Stereotactically Standard Areas: Applied Mathematics in the Service of Brain Targeting in Deep Brain Stimulation.

PubMed

Mavridis, Ioannis N

2017-12-11

The concept of stereotactically standard areas (SSAs) within human brain nuclei belongs to the knowledge of the modern field of stereotactic brain microanatomy. These are areas resisting the individual variability of the nuclear location in stereotactic space. This paper summarizes the current knowledge regarding SSAs. A mathematical formula of SSAs was recently invented, allowing for their robust, reproducible, and accurate application to laboratory studies and clinical practice. Thus, SSAs open new doors for the application of stereotactic microanatomy to highly accurate brain targeting, which is mainly useful for minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures, such as deep brain stimulation.

Application of the shaped electrode technique to a large area rectangular capacitively coupled plasma reactor to suppress standing wave nonuniformity

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

Sansonnens, L.; Schmidt, H.; Howling, A.A.

The electromagnetic standing wave effect can become the main source of nonuniformity limiting the use of very high frequency in large area reactors exceeding 1 m{sup 2} required for industrial applications. Recently, it has been proposed and shown experimentally in a cylindrical reactor that a shaped electrode in place of the conventional flat electrode can be used in order to suppress the electromagnetic standing wave nonuniformity. In this study, we show experimental measurements demonstrating that the shaped electrode technique can also be applied in large area rectangular reactors. We also present results of electromagnetic screening by a conducting substrate whichmore » has important consequences for industrial application of the shaped electrode technique.« less

The Broadband Quandary for Rural America. The Main Street Economist: Commentary on the Rural Economy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staihr, Brian

High speed data services known as broadband have the potential to make rural areas less isolated and improve the rural quality of life, but physical barriers, sparse population density, and few markets present significant obstacles to their deployment in rural areas. Broadband applications such as e-commerce, distance education, and telemedicine…

In campus location finder using mobile application services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fai, Low Weng; Audah, Lukman

2017-09-01

Navigation services become very common in this era, the application include Google Map, Waze and etc. Although navigation application contains the main routing service in open area but not all of the buildings are recorded in the database. In this project, an application is made for the indoor and outdoor navigation in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). It is used to help outsider and new incoming students by navigating them from their current location to destination using mobile application name "U Finder". Thunkable website has been used to build the application for outdoor and indoor navigation. Outdoor navigation is linked to the Google Map and indoor navigation is using the QR code for positioning and routing picture for navigation. The outdoor navigation can route user to the main faculties in UTHM and indoor navigation is only done for the G1 building in UTHM.

ASI's space automation and robotics programs: The second step

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dipippo, Simonetta

1994-01-01

The strategic decisions taken by ASI in the last few years in building up the overall A&R program, represent the technological drivers for other applications (i.e., internal automation of the Columbus Orbital Facility in the ESA Manned Space program, applications to mobile robots both in space and non-space environments, etc...). In this context, the main area of application now emerging is the scientific missions domain. Due to the broad range of applications of the developed technologies, both in the in-orbit servicing and maintenance of space structures and scientific missions, ASI foresaw the need to have a common technological development path, mainly focusing on: (1) control; (2) manipulation; (3) on-board computing; (4) sensors; and (5) teleoperation. Before entering into new applications in the scientific missions field, a brief overview of the status of the SPIDER related projects is given, underlining also the possible new applications for the LEO/GEO space structures.

Source apportionment and location by selective wind sampling and Positive Matrix Factorization.

PubMed

Venturini, Elisa; Vassura, Ivano; Raffo, Simona; Ferroni, Laura; Bernardi, Elena; Passarini, Fabrizio

2014-10-01

In order to determine the pollution sources in a suburban area and identify the main direction of their origin, PM2.5 was collected with samplers coupled with a wind select sensor and then subjected to Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis. In each sample, soluble ions, organic carbon, elemental carbon, levoglucosan, metals, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined. PMF results identified six main sources affecting the area: natural gas home appliances, motor vehicles, regional transport, biomass combustion, manufacturing activities, and secondary aerosol. The connection of factor temporal trends with other parameters (i.e., temperature, PM2.5 concentration, and photochemical processes) confirms factor attributions. PMF analysis indicated that the main source of PM2.5 in the area is secondary aerosol. This should be mainly due to regional contributions, owing to both the secondary nature of the source itself and the higher concentration registered in inland air masses. The motor vehicle emission source contribution is also important. This source likely has a prevalent local origin. The most toxic determined components, i.e., PAHs, Cd, Pb, and Ni, are mainly due to vehicular traffic. Even if this is not the main source in the study area, it is the one of greatest concern. The application of PMF analysis to PM2.5 collected with this new sampling technique made it possible to obtain more detailed results on the sources affecting the area compared to a classical PMF analysis.

CE-TOF/MS: fundamental concepts, instrumental considerations and applications.

PubMed

Staub, Aline; Schappler, Julie; Rudaz, Serge; Veuthey, Jean-Luc

2009-05-01

This review discusses the fundamental principles of TOF analyzers and covers the great progress that has been made in this area in recent years (i.e. orthogonal acceleration, reflectron). This paper also gives an overview of applications performed by CE coupled to TOF/MS detection. The main domains of interest include the analysis of biomolecules and natural compounds.

Computational fluid dynamics - An introduction for engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbott, Michael Barry; Basco, David R.

An introduction to the fundamentals of CFD for engineers and physical scientists is presented. The principal definitions, basic ideas, and most common methods used in CFD are presented, and the application of these methods to the description of free surface, unsteady, and turbulent flow is shown. Emphasis is on the numerical treatment of incompressible unsteady fluid flow with primary applications to water problems using the finite difference method. While traditional areas of application like hydrology, hydraulic and coastal engineering and oceanography get the main emphasis, newer areas of application such as medical fluid dynamics, bioengineering, and soil physics and chemistry are also addressed. The possibilities and limitations of CFD are pointed out along with the relations of CFD to other branches of science.

The effect of nitrogen loading on on-site system design: a model for determining land application area size.

PubMed

McCardell, A; Davison, L; Edwards, A

2005-01-01

Designers of on-site wastewater management systems have six opportunities to remove pollutants of concern from the aqueous waste stream before it reaches ground or surface waters. These opportunities occur at source, at point of collection (primary treatment), secondary treatment, tertiary treatment, land application and buffers. This paper presents a computer based model for the sizing of on-site system land application areas applicable to the Lismore area in Northern New South Wales, a region of high rainfall. Inputs to the model include daily climatic data, soil type, number of people loading the system and size of housing allotment. Constraints include allowable phosphorus export, nitrogen export and hydraulic percolation. In the Lismore area nitrogen is the nutrient of most concern. In areas close to environmentally sensitive waterways, and in dense developments, the allowable annual nitrogen export becomes the main factor determining the land application area size. The model offers system designers the opportunity to test various combinations of nitrogen attenuation strategies (source control, secondary treatment) in order to create a solution which offers an acceptable nitrogen export rate while meeting the client's household and financial needs. The model runs on an Excel spreadsheet and has been developed by Lismore City Council.

Application of molecular docking for the degradation of organic pollutants in the environmental remediation: A review.

PubMed

Liu, Zhifeng; Liu, Yujie; Zeng, Guangming; Shao, Binbin; Chen, Ming; Li, Zhigang; Jiang, Yilin; Liu, Yang; Zhang, Yu; Zhong, Hua

2018-07-01

The molecular docking has been employed successfully to study the mechanism of biodegradation in the environmental remediation in the past few years, although medical science and biology are the main application areas for it. Molecular docking is a very convenient and low cost method to understand the reaction mechanism of proteins or enzymes with ligands with a high accuracy. This paper mainly provides a review for the application of molecular docking between organic pollutants and enzymes. It summarizes the fundamental knowledge of molecular docking, such as its theory, available softwares and main databases. Moreover, five types of pollutants, including phenols, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes), nitrile, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and high polymer (e.g., lignin and cellulose), are discussed from molecular level. Different removal mechanisms are also explained in detail via docking technology. Even though this method shows promising application in the research of biodegradation, further studies are still needed to relate with actual condition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensor Fusion and Smart Sensor in Sports and Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Mendes, José Jair Alves; Vieira, Mário Elias Marinho; Pires, Marcelo Bissi; Stevan, Sergio Luiz

2016-01-01

The following work presents an overview of smart sensors and sensor fusion targeted at biomedical applications and sports areas. In this work, the integration of these areas is demonstrated, promoting a reflection about techniques and applications to collect, quantify and qualify some physical variables associated with the human body. These techniques are presented in various biomedical and sports applications, which cover areas related to diagnostics, rehabilitation, physical monitoring, and the development of performance in athletes, among others. Although some applications are described in only one of two fields of study (biomedicine and sports), it is very likely that the same application fits in both, with small peculiarities or adaptations. To illustrate the contemporaneity of applications, an analysis of specialized papers published in the last six years has been made. In this context, the main characteristic of this review is to present the largest quantity of relevant examples of sensor fusion and smart sensors focusing on their utilization and proposals, without deeply addressing one specific system or technique, to the detriment of the others. PMID:27669260

Constitutive and damage material modeling in a high pressure hydrogen environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Russell, D. A.; Fritzemeier, L. G.

1991-01-01

Numerous components in reusable space propulsion systems such as the SSME are exposed to high pressure gaseous hydrogen environments. Flow areas and passages in the fuel turbopump, fuel and oxidizer preburners, main combustion chamber, and injector assembly contain high pressure hydrogen either high in purity or as hydrogen rich steam. Accurate constitutive and damage material models applicable to high pressure hydrogen environments are therefore needed for engine design and analysis. Existing constitutive and cyclic crack initiation models were evaluated only for conditions of oxidizing environments. The main objective is to evaluate these models for applicability to high pressure hydrogen environments.

Synthesis, functionalization, and applications of metal-organic frameworks in biomedicine.

PubMed

Chen, Wei; Wu, Chunsheng

2018-02-13

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), also known as coordination polymers, have attracted extensive research interest in the past few decades due to their unique physical structures and potentially vast applications. In this review, we outline the recent progress in the synthesis, functionalization and applications of MOFs in biomedicine, mainly focusing on two promising, yet challenging areas, i.e., drug delivery and biosensing applications. A major challenge is the proper functionalization of MOFs with demanding properties suitable for biomedical applications. Extensive studies on MOFs in biomedicine have led to substantial progress in the control of key properties of MOFs such as toxicity, size and shape, and biological stability. Due to their flexible composition, pore size and easy functionalization properties, MOFs can be utilized as key components for the development of various functional systems, and their applications in drug delivery and biosensing are reviewed. Future trends and perspectives in these research areas are also outlined.

Objects Grouping for Segmentation of Roads Network in High Resolution Images of Urban Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maboudi, M.; Amini, J.; Hahn, M.

2016-06-01

Updated road databases are required for many purposes such as urban planning, disaster management, car navigation, route planning, traffic management and emergency handling. In the last decade, the improvement in spatial resolution of VHR civilian satellite sensors - as the main source of large scale mapping applications - was so considerable that GSD has become finer than size of common urban objects of interest such as building, trees and road parts. This technological advancement pushed the development of "Object-based Image Analysis (OBIA)" as an alternative to pixel-based image analysis methods. Segmentation as one of the main stages of OBIA provides the image objects on which most of the following processes will be applied. Therefore, the success of an OBIA approach is strongly affected by the segmentation quality. In this paper, we propose a purpose-dependent refinement strategy in order to group road segments in urban areas using maximal similarity based region merging. For investigations with the proposed method, we use high resolution images of some urban sites. The promising results suggest that the proposed approach is applicable in grouping of road segments in urban areas.

78 FR 54454 - Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-04

... states that there has been poor performance of the raised footrope trawl in this area. This project would... gear performance standards. Fishing operations would occur within the Gulf of Maine Raised Footrope...

Theoretical research program to study chemical reactions in AOTV bow shock tubes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, P.

1986-01-01

Progress in the development of computational methods for the characterization of chemical reactions in aerobraking orbit transfer vehicle (AOTV) propulsive flows is reported. Two main areas of code development were undertaken: (1) the implementation of CASSCF (complete active space self-consistent field) and SCF (self-consistent field) analytical first derivatives on the CRAY X-MP; and (2) the installation of the complete set of electronic structure codes on the CRAY 2. In the area of application calculations the main effort was devoted to performing full configuration-interaction calculations and using these results to benchmark other methods. Preprints describing some of the systems studied are included.

Recommended system of application and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wei

2018-04-01

A recommender system is a project that helps users identify their wishes and needs. The recommender system has been successfully applied to many e-commerce environments, such as news, film, music, books and other areas of recommendation. This paper mainly discusses the application of recommendation technology in software engineering, data and knowledge engineering, configurable projects and persuasion technology, and summarizes the development trend of recommendation technology in the future.

The KULTURisk Regional Risk Assessment methodology for water-related natural hazards - Part 2: Application to the Zurich case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ronco, P.; Bullo, M.; Torresan, S.; Critto, A.; Olschewski, R.; Zappa, M.; Marcomini, A.

2014-07-01

The main objective of the paper is the application of the KULTURisk Regional Risk Assessment (KR-RRA) methodology, presented in the companion paper (Part 1, Ronco et al., 2014), to the Sihl River valley, in Switzerland. Through a tuning process of the methodology to the site-specific context and features, flood related risks have been assessed for different receptors lying on the Sihl River valley including the city of Zurich, which represents a typical case of river flooding in urban area. After characterizing the peculiarities of the specific case study, risk maps have been developed under a 300 years return period scenario (selected as baseline) for six identified relevant targets, exposed to flood risk in the Sihl valley, namely: people, economic activities (including buildings, infrastructures and agriculture), natural and semi-natural systems and cultural heritage. Finally, the total risk index map, which allows to identify and rank areas and hotspots at risk by means of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis tools, has been produced to visualize the spatial pattern of flood risk within the area of study. By means of a tailored participative approach, the total risk maps supplement the consideration of technical experts with the (essential) point of view of the relevant stakeholders for the appraisal of the specific scores and weights related to the receptor-relative risks. The total risk maps obtained for the Sihl River case study are associated with the lower classes of risk. In general, higher relative risks are concentrated in the deeply urbanized area within and around the Zurich city centre and areas that rely just behind to the Sihl River course. Here, forecasted injuries and potential fatalities are mainly due to high population density and high presence of old (vulnerable) people; inundated buildings are mainly classified as continuous and discontinuous urban fabric; flooded roads, pathways and railways, the majority of them referring to the Zurich main train station (Hauptbahnhof), are at high risk of inundation, causing huge indirect damages. The analysis of flood risk to agriculture, natural and semi-natural systems and cultural heritage have pointed out that these receptors could be relatively less impacted by the selected flood scenario mainly because their scattered presence. Finally, the application of the KR-RRA methodology to the Sihl River case study as well as to several other sites across Europe (not presented here), has demonstrated its flexibility and possible adaptation to different geographical and socio-economic contexts, depending on data availability and peculiarities of the sites, as well as for other hazard scenarios.

Summaries of research projects for fiscal years 1996 and 1997, medical applications and biophysical research

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

NONE

The Medical Applications and Biophysical Research Division of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research supports and manages research in several distinct areas of science and technology. The projects described in this book are grouped by the main budgetary areas: General Life Sciences (structural molecular biology), Medical Applications (primarily nuclear medicine) and Measurement Science (analytical chemistry instrumentation), Environmental Management Science Program, and the Small Business Innovation Research Program. The research funded by this division complements that of the other two divisions in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER): Health Effects and Life Sciences Research, and Environmental Sciences. Mostmore » of the OBER programs are planned and administered jointly by the staff of two or all three of the divisions. This summary book provides information on research supported in these program areas during Fiscal Years 1996 and 1997.« less

On the Edge of Research and Technological Application: A Critical Review of Electromethanogenesis

PubMed Central

Blasco-Gómez, Ramiro; Batlle-Vilanova, Pau; Villano, Marianna; Balaguer, Maria Dolors; Colprim, Jesús; Puig, Sebastià

2017-01-01

The conversion of electrical current into methane (electromethanogenesis) by microbes represents one of the most promising applications of bioelectrochemical systems (BES). Electromethanogenesis provides a novel approach to waste treatment, carbon dioxide fixation and renewable energy storage into a chemically stable compound, such as methane. This has become an important area of research since it was first described, attracting different research groups worldwide. Basics of the process such as microorganisms involved and main reactions are now much better understood, and recent advances in BES configuration and electrode materials in lab-scale enhance the interest in this technology. However, there are still some gaps that need to be filled to move towards its application. Side reactions or scaling-up issues are clearly among the main challenges that need to be overcome to its further development. This review summarizes the recent advances made in the field of electromethanogenesis to address the main future challenges and opportunities of this novel process. In addition, the present fundamental knowledge is critically reviewed and some insights are provided to identify potential niche applications and help researchers to overcome current technological boundaries. PMID:28425974

On the Edge of Research and Technological Application: A Critical Review of Electromethanogenesis.

PubMed

Blasco-Gómez, Ramiro; Batlle-Vilanova, Pau; Villano, Marianna; Balaguer, Maria Dolors; Colprim, Jesús; Puig, Sebastià

2017-04-20

The conversion of electrical current into methane (electromethanogenesis) by microbes represents one of the most promising applications of bioelectrochemical systems (BES). Electromethanogenesis provides a novel approach to waste treatment, carbon dioxide fixation and renewable energy storage into a chemically stable compound, such as methane. This has become an important area of research since it was first described, attracting different research groups worldwide. Basics of the process such as microorganisms involved and main reactions are now much better understood, and recent advances in BES configuration and electrode materials in lab-scale enhance the interest in this technology. However, there are still some gaps that need to be filled to move towards its application. Side reactions or scaling-up issues are clearly among the main challenges that need to be overcome to its further development. This review summarizes the recent advances made in the field of electromethanogenesis to address the main future challenges and opportunities of this novel process. In addition, the present fundamental knowledge is critically reviewed and some insights are provided to identify potential niche applications and help researchers to overcome current technological boundaries.

Silver nanoparticles: Synthesis methods, bio-applications and properties.

PubMed

Abbasi, Elham; Milani, Morteza; Fekri Aval, Sedigheh; Kouhi, Mohammad; Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl; Tayefi Nasrabadi, Hamid; Nikasa, Parisa; Joo, San Woo; Hanifehpour, Younes; Nejati-Koshki, Kazem; Samiei, Mohammad

2016-01-01

Silver nanoparticles size makes wide range of new applications in various fields of industry. Synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles for applications such as catalysis, electronics, optics, environmental and biotechnology is an area of constant interest. Two main methods for Silver nanoparticles are the physical and chemical methods. The problem with these methods is absorption of toxic substances onto them. Green synthesis approaches overcome this limitation. Silver nanoparticles size makes wide range of new applications in various fields of industry. This article summarizes exclusively scalable techniques and focuses on strengths, respectively, limitations with respect to the biomedical applicability and regulatory requirements concerning silver nanoparticles.

Magnetic nanoparticles as potential candidates for biomedical and biological applications.

PubMed

Zeinali Sehrig, Fatemeh; Majidi, Sima; Nikzamir, Nasrin; Nikzamir, Nasim; Nikzamir, Mohammad; Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl

2016-05-01

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have become the main candidates for biomedical and biological applications, and the application of small iron oxide nanoparticles in in vitro diagnostics has been practiced for about half a century. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), in combination with an external magnetic field and/or magnetizable grafts, allow the delivery of particles to the chosen target area, fix them at the local site while the medication is released, and act locally. In this review, we focus mostly on the potential use of MNPs for biomedical and biotechnological applications, and the improvements made in using these nanoparticles (NPs) in biological applications.

Advances in the development of remote sensing technology for agricultural applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powers, J. E.; Erb, R. B.; Hall, F. G.; Macdonald, R. B.

1979-01-01

The application of remote sensing technology to crop forecasting is discussed. The importance of crop forecasts to the world economy and agricultural management is explained, and the development of aerial and spaceborne remote sensing for global crop forecasting by the United States is outlined. The structure, goals and technical aspects of the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) are presented, and main findings on the accuracy, efficiency, applicability and areas for further study of the LACIE procedure are reviewed. The current status of NASA crop forecasting activities in the United States and worldwide is discussed, and the objectives and organization of the newly created Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys through Aerospace Remote Sensing (AgRISTARS) program are presented.

Rapid Response: D-Wave Effort Debrief Welcome, Logistics

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

Eidenbenz, Stephan Johannes

The main objects of this project is to develop a diverse and sizable workforce, community, interest within LANL for D-Wave and Quantum Computing; identify promising application areas/problems for future projects; and complement other D-Wave work at LANL (LDRD DR, ASC).

Electronics materials research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

The electronic materials and is aimed at the establishment of quantitative relationships underlying crystal growth parameters, materials properties, electronic characteristics and device applications. The overall program evolves about the following main thrust areas: (1) crystal growth novel approaches to engineering of semiconductor materials; (2) investigation of materials properties and electronic characteristics on a macro and microscale; (3) surface properties and surface interactions with the bulk and ambients; (4) electronic properties controlling device applications and device performance.

[Characteristics and innovation in projects of ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China].

PubMed

Han, Li-wei

2015-09-01

The overall situation of projects of ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) since 2008 has been presented in this paper. The main source of characteristics and innovation of the funded projects were summarized, which may come from several aspects, such as the ethnomedical theories, the dominant diseases of ethnomedicine, special diseases in ethnic minorities inhabited areas, unique ethnomedical therapy, special methods for applying medication, endemic medicinal materials in ethnic minorities inhabited areas, same medicinal materials with different applications. Examples have been provided to give references to the applicants in the fields of ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology.

Evaluation of transit operations : data applications of Tri-Met's automated bus dispatching system

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-02-01

This paper presents an analysis of operating performance for Tri-Met, the transit provider for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. The analysis draws on data recovered by Tri-Met's automated Bus Dispatching System (BDS) and focuses on two main su...

Stimuli-responsive magnetic particles for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Medeiros, S F; Santos, A M; Fessi, H; Elaissari, A

2011-01-17

In recent years, magnetic nanoparticles have been studied due to their potential applications as magnetic carriers in biomedical area. These materials have been increasingly exploited as efficient delivery vectors, leading to opportunities of use as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents, mediators of hyperthermia cancer treatment and in targeted therapies. Much attention has been also focused on "smart" polymers, which are able to respond to environmental changes, such as changes in the temperature and pH. In this context, this article reviews the state-of-the art in stimuli-responsive magnetic systems for biomedical applications. The paper describes different types of stimuli-sensitive systems, mainly temperature- and pH sensitive polymers, the combination of this characteristic with magnetic properties and, finally, it gives an account of their preparation methods. The article also discusses the main in vivo biomedical applications of such materials. A survey of the recent literature on various stimuli-responsive magnetic gels in biomedical applications is also included. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An ultra-low-power RF transceiver for WBANs in medical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qi, Zhang; Xiaofei, Kuang; Nanjian, Wu

2011-06-01

A 2.4 GHz ultra-low-power RF transceiver with a 900 MHz auxiliary wake-up link for wireless body area networks (WBANs) in medical applications is presented. The RF transceiver with an asymmetric architecture is proposed to achieve high energy efficiency according to the asymmetric communication in WBANs. The transceiver consists of a main receiver (RX) with an ultra-low-power free-running ring oscillator and a high speed main transmitter (TX) with fast lock-in PLL. A passive wake-up receiver (WuRx) for wake-up function with a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) CMOS rectifier is designed to offer the sensor node the capability of work-on-demand with zero standby power. The chip is implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS process. Its core area is 1.6 mm2. The main RX achieves a sensitivity of -55 dBm at a 100 kbps OOK data rate while consuming just 210 μA current from the 1 V power supply. The main TX achieves +3 dBm output power with a 4 Mbps/500 kbps/200 kbps data rate for OOK/4 FSK/2 FSK modulation and dissipates 3.25 mA/6.5 mA/6.5 mA current from a 1.8 V power supply. The minimum detectable RF input energy for the wake-up RX is -15 dBm and the PCE is more than 25%.

Temporal Properties of Liquid Crystal Displays: Implications for Vision Science Experiments

PubMed Central

Elze, Tobias; Tanner, Thomas G.

2012-01-01

Liquid crystal displays (LCD) are currently replacing the previously dominant cathode ray tubes (CRT) in most vision science applications. While the properties of the CRT technology are widely known among vision scientists, the photometric and temporal properties of LCDs are unfamiliar to many practitioners. We provide the essential theory, present measurements to assess the temporal properties of different LCD panel types, and identify the main determinants of the photometric output. Our measurements demonstrate that the specifications of the manufacturers are insufficient for proper display selection and control for most purposes. Furthermore, we show how several novel display technologies developed to improve fast transitions or the appearance of moving objects may be accompanied by side–effects in some areas of vision research. Finally, we unveil a number of surprising technical deficiencies. The use of LCDs may cause problems in several areas in vision science. Aside from the well–known issue of motion blur, the main problems are the lack of reliable and precise onsets and offsets of displayed stimuli, several undesirable and uncontrolled components of the photometric output, and input lags which make LCDs problematic for real–time applications. As a result, LCDs require extensive individual measurements prior to applications in vision science. PMID:22984458

Pesticides in storm runoff from agricultural and urban areas in the Tuolumne River basin in the vicinity of Modesto, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kratzer, Charles R.

1998-01-01

The occurrence, concentrations, and loads of dissolved pesticides in storm runoff were compared for two contrasting land uses in the Tuolumne River Basin, California, during two different winter storms: agricultural areas (February 1994) and the Modesto urban area (February 1995). Both storms followed the main application period of pesticides on dormant almond orchards. Eight samples of runoff from agricultural areas were collected from a Tuolumne River site, and 10 samples of runoff from urban areas were collected from five storm drains. All samples were analyzed for 46 pesticides. Six pesticides were detected in runoff from agricultural areas, and 15 pesticides were detected in runoff from urban areas. Chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dacthal (DCPA), metolachlor, and simazine were detected in almost every sample. Median concentrations were higher in the runoff from urban areas for all pesticides except napropamide and simazine. The greater occurrence and concentrations in storm drains is partly attributed to dilution of agricultural runoff by nonstorm base-flow in the Tuolumne River and by storm runoff from nonagricultural and nonurban land. In most cases, the occurrence and relative concentrations of pesticides found in storm runoff from agricultural and urban areas were related to reported pesticide application. Pesticide concentrations in runoff from agricultural areas were more variable during the storm hydrograph than were concentrations in runoff from urban areas. All peak pesticide concentrations in runoff from agricultural areas occurred during the rising limb of the storm hydrograph, whereas peak concentrations in the storm drains occurred at varying times during the storm hydrograph. Transport of pesticides from agricultural areas during the February 1994 storm exceeded transport from urban areas during the February 1995 storm for chlorpyrifos, diazinon, metolachlor, napropamide, and simazine. Transport of DCPA was about the same from agricultural and urban sources, and the main source of transport for the other pesticides could not be determined because of concentrations less than the method detection limit.

Lightweight Composite Materials for Heavy Duty Vehicles

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

Pruez, Jacky; Shoukry, Samir; Williams, Gergis

The main objective of this project is to develop, analyze and validate data, methodologies and tools that support widespread applications of automotive lightweighting technologies. Two underlying principles are guiding the research efforts towards this objective: • Seamless integration between the lightweight materials selected for certain vehicle systems, cost-effective methods for their design and manufacturing, and practical means to enhance their durability while reducing their Life-Cycle-Costs (LCC). • Smooth migration of the experience and findings accumulated so far at WVU in the areas of designing with lightweight materials, innovative joining concepts and durability predictions, from applications to the area of weightmore » savings for heavy vehicle systems and hydrogen storage tanks, to lightweighting applications of selected systems or assemblies in light–duty vehicles.« less

Polymeric Micelles as Novel Carriers for Poorly Soluble Drugs--A Review.

PubMed

Reddy, B Pavan Kumar; Yadav, Hemant K S; Nagesha, Dattatri K; Raizaday, Abhay; Karim, Abdul

2015-06-01

Polymeric micelles are used as 'smart drug carriers' for targeting certain areas of the body by making them stimuli-sensitive or by attachment of a specific ligand molecule onto their surface. The main aim of using polymeric micelles is to deliver the poorly water soluble drugs. Now-a-days they are used especially in the areas of cancer therapy also. In this article we have reviewed several aspects of polymeric micelles concerning their mechanism of formation, chemical nature, preparation and characterization techniques, and their applications in the areas of drug delivery.

Specialty fibers for fiber optic sensor application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, K.; Koh, J.; Coon, J.; Chien, C. K.; Artuso, A.; Chen, X.; Nolan, D.; Li, M.-J.

2007-09-01

Over the last several years, Fiber Optic Sensor (FOS) applications have seen an increased acceptance in many areas including oil & gas production monitoring, gyroscopes, current sensors, structural sensing and monitoring, and aerospace applications. High level optical and mechanical reliability of optical fiber is necessary to guarantee reliable performance of FOS. In this paper, we review recent research and development activities on new specialty fibers. We discuss fiber design concepts and present both modeling and experimental results. The main approaches to enhancing fiber attributes include new index profile design and fiber coating modification.

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

Glawe, Andrea; Eggerath, Daniel; Schäfer, Frank

The market of Large Area Organic Printed Electronics is developing rapidly to increase efficiency and quality as well as to lower costs further. Applications for OPV, OLED, RFID and compact Printed Electronic systems are increasing. In order to make the final products more affordable, but at the same time highly accurate, Roll to Roll (R2R) production on flexible transparent polymer substrates is the way forward. There are numerous printing and coating technologies suitable depending on the design, the product application and the chemical process technology. Mainly the product design (size, pattern, repeatability) defines the application technology.

Official crime data versus collaborative crime mapping at a Brazilian city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brito, P. L.; Jesus, E. G. V.; Sant'Ana, R. M. S.; Martins, C.; Delgado, J. P. M.; Fernandes, V. O.

2014-11-01

In July of 2013 a group of undergraduate students from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, published a collaborative web map called "Where I Was Robbed". Their initial efforts in publicizing their web map were restricted to announce it at a local radio as a tool of social interest. In two months the map had almost 10.000 reports, 155 reports per day and people from more the 350 cities had already reported a crime. The present study consists in an investigation about this collaborative web map spatial correlation to official robbery data registered at the Secretary of Public Safety database, for the city of Salvador, Bahia. Kernel density estimator combined with map algebra was used to the investigation. Spatial correlations with official robbery data for the city of Salvador were not found initially, but after standardizing collaborative data and mining official registers, both data pointed at very similar areas as the main hot spots for pedestrian robbery. Both areas are located at two of the most economical active areas of the city, although web map crimes reports were more concentrated in an area with higher income population. This results and discussions indicates that this collaborative application is been used mainly by mid class and upper class parcel of the city population, but can still provide significant information on public safety priority areas. Therefore, extended divulgation, on local papers, radio and TV, of the collaborative crime map application and partnership with official agencies are strongly recommended.

Applications of computational modeling in ballistics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sturek, Walter B.

1987-01-01

The development of the technology of ballistics as applied to gun launched Army weapon systems is the main objective of research at the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL). The primary research programs at the BRL consist of three major ballistic disciplines: exterior, interior, and terminal. The work done at the BRL in these areas was traditionally highly dependent on experimental testing. A considerable emphasis was placed on the development of computational modeling to augment the experimental testing in the development cycle; however, the impact of the computational modeling to this date is modest. With the availability of supercomputer computational resources recently installed at the BRL, a new emphasis on the application of computational modeling to ballistics technology is taking place. The major application areas are outlined which are receiving considerable attention at the BRL at present and to indicate the modeling approaches involved. An attempt was made to give some information as to the degree of success achieved and indicate the areas of greatest need.

The central city site: an urban underserved family medicine training track.

PubMed

Bade, Elizabeth; Baumgardner, Dennis; Brill, John

2009-01-01

We describe the development of an urban track in family medicine residency designed to recruit a high percentage of minority students and promote their future practice in urban, underserved areas of Milwaukee. We report here on the residents and their first practice location and compared this information to what occurred in our original "main" residency program. Information about the program's development was obtained through testimonials from faculty and residency graduates and review of the original accreditation application to the Residency Review Committee. Information about the residents and their practice locations was obtained from the National Resident Matching Program and graduate placement data. The goal of training more minority doctors in Milwaukee was met, with eight of 16 (50%) residents at our urban-track site from minority groups. This compared to only 12% at our main program. Thirty-eight percent of graduates stayed to practice in an underserved area, compared to only 21% in our main program. Development of an urban track for our family medicine residency increased the number of minority physicians trained and the number of physicians practicing in underserved areas after graduation.

FIBER OPTICS: Fibre optics: Forty years later

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dianov, Evgenii M.

2010-01-01

This paper presents a brief overview of the state of the art in fibre optics and its main applications: optical fibre communications, fibre lasers and fibre sensors for various physical property measurements. The future of fibre optics and the status of this important area of the modern technology in Russia are discussed.

Teaching Your Child. Televised Parent Training Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CEMREL, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.

"Teaching Your Child" was a televised parent training program conducted in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The program was designed to reach parents in low income areas and was intended to assist families with young children by presenting practical applications of basic psychological theory. This booklet was the main workbook for the entire…

KC-46A Third Main Operating Base (MOB 3) Beddown Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-01

conflict with military activities. Applicants are required to conduct a preliminary evaluation to ensure that proposed wind turbines will not pose...the amount of disturbed ground area at a given time; • Suspension of all soil disturbance activities when winds exceed 25 miles per hour or when...are derived from glacial till and some wind -blown loess that was deposited 12,000 years ago. This area is dissected by stream channels that separate

Plating Patches On Heat-Exchanger Jackets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loureiro, Henry; Kubik, Frank

1989-01-01

Permanent repairs made without welding. Technique used to repair nickel-alloy nozzle jacket of Space Shuttle main engine. Applicable to other metal heat-exchanger jackets with similar configurations. Does not require welding, brazing, soldering, or other operations involving high temperatures and consequent damage to surrounding areas. Portion of jacket around damaged area removed by grinding and polishing out to edges adjacent to tube/jacket braze bonds. Spaces between tubes filled with wax preventing contamination of spaces during subsequent plating.

Development of processing techniques for advanced thermal protection materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Selvaduray, Guna S.

1995-01-01

The main purpose of this work has been in the development and characterization of materials for high temperature applications. Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are constantly being tested, and evaluated for increased thermal shock resistance, high temperature dimensional stability, and tolerance to environmental effects. Materials development was carried out through the use of many different instruments and methods, ranging from extensive elemental analysis to physical attributes testing. The six main focus areas include: (1) protective coatings for carbon/carbon composites; (2) TPS material characterization; (3) improved waterproofing for TPS; (4) modified ceramic insulation for bone implants; (5) improved durability ceramic insulation blankets; and (6) ultra-high temperature ceramics. This report describes the progress made in these research areas during this contract period.

Comparison of the occupational safety applications in marble quarries of Carrara (Italy) and Iscehisar (Turkey) by using Elmeri method.

PubMed

Ersoy, Metin; Yesilkaya, Liyaddin

2016-01-01

In this paper, a brief summary is given about marble quarries in Carrara (Italy) and Iscehisar (Turkey), the Elmeri method is introduced, work accidents that can happen in marble quarries and their causes besides work safety behaviours in fields are explained, and the Elmeri monitoring method is applied and analysed. For this reason, marble quarries are divided into seven in terms of working conditions and active six quarries both in Carrara and Iscehisar areas, and work safety behaviours are analysed. Analysis process is based on True-False method; there are 18 items in total under six main topics; three items on each topic. The safety index for each section and the main topics are also calculated. According to the calculated safety indexes, Carrara area marble quarries (65.08%) are safer than Iscehisar area marble quarries (46.01%).

GPU computing in medical physics: a review.

PubMed

Pratx, Guillem; Xing, Lei

2011-05-01

The graphics processing unit (GPU) has emerged as a competitive platform for computing massively parallel problems. Many computing applications in medical physics can be formulated as data-parallel tasks that exploit the capabilities of the GPU for reducing processing times. The authors review the basic principles of GPU computing as well as the main performance optimization techniques, and survey existing applications in three areas of medical physics, namely image reconstruction, dose calculation and treatment plan optimization, and image processing.

Progress In Optical Memory Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsunoda, Yoshito

1987-01-01

More than 20 years have passed since the concept of optical memory was first proposed in 1966. Since then considerable progress has been made in this area together with the creation of completely new markets of optical memory in consumer and computer application areas. The first generation of optical memory was mainly developed with holographic recording technology in late 1960s and early 1970s. Considerable number of developments have been done in both analog and digital memory applications. Unfortunately, these technologies did not meet a chance to be a commercial product. The second generation of optical memory started at the beginning of 1970s with bit by bit recording technology. Read-only type optical memories such as video disks and compact audio disks have extensively investigated. Since laser diodes were first applied to optical video disk read out in 1976, there have been extensive developments of laser diode pick-ups for optical disk memory systems. The third generation of optical memory started in 1978 with bit by bit read/write technology using laser diodes. Developments of recording materials including both write-once and erasable have been actively pursued at several research institutes. These technologies are mainly focused on the optical memory systems for computer application. Such practical applications of optical memory technology has resulted in the creation of such new products as compact audio disks and computer file memories.

Application of Electrical Resistivity Imaging for Engineering Site Investigation. A Case Study on Prospective Hospital Site, Varamin, Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amini, Amin; Ramazi, Hamidreza

2016-12-01

The article addresses the application of electrical resistivity imaging for engineering site investigation in Pishva Hospital, Varamin, Iran. Some aqueduct shafts exist in the study area backfilled by loose materials. The goals of this study are to detect probable aqueduct tunnels and their depth, investigate filling quality in the shafts as well as connection(s) between them. Therefore, three profiles were surveyed by dipoledipole electrode array. Also, to investigate the potentially anomalous areas more accurately, five additional resistivity profiles were measured by a Combined Resistivity Sounding-Profiling array (CRSP). According to the results of 2-D inversion modelling, a main aqueduct tunnel was detected beneath the central part of the site. Finally, the resistivity pattern of the detected aqueduct system passing the investigated area was provided using the obtained results.

Weird Project: E-Health Service Improvement Using WiMAX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cimmino, Antonio; Casali, Fulvio; Mambretti, Cinzia

Today the major obstacle to massive deployment of telemedicine applications are the security issues related to the exchange of real time information between different elements that are not at fixed locations. WiMAX, the new standard for wireless communications, is one of the most promising technologies for broadband access in a fixed and mobile environment and it is expected to overcome the above mentioned obstacle. The FP6-WEIRD [1] (WiMax Extension to Isolated Remote Data networks) project has: analysed how this technology can guarantee secure real time data transmission between mobile elements, built some successful demonstrations and paved the way to future commercial applications. This paper in particular describes: main promising e-health applications that WiMax would enable; the technological highlights and the main challenges that WiMax has to face in e-health applications such as accounting, privacy, security, data integrity; the way in which the WEIRD project 0 has studied the wireless access to medical communities and equipment in remote or impervious areas. 0 0; some envisaged implementations.

A concept of dynamic permission mechanism on android

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aron, Lukas; Hanacek, Petr

2016-02-01

This paper discuss the main security topic in mobile security area and this topic is protect user against the leakage of data. This work primarily contains the proposal of concept of dynamic permission mechanism for Android operating system. This mechanism deals with assignment or enforcement permissions to the application according to files that the application works with. Application has set of permissions that can use, but if the user opens confident files the application permissions should change its permission set and there should not be possible leakage of this secret data. The permissions set should be stricter according to opened confidential file or more open (without restriction) if the file is not secret file. The concept proposes the solution for protecting this data leakage. Idea covers rule that user should be avoided of change this permissions himself, but this behavior should be dynamic, automatic and independent. This proposal is mainly aimed to Android operating system, but the concept can be applied to other mobile platforms with some implementation changes.

Thermoelectricity for future sustainable energy technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weidenkaff, Anke

2017-07-01

Thermoelectricity is a general term for a number of effects describing the direct interconversion of heat and electricity. Thermoelectric devices are therefore promising, environmental-friendly alternatives to conventional power generators or cooling units. Since the mid-90s, research on thermoelectric properties and their applications has steadily increased. In the course of years, the development of high-temperature resistant TE materials and devices has emerged as one of the main areas of interest focusing both on basic research and practical applications. A wide range of innovative and cost-efficient material classes has been studied and their properties improved. This has also led to advances in synthesis and metrology. The paper starts out with thermoelectric history, basic effects underlying thermoelectric conversion and selected examples of application. The main part focuses on thermoelectric materials including an outline of the design rules, a review on the most common materials and the feasibility of improved future high-temperature thermoelectric converters.

Carbon nanotubes: physics and applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellucci, S.

2005-01-01

We overview definitions, properties and applications of Carbon nanotubes (CNTs). We describe the CNTs lifecycle: starting with phases and requirements, going through the different synthesis methods, describing then the various purification techniques. The fundamentals of functionalization and the use of defects in CNTs are reviewed, in connection also to ion irradiation techniques. Metal oxides and other semiconducting 1D nanostructures are then considered, before entering the description of the main features of the present status of INFN-LNF research in nanoscience, focusing on CNTs, as well as on aluminium nitride NTs (AlN NTs). We conclude our review by illustrating device application criteria for many applications in different areas of the field of nanotechnology.

Applications drivers for data parking on the Information Superhighway

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Clark E., Jr.; Foeller, Thomas

1994-01-01

As the cost of data storage continues to decline (currently about one-millionth of its cost four decades ago) entirely new applications areas become economically feasible. Many of these new areas involved the extraordinarily high data rates and universal connectivity soon to be provided by the National Information Infrastructure (NII). The commonly held belief is that the main driver for the NII will be entertainment applications. We believe that entertainment applications as currently touted (multi-media, 500 video channels, video-on-demand, etc.) will play an important but far from dominant role in the development of the NII and its data storage components. The most pervasively effective drivers will be medical applications such as telemedicine and remote diagnosis, education and environmental monitoring. These applications have a significant funding base and offer a clearly perceived opportunity to improve the nation's standard of living. The NII's wideband connectivity both nationwide and worldwide requires a broad spectrum of data storage devices with a wide-range of performance capabilities. These storage centers will be dispersed throughout the system. Magnetic recording devices will fill the majority of these new data storage requirements for at least the rest of this century. The storage needs of various application areas and their respective market sizes will be explored. The comparative performance of various magnetic technologies and competitive alternative storage systems will be discussed.

Analysis of the academic production in food safety surveillance, 1993-2007.

PubMed

Ribeiro, Vanessa Fernandes; Matté, Glavur Rogerio

2010-12-01

The study aimed to analyze the themes related to the area of food safety surveillance that were approached in scientific research studies from postgraduate programs, with potential in-service application. A total of 337 theses and dissertations submitted to Universidade de São Paulo between 1993 and 2007 was analyzed. The results showed that research developed in universities can be applied to health surveillance, mainly regarding orientation to workers in this area in terms of updated practices.

The Iron Law of Hierarchy? Institutional Differentiation in UK Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Croxford, Linda; Raffe, David

2015-01-01

This paper maps the main dimensions of differentiation among institutions and "faculties" (subject areas within institutions) of higher education in the United Kingdom. It does so through a principal components analysis based on the characteristics of applicants and entrants. A single status dimension accounts for a quarter of the…

Social Sciences in Forestry. A Current Selected Bibliography and Index. No. 68.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albrecht, Jean, Ed.

1986-01-01

This is the seventh issue of Social Sciences in Forestry, a publication which provides a current annotated bibliographic listing of references related to four major areas of forestry. The main categories are: (1) applications to forestry at large (containing citations on resources, history, legislation, policy, planning, appraisal and evaluation,…

Social Sciences in Forestry. A Current Selected Bibliography and Index. No. 69.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albrecht, Jean, Ed.

1986-01-01

This is the eighth issue of "Social Sciences in Forestry," which provides a current annotated bibliographic listing of references related to four major areas of forestry. The main categories include: (1) applications to forestry at large (containing citings on resources, history, legislation, policy, planning, appraisal and valuation,…

Medical Applications of Remote Electronic Browsing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chadwick, Joseph

The purposes of this study are to identify and define viable remote browsing techniques and the requirements for an interactive medical information system that would permit the use of such techniques. The main emphasis is in the areas of: (1) remote viewing of page material; and (2) remote interrogation of fact banks with question-answering…

State-of-the-art developments in the field of electroactive polymers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vinogradov, Aleksandra; Su, Ji; Jenkins, Christopher; Bar-Cohen, Yoseph

2005-01-01

The paper presents a brief review in the field of electroactive polymers. it outlines the main classes of electroactive polymers, their properties and applications. Current efforts to synthesize electroactive polymers with novel or improved characteristics along with the challenges, opportunities and future research directions in the subject area are discussed.

76 FR 12715 - Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-08

... and marketing evaluation and strategies; and outreach and implementation of the project results. The... devise strategies and means to efficiently harvest the redfish resource in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) while... in terms of their potential effects on results. Sources of variability include: Area fished; seasonal...

Some Technical, Economic and Applications Considerations of Interactive Television.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zraket, Charles A.

During the present decade cable television (CATV) systems will be franchised in most metropolitan areas of the nation. Previously, CATV has mainly transmitted over-the-air broadcast signals to small communities, but in the urban setting the capabilities of wideband cable (e.g., 30 channels per cable) can be expanded and applied to new…

Printing versus coating - What will be the future production technology for printed electronics?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glawe, Andrea; Eggerath, Daniel; Schäfer, Frank

2015-02-01

The market of Large Area Organic Printed Electronics is developing rapidly to increase efficiency and quality as well as to lower costs further. Applications for OPV, OLED, RFID and compact Printed Electronic systems are increasing. In order to make the final products more affordable, but at the same time highly accurate, Roll to Roll (R2R) production on flexible transparent polymer substrates is the way forward. There are numerous printing and coating technologies suitable depending on the design, the product application and the chemical process technology. Mainly the product design (size, pattern, repeatability) defines the application technology.

Instrument for Measuring Thermal Conductivity of Materials at Low Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fesmire, James; Sass, Jared; Johnson, Wesley

2010-01-01

With the advance of polymer and other non-metallic material sciences, whole new series of polymeric materials and composites are being created. These materials are being optimized for many different applications including cryogenic and low-temperature industrial processes. Engineers need these data to perform detailed system designs and enable new design possibilities for improved control, reliability, and efficiency in specific applications. One main area of interest is cryogenic structural elements and fluid handling components and other parts, films, and coatings for low-temperature application. An important thermal property of these new materials is the apparent thermal conductivity (k-value).

Technical-economic feasibility of orbiting sunlight reflectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alferov, Z.; Minin, V.

1986-02-01

The use of deflectors in orbit as a means of providing artificial illumination is examined. Considerations of technical and economic feasibility are addressed. Three main areas of application are distinguished: reflecting sunlight onto the surface of the Earth; concentration of the flow of solar energy on an orbiting receiver; and retransmission of optical radiation. The advantages of the artificial Earth illumination application of the orbiting reflector scheme in terms of energy savings in lighting cities, and additional daylight time for critical periods of farming operations are discussed.

New Mathematical Model for the Surface Area of the Left Ventricle by the Truncated Prolate Spheroid

PubMed Central

Vale, Marcos de Paula; Martinez, Carlos Barreira

2017-01-01

The main aim of this study was the formula application of the superficial area of a truncated prolate spheroid (TPS) in Cartesian coordinates in obtaining a cardiac parameter that is not so much discussed in literature, related to the left ventricle (LV) surface area of the human heart, by age and sex. First we obtain a formula for the area of a TPS. Then a simple mathematical model of association of the axes measures of a TPS with the axes of the LV is built. Finally real values of the average dimensions of the humans LV are used to measure surface areas approximations of this heart chamber. As a result, the average superficial area of LV for normal patients is obtained and it is observed that the percentage differences of areas between men and women and their consecutive age groups are constant. A strong linear correlation between the obtained areas and the ventricular volumes normalized by the body areas was observed. The obtained results indicate that the superficial area of the LV, besides enabling a greater knowledge of the geometrical characteristics of the human LV, may be used as one of the normality cardiac verification criteria and be useful for medical and biological applications. PMID:28547001

Recent advances based on the synergetic effect of adsorption for removal of dyes from waste water using photocatalytic process.

PubMed

Natarajan, Subramanian; Bajaj, Hari C; Tayade, Rajesh J

2018-03-01

The problem of textile dye pollution has been addressed by various methods, mainly physical, chemical, biological, and acoustical. These methods mainly separate and/or remove the dye present in water. Recently, advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have been focused for removal of dye from waste water due to their advantages such as ecofriendly, economic and capable to degrade many dyes or organic pollutant present in water. Photocatalysis is one of the advance oxidation processes, mainly carried out under irradiation of light and suitable photocatalytic materials. The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalytic materials mainly depends on the band gap, surface area, and generation of electron-hole pair for degradation dyes present in water. It has been observed that the surface area plays a major role in photocatalytic degradation of dyes, by providing higher surface area, which leads to the higher adsorption of dye molecule on the surface of photocatalyst and enhances the photocatalytic activity. This present review discusses the synergic effect of adsorption of dyes on the photocatalytic efficiency of various nanostructured high surface area photocatalysts. In addition, it also provides the properties of the water polluting dyes, their mechanism and various photocatalytic materials; and their morphology used for the dye degradation under irradiation of light along with the future prospects of highly adsorptive photocatalytic material and their application in photocatalytic removal of dye from waste water. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Urban-area extraction from polarimetric SAR image using combination of target decomposition and orientation angle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Bin; Lu, Da; Wu, Zhilu; Qiao, Zhijun G.

2016-05-01

The results of model-based target decomposition are the main features used to discriminate urban and non-urban area in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) application. Traditional urban-area extraction methods based on modelbased target decomposition usually misclassified ground-trunk structure as urban-area or misclassified rotated urbanarea as forest. This paper introduces another feature named orientation angle to improve urban-area extraction scheme for the accurate mapping in urban by PolSAR image. The proposed method takes randomness of orientation angle into account for restriction of urban area first and, subsequently, implements rotation angle to improve results that oriented urban areas are recognized as double-bounce objects from volume scattering. ESAR L-band PolSAR data of the Oberpfaffenhofen Test Site Area was used to validate the proposed algorithm.

Applications of multispectral imagery to water resources development planning in the lower Mekong Basin (Khmer Republic, Laos, Thailand and Viet-Nam)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vankiere, W. J.

1973-01-01

The use of ERTS imagery for water resources planning in the lower Mekong Basin relates to three major issues: (1) it complements data from areas, which have been inaccessible in the past because of security; this concerns mainly forest cover of the watersheds, and geological features, (2) it refines ground surveys; this concerns mainly land forms, and soils of existing and planned irrigation perimeters, and (3) it provides new information, which would be almost or entirely impossible to detect with ground surveys or conventional photography; this concerns the mechanism of flooding and drainage of the delta; siltation of the Great Lake and mapping of acidity, possibly also of salinity, in the lower delta; sedimentation and fisheries in the Mekong Delta estuarine areas.

Analysis of main parameters affecting substrate/mortar contact area through tridimensional laser scanner.

PubMed

Stolz, Carina M; Masuero, Angela B

2015-10-01

This study assesses the influence of the granulometric composition of sand, application energy and the superficial tension of substrates on the contact area of rendering mortars. Three substrates with distinct wetting behaviors were selected and mortars were prepared with different sand compositions. Characterization tests were performed on fresh and hardened mortars, as well as the rheological characterization. Mortars were applied to substrates with two different energies. The interfacial area was then digitized with 3D scanner. Results show that variables are all of influence on the interfacial contact in the development area. Furthermore, 3D laser scanning proved to be a good method to contact area measurement. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Sunrise project: An R&D project for a national information infrastructure prototype

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

Lee, Juhnyoung

1995-02-01

Sunrise is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) project started in October 1993. It is intended to a prototype National Information Infrastructure (NII) development project. A main focus of Sunrise is to tie together enabling technologies (networking, object-oriented distributed computing, graphical interfaces, security, multimedia technologies, and data mining technologies) with several specific applications. A diverse set of application areas was chosen to ensure that the solutions developed in the project are as generic as possible. Some of the application areas are materials modeling, medical records and image analysis, transportation simulations, and education. This paper provides a description of Sunrise andmore » a view of the architecture and objectives of this evolving project. The primary objectives of Sunrise are three-fold: (1) To develop common information-enabling tools for advanced scientific research and its applications to industry; (2) To enhance the capabilities of important research programs at the Laboratory; and (3) To define a new way of collaboration between computer science and industrially relevant research.« less

A network-based distributed, media-rich computing and information environment

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

Phillips, R.L.

1995-12-31

Sunrise is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) project started in October 1993. It is intended to be a prototype National Information Infrastructure development project. A main focus of Sunrise is to tie together enabling technologies (networking, object-oriented distributed computing, graphical interfaces, security, multi-media technologies, and data-mining technologies) with several specific applications. A diverse set of application areas was chosen to ensure that the solutions developed in the project are as generic as possible. Some of the application areas are materials modeling, medical records and image analysis, transportation simulations, and K-12 education. This paper provides a description of Sunrise andmore » a view of the architecture and objectives of this evolving project. The primary objectives of Sunrise are three-fold: (1) To develop common information-enabling tools for advanced scientific research and its applications to industry; (2) To enhance the capabilities of important research programs at the Laboratory; (3) To define a new way of collaboration between computer science and industrially-relevant research.« less

Next generation information communication infrastructure and case studies for future power systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiu, Bin

As power industry enters the new century, powerful driving forces, uncertainties and new functions are compelling electric utilities to make dramatic changes in their information communication infrastructure. Expanding network services such as real time measurement and monitoring are also driving the need for more bandwidth in the communication network. These needs will grow further as new remote real-time protection and control applications become more feasible and pervasive. This dissertation addresses two main issues for the future power system information infrastructure: communication network infrastructure and associated power system applications. Optical networks no doubt will become the predominant data transmission media for next generation power system communication. The rapid development of fiber optic network technology poses new challenges in the areas of topology design, network management and real time applications. Based on advanced fiber optic technologies, an all-fiber network is investigated and proposed. The study will cover the system architecture and data exchange protocol aspects. High bandwidth, robust optical networks could provide great opportunities to the power system for better service and efficient operation. In the dissertation, different applications are investigated. One of the typical applications is the SCADA information accessing system. An Internet-based application for the substation automation system will be presented. VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology is also used for one-line diagrams auto-generation. High transition rate and low latency optical network is especially suitable for power system real time control. In the dissertation, a new local area network based Load Shedding Controller (LSC) for isolated power system will be presented. By using PMU (Phasor Measurement Unit) and fiber optic network, an AGE (Area Generation Error) based accurate wide area load shedding scheme will also be proposed. The objective is to shed the load in the limited area with minimum disturbance.

Application of crossed beam technology to direct measurements of sound sources in turbulent jets, part 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, L. N.

1970-01-01

The mathematical bases for the direct measurement of sound source intensities in turbulent jets using the crossed-beam technique are discussed in detail. It is found that the problems associated with such measurements lie in three main areas: (1) measurement of the correct flow covariance, (2) accounting for retarded time effects in the measurements, and (3) transformation of measurements to a moving frame of reference. The determination of the particular conditions under which these problems can be circumvented is the main goal of the study.

Red mud application in construction industry: review of benefits and possibilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lima, M. S. S.; Thives, L. P.; Haritonovs, V.; Bajars, K.

2017-10-01

Red mud is a waste originated in the processing of bauxite into aluminium, which properties of high alkalinity make it cumulatively stored, occupying increasing deforested areas. Annually, it is estimated that approximately 117 million tons of red mud are generated in the world, with no prospect of use, what represents an imminent risk of pollution prone to contamination. Nevertheless, environmental liabilities caused by red mud affect not only the environment, but also the companies responsible for the waste, which will be subject to highest fee payments. Although there are studies that prove the feasibility of using this solid waste in the constitution of ceramic materials, there are no large-scale applications. This study seeks to evaluate the possibilities of red mud application in construction industry, focusing into two main areas: cement production/ceramic material and road construction. Backgrounds from other researchers were taken into consideration and analysed according environmental, economic and technical feasibilities.

Analysis of Benefits and Pitfalls of Satellite SAR for Coastal Area Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nunziata, F.; Buono, A.; Mgliaccio, M.; Li, X.; Wei, Y.

2016-08-01

This study aims at describing the outcomes of the Dragon-3 project no. 10689. The undertaken activities deal with coastal area monitoring and they include sea pollution and coastline extraction. The key remote sensing tool is the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that provides fine resolution images of the microwave reflectivity of the observed scene. However, the interpretation of SAR images is not at all straightforward and all the above-mentioned coastal area applications cannot be easily addressed using single-polarization SAR. Hence, the main outcome of this project is investigating the capability of multi-polarization SAR measurements to generate added-vale product in the frame of coastal area management.

Interoperability and models for exchange of data between information systems in public administration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glavev, Victor

2016-12-01

The types of software applications used by public administrations can be divided in three main groups: document management systems, record management systems and business process systems. Each one of them generates outputs that can be used as input data to the others. This is the main reason that requires exchange of data between these three groups and well defined models that should be followed. There are also many other reasons that will be discussed in the paper. Interoperability is a key aspect when those models are implemented, especially when there are different manufactures of systems in the area of software applications used by public authorities. The report includes examples of implementation of models for exchange of data between software systems deployed in one of the biggest administration in Bulgaria.

