the mitochondria from CG1 and CG2 individuals. Thus, this study demonstrated the action of esters on the ovaries of R. sanguineus, signaling the prospect of a way to control this ectoparasite without affecting nontarget organisms or the environment. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Electric Field Feature of Moving Magnetic Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, You Jun

2001-05-01

A new fundamental relationship of electric field with magnetic field has been inferred from the fundamental experimental laws and theories of classical electromagnetics. It can be described as moving magnetic field has or gives electric feature. When a field with magnetic induction of B moves in the velocity of V, it will show electric field character, the electric field intensity E is E = B x V and the direction of E is in the direction of the vector B x V. It is improper to use the time-varying electromagnetics theories as the fundamental theory of the electromagnetics and group the electromagnetic field into static kind and time-varying kind for the static is relative to motional not only time-varying. The relationship of time variation of magnetic field induction or magnetic flux with electric field caused by magnetic field is fellowship not causality. Thus time-varying magnetic field can cause electric field is not a nature principle. Sometime the time variation of magnetic flux is equal to the negative electromotive force or the time variation of magnetic field induction is equal to the negative curl of electric field caused by magnetic field motion, but not always. And not all motion of magnetic field can cause time variation of magnetic field. Therefore Faraday-Lenz`s law can only be used as mathematics tool to calculate the quantity relation of the electricity with the magnetism in some case like the magnetic field moving in uniform medium. Faraday-Lenz`s law is unsuitable to be used in moving uniform magnetic field or there is magnetic shield. Key word: Motional magnetic field, Magnetic induction, Electric field intensity, Velocity, Faraday-Lenz’s law

Alternatives to the Moving Average

Treesearch

Paul C. van Deusen

2001-01-01

There are many possible estimators that could be used with annual inventory data. The 5-year moving average has been selected as a default estimator to provide initial results for states having available annual inventory data. User objectives for these estimates are discussed. The characteristics of a moving average are outlined. It is shown that moving average...

Moving Matters: The Causal Effect of Moving Schools on Student Performance. Working Paper #01-15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Stiefel, Leanna; Cordes, Sarah A.

2015-01-01

The majority of existing research on mobility indicates that students do worse in the year of a school move. This research, however, has been unsuccessful in isolating the causal effects of mobility and often fails to distinguish the heterogeneous impacts of moves, conflating structural moves (mandated by a school's terminal grade) and…

Understanding how animal groups achieve coordinated movement

PubMed Central

Herbert-Read, J. E.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Moving animal groups display remarkable feats of coordination. This coordination is largely achieved when individuals adjust their movement in response to their neighbours' movements and positions. Recent advancements in automated tracking technologies, including computer vision and GPS, now allow researchers to gather large amounts of data on the movements and positions of individuals in groups. Furthermore, analytical techniques from fields such as statistical physics now allow us to identify the precise interaction rules used by animals on the move. These interaction rules differ not only between species, but also between individuals in the same group. These differences have wide-ranging implications, affecting how groups make collective decisions and driving the evolution of collective motion. Here, I describe how trajectory data can be used to infer how animals interact in moving groups. I give examples of the similarities and differences in the spatial and directional organisations of animal groups between species, and discuss the rules that animals use to achieve this organisation. I then explore how groups of the same species can exhibit different structures, and ask whether this results from individuals adapting their interaction rules. I then examine how the interaction rules between individuals in the same groups can also differ, and discuss how this can affect ecological and evolutionary processes. Finally, I suggest areas of future research. PMID:27707862

Understanding how animal groups achieve coordinated movement.

PubMed

Herbert-Read, J E

2016-10-01

Moving animal groups display remarkable feats of coordination. This coordination is largely achieved when individuals adjust their movement in response to their neighbours' movements and positions. Recent advancements in automated tracking technologies, including computer vision and GPS, now allow researchers to gather large amounts of data on the movements and positions of individuals in groups. Furthermore, analytical techniques from fields such as statistical physics now allow us to identify the precise interaction rules used by animals on the move. These interaction rules differ not only between species, but also between individuals in the same group. These differences have wide-ranging implications, affecting how groups make collective decisions and driving the evolution of collective motion. Here, I describe how trajectory data can be used to infer how animals interact in moving groups. I give examples of the similarities and differences in the spatial and directional organisations of animal groups between species, and discuss the rules that animals use to achieve this organisation. I then explore how groups of the same species can exhibit different structures, and ask whether this results from individuals adapting their interaction rules. I then examine how the interaction rules between individuals in the same groups can also differ, and discuss how this can affect ecological and evolutionary processes. Finally, I suggest areas of future research. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

ROMP-based thermosetting polymers from modified castor oil with various cross-linking agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Rui

Polymers derived from bio-renewable resources are finding an increase in global demand. In addition, polymers with distinctive functionalities are required in certain advanced fields, such as aerospace and civil engineering. In an attempt to meet both these needs, the goal of this work aims to develop a range of bio-based thermosetting matrix polymers for potential applications in multifunctional composites. Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), which recently has been explored as a powerful method in polymer chemistry, was employed as a unique pathway to polymerize agricultural oil-based reactants. Specifically, a novel norbornyl-functionalized castor oil alcohol (NCA) was investigated to polymerize different cross-linking agents using ROMP. The effects of incorporating dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and a norbornene-based crosslinker (CL) were systematically evaluated with respect to curing behavior and thermal mechanical properties of the polymers. Isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to investigate the conversion during cure. Dynamic DSC scans at multiple heating rates revealed conversion-dependent activation energy by Ozawa-Flynn-Wall analysis. The glass transition temperature, storage modulus, and loss modulus for NCA/DCPD and NCA/CL copolymers with different cross-linking agent loading were compared using dynamic mechanical analysis. Cross-link density was examined to explain the very different dynamic mechanical behavior. Mechanical stress-strain curves were developed through tensile test, and thermal stability of the cross-linked polymers was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis to further investigate the structure-property relationships in these systems.

Moving into poverty during childhood is associated with later sleep problems.

PubMed

Sivertsen, Børge; Bøe, Tormod; Skogen, Jens Christoffer; Petrie, Keith J; Hysing, Mari

2017-09-01

A social gradient in sleep has been demonstrated across the life span, but previous studies have been cross-sectional and used self-reported socioeconomic status (SES) indicators. Using registry-based data on family income trajectories, the current study examined the association between relative poverty in childhood and subsequent sleep in adolescence. Data on family income during 2004-2010 was obtained from the National Income Registry. Poverty was defined as household income <60% of the mean national income. Information on self-reported sleep was based the youth@hordaland-survey (n = 8873) conducted in 2012 when the adolescents were 16-19 years old. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify trajectories of family household poverty, and analysis of variance and general linear models were used to examine associations between income trajectories and sleep, adjusting for confounders. LCA identified four classes: 'never poor', two classes characterized by moving in or out of poverty, and 'chronically poor'. Compared to the 'never poor' group, adolescents from families in the 'moving into poverty' group displayed worse sleep across most sleep measures, including shorter sleep, lower sleep efficiency, and more nocturnal wake time (but not sleep onset latency). Neither adolescents from families who had moved out of poverty by increasing family income, nor the 'chronically poor' group differed significantly from the reference group. The study found that downward socioeconomic mobility was associated with increased adolescent sleep problems. More studies are required on the mechanisms that may account for the association, to find targeted and effective strategies to prevent short sleep duration in adolescents from families with unstable financial circumstances. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of the reaction conditions on the enzyme catalyzed transesterification of castor oil: A possible step in biodiesel production.

PubMed

Andrade, Thalles A; Errico, Massimiliano; Christensen, Knud V

2017-11-01

The identification of the influence of the reaction parameters is of paramount importance when defining a process design. In this work, non-edible castor oil was reacted with methanol to produce a possible component for biodiesel blends, using liquid enzymes as the catalyst. Temperature, alcohol-to-oil molar ratio, enzyme and added water contents were the reaction parameters evaluated in the transesterification reactions. The optimal conditions, giving the optimal final FAME yield and FFA content in the methyl ester-phase was identified. At 35°C, 6.0 methanol-to-oil molar ratio, 5wt% of enzyme and 5wt% of water contents, 94% of FAME yield and 6.1% of FFA in the final composition were obtained. The investigation was completed with the analysis of the component profiles, showing that at least 8h are necessary to reach a satisfactory FAME yield together with a minor FFA content. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long-term synchronized electrophysiological and behavioral wireless monitoring of freely moving animals

PubMed Central

Grand, Laszlo; Ftomov, Sergiu; Timofeev, Igor

2012-01-01

Parallel electrophysiological recording and behavioral monitoring of freely moving animals is essential for a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying behavior. In this paper we describe a novel wireless recording technique, which is capable of synchronously recording in vivo multichannel electrophysiological (LFP, MUA, EOG, EMG) and activity data (accelerometer, video) from freely moving cats. The method is based on the integration of commercially available components into a simple monitoring system and is complete with accelerometers and the needed signal processing tools. LFP activities of freely moving group-housed cats were recorded from multiple intracortical areas and from the hippocampus. EMG, EOG, accelerometer and video were simultaneously acquired with LFP activities 24-h a day for 3 months. These recordings confirm the possibility of using our wireless method for 24-h long-term monitoring of neurophysiological and behavioral data of freely moving experimental animals such as cats, ferrets, rabbits and other large animals. PMID:23099345

Antigraviceptive neck muscle responses to "moving up and moving down" in human.

PubMed

Aoki, M; Han, X Y; Yamada, H; Muto, T; Satake, H; Ito, Y; Matsunami, K

2000-07-01

The responses of neck muscle to sudden transit from one 'g' to hyper 'g', work to support the head and remain the relative position of head on trunk as common observed: i.e. in sudden acceleration or deceleration by car or ejection of pilot from aircraft. Accordingly it is highly possible that the neck muscle responses to moving up may be important to prevent the neck injury due to sudden linear acceleration such as moving up against gravity. However little is known about the evaluation of mechanism of this reflex. Therefore the present study was conducted with two aims. The first aim was to investigate the neck muscle responses to vertical linear acceleration bv 0.4 g produced with an electro-hydraulic servo-system. We chose the vertical linear acceleration because it activates mainly sacculus, from which afferents have been demonstrated to be connected directly to sternocleidomastoid muscle in animals and human. The second aim was to determine whether there is a difference of neck muscle response to moving down and moving up.

Antigraviceptive neck muscle responses to "moving up and moving down" in human

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aoki, M.; Han, X. Y.; Yamada, H.; Muto, T.; Satake, H.; Ito, Y.; Matsunami, K.

2000-01-01

The responses of neck muscle to sudden transit from one 'g' to hyper 'g', work to support the head and remain the relative position of head on trunk as common observed: i.e. in sudden acceleration or deceleration by car or ejection of pilot from aircraft. Accordingly it is highly possible that the neck muscle responses to moving up may be important to prevent the neck injury due to sudden linear acceleration such as moving up against gravity. However little is known about the evaluation of mechanism of this reflex. Therefore the present study was conducted with two aims. The first aim was to investigate the neck muscle responses to vertical linear acceleration bv 0.4 g produced with an electro-hydraulic servo-system. We chose the vertical linear acceleration because it activates mainly sacculus, from which afferents have been demonstrated to be connected directly to sternocleidomastoid muscle in animals and human. The second aim was to determine whether there is a difference of neck muscle response to moving down and moving up.

Moving to an annual inventory in the Pacific Northwest

Treesearch

David Azuma

2000-01-01

The process of moving toward an annual inventory in the Pacific Coast states began with educating the individual states as to what might be involved in the annual system. The states and some industry groups voiced concerns about inventorying unproductive or reserved lands on an annual basis. The states in particular were concerned about the ability to estimate periodic...

Evaluation of Castor Oil Cake Starch and Recovered Glycerol and Development of “Green” Composites Based on Those with Plant Fibers

PubMed Central

Guimarães, José Luis; Trindade Cursino, Ana Cristina; Ketzer Saul, Cyro; Sierrakowski, Maria Rita; Ramos, Luiz Pereira; Satyanarayana, Kestur Gundappa

2016-01-01

Continuous efforts are being made in some countries for the recovery of crude glycerin (RG/CG) and castor oil cake (COC), the two byproducts of biodiesel production. These are expected to help, not only in addressing environmental safety, but also in adding value to those byproducts, which otherwise may go to waste. Finding ways to utilize those byproducts underlines the main objective of this study. This paper presents the evaluation of (i) COC, glycerin and banana and sugarcane fibers for moisture content; (ii) COC for structural and thermal properties; and (iii) CG for its chemical characteristics. The possibility of using COC and CG with the selected fibers as reinforcement in the development of bio-composites is attempted through thermo-molding. Results revealed enhanced mechanical properties for these composites. The obtained results are discussed in terms of the observed morphology. PMID:28787878

Home-exercise Childhood Obesity Intervention: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Print Versus Web-based (Move It) Platforms.

PubMed

Bruñó, Alejandro; Escobar, Patricia; Cebolla, Ausias; Álvarez-Pitti, Julio; Guixeres, Jaime; Lurbe, Empar; Baños, Rosa; Lisón, Juan F

2018-05-07

To compare the impact of adhering to a Mediterranean diet plus mixed physical exercise program (Move-It) implemented by means of printed instructions or via a web-platform (with or without e-mail support) on body composition, physical fitness, and blood pressure. Randomized clinical trial. Fifty-two overweight or obese Spanish children and adolescents were randomly assigned to the print-based (n = 18), Move-It (n = 18), or Move-It plus support (n = 16) intervention groups. Two-way mixed ANOVA tests were used to compare any changes between the groups in terms of percentage body fat, physical fitness (VO 2 peak), handgrip strength, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The measurements were taken before and after a three-month mixed-exercise (aerobic and resistance) and Mediterranean-diet program which was either implemented by means of printed instructions or via a web-platform (with or without e-mail support). No statistical differences were found between groups. However, the results highlighted significant improvements in body fat percentage metrics over time for all three groups (print-based: -1.8%, 95%CI -3.3% to -0.3%; Move-It: -1.8%, 95%CI -3.3% to -0.3%; Move-It plus support: -2.0%, 95%CI -3.7% to -0.4%, P < 0.05). We also observed a tendency towards improvement in the VO 2 peak, handgrip strength, and blood pressure variable values 10 min after the exercise-stress test in these three groups. The program improved the body composition, regardless of the way it is implemented. A mixed physical exercise program lasting for three months, combined with a Mediterranean diet, improves the body composition of children and adolescents with overweight/obesity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A retrospective study on changes in residents' physical activities, social interactions, and neighborhood cohesion after moving to a walkable community.

PubMed

Zhu, Xuemei; Yu, Chia-Yuan; Lee, Chanam; Lu, Zhipeng; Mann, George

2014-12-01

This study is to examine changes in residents' physical activities, social interactions, and neighborhood cohesion after they moved to a walkable community in Austin, Texas. Retrospective surveys (N=449) were administered in 2013-2014 to collect pre- and post-move data about the outcome variables and relevant personal, social, and physical environmental factors. Walkability of each resident's pre-move community was measured using the Walk Score. T tests were used to examine the pre-post move differences in the outcomes in the whole sample and across sub-groups with different physical activity levels, neighborhood conditions, and neighborhood preferences before the move. After the move, total physical activity increased significantly in the whole sample and all sub-groups except those who were previously sufficiently active; lived in communities with high walkability, social interactions, or neighborhood cohesion; or had moderate preference for walkable neighborhoods. Walking in the community increased in the whole sample and all subgroups except those who were previously sufficiently active, moved from high-walkability communities, or had little to no preference for walkable neighborhoods. Social interactions and neighborhood cohesion increased significantly after the move in the whole sample and all sub-groups. This study explored potential health benefits of a walkable community in promoting physically and socially active lifestyles, especially for populations at higher risk of obesity. The initial result is promising, suggesting the need for more work to further examine the relationships between health and community design using pre-post assessments. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acceptability and satisfaction of project MOVE: A pragmatic feasibility trial aimed at increasing physical activity in female breast cancer survivors.

PubMed

Pullen, Tanya; Sharp, Paul; Bottorff, Joan L; Sabiston, Catherine M; Campbell, Kristin L; Ellard, Susan L; Gotay, Carolyn; Fitzpatrick, Kayla; Caperchione, Cristina M

2018-04-01

Despite the physical and psychological health benefits associated with physical activity (PA) for breast cancer (BC) survivors, up to 70% of female BC survivors are not meeting minimum recommended PA guidelines. The objective of this study was to evaluate acceptability and satisfaction with Project MOVE, an innovative approach to increase PA among BC survivors through the combination of microgrants and financial incentives. A mixed-methods design was used. Participants were BC survivors and support individuals with a mean age of 58.5 years. At 6-month follow-up, participants completed a program evaluation questionnaire (n = 72) and participated in focus groups (n = 52) to explore their experience with Project MOVE. Participants reported that they were satisfied with Project MOVE (86.6%) and that the program was appropriate for BC survivors (96.3%). Four main themes emerged from focus groups: (1) acceptability and satisfaction of Project MOVE, detailing the value of the model in developing tailored group-base PA programs; (2) the importance of Project MOVE leaders, highlighting the value of a leader that was organized and a good communicator; (3) breaking down barriers with Project MOVE, describing how the program helped to address common BC related barriers; and (4) motivation to MOVE, outlining how the microgrants enabled survivors to be active, while the financial incentive motivated them to increase and maintain their PA. The findings provide support for the acceptability of Project MOVE as a strategy for increasing PA among BC survivors. © 2018 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Least Squares Moving-Window Spectral Analysis.

PubMed

Lee, Young Jong

2017-08-01

Least squares regression is proposed as a moving-windows method for analysis of a series of spectra acquired as a function of external perturbation. The least squares moving-window (LSMW) method can be considered an extended form of the Savitzky-Golay differentiation for nonuniform perturbation spacing. LSMW is characterized in terms of moving-window size, perturbation spacing type, and intensity noise. Simulation results from LSMW are compared with results from other numerical differentiation methods, such as single-interval differentiation, autocorrelation moving-window, and perturbation correlation moving-window methods. It is demonstrated that this simple LSMW method can be useful for quantitative analysis of nonuniformly spaced spectral data with high frequency noise.

Moving Stimuli Facilitate Synchronization But Not Temporal Perception

PubMed Central

Silva, Susana; Castro, São Luís

2016-01-01

Recent studies have shown that a moving visual stimulus (e.g., a bouncing ball) facilitates synchronization compared to a static stimulus (e.g., a flashing light), and that it can even be as effective as an auditory beep. We asked a group of participants to perform different tasks with four stimulus types: beeps, siren-like sounds, visual flashes (static) and bouncing balls. First, participants performed synchronization with isochronous sequences (stimulus-guided synchronization), followed by a continuation phase in which the stimulus was internally generated (imagery-guided synchronization). Then they performed a perception task, in which they judged whether the final part of a temporal sequence was compatible with the previous beat structure (stimulus-guided perception). Similar to synchronization, an imagery-guided variant was added, in which sequences contained a gap in between (imagery-guided perception). Balls outperformed flashes and matched beeps (powerful ball effect) in stimulus-guided synchronization but not in perception (stimulus- or imagery-guided). In imagery-guided synchronization, performance accuracy decreased for beeps and balls, but not for flashes and sirens. Our findings suggest that the advantages of moving visual stimuli over static ones are grounded in action rather than perception, and they support the hypothesis that the sensorimotor coupling mechanisms for auditory (beeps) and moving visual stimuli (bouncing balls) overlap. PMID:27909419

Moving Stimuli Facilitate Synchronization But Not Temporal Perception.

PubMed

Silva, Susana; Castro, São Luís

2016-01-01

Recent studies have shown that a moving visual stimulus (e.g., a bouncing ball) facilitates synchronization compared to a static stimulus (e.g., a flashing light), and that it can even be as effective as an auditory beep. We asked a group of participants to perform different tasks with four stimulus types: beeps, siren-like sounds, visual flashes (static) and bouncing balls. First, participants performed synchronization with isochronous sequences (stimulus-guided synchronization), followed by a continuation phase in which the stimulus was internally generated (imagery-guided synchronization). Then they performed a perception task, in which they judged whether the final part of a temporal sequence was compatible with the previous beat structure (stimulus-guided perception). Similar to synchronization, an imagery-guided variant was added, in which sequences contained a gap in between (imagery-guided perception). Balls outperformed flashes and matched beeps (powerful ball effect) in stimulus-guided synchronization but not in perception (stimulus- or imagery-guided). In imagery-guided synchronization, performance accuracy decreased for beeps and balls, but not for flashes and sirens. Our findings suggest that the advantages of moving visual stimuli over static ones are grounded in action rather than perception, and they support the hypothesis that the sensorimotor coupling mechanisms for auditory (beeps) and moving visual stimuli (bouncing balls) overlap.

De Novo Genome and Transcriptome Assembly of the Canadian Beaver (Castor canadensis).

PubMed

Lok, Si; Paton, Tara A; Wang, Zhuozhi; Kaur, Gaganjot; Walker, Susan; Yuen, Ryan K C; Sung, Wilson W L; Whitney, Joseph; Buchanan, Janet A; Trost, Brett; Singh, Naina; Apresto, Beverly; Chen, Nan; Coole, Matthew; Dawson, Travis J; Ho, Karen; Hu, Zhizhou; Pullenayegum, Sanjeev; Samler, Kozue; Shipstone, Arun; Tsoi, Fiona; Wang, Ting; Pereira, Sergio L; Rostami, Pirooz; Ryan, Carol Ann; Tong, Amy Hin Yan; Ng, Karen; Sundaravadanam, Yogi; Simpson, Jared T; Lim, Burton K; Engstrom, Mark D; Dutton, Christopher J; Kerr, Kevin C R; Franke, Maria; Rapley, William; Wintle, Richard F; Scherer, Stephen W

2017-02-09

The Canadian beaver ( Castor canadensis ) is the largest indigenous rodent in North America. We report a draft annotated assembly of the beaver genome, the first for a large rodent and the first mammalian genome assembled directly from uncorrected and moderate coverage (< 30 ×) long reads generated by single-molecule sequencing. The genome size is 2.7 Gb estimated by k-mer analysis. We assembled the beaver genome using the new Canu assembler optimized for noisy reads. The resulting assembly was refined using Pilon supported by short reads (80 ×) and checked for accuracy by congruency against an independent short read assembly. We scaffolded the assembly using the exon-gene models derived from 9805 full-length open reading frames (FL-ORFs) constructed from the beaver leukocyte and muscle transcriptomes. The final assembly comprised 22,515 contigs with an N50 of 278,680 bp and an N50-scaffold of 317,558 bp. Maximum contig and scaffold lengths were 3.3 and 4.2 Mb, respectively, with a combined scaffold length representing 92% of the estimated genome size. The completeness and accuracy of the scaffold assembly was demonstrated by the precise exon placement for 91.1% of the 9805 assembled FL-ORFs and 83.1% of the BUSCO (Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs) gene set used to assess the quality of genome assemblies. Well-represented were genes involved in dentition and enamel deposition, defining characteristics of rodents with which the beaver is well-endowed. The study provides insights for genome assembly and an important genomics resource for Castoridae and rodent evolutionary biology. Copyright © 2017 Lok et al.

A novel infrared small moving target detection method based on tracking interest points under complicated background

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Xiabin; Huang, Xinsheng; Zheng, Yongbin; Bai, Shengjian; Xu, Wanying

2014-07-01

Infrared moving target detection is an important part of infrared technology. We introduce a novel infrared small moving target detection method based on tracking interest points under complicated background. Firstly, Difference of Gaussians (DOG) filters are used to detect a group of interest points (including the moving targets). Secondly, a sort of small targets tracking method inspired by Human Visual System (HVS) is used to track these interest points for several frames, and then the correlations between interest points in the first frame and the last frame are obtained. Last, a new clustering method named as R-means is proposed to divide these interest points into two groups according to the correlations, one is target points and another is background points. In experimental results, the target-to-clutter ratio (TCR) and the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves are computed experimentally to compare the performances of the proposed method and other five sophisticated methods. From the results, the proposed method shows a better discrimination of targets and clutters and has a lower false alarm rate than the existing moving target detection methods.

"Speak Out. Act Up. Move Forward." Disobedience-Based Arts Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kotin, Alison; Aguirre McGregor, Stella; Pellecchia, DeAnna; Schatz, Ingrid; Liu, Shaw Pong

2013-01-01

In this essay, Alison Kotin, Stella Aguirre McGregor, DeAnna Pellecchia, Ingrid Schatz, and Shaw Pong Liu reflect on their experiences working with public high school students to create "Speak Out. Act Up. Move Forward.," a performative response to current and historical acts of civil disobedience. The authors--a group of instructors…

Study of the impact on Salmonella of moving outdoor pigs to fresh land.

PubMed

Smith, R P; Andres, V; Dormer, L; Gosling, R; Oastler, C; Davies, R H

2017-07-01

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that outdoor-kept pigs show an improvement to health and productivity after being moved to a new site. This study explores whether Salmonella occurrence reduced and was sustained after moving to a new site. Nine farms were followed for a year in which four sampling visits were completed. The highest detection of Salmonella was from pooled faecal dropping from pigs, run-off/ pooled water, rodents and wild birds. Descriptive summaries showed that the prevalence of both all Salmonella and serovars of public health importance were lower at all visits after the move. Some variability was shown in results from individual farms, but a year after the move, six farms still maintained a lower prevalence. A risk factor model showed that the prevalence at visits 2 and 3 after the move was significantly lower than baseline, after accounting for a number of significant factors that were included in the model. These were sample type and seasonality (included as a priori), presence of coughing in the sampled group and Glasser's disease on the farm, and the use of tent or kennel accommodation. This finding provides important evidence that more frequent site moves may help reduce Salmonella prevalence in outdoor herds.

Studies on performance evaluation of a green plasticizer made by enzymatic esterification of furfuryl alcohol and castor oil fatty acid.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Sohini; Ghosh, Mahua

2017-02-10

The esterification of furfuryl alcohol (FA) and castor oil fatty acid (COFA) at 3:1 molar ratio, by immobilized Candida antarctica Lipase B (NS 435 from Novozyme) in a solvent free system gave a maximum yield of 88.64% (%w/w) at 5h. Performance of the FA-COFA ester plasticized Ethyl Cellulose (EC) films were evaluated by surface morphologies, XRD analysis, mechanical properties,thermal properties, water vapor permeability and migration stability test. It was an effective plasticizer with better mechanical properties and thermal stability at the increasing concentration of FA-COFA ester (15-25%) containing EC film, than the traditional plasticizer, i.e; dibutyl phthalate (DBP) in producing good quality films. Chemical structure and the intermolecular interactions between FA-COFA ester and ethyl cellulose chains were the causative agents of these outstanding performances. Therefore, this FA-COFA ester, with significant plasticizing property, at a certain concentration, can be a substitute of DBP. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of moving dairy cows at different stages of labor on behavior during parturition.

PubMed

Proudfoot, K L; Jensen, M B; Heegaard, P M H; von Keyserlingk, M A G

2013-03-01

Cows are often moved from a group to an individual maternity pen just before calving. However, it is unclear whether moving cows during labor may alter their behavior or affect the progress of labor. The aim of this study was to determine if moving cows to a maternity pen at different stages of labor would influence calving behavior or the length of the second stage of labor. Seventy-nine multiparous Holstein dairy cows were moved from 1 of 2 group pens to 1 of 10 maternity pens adjacent to each group pen either 3 d before expected calving date or when one or more behavioral or physical signs of labor were observed. These signs were noted, and were used to retrospectively categorize cows into 1 of 3 movement categories: (1) moved before labor, (2) moved during early stage I labor (signs of suddenly tense and enlarged udder, raised tail or relaxed pelvic ligaments; could also be immediately prelabor), or (3) moved during late stage I labor (signs of viscous, bloody mucus or abdominal contractions; could also be transitioning to stage II labor). Calves were weighed within 12h of birth and remained with their dam for 3 d. The length of the second stage of labor (the time between first abdominal contractions to the delivery the calf) and the total time of abdominal contractions, lying time, and number of position changes from standing to lying made by the cow in the hour before calving were recorded. A single blood sample was taken from the jugular vein of cows 3 to 27 h after calving to determine content of haptoglobin, a marker of systemic inflammation. The effect of movement category on length of the second stage of labor and behavioral variables was tested with ANOVA; category was a fixed effect and calf body weight (BW) and cow parity were covariates. The relationship between haptoglobin and the length of the second stage of labor was tested in a model with time of sampling relative to calving as a covariate. Cows moved during late stage I had the longest labor

Biochar prepared from castor oil cake at different temperatures: A voltammetric study applied for Pb(2+), Cd(2+) and Cu(2+) ions preconcentration.

PubMed

Kalinke, Cristiane; Mangrich, Antonio Sálvio; Marcolino-Junior, Luiz H; Bergamini, Márcio F

2016-11-15

Biochar is a carbonaceous material similar produced by pyrolysis of biomass under oxygen-limited conditions. Pyrolysis temperature is an important parameter that can alters biochar characteristics (e.g. surface area, pore size distribution and surface functional groups) and affects it efficacy for adsorption of several probes. In this work, biochar samples have been prepared from castor oil cake using different temperatures of pyrolysis (200-600°C). For the first time, a voltammetric procedure based on carbon paste modified electrode (CPME) was used to investigate the effect of temperature of pyrolysis on the adsorptive characteristics of biochar for Pb(II), Cd(II) and Cu(II) ions. Besides the electrochemical techniques, several characterizations have been performed to evaluate the physicochemical properties of biochar in function of the increase of the pyrolysis temperature. Results suggest that biochar pyrolized at 400°C (BC400) showed a better potential for ions adsorption. The CPME modified with BC400 showed better relative current signal with adsorption affinity: Pb(II)>Cd(II)>Cu(II). Kinetic studies revealed that the pseudo-second order model describes more accurately the adsorption process suggesting that the surface reactions control the adsorption rate. Values found for amount adsorbed were 15.94±0.09; 4.29±0.13 and 2.38±0.39μgg(-1) for Pb(II), Cd(II) and Cu(II) ions, respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

30 CFR 56.14107 - Moving machine parts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Moving machine parts. 56.14107 Section 56.14107... Safety Devices and Maintenance Requirements § 56.14107 Moving machine parts. (a) Moving machine parts... takeup pulleys, flywheels, couplings, shafts, fan blades, and similar moving parts that can cause injury...

30 CFR 57.14107 - Moving machine parts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Moving machine parts. 57.14107 Section 57.14107... Equipment Safety Devices and Maintenance Requirements § 57.14107 Moving machine parts. (a) Moving machine..., and takeup pulleys, flywheels, coupling, shafts, fan blades; and similar moving parts that can cause...

Plants on the Move

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damonte, Kathleen

2005-01-01

Living things respond to a stimulus, which is a change in the surroundings. Some common stimuli are noises, smells, and things the people see or feel, such as a change in temperature. Animals often respond to a stimulus by moving. Because plants can't move around in the same way animals do, plants have to respond in a different way. Plants can…

People on the Move

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohan, Audrey

2018-01-01

The purpose of this 2-3 day lesson is to introduce students in Grades 2-4 to the idea that people move around the world for a variety of reasons. In this activity, students explore why people move through class discussion, a guided reading, and interviews. The teacher elicits student ideas using the compelling question (Dimension 1 of the C3…

Moving forward on strengthening and sustaining National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) globally: Recommendations from the 2nd global NITAG network meeting.

PubMed

MacDonald, Noni E; Duclos, Philippe; Wichmann, Ole; Henaff, Louise; Harnden, Anthony; Alshammary, Aisha; Tijerino, Roberto Arroba; Hall, Madeline; Sacarlal, Jahit; Singh, Rupa Rajbhandari

2017-12-15

National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) provide independent, evidence-informed advice to assist their governments in immunization policy formation. This is complex work and many NITAGs face challenges in fulfilling their roles. Inter-country NITAG collaboration opportunities have the potential to enhance NITAG function and grow the quality of recommendations. Hence the many requests for formation of a network linking NITAGs together so they can learn from each other. The first Global NITAG Network (GNN) meeting, held in 2016, led to a push to launch the GNN and grow the network. At the second GNN meeting, held June 28-29, 2017 in Berlin, the GNN was formally inaugurated. Participants discussed GNN governance, reflected on the April 2017 Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization conclusions concerning strengthening of NITAGs and also shared NITAG experiences in evaluation and inter-country collaborations and independence. They also discussed the role of Regional Technical Advisory Groups on Immunization (RTAGs) and regional networks. A number of issues were raised including NITAGs and communications, dissemination of recommendations and vaccine implementation as well as implications of off-label recommendations. Participants were alerted to immunization evidence assessment sites and value of sharing of resources. They also discussed potential GNN funding opportunities, developed an action plan for 2017-18 and selected a Steering Committee to help move the GNN forward. All participants agreed on the importance of the GNN and the value in attracting more countries to join the GNN. Copyright © 2017.

Moving and Being Moved: Implications for Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kretchmar, R. Scott

2000-01-01

Uses philosophical writings, a novel about baseball, and a nonfiction work on rowing to analyze levels of meaning in physical activity, showing why three popular methods for enhancing meaning have not succeeded and may have moved some students away from deeper levels of meaning. The paper suggests that using hints taken from the three books could…

Integration of social information by human groups

PubMed Central

Granovskiy, Boris; Gold, Jason M.; Sumpter, David; Goldstone, Robert L.

2015-01-01

We consider a situation in which individuals search for accurate decisions without direct feedback on their accuracy but with information about the decisions made by peers in their group. The “wisdom of crowds” hypothesis states that the average judgment of many individuals can give a good estimate of, for example, the outcomes of sporting events and the answers to trivia questions. Two conditions for the application of wisdom of crowds are that estimates should be independent and unbiased. Here, we study how individuals integrate social information when answering trivia questions with answers that range between 0 and 100% (e.g., ‘What percentage of Americans are left-handed?’). We find that, consistent with the wisdom of crowds hypothesis, average performance improves with group size. However, individuals show a consistent bias to produce estimates that are insufficiently extreme. We find that social information provides significant, albeit small, improvement to group performance. Outliers with answers far from the correct answer move towards the position of the group mean. Given that these outliers also tend to be nearer to 50% than do the answers of other group members, this move creates group polarization away from 50%. By looking at individual performance over different questions we find that some people are more likely to be affected by social influence than others. There is also evidence that people differ in their competence in answering questions, but lack of competence is not significantly correlated with willingness to change guesses. We develop a mathematical model based on these results that postulates a cognitive process in which people first decide whether to take into account peer guesses, and if so, to move in the direction of these guesses. The size of the move is proportional to the distance between their own guess and the average guess of the group. This model closely approximates the distribution of guess movements and shows how

Integration of Social Information by Human Groups.

PubMed

Granovskiy, Boris; Gold, Jason M; Sumpter, David J T; Goldstone, Robert L

2015-07-01

We consider a situation in which individuals search for accurate decisions without direct feedback on their accuracy, but with information about the decisions made by peers in their group. The "wisdom of crowds" hypothesis states that the average judgment of many individuals can give a good estimate of, for example, the outcomes of sporting events and the answers to trivia questions. Two conditions for the application of wisdom of crowds are that estimates should be independent and unbiased. Here, we study how individuals integrate social information when answering trivia questions with answers that range between 0% and 100% (e.g., "What percentage of Americans are left-handed?"). We find that, consistent with the wisdom of crowds hypothesis, average performance improves with group size. However, individuals show a consistent bias to produce estimates that are insufficiently extreme. We find that social information provides significant, albeit small, improvement to group performance. Outliers with answers far from the correct answer move toward the position of the group mean. Given that these outliers also tend to be nearer to 50% than do the answers of other group members, this move creates group polarization away from 50%. By looking at individual performance over different questions we find that some people are more likely to be affected by social influence than others. There is also evidence that people differ in their competence in answering questions, but lack of competence is not significantly correlated with willingness to change guesses. We develop a mathematical model based on these results that postulates a cognitive process in which people first decide whether to take into account peer guesses, and if so, to move in the direction of these guesses. The size of the move is proportional to the distance between their own guess and the average guess of the group. This model closely approximates the distribution of guess movements and shows how outlying

Exhausting Attentional Tracking Resources with a Single Fast-Moving Object

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holcombe, Alex O.; Chen, Wei-Ying

2012-01-01

Driving on a busy road, eluding a group of predators, or playing a team sport involves keeping track of multiple moving objects. In typical laboratory tasks, the number of visual targets that humans can track is about four. Three types of theories have been advanced to explain this limit. The fixed-limit theory posits a set number of attentional…

Life on the Move: The Unique Needs of Migratory Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ribando, Clare.

As a result of their mobile lifestyle, migrant children experience a high degree of unpredictability in all aspects of their lives. This paper illustrates how the patterns of migrant families' moves put their children at even greater risk for educational problems than is true for other mobile student groups, such as dependents of U.S. military…

MOVES2014: Evaporative Emissions Report

EPA Science Inventory

Vehicle evaporative emissions are now modeled in EPA’s MOVES according to physical processes, permeation, tank vapor venting, liquid leaks, and refueling emissions. With this update, the following improvements are being incorporated into MOVES evaporative emissions methodology, a...

Process for injecting liquid in moving natural gas streams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Budke, H.T. Jr.; Rivers, J.B. Jr.

1979-01-02

A simplified, low-cost method of treating pressurized, moving natural gas streams in order to control problems created by entrained water in the gas is provided which facilitates downstream treatment of the gas and increases product yields by lessening the formation of oil and water emulsions and hydrates which can coat and clog processing equipment, while also minimizing corrosion of the latter. The method involves introduction of an agent into the moving gas stream which includes a polymer having recurring quaternized pyridinium groups therein for controlling the emulsion, hydrate, and corrosion problems. The method is especially effective when the entrained watermore » contains surfactants, detergents, soaps, and the like. In preferred forms a low moleuclar weight copolymer of styrene and 2-vinyl pyridine dispersed in water is atomized into the gas stream adjacent cooling and scrubbing stations. 8 claims.« less

Visual feedback training improves postural adjustments associated with moving obstacle avoidance in elderly women.

PubMed

Hatzitaki, V; Voudouris, D; Nikodelis, T; Amiridis, I G

2009-02-01

The study examined the impact of visually guided weight shifting (WS) practice on the postural adjustments evoked by elderly women when avoiding collision with a moving obstacle while standing. Fifty-six healthy elderly women (70.9+/-5.7 years, 87.5+/-9.6 kg) were randomly assigned into one of three groups: a group that completed 12 sessions (25 min, 3s/week) of WS practice in the Anterior/Posterior direction (A/P group, n=20), a group that performed the same practice in the medio/lateral direction (M/L group, n=20) and a control group (n=16). Pre- and post-training, participants were tested in a moving obstacle avoidance task. As a result of practice, postural response onset shifted closer to the time of collision with the obstacle. Side-to-side WS resulted in a reduction of the M/L sway amplitude and an increase of the trunk's velocity during avoidance. It is concluded that visually guided WS practice enhances elderly's ability for on-line visuo-motor processing when avoiding collision eliminating reliance on anticipatory scaling. Specifying the direction of WS seems to be critical for optimizing the transfer of training adaptations.

Impacts of moving bottlenecks on traffic flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ou, Hui; Tang, Tie-Qiao

2018-06-01

Bottleneck (especially the moving bottleneck) widely exists in the urban traffic system. However, little effort has been made to study the impacts of the moving bottleneck on traffic flow (especially the evolution and propagation of traffic flow). In this article, we introduce the speed of a moving bottleneck into a traffic flow model, then propose an extended macro traffic flow with a moving bottleneck, and finally use the proposed model to study the effects of a moving bottleneck on the evolution and propagation of traffic flow under uniform flow and a small perturbation. The numerical results indicate that the moving bottleneck has prominent influences on the evolution of traffic flow under the two typical traffic situations and that the impacts are dependent on the initial density.

9 CFR 316.8 - Unmarked inspected products; moved between official establishments; moved in commerce.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Unmarked inspected products; moved between official establishments; moved in commerce. 316.8 Section 316.8 Animals and Animal Products FOOD... closed container, if the railroad car, truck, or container is sealed with an official seal of the...

9 CFR 316.8 - Unmarked inspected products; moved between official establishments; moved in commerce.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Unmarked inspected products; moved between official establishments; moved in commerce. 316.8 Section 316.8 Animals and Animal Products FOOD... closed container, if the railroad car, truck, or container is sealed with an official seal of the...

Moving vehicles segmentation based on Gaussian motion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei; Fang, Xiang Z.; Lin, Wei Y.

2005-07-01

Moving objects segmentation is a challenge in computer vision. This paper focuses on the segmentation of moving vehicles in dynamic scene. We analyses the psychology of human vision and present a framework for segmenting moving vehicles in the highway. The proposed framework consists of two parts. Firstly, we propose an adaptive background update method in which the background is updated according to the change of illumination conditions and thus can adapt to the change of illumination sensitively. Secondly, we construct a Gaussian motion model to segment moving vehicles, in which the motion vectors of the moving pixels are modeled as a Gaussian model and an on-line EM algorithm is used to update the model. The Gaussian distribution of the adaptive model is elevated to determine which moving vectors result from moving vehicles and which from other moving objects such as waving trees. Finally, the pixels with motion vector result from the moving vehicles are segmented. Experimental results of several typical scenes show that the proposed model can detect the moving vehicles correctly and is immune from influence of the moving objects caused by the waving trees and the vibration of camera.

Common Features Between the Proteomes of Floral and Extrafloral Nectar From the Castor Plant (Ricinus Communis) and the Proteomes of Exudates From Carnivorous Plants

PubMed Central

Nogueira, Fábio C. S.; Farias, Andreza R. B.; Teixeira, Fabiano M.; Domont, Gilberto B.; Campos, Francisco A. P.

2018-01-01

Label-free quantitative proteome analysis of extrafloral (EFN) and floral nectar (FN) from castor (Ricinus communis) plants resulted in the identification of 72 and 37 proteins, respectively. Thirty proteins were differentially accumulated between EFN and FN, and 24 of these were more abundant in the EFN. In addition to proteins involved in maintaining the nectar pathogen free such as chitinases and glucan 1,3-beta-glucosidase, both proteomes share an array of peptidases, lipases, carbohydrases, and nucleases. A total of 39 of the identified proteins, comprising different classes of hydrolases, were found to have biochemical matching partners in the exudates of at least five genera of carnivorous plants, indicating the EFN and FN possess a potential to digest biological material from microbial, animal or plant origin equivalent to the exudates of carnivorous plants. PMID:29755492

Common Features Between the Proteomes of Floral and Extrafloral Nectar From the Castor Plant (Ricinus Communis) and the Proteomes of Exudates From Carnivorous Plants.

PubMed

Nogueira, Fábio C S; Farias, Andreza R B; Teixeira, Fabiano M; Domont, Gilberto B; Campos, Francisco A P

2018-01-01

Label-free quantitative proteome analysis of extrafloral (EFN) and floral nectar (FN) from castor ( Ricinus communis ) plants resulted in the identification of 72 and 37 proteins, respectively. Thirty proteins were differentially accumulated between EFN and FN, and 24 of these were more abundant in the EFN. In addition to proteins involved in maintaining the nectar pathogen free such as chitinases and glucan 1,3-beta-glucosidase, both proteomes share an array of peptidases, lipases, carbohydrases, and nucleases. A total of 39 of the identified proteins, comprising different classes of hydrolases, were found to have biochemical matching partners in the exudates of at least five genera of carnivorous plants, indicating the EFN and FN possess a potential to digest biological material from microbial, animal or plant origin equivalent to the exudates of carnivorous plants.

Group Development of Effective Governance Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mar, Deborah Katherine

2011-01-01

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the behaviors of effective governance teams as they move through stages of group development during regular school board meetings, utilizing the task and process behaviors identified in the Group Development Assessment (Jones & Bearley, 1994). Methodology. This mixed-methods…

Preparation and Characterization of All-Biomass Soy Protein Isolate-Based Films Enhanced by Epoxy Castor Oil Acid Sodium and Hydroxypropyl Cellulose

PubMed Central

Wang, La; Li, Jianzhang; Zhang, Shifeng; Shi, Junyou

2016-01-01

All-biomass soy protein-based films were prepared using soy protein isolate (SPI), glycerol, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and epoxy castor oil acid sodium (ECOS). The effect of the incorporated HPC and ECOS on the properties of the SPI film was investigated. The experimental results showed that the tensile strength of the resultant films increased from 2.84 MPa (control) to 4.04 MPa and the elongation at break increased by 22.7% when the SPI was modified with 2% HPC and 10% ECOS. The increased tensile strength resulted from the reaction between the ECOS and SPI, which was confirmed by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). It was found that ECOS and HPC effectively improved the performance of SPI-based films, which can provide a new method for preparing environmentally-friendly polymer films for a number of commercial applications. PMID:28773320

Preparation and Characterization of All-Biomass Soy Protein Isolate-Based Films Enhanced by Epoxy Castor Oil Acid Sodium and Hydroxypropyl Cellulose.

PubMed

Wang, La; Li, Jianzhang; Zhang, Shifeng; Shi, Junyou

2016-03-15

All-biomass soy protein-based films were prepared using soy protein isolate (SPI), glycerol, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and epoxy castor oil acid sodium (ECOS). The effect of the incorporated HPC and ECOS on the properties of the SPI film was investigated. The experimental results showed that the tensile strength of the resultant films increased from 2.84 MPa (control) to 4.04 MPa and the elongation at break increased by 22.7% when the SPI was modified with 2% HPC and 10% ECOS. The increased tensile strength resulted from the reaction between the ECOS and SPI, which was confirmed by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). It was found that ECOS and HPC effectively improved the performance of SPI-based films, which can provide a new method for preparing environmentally-friendly polymer films for a number of commercial applications.

Adaptive moving mesh methods for simulating one-dimensional groundwater problems with sharp moving fronts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Huang, W.; Zheng, Lingyun; Zhan, X.