Leaf-IT: An Android application for measuring leaf area.

PubMed

Schrader, Julian; Pillar, Giso; Kreft, Holger

2017-11-01

The use of plant functional traits has become increasingly popular in ecological studies because plant functional traits help to understand key ecological processes in plant species and communities. This also includes changes in diversity, inter- and intraspecific interactions, and relationships of species at different spatiotemporal scales. Leaf traits are among the most important traits as they describe key dimensions of a plant's life history strategy. Further, leaf area is a key parameter with relevance for other traits such as specific leaf area, which in turn correlates with leaf chemical composition, photosynthetic rate, leaf longevity, and carbon investment. Measuring leaf area usually involves the use of scanners and commercial software and can be difficult under field conditions. We present Leaf-IT, a new smartphone application for measuring leaf area and other trait-related areas. Leaf-IT is free, designed for scientific purposes, and runs on Android 4 or higher. We tested the precision and accuracy using objects with standardized area and compared the area measurements of real leaves with the well-established, commercial software WinFOLIA using the Altman-Bland method. Area measurements of standardized objects show that Leaf-IT measures area with high accuracy and precision. Area measurements with Leaf-IT of real leaves are comparable to those of WinFOLIA. Leaf-IT is an easy-to-use application running on a wide range of smartphones. That increases the portability and use of Leaf-IT and makes it possible to measure leaf area under field conditions typical for remote locations. Its high accuracy and precision are similar to WinFOLIA. Currently, its main limitation is margin detection of damaged leaves or complex leaf morphologies.

Molecular Assembly of Polysaccharide-Based Microcapsules and Their Biomedical Applications.

PubMed

Feng, Xiyun; Du, Cuiling; Li, Junbai

2016-08-01

Advanced multifunctional microcapsules have revealed great potential in biomedical applications owing to their tunable size, shape, surface properties, and stimuli responsiveness. Polysaccharides are one of the most acceptable biomaterials for biomedical applications because of their outstanding virtues such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low toxicity. Many efforts have been devoted to investigating novel molecular design and efficient building blocks for polysaccharide-based microcapsules. In this Personal Account, we first summarize the common features of polysaccharides and the main principles of the design and fabrication of polysaccharide-based microcapsules, and further discuss their applications in biomedical areas and perspectives for future research. © 2016 The Chemical Society of Japan & Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

MicMac GIS application: free open source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duarte, L.; Moutinho, O.; Teodoro, A.

2016-10-01

The use of Remotely Piloted Aerial System (RPAS) for remote sensing applications is becoming more frequent as the technologies on on-board cameras and the platform itself are becoming a serious contender to satellite and airplane imagery. MicMac is a photogrammetric tool for image matching that can be used in different contexts. It is an open source software and it can be used as a command line or with a graphic interface (for each command). The main objective of this work was the integration of MicMac with QGIS, which is also an open source software, in order to create a new open source tool applied to photogrammetry/remote sensing. Python language was used to develop the application. This tool would be very useful in the manipulation and 3D modelling of a set of images. The main objective was to create a toolbar in QGIS with the basic functionalities with intuitive graphic interfaces. The toolbar is composed by three buttons: produce the points cloud, create the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and produce the orthophoto of the study area. The application was tested considering 35 photos, a subset of images acquired by a RPAS in the Aguda beach area, Porto, Portugal. They were used in order to create a 3D terrain model and from this model obtain an orthophoto and the corresponding DEM. The code is open and can be modified according to the user requirements. This integration would be very useful in photogrammetry and remote sensing community combined with GIS capabilities.

Printable Electrochemical Biosensors: A Focus on Screen-Printed Electrodes and Their Application

PubMed Central

Yamanaka, Keiichiro; Vestergaard, Mun’delanji C.; Tamiya, Eiichi

2016-01-01

In this review we present electrochemical biosensor developments, focusing on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) and their applications. In particular, we discuss how SPEs enable simple integration, and the portability needed for on-field applications. First, we briefly discuss the general concept of biosensors and quickly move on to electrochemical biosensors. Drawing from research undertaken in this area, we cover the development of electrochemical DNA biosensors in great detail. Through specific examples, we describe the fabrication and surface modification of printed electrodes for sensitive and selective detection of targeted DNA sequences, as well as integration with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). For a more rounded approach, we also touch on electrochemical immunosensors and enzyme-based biosensors. Last, we present some electrochemical devices specifically developed for use with SPEs, including USB-powered compact mini potentiostat. The coupling demonstrates the practical use of printable electrode technologies for application at point-of-use. Although tremendous advances have indeed been made in this area, a few challenges remain. One of the main challenges is application of these technologies for on-field analysis, which involves complicated sample matrices. PMID:27775661

[The progress in speciation analysis of trace elements by atomic spectrometry].

PubMed

Wang, Zeng-Huan; Wang, Xu-Nuo; Ke, Chang-Liang; Lin, Qin

2013-12-01

The main purpose of the present work is to review the different non-chromatographic methods for the speciation analysis of trace elements in geological, environmental, biological and medical areas. In this paper, the sample processing methods in speciation analysis were summarized, and the main strategies for non-chromatographic technique were evaluated. The basic principles of the liquid extractions proposed in the published literatures recently and their advantages and disadvantages were discussed, such as conventional solvent extraction, cloud point extraction, single droplet microextraction, and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. Solid phase extraction, as a non-chromatographic technique for speciation analysis, can be used in batch or in flow detection, and especially suitable for the online connection to atomic spectrometric detector. The developments and applications of sorbent materials filled in the columns of solid phase extraction were reviewed. The sorbents include chelating resins, nanometer materials, molecular and ion imprinted materials, and bio-sorbents. Other techniques, e. g. hydride generation technique and coprecipitation, were also reviewed together with their main applications.

Using ICT to Foster (Pre) Reading and Writing Skills in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voogt, Joke; McKenney, Susan

2008-01-01

This study examines how technology can support the development of emergent reading and writing skills in four- to five-year-old children. The research was conducted with PictoPal, an intervention which features a software package that uses images and text in three main activity areas: reading, writing, and authentic applications. This article…

Establishing Integrated Tech Prep Programs in Urban Schools: Plans Developed at the NCRVE 1993 National Institute.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Center for Research in Vocational Education, Berkeley, CA.

This document outlines the purposes and main activities of a 2-week national institute held in July 1993 in Berkeley, California. Ten teams of vocational and academic educators (125 high school and community college teachers, counselors, and administrators) from 10 major metropolitan areas were selected through a competitive application process to…

IsoWAN: A NASA Science and Engineering Information and Services Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Korsmeyer, David J.; Chow, Edward T.; Conroy, Michael P.; Swanson, Keith (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

We believe that the next evolutionary step in supporting wide-area application and services delivery to customers is a network framework that provides for collocation of applications and services at distinct sites in the network, an interconnection between these sites that is performance optimized for these applications, and value-added services for applications. We use the term IsoWAN to describe an advanced, isolated network interconnect services framework that will enable applications to be more secure, and able to access and be in use in both local and remote environments. The main functions of an IsoWAN are virtual localization of application services, an application service interface, coordinated delivery of applications and associated data to the customer, and supporting collaborative application development for customers. An initial pilot network between three NASA Centers: Ames Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Marshall Space Flight Center, has been built and its properties will be discussed.

Molecular similarity and diversity in chemoinformatics: from theory to applications.

PubMed

Maldonado, Ana G; Doucet, J P; Petitjean, Michel; Fan, Bo-Tao

2006-02-01

This review is dedicated to a survey on molecular similarity and diversity. Key findings reported in recent investigations are selectively highlighted and summarized. Even if this overview is mainly centered in chemoinformatics, applications in other areas (pharmaceutical and medical chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, chemical databases management, etc.) are also introduced. The approaches used to define and describe the concepts of molecular similarity and diversity in the context of chemoinformatics are discussed in the first part of this review. We introduce, in the second and third parts, the descriptions and analyses of different methods and techniques. Finally, current applications and problems are enumerated and discussed in the last part.

Probabilistic evaluation of SSME structural components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajagopal, K. R.; Newell, J. F.; Ho, H.

1991-05-01

The application is described of Composite Load Spectra (CLS) and Numerical Evaluation of Stochastic Structures Under Stress (NESSUS) family of computer codes to the probabilistic structural analysis of four Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) space propulsion system components. These components are subjected to environments that are influenced by many random variables. The applications consider a wide breadth of uncertainties encountered in practice, while simultaneously covering a wide area of structural mechanics. This has been done consistent with the primary design requirement for each component. The probabilistic application studies are discussed using finite element models that have been typically used in the past in deterministic analysis studies.

The formation and application of an overseas mental health crisis intervention team, Part II: Application.

PubMed

Young, S A; Holden, M S

1991-09-01

In the preceding article, the authors described the formation of an overseas mental health crisis intervention team. In this paper, the application of the United States Southern Command Crisis Intervention Team in the aftermath of a recent tragedy in Panama is described. A chronology of the disaster, involving two helicopter crashes which left 11 dead, is presented. The intervention that followed is described in detail. The emphasis is on four main areas: education, identification, process, and follow-up. The authors present their experience in an effort to provide an intervention strategy for other isolated mental health providers.

Application of LANDSAT satellite imagery for iron ore prospecting in the Western Desert of Egypt

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elshazly, E. M.; Abdelhady, M. A.; Elghawaby, M. A.; Khawasik, S. M.

1977-01-01

Prospecting for iron ore occurrences was conducted by the Remote Sensing Center in Bahariya Oasis-El Faiyum area covering some 100,000 km squared in the Western Desert of Egypt. LANDSAT-1 satellite images were utilized as the main tool in the regional prospecting of the iron ores. The delineation of the geological units and geological structure through the interpretation of the images corroborated by field observations and structural analysis led to the discovery of new iron ore occurrences in the area of investigation.

Imaging the Variscan suture at the KTB deep drilling site, Germany

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Irene; Bokelmann, Götz

2018-03-01

The upper crust of the KTB (Kontinentales Tiefbohrprogramm) area in Southeastern Germany is a focal point for the Earth Science community due to the huge amount of information collected throughout the last thirty years. In this study we explore the crustal structure of the KTB area through the application of the receiver function (RF) technique to a new data set recorded by 9 temporary seismic stations and 1 permanent station. We aim to unravel the isotropic structure and compare our results with previous information from the reflection profiles collected during the initial site investigations. Due to the large amount of information collected by previous studies, in terms of P-wave velocity, depth and location of major reflectors, depth reconstruction of major faults zones, this area represents a unique occasion to test the resolution capability of a passive seismological study performed by the application of the RF. We aim to verify which contribution could be given by the application of the receiver functions technique, for future studies, in order to get clear images of the deep structure, and up to which resolution. The RF technique has apparently not been applied in the area before, yet it may give useful additional insight in subsurface structure, particularly at depths larger than the maximum depth reached by drilling, but also on structures in the upper crust, around the area that has been studied in detail previously. In our results vS-depth profiles for stations located on the same geological units display common features and show shallow S-wave velocities typical of the outcropping geological units (i.e. sedimentary basin, granites, metamorphic rocks). At around 10 km depth we observe a strong velocity increase beneath all stations. For the stations located in the center of the area, this variation is weaker, which we assume to be the signature of the main tectonic suture in the area (i.e. the Saxothuringian-Moldanubian suture), along an West-to-East extended region, may be due to the presence of the allochthonous klippe trapped between the main crustal terrains that came in touch during the Variscan orogeny. In the lower crust we see only small variations throughout the area, at the resolution that is possible with a small temporary experiment with just 10 stations.

Imaging the Variscan suture at the KTB deep drilling site, Germany

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Irene; Bokelmann, Götz

2018-06-01

The upper crust of the KTB (Kontinentales Tiefbohrprogramm) area in the Southeastern Germany is a focal point for the Earth Science community due to the huge amount of information collected throughout the last 30 yr. In this study, we explore the crustal structure of the KTB area through the application of the Receiver Function (RF) technique to a new data set recorded by nine temporary seismic stations and one permanent station. We aim to unravel the isotropic structure and compare our results with previous information from the reflection profiles collected during the initial site investigations. Due to the large amount of information collected by previous studies, in terms of P-wave velocity, depth and location of major reflectors, depth reconstruction of major faults zones, this area represents a unique occasion to test the resolution capability of a passive seismological study performed by the application of the RF. We aim to verify which contribution could be given by the application of the RF technique, for future studies, in order to get clear images of the deep structure and up to which resolution. The RF technique has apparently not been applied in the area before, yet it may give useful additional insight in subsurface structure, particularly at depths larger than the maximum depth reached by drilling, but also on structures in the upper crust, around the area that has been studied in detail previously. In our results vS-depth profiles for stations located on the same geological units display common features and show shallow S-wave velocities typical of the outcropping geological units (i.e. sedimentary basin, granites and metamorphic rocks). At around 10 km depth, we observe a strong velocity increase beneath all stations. For the stations located in the centre of the area, this variation is weaker, which we assume to be the signature of the main tectonic suture in the area (i.e. the Saxothuringian-Moldanubian suture), along a west-to-east extended region, may be due to the presence of the allochthonous klippe trapped between the main crustal terrains that came in touch during the Variscan orogeny. In the lower crust we see only small variations throughout the area, at the resolution that is possible with a small temporary experiment with just 10 stations.

Simulation of dissolved nutrient export from the Dongjiang river basin with a grid-based NEWS model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rong, Qiangqiang; Su, Meirong; Yang, Zhifeng; Cai, Yanpeng; Yue, Wencong; Dang, Zhi

2018-06-01

In this research, a grid-based NEWS model was proposed through coupling the geographic information system (GIS) with the Global NEWS model framework. The model was then applied to the Dongjiang River basin to simulate the dissolved nutrient export from this area. The model results showed that the total amounts of the dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus exported from the Dongjiang River basin were approximately 27154.87 and 1389.33 t, respectively. 90 % of the two loads were inorganic forms (i.e. dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, DIN and DIP). Also, the nutrient export loads did not evenly distributed in the basin. The main stream watershed of the Dongjiang River basin has the largest DIN and DIP export loads, while the largest dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorus (DON and DOP) loads were observed in the middle and upper stream watersheds of the basin, respectively. As for the nutrient exported from each subbasin, different sources had different influences on the output of each nutrient form. For the DIN load in each subbasin, fertilization application, atmospheric deposition and biological fixation were the three main contributors, while eluviation was the most important source for DON. In terms of DIP load, fertilizer application and breeding wastewater were the main contributors, while eluviation and fertilizer application were the two main sources for DOP.

Experimental investigation of 4 K pulse tube refrigerator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, J. L.; Matsubara, Y.

During the last decades superconducting electronics has been the most prominent area of research for small scale applications of superconductivity. It has experienced quite a stormy development, from individual low frequency devices to devices with high integration density and pico second switching time. Nowadays it offers small losses, high speed and the potential for large scale integration and is superior to semiconducting devices in many ways — apart from the need for cooling by liquid helium for devices based on classical superconductors like niobium, or cooling by liquid nitrogen or cryocoolers (40K to 77K) for high-T c superconductors like YBa 2Cu 3O 7. This article gives a short overview over the current state of the art on typical devices out of the main application areas of superconducting electronics.

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

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

Druskin, V.; Lee, Ping; Knizhnerman, L.

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

Image Registration Workshop Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeMoigne, Jacqueline (Editor)

1997-01-01

Automatic image registration has often been considered as a preliminary step for higher-level processing, such as object recognition or data fusion. But with the unprecedented amounts of data which are being and will continue to be generated by newly developed sensors, the very topic of automatic image registration has become and important research topic. This workshop presents a collection of very high quality work which has been grouped in four main areas: (1) theoretical aspects of image registration; (2) applications to satellite imagery; (3) applications to medical imagery; and (4) image registration for computer vision research.

Aeronautical fuel conservation possibilities for advanced subsonic transports. [application of aeronautical technology for drag and weight reduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Braslow, A. L.; Whitehead, A. H., Jr.

1973-01-01

The anticipated growth of air transportation is in danger of being constrained by increased prices and insecure sources of petroleum-based fuel. Fuel-conservation possibilities attainable through the application of advances in aeronautical technology to aircraft design are identified with the intent of stimulating NASA R and T and systems-study activities in the various disciplinary areas. The material includes drag reduction; weight reduction; increased efficiency of main and auxiliary power systems; unconventional air transport of cargo; and operational changes.

CFD lends the government a hand

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lekoudis, Spiro; Singleton, Robert E.; Mehta, Unmeel B.

1992-01-01

The present survey of important and novel CFD applications being developed and implemented by U.S. Government contractors gives attention to naval vessel flow-modeling, Army ballistic and rotary wing aerodynamics, and NASA hypersonic vehicle related applications of CFD. CFD-generated knowledge of numerical algorithms, fluid motion, and supercomputer use is being incorporated into such additional areas as computational electromagnetics and acoustics. Attention is presently given to CFD methods' development status in such fields as submarine boundary layers, hypersonic kinetic energy projectile shock structures, helicopter main rotor tip flows, and National Aerospace Plane aerothermodynamics.

Sensitive magnetic sensors without cooling in biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Nowak, H; Strähmel, E; Giessler, F; Rinneberg, G; Haueisen, J

2003-01-01

Magnetic field sensors are used in various fields of technology. In the past few years a large variety of magnetic field sensors has been established and the performance of these sensors has been improved enormously. In this review article all recent developments in the area of sensitive magnetic field sensory analysis (resolution better than 1 nT) are presented and examined regarding their parameters. This is mainly done under the aspect of application fields in biomedical engineering. A comparison of all commercial and available sensitive magnetic field sensors shows current and prospective ranges of application.

Environmental vulnerability and phosphorus fractions of areas with pig slurry applied to the soil.

PubMed

da Rosa Couto, Rafael; Santos, Matheus Dos; Comin, Jucinei José; Pittol Martini, Luíz Carlos; Gatiboni, Luciano Colpo; Martins, Sérgio Roberto; Filho, Paulo Belli; Brunetto, Gustavo

2015-01-01

The application of pig slurry as a fertilizer can cause soil and water contamination. Intrinsic characteristics of the environment may enhance this effect and influence the vulnerability of the agricultural system. The goal of this study was to evaluate the accumulation of soil P fractions in areas treated with pig slurry and in forest areas and to propose an evaluation of the areas' vulnerability to P contamination. Soil samples were collected from 10 areas with pig slurry applied to the soil and one in forest without a history of pig slurry application, all located in the Coruja and Bonito rivers microbasin at Braço do Norte, Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Samples were prepared and subjected to P chemical fractionation. Two versions of the P index method, based on soil P forms or only on P extracted by Mehlich-1, were used to evaluate the environmental risk of the studied areas. Estimated soil losses were lower for the forest and natural pasture and highest in areas with black oat ( Schreb.)-corn ( L.) crop cultivation. Concentrations of P fractions, especially of organic and inorganic P extracted by 0.1 and 0.5 mol L NaOH and NaHCO and of inorganic P extracted by anion exchange resin and HCl, were higher in areas with a longer history and higher frequency of pig slurry applications. Vulnerability to P contamination was mainly influenced by soil P concentrations and soil losses in the studied areas. The P index based on Hedley's fractionation P forms resulted in a more accurate risk scoring of the studied areas than the P index based on the concentration of available P extracted by Mehlich-1. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Inkjet Printing of Functional Materials for Optical and Photonic Applications

PubMed Central

Alamán, Jorge; Alicante, Raquel; Peña, Jose Ignacio; Sánchez-Somolinos, Carlos

2016-01-01

Inkjet printing, traditionally used in graphics, has been widely investigated as a valuable tool in the preparation of functional surfaces and devices. This review focuses on the use of inkjet printing technology for the manufacturing of different optical elements and photonic devices. The presented overview mainly surveys work done in the fabrication of micro-optical components such as microlenses, waveguides and integrated lasers; the manufacturing of large area light emitting diodes displays, liquid crystal displays and solar cells; as well as the preparation of liquid crystal and colloidal crystal based photonic devices working as lasers or optical sensors. Special emphasis is placed on reviewing the materials employed as well as in the relevance of inkjet in the manufacturing of the different devices showing in each of the revised technologies, main achievements, applications and challenges. PMID:28774032

33 CFR 334.30 - Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

..., Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. 334.30 Section 334.30 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF....30 Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. (a) The area. The test area or... enforced by the Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, or such agencies as he may...

33 CFR 334.30 - Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. 334.30 Section 334.30 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF....30 Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. (a) The area. The test area or... enforced by the Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, or such agencies as he may...

33 CFR 334.30 - Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

..., Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. 334.30 Section 334.30 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF....30 Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. (a) The area. The test area or... enforced by the Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, or such agencies as he may...

33 CFR 334.30 - Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

..., Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. 334.30 Section 334.30 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF....30 Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. (a) The area. The test area or... enforced by the Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, or such agencies as he may...

33 CFR 334.30 - Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. 334.30 Section 334.30 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS OF....30 Gulf of Maine off Pemaquid Point, Maine; naval sonobuoy test area. (a) The area. The test area or... enforced by the Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, or such agencies as he may...

Nanofibers: New Insights for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering.

PubMed

Haidar, Mohammad Karim; Eroglu, Hakan

2017-01-01

Nanofibers became one of the major research areas for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications in the last decade. Depending on the simplicity of the preparation method and high drug loading capacity, nanofibers provide many advantages for therapeutic perspectives. In addition, combined systems such as embedding nanoparticles into the nanofiber structures provide a second option for delivery of dual active ingredients in the same formulation. The release rate of the active ingredients can also be modified easily by the formulation parameters depending on the desired release time for treatment. Nanofibers systems are used for the delivery of antibiotics, anticancer drugs, analgesics, hemostatic agents and various proteins for tissue engineering purposes. In addition, various applications such as medical device coating also provide new insights for the clinical use of nanofibers. The most commonly used technique for preparation of nanofibers is the electrospinning, which provides feasibility background for scale up process from laboratory to the industrial applications. The main boundary for nanofibers is the limitations for systemic route. Nanofibers are mainly designed for the delivery of active ingredients for local purposes. Regardless of the therapeutic aim, nanofibers are also perfect 3 dimensional structures that are suitable for tissue regeneration. They provide matrix structure for cell regeneration especially in applications for wound healing. This review is mainly focused on the recent advances on the preparation of nanofibers, applications for drug delivery, tissue engineering and wound healing purposes. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Fire-probability maps for the Brazilian Amazonia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardoso, M.; Nobre, C.; Obregon, G.; Sampaio, G.

2009-04-01

Most fires in Amazonia result from the combination between climate and land-use factors. They occur mainly in the dry season and are used as an inexpensive tool for land clearing and management. However, their unintended consequences are of important concern. Fire emissions are the most important sources of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the region, accidental fires are a major threat to protected areas, and frequent fires may lead to permanent conversion of forest areas into savannas. Fire-activity models have thus become important tools for environmental analyses in Amazonia. They are used, for example, in warning systems for monitoring the risk of burnings in protected areas, to improve the description of biogeochemical cycles and vegetation composition in ecosystem models, and to help estimate the long-term potential for savannas in biome models. Previous modeling studies for the whole region were produced in units of satellite fire pixels, which complicate their direct use for environmental applications. By reinterpreting remote-sensing based data using a statistical approach, we were able to calibrate models for the whole region in units of probability, or chance of fires to occur. The application of these models for years 2005 and 2006 provided maps of fire potential at 3-month and 0.25-deg resolution as a function of precipitation and distance from main roads. In both years, the performance of the resulting maps was better for the period July-September. During these months, most of satellite-based fire observations were located in areas with relatively high chance of fire, as determined by the modeled probability maps. In addition to reproduce reasonably well the areas presenting maximum fire activity as detected by remote sensing, the new results in units of probability are easier to apply than previous estimates from fire-pixel models.

Fire-probability maps for the Brazilian Amazonia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardoso, Manoel; Sampaio, Gilvan; Obregon, Guillermo; Nobre, Carlos

2010-05-01

Most fires in Amazonia result from the combination between climate and land-use factors. They occur mainly in the dry season and are used as an inexpensive tool for land clearing and management. However, their unintended consequences are of important concern. Fire emissions are the most important sources of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the region, accidental fires are a major threat to protected areas, and frequent fires may lead to permanent conversion of forest areas into savannas. Fire-activity models have thus become important tools for environmental analyses in Amazonia. They are used, for example, in warning systems for monitoring the risk of burnings in protected areas, to improve the description of biogeochemical cycles and vegetation composition in ecosystem models, and to help estimate the long-term potential for savannas in biome models. Previous modeling studies for the whole region were produced in units of satellite fire pixels, which complicate their direct use for environmental applications. By reinterpreting remote-sensing based data using a statistical approach, we were able to calibrate models for the whole region in units of probability, or chance of fires to occur. The application of these models for years 2005 and 2006 provided maps of fire potential at 3-month and 0.25-deg resolution as a function of precipitation and distance from main roads. In both years, the performance of the resulting maps was better for the period July-September. During these months, most of satellite-based fire observations were located in areas with relatively high chance of fire, as determined by the modeled probability maps. In addition to reproduce reasonably well the areas presenting maximum fire activity as detected by remote sensing, the new results in units of probability are easier to apply than previous estimates from fire-pixel models.

A new automatic SAR-based flood mapping application hosted on the European Space Agency's grid processing on demand fast access to imagery environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hostache, Renaud; Chini, Marco; Matgen, Patrick; Giustarini, Laura

2013-04-01

There is a clear need for developing innovative processing chains based on earth observation (EO) data to generate products supporting emergency response and flood management at a global scale. Here an automatic flood mapping application is introduced. The latter is currently hosted on the Grid Processing on Demand (G-POD) Fast Access to Imagery (Faire) environment of the European Space Agency. The main objective of the online application is to deliver flooded areas using both recent and historical acquisitions of SAR data in an operational framework. It is worth mentioning that the method can be applied to both medium and high resolution SAR images. The flood mapping application consists of two main blocks: 1) A set of query tools for selecting the "crisis image" and the optimal corresponding pre-flood "reference image" from the G-POD archive. 2) An algorithm for extracting flooded areas using the previously selected "crisis image" and "reference image". The proposed method is a hybrid methodology, which combines histogram thresholding, region growing and change detection as an approach enabling the automatic, objective and reliable flood extent extraction from SAR images. The method is based on the calibration of a statistical distribution of "open water" backscatter values inferred from SAR images of floods. Change detection with respect to a pre-flood reference image helps reducing over-detection of inundated areas. The algorithms are computationally efficient and operate with minimum data requirements, considering as input data a flood image and a reference image. Stakeholders in flood management and service providers are able to log onto the flood mapping application to get support for the retrieval, from the rolling archive, of the most appropriate pre-flood reference image. Potential users will also be able to apply the implemented flood delineation algorithm. Case studies of several recent high magnitude flooding events (e.g. July 2007 Severn River flood, UK and March 2010 Red River flood, US) observed by high-resolution SAR sensors as well as airborne photography highlight advantages and limitations of the online application. A mid-term target is the exploitation of ESA SENTINEL 1 SAR data streams. In the long term it is foreseen to develop a potential extension of the application for systematically extracting flooded areas from all SAR images acquired on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. On-going research activities investigate the usefulness of the method for mapping flood hazard at global scale using databases of historic SAR remote sensing-derived flood inundation maps.

Measuring the Variables and Testing the Outcomes. The ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series, Vol. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valette, Rebecca M.; Linder, Cathy

Current developments in the field of language testing are synthesized with emphasis on their practical application in the classroom. The main areas of concern are: (1) the role of testing in the schools; (2) identifying and measuring teacher and student variables, such as, language proficiency of teachers; teacher effectiveness in the classroom;…

The Electrospun Ceramic Hollow Nanofibers

PubMed Central

Davoudpour, Yalda; Habibi, Youssef; Elbahri, Mady

2017-01-01

Hollow nanofibers are largely gaining interest from the scientific community for diverse applications in the fields of sensing, energy, health, and environment. The main reasons are: their extensive surface area that increases the possibilities of engineering, their larger accessible active area, their porosity, and their sensitivity. In particular, semiconductor ceramic hollow nanofibers show greater space charge modulation depth, higher electronic transport properties, and shorter ion or electron diffusion length (e.g., for an enhanced charging–discharging rate). In this review, we discuss and introduce the latest developments of ceramic hollow nanofiber materials in terms of synthesis approaches. Particularly, electrospinning derivatives will be highlighted. The electrospun ceramic hollow nanofibers will be reviewed with respect to their most widely studied components, i.e., metal oxides. These nanostructures have been mainly suggested for energy and environmental remediation. Despite the various advantages of such one dimensional (1D) nanostructures, their fabrication strategies need to be improved to increase their practical use. The domain of nanofabrication is still advancing, and its predictable shortcomings and bottlenecks must be identified and addressed. Inconsistency of the hollow nanostructure with regard to their composition and dimensions could be one of such challenges. Moreover, their poor scalability hinders their wide applicability for commercialization and industrial use. PMID:29120403

Groundwater Nitrate Contamination Risk Assessment in Canicattì area (Sicily)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pisciotta, Antonino; Cusimano, Gioacchino; Favara, Rocco

2010-05-01

Groundwaters play a dominant role in the Sicily, because as most part of Mediterranean countries this island is interested by the phenomenon of desertification and the quality of the groundwater reservoir is one of the most important aim for the management policy strategies. During last decade most of the Italian regions the nitrate levels in river and groundwaters have increased gradually over mainly as a consequence of large-scale agricultural application of manure and fertilizers, thereby threatening drinking water quality. The excessive use of chemicals and fertilizers increases the risk to pollution of surface and groundwater from diffuse source, an important reflex to human health and the environment. The studied area is located in Canicattì (central Sicily, Italy), the current land use (grape, olive grove and almond) is the main source of groundwater pollution. In order to investigate the effect of the over farming on the groundwater quality we report the study on the potential risk of contamination from nitrate of agricultural origin through the join of the application of two parametric methods: the IPNOA method (the intrinsic nitrate contamination risk from Agricultural sources) applied to define the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and the SINTACS method applied to determine the aquifer vulnerability to contamination.

Nanocomposites for Machining Tools

PubMed Central

Loginov, Pavel; Mishnaevsky, Leon; Levashov, Evgeny

2017-01-01

Machining tools are used in many areas of production. To a considerable extent, the performance characteristics of the tools determine the quality and cost of obtained products. The main materials used for producing machining tools are steel, cemented carbides, ceramics and superhard materials. A promising way to improve the performance characteristics of these materials is to design new nanocomposites based on them. The application of micromechanical modeling during the elaboration of composite materials for machining tools can reduce the financial and time costs for development of new tools, with enhanced performance. This article reviews the main groups of nanocomposites for machining tools and their performance. PMID:29027926

Potential biomedical applications of marine algae.

PubMed

Wang, Hui-Min David; Li, Xiao-Chun; Lee, Duu-Jong; Chang, Jo-Shu

2017-11-01

Functional components extracted from algal biomass are widely used as dietary and health supplements with a variety of applications in food science and technology. In contrast, the applications of algae in dermal-related products have received much less attention, despite that algae also possess high potential for the uses in anti-infection, anti-aging, skin-whitening, and skin tumor treatments. This review, therefore, focuses on integrating studies on algae pertinent to human skin care, health and therapy. The active compounds in algae related to human skin treatments are mentioned and the possible mechanisms involved are described. The main purpose of this review is to identify serviceable algae functions in skin treatments to facilitate practical applications in this high-potential area. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Laser induced single spot oxidation of titanium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jwad, Tahseen; Deng, Sunan; Butt, Haider; Dimov, S.

2016-11-01

Titanium oxides have a wide range of applications in industry, and they can be formed on pure titanium using different methods. Laser-induced oxidation is one of the most reliable methods due to its controllability and selectivity. Colour marking is one of the main applications of the oxidation process. However, the colourizing process based on laser scanning strategies is limited by the relative large processing area in comparison to the beam size. Single spot oxidation of titanium substrates is proposed in this research in order to increase the resolution of the processed area and also to address the requirements of potential new applications. The method is applied to produce oxide films with different thicknesses and hence colours on titanium substrates. High resolution colour image is imprinted on a sheet of pure titanium by converting its pixels' colours into laser parameter settings. Optical and morphological periodic surface structures are also produced by an array of oxide spots and then analysed. Two colours have been coded into one field and the dependencies of the reflected colours on incident and azimuthal angles of the light are discussed. The findings are of interest to a range of application areas, as they can be used to imprint optical devices such as diffusers and Fresnel lenses on metallic surfaces as well as for colour marking.

A CSF-SPH method for simulating drainage and imbibition at pore-scale resolution while tracking interfacial areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivanesapillai, Rakulan; Falkner, Nadine; Hartmaier, Alexander; Steeb, Holger

2016-09-01

We present a conservative smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model to study the flow of multiple, immiscible fluid phases in porous media using direct pore-scale simulations. Particular focus is put on continuously tracking the evolution of interfacial areas, which are considered to be important morphological quantities affecting multiphase transport in porous media. In addition to solving the Navier-Stokes equations, the model accounts for the effects of capillarity at interfaces and contact lines. This is done by means of incorporating the governing interfacial mass and momentum balances using the continuum surface force (CSF) method, thus rendering model calibration routines unnecessary and minimizing the set of constitutive and kinematic assumptions. We address the application of boundary conditions at rigid solid surfaces and study the predictive capability of the model as well as optimal choices for numerical parameters using an extensive model validation procedure. We demonstrate the applicability of the model to simulate multiphase flows involving partial wettability, dynamic effects, large density ratios (up to 1000), large viscosity ratios (up to 100), as well as fragmentation and coalescence of fluid phases. The model is used to study the evolution of fluid-fluid interfacial areas during saturation-controlled primary drainage and main imbibition of heterogeneous pore spaces at low capillary numbers. A variety of pore-scale effects, such as wetting phase entrapment and fragmentation due to snap-off, are observed. Specific fluid-fluid interfacial area is observed to monotonically increase during primary drainage and hysteretic effects are apparent during main imbibition.

Solution processable inverted structure ZnO-organic hybrid heterojuction white LEDs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bano, N.; Hussain, I.; Soomro, M. Y.; EL-Naggar, A. M.; Albassam, A. A.

2018-05-01

Improving luminance efficiency and colour purity are the most important challenges for zinc oxide (ZnO)-organic hybrid heterojunction light emitting diodes (LEDs), affecting their large area applications. If ZnO-organic hybrid heterojunction white LEDs are fabricated by a hydrothermal method, it is difficult to obtain pure and stable blue emission from PFO due to the presence of an undesirable green emission. In this paper, we present an inverted-structure ZnO-organic hybrid heterojunction LED to avoid green emission from PFO, which mainly originates during device processing. With this configuration, each ZnO nanorod (NR) forms a discrete p-n junction; therefore, large-area white LEDs can be designed without compromising the junction area. The configuration used for this novel structure is glass/ZnO NRs/PFO/PEDOT:PSS/L-ITO, which enables the development of efficient, large-area and low-cost hybrid heterojunction LEDs. Inverted-structure ZnO-organic hybrid heterojunction white LEDs offer several improvements in terms of brightness, size, colour, external quantum efficiency and a wider applicability as compared to normal architecture LEDs.

Internet-based wide area measurement applications in deregulated power systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khatib, Abdel-Rahman Amin

Since the deregulation of power systems was started in 1989 in the UK, many countries have been motivated to undergo deregulation. The United State started deregulation in the energy sector in California back in 1996. Since that time many other states have also started the deregulation procedures in different utilities. Most of the deregulation market in the United States now is in the wholesale market area, however, the retail market is still undergoing changes. Deregulation has many impacts on power system network operation and control. The number of power transactions among the utilities has increased and many Independent Power Producers (IPPs) now have a rich market for competition especially in the green power market. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) called upon utilities to develop the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO). The RTO is a step toward the national transmission grid. RTO is an independent entity that will operate the transmission system in a large region. The main goal of forming RTOs is to increase the operation efficiency of the power network under the impact of the deregulated market. The objective of this work is to study Internet based Wide Area Information Sharing (WAIS) applications in the deregulated power system. The study is the first step toward building a national transmission grid picture using information sharing among utilities. Two main topics are covered as applications for the WAIS in the deregulated power system, state estimation and Total Transfer Capability (TTC) calculations. As a first step for building this national transmission grid picture, WAIS and the level of information sharing of the state estimation calculations have been discussed. WAIS impacts to the TTC calculations are also covered. A new technique to update the TTC using on line measurements based on WAIS created by sharing state estimation is presented.

Brewer's spent grain: a valuable feedstock for industrial applications.

PubMed

Mussatto, Solange I

2014-05-01

Brewer's spent grain (BSG) is the most abundant by-product generated from the beer-brewing process, representing approximately 85% of the total by-products obtained. This material is basically constituted by the barley grain husks obtained as solid residue after the wort production. Since BSG is rich in sugars and proteins, the main and quickest alternative for elimination of this industrial by-product has been as animal feed. However, BSG is a raw material of interest for application in different areas because of its low cost, large availability throughout the year and valuable chemical composition. In the last decade, many efforts have been directed towards the reuse of BSG, taking into account the incentive that has been given to recycle the wastes and by-products generated by industrial activities. Currently, many interesting and advantageous methods for application of BSG in foods, in energy production and in chemical and biotechnological processes have been reported. The present study presents and discusses the most recent perspectives for BSG application in such areas. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.

KULTURisk regional risk assessment methodology for water-related natural hazards - Part 2: Application to the Zurich case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ronco, P.; Bullo, M.; Torresan, S.; Critto, A.; Olschewski, R.; Zappa, M.; Marcomini, A.

2015-03-01

The aim of this paper is the application of the KULTURisk regional risk assessment (KR-RRA) methodology, presented in the companion paper (Part 1, Ronco et al., 2014), to the Sihl River basin, in northern Switzerland. Flood-related risks have been assessed for different receptors lying on the Sihl River valley including Zurich, which represents a typical case of river flooding in an urban area, by calibrating the methodology to the site-specific context and features. Risk maps and statistics have been developed using a 300-year return period scenario for six relevant targets exposed to flood risk: people; economic activities: buildings, infrastructure and agriculture; natural and semi-natural systems; and cultural heritage. Finally, the total risk index map has been produced to visualize the spatial pattern of flood risk within the target area and, therefore, to identify and rank areas and hotspots at risk by means of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tools. Through a tailored participatory approach, risk maps supplement the consideration of technical experts with the (essential) point of view of relevant stakeholders for the appraisal of the specific scores weighting for the different receptor-relative risks. The total risk maps obtained for the Sihl River case study are associated with the lower classes of risk. In general, higher (relative) risk scores are spatially concentrated in the deeply urbanized city centre and areas that lie just above to river course. Here, predicted injuries and potential fatalities are mainly due to high population density and to the presence of vulnerable people; flooded buildings are mainly classified as continuous and discontinuous urban fabric; flooded roads, pathways and railways, most of them in regards to the Zurich central station (Hauptbahnhof) are at high risk of inundation, causing severe indirect damage. Moreover, the risk pattern for agriculture, natural and semi-natural systems and cultural heritage is relatively less important mainly because the scattered presence of these assets. Finally, the application of the KR-RRA methodology to the Sihl River case study, as well as to several other sites across Europe (not presented here), has demonstrated its flexibility and the possible adaptation of it to different geographical and socioeconomic contexts, depending on data availability and particulars of the sites, and for other (hazard) scenarios.

Application of data mining approaches to drug delivery.

PubMed

Ekins, Sean; Shimada, Jun; Chang, Cheng

2006-11-30

Computational approaches play a key role in all areas of the pharmaceutical industry from data mining, experimental and clinical data capture to pharmacoeconomics and adverse events monitoring. They will likely continue to be indispensable assets along with a growing library of software applications. This is primarily due to the increasingly massive amount of biology, chemistry and clinical data, which is now entering the public domain mainly as a result of NIH and commercially funded projects. We are therefore in need of new methods for mining this mountain of data in order to enable new hypothesis generation. The computational approaches include, but are not limited to, database compilation, quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR), pharmacophores, network visualization models, decision trees, machine learning algorithms and multidimensional data visualization software that could be used to improve drug delivery after mining public and/or proprietary data. We will discuss some areas of unmet needs in the area of data mining for drug delivery that can be addressed with new software tools or databases of relevance to future pharmaceutical projects.

Note: application of a pixel-array area detector to simultaneous single crystal X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements.

PubMed

Sun, Cheng-Jun; Zhang, Bangmin; Brewe, Dale L; Chen, Jing-Sheng; Chow, G M; Venkatesan, T; Heald, Steve M

2014-04-01

X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) are two main x-ray techniques in synchrotron radiation facilities. In this Note, we present an experimental setup capable of performing simultaneous XRD and XAS measurements by the application of a pixel-array area detector. For XRD, the momentum transfer in specular diffraction was measured by scanning the X-ray energy with fixed incoming and outgoing x-ray angles. By selecting a small fixed region of the detector to collect the XRD signal, the rest of the area was available for collecting the x-ray fluorescence for XAS measurements. The simultaneous measurement of XRD and X-ray absorption near edge structure for Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 film was demonstrated as a proof of principle for future time-resolved pump-probe measurements. A static sample makes it easy to maintain an accurate overlap of the X-ray spot and laser pump beam.

[External therapy of plasma cell mastitis by jiuyi powder using partial least-squares discriminant analysis: a safety analysis].

PubMed

Ye, Mei-na; Yang, Ming; Cheng, Yi-qin; Wang, Bing; Zhu, Ying; Xia, Ya-ru; Meng, Tian; Chen, Hao; Chen, Li-ying; Cheng, Hong-feng

2015-04-01

To evaluate the safety and the clinical value of external use of jiuyi Powder (JP) in treating plasma cell mastitis using partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA). Totally 50 patients with plasma cell mastitis treated by external use of JP were observed and biochemical examinations of blood and urine detected before application, at day 4 after application, at day 1 and 14 after discontinuation. Blood mercury and urinary mercury were detected before application, at day 1, 4, and 7 after application, at day 1 and 14 after discontinuation. Urinary mercury was also detected at 28 after discontinuation and 3 months after discontinuation. The information of wound, days of external application and the total dosage of external application were recorded before application, at day 1, 4, and 7 after application, as well as at day 1 after discontinuation. Then a discriminant model covering potential safety factors was set up by PLSDA after screening safety indices with important effects. The applicability of the model was assessed using area under ROC curve. Potential safety factors were assessed using variable importance in the projection (VIP). Urinary β2-microglobulin (β2-MG), urinary N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), 24 h urinary protein, and urinary α1-microglobulin (α1-MG) were greatly affected by external use of JP in treating plasma cell mastitis. The accuracy rate of PLSDA discriminate model was 74. 00%. The sensitivity, specificity, and the area under ROC curve was 0. 7826, 0. 7037, and 0. 8084, respectively. Three factors with greater effect on the potential safety were screened as follows: pre-application volume of the sore cavity, days of external application, and the total dosage of external application. PLSDA method could be used in analyzing bioinformation of clinical Chinese medicine. Urinary β2-MG and urinary NAG were two main safety monitoring indices. Days of external application and the total dosage of external application were main factors influencing blood mercury and urine mercury. A safety classification simulation model of treating plasma cell mastitis by external therapy of JP was established by the two factors, which could be used to assess the safety of external application of JP to some extent.

Physiology, biochemistry and possible applications of microbial caffeine degradation.

PubMed

Gummadi, Sathyanarayana N; Bhavya, B; Ashok, Nandhini

2012-01-01

Caffeine, a purine alkaloid is a constituent of widely consumed beverages. The scientific evidence which has proved the harm of this alkaloid has paved the way for innumerable research in the area of caffeine degradation. In addition to this, the fact that the by-products of the coffee and tea industry pollute the environment has called for the need of decaffeinating coffee and tea industry's by-products. Though physical and chemical methods for decaffeination are available, the lack of specificity for removal of caffeine in these techniques and their non-eco-friendly nature has opened the area of microbial and enzymatic degradation of caffeine. Another important application of microbial caffeine degradation apart from its advantages like specificity, eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness is the fact that this process will enable the production of industrially and medically useful components of the caffeine degradation pathway like theobromine and theophylline. This is a comprehensive review which mainly focuses on caffeine degradation, large-scale degradation of the same and its applications in the industrial world.

A mobile phone application for the collection of opinion data for forest planning purposes.

PubMed

Kangas, Annika; Rasinmäki, Jussi; Eyvindson, Kyle; Chambers, Philip

2015-04-01

The last 30 years has seen an increase in environmental, socio-economic, and recreational objectives being considered throughout the forest planning process. In the Finnish context these are considered mainly at the regional level potentially missing out on more local issues and problems. Such local information would be most efficiently collected with a participatory GIS approach. A mobile participatory GIS application called Tienoo was developed as a tool for collecting location-specific opinions of recreational and aesthetical characteristics of forests and forest management. The application also contains information the user can access regarding the practical details of the area, for instance about the recreational infrastructure. The application was tested in Ruunaa National Hiking Area, North Karelia, Eastern Finland. Through this application it is possible to continuously collect geolocated preference information. As a result, the collected opinions have details which can be located in both time and space. This allows for the possibility to monitor the changes in opinions when the stands are treated, and it also allows for easily analyzing the effect of time of year on the opinions. It is also possible to analyze the effect of the spatial location and the forest characteristics on the opinions using GIS analysis.

Experiences with Text Mining Large Collections of Unstructured Systems Development Artifacts at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Port, Dan; Nikora, Allen; Hihn, Jairus; Huang, LiGuo

2011-01-01

Often repositories of systems engineering artifacts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are so large and poorly structured that they have outgrown our capability to effectively manually process their contents to extract useful information. Sophisticated text mining methods and tools seem a quick, low-effort approach to automating our limited manual efforts. Our experiences of exploring such methods mainly in three areas including historical risk analysis, defect identification based on requirements analysis, and over-time analysis of system anomalies at JPL, have shown that obtaining useful results requires substantial unanticipated efforts - from preprocessing the data to transforming the output for practical applications. We have not observed any quick 'wins' or realized benefit from short-term effort avoidance through automation in this area. Surprisingly we have realized a number of unexpected long-term benefits from the process of applying text mining to our repositories. This paper elaborates some of these benefits and our important lessons learned from the process of preparing and applying text mining to large unstructured system artifacts at JPL aiming to benefit future TM applications in similar problem domains and also in hope for being extended to broader areas of applications.

Research into alternative network approaches for space operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kusmanoff, Antone L.; Barton, Timothy J.

1990-01-01

The main goal is to resolve the interoperability problem of applications employing DOD TCP/IP (Department of Defence Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) family of protocols on a CCITT/ISO based network. The objective is to allow them to communicate over the CCITT/ISO protocol GPLAN (General Purpose Local Area Network) network without modification to the user's application programs. There were two primary assumptions associated with the solution that was actually realized. The first is that the solution had to allow for future movement to the exclusive use of the CCITT/ISO standards. The second is that the solution had to be software transparent to the currently installed TCP/IP and CCITT/ISO user application programs.

REVIEW ARTICLE: Medical implants based on microsystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mokwa, W.

2007-05-01

The fast development of CMOS technologies to smaller dimensions led to very high integration densities with complex circuitry on very small chip areas. In 2006 Intel fabricated the first products in a 65 nm technology. The cointegration of microsensors or actuators together with the very low power consumption of the CMOS circuitry is very well suited for use in implanted systems. Applications like intracranial or intraocular pressure measurements have become possible. This review presents an overview over actual applications and developments of sensor/actuator-based microsystems for medical implants. It concentrates on the technical part of these investigations. It will mainly review work on systems measuring pressure in blood vessels and on systems for ophthalmic applications.

[Fundus Autofluorescence Imaging].

PubMed

Schmitz-Valckenberg, S

2015-09-01

Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging allows for non-invasive mapping of changes at the level of the retinal pigment epithelium/photoreceptor complex and of alterations of macular pigment distribution. This imaging method is based on the visualisation of intrinsic fluorophores and may be easily and rapidly used in routine patient care. Main applications include degenerative disorders of the outer retina such as age-related macular degeneration, hereditary and acquired retinal diseases. FAF imaging is particularly helpful for differential diagnosis, detection and extent of involved retinal areas, structural-functional correlations and monitoring of changes over time. Recent developments include - in addition to the original application of short wavelength light for excitation ("blue" FAF imaging) - the use of other wavelength ranges ("green" or "near-infrared" FAF imaging), widefield imaging for visualisation of peripheral retinal areas and quantitative FAF imaging. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A general review of concepts for reducing skin friction, including recommendations for future studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fischer, M. C.; Ash, R. L.

1974-01-01

Four main concepts which have significantly reduced skin friction in experimental studies are discussed; suction, gaseous injection, particle additives, and compliant wall. It is considered possible that each of these concepts could be developed and applied in viable skin friction reduction systems for aircraft application. Problem areas with each concept are discussed, and recommendations for future studies are made.

Photonics and terahertz tchnologies: part 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2011-10-01

This digest paper debates basic features of the terahertz band of frequencies. There are presented fundamental characteristics of the basic terahertz system consisting of a THz source, propagation media, transmission lines, THz signal processing, and detectors. Such a system finds research application, but also practical in two main areas: terahertz imaging - transmissive and reflective, and as a close range THz radar, but also as sensory systems mainly for molecular sensing. There were launched in this country a few THz research projects concerning the THz sources, detectors and their applications. Among these projects there is an infrastructural one called FOTEH, opened at the WUT. The details of this project are debated and the consequences of its realization in this country. The first part of the paper is an introduction debating THz band and comparing it with the photonics one. The second part presents the assumptions of the infrastructural FOTEH project on Photonics and Terahertz Technologies.

Development of a CCTV system for welder training and monitoring of Space Shuttle Main Engine welds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gordon, S. S.; Flanigan, L. A.; Dyer, G. E.

1987-01-01

A Weld Operator's Remote Monitoring System (WORMS) for remote viewing of manual and automatic GTA welds has been developed for use in Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) manufacturing. This system utilizes fiberoptics to transmit images from a receiving lens to a small closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera. The camera converts the image to an electronic signal, which is sent to a videotape recorder (VTR) and a monitor. The overall intent of this system is to provide a clearer, more detailed view of welds than is available by direct observation. This system has six primary areas of application: (1) welder training; (2) viewing of joint penetration; (3) viewing visually inaccessible welds; (4) quality control and quality assurance; (5) remote joint tracking and adjustment of variables in machine welds; and (6) welding research and development. This paper describes WORMS and how it applies to each application listed.

Stability, purification, and applications of bromelain: A review.

PubMed

de Lencastre Novaes, Letícia Celia; Jozala, Angela Faustino; Lopes, André Moreni; de Carvalho Santos-Ebinuma, Valéria; Mazzola, Priscila Gava; Pessoa Junior, Adalberto

2016-01-01

Bromelain is a cysteine protease found in pineapple tissue. Because of its anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities, as well as its ability to induce apoptotic cell death, bromelain has proved useful in several therapeutic areas. The market for this protease is growing, and several studies exploring various properties of this molecule have been reported. This review aims to compile this data, and summarize the main findings on bromelain in the literature to date. The physicochemical properties and stability of bromelain under different conditions are discussed. Several studies on the purification of bromelain from crude extracts using a wide range of techniques such as liquid-liquid extractions by aqueous two-phase system, ultrafiltration, precipitation, and chromatography, have been reported. Finally, the various applications of bromelain are presented. This review therefore covers the main properties of bromelain, aiming to provide an up-to-date compilation of the data reported on this enzyme. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Flood-frequency prediction methods for unregulated streams of Tennessee, 2000

USGS Publications Warehouse

Law, George S.; Tasker, Gary D.

2003-01-01

Up-to-date flood-frequency prediction methods for unregulated, ungaged rivers and streams of Tennessee have been developed. Prediction methods include the regional-regression method and the newer region-of-influence method. The prediction methods were developed using stream-gage records from unregulated streams draining basins having from 1 percent to about 30 percent total impervious area. These methods, however, should not be used in heavily developed or storm-sewered basins with impervious areas greater than 10 percent. The methods can be used to estimate 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year recurrence-interval floods of most unregulated rural streams in Tennessee. A computer application was developed that automates the calculation of flood frequency for unregulated, ungaged rivers and streams of Tennessee. Regional-regression equations were derived by using both single-variable and multivariable regional-regression analysis. Contributing drainage area is the explanatory variable used in the single-variable equations. Contributing drainage area, main-channel slope, and a climate factor are the explanatory variables used in the multivariable equations. Deleted-residual standard error for the single-variable equations ranged from 32 to 65 percent. Deleted-residual standard error for the multivariable equations ranged from 31 to 63 percent. These equations are included in the computer application to allow easy comparison of results produced by the different methods. The region-of-influence method calculates multivariable regression equations for each ungaged site and recurrence interval using basin characteristics from 60 similar sites selected from the study area. Explanatory variables that may be used in regression equations computed by the region-of-influence method include contributing drainage area, main-channel slope, a climate factor, and a physiographic-region factor. Deleted-residual standard error for the region-of-influence method tended to be only slightly smaller than those for the regional-regression method and ranged from 27 to 62 percent.

[Research Progress and Prospect of Applications of Finite Element Method in Lumbar Spine Biomechanics].

PubMed

Zhang, Zhenjun; Li, Yang; Liao, Zhenhua; Liu, Weiqiang

2016-12-01

Based on the application of finite element analysis in spine biomechanics,the research progress of finite element method applied in lumbar spine mechanics is reviewed and the prospect is forecasted.The related works,including lumbar ontology modeling,clinical application research,and occupational injury and protection,are summarized.The main research areas of finite element method are as follows:new accurate modeling process,the optimized simulation method,diversified clinical effect evaluation,and the clinical application of artificial lumbar disc.According to the recent research progress,the application prospects of finite element method,such as automation and individuation of modeling process,evaluation and analysis of new operation methods and simulation of mechanical damage and dynamic response,are discussed.The purpose of this paper is to provide the theoretical reference and practical guidance for the clinical lumbar problems by reviewing the application of finite element method in the field of the lumbar spine biomechanics.

Wireless sensor network for wide-area high-mobility applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

del Castillo, Ignacio; Esper-Chaín, Roberto; Tobajas, Félix; de Armas, Valentín.

2013-05-01

In recent years, IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have experienced significant growth, mainly motivated by the standard features, such as small size oriented devices, low power consumption nodes, wireless communication links, and sensing and data processing capabilities. In this paper, the development, implementation and deployment of a novel fully compatible IEEE 802.15.4-based WSN architecture for applications operating over extended geographic regions with high node mobility support, is described. In addition, a practical system implementation of the proposed WSN architecture is presented and described for experimental validation and characterization purposes.

Melt Electrospinning – Characteristics, Application Areas and Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manea, L. R.; Bertea, A.; Popa, A.; Bertea, A. P.

2018-06-01

Electrospinning is one of the most used processes for the production of nanofibers, due to its simplicity and versatility. This paper presents the current state of the melt electrospinning, which is less used than the solution electrospinning but which is the only way of electrospinning polymers with very limited solubility and high electrical resistivity such as polyolefins. The advantages of melt electrospinning, as well as the constraints of this method, are reviewed, and the factors that influence the process are described. The paper are presented the main applicability domains of nanofibers obtained in this way and the prospects of future development.

Predictive modeling of spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat in the main Hawaiian Islands.

PubMed

Thorne, Lesley H; Johnston, David W; Urban, Dean L; Tyne, Julian; Bejder, Lars; Baird, Robin W; Yin, Suzanne; Rickards, Susan H; Deakos, Mark H; Mobley, Joseph R; Pack, Adam A; Chapla Hill, Marie

2012-01-01

Predictive habitat models can provide critical information that is necessary in many conservation applications. Using Maximum Entropy modeling, we characterized habitat relationships and generated spatial predictions of spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat in the main Hawaiian Islands. Spinner dolphins in Hawai'i exhibit predictable daily movements, using inshore bays as resting habitat during daylight hours and foraging in offshore waters at night. There are growing concerns regarding the effects of human activities on spinner dolphins resting in coastal areas. However, the environmental factors that define suitable resting habitat remain unclear and must be assessed and quantified in order to properly address interactions between humans and spinner dolphins. We used a series of dolphin sightings from recent surveys in the main Hawaiian Islands and a suite of environmental variables hypothesized as being important to resting habitat to model spinner dolphin resting habitat. The model performed well in predicting resting habitat and indicated that proximity to deep water foraging areas, depth, the proportion of bays with shallow depths, and rugosity were important predictors of spinner dolphin habitat. Predicted locations of suitable spinner dolphin resting habitat provided in this study indicate areas where future survey efforts should be focused and highlight potential areas of conflict with human activities. This study provides an example of a presence-only habitat model used to inform the management of a species for which patterns of habitat availability are poorly understood.

Predictive Modeling of Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris) Resting Habitat in the Main Hawaiian Islands

PubMed Central

Thorne, Lesley H.; Johnston, David W.; Urban, Dean L.; Tyne, Julian; Bejder, Lars; Baird, Robin W.; Yin, Suzanne; Rickards, Susan H.; Deakos, Mark H.; Mobley, Joseph R.; Pack, Adam A.; Chapla Hill, Marie

2012-01-01

Predictive habitat models can provide critical information that is necessary in many conservation applications. Using Maximum Entropy modeling, we characterized habitat relationships and generated spatial predictions of spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat in the main Hawaiian Islands. Spinner dolphins in Hawai'i exhibit predictable daily movements, using inshore bays as resting habitat during daylight hours and foraging in offshore waters at night. There are growing concerns regarding the effects of human activities on spinner dolphins resting in coastal areas. However, the environmental factors that define suitable resting habitat remain unclear and must be assessed and quantified in order to properly address interactions between humans and spinner dolphins. We used a series of dolphin sightings from recent surveys in the main Hawaiian Islands and a suite of environmental variables hypothesized as being important to resting habitat to model spinner dolphin resting habitat. The model performed well in predicting resting habitat and indicated that proximity to deep water foraging areas, depth, the proportion of bays with shallow depths, and rugosity were important predictors of spinner dolphin habitat. Predicted locations of suitable spinner dolphin resting habitat provided in this study indicate areas where future survey efforts should be focused and highlight potential areas of conflict with human activities. This study provides an example of a presence-only habitat model used to inform the management of a species for which patterns of habitat availability are poorly understood. PMID:22937022

A geographical information system (GIS) as a tool for microbial risk assessment in catchment areas of drinking water reservoirs.

PubMed

Kistemann, T; Dangendorf, F; Exner, M

2001-03-01

The main tributaries of three drinking water reservoirs of Northrhine-Westfalia (Germany) were monitored within a 14-month period mainly for bacterial and parasitic contamination. In this context a detailed geo-ecological characterisation within the differing catchment areas was carried out to reveal a reliable informational basis for tracing back the origin of microbial loads present in the watercourses. To realise a microbial risk assessing geo-ecological information system (MRA-GIS), a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been implemented for the study areas. The results of the microbiological investigations of the watercourses showed an input of pathogens into all three of the tributaries. It could be demonstrated that the use of MRA-GIS database and some GIS-techniques substantially support the spatial analysis of the microbial contamination patterns. From the hygienic point of view, it is of the utmost importance to protect catchment areas of surface water reservoirs from microbial contamination stemming from human activities and animal sources. This constitutes essential part of the multi-barrier concept which stresses the importance of reducing diffuse and point pollution in catchment areas of water resources intended for human consumption. MRA-GIS proves to be helpful to manage multi-barrier water protection in catchment areas and ideally assists the application of the HACCP concept on drinking water production.

Mass Spectrometry in Clinical Laboratory: Applications in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Toxicology.

PubMed

Garg, Uttam; Zhang, Yan Victoria

2016-01-01

Mass spectrometry (MS) has been used in research and specialized clinical laboratories for decades as a very powerful technology to identify and quantify compounds. In recent years, application of MS in routine clinical laboratories has increased significantly. This is mainly due to the ability of MS to provide very specific identification, high sensitivity, and simultaneous analysis of multiple analytes (>100). The coupling of tandem mass spectrometry with gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC) has enabled the rapid expansion of this technology. While applications of MS are used in many clinical areas, therapeutic drug monitoring, drugs of abuse, and clinical toxicology are still the primary focuses of the field. It is not uncommon to see mass spectrometry being used in routine clinical practices for those applications.

What are the cultural effects on consumers' perceptions? A case study covering coalho cheese in the Brazilian northeast and southeast area using word association.

PubMed

Soares, Eveline K B; Esmerino, Erick A; Ferreira, Marcus Vinícius S; da Silva, Maria Aparecida A P; Freitas, Mônica Q; Cruz, Adriano G

2017-12-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of regional diversity aspects related to consumers' perceptions of coalho cheese, with Brazilian Northeast and Southeast consumers (n=400, divided equally in each area) using Word Association (WA) task. Different perceptions were detected for both Northeast and Southeast consumers, and among 17 categories elicited for describing coalho cheese, only 7 categories (positive feeling, social aspects, sensory characteristic, dairy product technology, negative feeling, and lack of quality standard) presented significant differences in the frequency of mention according to chi-square per cell approach. The application of the discriminant technique Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) indicated that the categories "Social", "Accompaniment", "Manufacturing method" were the main responsible for differentiating consumers' perceptions of both areas. Overall, the main dimensions involved in the consumers' perceptions of coalho cheese from different Brazilian regions were identified, thus obtaining comprehensive insights that can be used as a guideline for coalho cheese producers to develop marketing strategies considering the intra-cultural differences. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Lasers for bio-optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sona, Alberto

1992-03-01

Lasers are being increasingly used in bioptics and in life sciences in general, especially for medical applications for therapy and diagnostics. Lasers are also broadly used in environment sciences to monitor atmospheric parameters and concentrations of molecular species of natural origin or coming from human activities such as the various kind of pollutants. The peculiar features of lasers exploited in these areas are mainly the capability of developing an action or performing a measurement without physical contact with the target and, if required, from a remote position with the assistance of suitable beam delivery systems such as telescopes, microscopes, or optical fibers. These features are directly related to the space and time coherence of the laser light and to the energy storage capability of the laser material which allow an extremely effective concentration of the beam energy in space, direction frequency, or time. A short description of the principle of operation and relevant properties of lasers are given and the most significant properties of the laser emission are briefly reviewed. Lasers for medical applications (mainly for therapy) will be mentioned, pointing out the specific property exploited for the various applications. Finally, examples of laser applications to the environmental sciences will be reported. A summary of the properties exploited in the various bio-optical applications is shown.

Recovery process of shear wave velocities of volcanic soil in central Mashiki Town after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake revealed by intermittent measurements of microtremor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hata, Yoshiya; Yoshimi, Masayuki; Goto, Hiroyuki; Hosoya, Takashi; Morikawa, Hitoshi; Kagawa, Takao

2017-05-01

An earthquake of JMA magnitude 6.5 (foreshock) hit Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, at 21:26 JST on April 14, 2016. Subsequently, an earthquake of JMA magnitude 7.3 (main shock) hit Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures at 1:25 JST on April 16, 2016. The two epicenters were located adjacent to central Mashiki Town, and both events caused significantly strong motions. The heavy damage including collapse of residential houses was concentrated in "Sandwich Area" between Prefectural Route 28 and Akitsu River. During the main shock, we have successfully observed strong motions at TMP03 in Sandwich Area. Simultaneously with installation of the seismograph at TMP03 on April 15, 2016, between the foreshock and the main shock, a microtremor measurement was taken. After the main shock, intermittent measurements of microtremor at TMP03 were also taken within December 6, 2016. As the result, recovery process of shear wave velocities of volcanic soil at TMP03 before/after the main shock was revealed by time history of peak frequencies of the microtremor H/V spectra. Using results of original PS logging tests at proximity site of TMP03 on July 28, 2016, the applicability for the shear wave velocities to TMP03 was then confirmed based on similarity between the theoretical and monitored H/V spectra.

Development of Strategies for Sustainable Irrigation Water Management in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeyliger, Anatoly; Ermolaeva, Olga

2013-04-01

During 1960 - 1990 years irrigated areas in Russia have increased rapidly, helping to boost agricultural output. Although the impressive achievements of irrigation in this period its large experience indicates problems and failures of irrigation water management. In addition to large water use and low irrigation water efficiency, environmental concerns (excessive water depletion, water quality reduction, water logging, soil degradation) are usually considered like the most significant problem of the irrigation sector. Despite of considerable shrinking of irrigated areas in Russia and decreasing of water withdrawal for irrigation purposes during two last decades a degradation of environment as well as degradation of soil and water resources in irrigated areas was prolonged and will probably continue if current irrigation practices are maintained. Nowadays, in different regions of Russia there are societal demand to restore agricultural irrigation in Russia as answer to challenges from climate pattern changes and degradation of land & water resources. In the respect of these demands there is a need to develop strategies for sustainability of agricultural irrigation in Russia that should be based on three main societal objectives: costeffective use of water in irrigated agriculture at farm level, and satisfactory preserving the natural environment. Therefore sustainable irrigation water management is not only an objective at farm level but also an overall goal at the local and regional as well. A way to achieve sustainability in irrigation water management is to solve the local conflicts arising from the interactions between water use at irrigation areas and surrounding environment. Thus should be based on the development of irrigation framework program including on the irrigation water management issues, policies & decisions making at federal and regional levels should be based on the indicators of environment & irrigation water efficiency monitoring promoting the use of the appropriate irrigation technologies confined to a field scale and local environmental conditions. In presented contribution a case studies of large and small irrigation schemes based on sprinklers at Saratov Region will be discussed. Analyze is focused on the identification of main causes of groundwater logging, following soil salinization and impact to surrounding environment at irrigation areas. This analyze is based on plot and field scales experimentations as well as time series about 40 years long monitoring of ground water and soils. Main conclusion from this analyze accuses current irrigation practice at this region using high irrigation dozes & intensities as well as uniformity of water application within the irrigated perimeter promoting chain of processes starting by ponding of applied water at mezodepression of soil surface, preferential flow through out macropores-cracks, wormholes, or decayed root channels and groundwater rising. Special attention is done to simulate relationships between uniform technology of water application by sprinkler and spatial nonuniformity of moisture storage (zoning of high soil moisture in depressions) in soil and as consequence of infiltration capacity. Technological alternative aimed at reducing these problems is analysed by the use of SWAP model application to uniform and nonuniform irrigation water applications. Model results indicate that use nonuniform water application technology is increasing an irrigation efficiency, increasing yield and stopping rising of groundwater. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. This study was financially supported by FP6 DESIRE project 037046

The application of finite element analysis in the skull biomechanics and dentistry.

PubMed

Prado, Felippe Bevilacqua; Rossi, Ana Cláudia; Freire, Alexandre Rodrigues; Ferreira Caria, Paulo Henrique

2014-01-01

Empirical concepts describe the direction of the masticatory stress dissipation in the skull. The scientific evidence of the trajectories and the magnitude of stress dissipation can help in the diagnosis of the masticatory alterations and the planning of oral rehabilitation in the different areas of Dentistry. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a tool that may reproduce complex structures with irregular geometries of natural and artificial tissues of the human body because it uses mathematical functions that enable the understanding of the craniofacial biomechanics. The aim of this study was to review the literature on the advantages and limitations of FEA in the skull biomechanics and Dentistry study. The keywords of the selected original research articles were: Finite element analysis, biomechanics, skull, Dentistry, teeth, and implant. The literature review was performed in the databases, PUBMED, MEDLINE and SCOPUS. The selected books and articles were between the years 1928 and 2010. The FEA is an assessment tool whose application in different areas of the Dentistry has gradually increased over the past 10 years, but its application in the analysis of the skull biomechanics is scarce. The main advantages of the FEA are the realistic mode of approach and the possibility of results being based on analysis of only one model. On the other hand, the main limitation of the FEA studies is the lack of anatomical details in the modeling phase of the craniofacial structures and the lack of information about the material properties.

Building Design Guidelines for Solar Energy Technologies

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Givoni, B.

1989-01-01

There are two main objectives to this publication. The first is to find out the communalities in the experience gained in previous studies and in actual applications of solar technologies in buildings, residential as well as nonresidential. The second objective is to review innovative concepts and products which may have an impact on future developments and applications of solar technologies in buildings. The available information and common lessons were collated and presented in a form which, hopefully, is useful for architects and solar engineers, as well as for teachers of "solar architecture" and students in Architectural Schools. The publication is based mainly on the collection and analysis of relevant information. The information included previous studies in which the performance of solar buildings was evaluated, as well as the personal experience of the Author and the research consultants. The state of the art, as indicated by these studies and personal experience, was summarized and has served as basis for the development of the Design Guidelines. In addition to the summary of the state of the art, as was already applied in solar buildings, an account was given of innovative concepts and products. Such innovations have occurred in the areas of thermal storage by Phase Change Materials (PCM) and in glazing with specialized or changeable properties. Interesting concepts were also developed for light transfer, which may enable to transfer sunlight to the core areas of large multi story nonresidential buildings. These innovations may have a significant impact on future developments of solar technologies and their applications in buildings.

Fracture mapping of lineaments and recognizing their tectonic significance using SPOT-5 satellite data: A case study from the Bajestan area, Lut Block, east of Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadirouhani, Reyhaneh; Rahimi, Behnam; Karimpour, Mohammad Hassan; Malekzadeh Shafaroudi, Azadeh; Afshar Najafi, Sadegh; Pour, Amin Beiranvand

2017-10-01

Syste'm Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) remote sensing satellite data have useful characteristics for lineament extraction and enhancement related to the tectonic evaluation of a region. In this study, lineament features in the Bajestan area associated with the tectonic significance of the Lut Block (LB), east Iran were mapped and characterized using SPOT-5 satellite data. The structure of the Bajestan area is affected by the activity of deep strike-slip faults in the boundary of the LB. Structural elements such as faults and major joints were extracted, mapped, and analyzed by the implementation of high-Pass and standard kernels (Threshold and Sobel) filters to bands 1, 2 and 3 of SPOT-5 Level 2 A scene product of the Bajestan area. Lineament map was produced by assigning resultant filter images to red-green-blue (RGB) colour combinations of three main directions such as N-S, E-W and NE-SW. Results derived from image processing technique and statistical assessment indicate that two main orientations, including NW-SE with N-110 azimuth and NE-SW with N-40 azimuth, were dominated in the Bajestan area. The NW-SE trend has a high frequency in the study area. Based on the results of remote sensing lineament analysis and fieldwork, two dextral and sinistral strike-slip components were identified as main fault trends in the Bajestan region. Two dextral faults have acted as the cause of shear in the south and north of the Bajestan granitoid mass. Furthermore, the results indicate that the most of the lineaments in this area are extensional fractures corresponding to both the dykes emplacement and hydrothermal alteration zones. The application of SPOT-5 satellite data for structural analysis in a study region has great capability to provide very useful information of a vast area with low cost and time-consuming.

An Overview of the CNES Propulsion Program for Spacecraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cadiou, A.; Darnon, F.; Gibek, I.; Jolivet, L.; Pillet, N.

2004-10-01

This paper presents an overview of the CNES spacecraft propulsion activities. The main existing and future projects corresponding to low earth orbit and geostationary platforms are described. These projects cover various types of propulsion subsystems: monopropellant, bipropellant and electric. Monopropellant is mainly used for low earth orbit applications such as earth observation (SPOT/Helios, PLEIADES) or scientific applications (minisatellite PROTEUS line and micro satellites MYRIADE line). Bipropellant is used for geostationary telecommunications satellites (@BUS). The field of application of electric propulsion is the station keeping of geostationary telecommunication satellites (@BUS), main propulsion for specific probes (SMART 1) and fine attitude control for dedicated micro satellites (MICROSCOPE). The preparation of the future and the associated Research and Technology program are also described in the paper. The future developments are mainly dedicated to the performance improvements of electric propulsion which leads to the development of thrusters with higher thrust and higher specific impulse than those existing today, the evaluation of the different low thrust technologies for formation flying applications, the development of new systems to pressurize the propellants (volatile liquid, micro pump), the research on green propellants and different actions concerning components such as over wrapped pressure vessels, valves, micro propulsion. A constant effort is also put on plume effect in chemical and electrical propulsion area (improvement of tools and test activities) in the continuity of the previous work. These different R &T activities are described in detail after a presentation of the different projects and of their propulsion subsystems. The scientific activity supporting the development of Hall thrusters is going on in the frame of the GDR (Groupement de Recherche) CNRS / Universities / CNES / SNECMA on Plasma Propulsion.

[Unsuccessful treatment with OK-432 picibanil for orbital lymphangioma].

PubMed

Lanuza García, A; Bañón Navarro, R; Llorca Cardeñosa, A; Delgado Navarro, C

2012-01-01

Lymphangioma is a malformation of the lymphatic system. The classic approach is surgery. We report a case of orbital lymphangioma in a girl who was given OK-432 to avoid surgery and its complications. OK-432 is a lyophilized mixture of group A Streptococcus pyogenes which produces a fibrosis limited to the lesion with a high cure rate. The main advantages are the easy intra-lesional application. with no scars and or damage of closed areas. Its main disadvantage is a significant local inflammatory reaction. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Innovation Research in E-Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Bing; Xu, WenXia; Ge, Jun

This study is a productivity review on the literature gleaned from SSCI, SCIE databases concerning innovation research in E-Learning. The result indicates that the number of literature productions on innovation research in ELearning is still growing from 2005. The main research development country is England, and from the analysis of the publication year, the number of papers is increasing peaking in 25% of the total in 2010. Meanwhile the main source title is British Journal of Educational Technology. In addition the subject area concentrated on Education & Educational Research, Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications and Computer Science, Software Engineering. Moreover the research focuses on are mainly conceptual research and empirical research, which were used to explore E-Learning in respective of innovation diffusion theory, also the limitations and future research of these research were discussed for further research.

Localised estimates and spatial mapping of poverty incidence in the state of Bihar in India—An application of small area estimation techniques

PubMed Central

Aditya, Kaustav; Sud, U. C.

2018-01-01

Poverty affects many people, but the ramifications and impacts affect all aspects of society. Information about the incidence of poverty is therefore an important parameter of the population for policy analysis and decision making. In order to provide specific, targeted solutions when addressing poverty disadvantage small area statistics are needed. Surveys are typically designed and planned to produce reliable estimates of population characteristics of interest mainly at higher geographic area such as national and state level. Sample sizes are usually not large enough to provide reliable estimates for disaggregated analysis. In many instances estimates are required for areas of the population for which the survey providing the data was unplanned. Then, for areas with small sample sizes, direct survey estimation of population characteristics based only on the data available from the particular area tends to be unreliable. This paper describes an application of small area estimation (SAE) approach to improve the precision of estimates of poverty incidence at district level in the State of Bihar in India by linking data from the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011–12 of NSSO and the Population Census 2011. The results show that the district level estimates generated by SAE method are more precise and representative. In contrast, the direct survey estimates based on survey data alone are less stable. PMID:29879202

Localised estimates and spatial mapping of poverty incidence in the state of Bihar in India-An application of small area estimation techniques.

PubMed

Chandra, Hukum; Aditya, Kaustav; Sud, U C

2018-01-01

Poverty affects many people, but the ramifications and impacts affect all aspects of society. Information about the incidence of poverty is therefore an important parameter of the population for policy analysis and decision making. In order to provide specific, targeted solutions when addressing poverty disadvantage small area statistics are needed. Surveys are typically designed and planned to produce reliable estimates of population characteristics of interest mainly at higher geographic area such as national and state level. Sample sizes are usually not large enough to provide reliable estimates for disaggregated analysis. In many instances estimates are required for areas of the population for which the survey providing the data was unplanned. Then, for areas with small sample sizes, direct survey estimation of population characteristics based only on the data available from the particular area tends to be unreliable. This paper describes an application of small area estimation (SAE) approach to improve the precision of estimates of poverty incidence at district level in the State of Bihar in India by linking data from the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011-12 of NSSO and the Population Census 2011. The results show that the district level estimates generated by SAE method are more precise and representative. In contrast, the direct survey estimates based on survey data alone are less stable.

Imaging Radar Applications in the Death Valley Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farr, Tom G.

1996-01-01

Death Valley has had a long history as a testbed for remote sensing techniques (Gillespie, this conference). Along with visible-near infrared and thermal IR sensors, imaging radars have flown and orbited over the valley since the 1970's, yielding new insights into the geologic applications of that technology. More recently, radar interferometry has been used to derive digital topographic maps of the area, supplementing the USGS 7.5' digital quadrangles currently available for nearly the entire area. As for their shorter-wavelength brethren, imaging radars were tested early in their civilian history in Death Valley because it has a variety of surface types in a small area without the confounding effects of vegetation. In one of the classic references of these early radar studies, in a semi-quantitative way the response of an imaging radar to surface roughness near the radar wavelength, which typically ranges from about 1 cm to 1 m was explained. This laid the groundwork for applications of airborne and spaceborne radars to geologic problems in and regions. Radar's main advantages over other sensors stems from its active nature- supplying its own illumination makes it independent of solar illumination and it can also control the imaging geometry more accurately. Finally, its long wavelength allows it to peer through clouds, eliminating some of the problems of optical sensors, especially in perennially cloudy and polar areas.

A multicriteria-based methodology for site prioritisation in sediment management.

PubMed

Alvarez-Guerra, Manuel; Viguri, Javier R; Voulvoulis, Nikolaos

2009-08-01

Decision-making for sediment management is a complex task that incorporates the selections of areas for remediation and the assessment of options for any mitigation required. The application of Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) to rank different areas, according to their need for sediment management, provides a great opportunity for prioritisation, a first step in an integrated methodology that finally aims to assess and select suitable alternatives for managing the identified priority sites. This paper develops a methodology that starts with the delimitation of management units within areas of study, followed by the application of MCA methods that allows ranking of these management units, according to their need for remediation. This proposed process considers not only scientific evidence on sediment quality, but also other relevant aspects such as social and economic criteria associated with such decisions. This methodology is illustrated with its application to the case study area of the Bay of Santander, in northern Spain, highlighting some of the implications of utilising different MCA methods in the process. It also uses site-specific data to assess the subjectivity in the decision-making process, mainly reflected through the assignment of the criteria weights and uncertainties in the criteria scores. Analysis of the sensitivity of the results to these factors is used as a way to assess the stability and robustness of the ranking as a first step of the sediment management decision-making process.

Artificial Neural Networks Applications: from Aircraft Design Optimization to Orbiting Spacecraft On-board Environment Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jules, Kenol; Lin, Paul P.

2002-01-01

This paper reviews some of the recent applications of artificial neural networks taken from various works performed by the authors over the last four years at the NASA Glenn Research Center. This paper focuses mainly on two areas. First, artificial neural networks application in design and optimization of aircraft/engine propulsion systems to shorten the overall design cycle. Out of that specific application, a generic design tool was developed, which can be used for most design optimization process. Second, artificial neural networks application in monitoring the microgravity quality onboard the International Space Station, using on-board accelerometers for data acquisition. These two different applications are reviewed in this paper to show the broad applicability of artificial intelligence in various disciplines. The intent of this paper is not to give in-depth details of these two applications, but to show the need to combine different artificial intelligence techniques or algorithms in order to design an optimized or versatile system.

Maritime transport in the Gulf of Bothnia 2030.

PubMed

Pekkarinen, Annukka; Repka, Sari

2014-10-01

Scenarios for shipping traffic in the Gulf of Bothnia (GoB) by 2030 are described in order to identify the main factors that should be taken into account when preparing a Maritime Spatial Plan (MSP) for the area. The application of future research methodology to planning of marine areas was also assessed. The methods include applying existing large scale quantitative scenarios for maritime traffic in the GoB and using real-time Delphi in which an expert group discussed different factors contributing to future maritime traffic in the GoB to find out the probability and significance of the factors having an impact on maritime traffic. MSP was tested on transnational scale in the Bothnian sea area as a pilot project.

Natural highways for end-of-life solutions in the LEO region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alessi, Elisa Maria; Schettino, Giulia; Rossi, Alessandro; Valsecchi, Giovanni B.

2018-05-01

We present the main findings of a dynamical mapping performed in the Low Earth Orbit region. The results were obtained by propagating an extended grid of initial conditions, considering two different epochs and area-to-mass ratios, by means of a singly averaged numerical propagator. It turns out that dynamical resonances associated with high-degree geopotential harmonics, lunisolar perturbations and Solar radiation pressure can open natural deorbiting highways. For area-to-mass ratios typical of the orbiting intact objects, these corridors can be exploited only in combination with the action exerted by the atmospheric drag. For satellites equipped with an area augmentation device, we show the boundary of application of the drag, and where the Solar radiation pressure can be exploited.

76 FR 60016 - Bellwood Hydro, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-28

...-high rock or earth fill main dam and a new 2,500-foot-long, 60-foot-high rock or earth fill saddle dam...-long, 185-foot-high rock or earth fill dam forming a lower reservoir having a surface area of 120 acres... registration, using the eComment system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp . You must include your...

Sprocket- Chain Simulation: Modelling and Simulation of a Multi Physics problem by sequentially coupling MotionSolve and nanoFluidX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jayanthi, Aditya; Coker, Christopher

2016-11-01

In the last decade, CFD simulations have transitioned from the stage where they are used to validate the final designs to the main stream development of products driven by the simulation. However, there are still niche areas of applications liking oiling simulations, where the traditional CFD simulation times are probative to use them in product development and have to rely on experimental methods, which are expensive. In this paper a unique example of Sprocket-Chain simulation will be presented using nanoFluidx a commercial SPH code developed by FluiDyna GmbH and Altair Engineering. The grid less nature of the of SPH method has inherent advantages in the areas of application with complex geometry which pose severe challenge to classical finite volume CFD methods due to complex moving geometries, moving meshes and high resolution requirements leading to long simulation times. The simulations times using nanoFluidx can be reduced from weeks to days allowing the flexibility to run more simulation and can be in used in main stream product development. The example problem under consideration is a classical Multiphysics problem and a sequentially coupled solution of Motion Solve and nanoFluidX will be presented. This abstract is replacing DFD16-2016-000045.

Multi-Axis Force/Torque Sensor Based on Simply-Supported Beam and Optoelectronics.

PubMed

Noh, Yohan; Bimbo, Joao; Sareh, Sina; Wurdemann, Helge; Fraś, Jan; Chathuranga, Damith Suresh; Liu, Hongbin; Housden, James; Althoefer, Kaspar; Rhode, Kawal

2016-11-17

This paper presents a multi-axis force/torque sensor based on simply-supported beam and optoelectronic technology. The sensor's main advantages are: (1) Low power consumption; (2) low-level noise in comparison with conventional methods of force sensing (e.g., using strain gauges); (3) the ability to be embedded into different mechanical structures; (4) miniaturisation; (5) simple manufacture and customisation to fit a wide-range of robot systems; and (6) low-cost fabrication and assembly of sensor structure. For these reasons, the proposed multi-axis force/torque sensor can be used in a wide range of application areas including medical robotics, manufacturing, and areas involving human-robot interaction. This paper shows the application of our concept of a force/torque sensor to flexible continuum manipulators: A cylindrical MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery) robot, and includes its design, fabrication, and evaluation tests.

Modern technologies for retinal scanning and imaging: an introduction for the biomedical engineer

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

This review article is meant to help biomedical engineers and nonphysical scientists better understand the principles of, and the main trends in modern scanning and imaging modalities used in ophthalmology. It is intended to ease the communication between physicists, medical doctors and engineers, and hopefully encourage “classical” biomedical engineers to generate new ideas and to initiate projects in an area which has traditionally been dominated by optical physics. Most of the methods involved are applicable to other areas of biomedical optics and optoelectronics, such as microscopic imaging, spectroscopy, spectral imaging, opto-acoustic tomography, fluorescence imaging etc., all of which are with potential biomedical application. Although all described methods are novel and important, the emphasis of this review has been placed on three technologies introduced in the 1990’s and still undergoing vigorous development: Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy, Optical Coherence Tomography, and polarization-sensitive retinal scanning. PMID:24779618

Multi-Axis Force/Torque Sensor Based on Simply-Supported Beam and Optoelectronics

PubMed Central

Noh, Yohan; Bimbo, Joao; Sareh, Sina; Wurdemann, Helge; Fraś, Jan; Chathuranga, Damith Suresh; Liu, Hongbin; Housden, James; Althoefer, Kaspar; Rhode, Kawal

2016-01-01

This paper presents a multi-axis force/torque sensor based on simply-supported beam and optoelectronic technology. The sensor’s main advantages are: (1) Low power consumption; (2) low-level noise in comparison with conventional methods of force sensing (e.g., using strain gauges); (3) the ability to be embedded into different mechanical structures; (4) miniaturisation; (5) simple manufacture and customisation to fit a wide-range of robot systems; and (6) low-cost fabrication and assembly of sensor structure. For these reasons, the proposed multi-axis force/torque sensor can be used in a wide range of application areas including medical robotics, manufacturing, and areas involving human–robot interaction. This paper shows the application of our concept of a force/torque sensor to flexible continuum manipulators: A cylindrical MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery) robot, and includes its design, fabrication, and evaluation tests. PMID:27869689

In-plane cost-effective magnetically actuated valve for microfluidic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pugliese, Marco; Ferrara, Francesco; Bramanti, Alessandro Paolo; Gigli, Giuseppe; Maiorano, Vincenzo

2017-04-01

We present a new in-plane magnetically actuated microfluidic valve. Its simple design includes a circular area joining two channels lying on the same plane. The area is parted by a septum lying on and adhering to a magneto-active polymeric ‘floor’ membrane, keeping the channels normally separated (valve closed). Under the action of a magnetic field, the membrane collapses, letting the liquid flow below the septum (valve open). The valve was extensively characterized experimentally, and modeled and optimized theoretically. The growing interest in lab on chips, especially for diagnostics and precision medicine, is driving researchers towards smart, efficient and low cost solutions to the management of biological samples. In this context, the valve developed in this work represents a useful building-block for microfluidic applications requiring precise flow control, its main features being easy and rapid manufacturing, biocompatibility and low cost.

Full Scale Software Support on Mobile Lightweight Devices by Utilization of All Types of Wireless Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krejcar, Ondrej

New kind of mobile lightweight devices can run full scale applications with same comfort as on desktop devices only with several limitations. One of them is insufficient transfer speed on wireless connectivity. Main area of interest is in a model of a radio-frequency based system enhancement for locating and tracking users of a mobile information system. The experimental framework prototype uses a wireless network infrastructure to let a mobile lightweight device determine its indoor or outdoor position. User location is used for data prebuffering and pushing information from server to user’s PDA. All server data is saved as artifacts along with its position information in building or larger area environment. The accessing of prebuffered data on mobile lightweight device can highly improve response time needed to view large multimedia data. This fact can help with design of new full scale applications for mobile lightweight devices.

High brightness x ray source for directed energy and holographic imaging applications, phase 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McPherson, Armon; Rhodes, Charles K.

1992-03-01

Advances in x-ray imaging technology and x-ray sources are such that a new technology can be brought to commercialization enabling the three-dimensional (3-D) microvisualization of hydrated biological specimens. The Company is engaged in a program whose main goal is the development of a new technology for direct three dimensional (3-D) x-ray holographic imaging. It is believed that this technology will have a wide range of important applications in the defense, medical, and scientific sectors. For example, in the medical area, it is expected that biomedical science will constitute a very active and substantial market, because the application of physical technologies for the direct visualization of biological entities has had a long and extremely fruitful history.

Mapping Infected Area after a Flash-Flooding Storm Using Multi Criteria Analysis and Spectral Indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Akad, S.; Akensous, Y.; Hakdaoui, M.

2017-11-01

This research article is summarize the applications of remote sensing and GIS to study the urban floods risk in Al Mukalla. Satellite acquisition of a flood event on October 2015 in Al Mukalla (Yemen) by using flood risk mapping techniques illustrate the potential risk present in this city. Satellite images (The Landsat and DEM images data were atmospherically corrected, radiometric corrected, and geometric and topographic distortions rectified.) are used for flood risk mapping to afford a hazard (vulnerability) map. This map is provided by applying image-processing techniques and using geographic information system (GIS) environment also the application of NDVI, NDWI index, and a method to estimate the flood-hazard areas. Four factors were considered in order to estimate the spatial distribution of the hazardous areas: flow accumulation, slope, land use, geology and elevation. The multi-criteria analysis, allowing to deal with vulnerability to flooding, as well as mapping areas at the risk of flooding of the city Al Mukalla. The main object of this research is to provide a simple and rapid method to reduce and manage the risks caused by flood in Yemen by take as example the city of Al Mukalla.

77 FR 60319 - Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan; Coastal Gulf of Maine Closure Area Established With a...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-03

...-XC099 Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan; Coastal Gulf of Maine Closure Area Established With a... Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. ACTION: Establishment of the Coastal Gulf of Maine Closure Area... Service (NMFS) announces the establishment of the Coastal Gulf of Maine Closure Area under the Harbor...

Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cezzar, Ruknet

1993-08-01

The project's main contributions have been in the area of student support. Throughout the project, at least one, in some cases two, undergraduate students have been supported. By working with the project, these students gained valuable knowledge involving the scientific research project, including the not-so-pleasant reporting requirements to the funding agencies. The other important contribution was towards the establishment of a graduate program in computer science at Hampton University. Primarily, the PAPER project has served as the main research basis in seeking funds from other agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, for establishing a research infrastructure in the department. In technical areas, especially in the first phase, we believe the trip to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and gathering together all the pertinent information involving experimental computer architectures aimed for planetary explorations was very helpful. Indeed, if this effort is to be revived in the future due to congressional funding for planetary explorations, say an unmanned mission to Mars, our interim report will be an important starting point. In other technical areas, our simulator has pinpointed and highlighted several important performance issues related to the design of operating system kernels for MIMD machines. In particular, the critical issue of how the kernel itself will run in parallel on a multiple-processor system has been addressed through the various ready list organization and access policies. In the area of neural computing, our main contribution was an introductory tutorial package to familiarize the researchers at NASA with this new and promising field zone axes (20). Finally, we have introduced the notion of reversibility in programming systems which may find applications in various areas of space research.

Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cezzar, Ruknet

1993-01-01

The project's main contributions have been in the area of student support. Throughout the project, at least one, in some cases two, undergraduate students have been supported. By working with the project, these students gained valuable knowledge involving the scientific research project, including the not-so-pleasant reporting requirements to the funding agencies. The other important contribution was towards the establishment of a graduate program in computer science at Hampton University. Primarily, the PAPER project has served as the main research basis in seeking funds from other agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, for establishing a research infrastructure in the department. In technical areas, especially in the first phase, we believe the trip to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and gathering together all the pertinent information involving experimental computer architectures aimed for planetary explorations was very helpful. Indeed, if this effort is to be revived in the future due to congressional funding for planetary explorations, say an unmanned mission to Mars, our interim report will be an important starting point. In other technical areas, our simulator has pinpointed and highlighted several important performance issues related to the design of operating system kernels for MIMD machines. In particular, the critical issue of how the kernel itself will run in parallel on a multiple-processor system has been addressed through the various ready list organization and access policies. In the area of neural computing, our main contribution was an introductory tutorial package to familiarize the researchers at NASA with this new and promising field zone axes (20). Finally, we have introduced the notion of reversibility in programming systems which may find applications in various areas of space research.

The history, hotspots, and trends of electrocardiogram.

PubMed

Yang, Xiang-Lin; Liu, Guo-Zhen; Tong, Yun-Hai; Yan, Hong; Xu, Zhi; Chen, Qi; Liu, Xiang; Zhang, Hong-Hao; Wang, Hong-Bo; Tan, Shao-Hua

2015-07-01

The electrocardiogram (ECG) has broad applications in clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. Many researchers have contributed to its progressive development. To commemorate those pioneers, and to better study and promote the use of ECG, we reviewed and present here a systematic introduction about the history, hotspots, and trends of ECG. In the historical part, information including the invention, improvement, and extensive applications of ECG, such as in long QT syndrome (LQTS), angina, and myocardial infarction (MI), are chronologically presented. New technologies and applications from the 1990s are also introduced. In the second part, we use the bibliometric analysis method to analyze the hotspots in the field of ECG-related research. By using total citations and year-specific total citations as our main criteria, four key hotspots in ECG-related research were identified from 11 articles, including atrial fibrillation, LQTS, angina and MI, and heart rate variability. Recent studies in those four areas are also reported. In the final part, we discuss the future trends concerning ECG-related research. The authors believe that improvement of the ECG instrumentation, big data mining for ECG, and the accuracy of diagnosis and application will be areas of continuous concern.

The history, hotspots, and trends of electrocardiogram

PubMed Central

Yang, Xiang-Lin; Liu, Guo-Zhen; Tong, Yun-Hai; Yan, Hong; Xu, Zhi; Chen, Qi; Liu, Xiang; Zhang, Hong-Hao; Wang, Hong-Bo; Tan, Shao-Hua

2015-01-01

The electrocardiogram (ECG) has broad applications in clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. Many researchers have contributed to its progressive development. To commemorate those pioneers, and to better study and promote the use of ECG, we reviewed and present here a systematic introduction about the history, hotspots, and trends of ECG. In the historical part, information including the invention, improvement, and extensive applications of ECG, such as in long QT syndrome (LQTS), angina, and myocardial infarction (MI), are chronologically presented. New technologies and applications from the 1990s are also introduced. In the second part, we use the bibliometric analysis method to analyze the hotspots in the field of ECG-related research. By using total citations and year-specific total citations as our main criteria, four key hotspots in ECG-related research were identified from 11 articles, including atrial fibrillation, LQTS, angina and MI, and heart rate variability. Recent studies in those four areas are also reported. In the final part, we discuss the future trends concerning ECG-related research. The authors believe that improvement of the ECG instrumentation, big data mining for ECG, and the accuracy of diagnosis and application will be areas of continuous concern. PMID:26345622

Graphene-based flexible and wearable electronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Tanmoy; Sharma, Bhupendra K.; Katiyar, Ajit K.; Ahn, Jong-Hyun

2018-01-01

Graphene with an exceptional combination of electronic, optical and outstanding mechanical features has been proved to lead a completely different kind of 2-D electronics. The most exciting feature of graphene is its ultra-thin thickness, that can be conformally contacted to any kind of rough surface without losing much of its transparency and conductivity. Graphene has been explored demonstrating various prototype flexible electronic applications, however, its potentiality has been proven wherever transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are needed in a flexible, stretchable format. Graphene-based TCEs in flexible electronic applications showed greatly superior performance over their conventionally available competitor indium tin oxide (ITO). Moreover, enormous applications have been emerging, especially in wearable devices that can be potentially used in our daily life as well as in biomedical areas. However, the production of high-quality, defect-free large area graphene is still a challenge and the main hurdle in the commercialization of flexible and wearable products. The objective of the present review paper is to summarize the progress made so far in graphene-based flexible and wearable applications. The current developments including challenges and future perspectives are also highlighted. Project supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. NRF-2015R1A3A2066337).

Control of the repeatability of high frequency multibeam echosounder backscatter by using natural reference areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roche, Marc; Degrendele, Koen; Vrignaud, Christophe; Loyer, Sophie; Le Bas, Tim; Augustin, Jean-Marie; Lurton, Xavier

2018-06-01

The increased use of backscatter measurements in time series for environmental monitoring necessitates the comparability of individual results. With the current lack of pre-calibrated multibeam echosounder systems for absolute backscatter measurement, a pragmatic solution is the use of natural reference areas for ensuring regular assessment of the backscatter measurement repeatability. This method mainly relies on the assumption of a sufficiently stable reference area regarding its backscatter signature. The aptitude of a natural area to provide a stable and uniform backscatter response must be carefully considered and demonstrated by a sufficiently long time-series of measurements. Furthermore, this approach requires a strict control of the acquisition and processing parameters. If all these conditions are met, stability check and relative calibration of a system are possible by comparison with the averaged backscatter values for the area. Based on a common multibeam echosounder and sampling campaign completed by available bathymetric and backscatter time series, the suitability as a backscatter reference area of three different candidates was evaluated. Two among them, Carré Renard and Kwinte, prove to be excellent choices, while the third one, Western Solent, lacks sufficient data over time, but remains a valuable candidate. The case studies and the available backscatter data on these areas prove the applicability of this method. The expansion of the number of commonly used reference areas and the growth of the number of multibeam echosounder controlled thereon could greatly contribute to the further development of quantitative applications based on multibeam echosounder backscatter measurements.

Managing Algorithmic Skeleton Nesting Requirements in Realistic Image Processing Applications: The Case of the SKiPPER-II Parallel Programming Environment's Operating Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coudarcher, Rémi; Duculty, Florent; Serot, Jocelyn; Jurie, Frédéric; Derutin, Jean-Pierre; Dhome, Michel

2005-12-01

SKiPPER is a SKeleton-based Parallel Programming EnviRonment being developed since 1996 and running at LASMEA Laboratory, the Blaise-Pascal University, France. The main goal of the project was to demonstrate the applicability of skeleton-based parallel programming techniques to the fast prototyping of reactive vision applications. This paper deals with the special features embedded in the latest version of the project: algorithmic skeleton nesting capabilities and a fully dynamic operating model. Throughout the case study of a complete and realistic image processing application, in which we have pointed out the requirement for skeleton nesting, we are presenting the operating model of this feature. The work described here is one of the few reported experiments showing the application of skeleton nesting facilities for the parallelisation of a realistic application, especially in the area of image processing. The image processing application we have chosen is a 3D face-tracking algorithm from appearance.

Accuration of Time Series and Spatial Interpolation Method for Prediction of Precipitation Distribution on the Geographical Information System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasetyo, S. Y. J.; Hartomo, K. D.

2018-01-01

The Spatial Plan of the Province of Central Java 2009-2029 identifies that most regencies or cities in Central Java Province are very vulnerable to landslide disaster. The data are also supported by other data from Indonesian Disaster Risk Index (In Indonesia called Indeks Risiko Bencana Indonesia) 2013 that suggest that some areas in Central Java Province exhibit a high risk of natural disasters. This research aims to develop an application architecture and analysis methodology in GIS to predict and to map rainfall distribution. We propose our GIS architectural application of “Multiplatform Architectural Spatiotemporal” and data analysis methods of “Triple Exponential Smoothing” and “Spatial Interpolation” as our significant scientific contribution. This research consists of 2 (two) parts, namely attribute data prediction using TES method and spatial data prediction using Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) method. We conduct our research in 19 subdistricts in the Boyolali Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Our main research data is the biweekly rainfall data in 2000-2016 Climatology, Meteorology, and Geophysics Agency (In Indonesia called Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika) of Central Java Province and Laboratory of Plant Disease Observations Region V Surakarta, Central Java. The application architecture and analytical methodology of “Multiplatform Architectural Spatiotemporal” and spatial data analysis methodology of “Triple Exponential Smoothing” and “Spatial Interpolation” can be developed as a GIS application framework of rainfall distribution for various applied fields. The comparison between the TES and IDW methods show that relative to time series prediction, spatial interpolation exhibit values that are approaching actual. Spatial interpolation is closer to actual data because computed values are the rainfall data of the nearest location or the neighbour of sample values. However, the IDW’s main weakness is that some area might exhibit the rainfall value of 0. The representation of 0 in the spatial interpolation is mainly caused by the absence of rainfall data in the nearest sample point or too far distance that produces smaller weight.

Influence of repeated quenching-tempering on spheroidized carbide area in JIS SUJ2 bearing steel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egawa, K.; Yoshida, I.; Yoshida, H.; Mizobe, K.; Kida, K.

2018-02-01

High-carbon high-strength JIS-SUJ2 bearing steel is mainly used for rolling contact applications which require high fatigue strength. We had applied repeated quenching which refine the prior austenite grains to this steel. In this work, we prepared JIS SUJ2 bearing steel bar specimens which were quenched three times (Q3T1) and quenched-tempered three times (QTQTQT) in order to investigate the influence of tempering before quenching on the microstructure. The specimens were etched by picral to observe the microstructure. We found that the spheroidized carbide area was important for the prior austenite grain formation.

Motion/imagery secure cloud enterprise architecture analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLay, John L.

2012-06-01

Cloud computing with storage virtualization and new service-oriented architectures brings a new perspective to the aspect of a distributed motion imagery and persistent surveillance enterprise. Our existing research is focused mainly on content management, distributed analytics, WAN distributed cloud networking performance issues of cloud based technologies. The potential of leveraging cloud based technologies for hosting motion imagery, imagery and analytics workflows for DOD and security applications is relatively unexplored. This paper will examine technologies for managing, storing, processing and disseminating motion imagery and imagery within a distributed network environment. Finally, we propose areas for future research in the area of distributed cloud content management enterprises.

Applications of stable isotopes in clinical pharmacology

PubMed Central

Schellekens, Reinout C A; Stellaard, Frans; Woerdenbag, Herman J; Frijlink, Henderik W; Kosterink, Jos G W

2011-01-01

This review aims to present an overview of the application of stable isotope technology in clinical pharmacology. Three main categories of stable isotope technology can be distinguished in clinical pharmacology. Firstly, it is applied in the assessment of drug pharmacology to determine the pharmacokinetic profile or mode of action of a drug substance. Secondly, stable isotopes may be used for the assessment of drug products or drug delivery systems by determination of parameters such as the bioavailability or the release profile. Thirdly, patients may be assessed in relation to patient-specific drug treatment; this concept is often called personalized medicine. In this article, the application of stable isotope technology in the aforementioned three areas is reviewed, with emphasis on developments over the past 25 years. The applications are illustrated with examples from clinical studies in humans. PMID:21801197

MathBrowser: Web-Enabled Mathematical Software with Application to the Chemistry Curriculum, v 1.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldsmith, Jack G.

1997-10-01

MathSoft: Cambridge, MA, 1996; free via ftp from www.mathsoft.com. The movement to provide computer-based applications in chemistry has come to focus on three main areas: software aimed at specific applications (drawing, simulation, data analysis, etc.), multimedia applications designed to assist in the presentation of conceptual information, and packages to be used in conjunction with a particular textbook at a specific point in the chemistry curriculum. The result is a situation where no single software package devoted to problem solving can be used across a large segment of the curriculum. Adoption of World Wide Web (WWW) technology by a manufacturer of mathematical software, however, has produced software that provides an attractive means of providing a problem-solving resource to students in courses from freshman through senior level.

The experimental research on electrodischarge drilling of high aspect ratio holes in Inconel 718

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lipiec, Piotr; Machno, Magdalena; Skoczypiec, Sebastian

2018-05-01

In recent years the drilling operations become important area of electrodischarge machining (EDM) application. This especially concerns drilling of, small (D< 1mm), cylindrical and high-aspect ratio (L/D > 10) holes in difficult-to-cut materials (i.e. nickel or titanium alloys). Drilling of such a holes is significantly beyond mechanical drilling capabilities. Therefore electrodischarge machining is good and cost efficient alternative for such application. EDM gives possibility to drill accurate, burr free and high aspect ratio holes and is applicable to machine wide range of conductive materials, irrespective of their hardness and toughness. However it is worth to underline its main disadvantages such as: significant tool wear, low material removal rate and poor surface integrity. The last one is especially important in reliable applications in aircraft or medical industry.

33 CFR 334.10 - Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. 334.10 Section 334.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.10 Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. (a) The danger...

33 CFR 334.10 - Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. 334.10 Section 334.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.10 Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. (a) The danger...

33 CFR 334.20 - Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. 334.20 Section 334.20 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.20 Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. (a) The...

33 CFR 334.20 - Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. 334.20 Section 334.20 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.20 Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. (a) The...

33 CFR 334.10 - Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. 334.10 Section 334.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.10 Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. (a) The danger...

33 CFR 334.20 - Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. 334.20 Section 334.20 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.20 Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. (a) The...

33 CFR 334.20 - Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. 334.20 Section 334.20 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.20 Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. (a) The...

33 CFR 334.20 - Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. 334.20 Section 334.20 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.20 Gulf of Maine off Cape Small, Maine; naval aircraft practice mining range area. (a) The...

33 CFR 334.10 - Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. 334.10 Section 334.10 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.10 Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. (a) The danger...

Large-area tungsten disulfide for ultrafast photonics.

PubMed

Yan, Peiguang; Chen, Hao; Yin, Jinde; Xu, Zihan; Li, Jiarong; Jiang, Zike; Zhang, Wenfei; Wang, Jinzhang; Li, Irene Ling; Sun, Zhipei; Ruan, Shuangchen

2017-02-02

Two-dimensional (2D) layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted significant interest in various optoelectronic applications due to their excellent nonlinear optical properties. One of the most important applications of TMDs is to be employed as an extraordinary optical modulation material (e.g., the saturable absorber (SA)) in ultrafast photonics. The main challenge arises while embedding TMDs into fiber laser systems to generate ultrafast pulse trains and thus constraints their practical applications. Herein, few-layered WS 2 with a large-area was directly transferred on the facet of the pigtail and acted as a SA for erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) systems. In our study, WS 2 SA exhibited remarkable nonlinear optical properties (e.g., modulation depth of 15.1% and saturable intensity of 157.6 MW cm -2 ) and was used for ultrafast pulse generation. The soliton pulses with remarkable performances (e.g., ultrashort pulse duration of 1.49 ps, high stability of 71.8 dB, and large pulse average output power of 62.5 mW) could be obtained in a telecommunication band. To the best of our knowledge, the average output power of the mode-locked pulse trains is the highest by employing TMD materials in fiber laser systems. These results indicate that atomically large-area WS 2 could be used as excellent optical modulation materials in ultrafast photonics.

Modelling landscape evolution at the flume scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheraghi, Mohsen; Rinaldo, Andrea; Sander, Graham C.; Barry, D. Andrew

2017-04-01

The ability of a large-scale Landscape Evolution Model (LEM) to simulate the soil surface morphological evolution as observed in a laboratory flume (1-m × 2-m surface area) was investigated. The soil surface was initially smooth, and was subjected to heterogeneous rainfall in an experiment designed to avoid rill formation. Low-cohesive fine sand was placed in the flume while the slope and relief height were 5 % and 20 cm, respectively. Non-uniform rainfall with an average intensity of 85 mm h-1 and a standard deviation of 26 % was applied to the sediment surface for 16 h. We hypothesized that the complex overland water flow can be represented by a drainage discharge network, which was calculated via the micro-morphology and the rainfall distribution. Measurements included high resolution Digital Elevation Models that were captured at intervals during the experiment. The calibrated LEM captured the migration of the main flow path from the low precipitation area into the high precipitation area. Furthermore, both model and experiment showed a steep transition zone in soil elevation that moved upstream during the experiment. We conclude that the LEM is applicable under non-uniform rainfall and in the absence of surface incisions, thereby extending its applicability beyond that shown in previous applications. Keywords: Numerical simulation, Flume experiment, Particle Swarm Optimization, Sediment transport, River network evolution model.

The Taguchi methodology as a statistical tool for biotechnological applications: a critical appraisal.

PubMed

Rao, Ravella Sreenivas; Kumar, C Ganesh; Prakasham, R Shetty; Hobbs, Phil J

2008-04-01

Success in experiments and/or technology mainly depends on a properly designed process or product. The traditional method of process optimization involves the study of one variable at a time, which requires a number of combinations of experiments that are time, cost and labor intensive. The Taguchi method of design of experiments is a simple statistical tool involving a system of tabulated designs (arrays) that allows a maximum number of main effects to be estimated in an unbiased (orthogonal) fashion with a minimum number of experimental runs. It has been applied to predict the significant contribution of the design variable(s) and the optimum combination of each variable by conducting experiments on a real-time basis. The modeling that is performed essentially relates signal-to-noise ratio to the control variables in a 'main effect only' approach. This approach enables both multiple response and dynamic problems to be studied by handling noise factors. Taguchi principles and concepts have made extensive contributions to industry by bringing focused awareness to robustness, noise and quality. This methodology has been widely applied in many industrial sectors; however, its application in biological sciences has been limited. In the present review, the application and comparison of the Taguchi methodology has been emphasized with specific case studies in the field of biotechnology, particularly in diverse areas like fermentation, food processing, molecular biology, wastewater treatment and bioremediation.

Mountain cartography: revival of a classic domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Häberling, Christian; Hurni, Lorenz

The abstract representation of landscape objects such as mountain peaks, valleys, river networks, lakes, cultivated land and nonproductive areas (forests, pastures, boulder fields, glaciers), settlement areas, infrastructure and traffic networks has been the main concept behind all kind of maps for a long time. For over 300 years, mountain regions became an appropriate subject to be extensively explored and mapped. Together with the growing importance of mountainous areas, the demand for adequate cartographic representations with respect to its contents, graphic design and the presentation media has given new life to a classic domain of cartography: Mountain cartography. This paper gives an overview of the development and the current state of mountain cartography. After a brief description of the beginnings and the historic achievements, basic concepts of cartography such as map purpose, data management, cartographic design and map production and their application in modern mountain cartography are summarised. The paper then provides an overview of different kinds of cartographic representations in mountain cartography like topographic maps, maps derived from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data, image maps, animations, perspective views and personalised maps. Finally, selected examples of modern mountain map applications are presented.

LabVIEW control software for scanning micro-beam X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

PubMed

Wrobel, Pawel; Czyzycki, Mateusz; Furman, Leszek; Kolasinski, Krzysztof; Lankosz, Marek; Mrenca, Alina; Samek, Lucyna; Wegrzynek, Dariusz

2012-05-15

Confocal micro-beam X-ray fluorescence microscope was constructed. The system was assembled from commercially available components - a low power X-ray tube source, polycapillary X-ray optics and silicon drift detector - controlled by an in-house developed LabVIEW software. A video camera coupled to optical microscope was utilized to display the area excited by X-ray beam. The camera image calibration and scan area definition software were also based entirely on LabVIEW code. Presently, the main area of application of the newly constructed spectrometer is 2-dimensional mapping of element distribution in environmental, biological and geological samples with micrometer spatial resolution. The hardware and the developed software can already handle volumetric 3-D confocal scans. In this work, a front panel graphical user interface as well as communication protocols between hardware components were described. Two applications of the spectrometer, to homogeneity testing of titanium layers and to imaging of various types of grains in air particulate matter collected on membrane filters, were presented. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interview with Paul W. Kruse on the Early History of HgCdTe, Conducted on October 22, 1980

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reine, Marion B.

2015-09-01

This paper presents an interview with Dr Paul W. Kruse (1927-2012) on the early history of the semiconductor alloy mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe or Hg1- x Cd x Te) at the Honeywell Corporate Research Center near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Conducted on October 22, 1980, the interview covers two main areas. One area is the story of how the HgCdTe research effort came about at the Honeywell Research Center in the early 1960s, what technical choices were made and when, and what technical challenges were overcome and how. The other area is the organization, culture, environment and personnel at the Honeywell Research Center that made the early HgCdTe research programs so successful. HgCdTe has emerged as the highest-performance, most widely applicable infrared detector material. HgCdTe continues to satisfy a broad variety of advanced military and space applications. It is illustrative to look back on the early history of this remarkable semiconductor alloy to help to understand why its technological development as an infrared detector has been so successful.

The Practical Application of Uav-Based Photogrammetry Under Economic Aspects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sauerbier, M.; Siegrist, E.; Eisenbeiss, H.; Demir, N.

2011-09-01

Nowadays, small size UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have reached a level of practical reliability and functionality that enables this technology to enter the geomatics market as an additional platform for spatial data acquisition. Though one could imagine a wide variety of interesting sensors to be mounted on such a device, here we will focus on photogrammetric applications using digital cameras. In praxis, UAV-based photogrammetry will only be accepted if it a) provides the required accuracy and an additional value and b) if it is competitive in terms of economic application compared to other measurement technologies. While a) was already proven by the scientific community and results were published comprehensively during the last decade, b) still has to be verified under real conditions. For this purpose, a test data set representing a realistic scenario provided by ETH Zurich was used to investigate cost effectiveness and to identify weak points in the processing chain that require further development. Our investigations are limited to UAVs carrying digital consumer cameras, for larger UAVs equipped with medium format cameras the situation has to be considered as significantly different. Image data was acquired during flights using a microdrones MD4-1000 quadrocopter equipped with an Olympus PE-1 digital compact camera. From these images, a subset of 5 images was selected for processing in order to register the effort of time required for the whole production chain of photogrammetric products. We see the potential of mini UAV-based photogrammetry mainly in smaller areas, up to a size of ca. 100 hectares. Larger areas can be efficiently covered by small airplanes with few images, reducing processing effort drastically. In case of smaller areas of a few hectares only, it depends more on the products required. UAVs can be an enhancement or alternative to GNSS measurements, terrestrial laser scanning and ground based photogrammetry. We selected the above mentioned test data from a project featuring an area of interest within the practical range for mini UAVs. While flight planning and flight operation are already quite efficient processes, the bottlenecks identified are mainly related to image processing. Although we used specific software for image processing, the identified gaps in the processing chain today are valid for most commercial photogrammetric software systems on the market. An outlook proposing improvements for a practicable workflow applicable in projects in private economy will be given.

Biomedical Applications of Mulberry Silk and its Proteins: A Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nivedita, S.; Sivaprasad, V.

2014-04-01

Silk is a natural fibre used mainly for aesthetic purposes. It has also been used for making surgical sutures for centuries. The recent rediscovery of silk's biological properties have led to new areas of research and utilization in cosmetic, health and medical fields. The silk proteins, fibroin and sericin are processed into biomaterials because of bio-compatibility, bio-degradability, excellent mechanical properties, thermo tolerance and UV protective properties. Silk proteins could be obtained as pure liquids and regenerated in different forms suitable for tissue engineering applications. This paper presents some of the biomedical products and biomaterials made from native, degraded and regenerated silk and their fabrication techniques.