2002-01-01

Accurate modelling of groundwater flow and transport with sharp moving fronts often involves high computational cost, when a fixed/uniform mesh is used. In this paper, we investigate the modelling of groundwater problems using a particular adaptive mesh method called the moving mesh partial differential equation approach. With this approach, the mesh is dynamically relocated through a partial differential equation to capture the evolving sharp fronts with a relatively small number of grid points. The mesh movement and physical system modelling are realized by solving the mesh movement and physical partial differential equations alternately. The method is applied to the modelling of a range of groundwater problems, including advection dominated chemical transport and reaction, non-linear infiltration in soil, and the coupling of density dependent flow and transport. Numerical results demonstrate that sharp moving fronts can be accurately and efficiently captured by the moving mesh approach. Also addressed are important implementation strategies, e.g. the construction of the monitor function based on the interpolation error, control of mesh concentration, and two-layer mesh movement. Copyright ?? 2002 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

Methods and apparatus for moving and separating materials exhibiting different physical properties

DOEpatents

Peterson, Stephen C.; Brimhall, Owen D.; McLaughlin, Thomas J.; Baker, Charles D.; Sparks, Sam L.

1991-01-01

Methods and apparatus for controlling the movement of materials having different physical properties when one of the materials is a fluid. The invention does not rely on flocculation, sedimentation, centrifugation, the buoyancy of the materials, or any other gravity dependent characteristic, in order to achieve its desired results. The methods of the present invention provide that a first acoustic wave is propagated through a vessel containing the materials. A second acoustic wave, at a frequency different than the first acoustic wave, is also propagated through the vessel so that the two acoustic waves are superimposed upon each other. The superimposition of the two waves creates a beat frequency wave. The beat frequency wave comprises pressure gradients dividing regions of maximum and minimum pressure. The pressure gradients and the regions of maximum and minimum pressure move through space and time at a group velocity. The moving pressure gradients and regions of maximum and minimum pressure act upon the materials so as to move one of the materials towards a predetermined location in the vessel. The present invention provides that the materials may be controllably moved toward a location, aggregated at a particular location, or physically separated from each other.

Methods and apparatus for moving and separating materials exhibiting different physical properties

DOEpatents

Peterson, Stephen C.; Brimhall, Owen D.; McLaughlin, Thomas J.; Baker, Charles D.; Sparks, Sam L.

1988-01-01

Methods and apparatus for controlling the movement of materials having different physical properties when one of the materials is a fluid. The invention does not rely on flocculation, sedimentation, centrifugation, the buoyancy of the materials, or any other gravity dependent characteristic, in order to achieve its desired results. The methods of the present invention provide that a first acoustic wave is progpagated through a vessel containing the materials. A second acoustic wave, at a frequency different than the first acoustic wave, is also propagated through the vessel so that the two acoustic waves are superimposed upon each other. The superimposition of the two waves creates a beat frequency wave. The beat frequency wave comprises pressure gradients dividing regions of maximum and minimum pressure. The pressure gradients and the regions of maximum and minimum pressure move through space and time at a group velocity. The moving pressure gradients and regions of maximum and minimum pressure act upon the marterials so as to move one of the materials towards a predetermined location in the vessel. The present invention provides that the materials may be controllably moved toward a location, aggreated at a particular location, or physically separated from each other.

Evaluation of Content-Matched Range Monitoring Queries over Moving Objects in Mobile Computing Environments

PubMed Central

Jung, HaRim; Song, MoonBae; Youn, Hee Yong; Kim, Ung Mo

2015-01-01

A content-matched (CM) range monitoring query over moving objects continually retrieves the moving objects (i) whose non-spatial attribute values are matched to given non-spatial query values; and (ii) that are currently located within a given spatial query range. In this paper, we propose a new query indexing structure, called the group-aware query region tree (GQR-tree) for efficient evaluation of CM range monitoring queries. The primary role of the GQR-tree is to help the server leverage the computational capabilities of moving objects in order to improve the system performance in terms of the wireless communication cost and server workload. Through a series of comprehensive simulations, we verify the superiority of the GQR-tree method over the existing methods. PMID:26393613

Moving object localization using optical flow for pedestrian detection from a moving vehicle.

PubMed

Hariyono, Joko; Hoang, Van-Dung; Jo, Kang-Hyun

2014-01-01

This paper presents a pedestrian detection method from a moving vehicle using optical flows and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG). A moving object is extracted from the relative motion by segmenting the region representing the same optical flows after compensating the egomotion of the camera. To obtain the optical flow, two consecutive images are divided into grid cells 14 × 14 pixels; then each cell is tracked in the current frame to find corresponding cell in the next frame. Using at least three corresponding cells, affine transformation is performed according to each corresponding cell in the consecutive images, so that conformed optical flows are extracted. The regions of moving object are detected as transformed objects, which are different from the previously registered background. Morphological process is applied to get the candidate human regions. In order to recognize the object, the HOG features are extracted on the candidate region and classified using linear support vector machine (SVM). The HOG feature vectors are used as input of linear SVM to classify the given input into pedestrian/nonpedestrian. The proposed method was tested in a moving vehicle and also confirmed through experiments using pedestrian dataset. It shows a significant improvement compared with original HOG using ETHZ pedestrian dataset.

Robust moving mesh algorithms for hybrid stretched meshes: Application to moving boundaries problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landry, Jonathan; Soulaïmani, Azzeddine; Luke, Edward; Ben Haj Ali, Amine

2016-12-01

A robust Mesh-Mover Algorithm (MMA) approach is designed to adapt meshes of moving boundaries problems. A new methodology is developed from the best combination of well-known algorithms in order to preserve the quality of initial meshes. In most situations, MMAs distribute mesh deformation while preserving a good mesh quality. However, invalid meshes are generated when the motion is complex and/or involves multiple bodies. After studying a few MMA limitations, we propose the following approach: use the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) function to produce the displacement field, then apply the Geometric Element Transformation Method (GETMe) smoothing algorithms to improve the resulting mesh quality, and use an untangler to revert negative elements. The proposed approach has been proven efficient to adapt meshes for various realistic aerodynamic motions: a symmetric wing that has suffered large tip bending and twisting and the high-lift components of a swept wing that has moved to different flight stages. Finally, the fluid flow problem has been solved on meshes that have moved and they have produced results close to experimental ones. However, for situations where moving boundaries are too close to each other, more improvements need to be made or other approaches should be taken, such as an overset grid method.

Process for injecting liquid in moving natural gas streams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rivers, J.B. Jr.; Budke, H.T. Jr.

1979-01-02

Western Chemical Co.'s simplified, low-cost method of treating pressurized, moving natural gas streams in order to control problems created by entrained water facilitates the downstream treatment of the gas and increases product yields by lessening the formation of oil and water emulsions and hydrates that can coat and clog the processing equipment, while also minimizing equipment corrosion. The method involves introducing into the moving gas stream an agent that includes a polymer having recurring quaternized pyridinium groups for controlling the emulsion, hydrate, and corrosion problems. The method is especially effective when the entrained water contains surfactants, detergents, soaps, etc. Inmore » preferred forms, a low-molecular-weight copolymer of styrene and 2-vinyl pyridine dispersed in water is atomized into the gas stream adjacent to cooling and scrubbing stations. The method is particularly useful in connection with natural gas products plants.« less

Tools to Develop or Convert MOVES Inputs

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The following tools are designed to help users develop inputs to MOVES and post-process the output. With the release of MOVES2014, EPA strongly encourages state and local agencies to develop local inputs based on MOVES fleet and activity categories.

76 FR 71080 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection Requests: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move Gardens

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-16

..., library, and information services. The policy research, analysis, and data collection is used to: Identify... Requests: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move Gardens AGENCY: Institute of Museum and Library Services, National.... SUMMARY: The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), as part of its continuing effort to reduce...

Student-Centered Coaching: The Moves

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweeney, Diane; Harris, Leanna S.

2017-01-01

Student-centered coaching is a highly-effective, evidence-based coaching model that shifts the focus from "fixing" teachers to collaborating with them to design instruction that targets student outcomes. But what does this look like in practice? "Student-Centered Coaching: The Moves" shows you the day-to-day coaching moves that…

Microscale hydrodynamics near moving contact lines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garoff, Stephen; Chen, Q.; Rame, Enrique; Willson, K. R.

1994-01-01

The hydrodynamics governing the fluid motions on a microscopic scale near moving contact lines are different from those governing motion far from the contact line. We explore these unique hydrodynamics by detailed measurement of the shape of a fluid meniscus very close to a moving contact line. The validity of present models of the hydrodynamics near moving contact lines as well as the dynamic wetting characteristics of a family of polymer liquids are discussed.

Amodal completion of moving objects by pigeons.

PubMed

Nagasaka, Yasuo; Wasserman, Edward A

2008-01-01

In a series of four experiments, we explored whether pigeons complete partially occluded moving shapes. Four pigeons were trained to discriminate between a complete moving shape and an incomplete moving shape in a two-alternative forced-choice task. In testing, the birds were presented with a partially occluded moving shape. In experiment 1, none of the pigeons appeared to complete the testing stimulus; instead, they appeared to perceive the testing stimulus as incomplete fragments. However, in experiments 2, 3, and 4, three of the birds appeared to complete the partially occluded moving shapes. These rare positive results suggest that motion may facilitate amodal completion by pigeons, perhaps by enhancing the figure - ground segregation process.

The application of 1,8-cineole, a terpenoid oxide present in medicinal plants, inhibits castor oil-induced diarrhea in rats.

PubMed

Jalilzadeh-Amin, Ghader; Maham, Massoud

2015-04-01

1,8-Cineole, a terpene, characterized as a major constituent occurring in the essential oils of several aromatic plants. It is widely used in pharmaceutical industry, as a food additive and for culinary purposes. This study investigates the inhibitory effect of 1,8-cineole on transit time and diarrhea in animal models. Acute toxicity and lethality of 1-8-cineole was determined by Lork's guidelines. The antidiarrheal effect of 1,8-cineole was investigated by determining the intestinal transit and enterpooling in rats. In all experiments, different doses of 1,8-cineole (20-120 mg/kg), atropine, and loperamide were administered orally. The LD50 of 1,8-cineole for oral administration was estimated to be 1280 mg/kg. 1,8-Cineole (20-120 mg/kg) did not show a significant decrease in small intestine transit (p > 0.05); however, the highest dose displayed a significant decrease in comparison with atropine (p < 0.05). This substance decreased the peristaltic index value to 68 ± 0.36% at a dose of 120 mg/kg compared with the control group (85.22 ± 4.31%) in the castor oil transit test. 1,8-Cineole significantly delayed the onset of diarrhea to -142.33 ± 6.08 min at 120 mg/kg, while the time was 103.66 ± 20.73 min for the control and >240 min for the loperamide. Moreover, 1,8-cineole significantly decreased intestinal fluid accumulation (p < 0.05). This study demonstrated antispasmodic and antisecretory activities of 1,8-cineole and rationalized the traditional use of the plant containing various levels of this terpene in the treatment of gastrointestinal complains such as diarrhea.

Long-term effects of the Moving to Opportunity residential mobility experiment on crime and delinquency

PubMed Central

Sciandra, Matthew; Sanbonmatsu, Lisa; Duncan, Greg J.; Gennetian, Lisa A.; Katz, Lawrence F.; Kessler, Ronald C.; Kling, Jeffrey R.; Ludwig, Jens

2013-01-01

Objectives Using data from a randomized experiment, to examine whether moving youth out of areas of concentrated poverty, where a disproportionate amount of crime occurs, prevents involvement in crime. Methods We draw on new administrative data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment. MTO families were randomized into an experimental group offered a housing voucher that could only be used to move to a low-poverty neighborhood, a Section 8 housing group offered a standard housing voucher, and a control group. This paper focuses on MTO youth ages 15–25 in 2001 (n = 4,643) and analyzes intention to treat effects on neighborhood characteristics and criminal behavior (number of violent- and property-crime arrests) through 10 years after randomization. Results We find the offer of a housing voucher generates large improvements in neighborhood conditions that attenuate over time and initially generates substantial reductions in violent-crime arrests and sizable increases in property-crime arrests for experimental group males. The crime effects attenuate over time along with differences in neighborhood conditions. Conclusions Our findings suggest that criminal behavior is more strongly related to current neighborhood conditions (situational neighborhood effects) than to past neighborhood conditions (developmental neighborhood effects). The MTO design makes it difficult to determine which specific neighborhood characteristics are most important for criminal behavior. Our administrative data analyses could be affected by differences across areas in the likelihood that a crime results in an arrest. PMID:24348277

Long-term effects of the Moving to Opportunity residential mobility experiment on crime and delinquency.

PubMed

Sciandra, Matthew; Sanbonmatsu, Lisa; Duncan, Greg J; Gennetian, Lisa A; Katz, Lawrence F; Kessler, Ronald C; Kling, Jeffrey R; Ludwig, Jens

2013-12-01

Using data from a randomized experiment, to examine whether moving youth out of areas of concentrated poverty, where a disproportionate amount of crime occurs, prevents involvement in crime. We draw on new administrative data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment. MTO families were randomized into an experimental group offered a housing voucher that could only be used to move to a low-poverty neighborhood, a Section 8 housing group offered a standard housing voucher, and a control group . This paper focuses on MTO youth ages 15-25 in 2001 ( n = 4,643) and analyzes intention to treat effects on neighborhood characteristics and criminal behavior (number of violent- and property-crime arrests) through 10 years after randomization. We find the offer of a housing voucher generates large improvements in neighborhood conditions that attenuate over time and initially generates substantial reductions in violent-crime arrests and sizable increases in property-crime arrests for experimental group males. The crime effects attenuate over time along with differences in neighborhood conditions. Our findings suggest that criminal behavior is more strongly related to current neighborhood conditions (situational neighborhood effects) than to past neighborhood conditions (developmental neighborhood effects). The MTO design makes it difficult to determine which specific neighborhood characteristics are most important for criminal behavior. Our administrative data analyses could be affected by differences across areas in the likelihood that a crime results in an arrest.

Effects of Twenty-four Move Shadow Boxing Combined with psychosomatic relaxation on Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Type-2 Diabetes.

PubMed

Zheng, Yingying; Zhou, Yiyi; Lai, Qiujia

2015-06-01

The aim of the current study was to observe the effects of Twenty-four Move Shadow Boxing combined with psychosomatic relaxation on depression and anxiety in patients with Type-2 Diabetes. One hundred and twenty (120) patients with Type-2 Diabetes and depressive/anxious symptoms were divided into intervention group (60 cases) and control group (60 cases) according to the minimum distribution principle of unbalanced indicators. Twenty-four Move Shadow Boxing group used this intervention combined with psychosomatic relaxation. Control group underwent conventional treatment. All the patients in the two groups completed the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) before and after treatment. Among the 52 people included in the statistical analysis, the recovery rate was 13.3%. The differences between depression and anxiety scores in the intervention group before and after treatment were statistically significant (P<0.001), whereas these differences were non-significant in the control group (P=0.123). After the treatment, the glycated hemoglobin reduction in the intervention group was greater than that of the control group (t=2.438, P=0.016). The combination of Twenty-four Move Shadow Boxing and psychosomatic relaxation has a beneficial auxiliary therapeutic effect on depression and anxiety accompanying Type-2 Diabetes.

30 CFR 56.14107 - Moving machine parts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Moving machine parts. 56.14107 Section 56.14107 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE... Safety Devices and Maintenance Requirements § 56.14107 Moving machine parts. (a) Moving machine parts...

30 CFR 57.14107 - Moving machine parts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Moving machine parts. 57.14107 Section 57.14107 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE... Equipment Safety Devices and Maintenance Requirements § 57.14107 Moving machine parts. (a) Moving machine...

77 FR 16566 - Submission for OMB Review, Comment Request, Proposed Collection: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-21

... the Nation's museum, library, and information services. The policy research, analysis, and data..., Proposed Collection: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move Gardens AGENCY: Institute of Museum and Library..., comment request. SUMMARY: The Institute of Museum and Library Services announces that the following...

Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight

PubMed Central

Shepard, Emily L. C.; Portugal, Steven J.

2016-01-01

One of the defining features of the aerial environment is its variability; air is almost never still. This has profound consequences for flying animals, affecting their flight stability, speed selection, energy expenditure and choice of flight path. All these factors have important implications for the ecology of flying animals, and the ecosystems they interact with, as well as providing bio-inspiration for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles. In this introduction, we touch on the factors that drive the variability in airflows, the scales of variability and the degree to which given airflows may be predictable. We then summarize how papers in this volume advance our understanding of the sensory, biomechanical, physiological and behavioural responses of animals to air flows. Overall, this provides insight into how flying animals can be so successful in this most fickle of environments. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’. PMID:27528772

Moving to a New Town. A Relocation Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rackliffe, Gary, Ed.; Pearson, Nancy, Ed.

Designed to help those who must consider relocating to secure employment, this relocation guide provides answers to a number of questions pertaining to moving, money management, and adjusting to a new community. Various aspects of deciding to move are covered, including reasons for moving, thinking of a move as permanent, feelings of homesickness,…

INDEPENDENT AND GROUP LEARNING.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DICKINSON, MARIE B.

IN CONTRAST TO THE TRADITIONAL EMPHASES ON ROTE LEARNING AND FACT ACCUMULATION, RECENT TRENDS EMERGING FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH STRESS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THINKING PROCESSES SUCH AS THE ABILITY TO REASON ABSTRACTLY AND TO SYNTHESIZE. CHILDREN WORKING INDEPENDENTLY OR IN GROUPS MOVE THROUGH A DISCOVERY LEARNING CURRICULUM IN WHICH THE TEACHER…

A randomized pilot study of MOtiVation and Enhancement training (MOVE) for negative symptoms in schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Velligan, Dawn I.; Roberts, David; Mintz, Jim; Maples, Natalie; Li, Xueying; Medellin, Elisa; Brown, Matt

2015-01-01

Introduction Among individuals with schizophrenia, those who have persistent and clinically significant negative symptoms (PNS) have the poorest functional outcomes and quality of life. The NIMH-MATRICS Consensus Statement indicated that these symptoms represent an unmet therapeutic need for large numbers of individuals with schizophrenia. No psychosocial treatment model addresses the entire constellation of PNS. Method 51 patients with PNS were randomized into one of two groups for a period of 9 months: 1) MOtiVation and Engagement (MOVE) or 2) Treatment as usual. MOVE is a home based, manual-driven, multi-modal treatment that employs a number of cognitive and behavioral principles to address the broad range of factors contributing to PNS and their functional consequences. Components of MOVE include: Environmental supports to prompt initiation and persistence, in-vivo skills training to ameliorate deficits and encourage interaction, cognitive behavioral techniques to address self-defeating attitudes, in-vivo training in emotional processing to address affective blunting and problems in identifying emotions, and specific techniques to address the deficits in anticipatory pleasure. Patients were assessed at baseline and each 3 months with multiple measures of negative symptoms. Results Repeated measures analyses of variance for mixed models indicated significant Group by Time effects for the Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA; p<.02) and the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS p<.04). Group differences were not significant until 9 months of treatment and were not significant for the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS). Conclusion Further investigation of a comprehensive treatment for PNS, such as MOVE, is warranted. PMID:25937461

A randomized pilot study of MOtiVation and Enhancement (MOVE) Training for negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Velligan, Dawn I; Roberts, David; Mintz, Jim; Maples, Natalie; Li, Xueying; Medellin, Elisa; Brown, Matt

2015-07-01

Among individuals with schizophrenia, those who have persistent and clinically significant negative symptoms (PNS) have the poorest functional outcomes and quality of life. The NIMH-MATRICS Consensus Statement indicated that these symptoms represent an unmet therapeutic need for large numbers of individuals with schizophrenia. No psychosocial treatment model addresses the entire constellation of PNS. 51 patients with PNS were randomized into one of two groups for a period of 9 months: 1) MOtiVation and Enhancement (MOVE) or 2) treatment as usual. MOVE is a home based, manual-driven, multi-modal treatment that employs a number of cognitive and behavioral principles to address the broad range of factors contributing to PNS and their functional consequences. The components of MOVE include: Environmental supports to prompt initiation and persistence, in-vivo skills training to ameliorate deficits and encourage interaction, cognitive behavioral techniques to address self-defeating attitudes, in-vivo training in emotional processing to address affective blunting and problems in identifying emotions, and specific techniques to address the deficits in anticipatory pleasure. Patients were assessed at baseline and each 3 months with multiple measures of negative symptoms. Repeated measures analyses of variance for mixed models indicated significant Group by Time effects for the Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA; p<.02) and the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS; p<.04). Group differences were not significant until 9 months of treatment and were not significant for the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS). Further investigation of a comprehensive treatment for PNS, such as MOVE, is warranted. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Acceptability and satisfaction of project MOVE: A pragmatic feasibility trial aimed at increasing physical activity in female breast cancer survivors

PubMed Central

Pullen, Tanya; Bottorff, Joan L.; Sabiston, Catherine M.; Campbell, Kristin L.; Ellard, Susan L.; Gotay, Carolyn; Fitzpatrick, Kayla; Caperchione, Cristina M.

2018-01-01

Abstract Objective Despite the physical and psychological health benefits associated with physical activity (PA) for breast cancer (BC) survivors, up to 70% of female BC survivors are not meeting minimum recommended PA guidelines. The objective of this study was to evaluate acceptability and satisfaction with Project MOVE, an innovative approach to increase PA among BC survivors through the combination of microgrants and financial incentives. Methods A mixed‐methods design was used. Participants were BC survivors and support individuals with a mean age of 58.5 years. At 6‐month follow‐up, participants completed a program evaluation questionnaire (n = 72) and participated in focus groups (n = 52) to explore their experience with Project MOVE. Results Participants reported that they were satisfied with Project MOVE (86.6%) and that the program was appropriate for BC survivors (96.3%). Four main themes emerged from focus groups: (1) acceptability and satisfaction of Project MOVE, detailing the value of the model in developing tailored group‐base PA programs; (2) the importance of Project MOVE leaders, highlighting the value of a leader that was organized and a good communicator; (3) breaking down barriers with Project MOVE, describing how the program helped to address common BC related barriers; and (4) motivation to MOVE, outlining how the microgrants enabled survivors to be active, while the financial incentive motivated them to increase and maintain their PA. Conclusion The findings provide support for the acceptability of Project MOVE as a strategy for increasing PA among BC survivors. PMID:29409128

30 CFR 57.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Moving the drill. 57.7008 Section 57.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling-Surface Only § 57.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one...

30 CFR 57.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Moving the drill. 57.7008 Section 57.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling-Surface Only § 57.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one...

30 CFR 57.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Moving the drill. 57.7008 Section 57.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling-Surface Only § 57.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one...

30 CFR 57.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Moving the drill. 57.7008 Section 57.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling-Surface Only § 57.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one...

30 CFR 57.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Moving the drill. 57.7008 Section 57.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling-Surface Only § 57.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one...

Emergent Leadership in Children's Discussion Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yuan; Anderson, Richard C.; Nguyen-Jahiel, Kim; Dong, Ting; Archodidou, Anthi; Kim, Il-Hee; Kuo, Li-Jen; Clark, Ann-Marie; Wu, Xiaoying; Jadallah, May; Miller, Brian

2007-01-01

Emergent leadership was examined in 12 discussion groups in 4 fourth-grade classrooms. Children's leadership moves were coded from transcripts of 10 free-flowing, open-format discussions of each of the 12 groups. The transcripts encompassed 26,000 turns for speaking, including 22,000 child turns of which 1,700 were judged to serve one of five…

Elastohydrodynamics of farm-based blends comprising amphiphilic oils

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Vegetable oils contain non-polar hydrocarbon chains and polar ester groups (and possibly also other functional groups such as hydroxyl groups in castor oil). The presence of polar and non-polar groups within the same molecule gives vegetable oil amphiphilic character. The density, refractive index, ...