LOLS Research in Technology for the Development and Application of New Fiber-Based Sensors

PubMed Central

Coelho, João; Nespereira, Marta; Silva, Catarina; Rebordão, José

2012-01-01

This paper presents the research made at the Laboratory of Optics, Lasers and Systems (LOLS) of the Faculty of Sciences of University of Lisbon, Portugal, in the field of fiber-based sensors. Three areas are considered: sensor encapsulation for natural aqueous environments, refractive index modulation and laser micropatterning. We present the main conclusions on the issues and parameters to take in consideration for the encapsulation process and results of its design and application. Mid-infrared laser radiation was applied to produce long period fiber gratings and nanosecond pulses of near-infrared Q-switch laser were used for micropatterning. PMID:22736970

Electrospinning of Nanofibers for Energy Applications

PubMed Central

Sun, Guiru; Sun, Liqun; Xie, Haiming; Liu, Jia

2016-01-01

With global concerns about the shortage of fossil fuels and environmental issues, the development of efficient and clean energy storage devices has been drastically accelerated. Nanofibers are used widely for energy storage devices due to their high surface areas and porosities. Electrospinning is a versatile and efficient fabrication method for nanofibers. In this review, we mainly focus on the application of electrospun nanofibers on energy storage, such as lithium batteries, fuel cells, dye-sensitized solar cells and supercapacitors. The structure and properties of nanofibers are also summarized systematically. The special morphology of nanofibers prepared by electrospinning is significant to the functional materials for energy storage. PMID:28335256

Saying goodbye to optical storage technology.

PubMed

McLendon, Kelly; Babbitt, Cliff

2002-08-01

The days of using optical disk based mass storage devices for high volume applications like health care document imaging are coming to an end. The price/performance curve for redundant magnetic disks, known as RAID, is now more positive than for optical disks. All types of application systems, across many sectors of the marketplace are using these newer magnetic technologies, including insurance, banking, aerospace, as well as health care. The main components of these new storage technologies are RAID and SAN. SAN refers to storage area network, which is a complex mechanism of switches and connections that allow multiple systems to store huge amounts of data securely and safely.

Biochips: A fruitful product of solid state physics and molecular biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendoza-Alvarez, Julio G.

1998-08-01

The application of the standard high resolution photolithography techniques used in the semiconductor device industry to the growth of a chain of nucleotides with a precise and well known sequence, has made possible the fabrication of a new kind of device, the so called biochips. At the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico we have joined a multidisciplinary scientific group, and we are in the process of developing the technical capabilities in order to set up a processing lab to fabricate biochips focused to very specific applications in the area of cancer detection. We present here the main lines along which this project is being developed.

Designing and Testing Energy Harvesters Suitable for Renewable Power Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Synkiewicz, B.; Guzdek, P.; Piekarski, J.; Zaraska, K.

2016-01-01

Energy harvesters convert waste power (heat, light and vibration) directly to electric power . Fast progress in their technology, design and areas of application (e.g. “Internet of Things”) has been observed recently. Their effectiveness is steadily growing which makes their application to powering sensor networks with wireless data transfer reasonable. The main advantage is the independence from wired power sources, which is especially important for monitoring state of environmental parameters. In this paper we describe the design and realization of a gas sensor monitoring CO level (powered by TEG) and two, designed an constructed in ITE, autonomous power supply modules powered by modern photovoltaic cells.

Covalent Organic Frameworks: From Materials Design to Biomedical Application

PubMed Central

Zhao, Fuli; Liu, Huiming; Mathe, Salva D. R.; Dong, Anjie

2017-01-01

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are newly emerged crystalline porous polymers with well-defined skeletons and nanopores mainly consisted of light-weight elements (H, B, C, N and O) linked by dynamic covalent bonds. Compared with conventional materials, COFs possess some unique and attractive features, such as large surface area, pre-designable pore geometry, excellent crystallinity, inherent adaptability and high flexibility in structural and functional design, thus exhibiting great potential for various applications. Especially, their large surface area and tunable porosity and π conjugation with unique photoelectric properties will enable COFs to serve as a promising platform for drug delivery, bioimaging, biosensing and theranostic applications. In this review, we trace the evolution of COFs in terms of linkages and highlight the important issues on synthetic method, structural design, morphological control and functionalization. And then we summarize the recent advances of COFs in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors and conclude with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities of COFs for biomedical purposes. Although currently still at its infancy stage, COFs as an innovative source have paved a new way to meet future challenges in human healthcare and disease theranostic. PMID:29283423

RECOVERY ACT - Methods for Decision under Technological Change Uncertainty and Risk Assessment for Integrated Assessment of Climate Change

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

Webster, Mort David

2015-03-10

This report presents the final outcomes and products of the project as performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The research project consists of three main components: methodology development for decision-making under uncertainty, improving the resolution of the electricity sector to improve integrated assessment, and application of these methods to integrated assessment. Results in each area is described in the report.

On Geometric Variational Models for Inpainting Surface Holes (PREPRINT)

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

email: haro@ima.umn.edu Phone: (612) 626-1501 Fax: (612) 626-7370 Affiliations: 1 Dept. de Tecnologia , University of Pompeu-Fabra, Passeig de...regions where the 3D model is incomplete. The main cause of holes are occlusions, but these can also be due to low reflectance, constraints in the...major areas where range scanners are used. With the increasing popularity of range scanners as 3D shape acquisition devices, with applications in

Molecular Gels as Intermediates in the Synthesis of Porous Materials and Fluorescent Films: Concepts and Applications.

PubMed

Miao, Rong; Peng, Junxia; Fang, Yu

2017-10-10

Low-molecular-mass organic gelator (LMOG)-based molecular gels are known as one of the most attractive soft materials and have received great attention since the early 1990s. In the last few decades, many LMOGs have been synthesized, and a series of theories have been proposed to better understand molecular gels. However, only limited applications of LMOGs have been realized for a variety of reasons, such as their lack of stability compared to chemical gels. Therefore, efforts to explore the applications of these materials are especially meaningful. As an example, this feature article mainly introduces studies on the application of LMOGs as intermediates in porous materials and fluorescent sensing films. Particular attention will be paid to gelator design, LMOG emulsion preparation, solid surface modification, and the practical application of the obtained materials. Concepts that are related to these studies, such as organic gel-water interface equilibria and molecular gel strategies, will be comprehensively illustrated. Finally, we will conclude with a study of LMOG-based intermediates. Some challenges and future perspectives related to these research areas will also be presented. It is anticipated that this feature article will not only contribute to the further understanding of LMOG-based intermediates but also will help to promote the practical application of molecular gels and facilitate development in related research areas.

Effect of the economic crisis on the production of immunology patents managed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty agreement from 2004–2011

PubMed Central

Campos, Elena

2015-01-01

Objectives To determine the evolution of patents in immunology, as a result of research and innovation in the years 2004–2011. Design The search for patents published internationally in immunology was made by using the SCOPUSTM database. SCOPUS gives information about over 23 million patents. The extracted data from patents were: inventors and applicants; their nationalities; sections, classes and subclasses of the International Patent Classification. Participants 89 countries Setting Data have been obtained from the database SCOPUS. It has been used for the international patent classification. Main outcome measures Patents by country, Productive sectors, Productive areas Results A total of 17,281 patents were applied for immunology during 2004–2011 of which 16,811 were from 30 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and 5326 from 28 countries in the European Union. These patents were granted in 89 countries and 13,699 of them were submitted by researchers from only one country. Private entities applied for 62.45% of all patents, universities 17.48%, hospitals 3.40% and public research organisations and private applicants applied for the rest. The university that made more applications was the University of California with 315 and the company was Genentech Inc. (US) with 302. The reduction in the number of applications of international patents in all disciplines of science also affected the area of immunology. Conclusions Collaboration in immunology between universities, companies and hospitals is hard because their interests are different. It is shown in patent applications that the majority of patents in immunology are applied for by only one entity. Patents in immunology are developed, mainly, in aspects such as medical preparations, peptides, mutation or genetic engineering, therapeutic activity of chemical compounds and analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties. PMID:28008369

A Review and Framework for Categorizing Current Research and Development in Health Related Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Studies.

PubMed

Lyseen, A K; Nøhr, C; Sørensen, E M; Gudes, O; Geraghty, E M; Shaw, N T; Bivona-Tellez, C

2014-08-15

The application of GIS in health science has increased over the last decade and new innovative application areas have emerged. This study reviews the literature and builds a framework to provide a conceptual overview of the domain, and to promote strategic planning for further research of GIS in health. The framework is based on literature from the library databases Scopus and Web of Science. The articles were identified based on keywords and initially selected for further study based on titles and abstracts. A grounded theory-inspired method was applied to categorize the selected articles in main focus areas. Subsequent frequency analysis was performed on the identified articles in areas of infectious and non-infectious diseases and continent of origin. A total of 865 articles were included. Four conceptual domains within GIS in health sciences comprise the framework: spatial analysis of disease, spatial analysis of health service planning, public health, health technologies and tools. Frequency analysis by disease status and location show that malaria and schistosomiasis are the most commonly analyzed infectious diseases where cancer and asthma are the most frequently analyzed non-infectious diseases. Across categories, articles from North America predominate, and in the category of spatial analysis of diseases an equal number of studies concern Asia. Spatial analysis of diseases and health service planning are well-established research areas. The development of future technologies and new application areas for GIS and data-gathering technologies such as GPS, smartphones, remote sensing etc. will be nudging the research in GIS and health.

A Review and Framework for Categorizing Current Research and Development in Health Related Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Studies

PubMed Central

Nøhr, C.; Sørensen, E. M.; Gudes, O.; Geraghty, E. M.; Shaw, N. T.; Bivona-Tellez, C.

2014-01-01

Summary Objectives The application of GIS in health science has increased over the last decade and new innovative application areas have emerged. This study reviews the literature and builds a framework to provide a conceptual overview of the domain, and to promote strategic planning for further research of GIS in health. Method The framework is based on literature from the library databases Scopus and Web of Science. The articles were identified based on keywords and initially selected for further study based on titles and abstracts. A grounded theory-inspired method was applied to categorize the selected articles in main focus areas. Subsequent frequency analysis was performed on the identified articles in areas of infectious and non-infectious diseases and continent of origin. Results A total of 865 articles were included. Four conceptual domains within GIS in health sciences comprise the framework: spatial analysis of disease, spatial analysis of health service planning, public health, health technologies and tools. Frequency analysis by disease status and location show that malaria and schistosomiasis are the most commonly analyzed infectious diseases where cancer and asthma are the most frequently analyzed non-infectious diseases. Across categories, articles from North America predominate, and in the category of spatial analysis of diseases an equal number of studies concern Asia. Conclusion Spatial analysis of diseases and health service planning are well-established research areas. The development of future technologies and new application areas for GIS and data-gathering technologies such as GPS, smartphones, remote sensing etc. will be nudging the research in GIS and health. PMID:25123730

Nanopsychiatry--the potential role of nanotechnologies in the future of psychiatry: a systematic review.

PubMed

Fond, G; Macgregor, A; Miot, S

2013-09-01

Nanomedicine is defined as the area using nanotechnology's concepts for the benefit of human beings' health and well being. In this article, we aimed to provide an overview of areas where nanotechnology is applied and how they could be extended to care for psychiatric illnesses. The main applications of nanotechnology in psychiatry are (i) pharmacology. There are two main difficulties in neuropharmacology: drugs have to pass the blood-brain barrier and then to be internalized by targeted cells. Nanoparticles could increase drugs bioavailability and pharmacokinetics, especially improving safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs. Liposomes, nanosomes, nanoparticle polymers, nanobubbles are some examples of this targeted drug delivery. Nanotechnologies could also add new pharmacological properties, like nanoshells and dendrimers (ii) living analysis. Nanotechnology provides technical assistance to in vivo imaging or metabolome analysis (iii) central nervous system modeling. Research teams have succeeded to modelize inorganic synapses and mimick synaptic behavior, a step essential for further creation of artificial neural systems. Some nanoparticle assemblies present the same small worlds and free-scale networks architecture as cortical neural networks. Nanotechnologies and quantum physics could be used to create models of artificial intelligence and mental illnesses. We are not about to see a concrete application of nanomedicine in daily psychiatric practice. Even if nanotechnologies are promising, their safety is still inconsistent and this must be kept in mind. However, it seems essential that psychiatrists do not forsake this area of research the perspectives of which could be decisive in the field of mental illness. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Towards spatially distributed flood forecasts in flash flood prone areas: application to the supervision of a road network in the South of France

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naulin, Jean-Philippe; Payrastre, Olivier; Gaume, Eric; Delrieu, Guy

2013-04-01

Accurate flood forecasts are crucial for an efficient flood event management. Until now, hydro-meteorological forecasts have been mainly used for early-warnings in France (Meteorological and flood vigilance maps) or over the world (Flash-flood guidances). These forecasts are generally limited to the main streams covered by the flood forecasting services or to specific watersheds with particular assets like check dams which are in most cases well gauged river sections, leaving aside large parts of the territory. A distributed hydro-meteorological forecasting approach will be presented, able to take advantage of the high spatial and temporal resolution rainfall estimates that are now available to provide information at ungauged sites. The proposed system aiming at detecting road inundation risks had been initially developed and tested in areas of limited size. Its extension to a whole region (the Gard region in the South of France) will be presented, including over 2000 crossing points between rivers and roads and its validation against a large data set of actually reported road inundations observed during recent flash-flood events. These first validation results appear promising. Such a tool would provide the necessary information for flood event management services to identify the areas at risk and to take the appropriate safety and rescue measures: pre-positioning of rescue means, stopping of the traffic on exposed roads, determination of safe accesses or evacuation routes. Moreover, beyond the specific application to the supervision of a road network, this work provides also results concerning the performances of hydro-meteorological forecasts for ungauged headwaters.

Teaching Improvisation through Processes. Applications in Music Education and Implications for General Education

PubMed Central

Biasutti, Michele

2017-01-01

Improvisation is an articulated multidimensional activity based on an extemporaneous creative performance. Practicing improvisation, participants expand sophisticated skills such as sensory and perceptual encoding, memory storage and recall, motor control, and performance monitoring. Improvisation abilities have been developed following several methodologies mainly with a product-oriented perspective. A model framed under the socio-cultural theory of learning for designing didactic activities on processes instead of outcomes is presented in the current paper. The challenge is to overcome the mere instructional dimension of some practices of teaching improvisation by designing activities that stimulate self-regulated learning strategies in the students. In the article the present thesis is declined in three ways, concerning the following three possible areas of application: (1) high-level musical learning, (2) musical pedagogy with children, (3) general pedagogy. The applications in the music field focusing mainly on an expert's use of improvisation are discussed. The last section considers how these ideas should transcend music studies, presenting the benefits and the implications of improvisation activities for general learning. Moreover, the application of music education to the following cognitive processes are discussed: anticipation, use of repertoire, emotive communication, feedback and flow. These characteristics could be used to outline a pedagogical method for teaching music improvisation based on the development of reflection, reasoning, and meta-cognition. PMID:28626441

Teaching Improvisation through Processes. Applications in Music Education and Implications for General Education.

PubMed

Biasutti, Michele

2017-01-01

Improvisation is an articulated multidimensional activity based on an extemporaneous creative performance. Practicing improvisation, participants expand sophisticated skills such as sensory and perceptual encoding, memory storage and recall, motor control, and performance monitoring. Improvisation abilities have been developed following several methodologies mainly with a product-oriented perspective. A model framed under the socio-cultural theory of learning for designing didactic activities on processes instead of outcomes is presented in the current paper. The challenge is to overcome the mere instructional dimension of some practices of teaching improvisation by designing activities that stimulate self-regulated learning strategies in the students. In the article the present thesis is declined in three ways, concerning the following three possible areas of application: (1) high-level musical learning, (2) musical pedagogy with children, (3) general pedagogy. The applications in the music field focusing mainly on an expert's use of improvisation are discussed. The last section considers how these ideas should transcend music studies, presenting the benefits and the implications of improvisation activities for general learning. Moreover, the application of music education to the following cognitive processes are discussed: anticipation, use of repertoire, emotive communication, feedback and flow. These characteristics could be used to outline a pedagogical method for teaching music improvisation based on the development of reflection, reasoning, and meta-cognition.

Rhamnolipids from non-pathogenic Burkholderia thailandensis E264: Physicochemical characterization, antimicrobial and antibiofilm efficacy against oral hygiene related pathogens.

PubMed

Elshikh, Mohamed; Funston, Scott; Chebbi, Alif; Ahmed, Syed; Marchant, Roger; Banat, Ibrahim M

2017-05-25

Biosurfactants are naturally occurring surface active compounds that have mainly been exploited for environmental applications and consumer products, with their biomedical efficacy an emerging area of research. Rhamnolipids area major group of biosurfactants that have been reported for their antimicrobial and antibiofilm efficacy. One of the main limiting factors for scaled up production and downstream applications of rhamnolipids is the fact that they are predominantly produced from the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this article, we have reported the production and characterisation of long chain rhamnolipids from non-pathogenic Burkholderia thailandensis E264 (ATCC 700388). We have also investigated the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of these rhamnolipids against some oral pathogens (Streptococcus oralis, Actinomyces naeslundii, Neisseria mucosa and Streptococcus sanguinis), important for oral health and hygiene. Treating these bacteria with different concentrations of long chain rhamnolipids resulted in a reduction of 3-4 log of bacterial viability, placing these rhamnolipids close to being classified as biocidal. Investigating long chain rhamnolipid efficacy as antibiofilm agents for prospective oral-related applications revealed good potency against oral-bacteria biofilms in a co-incubation experiments, in a pre-coated surface format, in disrupting immature biofilms and has shown excellent combination effect with Lauryl Sodium Sulphate which resulted in a drastic decrease in its minimal inhibitory concentration against different bacteria. Investigating the rhamnolipid permeabilization effect along with their ability to induce the formation of reactive oxygen species has shed light on the mechanism through which inhibition/killing of bacteria may occur. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The street as an area of human exposure in an earthquake aftermath: the case of Lorca, Spain, 2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertran Rojo, Marc; Beck, Elise; Lutoff, Céline

2017-04-01

The earthquake which struck the city of Lorca, Spain, on 11 May 2011 killed 9 people, injured over 300 and caused considerable damage, including one collapsed building. Streets near buildings were the main danger areas for people. This article proposes an dynamic ad hoc spatio-temporal method for studying individual evacuation after an earthquake. Its application to the Lorca case shows the spatial and temporal variability of individual exposure levels in the street during the hours following the shock. As yet little studied, human exposure deserves more attention, particularly in zones of moderate seismicity like the Euro-Mediterranean area. The results of this study could be helpful for enhancing the evacuation planning after an earthquake, stressing the specific dangers in the street.

Ultra-sensitive EUV resists based on acid-catalyzed polymer backbone breaking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manouras, Theodoros; Kazazis, Dimitrios; Koufakis, Eleftherios; Ekinci, Yasin; Vamvakaki, Maria; Argitis, Panagiotis

2018-03-01

The main target of the current work was to develop new sensitive polymeric materials for lithographic applications, focusing in particular to EUV lithography, the main chain of which is cleaved under the influence of photogenerated acid. Resist materials based on the cleavage of polymer main chain are in principle capable to create very small structures, to the dimensions of the monomers that they consist of. Nevertheless, in the case of the commonly used nonchemically amplified materials of this type issues like sensitivity and poor etch resistance limit their areas of application, whereas inadequate etch resistance and non- satisfactory process reliability are the usual problems encountered in acid catalysed materials based on main chain scission. In our material design the acid catalyzed chain cleavable polymers contain very sensitive moieties in their backbone while they remain intact in alkaline ambient. These newly synthesized polymers bear in addition suitable functional groups for the achievement of desirable lithographic characteristics (thermal stability, acceptable glass transition temperature, etch resistance, proper dissolution behavior, adhesion to the substrate). Our approach for achieving acceptable etch resistance, a main drawback in other main chain cleavable resists, is based on the introduction of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in the polymeric backbone, whereas the incorporation of an inorganic component further enhances the etch resistance. Single component systems can also be designed following the proposed approach by the incorporation of suitable PAGs and base quencher molecules in the main chain. Resist formulations based on a random copolymer designed according to the described rules evaluated in EUV exhibit ultrahigh sensitivity, capability for high resolution patterning and overall processing characteristics that make them strong candidates for industrial use upon further optimization.

Factors influencing societal response of nanotechnology: an expert stakeholder analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Nidhi; Fischer, Arnout R. H.; van der Lans, Ivo A.; Frewer, Lynn J.

2012-05-01

Nanotechnology can be described as an emerging technology and, as has been the case with other emerging technologies such as genetic modification, different socio-psychological factors will potentially influence societal responses to its development and application. These factors will play an important role in how nanotechnology is developed and commercialised. This article aims to identify expert opinion on factors influencing societal response to applications of nanotechnology. Structured interviews with experts on nanotechnology from North West Europe were conducted using repertory grid methodology in conjunction with generalized Procrustes analysis to examine the psychological constructs underlying societal uptake of 15 key applications of nanotechnology drawn from different areas (e.g. medicine, agriculture and environment, chemical, food, military, sports, and cosmetics). Based on expert judgement, the main factors influencing societal response to different applications of nanotechnology will be the extent to which applications are perceived to be beneficial, useful, and necessary, and how 'real' and physically close to the end-user these applications are perceived to be by the public.

Matching species traits to projected threats and opportunities from climate change

PubMed Central

Garcia, Raquel A; Araújo, Miguel B; Burgess, Neil D; Foden, Wendy B; Gutsche, Alexander; Rahbek, Carsten; Cabeza, Mar

2014-01-01

Aim Climate change can lead to decreased climatic suitability within species' distributions, increased fragmentation of climatically suitable space, and/or emergence of newly suitable areas outside present distributions. Each of these extrinsic threats and opportunities potentially interacts with specific intrinsic traits of species, yet this specificity is seldom considered in risk assessments. We present an analytical framework for examining projections of climate change-induced threats and opportunities with reference to traits that are likely to mediate species' responses, and illustrate the applicability of the framework. Location Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We applied the framework to 195 sub-Saharan African amphibians with both available bioclimatic envelope model projections for the mid-21st century and trait data. Excluded were 500 narrow-ranging species mainly from montane areas. For each of projected losses, increased fragmentation and gains of climate space, we selected potential response-mediating traits and examined the spatial overlap with vulnerability due to these traits. We examined the overlap for all species, and individually for groups of species with different combinations of threats and opportunities. Results In the Congo Basin and arid Southern Africa, projected losses for wide-ranging amphibians were compounded by sensitivity to climatic variation, and expected gains were precluded by poor dispersal ability. The spatial overlap between exposure and vulnerability was more pronounced for species projected to have their climate space contracting in situ or shifting to distant geographical areas. Our results exclude the potential exposure of narrow-ranging species to shrinking climates in the African tropical mountains. Main conclusions We illustrate the application of a framework combining spatial projections of climate change exposure with traits that are likely to mediate species' responses. Although the proposed framework carries several assumptions that require further scrutiny, its application adds a degree of realism to familiar assessments that consider all species to be equally affected by climate change-induced threats and opportunities. PMID:25505356

High friction on ice provided by elastomeric fiber composites with textured surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizvi, R.; Naguib, H.; Fernie, G.; Dutta, T.

2015-03-01

Two main applications requiring high friction on ice are automobile tires and footwear. The main motivation behind the use of soft rubbers in these applications is the relatively high friction force generated between a smooth rubber contacting smooth ice. Unfortunately, the friction force between rubber and ice is very low at temperatures near the melting point of ice and as a result we still experience automobile accidents and pedestrian slips and falls in the winter. Here, we report on a class of compliant fiber-composite materials with textured surfaces that provide outstanding coefficients of friction on wet ice. The fibrous composites consist of a hard glass-fiber phase reinforcing a compliant thermoplastic polyurethane matrix. The glass-fiber phase is textured such that it is aligned transversally and protruding out of the elastomer surface. Our analysis indicates that the exposed fiber phase exhibits a "micro-cleat" effect, allowing for it to fracture the ice and increase the interfacial contact area thereby requiring a high force to shear the interface.

A Review on the Respiratory System Toxicity of Carbon Nanoparticles.

PubMed

Pacurari, Maricica; Lowe, Kristine; Tchounwou, Paul B; Kafoury, Ramzi

2016-03-15

The respiratory system represents the main gateway for nanoparticles' entry into the human body. Although there is a myriad of engineered nanoparticles, carbon nanoparticles/nanotubes (CNPs/CNTs) have received much attention mainly due to their light weight, very high surface area, durability, and their diverse applications. Since their discovery and manufacture over two decades ago, much has been learned about nanoparticles' interactions with diverse biological system models. In particular, the respiratory system has been of great interest because various natural and man-made fibrous particles are known to be responsible for chronic and debilitating lung diseases. In this review, we present up-to-date the literature regarding the effects of CNTs or carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the human respiratory system with respect to respiratory toxicity pathways and associated pathologies. This article is intended to emphasize the potentially dangerous effects to the human respiratory system if inadequate measures are used in the manufacture, handling, and preparation and applications of CNP or CNP-based products.

A Review on the Respiratory System Toxicity of Carbon Nanoparticles

PubMed Central

Pacurari, Maricica; Lowe, Kristine; Tchounwou, Paul B.; Kafoury, Ramzi

2016-01-01

The respiratory system represents the main gateway for nanoparticles’ entry into the human body. Although there is a myriad of engineered nanoparticles, carbon nanoparticles/nanotubes (CNPs/CNTs) have received much attention mainly due to their light weight, very high surface area, durability, and their diverse applications. Since their discovery and manufacture over two decades ago, much has been learned about nanoparticles’ interactions with diverse biological system models. In particular, the respiratory system has been of great interest because various natural and man-made fibrous particles are known to be responsible for chronic and debilitating lung diseases. In this review, we present up-to-date the literature regarding the effects of CNTs or carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the human respiratory system with respect to respiratory toxicity pathways and associated pathologies. This article is intended to emphasize the potentially dangerous effects to the human respiratory system if inadequate measures are used in the manufacture, handling, and preparation and applications of CNP or CNP-based products. PMID:26999172

Influence of the Dermis Thickness on the Results of the Skin Treatment with Monopolar and Bipolar Radiofrequency Currents.

PubMed

Kruglikov, Ilja L

2016-01-01

Electrically layered tissue structure significantly modifies distribution of radiofrequency (RF) current in the dermis and in the subcutaneous adipose tissue comparing to that in a homogeneous medium. On the basis of the simple model of RF current distribution in a two-layer skin containing dermis and subcutis, we assess the influence of the dermal thickness on the current density in different skin layers. Under other equal conditions, current density in the dermis is higher for the skin having thinner dermis. This contradicts the main paradigm of the RF theory stating that treatment results are mainly dependent on the maximal temperature reached in a target tissue, since the best short- and long-term clinical results of RF application to the skin were reported in the areas having thicker dermis. To resolve this contradiction, it is proposed that the long-term effect of RF can be realized through a structural modification of the subcutaneous fat depot adjacent to the treated skin area. Stimulation of these cells located near the interface dermis/subcutis will demand the concentration of applied RF energy in this area and will require the optimal arrangement of RF electrodes on the skin surface.

Innovative discharge geometries for diffusion-cooled gas lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lapucci, Antonio

2004-09-01

Large area, narrow discharge gap, diffusion cooled gas lasers are nowadays a well established technology for the construction of industrial laser sources. Successful examples exist both with the slab (Rofin-Sinar) or coaxial (Trumpf) geometry. The main physical properties and the associated technical problems of the transverse large area RF discharge, adopted for the excitation of high power diffusion cooled gas lasers, are reviewed here. The main problems of this technology are related to the maintenance of a uniform and stable plasma excitation between closely spaced large-area electrodes at high power-density loading. Some practical solutions such as distributed resonance of the discharge channel proved successful in the case of square or rectangular cross-sections but hardly applicable to geometries such as that of coaxial electrodes. In this paper we present some solutions, adopted by our group, for the development of slab and annular CO2 lasers and for CO2 laser arrays with linear or circular symmetry. We will also briefly mention the difficulties encountered in the extraction of a good quality beam from an active medium with such a cross section. A problem that has also seen some interesting solutions.

Influence of the Dermis Thickness on the Results of the Skin Treatment with Monopolar and Bipolar Radiofrequency Currents

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Electrically layered tissue structure significantly modifies distribution of radiofrequency (RF) current in the dermis and in the subcutaneous adipose tissue comparing to that in a homogeneous medium. On the basis of the simple model of RF current distribution in a two-layer skin containing dermis and subcutis, we assess the influence of the dermal thickness on the current density in different skin layers. Under other equal conditions, current density in the dermis is higher for the skin having thinner dermis. This contradicts the main paradigm of the RF theory stating that treatment results are mainly dependent on the maximal temperature reached in a target tissue, since the best short- and long-term clinical results of RF application to the skin were reported in the areas having thicker dermis. To resolve this contradiction, it is proposed that the long-term effect of RF can be realized through a structural modification of the subcutaneous fat depot adjacent to the treated skin area. Stimulation of these cells located near the interface dermis/subcutis will demand the concentration of applied RF energy in this area and will require the optimal arrangement of RF electrodes on the skin surface. PMID:27493952

Introduction to Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Volume 1; Basic techniques and concepts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhatia, Saurabh; Goli, Divakar

2018-05-01

Animal biotechnology is a broad field including polarities of fundamental and applied research, as well as DNA science, covering key topics of DNA studies and its recent applications. In Introduction to Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, DNA isolation procedures followed by molecular markers and screening methods of the genomic library are explained. Interesting areas like isolation, sequencing and synthesis of genes, with the broader coverage on synthesis of genes, are also described. The book begins with an introduction to biotechnology and its main branches, explaining both the basic science and the applications of biotechnology-derived pharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on their clinical use. It then moves on to historical development and scope of biotechnology with an overall review of early applications that scientists employed long before the field was defined.

Display process compatible accurate graphene patterning for OLED applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Jin-Wook; Han, Jun-Han; Cho, Hyunsu; Moon, Jaehyun; Kwon, Byoung-Hwa; Cho, Seungmin; Yoon, Taeshik; Kim, Taek-Soo; Suemitsu, Maki; Lee, Jeong-Ik; Cho, Nam Sung

2018-01-01

Graphene film can be used as transparent electrodes in display and optoelectronic applications. However, achieving residue free graphene film pixel arrays with geometrical precision on large area has been a difficult challenge. By utilizing the liquid bridging concept, we realized photolithographic patterning of graphene film with dimensional correctness and absence of surface contaminant. On a glass substrate of 100  ×  100 mm2 size, we demonstrate our patterning method to fabricate an addressable two-color OLED module of which graphene film pixel size is 170  ×  300 µm2. Our results strongly suggest graphene film as a serviceable component in commercial display products. The flexible and foldable display applications are expected to be main beneficiaries of our method.

Application of Satellite Based Augmentation Systems to Altitude Separation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magny, Jean Pierre

This paper presents the application of GNSS1, or more precisely of Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), to vertical separation for en-route, approach and landing operations. Potential improvements in terms of operational benefit and of safety are described for two main applications. First, vertical separation between en-route aircraft, which requires a system available across wide areas. SBAS (EGNOS, WAAS, and MSAS) are very well suited for this purpose before GNSS2 becomes available. And secondly, vertical separation from the ground during approach and landing, for which preliminary design principles of instrument approach procedures and safety issues are presented. Approach and landing phases are the subject of discussions within ICAO GNSS-P. En-route phases have been listed as GNSS-P future work and by RTCA for development of new equipments.

[Procedural analysis of acid-base balance disorder: case serials in 4 patents].

PubMed

Ma, Chunyuan; Wang, Guijie

2017-05-01

To establish the standardization process of acid-base balance analysis, analyze cases of acid-base balance disorder with the aid of acid-base balance coordinate graph. The acid-base balance theory were reviewed systematically on recent research progress, and the important concepts, definitions, formulas, parameters, regularity and inference in the analysis of acid-base balance were studied. The analysis of acid-base balance disordered processes and steps were figured. The application of acid-base balance coordinate graph in the cases was introduced. The method of "four parameters-four steps" analysis was put forward to analyze the acid-base balance disorders completely. "Four parameters" included pH, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO 2 ), HCO 3 - and anion gap (AG). "Four steps" were outlined by following aspects: (1) according to the pH, PaCO 2 and HCO 3 - , the primary or main types of acid-base balance disorder was determined; (2) primary or main types of acid-base disorder were used to choose the appropriate compensation formula and to determine the presence of double mixed acid-base balance disorder; (3) the primary acid-base balance disorders were divided into two parts: respiratory acidosis or respiratory alkalosis, at the same time, the potential HCO 3 - should be calculated, the measured HCO 3 - should be replaced with potential HCO 3 - , to determine whether there were three mixed acid-base disorders; (4) based on the above analysis the data judged as the simple AG increased-metabolic acidosis was needed to be further analyzed. The ratio of ΔAG↑/ΔHCO 3 - ↓ was also needed to be calculated, to determine whether there was normal AG metabolic acidosis or metabolic alkalosis. In the clinical practice, PaCO 2 (as the abscissa) and HCO 3 - (as the ordinate) were used to establish a rectangular coordinate system, through origin (0, 0) and coordinate point (40, 24) could be a straight line, and all points on the straight line pH were equal to 7.40. The acid-base balance coordinate graph could be divided into seven areas by three straight lines [namely pH = 7.40 isoline, PaCO 2 = 40 mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa) line and HCO 3 - = 24 mmol/L line]: main respiratory alkalosis area, main metabolic alkalosis area, respiratory + metabolic alkalosis area, main respiratory acidosis area, main metabolic acidosis area, respiratory + metabolic acidosis area and normal area. It was easier to determine the type of acid-base balance disorders by identifying the location of the (PaCO 2 , HCO 3 - ) or (PaCO 2 , potential HCO 3 - ) point on the acid-base balance coordinate graph. "Four parameters-four steps" method is systematic and comprehensive. At the same time, by using the acid-base balance coordinate graph, it is simpler to estimate the types of acid-base balance disorders. It is worthy of popularizing and generalizing.

Contribution of Geographic Information Systems and location models to planning of wastewater systems.

PubMed

Leitão, J P; Matos, J S; Gonçalves, A B; Matos, J L

2005-01-01

This paper presents the contributions of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and location models towards planning regional wastewater systems (sewers and wastewater treatment plants) serving small agglomerations, i.e. agglomerations with less than 2,000 inhabitants. The main goal was to develop a decision support tool for tracing and locating regional wastewater systems. The main results of the model are expressed in terms of number, capacity and location of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) and the length of main sewers. The decision process concerning the location and capacity of wastewater systems has a number of parameters that can be optimized. These parameters include the total sewer length and number, capacity and location of WWTP. The optimization of parameters should lead to the minimization of construction and operation costs of the integrated system. Location models have been considered as tools for decision support, mainly when a geo-referenced database can be used. In these cases, the GIS may represent an important role for the analysis of data and results especially in the preliminary stage of planning and design. After selecting the spatial location model and the heuristics, two greedy algorithms were implemented in Visual Basic for Applications on the ArcGIS software environment. To illustrate the application of these algorithms a case study was developed, in a rural area located in the central part of Portugal.

SOMM: A New Service Oriented Middleware for Generic Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks Based on Code Mobility

PubMed Central

Faghih, Mohammad Mehdi; Moghaddam, Mohsen Ebrahimi

2011-01-01

Although much research in the area of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) has been done in recent years, the programming of sensor nodes is still time-consuming and tedious. It requires expertise in low-level programming, mainly because of the use of resource constrained hardware and also the low level API provided by current operating systems. The code of the resulting systems has typically no clear separation between application and system logic. This minimizes the possibility of reusing code and often leads to the necessity of major changes when the underlying platform is changed. In this paper, we present a service oriented middleware named SOMM to support application development for WMSNs. The main goal of SOMM is to enable the development of modifiable and scalable WMSN applications. A network which uses the SOMM is capable of providing multiple services to multiple clients at the same time with the specified Quality of Service (QoS). SOMM uses a virtual machine with the ability to support mobile agents. Services in SOMM are provided by mobile agents and SOMM also provides a t space on each node which agents can use to communicate with each other. PMID:22346646

SOMM: A new service oriented middleware for generic wireless multimedia sensor networks based on code mobility.

PubMed

Faghih, Mohammad Mehdi; Moghaddam, Mohsen Ebrahimi

2011-01-01

Although much research in the area of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) has been done in recent years, the programming of sensor nodes is still time-consuming and tedious. It requires expertise in low-level programming, mainly because of the use of resource constrained hardware and also the low level API provided by current operating systems. The code of the resulting systems has typically no clear separation between application and system logic. This minimizes the possibility of reusing code and often leads to the necessity of major changes when the underlying platform is changed. In this paper, we present a service oriented middleware named SOMM to support application development for WMSNs. The main goal of SOMM is to enable the development of modifiable and scalable WMSN applications. A network which uses the SOMM is capable of providing multiple services to multiple clients at the same time with the specified Quality of Service (QoS). SOMM uses a virtual machine with the ability to support mobile agents. Services in SOMM are provided by mobile agents and SOMM also provides a t space on each node which agents can use to communicate with each other.

Modified algorithm for mineral identification in LWIR hyperspectral imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yousefi, Bardia; Sojasi, Saeed; Liaigre, Kévin; Ibarra Castanedo, Clemente; Beaudoin, Georges; Huot, François; Maldague, Xavier P. V.; Chamberland, Martin

2017-05-01

The applications of hyperspectral infrared imagery in the different fields of research are significant and growing. It is mainly used in remote sensing for target detection, vegetation detection, urban area categorization, astronomy and geological applications. The geological applications of this technology mainly consist in mineral identification using in airborne or satellite imagery. We address a quantitative and qualitative assessment of mineral identification in the laboratory conditions. We strive to identify nine different mineral grains (Biotite, Diopside, Epidote, Goethite, Kyanite, Scheelite, Smithsonite, Tourmaline, Quartz). A hyperspectral camera in the Long Wave Infrared (LWIR, 7.7-11.8 ) with a LW-macro lens providing a spatial resolution of 100 μm, an infragold plate, and a heating source are the instruments used in the experiment. The proposed algorithm clusters all the pixel-spectra in different categories. Then the best representatives of each cluster are chosen and compared with the ASTER spectral library of JPL/NASA through spectral comparison techniques, such as Spectral angle mapper (SAM) and Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC). The results of the algorithm indicate significant computational efficiency (more than 20 times faster) as compared to previous algorithms and have shown a promising performance for mineral identification.

Advances in multi-sensor data fusion: algorithms and applications.

PubMed

Dong, Jiang; Zhuang, Dafang; Huang, Yaohuan; Fu, Jingying

2009-01-01

With the development of satellite and remote sensing techniques, more and more image data from airborne/satellite sensors have become available. Multi-sensor image fusion seeks to combine information from different images to obtain more inferences than can be derived from a single sensor. In image-based application fields, image fusion has emerged as a promising research area since the end of the last century. The paper presents an overview of recent advances in multi-sensor satellite image fusion. Firstly, the most popular existing fusion algorithms are introduced, with emphasis on their recent improvements. Advances in main applications fields in remote sensing, including object identification, classification, change detection and maneuvering targets tracking, are described. Both advantages and limitations of those applications are then discussed. Recommendations are addressed, including: (1) Improvements of fusion algorithms; (2) Development of "algorithm fusion" methods; (3) Establishment of an automatic quality assessment scheme.

A new automatic synthetic aperture radar-based flood mapping application hosted on the European Space Agency's Grid Processing of Demand Fast Access to Imagery environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matgen, Patrick; Giustarini, Laura; Hostache, Renaud

2012-10-01

This paper introduces an automatic flood mapping application that is hosted on the Grid Processing on Demand (GPOD) Fast Access to Imagery (Faire) environment of the European Space Agency. The main objective of the online application is to deliver operationally flooded areas using both recent and historical acquisitions of SAR data. Having as a short-term target the flooding-related exploitation of data generated by the upcoming ESA SENTINEL-1 SAR mission, the flood mapping application consists of two building blocks: i) a set of query tools for selecting the "crisis image" and the optimal corresponding "reference image" from the G-POD archive and ii) an algorithm for extracting flooded areas via change detection using the previously selected "crisis image" and "reference image". Stakeholders in flood management and service providers are able to log onto the flood mapping application to get support for the retrieval, from the rolling archive, of the most appropriate reference image. Potential users will also be able to apply the implemented flood delineation algorithm. The latter combines histogram thresholding, region growing and change detection as an approach enabling the automatic, objective and reliable flood extent extraction from SAR images. Both algorithms are computationally efficient and operate with minimum data requirements. The case study of the high magnitude flooding event that occurred in July 2007 on the Severn River, UK, and that was observed with a moderateresolution SAR sensor as well as airborne photography highlights the performance of the proposed online application. The flood mapping application on G-POD can be used sporadically, i.e. whenever a major flood event occurs and there is a demand for SAR-based flood extent maps. In the long term, a potential extension of the application could consist in systematically extracting flooded areas from all SAR images acquired on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

33 CFR 334.10 - Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Gulf of Maine off Seal Island... REGULATIONS § 334.10 Gulf of Maine off Seal Island, Maine; naval aircraft bombing target area. (a) The danger zone. A circular area with a radius of 1.5 nautical miles, having its center just easterly of Seal...

Simulation - Concepts and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, Pedro Sá; Trigo, António; Varajão, João; Pinto, Tiago

Simulation in last decades has been widely used to analyze the impact of different scenarios in several areas like, for instance, health, military, business, and many others. When well used, it is an excellent tool to analyze alternative actions and to anticipate their impact, in order to rationalize the spending of resources. This paper introduces and resumes some of the main concepts of simulation, identifying and describing: systems; models; entities and attributes; resources; contexts of use; and, in particularly, the discrete-event simulation.

Proceedings of the twenty sixth international symposium on discharges and electrical insulation in vacuum. V. 2

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

NONE

2014-07-01

Vacuum science and technology has made vital contributions in high technology areas like space, high energy particle accelerators, plasma devices, pulse power, electronics, vacuum interrupters, thin films, melting and refining of metals/alloys, extraction and processing of advanced materials. Vacuum discharges, vacuum arc physics and technology and various applications towards vacuum interrupters, pulse power and particle accelerator are the main themes for this symposium. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately.

Proceedings of the twenty sixth international symposium on discharges and electrical insulation in vacuum. V. 1

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

NONE

2014-07-01

Vacuum science and technology has made vital contributions in high technology areas like space, high energy particle accelerators, plasma devices, pulse power, electronics, vacuum interrupters, thin films, melting and refining of metals/alloys, extraction and processing of advanced materials. Vacuum discharges, vacuum arc physics and technology and various applications towards vacuum interrupters, pulse power and particle accelerator are the main themes for this symposium. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately.

QCD for Postgraduates (5/5)

ScienceCinema

None

2018-05-14

We will introduce and discuss in some detail the two main classes of jets: cone type and sequential-recombination type. We will discuss their basic properties, as well as more advanced concepts such as jet substructure, jet filtering, ways of optimizing the jet radius, ways of defining the areas of jets, and of establishing the quality measure of the jet-algorithm in terms of discriminating power in specific searches. Finally we will discuss applications for Higgs searches involving boosted particles.

Analysis of High Spatial, Temporal, and Directional Resolution Recordings of Biological Sounds in the Southern California Bight

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-30

transiting whales in the Southern California Bight, b) the use of passive underwater acoustic techniques for improved habitat assessment in biologically...sensitive areas and improved ecosystem modeling, and c) the application of the physics of excitable media to numerical modeling of biological choruses...was on the potential impact of man-made sounds on the calling behavior of transiting humpback whales in the Southern California Bight. The main

Weed interference with peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.) and spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) crops under different herbicide treatments: effects on biomass and essential oil yield.

PubMed

Karkanis, Anestis; Lykas, Christos; Liava, Vasiliki; Bezou, Anna; Petropoulos, Spyridon; Tsiropoulos, Nikolaos

2018-01-01

'Minor crops' such as spearmint and peppermint are high added value crops, despite the fact that their production area is comparably small worldwide. The main limiting factor in mint commercial cultivation is weed competition. Thus, field experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of weed interference on growth, biomass and essential oil yield in peppermint and spearmint under different herbicide treatments. The application of pendimethalin and oxyfluorfen provided better control of annual weeds resulting in higher crop yield. Additionally, when treated with herbicides both crops were more competitive against annual weeds in the second year than in the first year. All pre-emergence herbicides increased biomass yield, since pendimethalin, linuron and oxyfluorfen reduced the density of annual weeds by 71-92%, 63-74% and 86-95%, respectively. Weed interference and herbicide application had no effect on essential oil content; however, a relatively strong impact on essential oil production per cultivated area unit was observed, mainly due to the adverse effect of weed interference on plant growth. Considering that pendimethalin and oxyfluorfen were effective against annual weeds in both spearmint and peppermint crops, these herbicides should be included in integrated weed management systems for better weed management in mint crops. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

["In vivo" body composition assessment; part I: a historic overview].

PubMed

Carnero, Elvis A; Alvero-Cruz, José Ramón; Giráldez García, Manuel Avelino; Sardinha, Luis B

2015-05-01

The study of body composition (BC) has gained in relevance over the last decades, mainly because of its important health- and disease- related applications within both the clinical and the sports setting. It is not a new area, and its especial relevance as an area of biology dates from the second half of the nineteenth century. In this paper, we have reviewed the three historic periods of BC, with special reference to the most important advances in in vivo assessment. Even though the earliest findings about human BC date from antiquity, the first (or 'early') stage of discovery began in 1850. Said early stage was mainly characterized by data obtained from the dissection of cadavers and by the application of biochemical methods in vivo. Longitudinal changes in body composition were also a concern. The second (so called 'recent') stage, in the second half of the twentieth century, was marked by milestones such as the formulation of the first mathematical models for the estimation of body components, and technological advances. Within the third ('contemporary' or 'current') stage of research, several groups have focused on validating the classical BC models in specific populations, on analysis of the genetic determinants (i.e. phenotypes and, more recently genotypes) of body composition, and on re-instigating the study of dynamic BC. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

Recent Advances in Paper-Based Sensors

PubMed Central

Liana, Devi D.; Raguse, Burkhard; Gooding, J. Justin; Chow, Edith

2012-01-01

Paper-based sensors are a new alternative technology for fabricating simple, low-cost, portable and disposable analytical devices for many application areas including clinical diagnosis, food quality control and environmental monitoring. The unique properties of paper which allow passive liquid transport and compatibility with chemicals/biochemicals are the main advantages of using paper as a sensing platform. Depending on the main goal to be achieved in paper-based sensors, the fabrication methods and the analysis techniques can be tuned to fulfill the needs of the end-user. Current paper-based sensors are focused on microfluidic delivery of solution to the detection site whereas more advanced designs involve complex 3-D geometries based on the same microfluidic principles. Although paper-based sensors are very promising, they still suffer from certain limitations such as accuracy and sensitivity. However, it is anticipated that in the future, with advances in fabrication and analytical techniques, that there will be more new and innovative developments in paper-based sensors. These sensors could better meet the current objectives of a viable low-cost and portable device in addition to offering high sensitivity and selectivity, and multiple analyte discrimination. This paper is a review of recent advances in paper-based sensors and covers the following topics: existing fabrication techniques, analytical methods and application areas. Finally, the present challenges and future outlooks are discussed. PMID:23112667

Real-time network traffic classification technique for wireless local area networks based on compressed sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balouchestani, Mohammadreza

2017-05-01

Network traffic or data traffic in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is the amount of network packets moving across a wireless network from each wireless node to another wireless node, which provide the load of sampling in a wireless network. WLAN's Network traffic is the main component for network traffic measurement, network traffic control and simulation. Traffic classification technique is an essential tool for improving the Quality of Service (QoS) in different wireless networks in the complex applications such as local area networks, wireless local area networks, wireless personal area networks, wireless metropolitan area networks, and wide area networks. Network traffic classification is also an essential component in the products for QoS control in different wireless network systems and applications. Classifying network traffic in a WLAN allows to see what kinds of traffic we have in each part of the network, organize the various kinds of network traffic in each path into different classes in each path, and generate network traffic matrix in order to Identify and organize network traffic which is an important key for improving the QoS feature. To achieve effective network traffic classification, Real-time Network Traffic Classification (RNTC) algorithm for WLANs based on Compressed Sensing (CS) is presented in this paper. The fundamental goal of this algorithm is to solve difficult wireless network management problems. The proposed architecture allows reducing False Detection Rate (FDR) to 25% and Packet Delay (PD) to 15 %. The proposed architecture is also increased 10 % accuracy of wireless transmission, which provides a good background for establishing high quality wireless local area networks.

Imbibition of wheat seeds: Application of image analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lev, Jakub; Blahovec, Jiří

2017-10-01

Image analysis is widely used for monitoring seeds during germination, and it is often the final phase of germination that is subjected to the greatest attention. However, the initial phase of germination (the so-called imbibition) also exhibits interesting behaviour. This work shows that image analysis has significant potential in the imbibition. Herein, a total of 120 seeds were analysed during germination tests, and information about seed size and shape was stored and analysed. It was found that the imbibition can be divided into two newly defined parts. The first one (`abrupt imbibition') consists mainly of the swelling of the seed embryo part and lasts approximately one hour. The second one, referred to as `main imbibition', consists mainly of spatial expansion caused by imbibition in the other parts of the seed. The results presented are supported by the development of seed cross area and shape parameters, and by direct observation.

Summary of Results from Space Shuttle Main Engine Off-Nominal Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Horton, James F.; Megivern, Jeffrey M.; McNutt, Leslie M.

2011-01-01

This paper is a summary of Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) off-nominal testing that occurred during 2008 and 2009. During the last two years of planned SSME testing at Stennis Space Center, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne worked with their NASA MSFC customer to systematically identify, develop, assess, and implement challenging test objectives in order to expand the knowledge of one of the world s most reliable and highly tested large rocket engine. The objectives successfully investigated three main areas of interest expanding engine performance margins, demonstrating system operational capabilities, and establishing ground work for new rocket engine technology. The testing gave the Space Shuttle Program new options to safely fly out the flight manifest and provided Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and NASA new insight into the operational capabilities of the SSME, capabilities which can be used in assessing potential future applications of the RS-25 engine.

The applicability of space imagery to the small-scale topographic mapping of developing countries: A case study — the Sudan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrie, G.; El Niweiri, A. E. H.

After reviewing the current status of topographic mapping in Sudan, the paper considers the possible applications of space inagery to the topographic mapping of the country at 1 : 100,000 scale. A comprehensive series of tests of the geometric accuracy and interpretability of six types of space imagery taken by the Landsat MSS, RBV and TM sensors, the MOMS scanner, the ESA Metric Camera and NASA's Large Format Camera have been conducted over a test area established in the Red Sea Hills area of Sudan supplemented by further interpretation tests carried out over the area of Khartoum and the Gezira. The results of these tests are given together with those from comparative tests carried out with other images acquired by the same sensors over test areas in developed countries (UK and USA). Further collateral information on topographic mapping at 1 : 100,000 scale from SPOT imagery has been provided by the Ordnance Survey based on its tests and experience in North Yemen. The paper concludes with an analysis of the possibilities of mapping the main (non-equatorial) area of Sudan at 1 : 100,000 scale based on the results of the extensive series of tests reported in the paper and elsewhere. Consideration is also given to the infrastructure required to support such a programme.

Anatomical Features of the Interscapular Area Where Wet Cupping Therapy Is Done and Its Possible Relation to Acupuncture Meridians.

PubMed

Ghods, Roshanak; Sayfouri, Nasrin; Ayati, Mohammad Hossein

2016-12-01

Although wet cupping has been a treatment for centuries, its mechanism of action is not well understood. Because the anatomical features of the wet-cupping area might play a role in its mechanism, we focus on the features of the interscapular area in which a common type of wet-cupping therapy (WCT), called Hijamat-e-Aam in Iranian medicine, is usually applied and discuss the possible relation of those features to the acupuncture meridians. We gathered and analyzed data from reliable textbooks on modern medicine with a focus on the anatomical features of the interscapular area, topics related to WTC in Iranian medicine, and acupuncture sources obtained by searching PubMed, Google-Scholar, and Science Direct. The interscapular area used for WCT was found to have special features: brown adipose tissue, immediate proximity to sympathetic ganglia, passage of the thoracic duct, two important acupuncture meridians, and proximity to the main vessel divisions carrying blood from the heart and the brain. These features indicate that the interscapular application of WCT not only discharges waste materials through a shifting of blood to the site after application of a traction force but also invigorates the body's metabolism, increases immunity, and regulates blood biochemistry, which are desired therapeutic effects of WCT. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Antimicrobial Polymers in the Nano-World

PubMed Central

Álvarez-Paino, Marta; Muñoz-Bonilla, Alexandra; Fernández-García, Marta

2017-01-01

Infections are one of the main concerns of our era due to antibiotic-resistant infections and the increasing costs in the health-care sector. Within this context, antimicrobial polymers present a great alternative to combat these problems since their mechanisms of action differ from those of antibiotics. Therefore, the microorganisms’ resistance to these polymeric materials is avoided. Antimicrobial polymers are not only applied in the health-care sector, they are also used in many other areas. This review presents different strategies that combine nanoscience and nanotechnology in the polymer world to combat contaminations from bacteria, fungi or algae. It focuses on the most relevant areas of application of these materials, viz. health, food, agriculture, and textiles. PMID:28336882

Development of Processing Techniques for Advanced Thermal Protection Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Selvaduray, Guna; Lacson, Jamie; Collazo, Julian

1997-01-01

During the period June 1, 1996 through May 31, 1997, the main effort has been in the development of materials for high temperature applications. Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are constantly being tested and evaluated for thermal shock resistance, high temperature dimensional stability, and tolerance to environmental effects. Materials development was carried out by using many different instruments and methods, ranging from intensive elemental analysis to testing the physical attributes of a material. The material development concentrated on two key areas: (1) development of coatings for carbon/carbon composites, and (2) development of ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC). This report describes the progress made in these two areas of research during this contract period.

Antimicrobial Polymers in the Nano-World.

PubMed

Álvarez-Paino, Marta; Muñoz-Bonilla, Alexandra; Fernández-García, Marta

2017-02-22

Infections are one of the main concerns of our era due to antibiotic-resistant infections and the increasing costs in the health-care sector. Within this context, antimicrobial polymers present a great alternative to combat these problems since their mechanisms of action differ from those of antibiotics. Therefore, the microorganisms' resistance to these polymeric materials is avoided. Antimicrobial polymers are not only applied in the health-care sector, they are also used in many other areas. This review presents different strategies that combine nanoscience and nanotechnology in the polymer world to combat contaminations from bacteria, fungi or algae. It focuses on the most relevant areas of application of these materials, viz. health, food, agriculture, and textiles.

Enhancing the Area of a Raman Atom Interferometer Using a Versatile Double-Diffraction Technique

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

Leveque, T.; Gauguet, A.; Michaud, F.

2009-08-21

In this Letter, we demonstrate a new scheme for Raman transitions which realize a symmetric momentum-space splitting of 4(Planck constant/2pi)k, deflecting the atomic wave packets into the same internal state. Combining the advantages of Raman and Bragg diffraction, we achieve a three pulse state labeled an interferometer, intrinsically insensitive to the main systematics and applicable to all kinds of atomic sources. This splitting scheme can be extended to 4N(Planck constant/2pi)k momentum transfer by a multipulse sequence and is implemented on a 8(Planck constant/2pi)k interferometer. We demonstrate the area enhancement by measuring inertial forces.

Derivation of Lake Areas and Elevations for the Mackenzie Basin Using Satellite Remote Sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Birkett, Charon; Kite, Geoff

1997-01-01

Modelling hydrological processes in large watersheds flowing to the Arctic ocean is one step towards larger-scale modelling of the global water and energy cycles. Models of the Mackenzie River Basin (Northern Canada) are currently available but omit explicit routing of river flows through the three main lakes - Athabasca, Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake (Kite et al, 1994). These lakes occupy an area of 65,000 sq km but little gauge information is available. The levels of the lakes are only measured at a few points on the circumferences and river flows are only measured downstream. The hydraulic relationships between level/discharge and level/area/volume are uncertain. It has been previously shown that satellite remote sensing can be utilised in providing measurements of both lake surface area using imaging techniques and lake level using radar altimetry (Birkett, 1994). Here, we explore the application of these techniques to derive the lake levels and areas for the Mackenzie Basin lakes.

Trends in polymeric electrospun fibers and their use as oral biomaterials.

PubMed

Meireles, Agnes B; Corrêa, Daniella K; da Silveira, João Vw; Millás, Ana Lg; Bittencourt, Edison; de Brito-Melo, Gustavo Ea; González-Torres, Libardo A

2018-05-01

Electrospinning is one of the techniques to produce structured polymeric fibers in the micro or nano scale and to generate novel materials for biomedical proposes. Electrospinning versatility provides fibers that could support different surgical and rehabilitation treatments. However, its diversity in equipment assembly, polymeric materials, and functional molecules to be incorporated in fibers result in profusion of recent biomaterials that are not fully explored, even though the recognized relevance of the technique. The present article describes the main electrospun polymeric materials used in oral applications, and the main aspects and parameters of the technique. Natural and synthetic polymers, blends, and composites were identified from the available literature and recent developments. Main applications of electrospun fibers were focused on drug delivery systems, tissue regeneration, and material reinforcement or modification, although studies require further investigation in order to enable direct use in human. Current and potential usages as biomaterials for oral applications must motivate the development in the use of electrospinning as an efficient method to produce highly innovative biomaterials, over the next few years. Impact statement Nanotechnology is a challenge for many researchers that look for obtaining different materials behaviors by modifying characteristics at a very low scale. Thus, the production of nanostructured materials represents a very important field in bioengineering, in which the electrospinning technique appears as a suitable alternative. This review discusses and provides further explanation on this versatile technique to produce novel polymeric biomaterials for oral applications. The use of electrospun fibers is incipient in oral areas, mainly because of the unfamiliarity with the technique. Provided disclosure, possibilities and state of the art are aimed at supporting interested researchers to better choose proper materials, understand, and design new experiments. This work seeks to encourage many other researchers-Dentists, Biologists, Engineers, Pharmacists-to develop innovative materials from different polymers. We highlight synthetic and natural polymers as trends in treatments to motivate an advance in the worldwide discussion and exploration of this interdisciplinary field.