The Role of Support Staff as People Move from Congregated Settings to Group Homes and Personalized Arrangements in Ireland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García Iriarte, Edurne; Stockdale, Janine; McConkey, Roy; Keogh, Fiona

2016-01-01

The movement of people with intellectual disabilities into the community is increasingly endorsed by public policy. Whilst staff are critical to a successful transition to the community, there is only scattered research on their role in supporting people to move. In this study, 32 staff and the 16 people with intellectual disabilities they…

30 CFR 56.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Moving the drill. 56.7008 Section 56.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one drilling area to another...

30 CFR 56.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Moving the drill. 56.7008 Section 56.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one drilling area to another...

30 CFR 56.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Moving the drill. 56.7008 Section 56.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one drilling area to another...

30 CFR 56.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Moving the drill. 56.7008 Section 56.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one drilling area to another...

30 CFR 56.7008 - Moving the drill.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Moving the drill. 56.7008 Section 56.7008... SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7008 Moving the drill. When a drill is being moved from one drilling area to another...

KSC01KODI036

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-05-29

KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska -- A boat moves a ramp into place that will allow Castor 120, the first stage of the Athena 1 launch vehicle, to safely move onto the dock at Kodiak Island, Alaska, as preparations to launch Kodiak Star proceed. The first orbital launch to take place from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak Star is scheduled to lift off on a Lockheed Martin Athena I launch vehicle on Sept. 17 during a two-hour window that extends from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. ADT. The payloads aboard include the Starshine 3, sponsored by NASA, and the PICOSat, PCSat and Sapphire, sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program.

[Moving cupping at Hechelu combined with rubbing method for depression of diabetes mellitus].

PubMed

He, Lingna; Du, Ping; Shen, Zhifu; Wang, Xuan

2016-03-01

To compare the efficacy between moving cupping at Hechelu combined with rubbing method and western medication for depression of diabetes mellitus (DM). Two hundred and sixteen patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 108 cases in each group. Patients in the observation group were treated with moving cupping at Hechelu combined with rubbing method, once every: other day; six treatments were considered as one course, and totally two courses were given with an interval of: 4 days between courses. Patients in the control group were treated with oral administration of fluoxetine hydrochloride capsules, once a day for consecutive 4 weeks. The Hamilton depression scale (HAMD), self-rating depression scale (SDS) and TCM symptom score were measured before treatment, after the treatment and in follow-up visit one and a half months after treatment. The fasting blood glucose was tested before and after treatment. The glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was tested in the follow-up visit. The total effective rate was 90.9% (90/99) in the observation group, which was superior to 73.7% (70/95) in the control group (P < 0.05). After the treatment, HAMD, SDS and TCM symptom scores were all reduced apparently in the observation group and the control group (all P < 0.05). After the treatment and the follow-up visit, the TCM symptom score in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The levels of HbA1c and GLU were stable in the observation group, and were decreased compared with those before treatment; but the difference between the, two groups was not significant (P > 0.05). The Hechelu theory-based TCM treatment has better: efficacy for depression of diabetes mellitus than fluoxetine hydrochloride capsule, which has less adverse effects.

Rearrangement moves on rooted phylogenetic networks

PubMed Central

Gambette, Philippe; van Iersel, Leo; Jones, Mark; Scornavacca, Celine

2017-01-01

Phylogenetic tree reconstruction is usually done by local search heuristics that explore the space of the possible tree topologies via simple rearrangements of their structure. Tree rearrangement heuristics have been used in combination with practically all optimization criteria in use, from maximum likelihood and parsimony to distance-based principles, and in a Bayesian context. Their basic components are rearrangement moves that specify all possible ways of generating alternative phylogenies from a given one, and whose fundamental property is to be able to transform, by repeated application, any phylogeny into any other phylogeny. Despite their long tradition in tree-based phylogenetics, very little research has gone into studying similar rearrangement operations for phylogenetic network—that is, phylogenies explicitly representing scenarios that include reticulate events such as hybridization, horizontal gene transfer, population admixture, and recombination. To fill this gap, we propose “horizontal” moves that ensure that every network of a certain complexity can be reached from any other network of the same complexity, and “vertical” moves that ensure reachability between networks of different complexities. When applied to phylogenetic trees, our horizontal moves—named rNNI and rSPR—reduce to the best-known moves on rooted phylogenetic trees, nearest-neighbor interchange and rooted subtree pruning and regrafting. Besides a number of reachability results—separating the contributions of horizontal and vertical moves—we prove that rNNI moves are local versions of rSPR moves, and provide bounds on the sizes of the rNNI neighborhoods. The paper focuses on the most biologically meaningful versions of phylogenetic networks, where edges are oriented and reticulation events clearly identified. Moreover, our rearrangement moves are robust to the fact that networks with higher complexity usually allow a better fit with the data. Our goal is to provide a

ELECTROMAGNETIC APPARATUS FOR MOVING A ROD

DOEpatents

Young, J.N.

1957-08-20

An electromagnetic device for moving an object in a linear path by increments is described. The device is specifically adapted for moving a neutron absorbing control rod into and out of the core of a reactor and consists essentially of an extension member made of magnetic material connected to one end of the control rod and mechanically flexible to grip the walls of a sleeve member when flexed, a magnetic sleeve member coaxial with and slidable between limit stops along the flexible extension, electromagnetic coils substantially centrally located with respect to the flexible extension to flex the extension member into gripping engagement with the sleeve member when ener gized, moving electromagnets at each end of the sleeve to attract the sleeve when energized, and a second gripping electromagnet positioned along the flexible extension at a distance from the previously mentioned electromagnets for gripping the extension member when energized. In use, the second gripping electromagnet is deenergized, the first gripping electromagnet is energized to fix the extension member in the sleeve, and one of the moving electromagnets is energized to attract the sleeve member toward it, thereby moving the control rod.

Complex background suppression using global-local registration strategy for the detection of small-moving target on moving platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Tianhao; Zuo, Zhengrong

2018-02-01

Target detection is a very important and basic problem of computer vision and image processing. The most often case we meet in real world is a detection task for a moving-small target on moving platform. The commonly used methods, such as Registration-based suppression, can hardly achieve a desired result. To crack this hard nut, we introduce a Global-local registration based suppression method. Differ from the traditional ones, the proposed Global-local Registration Strategy consider both the global consistency and the local diversity of the background, obtain a better performance than normal background suppression methods. In this paper, we first discussed the features about the small-moving target detection on unstable platform. Then we introduced a new strategy and conducted an experiment to confirm its noisy stability. In the end, we confirmed the background suppression method based on global-local registration strategy has a better perform in moving target detection on moving platform.

Moving Minds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Terry; Hiett, Sandra; Marley, Donna

2006-01-01

This paper explores and examines a case study based at Ivy Bank Business and Enterprise College, The Imperial War Museum North, and Liverpool John Moores University. This collaboration took place from November 2004 until February 2005 culminating in an exhibition of children's artwork as part of the "Moving Minds" project at the IWM North. This…

The Use of Acceleration to Code for Animal Behaviours; A Case Study in Free-Ranging Eurasian Beavers Castor fiber

PubMed Central

Graf, Patricia M.; Wilson, Rory P.; Qasem, Lama; Hackländer, Klaus; Rosell, Frank

2015-01-01

Recent technological innovations have led to the development of miniature, accelerometer-containing electronic loggers which can be attached to free-living animals. Accelerometers provide information on both body posture and dynamism which can be used as descriptors to define behaviour. We deployed tri-axial accelerometer loggers on 12 free-ranging Eurasian beavers Castor fiber in the county of Telemark, Norway, and on four captive beavers (two Eurasian beavers and two North American beavers C. canadensis) to corroborate acceleration signals with observed behaviours. By using random forests for classifying behavioural patterns of beavers from accelerometry data, we were able to distinguish seven behaviours; standing, walking, swimming, feeding, grooming, diving and sleeping. We show how to apply the use of acceleration to determine behaviour, and emphasise the ease with which this non-invasive method can be implemented. Furthermore, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this, and the implementation of accelerometry on animals, illustrating limitations, suggestions and solutions. Ultimately, this approach may also serve as a template facilitating studies on other animals with similar locomotor modes and deliver new insights into hitherto unknown aspects of behavioural ecology. PMID:26317623

Introduction to MOVES2010, October 2010 Webinar Slides

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This presentation provides a general overview of MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator) for non-modelers who need to understand the transition from MOBILE to MOVES, and background information on MOVES for modelers.

49 CFR 172.604 - Emergency response telephone number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... vehicle. Carbon dioxide, solid. Castor bean. Castor flake. Castor meal. Castor pomace. Consumer commodity. Dry ice. Engines, internal combustion. Fish meal, stabilized. Fish scrap, stabilized. Refrigerating machine. Vehicle, flammable gas powered. Vehicle, flammable liquid powered. Wheelchair, electric. (3...

Radar Imaging for Moving Targets

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

MOVING TARGETS by Teo Beng Koon William June 2009 Thesis Advisor: Brett H. Borden Second Reader: Donald L. Walters THIS PAGE...Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project...TITLE AND SUBTITLE Radar Imaging for Moving Targets 6. AUTHOR(S) Teo Beng Koon William 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S

The impact on social relationships of moving from congregated settings to personalized accommodation.

PubMed

McConkey, Roy; Bunting, Brendan; Keogh, Fiona; Garcia Iriarte, Edurne

2017-01-01

A natural experiment contrasted the social relationships of people with intellectual disabilities ( n = 110) before and after they moved from congregated settings to either personalized accommodation or group homes. Contrasts could also be drawn with individuals who had enduring mental health problems ( n = 46) and who experienced similar moves. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in each person's residence on two occasions approximately 24 months apart. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to determine significant effects. Greater proportions of people living in personalized settings scored higher on the five chosen indicators of social relationships than did persons living in grouped accommodation. However, multivariate statistical analyses identified that only one in five persons increased their social relationships as a result of changes in their accommodation, particularly persons with an intellectual disability and high support needs. These findings reinforce the extent of social isolation experienced by people with disabilities and mental health problems that changes in their accommodation only partially counter.

Making the Move.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurian, Elaine

1980-01-01

Describes the function of the children's museum in the life of a community and in the experience of a visitor. Included are the emotional experiences of the museum personnel as they moved to change their facility. (SA)

MOVES2014 for Experienced Users, September 2014 Webinar Slides

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This webinar assumes a basic knowledge of past versions of the MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) and includes a demonstration of the conversion of MOVES2010b input files to MOVES2014 format, changes to the MOVES GUI, and new input options.

49 CFR 24.302 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-residential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... dwelling or a seasonal residence or a dormitory style room is entitled to receive a fixed moving cost... with minimal personal possessions who is in occupancy of a dormitory style room or a person whose...

49 CFR 24.302 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-residential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... dwelling or a seasonal residence or a dormitory style room is entitled to receive a fixed moving cost... with minimal personal possessions who is in occupancy of a dormitory style room or a person whose...

49 CFR 24.302 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-residential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... dwelling or a seasonal residence or a dormitory style room is entitled to receive a fixed moving cost... with minimal personal possessions who is in occupancy of a dormitory style room or a person whose...

49 CFR 24.302 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-residential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... dwelling or a seasonal residence or a dormitory style room is entitled to receive a fixed moving cost... with minimal personal possessions who is in occupancy of a dormitory style room or a person whose...

49 CFR 24.302 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-residential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... dwelling or a seasonal residence or a dormitory style room is entitled to receive a fixed moving cost... with minimal personal possessions who is in occupancy of a dormitory style room or a person whose...

Group foliation of finite difference equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Robert; Valiquette, Francis

2018-06-01

Using the theory of equivariant moving frames, a group foliation method for invariant finite difference equations is developed. This method is analogous to the group foliation of differential equations and uses the symmetry group of the equation to decompose the solution process into two steps, called resolving and reconstruction. Our constructions are performed algorithmically and symbolically by making use of discrete recurrence relations among joint invariants. Applications to invariant finite difference equations that approximate differential equations are given.

Stakeholder involvement in the design of a patient-centered comparative effectiveness trial of the "On the Move" group exercise program in community-dwelling older adults.

PubMed

Brach, Jennifer S; Perera, Subashan; Gilmore, Sandra; VanSwearingen, Jessie M; Brodine, Deborah; Wert, David; Nadkarni, Neelesh K; Ricci, Edmund

2016-09-01

Group exercise programs for older adults often exclude the timing and coordination of movement. Stakeholder involvement in the research process is strongly encouraged and improves the relevance and adoption of findings. We describe stakeholder involvement in the design of a clinical trial of a group-based exercise program that incorporates timing and coordination of movement into the exercises. The study was a cluster randomized, single-blind intervention trial to compare the effects on function, disability and mobility of a standard group exercise program and the "On the Move" group exercise program in older adults residing in independent living facilities and senior apartment buildings, and attending community centers. Exercise classes were twice weekly for 12weeks delivered by study exercise leaders and facility activity staff personnel. The primary outcomes function, disability and mobility were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Function and disability were assessed using the Late Life Function and Disability Instrument, and mobility using the Six-Minute Walk Test and gait speed. Patient and provider stakeholders had significant input into the study aims, design, sample, intervention, outcomes and operational considerations. A community-based exercise program to improve walking can be developed to address both investigator identified missing components in current exercise to improve walking and stakeholder defined needs and interest for the activity program. Involvement of stakeholders substantially improves the relevance of research questions, increases the transparency of research activities and may accelerate the adoption of research into practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional specialization and generalization for grouping of stimuli based on colour and motion

PubMed Central

Zeki, Semir; Stutters, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This study was undertaken to learn whether the principle of functional specialization that is evident at the level of the prestriate visual cortex extends to areas that are involved in grouping visual stimuli according to attribute, and specifically according to colour and motion. Subjects viewed, in an fMRI scanner, visual stimuli composed of moving dots, which could be either coloured or achromatic; in some stimuli the moving coloured dots were randomly distributed or moved in random directions; in others, some of the moving dots were grouped together according to colour or to direction of motion, with the number of groupings varying from 1 to 3. Increased activation was observed in area V4 in response to colour grouping and in V5 in response to motion grouping while both groupings led to activity in separate though contiguous compartments within the intraparietal cortex. The activity in all the above areas was parametrically related to the number of groupings, as was the prominent activity in Crus I of the cerebellum where the activity resulting from the two types of grouping overlapped. This suggests (a) that, the specialized visual areas of the prestriate cortex have functions beyond the processing of visual signals according to attribute, namely that of grouping signals according to colour (V4) or motion (V5); (b) that the functional separation evident in visual cortical areas devoted to motion and colour, respectively, is maintained at the level of parietal cortex, at least as far as grouping according to attribute is concerned; and (c) that, by contrast, this grouping-related functional segregation is not maintained at the level of the cerebellum. PMID:23415950

Moving East: the Euro-Lupus Nephritis regimen in Asia.

PubMed

Houssiau, Frédéric A

2016-01-01

Treatment of lupus nephritis is more evidenced-based than ever. Yet many areas of uncertainty persist. The article by Rathi et al. brings a piece to the puzzle by comparing, in a group of Indian patients, the Euro-Lupus low-dose i.v. cyclophosphamide regimen with mycophenolate mofetil. Although some caveats must be raised, the results suggest that, after crossing the Atlantic, the Euro-Lupus regimen may well be moving East. Copyright © 2016 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Training Veterans to Provide Peer Support in a Weight-Management Program: MOVE!

PubMed Central

Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey; Carr, Carol; Orr, Melinda; Kahwati, Leila C.; Weiner, Bryan J.; Kinsinger, Linda

2013-01-01

Introduction The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has implemented MOVE!, a weight-management program for veterans designed to address the increasing proportion of overweight and obese veterans. The objective of our study was to determine whether peer support employing motivational interviewing (MI) could positively influence lifestyle changes, thus expanding the reach of the MOVE! program. We describe the initial evaluation of the peer training program. Methods We developed an MI peer counselor training program for volunteer veterans, the “Buddies” program, to provide one-on-one telephone support for veterans enrolled in MOVE!. Buddies were recruited at 5 VHA sites and trained to provide peer support for the 6-month MOVE! intervention. We used a DVD to teach MI skills and followed with 2 to 3 booster sessions. We observed training, conducted pre- and posttraining surveys, and debriefed focus groups to assess training feasibility. Results Fifty-six Buddies were trained. Results indicate positive receipt of the program (89% reported learning about peer counseling and 87% reported learning communication skills). Buddies showed a small improvement in MI self-efficacy on posttraining surveys. We also identified key challenges to learning MI and training implementation. Conclusions MI training is feasible to implement and acceptable to volunteer Buddies. Trainers must assess how effectively volunteers learn MI skills in order to enhance its effective use in health promotion. PMID:24199738

Moving Large Wiring-Harness Boards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shepherd, Samuel D.; Gurman, Isaac

1990-01-01

Carrier for wiring-harness fabrication boards enables lone operator to move board easily and safely. Holds harness while operator fabricating, while being stored, and being transported to equipment frame for mounting. When positioned for assembly of wiring harness, board and carrier give operator easy and convenient access to wires and cables, when positioned for transfer of wiring harness to or from storage area, carrier holds board securely while moved by one person.

Moving Beyond Earth Gallery Opening

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-11-18

David DeVorkin, Senior Curator, Collection: Astronomy and space sciences speaks during a press briefing at the new "Moving Beyond Earth," exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in Washingon, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. Moving Beyond Earth is an immersive exhibition that places visitors “in orbit” in the shuttle and space-station era to explore recent human spaceflight and future possibilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Moving, Moving, Moving- A Giant Rocket Fuel Tank

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-10-07

Technicians moved a giant fuel tank from the Vertical Assembly Center where the tank recently completed friction stir welding to an adjacent work area at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. More than 1.7 miles of welds have been completed for core stage hardware at Michoud. This liquid hydrogen fuel tank is the largest piece of the core stage that will provide the fuel for the first flight of NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System, with the Orion spacecraft in 2018. The tank is more than 130 feet long, and together with the liquid oxygen tank holds 733,000 gallons of propellant to feed the vehicle's four RS-25 engines to produce a total of 2 million pounds of thrust. SLS will have the power and capacity to carry humans to Mars. For more information on the core stage: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/syste... Video Credit: NASA/MAF/Eric Bordelon

Gas and dust in the beta Pictoris moving group as seen by the Herschel Space Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riviere-Marichalar, P.; Barrado, D.; Montesinos, B.; Duchêne, G.; Bouy, H.; Pinte, C.; Menard, F.; Donaldson, J.; Eiroa, C.; Krivov, A. V.; Kamp, I.; Mendigutía, I.; Dent, W. R. F.; Lillo-Box, J.

2014-05-01

Context. Debris discs are thought to be formed through the collisional grinding of planetesimals, and then can be considered as the outcome of planet formation. Understanding the properties of gas and dust in debris discs can help us comprehend the architecture of extrasolar planetary systems. Herschel Space Observatory far-infrared (IR) photometry and spectroscopy have provided a valuable dataset for the study of debris discs gas and dust composition. This paper is part of a series of papers devoted to the study of Herschel-PACS observations of young stellar associations. Aims: This work aims at studying the properties of discs in the beta Pictoris moving group (BPMG) through far-IR PACS observations of dust and gas. Methods: We obtained Herschel-PACS far-IR photometric observations at 70, 100, and 160 μm of 19 BPMG members, together with spectroscopic observations for four of them. These observations were centred at 63.18 μm and 157 μm, aiming to detect [OI] and [CII] emission. We incorporated the new far-IR observations in the SED of BPMG members and fitted modified blackbody models to better characterise the dust content. Results: We have detected far-IR excess emission towards nine BPMG members, including the first detection of an IR excess towards HD 29391.The star HD 172555, shows [OI] emission, while HD 181296 shows [CII] emission, expanding the short list of debris discs with a gas detection. No debris disc in BPMG is detected in both [OI] and [CII]. The discs show dust temperatures in the range 55-264 K, with low dust masses (<6.6 × 10-5 M⊕ to 0.2 M⊕) and radii from blackbody models in the range 3 to ~82 AU. All the objects with a gas detection are early spectral type stars with a hot dust component. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Facilitating Collaboration in Online Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Geralyn E.; Roberts, Kathryn L.

2017-01-01

Demonstrating the ability to collaborate effectively is essential for students moving into 21st century workplaces. Employers are expecting new hires to already possess group-work skills and will seek evidence of their ability to cooperate, collaborate, and complete projects with colleagues, including remotely or at a distance. Instructional…

Heterogeneous CPU-GPU moving targets detection for UAV video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Maowen; Tang, Linbo; Han, Yuqi; Yu, Chunlei; Zhang, Chao; Fu, Huiquan

2017-07-01

Moving targets detection is gaining popularity in civilian and military applications. On some monitoring platform of motion detection, some low-resolution stationary cameras are replaced by moving HD camera based on UAVs. The pixels of moving targets in the HD Video taken by UAV are always in a minority, and the background of the frame is usually moving because of the motion of UAVs. The high computational cost of the algorithm prevents running it at higher resolutions the pixels of frame. Hence, to solve the problem of moving targets detection based UAVs video, we propose a heterogeneous CPU-GPU moving target detection algorithm for UAV video. More specifically, we use background registration to eliminate the impact of the moving background and frame difference to detect small moving targets. In order to achieve the effect of real-time processing, we design the solution of heterogeneous CPU-GPU framework for our method. The experimental results show that our method can detect the main moving targets from the HD video taken by UAV, and the average process time is 52.16ms per frame which is fast enough to solve the problem.

2MASS J13243553+6358281 Is an Early T-type Planetary-mass Object in the AB Doradus Moving Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gagné, Jonathan; Allers, Katelyn N.; Theissen, Christopher A.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella; Artigau, Étienne

2018-02-01

We present new radial velocity and trigonometric distance measurements indicating that the unusually red and photometrically variable T2 dwarf 2MASS J13243553+6358281 is a member of the young (∼150 Myr) AB Doradus moving group (ABDMG) based on its space velocity. We estimate its model-dependent mass in the range 11–12 M Jup at the age of the ABDMG, and its trigonometric distance of 12.7 ± 1.5 pc makes it one of the nearest known isolated planetary-mass objects. The unusually red continuum of 2MASS J13243553+6358281 in the near-infrared was previously suspected to be caused by an unresolved L + T brown dwarf binary, although it was never observed with high spatial resolution imaging. This new evidence of youth suggests that a low surface gravity may be sufficient to explain this peculiar feature. Using the new parallax we find that its absolute J-band magnitude is ∼0.4 mag fainter than equivalent-type field brown dwarfs, suggesting that the binary hypothesis is unlikely. The fundamental properties of 2MASS J13243553+6358281 follow the spectral type sequence of other known high-likelihood members of the ABDMG. The effective temperature of 2MASS J13243553+6358281 provides the first precise constraint on the L/T transition at a known young age and indicates that it happens at a temperature of ∼1150 K at ∼150 Myr, compared to ∼1250 K for field brown dwarfs.