No association between the use of Bti for mosquito control and the dynamics of non-target aquatic invertebrates in French coastal and continental wetlands.

PubMed

Lagadic, Laurent; Schäfer, Ralf B; Roucaute, Marc; Szöcs, Eduard; Chouin, Sébastien; de Maupeou, Jérôme; Duchet, Claire; Franquet, Evelyne; Le Hunsec, Benoit; Bertrand, Céline; Fayolle, Stéphanie; Francés, Benoît; Rozier, Yves; Foussadier, Rémi; Santoni, Jean-Baptiste; Lagneau, Christophe

2016-05-15

The environmental safety of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is still controversial, mainly because most of the previous field studies on its undesired effects were spatially limited and did not address the relationship between community similarity and application time and frequency. No general statement can therefore be drawn on the usage conditions of Bti that insure protection of non-target organisms. The present study was conducted in eight sites distributed over the main geographical sectors where mosquito control is implemented in mainland France and Corsica. Changes in non-target aquatic invertebrates were followed at elapsed time after repeated applications of two Bti formulations (VectoBac® WDG or 12AS) up to four consecutive years. We examined the influence of both larvicide treatments and environmental variables on community dynamics and dissimilarity between treated and control areas. As it can be argued that chironomids are the most vulnerable group of non-target invertebrates, we scrutinised potential Bti-related effects on the dynamics of their community. The use of VectoBac® WDG and 12AS in coastal and continental wetlands had no immediate or long-term detectable effect on the taxonomic structure and taxa abundance of non-target aquatic invertebrate communities, including chironomids. This applied to the main habitats where mosquito larvae occur, regardless of their geographic location. Flooding, whose frequency and duration depend on local meteorological and hydrological conditions, was identified as the main environmental driver of invertebrate community dynamics. Our findings add support to the environmental safety of currently available Bti formulations when following recommended application rates and best mosquito control practices. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Study and application of molluscicides in Japan*

PubMed Central

Komiya, Yoshitaka

1961-01-01

For several years after the First World War calcium oxide was the main compound used in the control of Oncomelania nosophora in Japan. This was generally replaced in 1944 by calcium cyanamide; since 1952 the prefectural authorities in areas of endemic bilharziasis have increasingly turned to the use of sodium pentachlorophenate as the molluscicide of choice. Applied at a rate of 5 g per m2, this compound has been found to kill 70%-80% of snails per application. Laboratory and field experiments with calcium-arsenic compounds have been conducted in Japan and have indicated that these products have a relatively high molluscicidal effect; they have, however, not been used on a wide scale for snail control. PMID:14458130

Optical information processing at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reid, Max B.; Bualat, Maria G.; Cho, Young C.; Downie, John D.; Gary, Charles K.; Ma, Paul W.; Ozcan, Meric; Pryor, Anna H.; Spirkovska, Lilly

1993-01-01

The combination of analog optical processors with digital electronic systems offers the potential of tera-OPS computational performance, while often requiring less power and weight relative to all-digital systems. NASA is working to develop and demonstrate optical processing techniques for on-board, real time science and mission applications. Current research areas and applications under investigation include optical matrix processing for space structure vibration control and the analysis of Space Shuttle Main Engine plume spectra, optical correlation-based autonomous vision for robotic vehicles, analog computation for robotic path planning, free-space optical interconnections for information transfer within digital electronic computers, and multiplexed arrays of fiber optic interferometric sensors for acoustic and vibration measurements.

Micro-optics technology and sensor systems applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gal, George; Herman, B.; Anderson, W.; Whitney, R.; Morrow, H.

1993-01-01

The current generation of electro-optical sensors utilizing refractive and reflective optical elements require sophisticated, complex, and expensive designs. Advanced-technology-based electro-optical sensors of minimum size and weight require miniaturization of optical, electrical, and mechanical devices with an increasing trend toward integration of various components. Micro-optics technology has the potential in a number of areas to simplify optical design with improved performance. This includes internally cooled apertures, hybrid optical design, microlenses, dispersive multicolor microlenses, active dither, electronically controlled optical beam steer, and microscopic integration of micro-optics, detectors, and signal processing layers. This paper describes our approach to the development of micro-optics technology with our main emphasis for sensors applications.

Rayleigh Scattering Diagnostics Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seasholtz, Richard (Compiler)

1996-01-01

The Rayleigh Scattering Diagnostics Workshop was held July 25-26, 1995 at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The purpose of the workshop was to foster timely exchange of information and expertise acquired by researchers and users of laser based Rayleigh scattering diagnostics for aerospace flow facilities and other applications. This Conference Publication includes the 12 technical presentations and transcriptions of the two panel discussions. The first panel was made up of 'users' of optical diagnostics, mainly in aerospace test facilities, and its purpose was to assess areas of potential applications of Rayleigh scattering diagnostics. The second panel was made up of active researchers in Rayleigh scattering diagnostics, and its purpose was to discuss the direction of future work.

Object-Oriented Programming When Developing Software in Geology and Geophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadulin, R. K.; Bakanovskaya, L. N.

2017-01-01

The paper reviews the role of object-oriented programming when developing software in geology and geophysics. Main stages have been identified at which it is worthwhile to apply principles of object-oriented programming when developing software in geology and geophysics. The research was based on a number of problems solved in Geology and Petroleum Production Institute. Distinctive features of these problems are given and areas of application of the object-oriented approach are identified. Developing applications in the sphere of geology and geophysics has shown that the process of creating such products is simplified due to the use of object-oriented programming, firstly when designing structures for data storage and graphical user interfaces.

The features that distinguish lichenases from other polysaccharide-hydrolyzing enzymes and the relevance of lichenases for biotechnological applications.

PubMed

Goldenkova-Pavlova, Irina V; Tyurin, Alexander А; Mustafaev, Orkhan N

2018-05-01

The main specific features of β-1,3-1,4-glucanases (or lichenases, EC 3.2.1.73), the enzymes that in a strictly specific manner hydrolyze β-glucans of many cereal species and lichens containing β-1,3 and β-1,4 bonds, are reviewed as well as the current strategies used for their protein design, which have been successfully applied to make lichenases more attractive and promising for biocatalytic conversion of biomass, in particular, in the areas of their biotechnological application, such as brewing industry, animal feed manufacture, and biofuel production, which will in future allow these technologies to be economically and ecologically beneficial.

Editors' preface for the topical issue on Seven papers on Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guido, Daniele; Landi, Giovanni; Vassout, Stéphane

2016-07-01

This topical issue grew out of the International Conference ;Noncommutative Geometry and Applications; held 16-21 June 2014 at Villa Mondragone, Frascati (Roma). The main purpose of the conference was to have a unified view of different incarnations of noncommutative geometry and its applications. The seven papers collected in the present topical issue represent a good sample of the topics covered at the workshop. The conference itself was one of the climaxes of the Franco-Italian project GREFI-GENCO, which was initiated in 2007 by CNRS and INDAM to promote and enhance collaboration and exchanges between French and Italian researchers in the area of noncommutative geometry.

NASA Applications and Lessons Learned in Reliability Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Safie, Fayssal M.; Fuller, Raymond P.

2011-01-01

Since the Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, communities across NASA have been developing and extensively using quantitative reliability and risk assessment methods in their decision making process. This paper discusses several reliability engineering applications that NASA has used over the year to support the design, development, and operation of critical space flight hardware. Specifically, the paper discusses several reliability engineering applications used by NASA in areas such as risk management, inspection policies, components upgrades, reliability growth, integrated failure analysis, and physics based probabilistic engineering analysis. In each of these areas, the paper provides a brief discussion of a case study to demonstrate the value added and the criticality of reliability engineering in supporting NASA project and program decisions to fly safely. Examples of these case studies discussed are reliability based life limit extension of Shuttle Space Main Engine (SSME) hardware, Reliability based inspection policies for Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) turbine disc, probabilistic structural engineering analysis for reliability prediction of the SSME alternate turbo-pump development, impact of ET foam reliability on the Space Shuttle System risk, and reliability based Space Shuttle upgrade for safety. Special attention is given in this paper to the physics based probabilistic engineering analysis applications and their critical role in evaluating the reliability of NASA development hardware including their potential use in a research and technology development environment.

Gas adsorption properties of hybrid graphene-MOF materials.

PubMed

Szczęśniak, Barbara; Choma, Jerzy; Jaroniec, Mietek

2018-03-15

Nowadays, hybrid porous materials consisting of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and graphene nanosheets become more and more attractive because of their growing applications in adsorption, catalysis and related areas. Incorporation of graphene oxide into MOFs can provide benefits such as increased water resistance and thermal stability as well as enhanced surface area and adsorption properties. Graphene oxide is one of the best additives to other materials owing to its two main virtues: high atomic density and large amount of surface functional groups. Due to its dense array of atoms, graphene oxide can significantly increase dispersion forces in graphene-MOF materials, which is beneficial for adsorption of small molecules. This work presents a concise appraisal of adsorption properties of MOFs and graphene-MOF hybrids toward CO 2 , volatile organic compounds, hydrogen and methane. It shows that the graphene-MOF materials represent an important class of materials with potential applications in adsorption and catalysis. A special emphasis of this article is placed on their adsorption applications for gas capture and storage. A large number of graphene-MOF adsorbents has been so far explored and their appraisal could be beneficial for researchers interested in the development of hybrid adsorbents for adsorption-based applications. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

76 FR 38408 - Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD's Fiscal Year 2011 HOPE VI Main Street Grants

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-30

... traditional central business district or ``Main Street'' area by replacing unused commercial space in... areas; 2. Preserve historic or traditional architecture or design features in Main Street areas; 3...

Soil water repellency under stones, forest residue mulch and bare soil following wildfire.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martins, Martinho A. S.; Prats, Sérgio A.; van Keulen, Daan; Vieira, Diana C. S.; Silva, Flávio C.; Keizer, Jan J.; Verheijen, Frank G. A.

2017-04-01

Soil water repellency (SWR) is a physical property that is commonly defined as the aptitude of soil to resist wetting. It has been documented for a wide range of soil and vegetation types, and can vary with soil organic matter (SOM) content and type, soil texture, soil moisture content (SMC) and soil temperature. Fire can induce, enhance or destroy SWR and, therefore, lead to considerable changes in soil water infiltration and storage and increase soil erosion by water, thereby weakening soil quality. In Portugal, wildfires occur frequently and affect large areas, on average some 100000 ha per year, but over 300000 ha in extreme years such as 2003 and 2005. This can have important implications in geomorphological and hydrological processes, as evidenced by the strong and sometimes extreme responses in post-fire runoff and erosion reported from various parts of the world, including Portugal. Thereby, the application of mulches from various materials to cover burned areas has been found to be an efficient stabilization treatment. However, little is known about possible side effects on SWR, especially long term effects. Forest SWR is very heterogeneous, as a result of variation in proximity to trees/shrubs, litter type and thickness, cracks, roots, and stones. This study targeted the spatial heterogeneity of soil water repellency under eucalypt plantation, five years after a wildfire and forest residue mulching application. The main objectives of this work were: 1) to assess the long-term effect of mulching application on the strength and spatial heterogeneity of topsoil SWR, by comparing SWR on bare soil, under stones, and under mulching remains; 2) to assess SWR at 1 cm depth between O and Ah horizons. The soil surface results showed that untreated bare soil areas were slightly more water repellent than mulched areas. However, under stones there were no SWR differences between mulched and control areas. At 1 cm depth, there was a marked mulching effect on SWR, even 5 years after application.

Maize Bioactive Peptides against Cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Díaz-Gómez, Jorge L.; Castorena-Torres, Fabiola; Preciado-Ortiz, Ricardo E.; García-Lara, Silverio

2017-06-01

Cancer is one of the main chronic degenerative diseases worldwide. In recent years, consumption of whole-grain cereals and their derived food products has been associated with reduction risks of various types of cancer. Cereals main biomolecules includes proteins, peptides, and amino acids present in different quantities within the grain. The nutraceutical properties associated with peptides exerts biological functions that promote health and prevent this disease. In this review, we report the current status and advances on maize peptides regarding bioactive properties that have been reported such as antioxidant, antihypertensive, hepatoprotective, and anti-tumour activities. We also highlighted its biological potential through which maize bioactive peptides exert anti-cancer activity. Finally, we analyse and emphasize the possible areas of application for maize peptides.

Use of dimethyldioxirane in the epoxidation of the main constituents of the essential oils obtained from Tagetes lucida, Cymbopogon citratus, Lippia alba and Eucalyptus citriodora.

PubMed

Veloza, Luz A; Orozco, Lina M; Sepúlveda-Arias, Juan C

2011-07-01

Dimethyldioxirane (DMDO), a widely used oxidant in organic synthesis is considered an environmentally friendly oxygen transfer reagent because acetone is the only byproduct formed in its oxidation reactions. This work describes the isolation of the main constituents (terpenes) in the essential oils obtained from Tagetes lucida, Cymbopogon citratus, Lippia alba and Eucalyptus citriodora, their epoxidation with DMDO in acetone solution and the characterization of the resulting epoxides by GC-MS (EI) and NMR. This is one of the first reports involving the application of dioxirane chemistry to essential oils in order to generate modified compounds with potential uses in several areas of medicine and industry.

Monitoring Structure and Regional-Level Displacements for Lisbon Using Mltitemporal InSAR Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roque, Dora; Perissin, Daniele Falcao, Ana Paula; Fonseca, Ana Maria; Henriques, Maria Joao

2015-05-01

The city of Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and has been devastated by catastrophic events in the past, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. This study provides a regional analysis of displacements for the city and its neighbourhoods, between 2008 and 2010, through the application of mutitemporal InSAR techniques on Envisat ASAR images. Smaller areas with identified problems were subjected to a more refined processing. Besides, the behaviour of some key infrastructures, such as important buildings or railways, was carefully analysed in order to evaluate their safety. Subsidence was detected at the regional and small areas, in which the highest subsidence rates were verified on industrial parks or on landfills close to the river. Seasonal trends were found for the small areas, mainly related with structure thermal expansion or variations in underground water.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Program at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holst, Terry L.

1989-01-01

The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Program at NASA Ames Research Center is reviewed and discussed. The technical elements of the CFD Program are listed and briefly discussed. These elements include algorithm research, research and pilot code development, scientific visualization, advanced surface representation, volume grid generation, and numerical optimization. Next, the discipline of CFD is briefly discussed and related to other areas of research at NASA Ames including experimental fluid dynamics, computer science research, computational chemistry, and numerical aerodynamic simulation. These areas combine with CFD to form a larger area of research, which might collectively be called computational technology. The ultimate goal of computational technology research at NASA Ames is to increase the physical understanding of the world in which we live, solve problems of national importance, and increase the technical capabilities of the aerospace community. Next, the major programs at NASA Ames that either use CFD technology or perform research in CFD are listed and discussed. Briefly, this list includes turbulent/transition physics and modeling, high-speed real gas flows, interdisciplinary research, turbomachinery demonstration computations, complete aircraft aerodynamics, rotorcraft applications, powered lift flows, high alpha flows, multiple body aerodynamics, and incompressible flow applications. Some of the individual problems actively being worked in each of these areas is listed to help define the breadth or extent of CFD involvement in each of these major programs. State-of-the-art examples of various CFD applications are presented to highlight most of these areas. The main emphasis of this portion of the presentation is on examples which will not otherwise be treated at this conference by the individual presentations. Finally, a list of principal current limitations and expected future directions is given.

Feasibility of Energy-Autonomous Wireless Microsensors for Biomedical Applications: Powering and Communication.

PubMed

Goodarzy, Farhad; Skafidas, Efstratios Stan; Gambini, Simone

2015-01-01

In this review, biomedical-related wireless miniature devices such as implantable medical devices, neural prostheses, embedded neural systems, and body area network systems are investigated and categorized. The two main subsystems of such designs, the RF subsystem and the energy source subsystem, are studied in detail. Different application classes are considered separately, focusing on their specific data rate and size characteristics. Also, the energy consumption of state-of-the-art communication practices is compared to the energy that can be generated by current energy scavenging devices, highlighting gaps and opportunities. The RF subsystem is classified, and the suitable architecture for each category of applications is highlighted. Finally, a new figure of merit suitable for wireless biomedical applications is introduced to measure the performance of these devices and assist the designer in selecting the proper system for the required application. This figure of merit can effectively fill the gap of a much required method for comparing different techniques in simulation stage before a final design is chosen for implementation.

Spatial distribution of source locations for particulate nitrate and sulfate in the upper-midwestern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Weixiang; Hopke, Philip K.; Zhou, Liming

Two back-trajectory analysis methods designed to be used with multiple site data, simplified quantitative transport bias analysis (SQTBA) and residence time weighted concentration (RTWC), were applied to nitrate and sulfate concentration data from two rural sites (the Mammoth Cave National Park and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park) and five urban sites (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, and St. Louis) for an intensive investigation on the spatial patterns of origins for these two species in the upper-midwestern area. The study was made by dividing the data into five categories: all sites and all seasons, rural sites in summer, rural sites in winter, urban sites in summer, and urban sites in winter. A general conclusion was that the origins of the nitrate in these seven sites were mainly in the upper-midwestern areas, while the sulfate in these seven sites were mainly from the Ohio and Tennessee River Valley areas. The upper-midwestern areas are regions of high ammonia emissions rather than high NO x emissions. In the winter, metropolitan areas showed the highest nitrate emission potential suggesting the importance of local NO x emissions. In the summer, ammonia emissions from fertilizer application in the lower midwestern area made a significant contribution to nitrate in the rural sites of this study. The impact of the wind direction prevalence on the source spatial patterns was observed by comparing the urban and rural patterns of the summer. The differences between the results of two methods are discussed and suggestions for applying these methods are also provided.

DC grid for home applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elangovan, D.; Archana, R.; Jayadeep, V. J.; Nithin, M.; Arunkumar, G.

2017-11-01

More than fifty percent Indian population do not have access to electricity in daily lives. The distance between the power generating stations and the distribution centers forms one of the main reasons for lack of electrification in rural and remote areas. Here lies the importance of decentralization of power generation through renewable energy resources. In the present world, electricity is predominantly powered by alternating current, but most day to day devices like LED lamps, computers and electrical vehicles, all run on DC power. By directly supplying DC to these loads, the number of power conversion stages was reduced, and overall system efficiency increases. Replacing existing AC network with DC is a humongous task, but with power electronic techniques, this project intends to implement DC grid at a household level in remote and rural areas. Proposed work was designed and simulated successfully for various loads amounting to 250 W through appropriate power electronic convertors. Maximum utilization of the renewable sources for domestic and commercial application was achieved with the proposed DC topology.

Simulation of laser detection and ranging (LADAR) and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) data for autonomous tracking of airborne objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Powell, Gavin; Markham, Keith C.; Marshall, David

2000-06-01

This paper presents the results of an investigation leading into an implementation of FLIR and LADAR data simulation for use in a multi sensor data fusion automated target recognition system. At present the main areas of application are in military environments but systems can easily be adapted to other areas such as security applications, robotics and autonomous cars. Recent developments have been away from traditional sensor modeling and toward modeling of features that are external to the system, such as atmosphere and part occlusion, to create a more realistic and rounded system. We have implemented such techniques and introduced a means of inserting these models into a highly detailed scene model to provide a rich data set for later processing. From our study and implementation we are able to embed sensor model components into a commercial graphics and animation package, along with object and terrain models, which can be easily used to create a more realistic sequence of images.

Fiber optic perimeter system for security in smart city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cubik, Jakub; Kepak, Stanislav; Nedoma, Jan; Fajkus, Marcel; Zboril, Ondrej; Novak, Martin; Jargus, Jan; Vasinek, Vladimir

2017-10-01

Protection of persons and assets is the key challenge of Smart City safeguards technologies. Conventional security technologies are often outdated and easy to breach. Therefore, new technologies that could complement existing systems or replace them are developed. The use of optical fibers and their subsequent application in sensing is a trend of recent years. This article discusses the use of fiber-optic sensors in perimeter protection. The sensor consists of optical fibers and couplers only and being constructed without wires and metal parts bring many advantages. These include an absence of interference with electromagnetic waves, system presence can be difficult to detect as well as affect its operation. Testing installation of perimeter system was carried out under reinforced concrete structure. Subjects walked over the bridge at different speeds and over the different routes. The task for the system was an absolute detection of all subjects. The proposed system should find application mainly in areas with the presence of volatile substances, strong electromagnetic fields, or in explosive areas.

Measurement of infiltration rates in urban sewer systems by use of oxygen isotopes.

PubMed

De Bénédittis, J; Bertrand-Krajewski, J L

2005-01-01

The paper presents the principle of a method to measure infiltration rates in sewer systems based on the use of oxygen isotopes and its application in Lyon (France). In the urban area of Lyon, significant differences in delta 18O that can reach 3 per thousand are observed between the oxygen isotopic compositions of groundwater originating from Rhone, Saone and from their associated alluvial aquifers. Drinking water supplying Lyon results mainly from pumping in the Rhone alluvial aquifer. Therefore, in some areas, the difference of isotopic composition between wastewater resulting from the consumption of drinking water and local groundwater can be used to measure infiltration in sewer systems. The application in the catchment of Ecully shows that the infiltration flow rate presents strong fluctuations at an hourly scale: it varies between 15 and 40 m3/h. This variability could be explained by non-constant discharges of pumping and by variations of the water level in the sewer.

29. MAIN CONTROL ROOM, PANELS WEST OF MAIN CONTROL AREA, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

29. MAIN CONTROL ROOM, PANELS WEST OF MAIN CONTROL AREA, LOOKING SOUTH (LOCATION Q) - Shippingport Atomic Power Station, On Ohio River, 25 miles Northwest of Pittsburgh, Shippingport, Beaver County, PA

28. MAIN CONTROL ROOM, PANELS WEST OF MAIN CONTROL AREA, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

28. MAIN CONTROL ROOM, PANELS WEST OF MAIN CONTROL AREA, LOOKING NORTH (LOCATION Q) - Shippingport Atomic Power Station, On Ohio River, 25 miles Northwest of Pittsburgh, Shippingport, Beaver County, PA

Spatially distributed flood forecasting in flash flood prone areas: Application to road network supervision in Southern France

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naulin, J.-P.; Payrastre, O.; Gaume, E.

2013-04-01

SummaryAccurate flood forecasts are critical to an efficient flood event management strategy. Until now, hydro-meteorological forecasts have mainly been used to establish early-warnings in France (meteorological and flood vigilance maps) or over the world (flash-flood guidances). These forecasts are typically limited either to the main streams covered by the flood forecasting services or to watersheds with specific assets like check dams, which in most cases are well gauged river sections, thus leaving aside large parts of the territory. This paper presents a distributed hydro-meteorological forecasting approach, which makes use of the high spatial and temporal resolution rainfall estimates that are now available, to provide information at ungauged sites. The proposed system intended to detect road inundation risks had initially been developed and tested in areas of limited size. This paper presents the extension of such a system to an entire region (i.e. the Gard region in Southern France), including over 2000 crossing points between rivers and roads and its validation with respect to a large data set of actual reported road inundations observed during recent flash flood events. These initial validation results appear to be most promising. The eventual proposed tool would provide the necessary information for flood event management services to identify the areas at risk and adopt appropriate safety and rescue measures: i.e. pre-positioning of rescue equipment, interruption of the traffic on the exposed roads and determination of safe access or evacuation routes. Moreover, beyond the specific application to the supervision of a road network, the research undertaken herein also provides results for the performance of hydro-meteorological forecasts on ungauged headwaters.

Targeting of Gold Deposits in Amazonian Exploration Frontiers using Knowledge- and Data-Driven Spatial Modeling of Geophysical, Geochemical, and Geological Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magalhães, Lucíola Alves; Souza Filho, Carlos Roberto

2012-03-01

This paper reports the application of weights-of-evidence, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy logic spatial modeling techniques to generate prospectivity maps for gold mineralization in the neighborhood of the Amapari Au mine, Brazil. The study area comprises one of the last Brazilian mineral exploration frontiers. The Amapari mine is located in the Maroni-Itaicaiúnas Province, which regionally hosts important gold, iron, manganese, chromite, diamond, bauxite, kaolinite, and cassiterite deposits. The Amapari Au mine is characterized as of the orogenic gold deposit type. The highest gold grades are associated with highly deformed rocks and are concentrated in sulfide-rich veins mainly composed of pyrrhotite. The data used for the generation of gold prospectivity models include aerogeophysical and geological maps as well as the gold content of stream sediment samples. The prospectivity maps provided by these three methods showed that the Amapari mine stands out as an area of high potential for gold mineralization. The prospectivity maps also highlight new targets for gold exploration. These new targets were validated by means of detailed maps of gold geochemical anomalies in soil and by fieldwork. The identified target areas exhibit good spatial coincidence with the main soil geochemical anomalies and prospects, thus demonstrating that the delineation of exploration targets by analysis and integration of indirect datasets in a geographic information system (GIS) is consistent with direct prospecting. Considering that work of this nature has never been developed in the Amazonian region, this is an important example of the applicability and functionality of geophysical data and prospectivity analysis in regions where geologic and metallogenetic information is scarce.

Validation of the European Prototype for Integrated Care at Municipal Level in Savona: Updating and Maintenance

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-10-25

within one of the programmes sponsored by the European Commission.The system mainly consists of a shared care database in which each groups of...care database in which each community facility, or group of facilities, is supported by a local area network (LAN). Each of these LANs is connected over...functions. The software is layered, so that the client application is not affected by how the servers are implemented or which database system they use

[The urgency of the application of the medical sanitary passport in the system for chemical safety in the areas of location of high-risk chemical facilities in the Russian Federation].

PubMed

Kombarova, M Iu; Radilov, A S; Dulov, S A

2012-01-01

The main provisions concerning the need for a creation of medical and sanitary passport for territories in the protective measures zones (PMZ) of storage facilities and facilities for the destruction of chemical weapons (FDCW) are presented in the article. The assessment of results of certification of the territory of PMZ and FDCW in "Maradykovsky" in the Kirov region has been done.

The highlights of 1989

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

Activity of the Earth Science and Application Division in 1989 is reported. On overview of the work of Division is presented, and the main changes in previously announced flight schedules are noted. The following subject areas are covered: the Earth Observing System; studies of the stratospheric ozone; U.S.-U.S.S.R. collaboration in Earth sciences; cloud climatology and the radiation budget; studies of ocean color; global tropospheric chemistry studies; first ISLSCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) field experiment; and solid Earth science research plan.

Ultrasonic guided wave bondline evaluation of thick metallic structures with viscoelastic coatings and the demonstration of a novel mode sweep technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bostron, Jason

Ultrasonic guided waves are becoming more widely used in nondestructive evaluation applications due to their efficiency in defect detection, ability to inspect hidden areas, and other reasons. This dissertation addresses two main topics: ultrasonic guided wave bond evaluation of thin and thick coatings on thick metallic structures, and the use of a novel phased array technique for optimal guided wave mode and frequency selection. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Mobile Technologies in the Service of Students' Learning of Mathematics: The Example of Game Application A.L.E.X. in the Context of a Primary School in Cyprus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kyriakides, Andreas O.; Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Maria; Prodromou, Theodosia

2016-01-01

This article reports on the main experiences gained from a 2-year study which incorporated A.L.E.X., an educational puzzle game available on iPad or Android tablet devices, within the primary school mathematics curriculum. The study took place in a public primary school, located in a rural area of Cyprus. The majority of its students come from low…

Twelfth International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems (ISMIS󈧄) Held in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 11-14, 2000

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-10-14

without any knowledge of the problem area. Therefore, Darwinian-type evolutionary computation has found a very wide range of applications, including many ...the author examined many biomedical studies that included literature searches. The Science Citation Index (SCL) Abstracts of these studies...yield many records that are non-relevant to the main technical themes of the study. In summary, these types of simple limited queries can result in two

The role of printing techniques for large-area dye sensitized solar cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mariani, Paolo; Vesce, Luigi; Di Carlo, Aldo

2015-10-01

The versatility of printing technologies and their intrinsic ability to outperform other techniques in large-area deposition gives scope to revolutionize the photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing field. Printing methods are commonly used in conventional silicon-based PVs to cover part of the production process. Screen printing techniques, for example, are applied to deposit electrical contacts on the silicon wafer. However, it is with the advent of third generation PVs that printing/coating techniques have been extensively used in almost all of the manufacturing processes. Among all the third generation PVs, dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology has been developed up to commercialization levels. DSSCs and modules can be fabricated by adopting all of the main printing techniques on both rigid and flexible substrates. This allows an easy tuning of cell/module characteristics to the desired application. Transparency, colour, shape, layout and other DSSC’s features can be easily varied by changing the printing parameters and paste/ink formulations used in the printing process. This review focuses on large-area printing/coating technologies for the fabrication of DSSCs devices. The most used and promising techniques are presented underlining the process parameters and applications.

Membrane separation for non-aqueous solution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widodo, S.; Khoiruddin; Ariono, D.; Subagjo; Wenten, I. G.

2018-01-01

Membrane technology has been widely used in a number of applications competing with conventional technologies in various ways. Despite the enormous applications, they are mainly used for the aqueous system. The use of membrane-based processes in a non-aqueous system is an emerging area. This is because developed membranes are still limited in separations involving aqueous solution which show several drawbacks when implemented in a non-aqueous system. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the current application of membrane processes in non-aqueous solutions, such as mineral oil treatment, vegetable oil processing, and organic solvent recovery. Developments of advanced membrane materials for the non-aqueous solutions such as super-hydrophobic and organic solvent resistant membranes are reviewed. In addition, challenges and future outlook of membrane separation for the non-aqueous solution are discussed.

Distributed cooperative regulation for multiagent systems and its applications to power systems: a survey.

PubMed

Hu, Jianqiang; Li, Yaping; Yong, Taiyou; Cao, Jinde; Yu, Jie; Mao, Wenbo

2014-01-01

Cooperative regulation of multiagent systems has become an active research area in the past decade. This paper reviews some recent progress in distributed coordination control for leader-following multiagent systems and its applications in power system and mainly focuses on the cooperative tracking control in terms of consensus tracking control and containment tracking control. Next, methods on how to rank the network nodes are summarized for undirected/directed network, based on which one can determine which follower should be connected to leaders such that partial followers can perceive leaders' information. Furthermore, we present a survey of the most relevant scientific studies investigating the regulation and optimization problems in power systems based on distributed strategies. Finally, some potential applications in the frequency tracking regulation of smart grids are discussed at the end of the paper.

Distributed Cooperative Regulation for Multiagent Systems and Its Applications to Power Systems: A Survey

PubMed Central

Li, Yaping; Yong, Taiyou; Yu, Jie; Mao, Wenbo

2014-01-01

Cooperative regulation of multiagent systems has become an active research area in the past decade. This paper reviews some recent progress in distributed coordination control for leader-following multiagent systems and its applications in power system and mainly focuses on the cooperative tracking control in terms of consensus tracking control and containment tracking control. Next, methods on how to rank the network nodes are summarized for undirected/directed network, based on which one can determine which follower should be connected to leaders such that partial followers can perceive leaders' information. Furthermore, we present a survey of the most relevant scientific studies investigating the regulation and optimization problems in power systems based on distributed strategies. Finally, some potential applications in the frequency tracking regulation of smart grids are discussed at the end of the paper. PMID:25243199

Use of dextran nanoparticle: A paradigm shift in bacterial exopolysaccharide based biomedical applications.

PubMed

Banerjee, Aparna; Bandopadhyay, Rajib

2016-06-01

This review is a concise compilation of all the major researches on dextran nanoparticle based biomedical applications. Dextran is a highly biocompatible and biodegradable neutral bacterial exopolysaccharide with simple repeating glucose subunits. It's simple yet unique biopolymeric nature made it highly suitable as nanomedicine, nanodrug carrier, and cell imaging system or nanobiosensor. Most importantly, it is extremely water soluble and shows no post drug delivery cellular toxicity. Complete metabolism of dextran is possible inside body thus possibility of renal failure is minimum. Dextran based nanoparticles have superior aqueous solubility, high cargo capacity and intrinsic viscosity, and short storage period. The main focus area of this review is- past and present of major biomedical applications of dextran based nanomaterials thus showing a paradigm shift in bacterial exopolysaccharide based nanobiotechnology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nanomaterials for Cardiac Myocyte Tissue Engineering.

PubMed

Amezcua, Rodolfo; Shirolkar, Ajay; Fraze, Carolyn; Stout, David A

2016-07-19

Since their synthesizing introduction to the research community, nanomaterials have infiltrated almost every corner of science and engineering. Over the last decade, one such field has begun to look at using nanomaterials for beneficial applications in tissue engineering, specifically, cardiac tissue engineering. During a myocardial infarction, part of the cardiac muscle, or myocardium, is deprived of blood. Therefore, the lack of oxygen destroys cardiomyocytes, leaving dead tissue and possibly resulting in the development of arrhythmia, ventricular remodeling, and eventual heart failure. Scarred cardiac muscle results in heart failure for millions of heart attack survivors worldwide. Modern cardiac tissue engineering research has developed nanomaterial applications to combat heart failure, preserve normal heart tissue, and grow healthy myocardium around the infarcted area. This review will discuss the recent progress of nanomaterials for cardiovascular tissue engineering applications through three main nanomaterial approaches: scaffold designs, patches, and injectable materials.

Hollow-structured mesoporous materials: chemical synthesis, functionalization and applications.

PubMed

Li, Yongsheng; Shi, Jianlin

2014-05-28

Hollow-structured mesoporous materials (HMMs), as a kind of mesoporous material with unique morphology, have been of great interest in the past decade because of the subtle combination of the hollow architecture with the mesoporous nanostructure. Benefitting from the merits of low density, large void space, large specific surface area, and, especially, the good biocompatibility, HMMs present promising application prospects in various fields, such as adsorption and storage, confined catalysis when catalytically active species are incorporated in the core and/or shell, controlled drug release, targeted drug delivery, and simultaneous diagnosis and therapy of cancers when the surface and/or core of the HMMs are functionalized with functional ligands and/or nanoparticles, and so on. In this review, recent progress in the design, synthesis, functionalization, and applications of hollow mesoporous materials are discussed. Two main synthetic strategies, soft-templating and hard-templating routes, are broadly sorted and described in detail. Progress in the main application aspects of HMMs, such as adsorption and storage, catalysis, and biomedicine, are also discussed in detail in this article, in terms of the unique features of the combined large void space in the core and the mesoporous network in the shell. Functionalization of the core and pore/outer surfaces with functional organic groups and/or nanoparticles, and their performance, are summarized in this article. Finally, an outlook of their prospects and challenges in terms of their controlled synthesis and scaled application is presented. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Survey on Monitoring and Quality Controlling of the Mobile Biosignal Delivery.

PubMed

Pawar, Pravin A; Edla, Damodar R; Edoh, Thierry; Shinde, Vijay; van Beijnum, Bert-Jan

2017-10-31

A Mobile Patient Monitoring System (MPMS) acquires patient's biosignals and transmits them using wireless network connection to the decision-making module or healthcare professional for the assessment of patient's condition. A variety of wireless network technologies such as wireless personal area networks (e.g., Bluetooth), mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET), and infrastructure-based networks (e.g., WLAN and cellular networks) are in practice for biosignals delivery. The wireless network quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of biosignals delivery are mainly specified in terms of required bandwidth, acceptable delay, and tolerable error rate. An important research challenge in the MPMS is how to satisfy QoS requirements of biosignals delivery in the environment characterized by patient mobility, deployment of multiple wireless network technologies, and variable QoS characteristics of the wireless networks. QoS requirements are mainly application specific, while available QoS is largely dependent on QoS provided by wireless network in use. QoS provisioning refers to providing support for improving QoS experience of networked applications. In resource poor conditions, application adaptation may also be required to make maximum use of available wireless network QoS. This survey paper presents a survey of recent developments in the area of QoS provisioning for MPMS. In particular, our contributions are as follows: (1) overview of wireless networks and network QoS requirements of biosignals delivery; (2) survey of wireless networks' QoS performance evaluation for the transmission of biosignals; and (3) survey of QoS provisioning mechanisms for biosignals delivery in MPMS. We also propose integrating end-to-end QoS monitoring and QoS provisioning strategies in a mobile patient monitoring system infrastructure to support optimal delivery of biosignals to the healthcare professionals.

Fly ashes from coal and petroleum coke combustion: current and innovative potential applications.

PubMed

González, Aixa; Navia, Rodrigo; Moreno, Natalia

2009-12-01

Coal fly ashes (CFA) are generated in large amounts worldwide. Current combustion technologies allow the burning of fuels with high sulfur content such as petroleum coke, generating non-CFA, such as petroleum coke fly ash (PCFA), mainly from fluidized bed combustion processes. The disposal of CFA and PCFA fly ashes can have severe impacts in the environment such as a potential groundwater contamination by the leaching of heavy metals and/or particulate matter emissions; making it necessary to treat or reuse them. At present CFA are utilized in several applications fields such as cement and concrete production, agriculture and soil stabilization. However, their reuse is restricted by the quality parameters of the end-product or requirements defined by the production process. Therefore, secondary material markets can use a limited amount of CFA, which implies the necessity of new markets for the unused CFA. Some potential future utilization options reviewed herein are zeolite synthesis and valuable metals extraction. In comparison to CFA, PCFA are characterized by a high Ca content, suggesting a possible use as neutralizers of acid wastewaters from mining operations, opening a new potential application area for PCFA that could solve contamination problems in emergent and mining countries such as Chile. However, this potential application may be limited by PCFA heavy metals leaching, mainly V and Ni, which are present in PCFA in high concentrations.

75 FR 11153 - Main Mill Street Investments, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-10

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13631-000] Main Mill Street..., Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications March 1, 2010. On November 16, Main Mill Street Investments, LLC (Main Mill Street Investments) filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to...

Monitoring and Analysis of Nonpoint Source Pollution - Case study on terraced paddy fields in an agricultural watershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shih-Kai; Jang, Cheng-Shin; Yeh, Chun-Lin

2013-04-01

The intensive use of chemical fertilizer has negatively impacted environments in recent decades, mainly through water pollution by nitrogen (N) and phosphate (P) originating from agricultural activities. As a main crop with the largest cultivation area about 0.25 million ha per year in Taiwan, rice paddies account for a significant share of fertilizer consumption among agriculture crops. This study evaluated the fertilization of paddy fields impacting return flow water quality in an agricultural watershed located at Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan. Water quality monitoring continued for two crop-periods in 2012, around subject to different water bodies, including the irrigation water, drainage water, and shallow groundwater. The results indicated that obviously increasing of ammonium-N, nitrate-N and TP concentrations in the surface drainage water were observed immediately following three times of fertilizer applications (including basal, tillering, and panicle fertilizer application), but reduced to relatively low concentrations after 7-10 days after each fertilizer application. Groundwater quality monitoring showed that the observation wells with the more shallow water depth, the more significant variation of concentrations of ammonium-N, nitrate-N and TP could be observed, which means that the contamination potential of nutrient of groundwater is related not only to the impermeable plow sole layer but also to the length of percolation route in this area. The study also showed that the potential pollution load of nutrient could be further reduced by well drainage water control and rational fertilizer management, such as deep-water irrigation, reuse of return flow, the rational application of fertilizers, and the SRI (The System of Rice Intensification) method. The results of this study can provide as an evaluation basis to formulate effective measures for agricultural non-point source pollution control and the reuse of agricultural return flow. Keywords:Chemical fertilizer, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Paddy field, Non-point source pollution.

Comparative development of knowledge-based bioeconomy in the European Union and Turkey.

PubMed

Celikkanat Ozan, Didem; Baran, Yusuf

2014-09-01

Biotechnology, defined as the technological application that uses biological systems and living organisms, or their derivatives, to create or modify diverse products or processes, is widely used for healthcare, agricultural and environmental applications. The continuity in industrial applications of biotechnology enables the rise and development of the bioeconomy concept. Bioeconomy, including all applications of biotechnology, is defined as translation of knowledge received from life sciences into new, sustainable, environment friendly and competitive products. With the advanced research and eco-efficient processes in the scope of bioeconomy, more healthy and sustainable life is promised. Knowledge-based bioeconomy with its economic, social and environmental potential has already been brought to the research agendas of European Union (EU) countries. The aim of this study is to summarize the development of knowledge-based bioeconomy in EU countries and to evaluate Turkey's current situation compared to them. EU-funded biotechnology research projects under FP6 and FP7 and nationally-funded biotechnology projects under The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Academic Research Funding Program Directorate (ARDEB) and Technology and Innovation Funding Programs Directorate (TEYDEB) were examined. In the context of this study, the main research areas and subfields which have been funded, the budget spent and the number of projects funded since 2003 both nationally and EU-wide and the gaps and overlapping topics were analyzed. In consideration of the results, detailed suggestions for Turkey have been proposed. The research results are expected to be used as a roadmap for coordinating the stakeholders of bioeconomy and integrating Turkish Research Areas into European Research Areas.

Detection of precursory deformation using a TLS. Application to spatial prediction of rockfalls.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abellán, Antonio; Vilaplana, Joan Manuel; Calvet, Jaume; Rodriguez, Xavier

2010-05-01

Different applications on the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) on rock slopes are undergoing rapid development, mainly in the characterization of 3D discontinuities and the monitoring of rock slopes. The emphasis of this research is on detection of precursory deformation and its application to spatial prediction of rockfalls. The pilot study area corresponds to the main scarp of an old slide located at Puigcercós (Catalonia, Spain). 3D temporal variations of the terrain were analyzed by comparing sequential TLS datasets. Five areas characterized by centimetric precursory deformations were detected in the study area. Of these deformations, (a) growing deformation across three areas culminated in a rockfall occurrence; and (b) another growing deformation across two areas was detected, making a subsequent rockfall likely. The areas with precursory deformations detected in Puigcercós showed the following characteristics: (a) a sub-vertical fracture delimiting the moving part from the rest of the slope; (b) an increase in the horizontal displacement upwards, typical of a toppling failure mechanism (Muller 1968; Goodman and Bray, 1976). In addition, decimetric-scale rockfalls were observed in the upper part of the moving areas, which is consistent with the observations of Rosser et al., (2007). TLS ILRIS 3D technical characteristics are as follows: high accuracy (7.2 mm at a range of 50 meters), high angular resolution (e.g. 1 point every few cm), fast data acquisition: 2,500 points/second; broad coverage; high maximum range on natural slopes: ~600m. The single point distances between the surface of reference and the successive data point clouds were computed using a conventional methodology (data vs. reference comparison). The direction of comparison was defined as the normal vector of the rock face at its central part. We focused in the study of the small scale displacements towards the origin of coordinates, which reflect the pre-failure deformation on part of the slope. A nearest neighbour (NN) filtering technique was applied to the RAW datasets (Abellán et al., 2009), enabling the accurate detection of centimetric displacements. The parameters of the precursory deformation correlated with the failure mechanism, lithology and volume of the rockfall: higher values of length and duration of the precursory deformation were found in the toppling failure mechanism, ductile materials and rockfalls that involved considerable volumes. These results are consistent with observations in the literature regarding rockfalls of higher magnitude and lower frequency (e.g.: Zvelebil and Moser, 2001; Crosta and Agliardi, 2004; Hungr et al., 2007). It is also important to mention that no precursory indicators were detected prior to each rockfall that occurred in the study areas. This could simply be due to infrequent data acquisition or insufficient instrument accuracy. The application of TLS for the spatial prediction of rockfalls should be validated through: (a) the continuation of the TLS monitoring campaign at the areas which currently show ongoing deformation; (b) the selection of new case studies at different geomorphological sites with different lithologies; and (c) the selection of new case studies with different failure mechanisms (e.g. fall, slide). These tasks are of paramount importance to understand the pre-failure behaviour of rockfalls and to implement these findings in an early warning system.

Ammonia volatilization following dairy slurry application to a permanent grassland on a volcanic soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez-Lagos, J.; Salazar, F.; Alfaro, M.; Misselbrook, T.

2013-12-01

Agriculture is the largest source of ammonia (NH3) emission to the atmosphere. Within the agricultural sector, the application of slurry to grasslands as fertilizer is one of the main emission sources. This is a common practice in southern Chile, where most dairy production systems are grazing-based. In Chile, there are few published data of gaseous emissions following slurry application to grassland. The aim of this study was to evaluate NH3 volatilization following dairy slurry application to a permanent grassland on an Andosol soil. Ammonia volatilization was measured in four field experiments (winters of 2009 and 2011 and early and late springs of 2011) using a micrometeorological mass balance method with passive flux samplers following dairy slurry application at a target rate of 100 kg total N ha-1. The accumulated N loss was equivalent to 7, 8, 16 and 21% of the total N applied and 22, 34, 88 and 74% of total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) applied for winters 2009 and 2011, and early and late spring 2011, respectively. Ammonia emission rates were high immediately after application and declined rapidly with time, with more than 50% of the total emissions within the first 24 h. Losses were highly influenced by environmental conditions, increasing with temperature and lack of rainfall. Taking into consideration the low N losses via leaching and nitrous oxide emissions reported for the study area, results indicate that NH3 volatilization is the main pathway of N loss in fertilized grasslands of southern Chile. However, dairy slurry application could be an important source of nutrients, if applied at a suitable time, rate and using an appropriate technique, and if soil and climate conditions are taken into consideration. This could improve N use efficiency and reduce N losses to the wider environment.

Modelling multi-rotor UAVs swarm deployment using virtual pheromones

PubMed Central

Pujol, Mar; Rizo, Ramón; Rizo, Carlos

2018-01-01

In this work, a swarm behaviour for multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) deployment will be presented. The main contribution of this behaviour is the use of a virtual device for quantitative sematectonic stigmergy providing more adaptable behaviours in complex environments. It is a fault tolerant highly robust behaviour that does not require prior information of the area to be covered, or to assume the existence of any kind of information signals (GPS, mobile communication networks …), taking into account the specific features of UAVs. This behaviour will be oriented towards emergency tasks. Their main goal will be to cover an area of the environment for later creating an ad-hoc communication network, that can be used to establish communications inside this zone. Although there are several papers on robotic deployment it is more difficult to find applications with UAV systems, mainly because of the existence of various problems that must be overcome including limitations in available sensory and on-board processing capabilities and low flight endurance. In addition, those behaviours designed for UAVs often have significant limitations on their ability to be used in real tasks, because they assume specific features, not easily applicable in a general way. Firstly, in this article the characteristics of the simulation environment will be presented. Secondly, a microscopic model for deployment and creation of ad-hoc networks, that implicitly includes stigmergy features, will be shown. Then, the overall swarm behaviour will be modeled, providing a macroscopic model of this behaviour. This model can accurately predict the number of agents needed to cover an area as well as the time required for the deployment process. An experimental analysis through simulation will be carried out in order to verify our models. In this analysis the influence of both the complexity of the environment and the stigmergy system will be discussed, given the data obtained in the simulation. In addition, the macroscopic and microscopic models will be compared verifying the number of predicted individuals for each state regarding the simulation. PMID:29370203

Population dynamics of weeds in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) circle weeding area affected by herbicide application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sidik, S.; Purba, E.; Yakub, E. N.

2018-02-01

Weed problems in oil palm field were mainly overcomed by herbicide application. The application certain herbicides may lead to rapid population dynamic of certain species due to their different response to herbicides. Some species may less susceptible to certain herbicide whereas other species more susceptible. The objective of this study was to determine the population dynamic of weed species in circle weeding of oil palm in Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatra. Six treatments using glyphosate singly and mixture compared with manual weeding were evaluated for weed control. The treatments were arranged in a randomized block design with four replicates. Each treatment consisted of four circle weedings. The results showed that glyphosate 720 g a.i/ha + indaziflam 50 g a.i/hareduced seedbank and regrowth of weeds. Up to 12 weeks after application glyphosate 720 g a.i/ha + indaziflam 50 g a.i/ha is 29.46% total weeds dry weight compared to manual weeding. The effect of herbicide application on changes on the weed composition and weed seedbank are affected by the characteristic of herbicides and weed response to herbicide application.

Different Technical Applications of Carbon Nanotubes.

PubMed

Abdalla, S; Al-Marzouki, F; Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed A; Abdel-Daiem, A

2015-12-01

Carbon nanotubes have been of great interest because of their simplicity and ease of synthesis. The novel properties of nanostructured carbon nanotubes such as high surface area, good stiffness, and resilience have been explored in many engineering applications. Research on carbon nanotubes have shown the application in the field of energy storage, hydrogen storage, electrochemical supercapacitor, field-emitting devices, transistors, nanoprobes and sensors, composite material, templates, etc. For commercial applications, large quantities and high purity of carbon nanotubes are needed. Different types of carbon nanotubes can be synthesized in various ways. The most common techniques currently practiced are arc discharge, laser ablation, and chemical vapor deposition and flame synthesis. The purification of CNTs is carried out using various techniques mainly oxidation, acid treatment, annealing, sonication, filtering chemical functionalization, etc. However, high-purity purification techniques still have to be developed. Real applications are still under development. This paper addresses the current research on the challenges that are associated with synthesis methods, purification methods, and dispersion and toxicity of CNTs within the scope of different engineering applications, energy, and environmental impact.

Occurrence of currently used pesticides in ambient air of Centre Region (France)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coscollà, Clara; Colin, Patrice; Yahyaoui, Abderrazak; Petrique, Olivier; Yusà, Vicent; Mellouki, Abdelwahid; Pastor, Agustin

2010-10-01

Ambient air samples were collected, from 2006 to 2008 at three rural and two urban sites in Centre Region (France) and analyzed for 56 currently used pesticides (CUPs), of which 41 were detected. The four CUPs most frequently detected were the herbicides trifluralin, acetochlor and pendimethalin and the fungicide chlorothalonil, which were found with frequencies ranging between 52 and 78%, and with average concentrations of 1.93, 1.32, 1.84 and 12.15 ng m -3, respectively. Among the detected pesticides, concentrations of eight fungicides (spiroxamine, fenpropimorph, cyprodinil, tolyfluanid, epoxiconazole, vinchlozolin, fluazinam, fludioxinil), two insecticides (propargite, ethoprophos), and one herbicide (oxyfluorfen) are, to our knowledge, reported for the first time in the literature. The majority of the CUPs showed a seasonal trend, with most of the detections and the highest concentrations occurring during the spring and early summer. The most important pesticides detected were related to arable crops and fruit orchards, the main cultures in this region, highlighting the fact that the main sources come from local applications. Minor differences were found in the profiles of pesticides within rural areas and between rural and urban areas.

Final Project Report for DOE Grant NO.: DE-SC0010534 Period: Sept 2013-March 31, 2016

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

Gunaydin, Murat

2016-08-01

Higher spin theories has been an active area of research in recent years. One of the main research activities of the PI Murat Gunaydin over the period of this grant has been the application of quasiconformal methods to construct and study higher spin (HS) algebras and superalgebras in various dimensions. Over the past decade work on amplitudes in gauge theories, supergravity and string theories has been a very active area of research. Enormous progress has been made in the understanding of the structure of amplitudes in these theories. The novel methods and results obtained have made it possible to domore » calculations in gauge theories and supergravity theories that go well beyond the calculations one can do using the old-fashioned Feynman diagram techniques. Work on amplitudes in matter-coupled supergravity theories has been the second main focus of the PI during the funding period. The previous work of the PI on supergravity theories has played a fundamentally important role in the current work on amplitudes.« less

Customized Mobile Apps: Improving data collection methods in large-scale field works in Finnish Lapland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kupila, Juho

2017-04-01

Since the 1990s, a huge amount of data related to the groundwater and soil has been collected in several regional projects in Finland. EU -funded project "The coordination of groundwater protection and aggregates industry in Finnish Lapland, phase II" started in July 2016 and it covers the last unstudied areas in these projects in Finland. Project is carried out by Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), University of Oulu and Finnish Environment Institute and the main topic is to consolidate the groundwater protection and extractable use of soil resource in Lapland area. As earlier, several kinds of studies are also carried out throughout this three-year research and development project. These include e.g. drilling with setting up of groundwater observation wells, GPR-survey and many kinds of point-type observations, like sampling and general mapping on the field. Due to size of a study area (over 80 000 km2, about one quarter of a total area of Finland), improvement of the field work methods has become essential. To the general observation on the field, GTK has developed a specific mobile applications for Android -devices. With these Apps, data can be easily collected for example from a certain groundwater area and then uploaded directly to the GTK's database. Collected information may include sampling data, photos, layer observations, groundwater data etc. and it is all linked to the current GPS-location. New data is also easily available for post-processing. In this project the benefits of these applications will be field-tested and e.g. ergonomics, economy and usability in general will be taken account and related to the other data collecting methods, like working with heavy fieldwork laptops. Although these Apps are designed for usage in GTK's projects, they are free to download from Google Play for anyone interested. Geological Survey of Finland has the main role in this project with support from national and local authorities and stakeholders. Project is funded by European Regional Development Fund with support from local communes, branch enterprises and executive quarters of the project. Implementation period is 2016-2019.

Image quality enhancement for skin cancer optical diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bliznuks, Dmitrijs; Kuzmina, Ilona; Bolocko, Katrina; Lihachev, Alexey

2017-12-01

The research presents image quality analysis and enhancement proposals in biophotonic area. The sources of image problems are reviewed and analyzed. The problems with most impact in biophotonic area are analyzed in terms of specific biophotonic task - skin cancer diagnostics. The results point out that main problem for skin cancer analysis is the skin illumination problems. Since it is often not possible to prevent illumination problems, the paper proposes image post processing algorithm - low frequency filtering. Practical results show diagnostic results improvement after using proposed filter. Along that, filter do not reduces diagnostic results' quality for images without illumination defects. Current filtering algorithm requires empirical tuning of filter parameters. Further work needed to test the algorithm in other biophotonic applications and propose automatic filter parameter selection.

The use of participant-observation protocol in an industrial engineering research.

PubMed

Silveira e Silva, Renato da; Sznelwar, Laerte Idal; D'Afonseca e Silva, Victor

2012-01-01

Based on literature, this article aims to present the "participant-observation' research protocol, and its practical application in the industrial engineering field, more specifically within the area of design development, and in the case shown by this article, of interiors' design. The main target is to identify the concept of the method, i.e., from its characteristics to structure a general sense about the subject, so that the protocol can be used in different areas of knowledge, especially those ones which are committed with the scientific research involving the expertise from researchers, and subjective feelings and opinions of the users of an engineering product, and how this knowledge can be benefic for product design, contributing since the earliest stage of design.

Photonics and terahertz technologies: part 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2011-10-01

This digest paper debates basic features of the terahertz band of frequencies and compares it to the classical photonics. There are presented fundamental characteristics of the basic terahertz system consisting of a THz source, propagation media, transmission lines, THz signal processing, and detectors. Such a system finds research application, but also practical in two main areas: terahertz imaging - transmission and reflective, and as a close range THz radar, but also as sensory systems mainly for molecular sensing. There were launched in this country a few THz research projects concerning the THz sources, detectors and their applications. Among these projects there is an infrastructural one called FOTEH, opened at the WUT. The details of this project are debated and the consequences of its realization in this country. The first part of the paper is an introduction debating THz band and comparing it with the photonics one. The second part presents the assumptions of the infrastructural FOTEH project on Photonics and Terahertz Technologies. The project is expected to have impact on the development of photonics and relate fields in Poland.

Application of Foam-gel Technique to Control CO Exposure Generated During Spontaneous Combustion of Coal in Coal Mines.

PubMed

Ren, Xing W; Wang, Feng Z; Guo, Qing; Zuo, Zhao B; Fang, Qi S

2015-01-01

In China, 47.3% of state-owned coal mines are located in coal seams that are prone to spontaneous combustion. The spontaneous combustion of coal is the main cause of the generation of a large amount of carbon monoxide, which can cause serious health issues to miners. A new technique using foam-gel formation was developed to effectively control the spontaneous combustion of coal. The gel can capture more than 90% of the water in the grout and at the same time the foam can cover dangerous areas in the goaf by stacking and cooling of foam in all directions. In this study, a mechanism of foam-gel formation was introduced and the optimal proportions of additives were defined based on experiments of different foaming properties, gelling time and water loss rate as the main index parameters. The results of a field application in a coal mine promise that this new technique would effectively prevent coal oxidation in the goaf and reduce the generation of carbon monoxide.

Textual data compression in computational biology: a synopsis.