Moving Beyond Earth Gallery Opening

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-11-18

David H. DeVorkin, Senior Curator, Astronomy and the Space Sciences Division of Space History, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, speaks during a press briefing at the new "Moving Beyond Earth," exhibition at the museum in Washingon, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. Moving Beyond Earth is an immersive exhibition that places visitors "in orbit" in the shuttle and space-station era to explore recent human spaceflight and future possibilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul E. Alers)

Presence of Antibodies to Leptospira spp. in Black-tailed Prairie Dogs ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) and Beavers ( Castor canadensis ) in Northwestern Mexico.

PubMed

López-Pérez, Andrés M; Carreón-Arroyo, Gerardo; Atilano, Daniel; Vigueras-Galván, Ana L; Valdez, Carlos; Toyos, Daniel; Mendizabal, Daniel; López-Islas, Jonathan; Suzán, Gerardo

2017-10-01

Leptospires are widespread spirochete bacteria that infect mammals, including rodents and humans. We investigated the presence of Leptospira antibodies in two species of rodents from San Pedro River Basin (SPRB) in northwestern Mexico as part of the black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) monitoring plan and the North American beaver ( Castor canadensis ) reintroduction program. We sampled a total of 26 black-tailed prairie dogs and three beavers during October-November 2015. We detected antibodies against Leptospira spp. by microagglutination test in 12 (46%) prairie dogs and in two (67%) beavers. The antibody titers for seropositive rodents varied from 1:100 to 1:200, but none of the animals showed clinical signs of disease. We found seven Leptospira spp. serogroups (Autumnalis, Australis, Bataviae, Canicola, Celledoni, Grippotyphosa, and Sejroe) circulating in rodent species in SPRB. We did not find any differences between sex and age concerning Leptospira-positive rodents. Our findings suggest the presence of endemic cycles and potential risks of Leptospira infection in both species from SPRB. Although the impact of this infection on threatened species remains unclear, human activities and environmental stress might facilitate the emergence or reemergence of leptospirosis disease as has been reported elsewhere.

The Syntax of Moving Images: Principles and Applications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metallinos, Nikos

This paper examines the various theories of motion relating to visual communication media, discusses the syntactic rules of moving images derived from those of still pictures, and underlines the motions employed in the construction of moving images, primarily television pictures. The following theories of motion and moving images are presented:…

Move Sequences in Graduate Research Paper Introductions and Conclusions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madrunio, Marilu Rañosa

2012-01-01

Graduate students submit academic papers at the end of the term as part of their coursework. Such papers contain introduction moves which may be troublesome and conclusion moves which may contain sub-moves not really required. This paper is aimed at assessing what particular moves are employed in the introduction and conclusion sections of 21…

The influence of moving auditory stimuli on standing balance in healthy young adults and the elderly.

PubMed

Tanaka, T; Kojima, S; Takeda, H; Ino, S; Ifukube, T

2001-12-15

The maintenance of postural balance depends on effective and efficient feedback from various sensory inputs. The importance of auditory inputs in this respect is not, as yet, fully understood. The purpose of this study was to analyse how the moving auditory stimuli could affect the standing balance in healthy adults of different ages. The participants of the study were 12 healthy volunteers, who were divided into two age categories: the young group (mean = 21.9 years) and the elderly group (mean = 68.9 years). The instrument used for evaluation of standing balance was a force plate for measuring body sway parameters. The toe pressure was measured using the F-scan Tactile Sensor System. The moving auditory stimulus produced a white-noise sound and binaural cue using the Beachtron Affordable 3D Audio system. The moving auditory stimulus conditions were employed by having the sound come from the right to left or vice versa at the height of the participant's ears. Participants were asked to stand on the force plate in the Romberg position for 20 s with either eyes opened or eyes closed for analysing the effect of visual input. Simultaneously, all participants tried to remain in the standing position with and without auditory stimulation that the participants heard from the headphone. In addition, the variables of body sway were measured under four conditions for analysing the effect of decreased tactile sensation of toes and feet soles: standing on the normal surface (NS) or soft surface (SS) with and without auditory stimulation. The participants were asked to stand in a total of eight conditions. The results showed that the lateral body sway of the elderly group was more influenced than that of the young group by the lateral moving auditory stimulation. The analysis of toe pressure indicated that all participants used their left feet more than their right feet to maintain balance. Moreover, the elderly had the tendency to be stabilized mainly by use of their heels

Wave propagation in axially moving periodic strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorokin, Vladislav S.; Thomsen, Jon Juel

2017-04-01

The paper deals with analytically studying transverse waves propagation in an axially moving string with periodically modulated cross section. The structure effectively models various relevant technological systems, e.g. belts, thread lines, band saws, etc., and, in particular, roller chain drives for diesel engines by capturing both their spatial periodicity and axial motion. The Method of Varying Amplitudes is employed in the analysis. It is shown that the compound wave traveling in the axially moving periodic string comprises many components with different frequencies and wavenumbers. This is in contrast to non-moving periodic structures, for which all components of the corresponding compound wave feature the same frequency. Due to this "multi-frequency" character of the wave motion, the conventional notion of frequency band-gaps appears to be not applicable for the moving periodic strings. Thus, for such structures, by frequency band-gaps it is proposed to understand frequency ranges in which the primary component of the compound wave attenuates. Such frequency band-gaps can be present for a moving periodic string, but only if its axial velocity is lower than the transverse wave speed, and, the higher the axial velocity, the narrower the frequency band-gaps. The revealed effects could be of potential importance for applications, e.g. they indicate that due to spatial inhomogeneity, oscillations of axially moving periodic chains always involve a multitude of frequencies.

Towards a psychological construct of being moved.

PubMed

Menninghaus, Winfried; Wagner, Valentin; Hanich, Julian; Wassiliwizky, Eugen; Kuehnast, Milena; Jacobsen, Thomas

2015-01-01

The emotional state of being moved, though frequently referred to in both classical rhetoric and current language use, is far from established as a well-defined psychological construct. In a series of three studies, we investigated eliciting scenarios, emotional ingredients, appraisal patterns, feeling qualities, and the affective signature of being moved and related emotional states. The great majority of the eliciting scenarios can be assigned to significant relationship and critical life events (especially death, birth, marriage, separation, and reunion). Sadness and joy turned out to be the two preeminent emotions involved in episodes of being moved. Both the sad and the joyful variants of being moved showed a coactivation of positive and negative affect and can thus be ranked among the mixed emotions. Moreover, being moved, while featuring only low-to-mid arousal levels, was experienced as an emotional state of high intensity; this applied to responses to fictional artworks no less than to own-life and other real, but media-represented, events. The most distinctive findings regarding cognitive appraisal dimensions were very low ratings for causation of the event by oneself and for having the power to change its outcome, along with very high ratings for appraisals of compatibility with social norms and self-ideals. Putting together the characteristics identified and discussed throughout the three studies, the paper ends with a sketch of a psychological construct of being moved.

30 CFR 56.7053 - Moving hand-held drills.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Moving hand-held drills. 56.7053 Section 56... MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7053 Moving hand-held drills. Before hand-held drills are moved from one...

30 CFR 56.7053 - Moving hand-held drills.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Moving hand-held drills. 56.7053 Section 56... MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7053 Moving hand-held drills. Before hand-held drills are moved from one...

30 CFR 56.7053 - Moving hand-held drills.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Moving hand-held drills. 56.7053 Section 56... MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7053 Moving hand-held drills. Before hand-held drills are moved from one...

30 CFR 56.7053 - Moving hand-held drills.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Moving hand-held drills. 56.7053 Section 56... MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7053 Moving hand-held drills. Before hand-held drills are moved from one...

30 CFR 56.7053 - Moving hand-held drills.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Moving hand-held drills. 56.7053 Section 56... MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Drilling and Rotary Jet Piercing Drilling § 56.7053 Moving hand-held drills. Before hand-held drills are moved from one...

Improving the Safety of Moving Lane Closures

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-06-01

Moving lane closures are an increasingly utilized and inherently hazardous traffic control procedure for highway : maintenance and operations activities. To improve the safety of moving lane closures for workers and motorists, : this research studied...

Factors affecting compliance with moving and handling policy: Student nurses' views and experiences.

PubMed

Cornish, Jocelyn; Jones, Anne

2010-03-01

The limited literature available suggests that there continues to be poor compliance by nurses with moving and handling regulations [Swain, J., Pufahl, E., Williamson, G., 2003. Do they practise what we teach? A survey of manual handling practice amongst student nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing 12(2), 297-306; Jootun, D., MacInnes, A., 2005. Examining how well students use correct handling procedures. Nursing Times 101(4), 38-40; Smallwood, J., 2006. Patient handling: student nurses' views. Learning in Health and Social Care 5(4), 208-219; Cornish, J., Jones, A., 2007. Evaluation of moving and handling training for pre-registration nurses and its application to practice. Nurse Education in Practice 7(3), 128-134]. This paper presents the final phase of a study in which student nurses' reports of their experience in practice are drawn upon to identify possible reasons for a lack of compliance with moving and handling policy. Focus groups were conducted using a topic guide comprising themes generated from the previous two phases of this study; a questionnaire survey and unstructured interviews [Cornish, J., Jones, A., 2007. Evaluation of moving and handling training for pre-registration nurses and its application to practice. Nurse Education in Practice 7(3), 128-134]. Seventeen pre-registration students participated, representing adult, child and mental health branches from both Degree and Diploma programmes Examples of poor practice set the context for the students' experiences. Factors affecting both compliance with poor practice or compliance with moving and handling regulations leading to good practice, are identified. Methods for the management of difficult moving and handling situations are also revealed. The study informs future developments in training and support mechanisms for students in practice. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vision System for Coarsely Estimating Motion Parameters for Unknown Fast Moving Objects in Space

PubMed Central

Chen, Min; Hashimoto, Koichi

2017-01-01

Motivated by biological interests in analyzing navigation behaviors of flying animals, we attempt to build a system measuring their motion states. To do this, in this paper, we build a vision system to detect unknown fast moving objects within a given space, calculating their motion parameters represented by positions and poses. We proposed a novel method to detect reliable interest points from images of moving objects, which can be hardly detected by general purpose interest point detectors. 3D points reconstructed using these interest points are then grouped and maintained for detected objects, according to a careful schedule, considering appearance and perspective changes. In the estimation step, a method is introduced to adapt the robust estimation procedure used for dense point set to the case for sparse set, reducing the potential risk of greatly biased estimation. Experiments are conducted against real scenes, showing the capability of the system of detecting multiple unknown moving objects and estimating their positions and poses. PMID:29206189

Phytotoxicity of three plant-based biodiesels, unmodified castor oil, and Diesel fuel to alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), radish (Raphanus sativus), and wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum).

PubMed

Bamgbose, Ifeoluwa; Anderson, Todd A

2015-12-01

The wide use of plant-based oils and their derivatives, in particular biodiesel, have increased extensively over the past decade to help alleviate demand for petroleum products and improve the greenhouse gas emissions profile of the transportation sector. Biodiesel is regarded as a clean burning alternative fuel produced from livestock feeds and various vegetable oils. Although in theory these animal and/or plant derived fuels should have less environmental impact in soil based on their simplified composition relative to Diesel, they pose an environmental risk like Diesel at high concentrations when disposed. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the phytotoxicity of three different plant-derived biodiesels relative to conventional Diesel. For phytotoxicological analysis, we used seeds of four crop plants, Medicago sativa, Lactuca sativa, Raphanus sativus, and Triticum aestivum to analyze the germination of seeds in contaminated soil samples. The toxicological experiment was conducted with two different soil textures: sandy loam soil and silt loam soil. The studied plant-based biodiesels were safflower methyl-ester, castor methyl ester, and castor ethyl-ester. Biodiesel toxicity was more evident at high concentrations, affecting the germination and survival of small-seeded plants to a greater extent. Tolerance of plants to the biodiesels varied between plant species and soil textures. With the exception of R. sativus, all plant species were affected and exhibited some sensitivity to the fuels, such as delayed seedling emergence and slow germination (average=10 days) at high soil concentrations (0.85% for Diesel and 1.76% for the biodiesels). Tolerance of plants to soil contamination had a species-specific nature, and on average, decreased in the following order: Raphanus sativus (0-20%)>Triticum aestivum (10-40%) ≥ Medicago sativa> Lactuca sativa (80-100%). Thus, we conclude that there is some phytotoxicity associated with plant-based biodiesels. Further

The Move to Faculty Middle Management Structures in Scottish Secondary Schools: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Cherie; Nixon, Graeme

2010-01-01

This article looks at the move from a management structure based on discrete subject departments managed by subject specialist principal teachers within Scottish secondary schools towards groupings of subjects (faculties) with a single manager. This article examines the impact of this change upon the experiences of students and probationer…

Moving groups: a finding algorithm.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, B.; Torra, J.; Figueras, F.; Asiain, R.

A large sample of 1924 main sequence stars of spectral types B, A, and F with uvby Hβ photometry, position, proper motion and radial velocity has been collected basically from the Hipparcos Input Catalogue. The Strömgren photometric data come from the Hauck and Mermilliod (1990) compilation and new observations performed by the authors (more than 700 stars: Figueras et al., 1991, Jordi et al., 1995). The U,V,W components of the space velocities, where U is directed towards the galactic center, V towards the galactic rotation direction and W towards the north galactic pole, have been corrected for differential galactic rotation. The authors have rejected the stars with residual velocities with respect to Delhaye's centroid (9,12,7) km/s greater than 65 km/s and the stars with a distance greater than 300 pc. Only stars with relative standard error in age less than 100% and younger than 2×109yr have been retained. The authors have also eliminated the peculiar stars, the spectroscopic binaries and all stars known as members of galactic open clusters and associations.

We've Moved! Welcome to CMF Application

Science.gov Websites

WWW.BRAC.GOV Application OUSD Acquisition, Technology & Logistics We Have Moved! https ://WWW.BRAC.GOV/ The WWW.BRAC.GOV application has moved to a new address. Functionality has not changed. Please

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the "Move It Move It!" Before-School Incentive-Based Physical Activity Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garnett, Bernice R.; Becker, Kelly; Vierling, Danielle; Gleason, Cara; DiCenzo, Danielle; Mongeon, Louise

2017-01-01

Objective: Less than half of young people in the USA are meeting the daily physical activity requirements of at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity. A mixed-methods pilot feasibility assessment of "Move it Move it!" was conducted in the Spring of 2014 to assess the impact of a before-school physical activity…

An intervention to reduce sitting and increase light-intensity physical activity at work: Design and rationale of the 'Stand & Move at Work' group randomized trial.

PubMed

Buman, Matthew P; Mullane, Sarah L; Toledo, Meynard J; Rydell, Sarah A; Gaesser, Glenn A; Crespo, Noe C; Hannan, Peter; Feltes, Linda; Vuong, Brenna; Pereira, Mark A

2017-02-01

American workers spend 70-80% of their time at work being sedentary. Traditional approaches to increase moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may be perceived to be harmful to productivity. Approaches that target reductions in sedentary behavior and/or increases in standing or light-intensity physical activity [LPA] may not interfere with productivity and may be more feasible to achieve through small changes accumulated throughout the workday METHODS/DESIGN: This group randomized trial (i.e., cluster randomized trial) will test the relative efficacy of two sedentary behavior focused interventions in 24 worksites across two states (N=720 workers). The MOVE+ intervention is a multilevel individual, social, environmental, and organizational intervention targeting increases in light-intensity physical activity in the workplace. The STAND+ intervention is the MOVE+ intervention with the addition of the installation and use of sit-stand workstations to reduce sedentary behavior and enhance light-intensity physical activity opportunities. Our primary outcome will be objectively-measured changes in sedentary behavior and light-intensity physical activity over 12months, with additional process measures at 3months and longer-term sustainability outcomes at 24months. Our secondary outcomes will be a clustered cardiometabolic risk score (comprised of fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, and blood pressure), workplace productivity, and job satisfaction DISCUSSION: This study will determine the efficacy of a multi-level workplace intervention (including the use of a sit-stand workstation) to reduce sedentary behavior and increase LPA and concomitant impact on cardiometabolic health, workplace productivity, and satisfaction. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02566317 (date of registration: 10/1/2015). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Flexible Grouping for Literacy in the Elementary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radencich, Marguerite C.; McKay, Lyn J.

Presenting an in-depth look at alternatives to ability grouping in elementary school reading and language arts programs, this book presents eight essays that offer a variety of practical suggestions and resources for educators interested in moving to or enhancing their use of flexible grouping for reading instruction. The book describes programs…

Towards a Psychological Construct of Being Moved

PubMed Central

Menninghaus, Winfried; Wagner, Valentin; Hanich, Julian; Wassiliwizky, Eugen; Kuehnast, Milena; Jacobsen, Thomas

2015-01-01

The emotional state of being moved, though frequently referred to in both classical rhetoric and current language use, is far from established as a well-defined psychological construct. In a series of three studies, we investigated eliciting scenarios, emotional ingredients, appraisal patterns, feeling qualities, and the affective signature of being moved and related emotional states. The great majority of the eliciting scenarios can be assigned to significant relationship and critical life events (especially death, birth, marriage, separation, and reunion). Sadness and joy turned out to be the two preeminent emotions involved in episodes of being moved. Both the sad and the joyful variants of being moved showed a coactivation of positive and negative affect and can thus be ranked among the mixed emotions. Moreover, being moved, while featuring only low-to-mid arousal levels, was experienced as an emotional state of high intensity; this applied to responses to fictional artworks no less than to own-life and other real, but media-represented, events. The most distinctive findings regarding cognitive appraisal dimensions were very low ratings for causation of the event by oneself and for having the power to change its outcome, along with very high ratings for appraisals of compatibility with social norms and self-ideals. Putting together the characteristics identified and discussed throughout the three studies, the paper ends with a sketch of a psychological construct of being moved. PMID:26042816

Camouflage, detection and identification of moving targets

PubMed Central

Hall, Joanna R.; Cuthill, Innes C.; Baddeley, Roland; Shohet, Adam J.; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E.

2013-01-01

Nearly all research on camouflage has investigated its effectiveness for concealing stationary objects. However, animals have to move, and patterns that only work when the subject is static will heavily constrain behaviour. We investigated the effects of different camouflages on the three stages of predation—detection, identification and capture—in a computer-based task with humans. An initial experiment tested seven camouflage strategies on static stimuli. In line with previous literature, background-matching and disruptive patterns were found to be most successful. Experiment 2 showed that if stimuli move, an isolated moving object on a stationary background cannot avoid detection or capture regardless of the type of camouflage. Experiment 3 used an identification task and showed that while camouflage is unable to slow detection or capture, camouflaged targets are harder to identify than uncamouflaged targets when similar background objects are present. The specific details of the camouflage patterns have little impact on this effect. If one has to move, camouflage cannot impede detection; but if one is surrounded by similar targets (e.g. other animals in a herd, or moving background distractors), then camouflage can slow identification. Despite previous assumptions, motion does not entirely ‘break’ camouflage. PMID:23486439

Camouflage, detection and identification of moving targets.

PubMed

Hall, Joanna R; Cuthill, Innes C; Baddeley, Roland; Shohet, Adam J; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E

2013-05-07

Nearly all research on camouflage has investigated its effectiveness for concealing stationary objects. However, animals have to move, and patterns that only work when the subject is static will heavily constrain behaviour. We investigated the effects of different camouflages on the three stages of predation-detection, identification and capture-in a computer-based task with humans. An initial experiment tested seven camouflage strategies on static stimuli. In line with previous literature, background-matching and disruptive patterns were found to be most successful. Experiment 2 showed that if stimuli move, an isolated moving object on a stationary background cannot avoid detection or capture regardless of the type of camouflage. Experiment 3 used an identification task and showed that while camouflage is unable to slow detection or capture, camouflaged targets are harder to identify than uncamouflaged targets when similar background objects are present. The specific details of the camouflage patterns have little impact on this effect. If one has to move, camouflage cannot impede detection; but if one is surrounded by similar targets (e.g. other animals in a herd, or moving background distractors), then camouflage can slow identification. Despite previous assumptions, motion does not entirely 'break' camouflage.

Moving object detection via low-rank total variation regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Pengcheng; Chen, Qian; Shao, Na

2016-09-01

Moving object detection is a challenging task in video surveillance. Recently proposed Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) can recover the outlier patterns from the low-rank data under some mild conditions. However, the l-penalty in RPCA doesn't work well in moving object detection because the irrepresentable condition is often not satisfied. In this paper, a method based on total variation (TV) regularization scheme is proposed. In our model, image sequences captured with a static camera are highly related, which can be described using a low-rank matrix. Meanwhile, the low-rank matrix can absorb background motion, e.g. periodic and random perturbation. The foreground objects in the sequence are usually sparsely distributed and drifting continuously, and can be treated as group outliers from the highly-related background scenes. Instead of l-penalty, we exploit the total variation of the foreground. By minimizing the total variation energy, the outliers tend to collapse and finally converge to be the exact moving objects. The TV-penalty is superior to the l-penalty especially when the outlier is in the majority for some pixels, and our method can estimate the outlier explicitly with less bias but higher variance. To solve the problem, a joint optimization function is formulated and can be effectively solved through the inexact Augmented Lagrange Multiplier (ALM) method. We evaluate our method along with several state-of-the-art approaches in MATLAB. Both qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate that our proposed method works effectively on a large range of complex scenarios.

An intervention to reduce sitting and increase light-intensity physical activity at work: Design and rationale of the ‘Stand & Move at Work’ group randomized trial

PubMed Central

Buman, Matthew P.; Mullane, Sarah L.; Toledo, Meynard J.; Rydell, Sarah A.; Gaesser, Glenn A.; Crespo, Noe C.; Hannan, Peter; Feltes, Linda; Vuong, Brenna; Pereira, Mark A

2016-01-01

Background American workers spend 70–80% of their time at work being sedentary. Traditional approaches to increase moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may be perceived to be harmful to productivity. Approaches that target reductions in sedentary behavior and/or increases in standing or light-intensity physical activity [LPA] may not interfere with productivity and may be more feasible to achieve through small changes accumulated throughout the workday. Methods/Design This group randomized trial (i.e., cluster randomized trial) will test the relative efficacy of two sedentary behavior focused interventions in 24 worksites across two states (N=720 workers). The MOVE+ intervention is a multilevel individual, social, environmental, and organizational intervention targeting increases in light-intensity physical activity in the workplace. The STAND+ intervention is the MOVE+ intervention with the addition of the installation and use of sit-stand workstations to reduce sedentary behavior and enhance light-intensity physical activity opportunities. Our primary outcome will be objectively-measured changes in sedentary behavior and light-intensity physical activity over 12 months, with additional process measures at 3 months and longer-term sustainability outcomes at 24 months. Our secondary outcomes will be a clustered cardiometabolic risk score (comprised of fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, and blood pressure), workplace productivity, and job satisfaction. Discussion This study will determine the efficacy of a multilevel workplace intervention (including the use of a sit-stand workstation) to reduce sedentary behavior and increase LPA and concomitant impact on cardiometabolic health, workplace productivity, and satisfaction. PMID:27940181

A non-equivalent group pilot trial of a school-based physical activity and fitness intervention for 10-11 year old english children: born to move.

PubMed

Fairclough, Stuart J; McGrane, Bronagh; Sanders, George; Taylor, Sarah; Owen, Michael; Curry, Whitney

2016-08-24

PE lessons are the formal opportunity in schools for promotion of physical activity and fitness. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot PE intervention on physical activity, fitness, and psychosocial outcomes. Participants were 139 children aged 10-11 years from four schools. For six weeks children in two schools received a twice-weekly pilot 'Born to Move' (BTM) physical activity (PA) and fitness intervention alongside one regular PE lesson. Children in the two comparison (COM) schools received their regular twice weekly PE lessons. Outcomes were lesson time and whole-day light (LPA), moderate (MPA), vigorous (VPA), and MVPA, and sedentary time, muscular fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and lesson-specific perceived exertion, enjoyment, and perceived competence. Outcomes were assessed at baseline (T0), midway through the intervention (T1), and at the end (T2) using ANOVAs and ANCOVAs. Intervention fidelity was measured using child and teacher surveys at T2 and analysed using Chi-square tests. The BTM group engaged in moderate PA for significantly more lesson time (29.4 %) than the COM group (25.8 %; p = .009, d = .53). The amount of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) during the T1 BTM lesson contributed 14.0 % to total MVPA, which was significantly more than the COM group's T1 PE lesson (11.4 %; p < .001, d = .47). The BTM group were significantly more active during the whole-day (p < .05) and the school-day (p < .01). In both groups push-up test performance increased (p < .001) and CRF test performance decreased (p < .01). Perceived exertion, enjoyment, and perceived competence increased in both groups (p < .05), but the BTM group rated their enjoyment of the T1 BTM lesson higher than the COM group rated their PE lesson (p = .02, d = .56). The children's and teachers' responses to the intervention indicated that the delivery aims of enjoyment, engagement, inclusivity, and challenge were

Toxic and repellent activity of selected monoterpenoids (thymol, carvacrol and linalool) against the castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae).

PubMed

Tabari, Mohaddeseh Abouhosseini; Youssefi, Mohammad Reza; Maggi, Filippo; Benelli, Giovanni

2017-10-15

The castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus, is a species of medical and veterinary importance. The use of synthetic acaricides for tick control has led to development of resistance, residues in the environment and animal products, and public health concerns. In this regard, plant essential oils and their main constituents represent an appealing alternative strategy to combat ticks. The phenols thymol and carvacrol and the alcohol linalool are monoterpenoids occurring in essential oils of several aromatic and medicinal plants, such as thyme, oregano, savory, lavender and coriander. Recent studies have shown toxicity of these monoterpenoids against selected mosquito vectors and other arthropod pests. However, information on their bioactivity on I. ricinus is not available. On this basis, here we evaluated the ovicidal, larvicidal and repellency effects of these compounds against I. ricinus. Concentrations of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5% were sprayed on the egg masses, then hatching rates were noted. Larvicidal assays were conducted on unengorged larvae, following the larval packet technique. The repellency was determined by measuring the vertical migration behavior of ticks in laboratory conditions. Carvacrol and thymol at all concentrations tested led to a significant hatching decrease, showing an efficacy higher than permethrin, whereas linalool did not cause any significant effect. In the larvae treated with carvacrol and thymol (1, 2 and 5%), mortality rates reached 100% after 24h, showing a larvicidal efficacy higher than permethrin, whereas no effect was seen in the larval groups treated with linalool. Carvacrol and thymol at all concentrations tested showed >90% repellency on I. ricinus. Linalool was scarcely effective (50.24% repellency) only at the concentration of 5%. Overall, based on these results, the phenols carvacrol and thymol can be considered as candidate ingredients for the development of novel acaricidal formulations to control the populations of I. ricinus

Detecting and Analyzing Multiple Moving Objects in Crowded Environments with Coherent Motion Regions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheriyadat, Anil M.

Understanding the world around us from large-scale video data requires vision systems that can perform automatic interpretation. While human eyes can unconsciously perceive independent objects in crowded scenes and other challenging operating environments, automated systems have difficulty detecting, counting, and understanding their behavior in similar scenes. Computer scientists at ORNL have a developed a technology termed as "Coherent Motion Region Detection" that invloves identifying multiple indepedent moving objects in crowded scenes by aggregating low-level motion cues extracted from moving objects. Humans and other species exploit such low-level motion cues seamlessely to perform perceptual grouping for visual understanding. The algorithm detectsmore » and tracks feature points on moving objects resulting in partial trajectories that span coherent 3D region in the space-time volume defined by the video. In the case of multi-object motion, many possible coherent motion regions can be constructed around the set of trajectories. The unique approach in the algorithm is to identify all possible coherent motion regions, then extract a subset of motion regions based on an innovative measure to automatically locate moving objects in crowded environments.The software reports snapshot of the object, count, and derived statistics ( count over time) from input video streams. The software can directly process videos streamed over the internet or directly from a hardware device (camera).« less

Toxicity of water-soluble fractions of biodiesel fuels derived from castor oil, palm oil, and waste cooking oil.

PubMed

Leite, Maria Bernadete Neiva Lemos; de Araújo, Milena Maria Sampaio; Nascimento, Iracema Andrade; da Cruz, Andrea Cristina Santos; Pereira, Solange Andrade; do Nascimento, Núbia Costa

2011-04-01

Concerns over the sustained availability of fossil fuels and their impact on global warming and pollution have led to the search for fuels from renewable sources to address worldwide rising energy demands. Biodiesel is emerging as one of the possible solutions for the transport sector. It shows comparable engine performance to that of conventional diesel fuel, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the toxicity of products and effluents from the biodiesel industry has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Brazil has a very high potential as a biodiesel producer, in view of its climatic conditions and vast areas for cropland, with consequent environmental risks because of possible accidental biodiesel spillages into water bodies and runoff to coastal areas. This research determined the toxicity to two marine organisms of the water-soluble fractions (WSF) of three different biodiesel fuels obtained by methanol transesterification of castor oil (CO), palm oil (PO), and waste cooking oil (WCO). Microalgae and sea urchins were used as the test organisms, respectively, for culture-growth-inhibition and early-life-stage-toxicity tests. The toxicity levels of the analyzed biodiesel WSF showed the highest toxicity for the CO, followed by WCO and the PO. Methanol was the most prominent contaminant; concentrations increased over time in WSF samples stored up to 120 d. Copyright © 2010 SETAC.

Hydrogenated castor oil nanoparticles as carriers for the subcutaneous administration of tilmicosin: in vitro and in vivo studies.

PubMed

Han, C; Qi, C M; Zhao, B K; Cao, J; Xie, S Y; Wang, S L; Zhou, W Z

2009-04-01

Tilmicosin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) were prepared with hydrogenated castor oil (HCO) by o/w emulsion-solvent evaporation technique. The nanoparticle diameters, surface charges, drug loadings and encapsulation efficiencies of different formulations were 90 approximately 230 nm, -6.5 approximately -12.5 mV, 40.3 approximately 59.2% and 5.7 approximately 11.7% (w/w), respectively. In vitro release studies of the tilmicosin-loaded nanoparticles showed a sustained release and the released tilmicosin had the same antibacterial activity as that of the free drug. Pharmacokinetics study after subcutaneous administration to Balb/c mice demonstrated that a single dose of tilmicosin-loaded nanoparticles resulted in sustained serum drug levels (>0.1 microg/mL) for 8 days, as compared with only 5 h for the same amount of tilmicosin phosphate solution. The time to maximum concentration (Tmax), half-life of absorption (T(1/2) ab) and half-life of elimination (T(1/2) el) of tilmicosin-loaded nanoparticles were much longer than those of tilmicosin phosphate solution. Tissue section showed that drug-loaded nanoparticles caused no inflammation at the injection site. Cytotoxicity study in cell culture and acute toxicity test in mice demonstrated that the nanoparticles had little or no toxicity. The results of this exploratory study suggest that the HCO-SLN could be a useful system for the delivery of tilmicosin by subcutaneous administration.

Preparation, characterization, and pharmacokinetics of tilmicosin- and florfenicol-loaded hydrogenated castor oil-solid lipid nanoparticles.

PubMed

Ling, Z; Yonghong, L; Changqing, S; Junfeng, L; Li, Z; Chunyu, J; Xianqiang, L

2017-06-01

To effectively control bovine mastitis, tilmicosin (TIL)- and florfenicol (FF)-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) with hydrogenated castor oil (HCO) were prepared by a hot homogenization and ultrasonication method. In vitro antibacterial activity, properties, and pharmacokinetics of the TIL-FF-SLN were studied. The results demonstrated that TIL and FF had a synergistic or additive antibacterial activity against Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Streptococcus uberis, and Streptococcus agalactiae. The size, polydispersity index, and zeta potential of nanoparticles were 289.1 ± 13.7 nm, 0.31 ± 0.05, and -26.7 ± 1.3 mV, respectively. The encapsulation efficiencies for TIL and FF were 62.3 ± 5.9% and 85.1 ± 5.2%, and the loading capacities for TIL and FF were 8.2 ± 0.6% and 3.3 ± 0.2%, respectively. The TIL-FF-SLN showed no irritation in the injection site and sustained release in vitro. After medication, TIL and FF could maintain about 0.1 μg/mL for 122 and 6 h. Compared to the control solution, the SLN increased the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC 0-t ), elimination half-life (T ½ke ), and mean residence time (MRT) of TIL by 33.09-, 23.29-, and 37.53-fold, and 1.69-, 5.00-, and 3.83-fold for FF, respectively. These results of this exploratory study suggest that the HCO-SLN could be a useful system for the delivery of TIL and FF for bovine mastitis therapy. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Designing components using smartMOVE electroactive polymer technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenthal, Marcus; Weaber, Chris; Polyakov, Ilya; Zarrabi, Al; Gise, Peter

2008-03-01

Designing components using SmartMOVE TM electroactive polymer technology requires an understanding of the basic operation principles and the necessary design tools for integration into actuator, sensor and energy generation applications. Artificial Muscle, Inc. is collaborating with OEMs to develop customized solutions for their applications using smartMOVE. SmartMOVE is an advanced and elegant way to obtain almost any kind of movement using dielectric elastomer electroactive polymers. Integration of this technology offers the unique capability to create highly precise and customized motion for devices and systems that require actuation. Applications of SmartMOVE include linear actuators for medical, consumer and industrial applications, such as pumps, valves, optical or haptic devices. This paper will present design guidelines for selecting a smartMOVE actuator design to match the stroke, force, power, size, speed, environmental and reliability requirements for a range of applications. Power supply and controller design and selection will also be introduced. An overview of some of the most versatile configuration options will be presented with performance comparisons. A case example will include the selection, optimization, and performance overview of a smartMOVE actuator for the cell phone camera auto-focus and proportional valve applications.

Orion Crew Module Move

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-11-17

Technicians in clean-room suits attach a crane to the Orion crew module for Exploration Mission-1 for its move to the thermal chamber in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion will be lifted out of a test stand and lowered onto another stand to for the move. The crew module will undergo a thermal cycle test to assess the workmanship of critical hardware and structural locations. The test also demonstrates crew module subsystem operations in a thermally stressing environment to confirm no damage or anomalous hardware conditions as a result of the test. The Orion spacecraft will launch atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket on its first uncrewed integrated flight.

Particle therapy of moving targets—the strategies for tumour motion monitoring and moving targets irradiation

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Particle therapy of moving targets is still a great challenge. The motion of organs situated in the thorax and abdomen strongly affects the precision of proton and carbon ion radiotherapy. The motion is responsible for not only the dislocation of the tumour but also the alterations in the internal density along the beam path, which influence the range of particle beams. Furthermore, in case of pencil beam scanning, there is an interference between the target movement and dynamic beam delivery. This review presents the strategies for tumour motion monitoring and moving target irradiation in the context of hadron therapy. Methods enabling the direct determination of tumour position (fluoroscopic imaging of implanted radio-opaque fiducial markers, electromagnetic detection of inserted transponders and ultrasonic tumour localization systems) are presented. Attention is also drawn to the techniques which use external surrogate motion for an indirect estimation of target displacement during irradiation. The role of respiratory-correlated CT [four-dimensional CT (4DCT)] in the determination of motion pattern prior to the particle treatment is also considered. An essential part of the article is the review of the main approaches to moving target irradiation in hadron therapy: gating, rescanning (repainting), gated rescanning and tumour tracking. The advantages, drawbacks and development trends of these methods are discussed. The new accelerators, called “cyclinacs”, are presented, because their application to particle therapy will allow making a breakthrough in the 4D spot scanning treatment of moving organs. PMID:27376637

SPGM Moves to Building 434 This Month | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer Scientific Publications, Graphics & Media (SPGM) moves to a new location this month—Building 434. The entrance is located on Wood Street. The move will take place between Monday, February 24, and Friday, February 28. During the move, SPGM will limit disruptions to service as much as possible. A sign in front of the building will direct you to the

Heterogeneous Vision Data Fusion for Independently Moving Cameras

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

target detection , tracking , and identification over a large terrain. The goal of the project is to investigate and evaluate the existing image...fusion algorithms, develop new real-time algorithms for Category-II image fusion, and apply these algorithms in moving target detection and tracking . The...moving target detection and classification. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Image Fusion, Target Detection , Moving Cameras, IR Camera, EO Camera 16. SECURITY

MOVES and Related Models

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

MOVES is a state-of-the-science emission modeling system that estimates emissions for mobile sources at the national, county, and project level for criteria air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and air toxics.

Electroactive polyurethane/siloxane derived from castor oil as a versatile cardiac patch, part I: Synthesis, characterization, and myoblast proliferation and differentiation.

PubMed

Baheiraei, Nafiseh; Gharibi, Reza; Yeganeh, Hamid; Miragoli, Michele; Salvarani, Nicolò; Di Pasquale, Elisa; Condorelli, Gianluigi

2016-03-01

Tissue-engineered cardiac patch aims at regenerating an infarcted heart by improving cardiac function and providing mechanical support to the diseased myocardium. In order to take advantages of electroactivity, a new synthetic method was developed for the introduction of an electroactive oligoaniline into the backbone of prepared patches. For this purpose, a series of electroactive polyurethane/siloxane films containing aniline tetramer (AT) was prepared through sol-gel reaction of trimethoxysilane functional intermediate polyurethane prepolymers made from castor oil and poly(ethylene glycol). Physicochemical, mechanical, and electrical conductivity of samples were evaluated and the recorded results were correlated to their structural characteristics. The optimized films were proved to be biodegradable and have tensile properties suitable for cardiac patch application. The embedded AT moieties in the backbone of the prepared samples preserved their electroactivity with the electrical conductivity in the range of 10 -4 S/cm. The prepared films were compatible with proliferation of C2C12 and had potential for enhancing myotube formation even without external electrical stimulation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 775-787, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparison of polyurethane with cyanoacrylate in hemostasis of vascular injury in guinea pigs.

PubMed

Kubrusly, Luiz Fernando; Formighieri, Marina Simões; Lago, José Vitor Martins; Graça, Yorgos Luiz Santos de Salles; Sobral, Ana Cristina Lira; Lago, Marianna Martins

2015-01-01

To evaluate the behavior of castor oil-derived polyurethane as a hemostatic agent and tissue response after abdominal aortic injury and to compare it with 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate. Twenty-four Guinea Pigs were randomly divided into three groups of eight animals (I, II, and III). The infrarenal abdominal aorta was dissected, clamped proximally and distally to the vascular puncture site. In group I (control), hemostasis was achieved with digital pressure; in group II (polyurethane) castor oil-derived polyurethane was applied, and in group III (cyanoacrylate), 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate was used. Group II was subdivided into IIA and IIB according to the time of preparation of the hemostatic agent. Mean blood loss in groups IIA, IIB and III was 0.002 grams (g), 0.008 g, and 0.170 g, with standard deviation of 0.005 g, 0.005 g, and 0.424 g, respectively (P=0.069). The drying time for cyanoacrylate averaged 81.5 seconds (s) (standard deviation: 51.5 seconds) and 126.1 s (standard deviation: 23.0 s) for polyurethane B (P=0.046). However, there was a trend (P=0.069) for cyanoacrylate to dry more slowly than polyurethane A (mean: 40.5 s; SD: 8.6 s). Furthermore, polyurethane A had a shorter drying time than polyurethane B (P=0.003), mean IIA of 40.5 s (standard deviation: 8.6 s). In group III, 100% of the animals had mild/severe fibrosis, while in group II only 12.5% showed this degree of fibrosis (P=0.001). Polyurethane derived from castor oil showed similar hemostatic behavior to octyl-2-cyanoacrylate. There was less perivascular tissue response with polyurethane when compared with cyanoacrylate.

Mervyn's Moving Mission.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2001

This teacher's resource packet includes a number of items designed to support teachers in the classroom before and after visiting Mervyn's Moving Mission. The packet includes eight sections: (1) welcome letter in English and Spanish; (2) summary timeline of California mission events in English and Spanish; (3) objectives and curriculum links; (4)…

Let's Keep Moving!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Obama, Michelle

2012-01-01

First Lady Michelle Obama lauds educators for following the lead of her Let's Move! program and taking action to curtail childhood obesity. The battle to make children healthier is being waged on a number of fronts by food companies, restaurants and schools. Progress has been made, she says, but more is needed.

A Good Move

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lakota, Gregory J.; Essary, Andrew; Bast, William D.; Dicaprio, Ralph; Symmes, Arthur H.; McDonald, Edward T.

2006-11-01

An underground exhibit space constructed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry now serves as the home of the German submarine U-505 -- the only vessel of its class captured by the United States during World War II. The careful lifting and moving of the vessel required precise coordination and meticulous reviews.

A spectroscopy study of nearby late-type stars, possible members of stellar kinematic groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldonado, J.; Martínez-Arnáiz, R. M.; Eiroa, C.; Montes, D.; Montesinos, B.

2010-10-01

Context. Nearby late-type stars are excellent targets for seeking young objects in stellar associations and moving groups. The origin of these structures is still misunderstood, and lists of moving group members often change with time and also from author to author. Most members of these groups have been identified by means of kinematic criteria, leading to an important contamination of previous lists by old field stars. Aims: We attempt to identify unambiguous moving group members among a sample of nearby-late type stars by studying their kinematics, lithium abundance, chromospheric activity, and other age-related properties. Methods: High-resolution echelle spectra (R ~ 57 000) of a sample of nearby late-type stars are used to derive accurate radial velocities that are combined with the precise Hipparcos parallaxes and proper motions to compute galactic-spatial velocity components. Stars are classified as possible members of the classical moving groups according to their kinematics. The spectra are also used to study several age-related properties for young late-type stars, i.e., the equivalent width of the lithium Li i 6707.8 Å line or the R'HK index. Additional information like X-ray fluxes from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey or the presence of debris discs is also taken into account. The different age estimators are compared and the moving group membership of the kinematically selected candidates are discussed. Results: From a total list of 405 nearby stars, 102 have been classified as moving group candidates according to their kinematics. i.e., only ~25.2% of the sample. The number reduces when age estimates are considered, and only 26 moving group candidates (25.5% of the 102 candidates) have ages in agreement with the star having the same age as an MG member. Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andaluc

Scattering characteristics of relativistically moving concentrically layered spheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garner, Timothy J.; Lakhtakia, Akhlesh; Breakall, James K.; Bohren, Craig F.

2018-02-01

The energy extinction cross section of a concentrically layered sphere varies with velocity as the Doppler shift moves the spectral content of the incident signal in the sphere's co-moving inertial reference frame toward or away from resonances of the sphere. Computations for hollow gold nanospheres show that the energy extinction cross section is high when the Doppler shift moves the incident signal's spectral content in the co-moving frame near the wavelength of the sphere's localized surface plasmon resonance. The energy extinction cross section of a three-layer sphere consisting of an olivine-silicate core surrounded by a porous and a magnetite layer, which is used to explain extinction caused by interstellar dust, also depends strongly on velocity. For this sphere, computations show that the energy extinction cross section is high when the Doppler shift moves the spectral content of the incident signal near either of olivine-silicate's two localized surface phonon resonances at 9.7 μm and 18 μm.

Monitoring Moving Queries inside a Safe Region

PubMed Central

Al-Khalidi, Haidar; Taniar, David; Alamri, Sultan

2014-01-01

With mobile moving range queries, there is a need to recalculate the relevant surrounding objects of interest whenever the query moves. Therefore, monitoring the moving query is very costly. The safe region is one method that has been proposed to minimise the communication and computation cost of continuously monitoring a moving range query. Inside the safe region the set of objects of interest to the query do not change; thus there is no need to update the query while it is inside its safe region. However, when the query leaves its safe region the mobile device has to reevaluate the query, necessitating communication with the server. Knowing when and where the mobile device will leave a safe region is widely known as a difficult problem. To solve this problem, we propose a novel method to monitor the position of the query over time using a linear function based on the direction of the query obtained by periodic monitoring of its position. Periodic monitoring ensures that the query is aware of its location all the time. This method reduces the costs associated with communications in client-server architecture. Computational results show that our method is successful in handling moving query patterns. PMID:24696652

49 CFR 24.305 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... displacement and for which an expense would be incurred in such move and, the business vacates or relocates from its displacement site; (2) The business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of its...) The business is not operated at a displacement dwelling solely for the purpose of renting such...

49 CFR 24.305 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... displacement and for which an expense would be incurred in such move and, the business vacates or relocates from its displacement site; (2) The business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of its...) The business is not operated at a displacement dwelling solely for the purpose of renting such...

49 CFR 24.305 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... displacement and for which an expense would be incurred in such move and, the business vacates or relocates from its displacement site; (2) The business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of its...) The business is not operated at a displacement dwelling solely for the purpose of renting such...

49 CFR 24.305 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... displacement and for which an expense would be incurred in such move and, the business vacates or relocates from its displacement site; (2) The business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of its...) The business is not operated at a displacement dwelling solely for the purpose of renting such...

49 CFR 24.305 - Fixed payment for moving expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... displacement and for which an expense would be incurred in such move and, the business vacates or relocates from its displacement site; (2) The business cannot be relocated without a substantial loss of its...) The business is not operated at a displacement dwelling solely for the purpose of renting such...

D and D: Dismantling and Release of Large Components at the GNS Premises in Duisburg on the Example of a CASTOR S1 Container - 13536

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oehmigen, Steffen; Ambos, Frank

There are a lot of metallic large components for the transport of radioactive waste in Germany. Some of these large components like for example the Castor S1 with 82 Mg are so old, that the transport via streets is not possible because the permission is not valid anymore. The application for a new permission is economically not reasonable. Out of this reason the large components need to be decontaminated and recycled to use them again in the economic cycle. Decontamination of large components by cleaning/removing the surface for example with beam technology is a very time-consuming release procedure. Manufacturing amore » specialized machine for decontamination and creation of a new surface was the intention of this project. The objective was to save interim storage and final repository volume and costs as well as developing a process that is nationally and internationally usable. 90% of the volume/mass of waste could be released and therefore possibly re-used. (authors)« less

The relation between students' communicative moves during laboratory work in physics and outcomes of their actions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersson, J.; Enghag, M.