PubMed

Giancarlo, Raffaele; Scaturro, Davide; Utro, Filippo

2009-07-01

Textual data compression, and the associated techniques coming from information theory, are often perceived as being of interest for data communication and storage. However, they are also deeply related to classification and data mining and analysis. In recent years, a substantial effort has been made for the application of textual data compression techniques to various computational biology tasks, ranging from storage and indexing of large datasets to comparison and reverse engineering of biological networks. The main focus of this review is on a systematic presentation of the key areas of bioinformatics and computational biology where compression has been used. When possible, a unifying organization of the main ideas and techniques is also provided. It goes without saying that most of the research results reviewed here offer software prototypes to the bioinformatics community. The Supplementary Material provides pointers to software and benchmark datasets for a range of applications of broad interest. In addition to provide reference to software, the Supplementary Material also gives a brief presentation of some fundamental results and techniques related to this paper. It is at: http://www.math.unipa.it/ approximately raffaele/suppMaterial/compReview/

Online genetic counseling from the providers' perspective: counselors' evaluations and a time and cost analysis.

PubMed

Otten, Ellen; Birnie, Erwin; Ranchor, Adelita V; van Langen, Irene M

2016-08-01

Telemedicine applications are increasingly being introduced in patient care in various disciplines, including clinical genetics, mainly to increase access to care and to reduce time and costs for patients and professionals. Most telegenetics reports describe applications in large geographical areas, showing positive patients' and professionals' satisfaction. One economic analysis published thus far reported lower costs than in-person care. We hypothesized that telegenetics can also be beneficial from the professional's view in relatively small geographical areas. We performed a pilot study in the Northern Netherlands of 51 home-based online counseling sessions for cardiogenetic and oncogenetic cascade screening, and urgent prenatal counseling. Previously, we showed patient satisfaction, anxiety, and perceived control of online counseling to be comparable to in-person counseling. This study focuses on expectations, satisfaction, and practical evaluations of the involved counselors, and the impact in terms of time and costs. Most counselors expected disadvantages of online counseling for themselves and their patients, mainly concerning insufficient non-verbal communication; few expected advantages for themselves. Afterwards, counselors additionally raised the disadvantage of insufficient verbal communication, and reported frequent technical problems. Their overall mean telemedicine satisfaction itemscore was 3.38 before, and 2.95 afterwards, being afterwards slightly below the minimum level we set for a satisfactory result. We estimated reduced time and costs by online counseling with about 8% and 10-12%, respectively. We showed online genetic counseling to be effective, feasible and cost-efficient, but technical improvements are needed to increase counselors' satisfaction.

CNR LARA project, Italy: Airborne laboratory for environmental research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bianchi, R.; Cavalli, R. M.; Fiumi, L.; Marino, C. M.; Pignatti, S.

1995-01-01

The increasing interest for the environmental problems and the study of the impact on the environment due to antropic activity produced an enhancement of remote sensing applications. The Italian National Research Council (CNR) established a new laboratory for airborne hyperspectral imaging, the LARA Project (Laboratorio Aero per Ricerche Ambientali - Airborne Laboratory for Environmental Research), equipping its airborne laboratory, a CASA-212, mainly with the Daedalus AA5000 MIVIS (Multispectral Infrared and Visible Imaging Spectrometer) instrument. MIVIS's channels, spectral bandwidths, and locations are chosen to meet the needs of scientific research for advanced applications of remote sensing data. MIVIS can make significant contributions to solving problems in many diverse areas such as geologic exploration, land use studies, mineralogy, agricultural crop studies, energy loss analysis, pollution assessment, volcanology, forest fire management and others. The broad spectral range and the many discrete narrow channels of MIVIS provide a fine quantization of spectral information that permits accurate definition of absorption features from a variety of materials, allowing the extraction of chemical and physical information of our environment. The availability of such a hyperspectral imager, that will operate mainly in the Mediterranean area, at the present represents a unique opportunity for those who are involved in environmental studies and land-management to collect systematically large-scale and high spectral-spatial resolution data of this part of the world. Nevertheless, MIVIS deployments will touch other parts of the world, where a major interest from the international scientific community is present.

Online genetic counseling from the providers' perspective: counselors' evaluations and a time and cost analysis

PubMed Central

Otten, Ellen; Birnie, Erwin; Ranchor, Adelita V; van Langen, Irene M

2016-01-01

Telemedicine applications are increasingly being introduced in patient care in various disciplines, including clinical genetics, mainly to increase access to care and to reduce time and costs for patients and professionals. Most telegenetics reports describe applications in large geographical areas, showing positive patients' and professionals' satisfaction. One economic analysis published thus far reported lower costs than in-person care. We hypothesized that telegenetics can also be beneficial from the professional's view in relatively small geographical areas. We performed a pilot study in the Northern Netherlands of 51 home-based online counseling sessions for cardiogenetic and oncogenetic cascade screening, and urgent prenatal counseling. Previously, we showed patient satisfaction, anxiety, and perceived control of online counseling to be comparable to in-person counseling. This study focuses on expectations, satisfaction, and practical evaluations of the involved counselors, and the impact in terms of time and costs. Most counselors expected disadvantages of online counseling for themselves and their patients, mainly concerning insufficient non-verbal communication; few expected advantages for themselves. Afterwards, counselors additionally raised the disadvantage of insufficient verbal communication, and reported frequent technical problems. Their overall mean telemedicine satisfaction itemscore was 3.38 before, and 2.95 afterwards, being afterwards slightly below the minimum level we set for a satisfactory result. We estimated reduced time and costs by online counseling with about 8% and 10–12%, respectively. We showed online genetic counseling to be effective, feasible and cost-efficient, but technical improvements are needed to increase counselors' satisfaction. PMID:26785833

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

Regenhardt, C.; Dean, J.; Hancock, J.

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of the multi-drain well method in tight, lenticular formations. Although directional drilling is more costly than conventional vertical drilling, this practice could triple well production. The proposed drilling plan may be more cost efficient than drilling three separate wells with less than 320-acre spacing because it would save the costs of site surveys, rig setup, purchase of the surface lease area, and gas pipeline hookups for two additional well sites. This feasibility study was conducted on the Piceance Basin area, mainly because of the availability of geological information. The resultsmore » of this study will generally apply to other regions with tight, lenticular sand, depending upon the similarity in the total percentage of sand lenses in the area and the lens dimensions and orientations. Appendix A discusses the geology of the eastern Uinta Basin in eastern Utah, and the applicability of this study to the area. Appendix B provides calculation of expected production increase due to angle of drilling. 18 refs., 30 figs., 14 tabs.« less

Mission-Oriented Sensor Arrays and UAVs - a Case Study on Environmental Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Figueira, N. M.; Freire, I. L.; Trindade, O.; Simões, E.

2015-08-01

This paper presents a new concept of UAV mission design in geomatics, applied to the generation of thematic maps for a multitude of civilian and military applications. We discuss the architecture of Mission-Oriented Sensors Arrays (MOSA), proposed in Figueira et Al. (2013), aimed at splitting and decoupling the mission-oriented part of the system (non safety-critical hardware and software) from the aircraft control systems (safety-critical). As a case study, we present an environmental monitoring application for the automatic generation of thematic maps to track gunshot activity in conservation areas. The MOSA modeled for this application integrates information from a thermal camera and an on-the-ground microphone array. The use of microphone arrays technology is of particular interest in this paper. These arrays allow estimation of the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of the incoming sound waves. Information about events of interest is obtained by the fusion of the data provided by the microphone array, captured by the UAV, fused with information from the termal image processing. Preliminary results show the feasibility of the on-the-ground sound processing array and the simulation of the main processing module, to be embedded into an UAV in a future work. The main contributions of this paper are the proposed MOSA system, including concepts, models and architecture.

The Elderly’s Independent Living in Smart Homes: A Characterization of Activities and Sensing Infrastructure Survey to Facilitate Services Development

PubMed Central

Ni, Qin; García Hernando, Ana Belén; de la Cruz, Iván Pau

2015-01-01

Human activity detection within smart homes is one of the basis of unobtrusive wellness monitoring of a rapidly aging population in developed countries. Most works in this area use the concept of “activity” as the building block with which to construct applications such as healthcare monitoring or ambient assisted living. The process of identifying a specific activity encompasses the selection of the appropriate set of sensors, the correct preprocessing of their provided raw data and the learning/reasoning using this information. If the selection of the sensors and the data processing methods are wrongly performed, the whole activity detection process may fail, leading to the consequent failure of the whole application. Related to this, the main contributions of this review are the following: first, we propose a classification of the main activities considered in smart home scenarios which are targeted to older people’s independent living, as well as their characterization and formalized context representation; second, we perform a classification of sensors and data processing methods that are suitable for the detection of the aforementioned activities. Our aim is to help researchers and developers in these lower-level technical aspects that are nevertheless fundamental for the success of the complete application. PMID:26007717

The Elderly's Independent Living in Smart Homes: A Characterization of Activities and Sensing Infrastructure Survey to Facilitate Services Development.

PubMed

Ni, Qin; García Hernando, Ana Belén; de la Cruz, Iván Pau

2015-05-14

Human activity detection within smart homes is one of the basis of unobtrusive wellness monitoring of a rapidly aging population in developed countries. Most works in this area use the concept of "activity" as the building block with which to construct applications such as healthcare monitoring or ambient assisted living. The process of identifying a specific activity encompasses the selection of the appropriate set of sensors, the correct preprocessing of their provided raw data and the learning/reasoning using this information. If the selection of the sensors and the data processing methods are wrongly performed, the whole activity detection process may fail, leading to the consequent failure of the whole application. Related to this, the main contributions of this review are the following: first, we propose a classification of the main activities considered in smart home scenarios which are targeted to older people's independent living, as well as their characterization and formalized context representation; second, we perform a classification of sensors and data processing methods that are suitable for the detection of the aforementioned activities. Our aim is to help researchers and developers in these lower-level technical aspects that are nevertheless fundamental for the success of the complete application.

Performance tests.

PubMed Central

Wetherell, A

1996-01-01

This paper discusses the use of psychological performance tests to assess the effects of environmental stressors. The large number and the variety of performance tests are illustrated, and the differences between performance tests and other psychological tests are described in terms of their design, construction, use, and purpose. The stressor emphasis is on the effects of drugs since that is where most performance tests have found their main application, although other stressors, e.g., fatigue, toxic chemicals, are mentioned where appropriate. Diazepam is used as an example. There is no particular performance emphasis since the tests are intended to have wide applicability. However, vehicle-driving performance is discussed because it has been the subject of a great deal of research and is probably one of the most important areas of application. Performance tests are discussed in terms of the four main underlying models--factor analysis, general information processing, multiple resource and strategy models, and processing-stage models--and in terms of their psychometric properties--sensitivity, reliability, and content, criterion, construct, and face validity. Some test taxonomies are presented. Standardization is also discussed with reference to the reaction time, mathematical processing, memory search, spatial processing, unstable tracking, verbal processing, and dual task tests used in the AGARD STRES battery. Some comments on measurement strengths and appropriate study designs and methods are included. PMID:9182033

Interferometric Dynamic Measurement: Techniques Based on High-Speed Imaging or a Single Photodetector

PubMed Central

Fu, Yu; Pedrini, Giancarlo

2014-01-01

In recent years, optical interferometry-based techniques have been widely used to perform noncontact measurement of dynamic deformation in different industrial areas. In these applications, various physical quantities need to be measured in any instant and the Nyquist sampling theorem has to be satisfied along the time axis on each measurement point. Two types of techniques were developed for such measurements: one is based on high-speed cameras and the other uses a single photodetector. The limitation of the measurement range along the time axis in camera-based technology is mainly due to the low capturing rate, while the photodetector-based technology can only do the measurement on a single point. In this paper, several aspects of these two technologies are discussed. For the camera-based interferometry, the discussion includes the introduction of the carrier, the processing of the recorded images, the phase extraction algorithms in various domains, and how to increase the temporal measurement range by using multiwavelength techniques. For the detector-based interferometry, the discussion mainly focuses on the single-point and multipoint laser Doppler vibrometers and their applications for measurement under extreme conditions. The results show the effort done by researchers for the improvement of the measurement capabilities using interferometry-based techniques to cover the requirements needed for the industrial applications. PMID:24963503

The Issue of Age Estimation in a Modern Skeletal Population: Are Even the More Modern Current Aging Methods Satisfactory for the Elderly?

PubMed

Cappella, Annalisa; Cummaudo, Marco; Arrigoni, Elena; Collini, Federica; Cattaneo, Cristina

2017-01-01

The main idea behind age assessment in adults is related to the analysis of the physiological degeneration of particular skeletal structures with age. The main issues with these procedures are due to the fact that they have not been tested on different modern populations and in different taphonomic contexts and that they tend to underestimate the age of older individuals. The purpose of this study was to test the applicability and the reliability of these methods on a contemporary population of skeletal remains of 145 elderly individuals of known sex and age. The results show that, due to taphonomic influences, some skeletal sites showed a lower survival. Therefore, the methods with the highest percentage of applicability were Lovejoy (89.6%) and Rougé-Maillart (81.3%), followed by Suchey-Brooks (59.3%), and those with the lowest percentage of applicability were Beauthier (26.2%) and Iscan (22.7%). In addition, this research has shown how for older adults the study of both acetabulum and auricular surface may be more reliable for aging. This is also in accordance with the fact that auricular surface and the acetabulum are the areas more frequently surviving taphonomic insult. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

A calculation and uncertainty evaluation method for the effective area of a piston rod used in quasi-static pressure calibration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Tingwei; Kong, Deren; Shang, Fei; Chen, Jing

2018-04-01

This paper describes the merits and demerits of different sensors for measuring propellant gas pressure, the applicable range of the frequently used dynamic pressure calibration methods, and the working principle of absolute quasi-static pressure calibration based on the drop-weight device. The main factors affecting the accuracy of pressure calibration are analyzed from two aspects of the force sensor and the piston area. To calculate the effective area of the piston rod and evaluate the uncertainty between the force sensor and the corresponding peak pressure in the absolute quasi-static pressure calibration process, a method for solving these problems based on the least squares principle is proposed. According to the relevant quasi-static pressure calibration experimental data, the least squares fitting model between the peak force and the peak pressure, and the effective area of the piston rod and its measurement uncertainty, are obtained. The fitting model is tested by an additional group of experiments, and the peak pressure obtained by the existing high-precision comparison calibration method is taken as the reference value. The test results show that the peak pressure obtained by the least squares fitting model is closer to the reference value than the one directly calculated by the cross-sectional area of the piston rod. When the peak pressure is higher than 150 MPa, the percentage difference is less than 0.71%, which can meet the requirements of practical application.

Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles: From Synthesis to Materials Design for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Vichery, Charlotte; Nedelec, Jean-Marie

2016-01-01

Thanks to their high biocompatibility and bioactivity, bioactive glasses are very promising materials for soft and hard tissue repair and engineering. Because bioactivity and specific surface area intrinsically linked, the last decade has seen a focus on the development of highly porous and/or nano-sized materials. This review emphasizes the synthesis of bioactive glass nanoparticles and materials design strategies. The first part comprehensively covers mainly soft chemistry processes, which aim to obtain dispersible and monodispersed nanoparticles. The second part discusses the use of bioactive glass nanoparticles for medical applications, highlighting the design of materials. Mesoporous nanoparticles for drug delivery, injectable systems and scaffolds consisting of bioactive glass nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer, implant coatings and particle dispersions will be presented. PMID:28773412

Image processing in biodosimetry: A proposal of a generic free software platform.

PubMed

Dumpelmann, Matthias; Cadena da Matta, Mariel; Pereira de Lemos Pinto, Marcela Maria; de Salazar E Fernandes, Thiago; Borges da Silva, Edvane; Amaral, Ademir

2015-08-01

The scoring of chromosome aberrations is the most reliable biological method for evaluating individual exposure to ionizing radiation. However, microscopic analyses of chromosome human metaphases, generally employed to identify aberrations mainly dicentrics (chromosome with two centromeres), is a laborious task. This method is time consuming and its application in biological dosimetry would be almost impossible in case of a large scale radiation incidents. In this project, a generic software was enhanced for automatic chromosome image processing from a framework originally developed for the Framework V project Simbio, of the European Union for applications in the area of source localization from electroencephalographic signals. The platforms capability is demonstrated by a study comparing automatic segmentation strategies of chromosomes from microscopic images.

A review of visual MODFLOW applications in groundwater modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hariharan, V.; Shankar, M. Uma

2017-11-01

Visual MODLOW is a Graphical User Interface for the USGS MODFLOW. It is a commercial software that is popular among the hydrogeologists for its user-friendly features. The software is mainly used for Groundwater flow and contaminant transport models under different conditions. This article is intended to review the versatility of its applications in groundwater modelling for the last 22 years. Agriculture, airfields, constructed wetlands, climate change, drought studies, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), landfills, mining operations, river and flood plain monitoring, salt water intrusion, soil profile surveys, watershed analyses, etc., are the areas where the software has been reportedly used till the current date. The review will provide a clarity on the scope of the software in groundwater modelling and research.

New developments in corneal and external disease--LASIK.

PubMed

Dhaliwal, Deepinder K; Mather, Rookaya

2003-03-01

Lamellar refractive surgery has evolved into LASIK, which is a widely performed, versatile procedure with a high patient acceptance. In this chapter, the two main components of LASIK were discussed: flap creation and stromal ablation. In each of these areas, the authors explored current technology and new advances, including the femtosecond laser and wavefront-guided ablations. Expanded indications and therapeutic application of LASIK also have come to the forefront. The treatment of anisomyopic amblyopia in the pediatric population is a prime example and was discussed fully in this chapter. The field of refractive surgery has never been stagnant. Surgeons and scientists continue to explore new modalities to increase safety, to improve results, and to broaden applications that benefit the patient population.

A case study of ISO 11064 in control centre design in the Norwegian petroleum industry.

PubMed

Aas, Andreas Lumbe; Skramstad, Torbjørn

2010-12-01

In 2006-2008 we performed a case study for the purpose of assessing the industrial application of the seven part Control Centre (CC) design standard ISO 11064 to identify positive and negative experiences among stakeholders in the Norwegian petroleum sector. We mainly focussed on ISO 11064 Part 1, because this was the most commonly used among the identified stakeholders. ISO 11064 is generally appreciated and applied in the industry, but we did observe a significant variance in use between the different parts of the standard. We also identified potential areas for improvements, like scope and application adaptation. Thus we suggest a more goal-based approach based on one normative part only. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical and biological threat-agent detection using electrophoresis-based lab-on-a-chip devices.

PubMed

Borowsky, Joseph; Collins, Greg E

2007-10-01

The ability to separate complex mixtures of analytes has made capillary electrophoresis (CE) a powerful analytical tool since its modern configuration was first introduced over 25 years ago. The technique found new utility with its application to the microfluidics based lab-on-a-chip platform (i.e., microchip), which resulted in ever smaller footprints, sample volumes, and analysis times. These features, coupled with the technique's potential for portability, have prompted recent interest in the development of novel analyzers for chemical and biological threat agents. This article will comment on three main areas of microchip CE as applied to the separation and detection of threat agents: detection techniques and their corresponding limits of detection, sampling protocol and preparation time, and system portability. These three areas typify the broad utility of lab-on-a-chip for meeting critical, present-day security, in addition to illustrating areas wherein advances are necessary.

Database assessment of CMIP5 and hydrological models to determine flood risk areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Limlahapun, Ponthip; Fukui, Hiromichi

2016-11-01

Solutions for water-related disasters may not be solved with a single scientific method. Based on this premise, we involved logic conceptions, associate sequential result amongst models, and database applications attempting to analyse historical and future scenarios in the context of flooding. The three main models used in this study are (1) the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) to derive precipitation; (2) the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) to extract amount of discharge; and (3) the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) model to generate inundated areas. This research notably focused on integrating data regardless of system-design complexity, and database approaches are significantly flexible, manageable, and well-supported for system data transfer, which makes them suitable for monitoring a flood. The outcome of flood map together with real-time stream data can help local communities identify areas at-risk of flooding in advance.

A modeling analysis program for the JPL Table Mountain Io sodium cloud data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Goldberg, B. A.

1986-01-01

Progress and achievements in the second year are discussed in three main areas: (1) data quality review of the 1981 Region B/C images; (2) data processing activities; and (3) modeling activities. The data quality review revealed that almost all 1981 Region B/C images are of sufficient quality to be valuable in the analyses of the JPL data set. In the second area, the major milestone reached was the successful development and application of complex image-processing software required to render the original image data suitable for modeling analysis studies. In the third area, the lifetime description of sodium atoms in the planet magnetosphere was improved in the model to include the offset dipole nature of the magnetic field as well as an east-west electric field. These improvements are important in properly representing the basic morphology as well as the east-west asymmetries of the sodium cloud.

Operational Monitoring of Mines by COSMO-SkyMed PSP SAR Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costantini, Mario; Malvarosa, Fabio; Miniati, Federico; de Assis, Luciano Mozer

2016-08-01

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry is a powerful technology for detection and monitoring of slow ground surface movements. Monitoring of ground deformations in mining structures is an important application, particularly difficult because the scene changes with time. The persistent scatterer pair (PSP) approach, recently proposed to overcome some limitations of standard persistent scatter interferometry, proved to be effective also for mine monitoring. In this work, after resuming the main ideas of the PSP method, we describe the PSP measurements obtained from high- resolution X-band COSMO-SkyMed data over a large mining area in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The outcomes demonstrate that dense and accurate ground deformation measurements can be obtained on the mining area and its structures (such as open pits, waste dumps, conveyor belts, water and tailings dams, etc.), achieving a consistent global view including also areas where field instruments are not installed.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in phytoremediation of contaminated areas by trace elements: mechanisms and major benefits of their applications.

PubMed

Cabral, Lucélia; Soares, Claúdio Roberto Fonsêca Sousa; Giachini, Admir José; Siqueira, José Oswaldo

2015-11-01

In recent decades, the concentration of trace elements has increased in soil and water, mainly by industrialization and urbanization. Recovery of contaminated areas is generally complex. In that respect, microorganisms can be of vital importance by making significant contributions towards the establishment of plants and the stabilization of impacted areas. Among the available strategies for environmental recovery, bioremediation and phytoremediation outstand. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are considered the most important type of mycorrhizae for phytoremediation. AMF have broad occurrence in contaminated soils, and evidences suggest they improve plant tolerance to excess of certain trace elements. In this review, the use of AMF in phytoremediation and mechanisms involved in their trace element tolerance are discussed. Additionally, we present some techniques used to study the retention of trace elements by AMF, as well as a summary of studies showing major benefits of AMF for phytoremediation.

EFFECT OF RICE CULTIVATION PATTERNS ON MALARIA VECTOR ABUNDANCE IN RICE-GROWING VILLAGES IN MALI

PubMed Central

DIUK-WASSER, MARIA A.; TOURÉ, MAHAMOUDOU B.; DOLO, GUIMOGO; BAGAYOKO, MAGARAN; SOGOBA, NAFOMAN; SISSOKO, IBRAHIM; TRAORÉ, SÉKOU F.; TAYLOR, CHARLES E.

2007-01-01

Irrigation for rice cultivation increases the production of Anopheles gambiae, the main vector of malaria in Mali. Mosquito abundance is highly variable across villages and seasons. We examined whether rice cultivation patterns mapped using remotely sensed imagery can account for some of this variance. We collected entomologic data and mapped land use around 18 villages in the two cropping seasons during two years. Land use classification accuracy ranged between 70% and 86%. The area of young rice explained 86% of the inter-village variability in An. gambiae abundance in August before the peak in malaria transmission. Estimating rice in a 900-meter buffer area around the villages resulted in the best correlation with mosquito abundance, larger buffer areas were optimum in the October and dry season models. The quantification of the relationship between An. gambiae abundance and rice cultivation could have management applications that merit further study. PMID:17488907

The eco-innovation of K-Chabazite zeolite application in high nitrate vulnerable soils: a mapping assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasi, Emanuele; Passeri, Nicolò; Martella, Angelo; Coltorti, Massimo; Faccini, Barbara; Di Giuseppe, Dario; Ferretti, Giacomo

2015-04-01

Farmers' cultivation choices, mainly related to the use of agricultural inputs, affect the natural ecosystem and has an impact on larger scale. In particular the on-land application of swine manure by pigs livestock affects the water quality of waterways and in certain area can compromise the long term sustainability of the agro-ecosystems. The Volano-Burana basin (Ferrara Province, Italy) is a high vulnerable area (under the Directive Nitrate 91/676/CEE) characterized by waterways surrounding terrains with high concentration of croplands that year by year are managed by farmers with slurry and fertilizers application on the soil. A 6 ha agricultural field within this basin has been involved as a case study for the implementation of ZeoLIFE project experimental activities, which consist in the introduction of volcanic rocks called zeolitite, by an innovative integrated cycle, that combines zeolitite with pig slurry, and put it into soil. The zeolitite used for the project, K-Chabazite zeolitite, holds a high cation exchange capacity (up to 2.2 meq/g) and reversible hydration. The granulated waste quarries zeolitite, enriched in ammonium by a treatment with pig slurry and added to agricultural land, have a high fertilization capacity and a slow-realise of nutrients (K, NH4) and water, allowing the solubilisation of tricalcium phosphate, making the P available for plants. Added to agricultural soil it has allowed an increase in yield up to 20% and simultaneously reduce of the amount of fertilizer and irrigation water up to 50%, with a resulting decrease in the nitrate concentration in pore-waters and superficial waters issued from the field in the water system. Starting from project's results, an agro-ecological model of charged zeolite application has been provided taking into account the economic and normative constraints and the main characteristics of the Burana-Volano Basin to identify and promote the best pathways to spread this eco-innovation process and practice. This analysis has been set at regional scale through a GIS mapping framework to focus on the priority areas where the interventions on soil are suitable to preserve environmental functions and land quality, taking into account the environmental policy addresses and the Regional Rural Development Program.

33 CFR 334.50 - Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. 334.50 Section 334.50 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.50 Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. (a) The..., except those vessels under the supervision of or contract to local military or naval authority, are...

33 CFR 334.50 - Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. 334.50 Section 334.50 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.50 Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. (a) The..., except those vessels under the supervision of or contract to local military or naval authority, are...

33 CFR 334.50 - Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. 334.50 Section 334.50 Navigation and Navigable Waters... REGULATIONS § 334.50 Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; restricted areas. (a) The..., except those vessels under the supervision of or contract to local military or naval authority, are...

Effects of sediment dredging on nitrogen cycling in Lake Taihu, China: Insight from mass balance based on a 2-year field study.

PubMed

Yu, Juhua; Fan, Chengxin; Zhong, Jicheng; Zhang, Lu; Zhang, Lei; Wang, Changhui; Yao, Xiaolong

2016-02-01

Sediment dredging can permanently remove pollutants from an aquatic ecosystem, which is considered an effective approach to aquatic ecosystem restoration. In this work, a 2-year field simulation test was carried out to investigate the effect of dredging on nitrogen cycling across the sediment-water interface (SWI) in Lake Taihu, China. The results showed that simulated dredging applied to an area rich in total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) slightly reduced the NH4(+)-N release from sediments while temporarily enhanced the NH4(+)-N release in an area with lower TOC and/or TN (in the first 180 days), although the application had a limited effect on the fluxes of NO2(-)-N and NO3(-)-N in both areas. Further analysis indicated that dredging induced decreases in nitrification, denitrification, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in sediments, notably by 76.9, 49.0, and 89.9%, respectively, in the TOC and/or TN-rich area. Therefore, dredging slowed down nitrogen cycling rates in sediments but did not increase N loading to overlying water. The main reason for the above phenomenon could be attributed to the removal of the surface sediments enriched with more TOC and/or TN (compared with the bottom sediments). Overall, to minimize internal N pollution, dredging may be more applicable to nutrient-rich sediments.

Design and realization of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Aijun; Wang, Danfeng; Tang, Lihua

2008-10-01

Based on GIS technology, this paper mainly focuses on the application of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire and studies on the design and realization of disaster assessment based on GIS. After forest fire through the analysis and processing of multi-sources and heterogeneous data, this paper integrates the foundation that the domestic and foreign scholars laid of the research on assessment for forest fire loss with the related knowledge of assessment, accounting and forest resources appraisal so as to study and approach the theory framework and assessment index of the research on assessment for forest fire loss. The technologies of extracting boundary, overlay analysis, and division processing of multi-sources spatial data are available to realize the application of the investigation method of the burnt forest area and the computation of the fire area. The assessment provides evidence for fire cleaning in burnt areas and new policy making on restoration in terms of the direct and the indirect economic loss and ecological and environmental damage caused by forest fire under the condition of different fire danger classes and different amounts of forest accumulation, thus makes forest resources protection operated in a faster, more efficient and more economical way. Finally, this paper takes Lin'an city of Zhejiang province as a test area to confirm the method mentioned in the paper in terms of key technologies.

Silk fibroin as biomaterial for bone tissue engineering.

PubMed

Melke, Johanna; Midha, Swati; Ghosh, Sourabh; Ito, Keita; Hofmann, Sandra

2016-02-01

Silk fibroin (SF) is a fibrous protein which is produced mainly by silkworms and spiders. Its unique mechanical properties, tunable biodegradation rate and the ability to support the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells along the osteogenic lineage, have made SF a favorable scaffold material for bone tissue engineering. SF can be processed into various scaffold forms, combined synergistically with other biomaterials to form composites and chemically modified, which provides an impressive toolbox and allows SF scaffolds to be tailored to specific applications. This review discusses and summarizes recent advancements in processing SF, focusing on different fabrication and functionalization methods and their application to grow bone tissue in vitro and in vivo. Potential areas for future research, current challenges, uncertainties and gaps in knowledge are highlighted. Silk fibroin is a natural biomaterial with remarkable biomedical and mechanical properties which make it favorable for a broad range of bone tissue engineering applications. It can be processed into different scaffold forms, combined synergistically with other biomaterials to form composites and chemically modified which provides a unique toolbox and allows silk fibroin scaffolds to be tailored to specific applications. This review discusses and summarizes recent advancements in processing silk fibroin, focusing on different fabrication and functionalization methods and their application to grow bone tissue in vitro and in vivo. Potential areas for future research, current challenges, uncertainties and gaps in knowledge are highlighted. Copyright © 2015 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Industrial Application Experiments on the Neutron Imaging Instrument DINGO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garbe, Ulf; Ahuja, Yogita; Ibrahim, Ralph; Li, Huijun; Aldridge, Laurie; Salvemini, Filomena; Paradowska, Anna Ziara

The new neutron radiography / tomography / imaging instrument DINGO is operational since October 2014 to support the area of neutron imaging research at ANSTO. The instrument is designed for a diverse community in areas like defense, industrial, cultural heritage and archaeology applications. In the field of industrial application it provides a useful tool for studying cracking and defects in concrete or other structural material. Since being operational we gathered experience with industrial applications and commercial customers demanding beam time on DINGO. The instrument is a high flux facility with is 5.3 × 107 [n/(cm2s)] (confirmed by gold foil activation) for an L/D of approximately 500 at HB-2. A special feature of DINGO is the in-pile collimator position in front of the main shutter at HB-2. The collimator offers two pinholes with a possible L/D of 500 and 1000. A secondary collimator separates the two beams by blocking one and positions another aperture for the other beam. The neutron beam size can be adjusted to the sample size from 50 × 50 mm2 to 200 × 200 mm2 with a resulting pixel size from 27 μm to ∼100 μm. The whole instrument operates in two different positions, one for high resolution and one for high speed. We would like to present our first experience with commercial customers, scientific proposals with industrial applications and how to be customer ready.

Microfluidic Model Porous Media: Fabrication and Applications.

PubMed

Anbari, Alimohammad; Chien, Hung-Ta; Datta, Sujit S; Deng, Wen; Weitz, David A; Fan, Jing

2018-05-01

Complex fluid flow in porous media is ubiquitous in many natural and industrial processes. Direct visualization of the fluid structure and flow dynamics is critical for understanding and eventually manipulating these processes. However, the opacity of realistic porous media makes such visualization very challenging. Micromodels, microfluidic model porous media systems, have been developed to address this challenge. They provide a transparent interconnected porous network that enables the optical visualization of the complex fluid flow occurring inside at the pore scale. In this Review, the materials and fabrication methods to make micromodels, the main research activities that are conducted with micromodels and their applications in petroleum, geologic, and environmental engineering, as well as in the food and wood industries, are discussed. The potential applications of micromodels in other areas are also discussed and the key issues that should be addressed in the near future are proposed. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Civil and military satellite communications: A systems overview and the future developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dezaire, J. P.

1991-02-01

The project A90KM616, Orientatie SATCOM, is being performed on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) to assist the Navy on the subject of satellite communications. An overview is given of the phenomenon satellite communication. The result is a general overview of satellite communications for both civil and military applications. Some examples of applications are; international telephony, television broadcasting, small private business networks, and mobile (at the moment still principally maritime) communications. In these applications satellite communication systems provide a global coverage and a high flexibility. The scientific articles have not been considered because in this stage it was the intention to study on a specialist level the broad area of techniques. Magazines, books, and a number of reports of universities and research institutes have been the main sources of information. They provided afforded an understanding of the existing systems and insight in the future developments.

Ontology-based content analysis of US patent applications from 2001-2010.

PubMed

Weber, Lutz; Böhme, Timo; Irmer, Matthias

2013-01-01

Ontology-based semantic text analysis methods allow to automatically extract knowledge relationships and data from text documents. In this review, we have applied these technologies for the systematic analysis of pharmaceutical patents. Hierarchical concepts from the knowledge domains of chemical compounds, diseases and proteins were used to annotate full-text US patent applications that deal with pharmacological activities of chemical compounds and filed in the years 2001-2010. Compounds claimed in these applications have been classified into their respective compound classes to review the distribution of scaffold types or general compound classes such as natural products in a time-dependent manner. Similarly, the target proteins and claimed utility of the compounds have been classified and the most relevant were extracted. The method presented allows the discovery of the main areas of innovation as well as emerging fields of patenting activities - providing a broad statistical basis for competitor analysis and decision-making efforts.

Transonic flow visualization using holographic interferometry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryanston-Cross, Peter J.

1987-01-01

An account is made of some of the applications of holographic interferometry to the visualization of transonic flows. In the case of the compressor shock visualization, the method is used regularly and has moved from being a research department invention to a design test tool. With the implementation of automatic processing and simple digitization systems, holographic vibrational analysis has also moved into routine nondestructive testing. The code verification interferograms were instructive, but the main turbomachinery interest is now in 3 dimensional flows. A major data interpretation effort will be required to compute tomographically the 3 dimensional flow around the leading or the trailing edges of a rotating blade row. The bolt on approach shows the potential application to current unsteady flows of interest. In particular that of the rotor passing and vortex interaction effects is experienced by the new generation of unducted fans. The turbocharger tests presents a new area for the application of holography.

The unexpected high practical value of medical ontologies.

PubMed

Pinciroli, Francesco; Pisanelli, Domenico M

2006-01-01

Ontology is no longer a mere research topic, but its relevance has been recognized in several practical fields. Current applications areas include natural language translation, e-commerce, geographic information systems, legal information systems and biology and medicine. It is the backbone of solid and effective applications in health care and can help to build more powerful and more interoperable medical information systems. The design and implementation of ontologies in medicine is mainly focused on the re-organization of medical terminologies. This is obviously a difficult task and requires a deep analysis of the structure and the concepts of such terminologies, in order to define domain ontologies able to provide both flexibility and consistency to medical information systems. The aim of this special issue of Computers in Biology and Medicine is to report the current evolution of research in biomedical ontologies, presenting both papers devoted to methodological issues and works with a more applicative emphasis.

Evaluation of the fatty acid composition of the seeds of Mangifera indica L. and their application.

PubMed

Wu, Shuhsien; Tokuda, Megumi; Kashiwagi, Ayaka; Henmi, Atsushi; Okada, Yoshiharu; Tachibana, Shinya; Nomura, Masato

2015-01-01

Mango (Mangifera indica L.), an edible fruit, is one of the main agricultural products in many tropical regions. Mango varieties differ in not only fruit shape but also aroma, which is an important characteristic. Although the fruit has many uses, the seeds are discarded as waste. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the fatty acid content of seed oil of mangoes from different cultivation areas (Miyazaki, Japan, and Taiwan), and to evaluate their application in cosmetics. Five fatty acids were identified in the mango seed oil. Oleic acid and stearic acid were the principal components of mango seed oil obtained from Miyazaki (46.1% and 39.8%, respectively) and Taiwan (43.7% and 40.1%, respectively). As a cosmetic ingredient, mango seed oil showed good deodorizing effect on both 2-nonenal and isovaleric acid. The results indicated the potential applications of mango seed oil in the cosmetic industry.

The United Nations programme on space applications: priority thematic areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haubold, H.

The Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) was held in 1999 with efforts to identify world wide benefits of developing space science and technology, particularly in the developing nations. One of the main vehicles to implement recommendations of UNISPACE III is the United Nations Programme on Space Applications of the Office for Outer Space Affairs at UN Headquarters in Vienna. Following a process of prioritization by Member States, the Programme focus its activities on (i) knowledge-based themes as space law and basic space science, (ii) application-based themes as disaster management, natural resources management, environmental monitoring, tele-health, and (iii) enabling technologies such as remote sensing satellites, communications satellites, global navigation satellite systems, and small satellites. Current activities of the Programme will be reviewed. Further information available at http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/sapidx.html

Biomaterial applications in cardiovascular tissue repair and regeneration

PubMed Central

Lam, Mai T; Wu, Joseph C

2013-01-01

Cardiovascular disease physically damages the heart, resulting in loss of cardiac function. Medications can help alleviate symptoms, but it is more beneficial to treat the root cause by repairing injured tissues, which gives patients better outcomes. Besides heart transplants, cardiac surgeons use a variety of methods for repairing different areas of the heart such as the ventricular septal wall and valves. A multitude of biomaterials are used in the repair and replacement of impaired heart tissues. These biomaterials fall into two main categories: synthetic and natural. Synthetic materials used in cardiovascular applications include polymers and metals. Natural materials are derived from biological sources such as human donor or harvested animal tissues. A new class of composite materials has emerged to take advantage of the benefits of the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of both synthetic and natural materials. This article reviews the current and prospective applications of biomaterials in cardiovascular therapies. PMID:23030293

Sucrose esters as natural surfactants in drug delivery systems--a mini-review.

PubMed

Szűts, Angéla; Szabó-Révész, Piroska

2012-08-20

Sucrose esters (SEs) are widely used in the food and cosmetic industries and there has recently been great interest in their applicability in different pharmaceutical fields. They are natural and biodegradable excipients with well-known emulsifying and solubilizing behavior. Currently the most common pharmaceutical applications of SEs are for the enhancement of drug dissolution and drug absorption/permeation, and in controlled-release systems. Although the number of articles on SEs is continuously increasing, they have not yet been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this review is to discuss and summarize some of the findings and applications of SEs in different areas of drug delivery. The article highlights the main properties of SEs and focuses on their use in pharmaceutical technology and on their regulatory and toxicological status. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recent Advances in Edible Polymer Based Hydrogels as a Sustainable Alternative to Conventional Polymers.

PubMed

Ali, Akbar; Ahmed, Shakeel

2018-06-26

The over increasing demand of eco-friendly materials to counter various problems, such as environmental issues, economics, sustainability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility, open up new fields of research highly focusing on nature-based products. Edible polymer based materials mainly consisting of polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids could be a prospective contender to handle such problems. Hydrogels based on edible polymer offer many valuable properties compared to their synthetic counterparts. Edible polymers can contribute to the reduction of environmental contamination, advance recyclability, provide sustainability, and thereby increase its applicability along with providing environmentally benign products. This review is highly emphasizing on toward the development of hydrogels from edible polymer, their classification, properties, chemical modification, and their potential applications. The application of edible polymer hydrogels covers many areas including the food industry, agricultural applications, drug delivery to tissue engineering in the biomedical field and provide more safe and attractive products in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and environmental fields, etc.

[Application of near infrared spectroscopy technology (NIRS) in forage field].

PubMed

Yan, Xu; Bai, Shi-Qie; Yan, Jia-Jun; Gan, You-Min; Dao, Zhi-Xue

2012-07-01

The majority of nutrients in ruminants and other herbivores come from forages. Forage quality not only affects the growth and production efficiency of livestock, but also determines the final output and quality of livestock products. Forage quality mainly depends on nutrient concentrations and their digestibility, palatability and the level of presence of antiquality factors and mycotoxins in forage. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has been widely used in many research areas because it is a inexpensive, rapid, simple and nondestructive technique offering the potential for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The present paper briefly introduces the principle and characteristics of NIRS, detailedly expounds the application of NIRS in forage quality. In addition, other applications of near infrared spectroscopy technique in forage are also discussed, including forage breeding, identification of variety and classification by kind. This paper comprehensively reviews the status quo of application of NIRS in forage filed, in order to contribute to promoting development of NIRS in this field in China.

Current advances in precious metal core-shell catalyst design.

PubMed

Wang, Xiaohong; He, Beibei; Hu, Zhiyu; Zeng, Zhigang; Han, Sheng

2014-08-01

Precious metal nanoparticles are commonly used as the main active components of various catalysts. Given their high cost, limited quantity, and easy loss of catalytic activity under severe conditions, precious metals should be used in catalysts at low volumes and be protected from damaging environments. Accordingly, reducing the amount of precious metals without compromising their catalytic performance is difficult, particularly under challenging conditions. As multifunctional materials, core-shell nanoparticles are highly important owing to their wide range of applications in chemistry, physics, biology, and environmental areas. Compared with their single-component counterparts and other composites, core-shell nanoparticles offer a new active interface and a potential synergistic effect between the core and shell, making these materials highly attractive in catalytic application. On one hand, when a precious metal is used as the shell material, the catalytic activity can be greatly improved because of the increased surface area and the closed interfacial interaction between the core and the shell. On the other hand, when a precious metal is applied as the core material, the catalytic stability can be remarkably improved because of the protection conferred by the shell material. Therefore, a reasonable design of the core-shell catalyst for target applications must be developed. We summarize the latest advances in the fabrications, properties, and applications of core-shell nanoparticles in this paper. The current research trends of these core-shell catalysts are also highlighted.

Mobile Phone Health Applications for the Federal Sector.

PubMed

Burrows, Christin S; Weigel, Fred K

2016-01-01

As the US healthcare system moves toward a mobile care model, mobile phones will play a significant role in the future of healthcare delivery. Today, 90% of American adults own a mobile phone and 64% own a smartphone, yet many healthcare organizations are only beginning to explore the opportunities in which mobile phones can improve and streamline care. After searching Google Scholar, the Association for Computing Machinery Database, and PubMed for articles related to mobile phone health applications and cell phone text message health, we selected articles and studies related to the application of mobile phones in healthcare. From our initial review, we identified the potential application areas and continued to refine our search, identifying a total of 55 articles for additional review and analysis. From the literature, we identified 3 main themes for mobile phone implementation in improving healthcare: primary, preventive, and population health. We recommend federal health leaders pursue the value and potential in these areas; not only because 90% of Americans already own mobile phones, but also because mobile phone integration can provide substantial access and potential cost savings. From the positive findings of multiple studies in primary, preventive, and population health, we propose a 5-year federal implementation plan to integrate mobile phone capabilities into federal healthcare delivery. Our proposal has the potential to improve access, reduce costs, and increase patient satisfaction, therefore changing the way the federal sector delivers healthcare by 2021.

Ensemble Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Re, Matteo; Valentini, Giorgio

2012-03-01

Ensemble methods are statistical and computational learning procedures reminiscent of the human social learning behavior of seeking several opinions before making any crucial decision. The idea of combining the opinions of different "experts" to obtain an overall “ensemble” decision is rooted in our culture at least from the classical age of ancient Greece, and it has been formalized during the Enlightenment with the Condorcet Jury Theorem[45]), which proved that the judgment of a committee is superior to those of individuals, provided the individuals have reasonable competence. Ensembles are sets of learning machines that combine in some way their decisions, or their learning algorithms, or different views of data, or other specific characteristics to obtain more reliable and more accurate predictions in supervised and unsupervised learning problems [48,116]. A simple example is represented by the majority vote ensemble, by which the decisions of different learning machines are combined, and the class that receives the majority of “votes” (i.e., the class predicted by the majority of the learning machines) is the class predicted by the overall ensemble [158]. In the literature, a plethora of terms other than ensembles has been used, such as fusion, combination, aggregation, and committee, to indicate sets of learning machines that work together to solve a machine learning problem [19,40,56,66,99,108,123], but in this chapter we maintain the term ensemble in its widest meaning, in order to include the whole range of combination methods. Nowadays, ensemble methods represent one of the main current research lines in machine learning [48,116], and the interest of the research community on ensemble methods is witnessed by conferences and workshops specifically devoted to ensembles, first of all the multiple classifier systems (MCS) conference organized by Roli, Kittler, Windeatt, and other researchers of this area [14,62,85,149,173]. Several theories have been proposed to explain the characteristics and the successful application of ensembles to different application domains. For instance, Allwein, Schapire, and Singer interpreted the improved generalization capabilities of ensembles of learning machines in the framework of large margin classifiers [4,177], Kleinberg in the context of stochastic discrimination theory [112], and Breiman and Friedman in the light of the bias-variance analysis borrowed from classical statistics [21,70]. Empirical studies showed that both in classification and regression problems, ensembles improve on single learning machines, and moreover large experimental studies compared the effectiveness of different ensemble methods on benchmark data sets [10,11,49,188]. The interest in this research area is motivated also by the availability of very fast computers and networks of workstations at a relatively low cost that allow the implementation and the experimentation of complex ensemble methods using off-the-shelf computer platforms. However, as explained in Section 26.2 there are deeper reasons to use ensembles of learning machines, motivated by the intrinsic characteristics of the ensemble methods. The main aim of this chapter is to introduce ensemble methods and to provide an overview and a bibliography of the main areas of research, without pretending to be exhaustive or to explain the detailed characteristics of each ensemble method. The paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the main theoretical and practical reasons for combining multiple learners are introduced. Section 26.3 depicts the main taxonomies on ensemble methods proposed in the literature. In Section 26.4 and 26.5, we present an overview of the main supervised ensemble methods reported in the literature, adopting a simple taxonomy, originally proposed in Ref. [201]. Applications of ensemble methods are only marginally considered, but a specific section on some relevant applications of ensemble methods in astronomy and astrophysics has been added (Section 26.6). The conclusion (Section 26.7) ends this paper and lists some issues not covered in this work.

An evaluation of the application of treated sewage effluents in Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, Central Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navarro, Vicente; García, Beatriz; Sánchez, David; Asensio, Laura

2011-04-01

SummaryAt the present time there is not enough information available to develop a quantitative model on how inundation takes place in the 1490 ha area of Tablas de Daimiel National Park (Central Spain) located upstream of Morenillo Dam. Given that it is the most important area in the Park from an ecological standpoint, this is a major concern, as it has not been possible to assess the potential effectiveness of the interventions geared towards improving its current state. As a result, it is not feasible to simulate the hydrologic response to the application of treated sewage effluents, an initiative recently implemented by the Public Administration responsible for water management in the Guadiana River Basin, where the Park is located. To help solve this problem, a simplified model of the hydrologic behaviour of the system has been developed focusing on the characterisation of the main trends of the inundation process. Field data from 12 drying processes were used to identify the model parameters. Later, the evolution of the system was examined after the application of treated sewage effluents, assuming the hypothesis of a dry climate. The results show that the 10 Mm 3 of available effluents is sufficient to improve from 2 ha to 60 ha the inundation condition of the areas considered to be high-priority. This therefore demonstrates that, from a hydrologic point of view, it is highly advisable to use treated sewage effluents.

Determination of the relationship between major fault and zinc mineralization using fractal modeling in the Behabad fault zone, central Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adib, Ahmad; Afzal, Peyman; Mirzaei Ilani, Shapour; Aliyari, Farhang

2017-10-01

The aim of this study is to determine a relationship between zinc mineralization and a major fault in the Behabad area, central Iran, using the Concentration-Distance to Major Fault (C-DMF), Area of Mineralized Zone-Distance to Major Fault (AMZ-DMF), and Concentration-Area (C-A) fractal models for Zn deposit/mine classification according to their distance from the Behabad fault. Application of the C-DMF and the AMZ-DMF models for Zn mineralization classification in the Behabad fault zone reveals that the main Zn deposits have a good correlation with the major fault in the area. The distance from the known zinc deposits/mines with Zn values higher than 29% and the area of the mineralized zone of more than 900 m2 to the major fault is lower than 1 km, which shows a positive correlation between Zn mineralization and the structural zone. As a result, the AMZ-DMF and C-DMF fractal models can be utilized for the delineation and the recognition of different mineralized zones in different types of magmatic and hydrothermal deposits.

[Nanopsychiatry. The potential role of nanotechnologies in the future of psychiatry. A systematic review].

PubMed

Fond, G; Miot, S

2013-09-01

Nanomedicine is defined as the area using nanotechnology's concepts for the benefit of human beings, their health and well being. The field of nanotechnology opened new unsuspected fields of research a few years ago. To provide an overview of nanotechnology application areas that could affect care for psychiatric illnesses. We conducted a systematic review using the PRISMA criteria (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis). Inclusion criteria were specified in advance: all studies describing the development of nanotechnology in psychiatry. The research paradigm was: "(nanotechnology OR nanoparticles OR nanomedicine) AND (central nervous system)" Articles were identified in three research bases, Medline (1966-present), Web of Science (1975-present) and Cochrane (all articles). The last search was carried out on April 2, 2012. Seventy-six items were included in this qualitative review. The main applications of nanotechnology in psychiatry are (i) pharmacology. There are two main difficulties in neuropharmacology. Drugs have to pass the blood brain barrier and then to be internalized by targeted cells. Nanoparticles could increase drugs' bioavailability and pharmacokinetics, especially improving safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs. Liposomes, nanosomes, nanoparticle polymers, nanobubbles are some examples of this targeted drug delivery. Nanotechnologies could also add new pharmacological properties, like nanohells and dendrimers; (ii) living analysis. Nanotechnology provides technical assistance to in vivo imaging or metabolome analysis; (iii) central nervous system modeling. Research teams have modelized inorganic synapses and mimicked synaptic behavior, essential for further creation of artificial neural systems. Some nanoparticle assemblies present the same small world and free-scale network architecture as cortical neural networks. Nanotechnologies and quantum physics could be used to create models of artificial intelligence and mental illnesses. Even if nanotechnologies are promising, their safety is still tricky and this must be kept in mind. We are not about to see a concrete application of nanomedicine in daily psychiatric practice. However, it seems essential that psychiatrists do not forsake this area of research the perspectives of which could be decisive in the field of mental illness. Copyright © 2013 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Effects of controlled release nitrogen fertilizer on surface water N dynamics and its runoff loss in double cropping paddy fields in Dongtinghu Lake area].

PubMed

Ji, Xiong-Hui; Zheng, Sheng-Xian; Lu, Yan-Hong; Liao, Yu-Lin

2007-07-01

By using leakage pond to simulate the double cropping paddy fields in Dongtinghu Lake area, this paper studied the effects of urea (CF) and controlled release nitrogen fertilizer (CRNF) on the dynamics of surface water pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3(-)-N) and the runoff loss of TN in alluvial sandy loamy paddy soil and purple calcareous clayed paddy soil, the two main paddy soils in this area. The results showed that after applying urea, the surface water TN and NH4(+)-N concentrations reached the peak at the 1st and 3rd day, respectively, and decreased rapidly then. Surface water NO3(-)-N concentration was very low, though it showed a little raise at the 3rd to 7th day after applying urea in purple calcareous clayed paddy soil. In early rice field, surface water pH rose gradually within 15 days after applying urea, while in late rice field, it did within 3 days. EC kept consistent with the dynamics of NH4(+)-N. CRNF, especially 70% N CRNF, gave rise to distinctly lower surface water pH, EC, and TN and NH4(+)-N concentrations within 15 days after application, but NO3- concentration rose slightly at late growth stages, compared with urea application. The monitoring of TN runoff loss indicated that during double cropping rice growth season, the loss amount of TN under urea application was 7.70 kg x hm(-2), accounting for 2.57% of applied urea-N. The two runoff events occurred within 20 days after urea application contributed significantly to the TN runoff loss. CRNF application resulted in a significantly lower TN concentration in runoff water from the 1st runoff event occurred within 10 days of its application, and thereafter, the total TN runoff loss for CRNF and 70% N CRNF application was decreased by 24.5% and 27.2%, respectively, compared with urea application.

Identification of channel geometries applying seismic attributes and spectral decomposition techniques, Temsah Field, Offshore East Nile Delta, Egypt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Othman, Adel A. A.; Fathy, M.; Negm, Adel

2018-06-01

The Temsah field is located in eastern part of the Nile delta to seaward. The main reservoirs of the area are Middle Pliocene mainly consist from siliciclastic which associated with a close deep marine environment. The Distribution pattern of the reservoir facies is limited scale indicating fast lateral and vertical changes which are not easy to resolve by applying of conventional seismic attribute. The target of the present study is to create geophysical workflows to a better image of the channel sand distribution in the study area. We apply both Average Absolute Amplitude and Energy attribute which are indicated on the distribution of the sand bodies in the study area but filled to fully described the channel geometry. So another tool, which offers more detailed geometry description is needed. The spectral decomposition analysis method is an alternative technique focused on processing Discrete Fourier Transform which can provide better results. Spectral decomposition have been done over the upper channel shows that the frequency in the eastern part of the channel is the same frequency in places where the wells are drilled, which confirm the connection of both the eastern and western parts of the upper channel. Results suggest that application of the spectral decomposition method leads to reliable inferences. Hence, using the spectral decomposition method alone or along with other attributes has a positive impact on reserves growth and increased production where the reserve in the study area increases to 75bcf.

[Application of niche theory in evaluation of main tourism scenic areas in Zhangjiajie City].

PubMed

Xiang, Yan-ping; Xiang, Chang-guo; Chen, You-lian

2010-05-01

Five tourism scenic areas in Zhangjiajie City were selected as research objects, and fifty kinds of resource conditions affecting the development of tourism scenic area were taken as evaluation indices. Through disposing and consolidating the indices level by level, an analysis was made on the niche breadth and niche overlap of the five tourism scenic areas at three levels (I, II, and III). In the five scenic areas, index level had significant effects on the niche breadth (F = 10.278, P = 0.006), but less effects on the relative niche breadth, suggesting that in the evaluation of the development potential of tourism scenic area, relative niche breadth was more reasonable than absolute niche breadth. From level III to level I, the niche overlap of the five scenic areas was increasing, indicating that level choice would affect the evaluation of the actual niche overlap of the scenic areas. With the progressive refinement of the indices to certain level, and when the difference between observed and Monte Carlo-simulated Pianka indices achieved to significant level, this index level could be used as the minimum standard of the refinement, and the simulated niche overlap could be taken as an important reference in the competition evaluation of tourism scenic area.

33 CFR 334.45 - Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. 334.45 Section 334.45 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.45 Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. (a) The... and other craft, except those vessels under the supervision or contract to local military or Naval...

33 CFR 334.45 - Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. 334.45 Section 334.45 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.45 Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. (a) The... and other craft, except those vessels under the supervision or contract to local military or Naval...

33 CFR 334.45 - Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. 334.45 Section 334.45 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.45 Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. (a) The... and other craft, except those vessels under the supervision or contract to local military or Naval...

33 CFR 334.45 - Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. 334.45 Section 334.45 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.45 Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. (a) The... and other craft, except those vessels under the supervision or contract to local military or Naval...

33 CFR 334.45 - Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. 334.45 Section 334.45 Navigation and Navigable Waters CORPS... REGULATIONS § 334.45 Kennebec River, Bath Iron Works Shipyard, naval restricted area, Bath, Maine. (a) The... and other craft, except those vessels under the supervision or contract to local military or Naval...

Fermilab Tevatron and Pbar source status report

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

Edwards, H.