2017-01-01

In this case study, we explore students' communication during practical work in physics at an upper secondary school in Sweden from a sociocultural perspective. We investigate the relation between the interaction and content of students' communication and outcomes of their actions, with the purpose of finding new knowledge for informing teachers in their choice of instruction. We make discourse analysis of how students interact but also of what students are discussing in terms of underlying content at a linguistic and cognitive level. Twenty students divided into five groups were video recorded while performing four practical tasks at different stations during laboratory work about motion. An analytical framework was developed and applied for one group to three parts of the transcripts in which three different talk-types occurred. Discursive, content, action and purposive moves in the process were identified for each talk-type at both linguistic and cognitive levels. These moves represent information concerning what the teacher actually assigns students to do, and how students make meaning of the activities. Through these different communicative moves, students experience how laboratory work can enhance their competence to collaborate in a scientific environment with complex practical and theoretical questions to solve quickly. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Can We Study Autonomous Driving Comfort in Moving-Base Driving Simulators? A Validation Study.

PubMed

Bellem, Hanna; Klüver, Malte; Schrauf, Michael; Schöner, Hans-Peter; Hecht, Heiko; Krems, Josef F

2017-05-01

To lay the basis of studying autonomous driving comfort using driving simulators, we assessed the behavioral validity of two moving-base simulator configurations by contrasting them with a test-track setting. With increasing level of automation, driving comfort becomes increasingly important. Simulators provide a safe environment to study perceived comfort in autonomous driving. To date, however, no studies were conducted in relation to comfort in autonomous driving to determine the extent to which results from simulator studies can be transferred to on-road driving conditions. Participants ( N = 72) experienced six differently parameterized lane-change and deceleration maneuvers and subsequently rated the comfort of each scenario. One group of participants experienced the maneuvers on a test-track setting, whereas two other groups experienced them in one of two moving-base simulator configurations. We could demonstrate relative and absolute validity for one of the two simulator configurations. Subsequent analyses revealed that the validity of the simulator highly depends on the parameterization of the motion system. Moving-base simulation can be a useful research tool to study driving comfort in autonomous vehicles. However, our results point at a preference for subunity scaling factors for both lateral and longitudinal motion cues, which might be explained by an underestimation of speed in virtual environments. In line with previous studies, we recommend lateral- and longitudinal-motion scaling factors of approximately 50% to 60% in order to obtain valid results for both active and passive driving tasks.

Maintenance of order in a moving strong condensate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitehouse, Justin; Costa, André; Blythe, Richard A.; Evans, Martin R.

2014-11-01

We investigate the conditions under which a moving condensate may exist in a driven mass transport system. Our paradigm is a minimal mass transport model in which n - 1 particles move simultaneously from a site containing n > 1 particles to the neighbouring site in a preferred direction. In the spirit of a zero-range process the rate u(n) of this move depends only on the occupation of the departure site. We study a hopping rate u(n) = 1 + b/nα numerically and find a moving strong condensate phase for b > bc(α) for all α > 0. This phase is characterised by a condensate that moves through the system and comprises a fraction of the system's mass that tends to unity. The mass lost by the condensate as it moves is constantly replenished from the trailing tail of low occupancy sites that collectively comprise a vanishing fraction of the mass. We formulate an approximate analytical treatment of the model that allows a reasonable estimate of bc(α) to be obtained. We show numerically (for α = 1) that the transition is of mixed order, exhibiting a discontinuity in the order parameter as well as a diverging length scale as b\\searrow bc .

FREEDOM TO MOVE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CARPENTER, ETHELOUISE; SHIPLEY, FERNE

PLAY WHICH INVOLVES NATURAL MOVEMENT HELPS THE CHILD TO LEARN ABOUT THE PROPERTIES OF MATTER AND ABOUT HIMSELF. AN EXPANSIVE AND VERSATILE USE OF SPACE FOR LIVING INCREASES WITH EXPLORATION. FREEDOM TO MOVE IS INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL, AS WELL AS PHYSICAL. NEW EXPERIENCES ARISING OUT OF CURIOSITY AND INTERACTION WITH HIS OWN FAMILY AND OTHER…

Changes in the Self-Rated Well-Being of People Who Move from Congregated Settings to Personalized Arrangements and Group Home Placements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConkey, Roy; Keogh, Fiona; Bunting, Brendan; Iriarte, Edurne Garcia

2018-01-01

A natural experiment contrasted the self-rated well-being of people with intellectual disabilities (n = 75) and those with enduring mental health problems (n = 44) after they moved to new accommodation and support options, while others remained in congregated settings or living in the family home. Most support staff also provided well-being…

Detection of Moving Targets Using Soliton Resonance Effect

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kulikov, Igor K.; Zak, Michail

2013-01-01

The objective of this research was to develop a fundamentally new method for detecting hidden moving targets within noisy and cluttered data-streams using a novel "soliton resonance" effect in nonlinear dynamical systems. The technique uses an inhomogeneous Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation containing moving-target information. Solution of the KdV equation will describe a soliton propagating with the same kinematic characteristics as the target. The approach uses the time-dependent data stream obtained with a sensor in form of the "forcing function," which is incorporated in an inhomogeneous KdV equation. When a hidden moving target (which in many ways resembles a soliton) encounters the natural "probe" soliton solution of the KdV equation, a strong resonance phenomenon results that makes the location and motion of the target apparent. Soliton resonance method will amplify the moving target signal, suppressing the noise. The method will be a very effective tool for locating and identifying diverse, highly dynamic targets with ill-defined characteristics in a noisy environment. The soliton resonance method for the detection of moving targets was developed in one and two dimensions. Computer simulations proved that the method could be used for detection of singe point-like targets moving with constant velocities and accelerations in 1D and along straight lines or curved trajectories in 2D. The method also allows estimation of the kinematic characteristics of moving targets, and reconstruction of target trajectories in 2D. The method could be very effective for target detection in the presence of clutter and for the case of target obscurations.

Moving Particles Through a Finite Element Mesh

PubMed Central

Peskin, Adele P.; Hardin, Gary R.

1998-01-01

We present a new numerical technique for modeling the flow around multiple objects moving in a fluid. The method tracks the dynamic interaction between each particle and the fluid. The movements of the fluid and the object are directly coupled. A background mesh is designed to fit the geometry of the overall domain. The mesh is designed independently of the presence of the particles except in terms of how fine it must be to track particles of a given size. Each particle is represented by a geometric figure that describes its boundary. This figure overlies the mesh. Nodes are added to the mesh where the particle boundaries intersect the background mesh, increasing the number of nodes contained in each element whose boundary is intersected. These additional nodes are then used to describe and track the particle in the numerical scheme. Appropriate element shape functions are defined to approximate the solution on the elements with extra nodes. The particles are moved through the mesh by moving only the overlying nodes defining the particles. The regular finite element grid remains unchanged. In this method, the mesh does not distort as the particles move. Instead, only the placement of particle-defining nodes changes as the particles move. Element shape functions are updated as the nodes move through the elements. This method is especially suited for models of moderate numbers of moderate-size particles, where the details of the fluid-particle coupling are important. Both the complications of creating finite element meshes around appreciable numbers of particles, and extensive remeshing upon movement of the particles are simplified in this method. PMID:28009377

A Gestalt Approach to Group Supervision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melnick, Joseph; Fall, Marijane

2008-01-01

The authors define and then describe the practice of group supervision. The role of creative experiment in assisting supervisees who perceive themselves as confused, moving in circles, or immobilized is described. Fictional case examples illustrate these issues in supervision. The authors posit the "good fit" of Gestalt theory and techniques with…

Essays on Socialization in Online Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Bo Reum

2012-01-01

One challenge of online groups is helping new members adjust to their environment. This adjustment process has been referred to as socialization, or the process by which newcomers make the transition from being organizational outsiders to being insiders. During the adjustment process, new members moved from peripheral to full participation, with…

A Moving Tale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Science Teacher, 2005

2005-01-01

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) mathematicians have discovered how certain insects can climb what to them are steep, slippery slopes in the water's surface without moving their limbs, and do it at high speed. Welcome to the world of the tiny creatures that live on the surface of ponds, lakes, and other standing bodies of water. For the…

Moving backwards, moving forward: the experiences of older Filipino migrants adjusting to life in New Zealand.

PubMed

Montayre, Jed; Neville, Stephen; Holroyd, Eleanor

2017-12-01

To explore the experiences of older Filipino migrants adjusting to living permanently in New Zealand. The qualitative descriptive approach taken in this study involved 17 individual face-to-face interviews of older Filipino migrants in New Zealand. Three main themes emerged from the data. The first theme was "moving backwards and moving forward", which described how these older Filipino migrants adjusted to challenges they experienced with migration. The second theme was "engaging with health services" and presented challenges relating to the New Zealand healthcare system, including a lack of knowledge of the nature of health services, language barriers, and differences in cultural views. The third theme, "new-found home", highlighted establishing a Filipino identity in New Zealand and adjusting to the challenges of relocation. Adjustment to life in New Zealand for these older Filipino migrants meant starting over again by building new values through learning the basics and then moving forward from there.

Moving backwards, moving forward: the experiences of older Filipino migrants adjusting to life in New Zealand

PubMed Central

Montayre, Jed; Neville, Stephen; Holroyd, Eleanor

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore the experiences of older Filipino migrants adjusting to living permanently in New Zealand. Method: The qualitative descriptive approach taken in this study involved 17 individual face-to-face interviews of older Filipino migrants in New Zealand. Results: Three main themes emerged from the data. The first theme was “moving backwards and moving forward”, which described how these older Filipino migrants adjusted to challenges they experienced with migration. The second theme was “engaging with health services” and presented challenges relating to the New Zealand healthcare system, including a lack of knowledge of the nature of health services, language barriers, and differences in cultural views. The third theme, “new-found home”, highlighted establishing a Filipino identity in New Zealand and adjusting to the challenges of relocation. Conclusion: Adjustment to life in New Zealand for these older Filipino migrants meant starting over again by building new values through learning the basics and then moving forward from there. PMID:28705087

Identifying source populations for the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber L. 1758, into Britain: evidence from ancient DNA.

PubMed

Marr, Melissa M; Brace, Selina; Schreve, Danielle C; Barnes, Ian

2018-02-09

Establishing true phylogenetic relationships between populations is a critical consideration when sourcing individuals for translocation. This presents huge difficulties with threatened and endangered species that have become extirpated from large areas of their former range. We utilise ancient DNA (aDNA) to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of a keystone species which has become extinct in Britain, the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber. We sequenced seventeen 492 bp partial tRNAPro and control region sequences from Late Pleistocene and Holocene age beavers and included these in network, demographic and genealogy analyses. The mode of postglacial population expansion from refugia was investigated by employing tests of neutrality and a pairwise mismatch distribution analysis. We found evidence of a pre-Late Glacial Maximum ancestor for the Western C. fiber clade which experienced a rapid demographic expansion during the terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene period. Ancient British beavers were found to originate from the Western phylogroup but showed no phylogenetic affinity to any one modern relict population over another. Instead, we find that they formed part of a large, continuous, pan-Western European clade that harbored little internal substructure. Our study highlights the utility of aDNA in reconstructing population histories of extirpated species which has real-world implications for conservation planning.

Plans, Patterns, and Move Categories Guiding a Highly Selective Search

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trippen, Gerhard

In this paper we present our ideas for an Arimaa-playing program (also called a bot) that uses plans and pattern matching to guide a highly selective search. We restrict move generation to moves in certain move categories to reduce the number of moves considered by the bot significantly. Arimaa is a modern board game that can be played with a standard Chess set. However, the rules of the game are not at all like those of Chess. Furthermore, Arimaa was designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible for humans, yet challenging for computers. While all established Arimaa bots use alpha-beta search with a variety of pruning techniques and other heuristics ending in an extensive positional leaf node evaluation, our new bot, Rat, starts with a positional evaluation of the current position. Based on features found in the current position - supported by pattern matching using a directed position graph - our bot Rat decides which of a given set of plans to follow. The plan then dictates what types of moves can be chosen. This is another major difference from bots that generate "all" possible moves for a particular position. Rat is only allowed to generate moves that belong to certain categories. Leaf nodes are evaluated only by a straightforward material evaluation to help avoid moves that lose material. This highly selective search looks, on average, at only 5 moves out of 5,000 to over 40,000 possible moves in a middle game position.

SPGM Moves to Building 434 This Month | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer Scientific Publications, Graphics & Media (SPGM) moves to a new location this month—Building 434. The entrance is located on Wood Street. The move will take place between Monday, February 24, and Friday, February 28. During the move, SPGM will limit disruptions to service as much as possible. A sign in front of the building will direct you to the department’s new location. Please visit SPGM in Building 434 beginning Monday, March 3.

The Development of a Program Engagement Theory for Group Offending Behavior Programs.

PubMed

Holdsworth, Emma; Bowen, Erica; Brown, Sarah; Howat, Douglas

2017-10-01

Offender engagement in group offending behavior programs is poorly understood and under-theorized. In addition, there is no research on facilitators' engagement. This article presents the first ever theory to address this gap. A Program Engagement Theory (PET) was derived from a constructivist grounded theory analysis that accounts for both facilitators' and offenders' engagement in group offending behavior programs (GOBPs). Interviews and session observations were used to collect data from 23 program facilitators and 28 offenders (group members). The analysis revealed that group members' engagement involved shared identities and moving on as a group. In turn, this was dependent on facilitators personalising treatment frameworks and establishing a hook to help group members move on. The PET emphasizes the importance of considering change during treatment as a process rather than simply a program outcome. Solution-focused (SF) programs were more conducive to engagement and the change process than offence-focused programs.

So, You Want to Move out?!--An Awareness Program of the Real Costs of Moving Away from Home

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hines, Steven L.; Hansen, Lyle; Falen, Christi

2011-01-01

The So, You Want To Move Out?! program was developed to help teens explore the financial realities of moving away from home. This 3-day camp program allows youth the opportunity to interview for a job, work, earn a paycheck, and pay financial obligations. After paying expenses and trying to put some money away in savings, the participants begin to…

Evaluation of Content-Matched Range Monitoring Queries over Moving Objects in Mobile Computing Environments.

PubMed

Jung, HaRim; Song, MoonBae; Youn, Hee Yong; Kim, Ung Mo

2015-09-18

A content-matched (CM) rangemonitoring query overmoving objects continually retrieves the moving objects (i) whose non-spatial attribute values are matched to given non-spatial query values; and (ii) that are currently located within a given spatial query range. In this paper, we propose a new query indexing structure, called the group-aware query region tree (GQR-tree) for efficient evaluation of CMrange monitoring queries. The primary role of the GQR-tree is to help the server leverage the computational capabilities of moving objects in order to improve the system performance in terms of the wireless communication cost and server workload. Through a series of comprehensive simulations, we verify the superiority of the GQR-tree method over the existing methods.

Moving Matters: The Causal Effect of Moving Schools on Student Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Stiefel, Leanna; Cordes, Sarah A.

2017-01-01

Policy makers and analysts often view the reduction of student mobility across schools as a way to improve academic performance. Prior work indicates that children do worse in the year of a school move, but has been largely unsuccessful in isolating the causal effects of mobility. We use longitudinal data on students in New York City public…

Boundary states at reflective moving boundaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acosta Minoli, Cesar A.; Kopriva, David A.

2012-06-01

We derive and evaluate boundary states for Maxwell's equations, the linear, and the nonlinear Euler gas-dynamics equations to compute wave reflection from moving boundaries. In this study we use a Discontinuous Galerkin Spectral Element method (DGSEM) with Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) mapping for the spatial approximation, but the boundary states can be used with other methods, like finite volume schemes. We present four studies using Maxwell's equations, one for the linear Euler equations, and one more for the nonlinear Euler equations. These are: reflection of light from a plane mirror moving at constant velocity, reflection of light from a moving cylinder, reflection of light from a vibrating mirror, reflection of sound from a plane wall and dipole sound generation by an oscillating cylinder in an inviscid flow. The studies show that the boundary states preserve spectral convergence in the solution and in derived quantities like divergence and vorticity.

Teaching as Interaction: Challenges in Transitioning Teachers' Instruction to Small Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyatt, Tasha; Chapman-DeSousa, Brook

2017-01-01

Although small group instruction is often endorsed in teaching young children, teachers are rarely given explicit instruction on how to move instruction into small groups where effective adult-child interactions can take place. This study examines how 14 early childhood educators transitioned their instruction from whole to small group teaching…

Occupational injuries and sick leaves in household moving works.

PubMed

Hwan Park, Myoung; Jeong, Byung Yong

2017-09-01

This study is concerned with household moving works and the characteristics of occupational injuries and sick leaves in each step of the moving process. Accident data for 392 occupational accidents were categorized by the moving processes in which the accidents occurred, and possible incidents and sick leaves were assessed for each moving process and hazard factor. Accidents occurring during specific moving processes showed different characteristics depending on the type of accident and agency of accidents. The most critical form in the level of risk management was falls from a height in the 'lifting by ladder truck' process. Incidents ranked as a 'High' level of risk management were in the forms of slips, being struck by objects and musculoskeletal disorders in the 'manual materials handling' process. Also, falls in 'loading/unloading', being struck by objects during 'lifting by ladder truck' and driving accidents in the process of 'transport' were ranked 'High'. The findings of this study can be used to develop more effective accident prevention policy reflecting different circumstances and conditions to reduce occupational accidents in household moving works.

25 CFR 700.157 - Actual reasonable moving and related expenses-nonresidential moves.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... of § 700.151(c) a certified eligible business, farm operation or nonprofit organization is entitled...-moves his business, farm operation, or nonprofit organization, the Commission may approve a payment for... and modifications necessary to adapt such property to the replacement structure or to the utilities or...

PSYM-WIDE: A Survey for Large-separation Planetary-mass Companions to Late Spectral Type Members of Young Moving Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naud, Marie-Eve; Artigau, Étienne; Doyon, René; Malo, Lison; Gagné, Jonathan; Lafrenière, David; Wolf, Christian; Magnier, Eugene A.

2017-09-01

We present the results of a direct imaging survey for very large separation (>100 au), low-mass companions around 95 nearby young K5-L5 stars and brown dwarfs. They are high-likelihood candidates or confirmed members of the young (≲150 Myr) β Pictoris and AB Doradus moving groups (ABDMG) and the TW Hya, Tucana-Horologium, Columba, Carina, and Argus associations. Images in I\\prime and z\\prime filters were obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South to search for companions down to an apparent magnitude of z\\prime ˜ 22-24 at separations ≳20″ from the targets and in the remainder of the wide 5.‧5 × 5.‧5 GMOS field of view. This allowed us to probe the most distant region where planetary-mass companions could be gravitationally bound to the targets. This region was left largely unstudied by past high-contrast imaging surveys, which probed much closer-in separations. This survey led to the discovery of a planetary-mass (9-13 {M}{Jup}) companion at 2000 au from the M3V star GU Psc, a highly probable member of ABDMG. No other substellar companions were identified. These results allowed us to constrain the frequency of distant planetary-mass companions (5-13 {M}{Jup}) to {0.84}-0.66+6.73% (95% confidence) at semimajor axes between 500 and 5000 au around young K5-L5 stars and brown dwarfs. This is consistent with other studies suggesting that gravitationally bound planetary-mass companions at wide separations from low-mass stars are relatively rare.

7 CFR 360.304 - Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. 360.304 Section 360.304 Agriculture..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NOXIOUS WEED REGULATIONS § 360.304 Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. (a) The Administrator may deny an...

7 CFR 360.304 - Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. 360.304 Section 360.304 Agriculture..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NOXIOUS WEED REGULATIONS § 360.304 Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. (a) The Administrator may deny an...

7 CFR 360.304 - Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. 360.304 Section 360.304 Agriculture..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NOXIOUS WEED REGULATIONS § 360.304 Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. (a) The Administrator may deny an...

Theses "Discussion" Sections: A Structural Move Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nodoushan, Mohammad Ali Salmani; Khakbaz, Nafiseh

2011-01-01

The current study aimed at finding the probable differences between the move structure of Iranian MA graduates' thesis discussion subgenres and those of their non-Iranian counterparts, on the one hand, and those of journal paper authors, on the other. It also aimed at identifying the moves that are considered obligatory, conventional, or optional…

76 FR 57103 - Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST); Notice of Availability of the Supplemental...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-15

..., consisting of a two-stage Castor 120 solid-propellant rocket motor with the addition of up to six Castor IVA or Castor IVXL rocket motors strapped to the first stage. The 1995 EA analyzed the potential...

Moving Target Techniques: Cyber Resilience throught Randomization, Diversity, and Dynamism

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-03

Moving Target Techniques: Cyber Resilience through Randomization, Diversity, and Dynamism Hamed Okhravi and Howard Shrobe Overview: The static...nature of computer systems makes them vulnerable to cyber attacks. Consider a situation where an attacker wants to compromise a remote system running... cyber resilience that attempts to rebalance the cyber landscape is known as cyber moving target (MT) (or just moving target) techniques. Moving target

Preparation and evaluation of tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil nanoparticle suspensions of different particle sizes.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaojin; Wang, Ting; Lu, Mengmeng; Zhu, Luyan; Wang, Yan; Zhou, WenZhong

2014-01-01

Three tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil nanoparticle (TMS-HCO-NP) suspensions of different particle sizes were prepared with different polyvinyl alcohol surfactant concentrations using a hot homogenization and ultrasonic technique. The in vitro release, in vitro antibacterial activity, mammalian cytotoxicity, acute toxicity in mice, and stability study were conducted to evaluate the characteristics of the suspensions. The in vitro tilmicosin release rate, antibacterial activity, mammalian cytotoxicity, acute toxicity in mice, and stability of the suspensions were evaluated. When prepared with polyvinyl alcohol concentrations of 0.2%, 1%, and 5%, the mean diameters of the nanoparticles in the three suspensions were 920±35 nm, 452±10 nm, and 151±4 nm, respectively. The three suspensions displayed biphasic release profiles similar to that of freeze-dried TMS-HCO-NP powders, with the exception of having a faster initial release. Moreover, suspensions of smaller-sized particles showed faster initial release, and lower minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal concentrations. Time-kill curves showed that within 12 hours, the suspension with the 151 nm particles had the most potent bactericidal activity, but later, the suspensions with larger-sized particles showed increased antibacterial activity. None of the three suspensions were cytotoxic at clinical dosage levels. At higher drug concentrations, all three suspensions showed similar concentration-dependent cytotoxicity. The suspension with the smallest-sized particle showed significantly more acute toxicity in mice, perhaps due to faster drug release. All three suspensions exhibited good stability at 4°C and at room temperature for at least 6 months. These results demonstrate that TMS-HCO-NP suspensions can be a promising formulation for tilmicosin, and that nanoparticle size can be an important consideration for formulation development.