1986-08-01

The antiproton production cycle is enumerated, and the commissioning of the antiproton source is described, giving milestones and major obstacles. The Tevatron collider operation is described, including procedure to load the Tevatron with three bunches of protons and three bunches of antiprotons. Commissioning of the Main Ring and Tevatron for collider operation is described. Development and accelerator studies in four areas were necessary: main ring RF manipulations; controls and applications software support; Tevatron storage and low-beta squeeze sequence; and study of various beam transfers, storage steps, and sequences. Final tests are described. A long range upgrade program is presently undermore » evaluation to accomplish these goals: luminosity increase to 5 x 10/sup 31/ cm/sup -2/sec/sup -1/, production rates up to 4 x 10/sup 11/ antiprotons/hr, and intensity increase for fixed target operation. Beam quality is to be improved by the injector and main ring upgrades, and the luminosity goal is addressed by the Collider upgrade. (LEW)« less

Can cathodoluminescence of feldspar be used as provenance indicator?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scholonek, Christiane; Augustsson, Carita

2016-05-01

We have studied feldspar from crystalline rocks for its textural and spectral cathodoluminescence (CL) characteristics with the aim to reveal their provenance potential. We analyzed ca. 60 rock samples of plutonic, volcanic, metamorphic, and pegmatitic origin from different continents and of 16 Ma to 2 Ga age for their feldspar CL textures and ca. 1200 feldspar crystals from these rocks for their CL color spectra. Among the analyzed rocks, igneous feldspar is most commonly zoned, whereby oscillatory zoning can be confirmed to be typical for volcanic plagioclase. The volcanic plagioclase also less commonly contains twin lamellae that are visible in CL light than crystals from other rock types. Alkali feldspar, particularly from igneous and pegmatitic rocks, was noted to be most affected by alteration features, visible as dark spots, lines and irregular areas. The size of all textural features of up to ca. 150 μm, in combination with possible alteration in both the source area and the sedimentary system, makes the CL textures of feldspar possible to use for qualitative provenance research only. We observed alkali feldspar mostly to luminesce in a bluish color and sometimes in red, and plagioclase in green to yellow. The corresponding CL spectra are dominated by three apparent intensity peaks at 440-520 nm (mainly blue), 540-620 nm (mainly green) and 680-740 nm (red to infrared). A dominance of the peak in the green wavelength interval over the blue one for plagioclase makes CL particularly useful for the differentiation of plagioclase from alkali feldspar. An apparent peak position in red to infrared at < 710 nm for plagioclase mainly is present in mafic rocks. Present-day coastal sand from Peru containing feldspar with the red to infrared peak position mainly exceeding 725 nm for northern Peruvian sand and a larger variety for sand from southern Peru illustrates a discriminative effect of different source areas. We conclude that the provenance application particularly can reveal first-cycle input from mafic rocks and source variations for detritus from arid areas that has been affected by little feldspar alteration.

Tracing the origin and mobilization of Glyphosate and AMPA in a vineyard catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gassmann, Matthias; Olsson, Oliver; Payraudeau, Sylvain; Imfeld, Gwenaël; Kümmerer, Klaus

2014-05-01

Pesticides residues are often found in storm-water runoff in agricultural areas. There are several pathways along which pesticides may be transported from their application point towards the river. Although the primary target of pesticide application is the agricultural area, wind drift transports pesticide droplets to non-target areas. Furthermore, miss-operation of application machines results in the deposition of pesticides at filter strips or roads from where they can be washed off. Therefore, it may be difficult to identify the origin of pesticides in storm-water runoff. However, management of water quality requires that critical source areas are clearly delineated in order to effectively reduce water pollution. In the Rouffach catchment, a 42.7 ha vineyard catchment in France, Glyphosate and its transformation product AMPA occurred frequently and in high concentrations in runoff water during rainfall-runoff events in 2008. In order to identify the source areas of Glyphosate residue pollution and its mobilization, we used here a combination of sampling data analysis techniques and distributed pollutant transfer modelling. Available sampling data allowed for an analysis by Normalized Cumulative Loads (NCL) at a high temporal resolution (10 min). The results imply that pollutant mobilization took place mainly at the beginning of an event. This First Flush suggests a wash off of substances from impervious surfaces such as roads. This assumption was confirmed by local hydrological knowledge about infiltration rates in the vineyard, which were not exceeded by rainfall intensities in most considered events. Additionally, the distributed process-based reactive transport model ZIN-AgriTra was used as a learning tool to evaluate the pesticide mobilization and export processes. The hydrological model was successfully calibrated and validated for long high-resolution time series of discharge data. Pesticide export modelling focused on the first rainfall-runoff event following the first significant Glyphosate application in 2008. Assuming only target Glyphosate application, hardly any export of Ghyphosate and AMPA occurred. Therefore, non-target application at adjacent roads was introduced into the model. By assuming different mobilization processes of substances on the roads, our results show that storage of sorbed pesticides (e.g. road sides, unpaved roads) and storage without sorption (e.g. plant surface, paved roads) significantly contributed to the total pesticide residue export. Concluding, it is likely that the major part of pesticides in runoff of the Rouffach catchment originates from the roads rather than from the vine growing areas and that the mobilization process is a combination of both sorptive and non-sorptive substance storage. Thus, avoiding non-target pesticide application could largely help to mitigate water contamination in this catchment.

Nanoarchitectures for Metal-Organic Framework-Derived Nanoporous Carbons toward Supercapacitor Applications.

PubMed

Salunkhe, Rahul R; Kaneti, Yusuf Valentino; Kim, Jeonghun; Kim, Jung Ho; Yamauchi, Yusuke

2016-12-20

The future advances of supercapacitors depend on the development of novel carbon materials with optimized porous structures, high surface area, high conductivity, and high electrochemical stability. Traditionally, nanoporous carbons (NPCs) have been prepared by a variety of methods, such as templated synthesis, carbonization of polymer precursors, physical and chemical activation, etc. Inorganic solid materials such as mesoporous silica and zeolites have been successfully utilized as templates to prepare NPCs. However, the hard-templating methods typically involve several synthetic steps, such as preparation of the original templates, formation of carbon frameworks, and removal of the original templates. Therefore, these methods are not favorable for large-scale production. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high surface areas and large pore volumes have been studied over the years, and recently, enormous efforts have been made to utilize MOFs for electrochemical applications. However, their low conductivity and poor stability still present major challenges toward their practical applications in supercapacitors. MOFs can be used as precursors for the preparation of NPCs with high porosity. Their parent MOFs can be prepared with endless combinations of organic and inorganic constituents by simple coordination chemistry, and it is possible to control their porous architectures, pore volumes, surface areas, etc. These unique properties of MOF-derived NPCs make them highly attractive for many technological applications. Compared with carbonaceous materials prepared using conventional precursors, MOF-derived carbons have significant advantages in terms of a simple synthesis with inherent diversity affording precise control over porous architectures, pore volumes, and surface areas. In this Account, we will summarize our recent research developments on the preparation of three-dimensional (3-D) MOF-derived carbons for supercapacitor applications. This Account will be divided into three main sections: (1) useful background on carbon materials for supercapacitor applications, (2) the importance of MOF-derived carbons, and (3) potential future developments of MOF-derived carbons for supercapacitors. This Account focuses mostly on carbons derived from two types of MOFs, namely, zeolite imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and ZIF-67. By using examples from our previous works, we will show the uniqueness of these carbons for achieving high performance by control of the chemical reactions/conditions as well proper utilization in asymmetric/symmetric supercapacitor configurations. This Account will promote further developments of MOF-derived multifunctional carbon materials with controlled porous architectures for optimization of their electrochemical performance toward supercapacitor applications.

Ethnobotanical survey of cosmetic plants used in Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia).

PubMed

Jost, Xénia; Ansel, Jean-Luc; Lecellier, Gaël; Raharivelomanana, Phila; Butaud, Jean-François

2016-11-29

Cosmetic plants and their uses have often been neglected in ethnobotanical surveys which focus mainly on plants with medicinal or food uses. Thus, this survey was carried out to specifically investigate cosmetics in a small community and to establish a cosmetopoeia, based on the model of pharmacopoeia for medicinal plants. The geographic spread of the survey covered the Marquesas Islands, one of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean). This archipelago was also recently investigated for its pharmacopoeia. This survey is based on individual interviews of Marquesan informants on the islands of Tahiti (Society archipelago) and Nuku Hiva (Marquesas archipelago). The methodological approach was semi-directive with open-ended questions based on cosmetic criteria (application area, cosmetic use, plant). Before each interview, researchers and the informant signed a Prior Informed Consent (PIC). Quantitative analyses were performed using basic statistics and the indice of Fidelity Level (FL). Twenty-eight informants from five of the six inhabited Marquesan islands were interviewed and yielded more than 500 cosmetic recipes. Marquesan cosmetopoeia included 79 plant taxa, of which 5% are Marquesan endemics, 23% are indigenous, 28% are Polynesian introductions and 44% are modern introductions. Among the introduced species, half were cultivated whereas the other half were weedy species. Most of the plants were abundant and only eight species were considered rare, of which four were Marquesan endemics. Main cosmetic plants were identified through informant citations and fidelity levels, and included Calophyllum inophyllum, Cananga odorata, Citrus aurantiifolia, Cocos nucifera, Curcuma longa, Gardenia taitensis, Mentha spp., Ocimum basilicum, Rauvolfia nukuhivensis and Santalum insulare var. marchionense. The most referred application areas were skin, hair and private parts whereas the main cosmetic uses were perfume, hydration, medicinal care and healing. Through this survey, Marquesan cosmetopoeia was investigated in detail and uncovered a majority of introduced and abundant plants, and a minority of endemic and rare plants which required proper management to avoid future shortage. The well known perfumed coconut oil or monoi appeared as the main Marquesan cosmetic preparation either for the skin and the hair. Several plants and preparations warrant scientific investigations for their originality.

75 FR 27863 - Savings Bank of Maine, MHC and Savings Bank of Maine, Gardiner, Maine; Approval of Conversion...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-18

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision [AC-38: OTS Nos. 06947 and H 4709] Savings Bank of Maine, MHC and Savings Bank of Maine, Gardiner, Maine; Approval of Conversion Application Notice is hereby given that on May 7, 2010, the Office of Thrift Supervision approved the application of...

Peculiarities of medical sociology: application of social theories in analyzing health and medicine.

PubMed

Kaminskas, Raimundas; Darulis, Zilvinas

2007-01-01

To reveal the peculiarities of medical sociology introducing the application of social theories in analyzing public health and medicine. Comparative and descriptive analysis of scientific references found and current situation. During the last decade of the 20th century, the discussions about the sociology of health and medicine as separate discipline and its practical applications became more active. Main factors determined the growing importance of discipline were institutionalization of medicine and health care, changing patterns in doctor-patient relationships, different health perceptions, understanding of the influence of social factors on health, cardinal changes in the area of health technologies, consumeristic attitude towards health, appearance of market relationships within health care, and other global phenomena. In sociology, usual social theories such as structural functionalism, conflict, symbolic interaction, poststructuralism, feminist often attempt to explain the changes within health care. There is a relation of medical sociology and other types of sociology having common areas with medicine and health being analyzed in the article; social theories and their application in the field of health and medicine are being introduced attempting to explain the ongoing social changes in both Lithuania and the world. More and more attention in various areas of medical activities is being paid to the social aspects (both individual and society levels) of these activities, and there is a shift from applied sociology towards medical one. Despite the cessations of the development of medical sociology as separate branch of sciences, the researches of recent years are demonstrating obvious approaching modern research issues and methods, which do exist in contemporary world. Such tendencies show the prompt approaching of the academic community of Lithuania the general scientific standards which are dominating in the globalization-effected world.

Toward broadband mechanical spectroscopy.

PubMed

Hecksher, Tina; Torchinsky, Darius H; Klieber, Christoph; Johnson, Jeremy A; Dyre, Jeppe C; Nelson, Keith A

2017-08-15

Diverse material classes exhibit qualitatively similar behavior when made viscous upon cooling toward the glass transition, suggesting a common theoretical basis. We used seven different measurement methods to determine the mechanical relaxation kinetics of a prototype molecular glass former over a temporal range of 13 decades and over a temperature range spanning liquid to glassy states. The data conform to time-temperature superposition for the main (alpha) process and to a scaling relation of schematic mode-coupling theory. The broadband mechanical measurements demonstrated have fundamental and practical applications in polymer science, geophysics, multifunctional materials, and other areas.

Uncertainty Quantification and Statistical Engineering for Hypersonic Entry Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cozmuta, Ioana

2011-01-01

NASA has invested significant resources in developing and validating a mathematical construct for TPS margin management: a) Tailorable for low/high reliability missions; b) Tailorable for ablative/reusable TPS; c) Uncertainty Quantification and Statistical Engineering are valuable tools not exploited enough; and d) Need to define strategies combining both Theoretical Tools and Experimental Methods. The main reason for this lecture is to give a flavor of where UQ and SE could contribute and hope that the broader community will work with us to improve in these areas.

Construction and application of a questionnaire for the social scientific investigation of environmental noise effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guski, R.; Wichmann, U.; Rohrmann, B.; Finke, H. O.

1980-01-01

A social psychological questionnair has been developed to study the effects of environmental noise and was applied to 636 people living in 19 different areas of Hamburg. The theoretical foundations and the statistical means employed in its development are described. Four main reactions to noise are isolated statistically, and it is determined that these are moderated by several intervening variables, chief of which are coping capacity for noise, the perceived dangerousness of the noise souce, other daily loads and the individual's liability.

Genital warts treatment: Beyond imiquimod.

PubMed

Yuan, Jianwei; Ni, Guoying; Wang, Tianfang; Mounsey, Kate; Cavezza, Shelley; Pan, Xuan; Liu, Xiaosong

2018-03-05

Genital warts are one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The disease is a result of infection with low-risk types of human papillomaviruses, mostly type 6 and 11. Current therapies for genital warts are mainly ablative, or alternatively topical application of imiquimod cream and sinecatechin (polyphenon E) ointment to the warts. However, low patient compliance and high recurrence rate are significant problems for the treatment of genital warts by imiquimod and ablative therapies. We summarise recent literature in this area and propose combining imiquimod with other therapies to increase the efficacy of imiquimod.

Recent advances in MoS2 nanostructured materials for energy and environmental applications - A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theerthagiri, J.; Senthil, R. A.; Senthilkumar, B.; Reddy Polu, Anji; Madhavan, J.; Ashokkumar, Muthupandian

2017-08-01

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a layered transition metal dichalcogenide with an analogous structure to graphene, has attracted enormous attention worldwide owing to its use in a variety of applications such as energy storage, energy conversion, environmental remediation and sensors. MoS2 and graphene have almost similar functional properties such as high charge carrier transport, high wear resistance and good mechanical strength and friction. However, MoS2 is advantageous over graphene due to its low-cost, abundancy, tailorable morphologies and tuneable band gap with good visible light absorption properties. In this review, we have focussed mainly on recent advances in MoS2 nanostructured materials for the applications in the broad area of energy and environment. Special attention has been paid to their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells, supercapacitor, Li-ion battery, hydrogen evolution reaction, photocatalysis for the degradation of organic pollutants, chemical/bio sensors and gas sensors. Finally, the challenges to design MoS2 nanostructures suitable for energy and environmental applications are also highlighted.

Prospects for the control of onchocerciasis in Africa

PubMed Central

Waddy, B. B.

1969-01-01

Onchocerciasis is found in association with all the main river systems of northern tropical Africa, and there are endemic foci south of the Equator. Heavy and prolonged infection may cause blindness and intense pruritis. The vectors, Simulium damnosum and S. neavei, are also intolerable pests when they swarm. The disease and its vector together cause serious economic loss and are a main cause of the depopulation of river valleys in the savanna lands. The basin of the River Volta, in which the worst endemic area in the world is situated, is considered to be the most favourable area for a study of the problems involved in the large-scale control of onchocerciasis carried by S. damnosum. Mass treatment or prophylaxis are not practicable at present. The clinical condition progresses for many years in the absence of fresh infection, and drugs capable of mass application are needed. However, the first aim is to attack the larval stages of the vector with insecticides. DDT is ideal for this purpose in large, steadily flowing rivers, but a more suitable insecticide and formulation are needed for small, irregularly flowing streams. Research is needed into many aspects of the adult life of S. damnosum, including feeding and resting habits, dry season survival and flight range. One of the main practical problems is prevention of reinfestation of a treated river system. PMID:5307598

PSI Wide Area Product (WAP) for measuring Ground Surface Displacements at regional level for multi-hazards studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duro, Javier; Iglesias, Rubén; Blanco, Pablo; Albiol, David; Koudogbo, Fifamè

2015-04-01

The Wide Area Product (WAP) is a new interferometric product developed to provide measurement over large regions. Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) has largely proved their robust and precise performance in measuring ground surface deformation in different application domains. In this context, however, the accurate displacement estimation over large-scale areas (more than 10.000 km2) characterized by low magnitude motion gradients (3-5 mm/year), such as the ones induced by inter-seismic or Earth tidal effects, still remains an open issue. The main reason for that is the inclusion of low quality and more distant persistent scatterers in order to bridge low-quality areas, such as water bodies, crop areas and forested regions. This fact yields to spatial propagation errors on PSI integration process, poor estimation and compensation of the Atmospheric Phase Screen (APS) and the difficult to face residual long-wavelength phase patterns originated by orbit state vectors inaccuracies. Research work for generating a Wide Area Product of ground motion in preparation for the Sentinel-1 mission has been conducted in the last stages of Terrafirma as well as in other research programs. These developments propose technological updates for keeping the precision over large scale PSI analysis. Some of the updates are based on the use of external information, like meteorological models, and the employment of GNSS data for an improved calibration of large measurements. Usually, covering wide regions implies the processing over areas with a land use which is chiefly focused on livestock, horticulture, urbanization and forest. This represents an important challenge for providing continuous InSAR measurements and the application of advanced phase filtering strategies to enhance the coherence. The advanced PSI processing has been performed out over several areas, allowing a large scale analysis of tectonic patterns, and motion caused by multi-hazards as volcanic, landslide and flood. Several examples of the application of the PSI WAP to wide regions for measuring ground displacements related to different types of hazards, natural and human induced will be presented. The InSAR processing approach to measure accurate movements at local and large scales for allowing multi-hazard interpretation studies will also be discussed. The test areas will show deformations related to active faults systems, landslides in mountains slopes, ground compaction over underneath aquifers and movements in volcanic areas.

Derivation of an optimal directivity pattern for sweet spot widening in stereo sound reproduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ródenas, Josep A.; Aarts, Ronald M.; Janssen, A. J. E. M.

2003-01-01

In this paper the correction of the degradation of the stereophonic illusion during sound reproduction due to off-center listening is investigated. The main idea is that the directivity pattern of a loudspeaker array should have a well-defined shape such that a good stereo reproduction is achieved in a large listening area. Therefore, a mathematical description to derive an optimal directivity pattern opt that achieves sweet spot widening in a large listening area for stereophonic sound applications is described. This optimal directivity pattern is based on parametrized time/intensity trading data coming from psycho-acoustic experiments within a wide listening area. After the study, the required digital FIR filters are determined by means of a least-squares optimization method for a given stereo base setup (two pair of drivers for the loudspeaker arrays and 2.5-m distance between loudspeakers), which radiate sound in a broad range of listening positions in accordance with the derived opt. Informal listening tests have shown that the opt worked as predicted by the theoretical simulations. They also demonstrated the correct central sound localization for speech and music for a number of listening positions. This application is referred to as ``Position-Independent (PI) stereo.''

Treatment of melasma with a depigmentation cream determined with colorimetry.

PubMed

Sabancilar, Emine; Aydin, Fatma; Bek, Yuksel; Ozden, Muge Guler; Ozcan, Muharrem; Senturk, Nilgün; Canturk, Tayyar; Turanli, Ahmet Yasar

2011-10-01

Melasma is a pigmentary disorder often recalcitrant to treatment. Few studies have objectively evaluated the efficacy of treatment colorimetrically. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a depigmentation cream, including mainly glycolic acid and Rumex occidentalis. Twenty-seven patients applied the cream twice daily for the first 3 months and twice weekly for the following 3 months. L*, C* and h* values of the target lesions and the perilesional area were analyzed at baseline, 12 and 24 weeks colorimetrically. The physician and patient evaluated the clinical response rate. These results were compared statistically between the lesional and perilesional area. There was a significant difference between 0-12, 0-24 (L*, C* and h* values) and 12-24 weeks (L* value) (p <0.001). For C* and h* values, the difference was not significant between 12 and 24 weeks (p = 0.464 and 0.151, respectively). Statistical significance was detected only between 3 and 6 months for C* value (p < 0.05) for the lesional and the perilesional areas. Clinical response rate was significant (p < 0.05). Our depigmentation cream is a moderate effective agent, well tolerated and can be considered as an alternative treatment of melasma. Twice-daily application may enhance the efficacy of treatment instead of twice-weekly application in the maintenance period.

Group implicit concurrent algorithms in nonlinear structural dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ortiz, M.; Sotelino, E. D.

1989-01-01

During the 70's and 80's, considerable effort was devoted to developing efficient and reliable time stepping procedures for transient structural analysis. Mathematically, the equations governing this type of problems are generally stiff, i.e., they exhibit a wide spectrum in the linear range. The algorithms best suited to this type of applications are those which accurately integrate the low frequency content of the response without necessitating the resolution of the high frequency modes. This means that the algorithms must be unconditionally stable, which in turn rules out explicit integration. The most exciting possibility in the algorithms development area in recent years has been the advent of parallel computers with multiprocessing capabilities. So, this work is mainly concerned with the development of parallel algorithms in the area of structural dynamics. A primary objective is to devise unconditionally stable and accurate time stepping procedures which lend themselves to an efficient implementation in concurrent machines. Some features of the new computer architecture are summarized. A brief survey of current efforts in the area is presented. A new class of concurrent procedures, or Group Implicit algorithms is introduced and analyzed. The numerical simulation shows that GI algorithms hold considerable promise for application in coarse grain as well as medium grain parallel computers.

Derivation of an optimal directivity pattern for sweet spot widening in stereo sound reproduction.

PubMed

Ródenas, Josep A; Aarts, Ronald M; Janssen, A J E M

2003-01-01

In this paper the correction of the degradation of the stereophonic illusion during sound reproduction due to off-center listening is investigated. The main idea is that the directivity pattern of a loudspeaker array should have a well-defined shape such that a good stereo reproduction is achieved in a large listening area. Therefore, a mathematical description to derive an optimal directivity pattern l(opt) that achieves sweet spot widening in a large listening area for stereophonic sound applications is described. This optimal directivity pattern is based on parametrized time/intensity trading data coming from psycho-acoustic experiments within a wide listening area. After the study, the required digital FIR filters are determined by means of a least-squares optimization method for a given stereo base setup (two pair of drivers for the loudspeaker arrays and 2.5-m distance between loudspeakers), which radiate sound in a broad range of listening positions in accordance with the derived l(opt). Informal listening tests have shown that the l(opt) worked as predicted by the theoretical simulations. They also demonstrated the correct central sound localization for speech and music for a number of listening positions. This application is referred to as "Position-Independent (PI) stereo."

Neural networks application to divergence-based passive ranging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barniv, Yair

1992-01-01

The purpose of this report is to summarize the state of knowledge and outline the planned work in divergence-based/neural networks approach to the problem of passive ranging derived from optical flow. Work in this and closely related areas is reviewed in order to provide the necessary background for further developments. New ideas about devising a monocular passive-ranging system are then introduced. It is shown that image-plan divergence is independent of image-plan location with respect to the focus of expansion and of camera maneuvers because it directly measures the object's expansion which, in turn, is related to the time-to-collision. Thus, a divergence-based method has the potential of providing a reliable range complementing other monocular passive-ranging methods which encounter difficulties in image areas close to the focus of expansion. Image-plan divergence can be thought of as some spatial/temporal pattern. A neural network realization was chosen for this task because neural networks have generally performed well in various other pattern recognition applications. The main goal of this work is to teach a neural network to derive the divergence from the imagery.

Common hyperspectral image database design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Lixun; Liao, Ningfang; Chai, Ali

2009-11-01

This paper is to introduce Common hyperspectral image database with a demand-oriented Database design method (CHIDB), which comprehensively set ground-based spectra, standardized hyperspectral cube, spectral analysis together to meet some applications. The paper presents an integrated approach to retrieving spectral and spatial patterns from remotely sensed imagery using state-of-the-art data mining and advanced database technologies, some data mining ideas and functions were associated into CHIDB to make it more suitable to serve in agriculture, geological and environmental areas. A broad range of data from multiple regions of the electromagnetic spectrum is supported, including ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, thermal infrared, and fluorescence. CHIDB is based on dotnet framework and designed by MVC architecture including five main functional modules: Data importer/exporter, Image/spectrum Viewer, Data Processor, Parameter Extractor, and On-line Analyzer. The original data were all stored in SQL server2008 for efficient search, query and update, and some advance Spectral image data Processing technology are used such as Parallel processing in C#; Finally an application case is presented in agricultural disease detecting area.

Application of Radial Basis Functional Link Networks to Exploration for Proterozoic Mineral Deposits in Central Iran

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

Behnia, Pouran

2007-06-15

The metallogeny of Central Iran is characterized mainly by the presence of several iron, apatite, and uranium deposits of Proterozoic age. Radial Basis Function Link Networks (RBFLN) were used as a data-driven method for GIS-based predictive mapping of Proterozoic mineralization in this area. To generate the input data for RBFLN, the evidential maps comprising stratigraphic, structural, geophysical, and geochemical data were used. Fifty-eight deposits and 58 'nondeposits' were used to train the network. The operations for the application of neural networks employed in this study involve both multiclass and binary representation of evidential maps. Running RBFLN on different input datamore » showed that an increase in the number of evidential maps and classes leads to a larger classification sum of squared error (SSE). As a whole, an increase in the number of iterations resulted in the improvement of training SSE. The results of applying RBFLN showed that a successful classification depends on the existence of spatially well distributed deposits and nondeposits throughout the study area.« less

Application of preliminary risk analysis at marble finishing plants in Recife's metropolitan area.

PubMed

de Melo Neto, Rútilo P; Kohlman Rabbani, Emilia R

2012-01-01

The finishing of marble occurs in quarries all over Brazil, being the most significant dimension of the ornamental stone sector, with 7,000 businesses. Recife's Metropolitan Area (RMR) contains approximately 106 marble quarries, 25 of them unionized. The study focused on the application of Preliminary Risk Analysis, conducted at two unionized quarries: M1, a small business; and the second, M2, considered a micro enterprise. In this analysis both the administrative and the productive sectors were evaluated. The fieldwork was done in the month of December 2010. The study revealed that the two quarries carried moderate risks in the administrative sector, mainly due to ergonomic factors, and that in the productive sectors the risks were high, specifically because of excess noise, dust material, and precarious electrical installations. Using the results of the qualitative analysis as a base, the need for quantitative study presents itself in order to determine the most adequate modes of protection to be of assistance in the management of these risks, guaranteeing the safety and health of the worker and consequently the improvement in productivity in this sector.

FM-UWB: Towards a Robust, Low-Power Radio for Body Area Networks

PubMed Central

Kopta, Vladimir; Farserotu, John; Enz, Christian

2017-01-01

The Frequency Modulated Ultra-Wideband (FM-UWB) is known as a low-power, low-complexity modulation scheme targeting low to moderate data rates in applications such as wireless body area networks. In this paper, a thorough review of all FM-UWB receivers and transmitters reported in literature is presented. The emphasis is on trends in power reduction that exhibit an improvement by a factor 20 over the past eight years, showing the high potential of FM-UWB. The main architectural and circuit techniques that have led to this improvement are highlighted. Seldom explored potential of using higher data rates and more complex modulations is demonstrated as a way to increase energy efficiency of FM-UWB. Multi-user communication over a single Radio Frequency (RF) channel is explored in more depth and multi-channel transmission is proposed as an extension of standard FM-UWB. The two techniques provide means of decreasing network latency, improving performance, and allow the FM-UWB to accommodate the increasing number of sensor nodes in the emerging applications such as High-Density Wireless Sensor Networks. PMID:28481248

Control of odour nuisance in urban areas: the efficiency and social acceptance of the application of masking agents.

PubMed

Lazarova, Valentina; Abed, Brahim; Markovska, Gabriela; Dezenclos, Thierry; Amara, Aït

2013-01-01

This paper presents and discusses the results of the project named 'Jasmin' implemented in Algiers to control the strong odours of the river named Oued El Harrach, one of the largest rivers in the centre of the city. Pending the achievement of curative solutions, a temporary option for mitigation of nuisance odour by masking agents was implemented in the vicinity of the main bridges. The efficiency of this technology has been followed by means of an odour panel with the participation of representatives of all stakeholders. A sociological study by means of 1,000 questionnaires and face-to-face interviews of the local population demonstrated the benefits and the positive outcomes of the attenuation of odour nuisance: 70% of the surveyed population is satisfied or very satisfied with the application of masking agents and 96% of respondents support the continuation of the project. In terms of size and public access, the project Jasmin is a world-first demonstration of odour control in urban areas in developing countries.

A guidelines handbook for GPR surveys in tunnels: a COST Action TU1208 contribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchini Ciampoli, Luca; Alani, Amir M.; Pajewski, Lara; Benedetto, Andrea; Loizos, Andreas; Tosti, Fabio

2016-04-01

A significant open issue concerning the reliability of geophysical methods and in particular of ground penetrating radar (GPR), both in research and professional context, is a general lack of international standards. This is a major problem to be faced, in order to gain scientific strictness for the GPR practices, and to easily extend to the international community the results achieved within the area of single virtuous countries. Producing international guidelines can represent an important step forward, in this sense. In the memorandum of understanding of the COST Action TU1208 is clearly stated that one of the main purposes of the Action is the "development of innovative protocols and guidelines which will be published in a handbook and constitute a basis for European Standards, for an effective GPR application in CE tasks; safety, economic and financial criteria will be integrated within the protocols". Of course this is not a simple task to be accomplished. Firstly, survey procedures are highly dependent on the objective of the survey itself. On the basis of the objective of each geophysical test, the GPR system, the antenna configuration, and even the processing procedures may change. Besides, these procedures are also influenced by the environmental conditions in which the tests are performed. This affects several aspects spanning from hardware to software, but including, for instance, also safety issues. Due to these reasons, one of the main goal of the COST Action TU1208 is the development of several guidelines related to the main applications of GPR in the field of civil engineering. In this work, the structure of a guidelines handbook for GPR activities in tunnels is outlined. In the first sections, the principal references in the field are provided, and the most common GPR equipment and complementary technologies are described. Subsequently, the survey methodologies are explained. Particular attention is paid to the preliminary activities to be carried out prior to the GPR surveys, which can cover an important role in such a complex environment. Lastly, the main applications of GPR technology in tunnels are discussed. Acknowledgement The Authors thank COST, for funding the Action TU1208 "Civil Engineering Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar."

Mining textural knowledge in biological images: Applications, methods and trends.

PubMed

Di Cataldo, Santa; Ficarra, Elisa

2017-01-01

Texture analysis is a major task in many areas of computer vision and pattern recognition, including biological imaging. Indeed, visual textures can be exploited to distinguish specific tissues or cells in a biological sample, to highlight chemical reactions between molecules, as well as to detect subcellular patterns that can be evidence of certain pathologies. This makes automated texture analysis fundamental in many applications of biomedicine, such as the accurate detection and grading of multiple types of cancer, the differential diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, or the study of physiological processes. Due to their specific characteristics and challenges, the design of texture analysis systems for biological images has attracted ever-growing attention in the last few years. In this paper, we perform a critical review of this important topic. First, we provide a general definition of texture analysis and discuss its role in the context of bioimaging, with examples of applications from the recent literature. Then, we review the main approaches to automated texture analysis, with special attention to the methods of feature extraction and encoding that can be successfully applied to microscopy images of cells or tissues. Our aim is to provide an overview of the state of the art, as well as a glimpse into the latest and future trends of research in this area.

The application of a Web-geographic information system for improving urban water cycle modelling.

PubMed

Mair, M; Mikovits, C; Sengthaler, M; Schöpf, M; Kinzel, H; Urich, C; Kleidorfer, M; Sitzenfrei, R; Rauch, W

2014-01-01

Research in urban water management has experienced a transition from traditional model applications to modelling water cycles as an integrated part of urban areas. This includes the interlinking of models of many research areas (e.g. urban development, socio-economy, urban water management). The integration and simulation is realized in newly developed frameworks (e.g. DynaMind and OpenMI) and often assumes a high knowledge in programming. This work presents a Web based urban water management modelling platform which simplifies the setup and usage of complex integrated models. The platform is demonstrated with a small application example on a case study within the Alpine region. The used model is a DynaMind model benchmarking the impact of newly connected catchments on the flooding behaviour of an existing combined sewer system. As a result the workflow of the user within a Web browser is demonstrated and benchmark results are shown. The presented platform hides implementation specific aspects behind Web services based technologies such that the user can focus on his main aim, which is urban water management modelling and benchmarking. Moreover, this platform offers a centralized data management, automatic software updates and access to high performance computers accessible with desktop computers and mobile devices.

HEMOXCell, a New Oxygen Carrier Usable as an Additive for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Culture in Platelet Lysate-Supplemented Media.

PubMed

Le Pape, Fiona; Cosnuau-Kemmat, Lucie; Richard, Gaëlle; Dubrana, Frédéric; Férec, Claude; Zal, Franck; Leize, Elisabeth; Delépine, Pascal

2017-04-01

Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for therapeutic applications such as tissue engineering. However, one of the main challenges is to improve oxygen supply to hypoxic areas to reduce oxygen gradient formation while preserving MSC differentiation potential and viability. For this purpose, a marine hemoglobin, HEMOXCell, was evaluated as an oxygen carrier for culturing human bone marrow MSCs in vitro for future three-dimensional culture applications. Impact of HEMOXCell on cell growth and viability was assessed in human platelet lysate (hPL)-supplemented media. Maintenance of MSC features, such as multipotency and expression of MSC specific markers, was further investigated by biochemical assays and flow cytometry analysis. Our experimental results highlight its oxygenator potential and indicate that an optimal concentration of 0.025 g/L HEMOXCell induces a 25%-increase of the cell growth rate, preserves MSC phenotype, and maintains MSC differentiation properties; a two-fold higher concentration induces cell detachment without altering cell viability. Our data suggest the potential interest of HEMOXCell as a natural oxygen carrier for tissue engineering applications to oxygenate hypoxic areas and to maintain cell viability, functions and "stemness." These features will be further tested within three-dimensional scaffolds. © 2017 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Current estate of biotechnology in Costa Rica].

PubMed

Valdez, Marta; López, Rebeca; Jiménez, Luis

2004-09-01

A study was carried out on the construction of indicators in biotechnology in Costa Rica as part of the project "SYMBIOSIS, Cooperative Program for the Construction of Indicators in Biotechnology adapted to Latin American and Caribbean countries, to motivate the application and transference of industrial technologies". The study focused on two units: researchers and research projects developed in Costa Rica, between 1998 and 2002. For researchers, information was collected about indicators related to sex, age, teaching activities, number of projects, academic degree, area of speciality and number of publications. For research projects we obtained information about: speciality, sector of application, duration of projects and number of researchers per project. Very interesting results include the high participation of the women in this area of investigation (54%); the low participation of young researchers (13% younger than 30), and a high proportion of the investigators that are responsible for 4 or more projects (42%). With relation to the specialities of the projects, the majority are in the category Bio-Agro (39%) whereas in Acuaculture only 1% was found. The sectors of application with the most number of projects are: Agriculture and Livestock (37%) and Human Health (35%). The main strengthts and limitatations for the development of biotechnology in Costa Rica are discussed.

Point process methods in epidemiology: application to the analysis of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome mortality in urban areas.

PubMed

Quesada, Jose Antonio; Melchor, Inmaculada; Nolasco, Andreu

2017-05-26

The analysis of spatio-temporal patterns of disease or death in urban areas has been developed mainly from the ecological studies approach. These designs may have some limitations like the ecological fallacy and instability with few cases. The objective of this study was to apply the point process methodology, as a complement to that of aggregated data, to study HIV/AIDS mortality in men in the city of Alicante (Spain). A case-control study in residents in the city during the period 2004-2011 was designed. Cases were men who died from HIV/AIDS and controls represented the general population, matched by age to cases. The risk surfaces of death over the city were estimated using the log-risk function of intensities, and we contrasted their temporal variations over the two periods. High risk significant areas of death by HIV/AIDS, which coincide with the most deprived areas in the city, were detected. Significant spatial change of the areas at risk between the periods studied was not detected. The point process methodology is a useful tool to analyse the patterns of death by HIV/AIDS in urban areas.

Chiral Separations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stalcup, A. M.

2010-07-01

The main goal of this review is to provide a brief overview of chiral separations to researchers who are versed in the area of analytical separations but unfamiliar with chiral separations. To researchers who are not familiar with this area, there is currently a bewildering array of commercially available chiral columns, chiral derivatizing reagents, and chiral selectors for approaches that span the range of analytical separation platforms (e.g., high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, supercritical-fluid chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis). This review begins with a brief discussion of chirality before examining the general strategies and commonalities among all of the chiral separation techniques. Rather than exhaustively listing all the chiral selectors and applications, this review highlights significant issues and differences between chiral and achiral separations, providing salient examples from specific classes of chiral selectors where appropriate.

Comparison of the Frontier Distributed Database Caching System to NoSQL Databases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dykstra, Dave

2012-12-01

One of the main attractions of non-relational “NoSQL” databases is their ability to scale to large numbers of readers, including readers spread over a wide area. The Frontier distributed database caching system, used in production by the Large Hadron Collider CMS and ATLAS detector projects for Conditions data, is based on traditional SQL databases but also adds high scalability and the ability to be distributed over a wide-area for an important subset of applications. This paper compares the major characteristics of the two different approaches and identifies the criteria for choosing which approach to prefer over the other. It also compares in some detail the NoSQL databases used by CMS and ATLAS: MongoDB, CouchDB, HBase, and Cassandra.

Comparison of the Frontier Distributed Database Caching System to NoSQL Databases

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

Dykstra, Dave

One of the main attractions of non-relational NoSQL databases is their ability to scale to large numbers of readers, including readers spread over a wide area. The Frontier distributed database caching system, used in production by the Large Hadron Collider CMS and ATLAS detector projects for Conditions data, is based on traditional SQL databases but also adds high scalability and the ability to be distributed over a wide-area for an important subset of applications. This paper compares the major characteristics of the two different approaches and identifies the criteria for choosing which approach to prefer over the other. It alsomore » compares in some detail the NoSQL databases used by CMS and ATLAS: MongoDB, CouchDB, HBase, and Cassandra.« less

76 FR 59151 - Announcement of Funding Awards; HOPE VI Main Street Grant Program, Fiscal Year (FY) 2009

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-23

... central business district or ``Main Street'' area by replacing unused commercial space in buildings with... historic or traditional architecture or design features in Main Street areas; (3) enhance economic...

Application of a wind-wave-current coupled model in the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean sea), for wind energy purposes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

María Palomares, Ana; Navarro, Jorge; Grifoll, Manel; Pallares, Elena; Espino, Manuel

2016-04-01

This work shows the main results of the HAREAMAR project (including HAREMAR, ENE2012-38772-C02-01 and DARDO, ENE2012-38772-C02-02 projects), concerning the local Wind, Wave and Current simulation at St. Jordi Bay (NW Mediterranean Sea). Offshore Wind Energy has become one of the main topics within the research in Wind Energy research. Although there are quite a few models with a high level of reliability for wind simulation and prediction in onshore places, the wind prediction needs further investigations for adaptation to the Offshore emplacements, taking into account the interaction atmosphere-ocean. The main problem in these ocean areas is the lack of wind data, which neither allows for characterizing the energy potential and wind behaviour in a particular place, nor validating the forecasting models. The main objective of this work is to reduce the local prediction errors, in order to make the meteo-oceanographic hindcast and forecast more reliable. The COAWST model (Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave Sediment Transport Model; Warner et al., 2010) system has been implemented in the region considering a set of downscaling nested meshes to obtain high-resolution outputs in the region. The adaptation to this particular area, combining the different wind, wave and ocean model domains has been far from simple, because the grid domains for the three models differ significantly. This work shows the main results of the COAWST model implementation to this particular area, including both monthly and other set of tests in different atmospheric situations, especially chosen for their particular interest. The time period considered for the validation is the whole year 2012. A comparative study between the WRF, SWAN and ROMS model outputs (without coupling), the COWAST model outputs, and a buoy measurements moored in the region was performed for this year. References Warner, J.C., Armstrong, B., He, R., and Zambon, J.B., 2010, Development of a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system: Ocean Modeling, 35 (3), 230-244.

Gravity models to classify commuting vs. resident workers. An application to the analysis of residential risk in a contaminated area

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The analysis of risk for the population residing and/or working in contaminated areas raises the topic of commuting. In fact, especially in contaminated areas, commuting groups are likely to be subject to lower exposure than residents. Only very recently environmental epidemiology has started considering the role of commuting as a differential source of exposure in contaminated areas. In order to improve the categorization of groups, this paper applies a gravitational model to the analysis of residential risk for workers in the Gela petrochemical complex, which began life in the early 60s in the municipality of Gela (Sicily, Italy) and is the main source of industrial pollution in the local area. Results A logistic regression model is implemented to measure the capacity of Gela "central location" to attract commuting flows from other sites. Drawing from gravity models, the proposed methodology: a) defines the probability of finding commuters from municipalities outside Gela as a function of the origin's "economic mass" and of its distance from each destination; b) establishes "commuting thresholds" relative to the origin's mass. The analysis includes 367 out of the 390 Sicilian municipalities. Results are applied to define "commuters" and "residents" within the cohort of petrochemical workers. The study population is composed of 5,627 workers. Different categories of residence in Gela are compared calculating Mortality Rate Ratios for lung cancer through a Poisson regression model, controlling for age and calendar period. The mobility model correctly classifies almost 90% of observations. Its application to the mortality analysis confirms a major risk for lung cancer associated with residence in Gela. Conclusions Commuting is a critical aspect of the health-environment relationship in contaminated areas. The proposed methodology can be replicated to different contexts when residential information is lacking or unreliable; however, a careful consideration of the territorial characteristics ("insularity" and its impact on transportation time and costs, in our case) is suggested when specifying the area of application for the mobility analysis. PMID:21272299

Application of the FINDER system to the search for epithermal vein gold-silver deposits : Kushikino, Japan, a case study

USGS Publications Warehouse

Singer, Donald A.; Kouda, Ryoichi

1991-01-01

The FINDER system employs geometric probability, Bayesian statistics, and the normal probability density function to integrate spatial and frequency information to produce a map of probabilities of target centers. Target centers can be mineral deposits, alteration associated with mineral deposits, or any other target that can be represented by a regular shape on a two dimensional map. The size, shape, mean, and standard deviation for each variable are characterized in a control area and the results applied by means of FINDER to the study area. The Kushikino deposit consists of groups of quartz-calcite-adularia veins that produced 55 tonnes of gold and 456 tonnes of silver since 1660. Part of a 6 by 10 km area near Kushikino served as a control area. Within the control area, data plotting, contouring, and cluster analysis were used to identify the barren and mineralized populations. Sodium was found to be depleted in an elliptically shaped area 3.1 by 1.6 km, potassium was both depleted and enriched locally in an elliptically shaped area 3.0 by 1.3 km, and sulfur was enriched in an elliptically shaped area 5.8 by 1.6 km. The potassium, sodium, and sulfur content from 233 surface rock samples were each used in FINDER to produce probability maps for the 12 by 30 km study area which includes Kushikino. High probability areas for each of the individual variables are over and offset up to 4 km eastward from the main Kushikino veins. In general, high probability areas identified by FINDER are displaced from the main veins and cover not only the host andesite and the dacite-andesite that is about the same age as the Kushikino mineralization, but also younger sedimentary rocks, andesite, and tuff units east and northeast of Kushikino. The maps also display the same patterns observed near Kushikino, but with somewhat lower probabilities, about 1.5 km east of the old gold prospect, Hajima, and in a broad zone 2.5 km east-west and 1 km north-south, centered 2 km west of the old gold prospect, Yaeyama.

Geospatial Applications on Different Parallel and Distributed Systems in enviroGRIDS Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodila, D.; Bacu, V.; Gorgan, D.

2012-04-01

The execution of Earth Science applications and services on parallel and distributed systems has become a necessity especially due to the large amounts of Geospatial data these applications require and the large geographical areas they cover. The parallelization of these applications comes to solve important performance issues and can spread from task parallelism to data parallelism as well. Parallel and distributed architectures such as Grid, Cloud, Multicore, etc. seem to offer the necessary functionalities to solve important problems in the Earth Science domain: storing, distribution, management, processing and security of Geospatial data, execution of complex processing through task and data parallelism, etc. A main goal of the FP7-funded project enviroGRIDS (Black Sea Catchment Observation and Assessment System supporting Sustainable Development) [1] is the development of a Spatial Data Infrastructure targeting this catchment region but also the development of standardized and specialized tools for storing, analyzing, processing and visualizing the Geospatial data concerning this area. For achieving these objectives, the enviroGRIDS deals with the execution of different Earth Science applications, such as hydrological models, Geospatial Web services standardized by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and others, on parallel and distributed architecture to maximize the obtained performance. This presentation analysis the integration and execution of Geospatial applications on different parallel and distributed architectures and the possibility of choosing among these architectures based on application characteristics and user requirements through a specialized component. Versions of the proposed platform have been used in enviroGRIDS project on different use cases such as: the execution of Geospatial Web services both on Web and Grid infrastructures [2] and the execution of SWAT hydrological models both on Grid and Multicore architectures [3]. The current focus is to integrate in the proposed platform the Cloud infrastructure, which is still a paradigm with critical problems to be solved despite the great efforts and investments. Cloud computing comes as a new way of delivering resources while using a large set of old as well as new technologies and tools for providing the necessary functionalities. The main challenges in the Cloud computing, most of them identified also in the Open Cloud Manifesto 2009, address resource management and monitoring, data and application interoperability and portability, security, scalability, software licensing, etc. We propose a platform able to execute different Geospatial applications on different parallel and distributed architectures such as Grid, Cloud, Multicore, etc. with the possibility of choosing among these architectures based on application characteristics and complexity, user requirements, necessary performances, cost support, etc. The execution redirection on a selected architecture is realized through a specialized component and has the purpose of offering a flexible way in achieving the best performances considering the existing restrictions.

Specification, Design, and Analysis of Advanced HUMS Architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mukkamala, Ravi

2004-01-01

During the two-year project period, we have worked on several aspects of domain-specific architectures for HUMS. In particular, we looked at using scenario-based approach for the design and designed a language for describing such architectures. The language is now being used in all aspects of our HUMS design. In particular, we have made contributions in the following areas. 1) We have employed scenarios in the development of HUMS in three main areas. They are: (a) To improve reusability by using scenarios as a library indexing tool and as a domain analysis tool; (b) To improve maintainability by recording design rationales from two perspectives - problem domain and solution domain; (c) To evaluate the software architecture. 2) We have defined a new architectural language called HADL or HUMS Architectural Definition Language. It is a customized version of xArch/xADL. It is based on XML and, hence, is easily portable from domain to domain, application to application, and machine to machine. Specifications written in HADL can be easily read and parsed using the currently available XML parsers. Thus, there is no need to develop a plethora of software to support HADL. 3) We have developed an automated design process that involves two main techniques: (a) Selection of solutions from a large space of designs; (b) Synthesis of designs. However, the automation process is not an absolute Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach though it uses a knowledge-based system that epitomizes a specific HUMS domain. The process uses a database of solutions as an aid to solve the problems rather than creating a new design in the literal sense. Since searching is adopted as the main technique, the challenges involved are: (a) To minimize the effort in searching the database where a very large number of possibilities exist; (b) To develop representations that could conveniently allow us to depict design knowledge evolved over many years; (c) To capture the required information that aid the automation process.

Single-crystal sapphire microstructure for high-resolution synchrotron X-ray monochromators

DOE PAGES

Asadchikov, Victor E.; Butashin, Andrey V.; Buzmakov, Alexey V.; ...

2016-03-22

We report on the growth and characterization of several sapphire single crystals for the purpose of x-ray optics applications. Structural defects were studied by means of laboratory double-crystal X-ray diffractometry and white beam synchrotron-radiation topography. The investigations confirmed that the main defect types are dislocations. The best quality crystal was grown using the Kyropoulos technique with a dislocation density of 10 2-10 3 cm -2 and a small area with approximately 2*2 mm 2 did not show dislocation contrast in many reflections and has suitable quality for application as a backscattering monochromator. As a result, a clear correlation between growthmore » rate and dislocation density is observed, though growth rate is not the only parameter impacting the quality.« less

Laminates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lepedat, Karin; Wagner, Robert; Lang, Jürgen

The use of phenolic resin for the impregnation of a carrier material such as paper or fabric based on either organic or inorganic fibers was and still is one of the most important application areas for liquid phenolic resins. Substrates like paper, cotton, or glass fabric impregnated with phenolic resins are used as core layers for decorative and technical laminates and for many other different industrial applications. Nowadays, phenolic resins for decorative laminates used for furniture, flooring, or in the construction and transportation industry have gained significant market share. The Laminates chapter mainly describes the manufacture of decorative laminates especially the impregnation and pressing process with special emphasis to new technological developments and recent trends. Moreover, the different types of laminates are introduced, combined with some brief comments as they relate to the market for decorative surfaces.

Material review of Li ion battery separators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weber, Christoph J.; Geiger, Sigrid; Falusi, Sandra; Roth, Michael

2014-06-01

Separators for Li Ion batteries have a strong impact on cell production, cell performance, life, as well as reliability and safety. The separator market volume is about 500 million m2 mainly based on consumer applications. It is expected to grow strongly over the next decade for mobile and stationary applications using large cells. At present, the market is essentially served by polyolefine membranes. Such membranes have some technological limitations, such as wettability, porosity, penetration resistance, shrinkage and meltdown. The development of a cell failure due to internal short circuit is potentially closely related to separator material properties. Consequently, advanced separators became an intense area of worldwide research and development activity in academia and industry. New separator technologies are being developed especially to address safety and reliability related property improvements.

Facile fabrication of mesoporous poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)/chitosan blend monoliths.

PubMed

Wang, Guowei; Xin, Yuanrong; Uyama, Hiroshi

2015-11-05

Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVOH)/chitosan blend monoliths were fabricated by thermally-induced phase separation method. Chitosan was successfully incorporated into the polymeric monolith by selecting EVOH as the main component of the monolith. SEM images exhibit that the chitosan was located on the inner surface of the monolith. Fourier-transform infrared analysis and elemental analysis indicate the successful blend of EVOH and chitosan. BET results show that the blend monoliths had high specific surface area and uniform mesopore structure. Good adsorption ability toward various heavy metal ions was found in the blend monoliths due to the large chelation capacity of chitosan. The blend monoliths have potential application for waste water purification or bio-related applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An update on applications of nanostructured drug delivery systems in cancer therapy: a review.

PubMed

Aberoumandi, Seyed Mohsen; Mohammadhosseini, Majid; Abasi, Elham; Saghati, Sepideh; Nikzamir, Nasrin; Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl; Panahi, Yunes; Davaran, Soodabeh

2017-09-01

Cancer is a main public health problem that is known as a malignant tumor and out-of-control cell growth, with the potential to assault or spread to other parts of the body. Recently, remarkable efforts have been devoted to develop nanotechnology to improve the delivery of anticancer drug to tumor tissue as minimizing its distribution and toxicity in healthy tissue. Nanotechnology has been extensively used in the advance of new strategies for drug delivery and cancer therapy. Compared to customary drug delivery systems, nano-based drug delivery method has greater potential in different areas, like multiple targeting functionalization, in vivo imaging, extended circulation time, systemic control release, and combined drug delivery. Nanofibers are used for different medical applications such as drug delivery systems.

Geophysical methods for identification of active faults between the Sannio-Matese and Irpinia areas of the Southern Apennines.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaudiosi, Germana; Nappi, Rosa; Alessio, Giuliana; Cella, Federico; Fedi, Maurizio; Florio, Giovanni

2014-05-01

The Southern Apennines is one of the Italian most active areas from a geodynamic point of view since it is characterized by occurrence of intense and widely spread seismic activity. Most seismicity of the area is concentrated along the chain, affecting mainly the Irpinia and Sannio-Matese areas. The seismogenetic sources responsible for the destructive events of 1456, 1688, 1694, 1702, 1732, 1805, 1930, 1962 and 1980 (Io = X-XI MCS) occurred mostly on NW-SE faults, and the relative hypocenters are concentrated within the upper 20 km of the crust. Structural observations on the Pleistocene faults suggest normal to sinistral movements for the NW-SE trending faults and normal to dextral for the NE-SW trending structures. The available focal mechanisms of the largest events show normal solutions consistent with NE-SW extension of the chain. After the 1980 Irpinia large earthquake, the release of seismic energy in the Southern Apennines has been characterized by occurrence of moderate energy sequences of main shock-aftershocks type and swarm-type activity with low magnitude sequences. Low-magnitude (Md<5) historical and recent earthquakes, generally clustered in swarms, have commonly occurred along the NE-SW faults. This paper deals with integrated analysis of geological and geophysical data in GIS environment to identify surface, buried and hidden active faults and to characterize their geometry. In particular we have analyzed structural data, earthquake space distribution and gravimetric data. The main results of the combined analysis indicate good correlation between seismicity and Multiscale Derivative Analysis (MDA) lineaments from gravity data. Furthermore 2D seismic hypocentral locations together with high-resolution analysis of gravity anomalies have been correlated to estimate the fault systems parameters (strike, dip direction and dip angle) through the application of the DEXP method (Depth from Extreme Points).

a Novel Approach to Support Majority Voting in Spatial Group Mcdm Using Density Induced Owa Operator for Seismic Vulnerability Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moradi, M.; Delavar, M. R.; Moshiri, B.; Khamespanah, F.

2014-10-01

Being one of the most frightening disasters, earthquakes frequently cause huge damages to buildings, facilities and human beings. Although the prediction of characteristics of an earthquake seems to be impossible, its loss and damage is predictable in advance. Seismic loss estimation models tend to evaluate the extent to which the urban areas are vulnerable to earthquakes. Many factors contribute to the vulnerability of urban areas against earthquakes including age and height of buildings, the quality of the materials, the density of population and the location of flammable facilities. Therefore, seismic vulnerability assessment is a multi-criteria problem. A number of multi criteria decision making models have been proposed based on a single expert. The main objective of this paper is to propose a model which facilitates group multi criteria decision making based on the concept of majority voting. The main idea of majority voting is providing a computational tool to measure the degree to which different experts support each other's opinions and make a decision regarding this measure. The applicability of this model is examined in Tehran metropolitan area which is located in a seismically active region. The results indicate that neglecting the experts which get lower degrees of support from others enables the decision makers to avoid the extreme strategies. Moreover, a computational method is proposed to calculate the degree of optimism in the experts' opinions.

Physiology and growth of advance Picea rubens and Abies balsamea regeneration following different canopy openings.

PubMed

Dumais, Daniel; Prévost, Marcel

2014-02-01

We examined the ecophysiology and growth of 0.3-1.3 m tall advance red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) regeneration during a 5-year period following the application of different harvest types producing three sizes of canopy openings: (i) small gaps (<100 m(2) in area; SMA) created by partial uniform single-tree harvest; (ii) irregular gaps of intermediate size (100-300 m(2); INT) created by group-selection harvest (removal of groups of trees, mainly balsam fir, with uniform partial removal between groups); and (iii) large circular gaps (700 m(2); LAR) created by patch-selection harvest (removal of trees in 30-m diameter circular areas with uniform partial removal between gaps). An unharvested control (CON) was monitored for comparison. At the ecophysiological level, we mainly found differences in light-saturated photosynthesis of red spruce and specific leaf area of balsam fir among treatments. Consequently, we observed good height growth of both species in CON and INT, but fir surpassed spruce in SMA and LAR. Results suggest that intermediate 100-300 m(2) irregular openings create microenvironmental conditions that may promote short-term ecophysiology and growth of red spruce, allowing the species to compete with balsam fir advance regeneration. Finally, results observed for spruce in large 700-m(2) openings confirm its inability to grow as rapidly as fir in comparable open conditions.

A case study on the historical peninsula of Istanbul based on three-dimensional modeling by using photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning.

PubMed

Ergun, Bahadir; Sahin, Cumhur; Baz, Ibrahim; Ustuntas, Taner

2010-06-01

Terrestrial laser scanning is a popular methodology that is used frequently in the process of documenting historical buildings and cultural heritage. The historical peninsula region sprawls over an area of approximately 1,500 ha and is one of the main aggregate areas of the historical buildings in Istanbul. In this study, terrestrial laser scanning and close range photogrammetry techniques are integrated into each other to create a 3D city model of this part of Istanbul, including some of the buildings that represent the most brilliant areas of Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Several terrestrial laser scanners with their different specifications were used to solve various geometric scanning problems for distinct areas of the subject city. Photogrammetric method was used for the documentation of the façades of these historical buildings for architectural purposes. This study differentiates itself from the similar ones by its application process that focuses on the geometry, the building texture, and density of the study area. Nowadays, the largest-scale studies among 3D modeling studies, in terms of the methodology of measurement, are urban modeling studies. Because of this large scale, the application of 3D urban modeling studies is executed in a gradual way. In this study, a modeling method based on the façades of the streets was used. In addition, the complimentary elements for the process of modeling were combined in several ways. A street model was presented as a sample, as being the subject of the applied study. In our application of 3D modeling, the modeling based on close range photogrammetry and the data of combined calibration with the data of terrestrial laser scanner were used in a compatible way. The final work was formed with the pedestal data for 3D visualization.

76 FR 41236 - FPL Energy Maine Hydro, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-13

... Hydro, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments Take notice that the....: 2283-064. c. Date Filed: March 25, 2011. d. Applicant: FPL Energy Maine Hydro, LLC. e. Name of Project... Land/Trail Management Plan issued March 25, 2010, FPL Energy Maine Hydro, LLC (licensee) filed an...

Evaluation of soil contamination in intensive agricultural areas by pesticides and organic pollutants: south-eastern Spain as a case study.