Preparation and evaluation of tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil nanoparticle suspensions of different particle sizes

PubMed Central

Chen, Xiaojin; Wang, Ting; Lu, Mengmeng; Zhu, Luyan; Wang, Yan; Zhou, WenZhong

2014-01-01

Three tilmicosin-loaded hydrogenated castor oil nanoparticle (TMS-HCO-NP) suspensions of different particle sizes were prepared with different polyvinyl alcohol surfactant concentrations using a hot homogenization and ultrasonic technique. The in vitro release, in vitro antibacterial activity, mammalian cytotoxicity, acute toxicity in mice, and stability study were conducted to evaluate the characteristics of the suspensions. The in vitro tilmicosin release rate, antibacterial activity, mammalian cytotoxicity, acute toxicity in mice, and stability of the suspensions were evaluated. When prepared with polyvinyl alcohol concentrations of 0.2%, 1%, and 5%, the mean diameters of the nanoparticles in the three suspensions were 920±35 nm, 452±10 nm, and 151±4 nm, respectively. The three suspensions displayed biphasic release profiles similar to that of freeze-dried TMS-HCO-NP powders, with the exception of having a faster initial release. Moreover, suspensions of smaller-sized particles showed faster initial release, and lower minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal concentrations. Time-kill curves showed that within 12 hours, the suspension with the 151 nm particles had the most potent bactericidal activity, but later, the suspensions with larger-sized particles showed increased antibacterial activity. None of the three suspensions were cytotoxic at clinical dosage levels. At higher drug concentrations, all three suspensions showed similar concentration-dependent cytotoxicity. The suspension with the smallest-sized particle showed significantly more acute toxicity in mice, perhaps due to faster drug release. All three suspensions exhibited good stability at 4°C and at room temperature for at least 6 months. These results demonstrate that TMS-HCO-NP suspensions can be a promising formulation for tilmicosin, and that nanoparticle size can be an important consideration for formulation development. PMID:24920902

Moving House for Education in the Pre-School Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Kirstine

2014-01-01

This paper uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to examine house moves that take place in the pre-school years, focusing on families who move for the education of their children. We present results showing that education- related house moves do indeed occur in the pre-school years with particular types of parents making these…

A-Track: Detecting Moving Objects in FITS images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atay, T.; Kaplan, M.; Kilic, Y.; Karapinar, N.

2017-04-01

A-Track is a fast, open-source, cross-platform pipeline for detecting moving objects (asteroids and comets) in sequential telescope images in FITS format. The moving objects are detected using a modified line detection algorithm.

Moving to a Highly Walkable Neighborhood and Incidence of Hypertension: A Propensity-Score Matched Cohort Study.

PubMed

Chiu, Maria; Rezai, Mohammad-Reza; Maclagan, Laura C; Austin, Peter C; Shah, Baiju R; Redelmeier, Donald A; Tu, Jack V

2016-06-01

The impact of moving to a neighborhood more conducive to utilitarian walking on the risk of incident hypertension is uncertain. Our study aimed to examine the effect of moving to a highly walkable neighborhood on the risk of incident hypertension. A population-based propensity-score matched cohort study design was used based on the Ontario population from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2001-2010). Participants were adults ≥ 20 years of age who moved from a low-walkability neighborhood (defined as any neighborhood with a Walk Score < 90) to either a high- (Walk Score ≥ 90) or another low-walkability neighborhood. The incidence of hypertension was assessed by linking the cohort to administrative health databases using a validated algorithm. Propensity-score matched Cox proportional hazard models were used. Annual health examination was used as a control event. Among the 1,057 propensity-score matched pairs there was a significantly lower risk of incident hypertension in the low to high vs. the low to low-walkability groups [hazard ratio = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.26, 0.81, p < 0.01]. The crude hypertension incidence rates were 18.0 per 1,000 person-years (95% CI: 11.6, 24.8) among the low- to low-walkability movers compared with 8.6 per 1,000 person-years (95% CI: 5.3, 12.7) among the low- to high-walkability movers (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in the hazard of annual health examination between the two mover groups. Moving to a highly walkable neighborhood was associated with a significantly lower risk of incident hypertension. Future research should assess whether specific attributes of walkable neighborhoods (e.g., amenities, density, land-use mix) may be driving this relationship. Chiu M, Rezai MR, Maclagan LC, Austin PC, Shah BR, Redelmeier DA, Tu JV. 2016. Moving to a highly walkable neighborhood and incidence of hypertension: a propensity-score matched cohort study. Environ Health Perspect 124:754-760; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp

Three "Moves" in Enactivist Research: A Reflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmt, Elaine; Kieren, Tom

2015-01-01

In this paper the authors reflect on the contents of this current issue of ZDM and ask why focus an entire issue on enactivism as a research methodology in mathematics education. In their synthesis of the papers they distinguish and explicate what they observe as three moves in the enactivist research discussed. The first move (and the one that…

7 CFR 360.304 - Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 5 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Denial of an application for a permit to move a noxious weed; cancelation of a permit to move a noxious weed. 360.304 Section 360.304 Agriculture..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NOXIOUS WEED REGULATIONS § 360.304 Denial of an application for a permit to move a...

Action Research Study. A Framework To Help Move Teachers toward an Inquiry-Based Science Teaching Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staten, Mary E.

This action research study developed a framework for moving teachers toward an inquiry-based approach to teaching science, emphasizing elements, strategies, and supports necessary to encourage and sustain teachers' use of inquiry-based science instruction. The study involved a literature review, participant observation, focus group discussions,…

Moving as a gift: relocation in older adulthood.

PubMed

Perry, Tam E

2014-12-01

While discussions of accessibility, mobility and activities of daily living frame relocation studies, in older adulthood, the paper explores the emotional motivation of gift giving as a rationale for moving. This ethnographic study investigates the processes of household disbandment and decision-making of older adults in the Midwestern United States relocating in post-Global Financial Crisis contexts. In this study, relationships are created and sustained through the process of moving, linking older adults (n=81), their kin (n=49), and professionals (n=46) in the Midwestern United States. Using Marcel Mauss' The Gift (1925/1990) as a theoretical lens, relocation in older adulthood is conceptualized as a gift in two ways: to one's partner, and one's kin. Partners may consider gift-giving in terms of the act of moving to appease and honor their partner. Kin who were not moving themselves were also recipients of the gift of moving. These gifts enchain others in relationships of reciprocity. However these gifts, like all gifts, are not without costs or danger, so this paper examines some of the challenges that emerge along with gift-giving. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moving as a Gift: Relocation in Older Adulthood

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

While discussions of accessibility, mobility and activities of daily living frame relocation studies, in older adulthood, the paper explores the emotional motivation of gift giving as a rationale for moving. This ethnographic study investigates the processes of household disbandment and decision-making of older adults in the Midwestern United States relocating in post-Global Financial Crisis contexts. In this study, relationships are created and sustained through the process of moving, linking older adults (n=81), their kin (n=49), and professionals (n=46) in the Midwestern United States. Using Marcel Mauss’ The Gift (1925/1990) as a theoretical lens, relocation in older adulthood is conceptualized as a gift in two ways: to one’s partner, and one’s kin. Partners may consider gift-giving in terms of the act of moving to appease and honor their partner. Kin who were not moving themselves were also recipients of the gift of moving. These gifts enchain others in relationships of reciprocity. However these gifts, like all gifts, are not without costs or danger, so this paper examines some of the challenges that emerge along with gift-giving. PMID:25456616

Tilmicosin- and florfenicol-loaded hydrogenated castor oil-solid lipid nanoparticles to pigs: Combined antibacterial activities and pharmacokinetics.

PubMed

Ling, Z; Yonghong, L; Junfeng, L; Li, Z; Xianqiang, L

2018-04-01

The combined antibacterial effects of tilmicosin (TIL) and florfenicol (FF) against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) (n = 2), Streptococcus suis (S. suis) (n = 2), and Haemophilus parasuis (HPS) (n = 2) were evaluated by chekerboard test and time-kill assays. The pharmacokinetics (PKs) of TIL- and FF-loaded hydrogenated castor oil (HCO)-solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) were performed in healthy pigs. The results indicated that TIL and FF showed synergistic or additive antibacterial activities against APP, S. suis and HPS with the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) ranging from 0.375 to 0.75. The time-kill assays showed that 1/2 minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) TIL combined with 1/2 MIC FF had a stronger ability to inhibit the growth of APP, S. suis, and HPS than 1 MIC TIL or 1 MIC FF, respectively. After oral administration, plasma TIL and FF concentrations could maintain about 0.1 μg/ml for 192 and 176 hr. The SLN prolonged the last time point with detectable concentrations (T last ), area under the concentration-time curve (AUC 0-t ), elimination half-life (T ½ke ), and mean residence time (MRT) by 3.1, 5.6, 12.7, 3.4-fold of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of TIL and 11.8, 16.5, 18.1, 12.1-fold of the API of FF, respectively. This study suggests that the TIL-FF-SLN could be a useful oral formulation for the treatment of APP, S. suis, and HPS infection in pigs. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Compression Ignition Engine Operating on Blends of Castor Oil Biodiesel-Diesel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanwar, Roopesh; Sharma, Pushpendra Kumar; Singh, Aditya Narayan; Agrawal, Yadvendra Kumar

2017-04-01

Diesel vehicles are the nerves and veins of transportation, particularly in developing countries. With the rapid rate of modernization, increasing demand of fuel is inevitable. The exponential increase in fuel prices and the scarcity of its supply from the environment have promoted interest in the development of alternative sources of fuel. In this work, genus Ricinus communis L. was studied in order to delimit their potential as a raw material for biodiesel production. Further, castor oil, ethyl ester were prepared by transesterification using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst and tested on a four-stroke, single-cylinder compression ignition engine. The test was carried out at a constant speed of 3000 rpm at different loads. The results represent a substantial decrease in carbon monoxide (CO) emission with an increasing biodiesel percentage. The reduction of CO in B05, B10, B15 and B20 averaged 11.75, 22.02, 24.23 and 28.79 %, respectively, compared to mineral diesel. The emission results of the comparative test indicated that CO, oxygen (O2) and smoke density emissions are found to be lower when the engine is filled with B05, B10, B15 and B20 as compared to mineral diesel, while carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) with B05, B10, B15 and B20 are found to increase marginally. Brake thermal efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption decrease and increase respectively in biodiesel with different blends in comparison of mineral diesel.

Moving across boundaries: migration in South Africa, 1950-2000.

PubMed

Reed, Holly E

2013-02-01

Existing knowledge about historical patterns of black internal migration in South Africa is incomplete, primarily because of the lack of good life course studies as well as the apartheid government's suppression and censoring of data. This article provides a comprehensive picture of historical internal migration patterns with an analysis of a unique individual retrospective life history data set. This sample of the black population, collected in 2000, is the only known nationally representative life history data for South Africa; it includes all residential moves for each individual during his/her lifetime. Various mobility outcomes are analyzed: moves within/across provinces, moves within/across rural and urban areas, forced moves, moves with a nuclear family, and individual moves. The results indicate that migration significantly increased among black South Africans during the last half of the twentieth century, and that this increase began before the Pass Laws were repealed in 1986 and well before the official end of apartheid in 1991 or the first free election in 1994. The timing of this increase in migration rates suggests that migration in defiance of the Pass Laws (albeit a dangerous and desperate proposition) was a way of life for many black South Africans.

Comparison of polyurethane with cyanoacrylate in hemostasis of vascular injury in guinea pigs

PubMed Central

Kubrusly, Luiz Fernando; Formighieri, Marina Simões; Lago, José Vitor Martins; Graça, Yorgos Luiz Santos de Salles; Sobral, Ana Cristina Lira; Lago, Marianna Martins

2015-01-01

Objective To evaluate the behavior of castor oil-derived polyurethane as a hemostatic agent and tissue response after abdominal aortic injury and to compare it with 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate. Methods Twenty-four Guinea Pigs were randomly divided into three groups of eight animals (I, II, and III). The infrarenal abdominal aorta was dissected, clamped proximally and distally to the vascular puncture site. In group I (control), hemostasis was achieved with digital pressure; in group II (polyurethane) castor oil-derived polyurethane was applied, and in group III (cyanoacrylate), 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate was used. Group II was subdivided into IIA and IIB according to the time of preparation of the hemostatic agent. Results Mean blood loss in groups IIA, IIB and III was 0.002 grams (g), 0.008 g, and 0.170 g, with standard deviation of 0.005 g, 0.005 g, and 0.424 g, respectively (P=0.069). The drying time for cyanoacrylate averaged 81.5 seconds (s) (standard deviation: 51.5 seconds) and 126.1 s (standard deviation: 23.0 s) for polyurethane B (P=0.046). However, there was a trend (P=0.069) for cyanoacrylate to dry more slowly than polyurethane A (mean: 40.5 s; SD: 8.6 s). Furthermore, polyurethane A had a shorter drying time than polyurethane B (P=0.003), mean IIA of 40.5 s (standard deviation: 8.6 s). In group III, 100% of the animals had mild/severe fibrosis, while in group II only 12.5% showed this degree of fibrosis (P=0.001). Conclusion Polyurethane derived from castor oil showed similar hemostatic behavior to octyl-2-cyanoacrylate. There was less perivascular tissue response with polyurethane when compared with cyanoacrylate. PMID:25859876

Moving core beam energy absorber and converter

DOEpatents

Degtiarenko, Pavel V.

2012-12-18

A method and apparatus for the prevention of overheating of laser or particle beam impact zones through the use of a moving-in-the-coolant-flow arrangement for the energy absorbing core of the device. Moving of the core spreads the energy deposition in it in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions, thus increasing the effective cooling area of the device.

Capitated groups suffer under open access, consumer-driven care.

PubMed

2003-08-01

Complaints are starting to come in from capitated medical groups and medical associations about the movement to higher co-payments and deductibles in association with the rapidly expanding move toward consumer-driven health care.

Aboard the "Moving School."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ainscow, Mel; Hopkins, David

1992-01-01

In many countries, education legislation embodies contradictory pressures for centralization and decentralization. In the United Kingdom, there is growing government control over policy and direction of schools; schools are also being given more responsibility for resource management. "Moving" schools within Improving the Quality of…

Attention: Page has moved

Science.gov Websites

Information CPC Web Team USA.gov is the U.S. Government's official Web portal to all Federal, state and local government Web resources and services. This page has moved In about 10 seconds you will be transferred to its

Libraries on the MOVE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edgar, Jim; And Others

1986-01-01

Presents papers from Illinois State Library and Shawnee Library System's "Libraries on the MOVE" conference focusing on how libraries can impact economic/cultural climate of an area. Topics addressed included information services of rural libraries; marketing; rural library development; library law; information access; interagency…

Disentangling the Impact of Social Groups on Response Times and Movement Dynamics in Evacuations

PubMed Central

Bode, Nikolai W. F.; Holl, Stefan; Mehner, Wolfgang; Seyfried, Armin

2015-01-01

Crowd evacuations are paradigmatic examples for collective behaviour, as interactions between individuals lead to the overall movement dynamics. Approaches assuming that all individuals interact in the same way have significantly improved our understanding of pedestrian crowd evacuations. However, this scenario is unlikely, as many pedestrians move in social groups that are based on friendship or kinship. We test how the presence of social groups affects the egress time of individuals and crowds in a representative crowd evacuation experiment. Our results suggest that the presence of social groups increases egress times and that this is largely due to differences at two stages of evacuations. First, individuals in social groups take longer to show a movement response at the start of evacuations, and, second, they take longer to move into the vicinity of the exits once they have started to move towards them. Surprisingly, there are no discernible time differences between the movement of independent individuals and individuals in groups directly in front of the exits. We explain these results and discuss their implications. Our findings elucidate behavioural differences between independent individuals and social groups in evacuations. Such insights are crucial for the control of crowd evacuations and for planning mass events. PMID:25785603

Moving Data, Moving Students: Involving Students in Learning about Internet Data Traffic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinicke, Bryan A.; Yaylacicegi, Ulku

2010-01-01

Undergraduate students often have difficulty understanding the way in which data moves across a TCP/IP network, such as the Internet. From the initial data request, to larger files being packetized and transmitted via multiple routes, the students can become lost in the details. These are important concepts for both introductory Management…

Democracy and Education Spending: Has Africa's Move to Multiparty Elections Made a Difference for Policy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stasavage, David

While it is widely recognized that electoral competition can have a major influence on public spending decisions, there has been little effort to consider whether the move to multiparty elections in African countries in recent years has led to a redistribution of public expenditures among social groups. This is a question relevant for debates…

Modelling atmospheric flows with adaptive moving meshes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kühnlein, Christian; Smolarkiewicz, Piotr K.; Dörnbrack, Andreas

2012-04-01

An anelastic atmospheric flow solver has been developed that combines semi-implicit non-oscillatory forward-in-time numerics with a solution-adaptive mesh capability. A key feature of the solver is the unification of a mesh adaptation apparatus, based on moving mesh partial differential equations (PDEs), with the rigorous formulation of the governing anelastic PDEs in generalised time-dependent curvilinear coordinates. The solver development includes an enhancement of the flux-form multidimensional positive definite advection transport algorithm (MPDATA) - employed in the integration of the underlying anelastic PDEs - that ensures full compatibility with mass continuity under moving meshes. In addition, to satisfy the geometric conservation law (GCL) tensor identity under general moving meshes, a diagnostic approach is proposed based on the treatment of the GCL as an elliptic problem. The benefits of the solution-adaptive moving mesh technique for the simulation of multiscale atmospheric flows are demonstrated. The developed solver is verified for two idealised flow problems with distinct levels of complexity: passive scalar advection in a prescribed deformational flow, and the life cycle of a large-scale atmospheric baroclinic wave instability showing fine-scale phenomena of fronts and internal gravity waves.

[Observation on therapeutic effect of chronic fatigue syndrome treated with coiling dragon needling and moving cupping on back].

PubMed

Xu, Wei; Zhou, Ri-Hua; Li, Lei; Jiang, Ming-Wei

2012-03-01

To compare the differences of therapeutic effect of chronic fatigue syndrome treated with the combined therapy of coiling dragon needling and cupping on back and the western medicine therapy with Prednisone. Seventy-two cases were randomly divided into an acupuncture and cupping group (37 cases) and a Prednisone group (35 cases). In acupuncture and cupping group, Jiaji (EX-B 2) points of T1--L5 were applied with coiling dragon needling (once a day), combined with moving cupping on back (once every two days); in Prednisone group, Prednisone tablets were orally taken for 10 mg at 8:00 am. Seven days made one course, and 2 courses were carried on totally. FS-14 scale and BELL's chronic fatigue syndrome integral table were applied to evaluate the fatigue degree of patients before and after treatment, and the therapeutic effects of both groups were compared. After one course of treatment, the BELL's scores of both groups were obviously improved (both P < 0.01), but there was no significant difference between groups (P > 0.05); after two courses of treatment, the BELL's score in acupuncture and cupping group improved more obviously than that in Prednisone group, and the total effective rate of 91.9% (34/37) in acupuncture and cupping group was superior to that of 71.4% (25/35) in Prednisone group (P < 0.05). The therapeutic effect of chronic fatigue syndrome treated with coiling dragon needling and moving cupping on back is positive, superior to that of Prednisone with oral administration.

Moving Another Big Desk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fawcett, Gay

1996-01-01

New ways of thinking about leadership require that leaders move their big desks and establish environments that encourage trust and open communication. Educational leaders must trust their colleagues to make wise choices. When teachers are treated democratically as leaders, classrooms will also become democratic learning organizations. (SM)

Automated 3D trajectory measuring of large numbers of moving particles.

PubMed

Wu, Hai Shan; Zhao, Qi; Zou, Danping; Chen, Yan Qiu

2011-04-11

Complex dynamics of natural particle systems, such as insect swarms, bird flocks, fish schools, has attracted great attention of scientists for years. Measuring 3D trajectory of each individual in a group is vital for quantitative study of their dynamic properties, yet such empirical data is rare mainly due to the challenges of maintaining the identities of large numbers of individuals with similar visual features and frequent occlusions. We here present an automatic and efficient algorithm to track 3D motion trajectories of large numbers of moving particles using two video cameras. Our method solves this problem by formulating it as three linear assignment problems (LAP). For each video sequence, the first LAP obtains 2D tracks of moving targets and is able to maintain target identities in the presence of occlusions; the second one matches the visually similar targets across two views via a novel technique named maximum epipolar co-motion length (MECL), which is not only able to effectively reduce matching ambiguity but also further diminish the influence of frequent occlusions; the last one links 3D track segments into complete trajectories via computing a globally optimal assignment based on temporal and kinematic cues. Experiment results on simulated particle swarms with various particle densities validated the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. As real-world case, our method successfully acquired 3D flight paths of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) group comprising hundreds of freely flying individuals. © 2011 Optical Society of America

ELECTROMAGNETIC APPARATUS FOR MOVING A ROD

DOEpatents

Young, J.N.

1958-04-22

An electromagnetic apparatus for moving a rod-like member in small steps in either direction is described. The invention has particular application in the reactor field where the reactor control rods must be moved only a small distance and where the use of mechanical couplings is impractical due to the high- pressure seals required. A neutron-absorbing rod is mounted in a housing with gripping uaits that engage the rod, and coils for magnetizing the gripping units to make them grip, shift, and release the rod are located outside the housing.

Fixing the Shadows While Moving the Gnomon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gangui, Alejandro

2015-01-01

It is a common practice to fix a vertical gnomon and study the moving shadow cast by it. This shows our local solar time and gives us a hint regarding the season in which we perform the observation. The moving shadow can also tell us our latitude with high precision. In this paper we propose to exchange the roles and while keeping the shadows…

Vibration analyses of an inclined flat plate subjected to moving loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jia-Jang

2007-01-01

The object of this paper is to present a moving mass element so that one may easily perform the dynamic analysis of an inclined plate subjected to moving loads with the effects of inertia force, Coriolis force and centrifugal force considered. To this end, the mass, damping and stiffness matrices of the moving mass element, with respect to the local coordinate system, are derived first by using the principle of superposition and the definition of shape functions. Next, the last property matrices of the moving mass element are transformed into the global coordinate system and combined with the property matrices of the inclined plate itself to determine the effective overall property matrices and the instantaneous equations of motion of the entire vibrating system. Because the property matrices of the moving mass element have something to do with the instantaneous position of the moving load, both the property matrices of the moving mass element and the effective overall ones of the entire vibrating system are time-dependent. At any instant of time, solving the instantaneous equations of motion yields the instantaneous dynamic responses of the inclined plate. For validation, the presented technique is used to determine the dynamic responses of a horizontal pinned-pinned plate subjected to a moving load and a satisfactory agreement with the existing literature is achieved. Furthermore, extensive studies on the inclined plate subjected to moving loads reveal that the influences of moving-load speed, inclined angle of the plate and total number of the moving loads on the dynamic responses of the inclined plate are significant in most cases, and the effects of Coriolis force and centrifugal force are perceptible only in the case of higher moving-load speed.

Working through a psychotherapy group's political cultures.

PubMed

Ettin, Mark F; Cohen, Bertram D

2003-10-01

Macropolitical evolution, starting with authoritarian monarchism, has moved through anarchistic transitions either to the totalitarianism of fascism and communism or to liberal and social democracy. We posit analogous micropolitical development in process-oriented therapy groups: "dependence" and "counterdependence" corresponding to monarchism and anarchism; and "independence" and "interdependence" to liberal and social democracy, respectively. Transition from counterdependence to independence and interdependence may be: (1) facilitated through group members' cooperative experience of rebellion, or (2) blocked by collective identification, the internalization of dystopian or utopian fantasies that coalesce as "group-self" perceptions. We explore how group therapists work clinically with and through these several "political cultures" in the service of group and self transformation.

Moving target parameter estimation of SAR after two looks cancellation