PubMed

Plaza-Bolaños, Patricia; Padilla-Sánchez, Juan Antonio; Garrido-Frenich, Antonia; Romero-González, Roberto; Martínez-Vidal, José Luis

2012-04-01

A comprehensive survey of the occurrence and fate of pesticides and organic contaminants in soils from an intensive agricultural area devoted to horticultural production in plastic-based greenhouses has been performed to determine if the operation under integrated pest management practices has contributed to reduce the levels of these compounds. Almería province (south-eastern Spain) was selected for the case study. 38 agricultural soil samples (each sample corresponds to an independent private greenhouse) of areas working under integrated pest management (IPM) programs have been analyzed in order to evaluate their contamination fate. Sampling was designed to cover an area of about 400 km(2). Pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), phenolic compounds and di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) were monitored. The obtained results were compared to other studies reported in Spain and Europe. Among relevant persistent pesticides, DDTs and endosulfans were mainly found and the results indicated historical application, although recent application of endosulfan was rarely detected. PAHs were also found but to a lesser extent and derived from pyrogenic sources. DEHP levels were considerably higher in comparison to the other monitored analytes. The evaluation revealed that despite the use of IPM programs, pesticide and organic contaminants are still being detected in this type of agricultural soil, although at relatively low concentration levels. In general, the contamination rate was similar or lower in comparison to other agricultural areas from nearby regions or countries. However, further monitoring studies should be carried out to establish the possible reduction in contamination by the selected compounds.

Python in the NERSC Exascale Science Applications Program for Data

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

Ronaghi, Zahra; Thomas, Rollin; Deslippe, Jack

We describe a new effort at the National Energy Re- search Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in performance analysis and optimization of scientific Python applications targeting the Intel Xeon Phi (Knights Landing, KNL) many- core architecture. The Python-centered work outlined here is part of a larger effort called the NERSC Exascale Science Applications Program (NESAP) for Data. NESAP for Data focuses on applications that process and analyze high-volume, high-velocity data sets from experimental/observational science (EOS) facilities supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Science. We present three case study applications from NESAP for Data that use Python. These codesmore » vary in terms of “Python purity” from applications developed in pure Python to ones that use Python mainly as a convenience layer for scientists without expertise in lower level programming lan- guages like C, C++ or Fortran. The science case, requirements, constraints, algorithms, and initial performance optimizations for each code are discussed. Our goal with this paper is to contribute to the larger conversation around the role of Python in high-performance computing today and tomorrow, highlighting areas for future work and emerging best practices« less

Factors influencing societal response of nanotechnology: an expert stakeholder analysis.

PubMed

Gupta, Nidhi; Fischer, Arnout R H; van der Lans, Ivo A; Frewer, Lynn J

2012-05-01

Nanotechnology can be described as an emerging technology and, as has been the case with other emerging technologies such as genetic modification, different socio-psychological factors will potentially influence societal responses to its development and application. These factors will play an important role in how nanotechnology is developed and commercialised. This article aims to identify expert opinion on factors influencing societal response to applications of nanotechnology. Structured interviews with experts on nanotechnology from North West Europe were conducted using repertory grid methodology in conjunction with generalized Procrustes analysis to examine the psychological constructs underlying societal uptake of 15 key applications of nanotechnology drawn from different areas (e.g. medicine, agriculture and environment, chemical, food, military, sports, and cosmetics). Based on expert judgement, the main factors influencing societal response to different applications of nanotechnology will be the extent to which applications are perceived to be beneficial, useful, and necessary, and how 'real' and physically close to the end-user these applications are perceived to be by the public. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11051-012-0857-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

77 FR 73643 - Combined Notice of Filings #1

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-11

.... Applicants: Central Maine Power Company, Maine Electric Power Company. Description: Application for Authorization Under Section 203(a)91)(A) of (B) of the Federal Power Act and Request for Waivers and Expedited Action of Central Maine Power Company and Maine Public Service Company. Filed Date: 11/30/12. Accession...

Air ionizer application for electrostatic discharge (ESD) dust removal in automotive painting industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yosri, M. H.; Muhamad, P.; Ismail, M. A.; Yatim, N. H. M.

2018-01-01

Dust and fiber have been identified among the highest contributor for the defect in automotive painting line with range from 40% to 50% of total defect breakdown. Eventually, those defects will effect on both visual appearance and also the performance of the parts. In addition, the significance of controlling dust in an assembly line is crucial in order to maintain the quality of the product, part performance yield and effect on workers’ health [1]. By considering the principle and technology applied in electronic clean room technology, the ionizer have been introduce to control dust contamination in automotive painting line. The first auto maker industry whom found the effectiveness of the clean room application to reduce the defect and production line downtime was Chrysler [2]. By doing so, it’s allowed the transmission plant to offer 50 000 mile guarantee on the transmission systems. The main objective of this research is to verify the effectiveness of ionizer device in order to reduce the rejection contribute by dust and fiber particle in the automotive painting line. Towards the main objective, a few sub areas will be explored, as a supporting factor to ensure the result gain from this study is solid and constructive. The experiment start by verifying the electrostatic value of the raw material (substrate) before and after the ionizer treatment. From here the correlation of the electrostatic value generated by the raw material that effect to production pass rate can be explored. At the meantime, the performance of the production pass rate after the ionizer treatment which related to the painted surface area can be determined.

Application of statistical downscaling technique for the production of wine grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) in Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaitán Fernández, E.; García Moreno, R.; Pino Otín, M. R.; Ribalaygua Batalla, J.

2012-04-01

Climate and soil are two of the most important limiting factors for agricultural production. Nowadays climate change has been documented in many geographical locations affecting different cropping systems. The General Circulation Models (GCM) has become important tools to simulate the more relevant aspects of the climate expected for the XXI century in the frame of climatic change. These models are able to reproduce the general features of the atmospheric dynamic but their low resolution (about 200 Km) avoids a proper simulation of lower scale meteorological effects. Downscaling techniques allow overcoming this problem by adapting the model outcomes to local scale. In this context, FIC (Fundación para la Investigación del Clima) has developed a statistical downscaling technique based on a two step analogue methods. This methodology has been broadly tested on national and international environments leading to excellent results on future climate models. In a collaboration project, this statistical downscaling technique was applied to predict future scenarios for the grape growing systems in Spain. The application of such model is very important to predict expected climate for the different growing crops, mainly for grape, where the success of different varieties are highly related to climate and soil. The model allowed the implementation of agricultural conservation practices in the crop production, detecting highly sensible areas to negative impacts produced by any modification of climate in the different regions, mainly those protected with protected designation of origin, and the definition of new production areas with optimal edaphoclimatic conditions for the different varieties.

Application of CdZnTe Gamma-Ray Detector for Imaging Corrosion under Insulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, J.; Yahya, R.

2007-05-01

Corrosion under insulation (CUI) on the external wall of steel pipes is a common problem in many types of industrial plants. This is mainly due to the presence of moisture or water in the insulation materials. This type of corrosion can cause failures in areas that are not normally of a primary concern to an inspection program. The failures are often the result of localised corrosion and not general wasting over a large area. These failures can tee catastrophic in nature or at least have an adverse economic effect in terms of downtime and repairs. There are a number of techniques used today for CUI investigations. The main ones are profile radiography, pulse eddy current, ultrasonic spot readings and insulation removal. A new system now available is portable Pipe-CUI-Profiler. The nucleonic system is based on dual-beam gamma-ray absorption technique using Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) semiconductor detectors. The Pipe-CUI-Profiler is designed to inspect pipes of internal diameter 50, 65, 80, 90, 100, 125 and 150 mm. Pipeline of these sizes with aluminium or thin steel sheathing, containing fibreglass or calcium silicate insulation to thickness of 25, 40 and 50 mm can be inspected. The system has proven to be a safe, fast and effective method of inspecting pipe in industrial plant operations. This paper describes the application of gamma-ray techniques and CdZnTe semiconductor detectors in the development of Pipe-CUI-Profiler for non-destructive imaging of corrosion under insulation of steel pipes. Some results of actual pipe testing in large-scale industrial plant will be presented.

Isotopic identification of natural vs. anthropogenic lead sources in marine sediments from the inner Ría de Vigo (NW Spain).

PubMed

Álvarez-Iglesias, P; Rubio, B; Millos, J

2012-10-15

San Simón Bay, the inner part of the Ría de Vigo (NW Spain), an area previously identified as highly polluted by Pb, was selected for the application of Pb stable isotope ratios as a fingerprinting tool in subtidal and intertidal sediment cores. Lead isotopic ratios were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry on extracts from bulk samples after total acid digestion. Depth-wise profiles of (206)Pb/(207)Pb, (206)Pb/(204)Pb, (207)Pb/(204)Pb, (208)Pb/(204)Pb and (208)Pb/(207)Pb ratios showed, in general, an upward decrease for both intertidal and subtidal sediments as a consequence of the anthropogenic activities over the last century, or centuries. Waste channel samples from a nearby ceramic factory showed characteristic Pb stable isotope ratios different from those typical of coal and petrol. Natural isotope ratios from non-polluted samples were established for the study area, differentiating sediments from granitic or schist-gneiss sources. A binary mixing model employed on the polluted samples allowed estimating the anthropogenic inputs to the bay. These inputs represented between 25 and 98% of Pb inputs in intertidal samples, and 9-84% in subtidal samples, their contributions varying with time. Anthropogenic sources were apportioned according to a three-source model. Coal combustion-related emissions were the main anthropogenic source Pb to the bay (60-70%) before the establishment of the ceramic factory in the area (in the 1970s) which has since constituted the main source (95-100%), followed by petrol-related emissions. The Pb inputs history for the intertidal area was determined for the 20th century, and, for the subtidal area, the 19th and 20th centuries. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Metal-fluxes characterization at a catchment scale: Study of mixing processes and end-member analysis in the Meca River watershed (SW Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cánovas, C. R.; Macías, F.; Olías, M.; López, R. Pérez; Nieto, J. M.

2017-07-01

Fluxes of acidity and contaminants from acid mine drainage (AMD) sources to the receiving surface water bodies were studied in a mining-impacted watershed (Meca River, SW Spain) using a novel methodology based on the joint application of EMMA and MIX codes. The application of EMMA and elemental ratios allowed delimiting the end-members responsible for water quality variations at a catchment scale. The further application of MIX quantified the significant impact of AMD on the river quality; less than 10% of AMD relative contribution is enough to maintain acidic conditions during most of the year. The mixing model also provided information about the element mobility, distinguishing those elements with a quasi-conservative behavior (e.g., Cu, Zn, Al, Co or Ni) from those affected by mineral precipitation/dissolution (e.g., K, Si, Na, Sr, Ca, Fe, Pb, or As). Floods are the main driver of dissolved and, mainly particulate, contaminants in the catchment. Thus, the first rainfall events in November only accounted for 19% of the annual Meca flow but yielded between 26 and 43% of the net acidity and dissolved metal loads (mainly, Fe, As and Pb). Concerning particulate transport, around 332 tons of particulate Fe, 49 tons of Al, 0.79 tons of As and 0.37 tons of Pb were recorded during these first floods. The particulate As concentration can be up to 34 times higher than the dissolved one during floods and between 2 and 4 times higher for Fe, Pb and Cr. This integrated modeling approach could be a promising and useful tool to face future restoration plans in derelict mines worldwide. This approach would allow prioritizing remedial measures, achieving an environmental and cost-effective restoration of degraded areas.

Nanomaterials: certain aspects of application, risk assessment and risk communication.

PubMed

Laux, Peter; Tentschert, Jutta; Riebeling, Christian; Braeuning, Albert; Creutzenberg, Otto; Epp, Astrid; Fessard, Valérie; Haas, Karl-Heinz; Haase, Andrea; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin; Jakubowski, Norbert; Kearns, Peter; Lampen, Alfonso; Rauscher, Hubert; Schoonjans, Reinhilde; Störmer, Angela; Thielmann, Axel; Mühle, Uwe; Luch, Andreas

2018-01-01

Development and market introduction of new nanomaterials trigger the need for an adequate risk assessment of such products alongside suitable risk communication measures. Current application of classical and new nanomaterials is analyzed in context of regulatory requirements and standardization for chemicals, food and consumer products. The challenges of nanomaterial characterization as the main bottleneck of risk assessment and regulation are presented. In some areas, e.g., quantification of nanomaterials within complex matrices, the establishment and adaptation of analytical techniques such as laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and others are potentially suited to meet the requirements. As an example, we here provide an approach for the reliable characterization of human exposure to nanomaterials resulting from food packaging. Furthermore, results of nanomaterial toxicity and ecotoxicity testing are discussed, with concluding key criteria such as solubility and fiber rigidity as important parameters to be considered in material development and regulation. Although an analysis of the public opinion has revealed a distinguished rating depending on the particular field of application, a rather positive perception of nanotechnology could be ascertained for the German public in general. An improvement of material characterization in both toxicological testing as well as end-product control was concluded as being the main obstacle to ensure not only safe use of materials, but also wide acceptance of this and any novel technology in the general public.

Recent progress in printed 2/3D electronic devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klug, Andreas; Patter, Paul; Popovic, Karl; Blümel, Alexander; Sax, Stefan; Lenz, Martin; Glushko, Oleksandr; Cordill, Megan J.; List-Kratochvil, Emil J. W.

2015-09-01

New, energy-saving, efficient and cost-effective processing technologies such as 2D and 3D inkjet printing (IJP) for the production and integration of intelligent components will be opening up very interesting possibilities for industrial applications of molecular materials in the near future. Beyond the use of home and office based printers, "inkjet printing technology" allows for the additive structured deposition of photonic and electronic materials on a wide variety of substrates such as textiles, plastics, wood, stone, tiles or cardboard. Great interest also exists in applying IJP in industrial manufacturing such as the manufacturing of PCBs, of solar cells, printed organic electronics and medical products. In all these cases inkjet printing is a flexible (digital), additive, selective and cost-efficient material deposition method. Due to these advantages, there is the prospect that currently used standard patterning processes can be replaced through this innovative material deposition technique. A main issue in this research area is the formulation of novel functional inks or the adaptation of commercially available inks for specific industrial applications and/or processes. In this contribution we report on the design, realization and characterization of novel active and passive inkjet printed electronic devices including circuitry and sensors based on metal nanoparticle ink formulations and the heterogeneous integration into 2/3D printed demonstrators. The main emphasis of this paper will be on how to convert scientific inkjet knowledge into industrially relevant processes and applications.

Evaluation of natural language processing systems: Issues and approaches

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

Guida, G.; Mauri, G.

This paper encompasses two main topics: a broad and general analysis of the issue of performance evaluation of NLP systems and a report on a specific approach developed by the authors and experimented on a sample test case. More precisely, it first presents a brief survey of the major works in the area of NLP systems evaluation. Then, after introducing the notion of the life cycle of an NLP system, it focuses on the concept of performance evaluation and analyzes the scope and the major problems of the investigation. The tools generally used within computer science to assess the qualitymore » of a software system are briefly reviewed, and their applicability to the task of evaluation of NLP systems is discussed. Particular attention is devoted to the concepts of efficiency, correctness, reliability, and adequacy, and how all of them basically fail in capturing the peculiar features of performance evaluation of an NLP system is discussed. Two main approaches to performance evaluation are later introduced; namely, black-box- and model-based, and their most important characteristics are presented. Finally, a specific model for performance evaluation proposed by the authors is illustrated, and the results of an experiment with a sample application are reported. The paper concludes with a discussion on research perspective, open problems, and importance of performance evaluation to industrial applications.« less

The artificial object detection and current velocity measurement using SAR ocean surface images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alpatov, Boris; Strotov, Valery; Ershov, Maksim; Muraviev, Vadim; Feldman, Alexander; Smirnov, Sergey

2017-10-01

Due to the fact that water surface covers wide areas, remote sensing is the most appropriate way of getting information about ocean environment for vessel tracking, security purposes, ecological studies and others. Processing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is extensively used for control and monitoring of the ocean surface. Image data can be acquired from Earth observation satellites, such as TerraSAR-X, ERS, and COSMO-SkyMed. Thus, SAR image processing can be used to solve many problems arising in this field of research. This paper discusses some of them including ship detection, oil pollution control and ocean currents mapping. Due to complexity of the problem several specialized algorithm are necessary to develop. The oil spill detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: image preprocessing, detection of dark areas, parameter extraction and classification. The ship detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: prescreening, land masking, image segmentation combined with parameter measurement, ship orientation estimation and object discrimination. The proposed approach to ocean currents mapping is based on Doppler's law. The results of computer modeling on real SAR images are presented. Based on these results it is concluded that the proposed approaches can be used in maritime applications.

[Characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus runoff losses from croplands with different planting patterns in a riverine plain area of Zhejiang Province, East China].

PubMed

Zhang, Ming-Kui; Wang, Yang; Huang, Chao

2011-12-01

By the method of site-specific observation, and selecting 27 field plots with 7 planting patterns in Shaoxing county of Zhejiang Province as test objects, this paper studied the characteristics of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) runoff losses, loads, and their affecting factors in the croplands with different planting patterns in riverine plain area of the Province under natural rainfall. The mean annual runoff loads of total P, dissolved P, and particulate P from the field plots were 4.75, 0.74 and 4.01 kg x hm(-2), respectively, and the load of particulate P was much higher than that of dissolved P. The mean annual runoff loads of total N, dissolved total N, dissolved organic N, NH4(+)-N, and NO3(-)-N were 21.87, 17.19, 0.61, 3.63 and 12.95 kg x hm(-2), respectively, and the load of different fractions of dissolved total N was in the sequence of NO3(-)-N > NH4(+)-N > dissolved organic N. As for the field plots with different planting patterns, the runoff loads of total N, dissolved total N, dissolved organic N, and NO3(-)-N were in the sequence of fallow land < nursery land < single late rice field < double rice field < rape (or wheat)-single late rice field < wheat-early rice-late rice field < vegetable field, while those of total P and particulate P were in the sequence of fallow land < nursery land < single late rice field and double rice field < wheat-early rice-late rice field < rape (wheat)-single late rice field < vegetable field. No significant difference was observed in the load of water-dissolved P among the test plots with different planting patterns. The runoff losses of N and P mainly occurred in crop growth period, and the proportions of N and P losses in the growth period increased with increasing multiple crop index. The runoff losses of total N, dissolved N, and NO3(-)-N were mainly related to the application rate of N fertilizer, and soil NO3(-)-N content also had obvious effects on the runoff losses of total N and dissolved N. The runoff loss of dissolved organic N was related not only to N application rate, but also to soil total N and organic carbon. The runoff loss of NH4(+)-N was mainly related to soil available NH4(+)-N, but not related to N application rate. The runoff losses of total P and particulate P were related to both P application rate and soil available P, while the runoff loss of water dissolved P was less related to P application rate but had relations to soil total P and available P.

Application of genetic algorithm to land use optimization for non-point source pollution control based on CLUE-S and SWAT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Qingrui; Liu, Ruimin; Men, Cong; Guo, Lijia

2018-05-01

The genetic algorithm (GA) was combined with the Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent (CLUE-S) model to obtain an optimized land use pattern for controlling non-point source (NPS) pollution. The performance of the combination was evaluated. The effect of the optimized land use pattern on the NPS pollution control was estimated by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and an assistant map was drawn to support the land use plan for the future. The Xiangxi River watershed was selected as the study area. Two scenarios were used to simulate the land use change. Under the historical trend scenario (Markov chain prediction), the forest area decreased by 2035.06 ha, and was mainly converted into paddy and dryland area. In contrast, under the optimized scenario (genetic algorithm (GA) prediction), up to 3370 ha of dryland area was converted into forest area. Spatially, the conversion of paddy and dryland into forest occurred mainly in the northwest and southeast of the watershed, where the slope land occupied a large proportion. The organic and inorganic phosphorus loads decreased by 3.6% and 3.7%, respectively, in the optimized scenario compared to those in the historical trend scenario. GA showed a better performance in optimized land use prediction. A comparison of the land use patterns in 2010 under the real situation and in 2020 under the optimized situation showed that Shennongjia and Shuiyuesi should convert 1201.76 ha and 1115.33 ha of dryland into forest areas, respectively, which represented the greatest changes in all regions in the watershed. The results of this study indicated that GA and the CLUE-S model can be used to optimize the land use patterns in the future and that SWAT can be used to evaluate the effect of land use optimization on non-point source pollution control. These methods may provide support for land use plan of an area.

The HLA-net GENE[RATE] pipeline for effective HLA data analysis and its application to 145 population samples from Europe and neighbouring areas.

PubMed

Nunes, J M; Buhler, S; Roessli, D; Sanchez-Mazas, A

2014-05-01

In this review, we present for the first time an integrated version of the Gene[rate] computer tools which have been developed during the last 5 years to analyse human leukocyte antigen (HLA) data in human populations, as well as the results of their application to a large dataset of 145 HLA-typed population samples from Europe and its two neighbouring areas, North Africa and West Asia, now forming part of the Gene[va] database. All these computer tools and genetic data are, from now, publicly available through a newly designed bioinformatics platform, HLA-net, here presented as a main achievement of the HLA-NET scientific programme. The Gene[rate] pipeline offers user-friendly computer tools to estimate allele and haplotype frequencies, to test Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), selective neutrality and linkage disequilibrium, to recode HLA data, to convert file formats, to display population frequencies of chosen alleles and haplotypes in selected geographic regions, and to perform genetic comparisons among chosen sets of population samples, including new data provided by the user. Both numerical and graphical outputs are generated, the latter being highly explicit and of publication quality. All these analyses can be performed on the pipeline after scrupulous validation of the population sample's characterisation and HLA typing reporting according to HLA-NET recommendations. The Gene[va] database offers direct access to the HLA-A, -B, -C, -DQA1, -DQB1, -DRB1 and -DPB1 frequencies and summary statistics of 145 population samples having successfully passed these HLA-NET 'filters', and representing three European subregions (South-East, North-East and Central-West Europe) and two neighbouring areas (North Africa, as far as Sudan, and West Asia, as far as South India). The analysis of these data, summarized in this review, shows a substantial genetic variation at the regional level in this continental area. These results have main implications for population genetics, transplantation and epidemiological studies. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

[Effects of fertilization method and nitrogen application rate on soil nitrogen vertical migration in a Populus xeuramericana cv. 'Guariento' plantation].

PubMed

Dai, Teng-fei; Xi, Ben-ye; Yan, Xiao-li; Jia, Li-ming

2015-06-01

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of fertilization methods, i.e., drip (DF) and furrow fertilization (GF), and nitrogen (N) application rates (25, 50, 75 g N · plant(-1) · time(-1)) on the dynamics of soil N vertical migration in a Populus x euramericana cv. 'Guariento' plantation. The results showed that soil NH4(+)-N and NO3(-)-N contents decreased with the increasing soil depth under different fertilization methods and N application rates. In the DF treatment, soil NH4(+)-N and NO3(-)-N were mainly concentrated in the 0-40 cm soil layer, and their contents ascended firstly and then descended, reaching their maximum values at the 5th day (211.1 mg · kg(-1)) and 10th day (128.8 mg · kg(-1)) after fertilization, respectively. In the GF treatment, soil NH4(+)-N and NO3(-)-N were mainly concentrated in the 0-20 cm layer, and the content of soil NO3(-)-N rose gradually and reached its maximum at the 20th day (175.7 mg · kg(-1)) after fertilization, while the NH4(+)-N content did not change significantly after fertilization. Overall, N fertilizer had an effect within 20 days in the DF treatment, and more than 20 days in the GF treatment. In the DF treatment, the content and migration depth of soil NH4(+)-N and NO3(-)-N increased with the N application rate. In the GF treatment, the NO3(-)-N content increased with the N application rate, but the NH4(+)-N content was not influenced. Under the DF treatment, the hydrolysis rate, nitrification rate and migration depth of urea were higher or larger than that under the GF treatment, and more N accumulated in deep soil as the N application rate increased. Considering the distribution characteristics of fine roots and soil N, DF would be a better fertilization method in P. xeuramericana cv. 'Guariento' plantation, since it could supply N to larger distribution area of fine roots. When the N application rate was 50 g · tree(-1) each time, nitrogen mainly distributed in the zone of fine roots and had no risk of deep leaching, consequently improving the fertilizer utilization efficiency.

Main Road Extraction from ZY-3 Grayscale Imagery Based on Directional Mathematical Morphology and VGI Prior Knowledge in Urban Areas

PubMed Central

Liu, Bo; Wu, Huayi; Wang, Yandong; Liu, Wenming

2015-01-01

Main road features extracted from remotely sensed imagery play an important role in many civilian and military applications, such as updating Geographic Information System (GIS) databases, urban structure analysis, spatial data matching and road navigation. Current methods for road feature extraction from high-resolution imagery are typically based on threshold value segmentation. It is difficult however, to completely separate road features from the background. We present a new method for extracting main roads from high-resolution grayscale imagery based on directional mathematical morphology and prior knowledge obtained from the Volunteered Geographic Information found in the OpenStreetMap. The two salient steps in this strategy are: (1) using directional mathematical morphology to enhance the contrast between roads and non-roads; (2) using OpenStreetMap roads as prior knowledge to segment the remotely sensed imagery. Experiments were conducted on two ZiYuan-3 images and one QuickBird high-resolution grayscale image to compare our proposed method to other commonly used techniques for road feature extraction. The results demonstrated the validity and better performance of the proposed method for urban main road feature extraction. PMID:26397832

Small molecules for bone diseases.

PubMed

Masuya, Keiichi; Teno, Naoki

2010-04-01

Bones play many roles in the body, providing structure, protecting organs, anchoring muscles and storing calcium. Over 100 million people worldwide suffer from bone diseases, mainly osteoporosis, cancer-related bone loss, osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthritis. Osteoporosis itself has no specific symptoms, and the main consequence is the increased risk of bone fractures. Therefore, the prevention of bone diseases is important to maintain the quality of life in the human society. However, treatment options are still insufficient. This review article gives a summary of the low molecular mass modulators of bone diseases targets disclosed in patent applications and articles, mainly during the last 5 years. Readers will rapidly gain an overview of these modulators not only for historical targets, but also of emerging and re-visited targets. Readers will also be able to see the current research trend and the main players in this field. Drug discovery for bone diseases has made progress in the last years. The research area has dynamically shifted from historical targets (bisphosphonate, parathyroid hormone and calcitonin) to newly confirmed targets or targets re-visited which were biologically validated in the past. Cathepsin K inhibitors should be very close to launching in the market.

Biosensing Based on Nanoparticles for Food Allergens Detection

PubMed Central

Gómez-Arribas, Lidia Nazaret; Hurtado-Sánchez, María del Carmen

2018-01-01

Food allergy is one of the major health threats for sensitized individuals all over the world and, over the years, the food industry has made significant efforts and investments to offer safe foods for allergic consumers. The analysis of the concentration of food allergen residues in processing equipment, in raw materials or in the final product, provides analytical information that can be used for risk assessment as well as to ensure that food-allergic consumers get accurate and useful information to make their food choices and purchasing decisions. The development of biosensors based on nanomaterials for applications in food analysis is a challenging area of growing interest in the last years. Research in this field requires the combined efforts of experts in very different areas including food chemistry, biotechnology or materials science. However, the outcome of such collaboration can be of significant impact on the food industry as well as for consumer’s safety. These nanobiosensing devices allow the rapid, selective, sensitive, cost-effective and, in some cases, in-field, online and real-time detection of a wide range of compounds, even in complex matrices. Moreover, they can also enable the design of novel allergen detection strategies. Herein we review the main advances in the use of nanoparticles for the development of biosensors and bioassays for allergen detection, in food samples, over the past few years. Research in this area is still in its infancy in comparison, for instance, to the application of nanobiosensors for clinical analysis. However, it will be of interest for the development of new technologies that reduce the gap between laboratory research and industrial applications. PMID:29617319

Comparison possibilities of ultrasound and its combination with laser in surgery and therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zharov, Vladimir P.; Menyaev, Yulian A.; Kabisov, Ruslan K.; Alkov, Sergey V.; Nesterov, A. V.; Loshchilov, Vladimir I.; Suen, James Y.

2000-05-01

This article presents the further developments of combined laser-ultrasound medical technologies with paying attention the possibility ultrasound in surgery and therapy. The analyses of main effects at the low frequency ultrasonic treatment of biotissues including cavitation, acoustic streams, acoustic pressure, mechanical influence etc are analyzed. The main promising areas of application of low frequency ultrasound are considered including bactericidal treatment of infections wounds, spray treatment of wounds in head and neck surgery, tumor treatment etc. In particular the clinical result of using ultrasonic devices based on imposing ultrasonic oscillations in a range of 22-66 kHz on a cutting instrument with a special form, radiation intensity up to 10 W/cm2 and oscillation amplitude up to 40-60 micrometers with respect to oncology for halt bleeding from a tumor, liquidating pain, acoustic denervation are presented. Some limitation of medical application of ultrasound are discussed and perspective combination with laser for increasing efficiency of new combined technologies are found. Among them: combination photodynamic therapy and ultrasonic treatment of tumors, laser-ultrasonic treatment of infections wounds including using spray, laser-ultrasonic drug delivery. The preliminary result of experimental study of some of above-mentioned technologies are presented.

High-resolution stress measurements for microsystem and semiconductor applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogel, Dietmar; Keller, Juergen; Michel, Bernd

2006-04-01

Research results obtained for local stress determination on micro and nanotechnology components are summarized. It meets the concern of controlling stresses introduced to sensors, MEMS and electronics devices during different micromachining processes. The method bases on deformation measurement options made available inside focused ion beam equipment. Removing locally material by ion beam milling existing stresses / residual stresses lead to deformation fields around the milled feature. Digital image correlation techniques are used to extract deformation values from micrographs captured before and after milling. In the paper, two main milling features have been analyzed - through hole and through slit milling. Analytical solutions for stress release fields of in-plane stresses have been derived and compared to respective experimental findings. Their good agreement allows to settle a method for determination of residual stress values, which is demonstrated for thin membranes manufactured by silicon micro technology. Some emphasis is made on the elimination of main error sources for stress determination, like rigid body object displacements and rotations due to drifts of experimental conditions under FIB imaging. In order to illustrate potential application areas of the method residual stress suppression by ion implantation is evaluated by the method and reported here.

[Use of satellites for public health purposes in tropical areas].

PubMed

Meynard, J B; Orlandi, E; Rogier, C; Sbai Idrissi, K; Deparis, X; Peyreffite, C; Lightburn, E; Malosse, D; Migliani, R; Spiegel, A; Boutin, J P

2003-01-01

The epidemiological hallmark of the new millennium has been the emergence or recrudescence of transmissible diseases with high epidemic potential. Disease tracking is becoming an increasingly global task requiring implementation of more and more sophisticated control strategies and facilities for sustainable development. A promising initiative involves the use of satellite technology to monitor and forecast the spread of disease. The Health Early Warning System (HEWS) was designed based on successful application of satellite data in food programs as well as in other areas (e.g. weather, farming and fishing). The HEWS integrates data from communications, remote-sensing and positioning satellites. The purpose of this review is to present the main studies containing satellite data on public health in tropical areas. Satellite data has allowed development of more reactive epidemiological tracking networks better suited to increasing population mobility, correlation of environmental factors (vegetation index, rainfall and ocean surface color) with human, animal and insect factors in epidemiological studies and assessment of the role of such factors in the development or reappearance of disease. Satellite technology holds great promise for more efficient management of public health problems in tropical areas.

How reliable are satellite precipitation estimates for driving hydrological models: a verification study over the Mediterranean area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camici, Stefania; Ciabatta, Luca; Massari, Christian; Brocca, Luca

2017-04-01

Floods are one of the most common and dangerous natural hazards, causing every year thousands of casualties and damages worldwide. The main tool for assessing flood risk and reducing damages is represented by hydrologic early warning systems that allow to forecast flood events by using real time data obtained through ground monitoring networks (e.g., raingauges and radars). However, the use of such data, mainly rainfall, presents some issues firstly related to the network density and to the limited spatial representativeness of local measurements. A way to overcome these issues may be the use of satellite-based rainfall products (SRPs) that nowadays are available on a global scale at ever increasing spatial/temporal resolution and accuracy. However, despite the large availability and increased accuracy of SRPs (e.g., the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA); the Satellite Application Facility on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H-SAF); and the recent Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission), remotely sensed rainfall data are scarcely used in hydrological modeling and only a small number of studies have been carried out to outline some guidelines for using satellite data as input for hydrological modelling. Reasons may be related to: 1) the large bias characterizing satellite precipitation estimates, which is dependent on rainfall intensity and season, 2) the spatial/temporal resolution, 3) the timeliness, which is often insufficient for operational purposes, and 4) a general (often not justified) skepticism of the hydrological community in the use of satellite products for land applications. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of using SRPs in a lumped hydrologic model (MISDc, "Modello Idrologico Semi-Distribuito in continuo", Masseroni et al., 2017) over 10 basins in the Mediterranean area with different sizes and physiographic characteristics. Specifically, TMPA 3B42-RT, CMORPH, PERSIANN and a new soil moisture-derived rainfall datasets obtained through the application of SM2RAIN algorithm (Brocca et al., 2014) to ASCAT (Advanced SCATterometer) soil moisture product are used in the analysis. The performances obtained with SRPs are compared with those obtained by using ground data during the 6-year period from 2010 to 2015. In addition, the performance obtained by an integration of the above mentioned SRPs is also investigated to see whether merged rainfall observations are able to improve flood simulation. Preliminary analysis were also carried out by using the IMERG early run product of GPM mission. The results highlight that SRPs should be used with caution for rainfall-runoff modelling in the Mediterranean region. Bias correction and model recalibration are necessary steps, even though not always sufficient to achieve satisfactory performances. Indeed, some of the products provide unreliable outcomes, mainly in smaller basins (<500 km2) that, however, represent the main target for flood modelling in the Mediterranean area. The better performances are obtained by integrating different SRPs, and particularly by merging TMPA 3B42-RT and SM2RAIN-ASCAT products. The promising results of the integrated product are expected to increase the confidence on the use of SRPs in hydrological modeling, even in challenging areas as the Mediterranean. REFERENCES Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Moramarco, T., Hahn, S., Hasenauer, S., Kidd, R., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W., Levizzani, V. (2014). Soil as a natural rain gauge: estimating global rainfall from satellite soil moisture data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 119(9), 5128-5141, doi:10.1002/2014JD021489. Masseroni, D., Cislaghi, A., Camici, S., Massari, C., Brocca, L. (2017). A reliable rainfall-runoff model for flood forecasting: review and application to a semiurbanized watershed at high flood risk in Italy. Hydrology Research, in press, doi:10.2166/nh.2016.037.

Genetic Diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates in the Metropolitan Area of Rome.

PubMed

Cannas, Angela; Camassa, Serena; Sali, Michela; Butera, Ornella; Mazzarelli, Antonio; Sanguinetti, Maurizio; Di Caro, Antonino; Delogu, Giovanni; Girardi, Enrico

2018-06-14

The presence in a geographic area of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains belonging to different phylogeographic lineages and showing different drug susceptibility patterns may suggest recent transmission, with implications in terms of patient clinical management and disease control. The aim of this study was to carry out a preliminary epidemiological investigation of tuberculosis (TB) cases in Rome. A total of 232 Mtb isolates, collected from new or previously treated patients, admitted between 2008 and 2014 at 2 hospital settings in Rome with a diagnosis of TB, were analyzed by spoligotyping and analyzing 24 variable-number tandem repeats (VNTR) mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit (MIRU) loci. The SITVIT2 database and the MIRU-VNTRplus web applications were used to identify the strain genotypes and to generate phylogenetic trees. Based on the position on the phylogenetic tree, 97.4% of the strains were associated with 1 of the 7 main lineages. The Euro-American lineage was the most commonly represented (81.9%) within both Italian and foreign-born populations, although all main lineages were present. The highest frequency of drug-resistant strains was found among the East-Asian lineage (Beijing genotype) isolated from foreign-born patients. Dynamics of TB transmission in Rome indicate recent spread of Mtb strains belonging to phylogeographic lineages and clades usually found in countries and geographic areas with a high incidence of TB, similarly to what is observed in most metropolitan areas in Western Europe. Knowledge from molecular and classical epidemiology provides an important tool for disease control. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

JSC Wireless Sensor Network Update

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wagner, Robert

2010-01-01

Sensor nodes composed of three basic components... radio module: COTS radio module implementing standardized WSN protocol; treated as WSN modem by main board main board: contains application processor (TI MSP430 microcontroller), memory, power supply; responsible for sensor data acquisition, pre-processing, and task scheduling; re-used in every application with growing library of embedded C code sensor card: contains application-specific sensors, data conditioning hardware, and any advanced hardware not built into main board (DSPs, faster A/D, etc.); requires (re-) development for each application.

Use of main channel and two backwater habitats by larval fishes in the Detroit River

USGS Publications Warehouse

McDonald, Erik A.; McNaught, A. Scott; Roseman, Edward F.

2014-01-01

Recent investigations in the Detroit River have revealed renewed spawning activity by several important fishes, but little is known about their early life history requirements. We surveyed two main channel and two backwater areas in the lower Detroit River weekly from May to July 2007 to assess habitat use by larval fishes. Backwater areas included a soft-sediment embayment (FI) and a hard-sediment area (HIW). Main channel sites were located adjacent to each backwater area. Water temperature, velocity and clarity measurements and zooplankton samples were collected weekly. A macrophyte assessment was conducted in July. Growth and diet of larval yellow perch (Perca flavescens), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) were used to assess habitat quality. Macrophyte diversity and percent cover were higher and velocity lower at FI than HIW. Although larval fish diversity was highest in the main channel, yellow perch and bluegill larvae only grew beyond the yolk stage at FI, where they preferentially selected copepods, while Daphnia were selected in the main channel. Round goby ate harpacticoid copepods and Daphnia and grew at similar rates in HIW and the main channel. These data indicate that FI was a valuable nursery area for yellow perch and bluegill, whereas HIW was better suited to round goby. We only assessed two backwater areas, thus a complete census of wetland areas in the Detroit River is needed to identify valuable habitats. Restoration of shallow backwater areas is essential for rehabilitating fish populations and should be a priority in the Detroit River.

The A to Z of pharmaceutical cocrystals: a decade of fast-moving new science and patents.

PubMed

Almarsson, Örn; Peterson, Matthew L; Zaworotko, Michael

2012-07-01

From aspirin to zoledronic acid, pharmaceutical cocrystals emerged in the past decade as a promising new weapon in the arsenal of drug development. Resurgence of interest in multicomponent crystal compositions has led to significant advances in the science of cocrystal design and discovery. These advances have built upon crystal engineering, which provides a deep understanding of supramolecular interactions between molecules that govern crystal packing and physicochemical properties of crystalline materials. Concomitantly, the patent landscape of pharmaceutical cocrystals developed rapidly in the last decade. This review presents a broad survey of patents issued in the area of pharmaceutical cocrystals. In addition, the review contains analyses of key patents in the area involving compositions and methodologies. Along the way, the main events of the past decade representing a renaissance of cocrystals of pharmaceutical materials are chronicled. Future directions in the area are discussed in light of key pending patent applications and recent publications of seminal interest.

Applications of Three-Dimensional Printing in Surgery.

PubMed

Li, Chi; Cheung, Tsz Fung; Fan, Vei Chen; Sin, Kin Man; Wong, Chrisity Wai Yan; Leung, Gilberto Ka Kit

2017-02-01

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a rapidly advancing technology in the field of surgery. This article reviews its contemporary applications in 3 aspects of surgery, namely, surgical planning, implants and prostheses, and education and training. Three-dimensional printing technology can contribute to surgical planning by depicting precise personalized anatomy and thus a potential improvement in surgical outcome. For implants and prosthesis, the technology might overcome the limitations of conventional methods such as visual discrepancy from the recipient's body and unmatching anatomy. In addition, 3D printing technology could be integrated into medical school curriculum, supplementing the conventional cadaver-based education and training in anatomy and surgery. Future potential applications of 3D printing in surgery, mainly in the areas of skin, nerve, and vascular graft preparation as well as ear reconstruction, are also discussed. Numerous trials and studies are still ongoing. However, scientists and clinicians are still encountering some limitations of the technology including high cost, long processing time, unsatisfactory mechanical properties, and suboptimal accuracy. These limitations might potentially hamper the applications of this technology in daily clinical practice.

Biochar-based functional materials in the purification of agricultural wastewater: Fabrication, application and future research needs.

PubMed

Wei, Dongning; Li, Bingyu; Huang, Hongli; Luo, Lin; Zhang, Jiachao; Yang, Yuan; Guo, Jiajun; Tang, Lin; Zeng, Guangming; Zhou, Yaoyu

2018-04-01

Nowadays, agricultural contamination is becoming more and more serious due to the rapid growth of agricultural industry, which discharged antibiotics, pesticides or toxic metals into farmlands. A large number of researchers have applied biochar-based functional materials to the treatment of agricultural wastewater contamination. Meanwhile, biochar has also proved to be a very promising and effective technology in water purification field due to its various beneficial properties (e.g., cost effective, high specific surface area, and surface reactive groups). The focus of this review is to highlight the fabrication methods and application of biochar-based functional materials with the removal of different agricultural contaminants, and discuss the underlying mechanisms. However, the application of biochar-based functional materials is currently under its infancy, with the main hindrance is identified as the gap between laboratory scale and field application, immaturity of engineered biochar production technologies, and lack of quality standards. In order to fill these knowledge gaps, more efforts should be made to pay for the relevant research in future studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Luminescence in Sulfides: A Rich History and a Bright Future

PubMed Central

Smet, Philippe F.; Moreels, Iwan; Hens, Zeger; Poelman, Dirk

2010-01-01

Sulfide-based luminescent materials have attracted a lot of attention for a wide range of photo-, cathodo- and electroluminescent applications. Upon doping with Ce3+ and Eu2+, the luminescence can be varied over the entire visible region by appropriately choosing the composition of the sulfide host. Main application areas are flat panel displays based on thin film electroluminescence, field emission displays and ZnS-based powder electroluminescence for backlights. For these applications, special attention is given to BaAl2S4:Eu, ZnS:Mn and ZnS:Cu. Recently, sulfide materials have regained interest due to their ability (in contrast to oxide materials) to provide a broad band, Eu2+-based red emission for use as a color conversion material in white-light emitting diodes (LEDs). The potential application of rare-earth doped binary alkaline-earth sulfides, like CaS and SrS, thiogallates, thioaluminates and thiosilicates as conversion phosphors is discussed. Finally, this review concludes with the size-dependent luminescence in intrinsic colloidal quantum dots like PbS and CdS, and with the luminescence in doped nanoparticles.

Project STOP (Spectral Thermal Optimization Program)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldhammer, L. J.; Opjorden, R. W.; Goodelle, G. S.; Powe, J. S.

1977-01-01

The spectral thermal optimization of solar cell configurations for various solar panel applications is considered. The method of optimization depends upon varying the solar cell configuration's optical characteristics to minimize panel temperatures, maximize power output and decrease the power delta from beginning of life to end of life. Four areas of primary investigation are: (1) testing and evaluation of ultraviolet resistant coverslide adhesives, primarily FEP as an adhesive; (2) examination of solar cell absolute spectral response and corresponding cell manufacturing processes that affect it; (3) experimental work with solar cell manufacturing processes that vary cell reflectance (solar absorptance); and (4) experimental and theoretical studies with various coverslide filter designs, mainly a red rejection filter. The Hughes' solar array prediction program has been modified to aid in evaluating the effect of each of the above four areas on the output of a solar panel in orbit.

Science and technology roadmap for graphene, related two-dimensional crystals, and hybrid systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrari, Andrea C.; Bonaccorso, Francesco; Fal'Ko, Vladimir; Novoselov, Konstantin S.; Roche, Stephan; Bøggild, Peter; Borini, Stefano; Koppens, Frank H. L.; Palermo, Vincenzo; Pugno, Nicola; Garrido, José A.; Sordan, Roman; Bianco, Alberto; Ballerini, Laura; Prato, Maurizio; Lidorikis, Elefterios; Kivioja, Jani; Marinelli, Claudio; Ryhänen, Tapani; Morpurgo, Alberto; Coleman, Jonathan N.; Nicolosi, Valeria; Colombo, Luigi; Fert, Albert; Garcia-Hernandez, Mar; Bachtold, Adrian; Schneider, Grégory F.; Guinea, Francisco; Dekker, Cees; Barbone, Matteo; Sun, Zhipei; Galiotis, Costas; Grigorenko, Alexander N.; Konstantatos, Gerasimos; Kis, Andras; Katsnelson, Mikhail; Vandersypen, Lieven; Loiseau, Annick; Morandi, Vittorio; Neumaier, Daniel; Treossi, Emanuele; Pellegrini, Vittorio; Polini, Marco; Tredicucci, Alessandro; Williams, Gareth M.; Hee Hong, Byung; Ahn, Jong-Hyun; Min Kim, Jong; Zirath, Herbert; van Wees, Bart J.; van der Zant, Herre; Occhipinti, Luigi; Di Matteo, Andrea; Kinloch, Ian A.; Seyller, Thomas; Quesnel, Etienne; Feng, Xinliang; Teo, Ken; Rupesinghe, Nalin; Hakonen, Pertti; Neil, Simon R. T.; Tannock, Quentin; Löfwander, Tomas; Kinaret, Jari

2015-03-01

We present the science and technology roadmap for graphene, related two-dimensional crystals, and hybrid systems, targeting an evolution in technology, that might lead to impacts and benefits reaching into most areas of society. This roadmap was developed within the framework of the European Graphene Flagship and outlines the main targets and research areas as best understood at the start of this ambitious project. We provide an overview of the key aspects of graphene and related materials (GRMs), ranging from fundamental research challenges to a variety of applications in a large number of sectors, highlighting the steps necessary to take GRMs from a state of raw potential to a point where they might revolutionize multiple industries. We also define an extensive list of acronyms in an effort to standardize the nomenclature in this emerging field.

Physical-chemical modeling of elements' behavior in mixing sea and fresh waters of minor rivers in the White Sea catchment area.

PubMed

Maksimova, Victoria V; Mazukhina, Svetlana I; Cherepanova, Tatiana A; Gorbacheva, Tamara T

2017-07-29

The physical-chemical stage of marginal filters in minor rivers of the White Sea catchment area by the example of the Umba River, flowing to Kandalaksha Gulf, has been explored. Application of the method of physical-chemical modeling on the basis of field data allowed establishing migration forms of a number of elements in the "river-sea" system and deposition of solid phases when mixing waters. The mixing of river and sea water is accompanied by the sedimentation of predominantly goethite, hydromuscovite, and hydroxylapatite. Sediments in mixing river and sea waters were found to be mainly composed by goethite, hydromuscovite, and hydroxylapatite. The research has added to the knowledge of the role of the abiotic part in the marginal filters of small rivers in the Arctic.

Testing radon mitigation techniques in a pilot house from Băiţa-Ştei radon prone area (Romania).

PubMed

Cosma, Constantin; Papp, Botond; Cucoş Dinu, Alexandra; Sainz, Carlos

2015-02-01

This work presents the implementation and testing of several radon mitigation techniques in a pilot house in the radon prone area of Băiţa-Ştei in NW part of Romania. Radon diagnostic investigations in the pilot house showed that the main source of radon was the building sub-soil and the soil near the house. The applied techniques were based on the depressurization and pressurization of the building sub-soil, on the combination of the soil depressurization system by an electric and an eolian fans. Also, there was made an application of a radon barrier membrane and a testing by the combination of the radon membrane by the soil depressurization system. Finally, the better obtained remedial efficiency was about 85%. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High temperature superconductor materials and applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doane, George B., III. (Editor); Banks, Curtis; Golben, John

1991-01-01

One of the areas concerned itself with the investigation of the phenomena involved in formulating and making in the laboratory new and better superconductor material with enhanced values of critical current and temperature. Of special interest were the chemistry, physical processes, and environment required to attain these enhanced desirable characteristics. The other area concerned itself with producing high temperature superconducting thin films by pulsed laser deposition techniques. Such films are potentially very useful in the detection of very low power signals. To perform this research high vacuum is required. In the course of this effort, older vacuum chambers were maintained and used. In addition, a new facility is being brought on line. This latter activity has been replete with the usual problems of bringing a new facility into service. Some of the problems are covered in the main body of this report.

Nuclear instrumentation and measurement: a review based on the ANIMMA conferences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giot, Michel; Vermeeren, Ludo; Lyoussi, Abdallah; Reynard-Carette, Christelle; Lhuillier, Christian; Mégret, Patrice; Deconinck, Frank; Gonçalves, Bruno Soares

2017-12-01

The ANIMMA conferences offer a unique opportunity to discover research carried out in all fields of nuclear measurements and instrumentation with applications extending from fundamental physics to fission and fusion reactors, medical imaging, environmental protection and homeland security. After four successful editions of the Conference, it was decided to prepare a review based to a large extent but not exclusively on the papers presented during the first four editions of the conference. This review is organized according to the measurement methodologies: neutronic, photonic, thermal, acoustic and optical measurements, as well as medical imaging and specific challenges linked to data acquisition and electronic hardening. The paper describes the main challenges justifying research in these different areas, and summarizes the recent progress reported. It offers researchers and engineers a way to quickly and efficiently access knowledge in highly specialized areas.

Application of snowcovered area to runoff forecasting in selected basins of the Sierra Nevada, California. [Kings, Kern and Kaweah River Basins

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, A. J.; Hannaford, J. F. (Principal Investigator)

1980-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Direct overlay onto 1:1,000,000 prints takes about one third the time of 1:500,000 zone transfer scope analysis using transparencies, but the consistency of the transparencies reduce the time for data analysis. LANDSAT data received on transparencies is better and more easily interpreted than the near real-time data from Quick Look, or imagery from other sources such as NOAA. The greatest potential for water supply forecasting is probably in improving forecast accuracy and in expanding forecast services during the period of snowmelt. Problems of transient snow line and uncertainties in future weather are the main reasons that snow cover area appears to offer little in water supply forecast accuracy improvement during the peroid snowpack accumulation.

Advanced Image Processing for NASA Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeMoign, Jacqueline

2007-01-01

The future of space exploration will involve cooperating fleets of spacecraft or sensor webs geared towards coordinated and optimal observation of Earth Science phenomena. The main advantage of such systems is to utilize multiple viewing angles as well as multiple spatial and spectral resolutions of sensors carried on multiple spacecraft but acting collaboratively as a single system. Within this framework, our research focuses on all areas related to sensing in collaborative environments, which means systems utilizing intracommunicating spatially distributed sensor pods or crafts being deployed to monitor or explore different environments. This talk will describe the general concept of sensing in collaborative environments, will give a brief overview of several technologies developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in this area, and then will concentrate on specific image processing research related to that domain, specifically image registration and image fusion.

Analysis of Near-field of Circular Aperture Antennas with Application to Study of High Intensity Radio Frequency (HIRF) Hazards to Aviation from JPL/NASA Deep Space Network Antennas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jamnejad, Vahraz; Statman, Joseph

2013-01-01

This work includes a simplified analysis of the radiated near to mid-field from JPL/NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) reflector antennas and uses an averaging technique over the main beam region and beyond for complying with FAA regulations in specific aviation environments. The work identifies areas that require special attention, including the implications of the very narrow beam of the DSN transmitters. The paper derives the maximum averaged power densities allowed and identifies zones where mitigation measures are required.

The Installation of a P.E.T. Pharmacy at Washington University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaehle, G.; Schwarz, S.; Mueller, M.; Margenau, B.; Welch, M. J.

2003-08-01

Washington University has produced radioisotopes for medical application since the early 1960s. In order to serve seven PET scanners and to meet more stringent government regulations we have installed a new PET pharmacy based on our past years of experiences. The new pharmacy was installed at the site of the 3.7 MeV tandem cascade accelerator that was decommissioned in April of 2001. The pharmacy consists of a production lab, quality control lab, reagent preparation lab, shipping and storage area and an office. Security and safety was a main consideration in the design of this PET pharmacy.

Application of dynamic milling in stainless steel processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shan, Wenju

2017-09-01

This paper mainly introduces the method of parameter setting for NC programming of stainless steel parts by dynamic milling. Stainless steel is of high plasticity and toughness, serious hard working, large cutting force, high temperature in cutting area and easy wear of tool. It is difficult to process material. Dynamic motion technology is the newest NC programming technology of Mastercam software. It is an advanced machining idea. The tool path generated by the dynamic motion technology is more smooth, more efficient and more stable in the machining process. Dynamic motion technology is very suitable for cutting hard machining materials.

The Installation of a P.E.T. Pharmacy at Washington University

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

Gaehle, G.; Schwarz, S.; Mueller, M.

2003-08-26

Washington University has produced radioisotopes for medical application since the early 1960s. In order to serve seven PET scanners and to meet more stringent government regulations we have installed a new PET pharmacy based on our past years of experiences. The new pharmacy was installed at the site of the 3.7 MeV tandem cascade accelerator that was decommissioned in April of 2001. The pharmacy consists of a production lab, quality control lab, reagent preparation lab, shipping and storage area and an office. Security and safety was a main consideration in the design of this PET pharmacy.

Implementation of New Technologies to Monitor Phytoplankton Blooms in the South of Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez-Benito, C.; Haag, C.; Alvial, A.

2004-05-01

A pilot project has been carried out to demonstrate the applicability of remote sensing in the Xth region of Chile, related to the monitoring of algal blooms. Most of the fish farms of the country are located in this area, where considerable economic losses for this activity are the consequence of algal blooms. The implementation of new technologies to monitor this natural disaster is one of the main goals of local institutions. The project has been developed using ENVISAT/MERIS and AATSR images and oceanographic instrumentation in order to improve the information of the ongoing coastal monitoring programs.

Impact of foliage on LoRa 433MHz propagation in tropical environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmad, Khairol Amali; Salleh, Mohd Sharil; Segaran, Jivitraa Devi; Hashim, Fakroul Ridzuan

2018-02-01

LoRa is being considered as one of the promising system for Low-Power-Wide-Area-Network (LPWAN) to support the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Designed to operate in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands, LoRa had been tested and evaluated mainly in Europe and US in the 868 MHz and 915 MHz modulation bands. Using chirp spread spectrum technology, LoRa is expected to be robust against degredation. This paper provides some early results in the performance of LoRa signal propagation of 433 MHz modulation in tropical foliage environments.

Evaluation of IT security – genesis and its state-of-art

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Livshitz, I. I.; Neklyudov, A. V.; Lontsikh, P. A.

2018-05-01

It is topical to evolve processes of an evaluation of the IT security nowadays. Formation and application of common evaluation approaches to the IT component, which are processed by the governmental and civil organizations, are still not solving problem. Successful processing of the independent evaluation for conformity with a security standard is supposed to be the main criteria of a suitability of any IT component to be used in a trusted computer system. The solution of the mentioned-above problem is suggested through the localization of all research, development and producing processes in a national trusted area (digital sovereignty).

Design and implementation of a general main axis controller for the ESO telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandrock, Stefan; Di Lieto, Nicola; Pettazzi, Lorenzo; Erm, Toomas

2012-09-01

Most of the real-time control systems at the existing ESO telescopes were developed with "traditional" methods, using general purpose VMEbus electronics, and running applications that were coded by hand, mostly using the C programming language under VxWorks. As we are moving towards more modern design methods, we have explored a model-based design approach for real-time applications in the telescope area, and used the control algorithm of a standard telescope main axis as a first example. We wanted to have a clear work-flow that follows the "correct-by-construction" paradigm, where the implementation is testable in simulation on the development host, and where the testing time spent by debugging on target is minimized. It should respect the domains of control, electronics, and software engineers in the choice of tools. It should be a targetindependent approach so that the result could be deployed on various platforms. We have selected the Mathworks tools Simulink, Stateflow, and Embedded Coder for design and implementation, and LabVIEW with NI hardware for hardware-in-the-loop testing, all of which are widely used in industry. We describe how these tools have been used in order to model, simulate, and test the application. We also evaluate the benefits of this approach compared to the traditional method with respect to testing effort and maintainability. For a specific axis controller application we have successfully integrated the result into the legacy platform of the existing VLT software, as well as demonstrated how to use the same design for a new development with a completely different environment.

An application for delivering field results to mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanta, A.; Hloupis, G.; Vallianatos, F.; Rust, D.

2009-04-01

Mobile devices (MD) such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Smartphones expand the ability of Internet communication between remote users. In particular these devices have the possibility to interact with data centres in order to request and receive information. For field surveys MDs used primarily for controlling instruments (in case of field measurements) or for entering data needed for later processing (e.g damage description after a natural hazard). It is not unusual in areas with high interest combined measurements took place. The results from these measurements usually stored in data servers and their publicity is driven mainly by web-based applications. Here we present a client / server application capable of displaying the results of several measurements for a specific area to a MD. More specific, we develop an application than can present to the screen of the MD the results of existing measurements according to the position of the user. The server side hosted at data centre and uses a relational data base (including the results), a SMS/MMS gateway and a receiver daemon application waiting for messages from MDs. The client side runs on MD and is a simple menu driven application which asks the user to enter the type of requested data and the geographical coordinates. In case of embedded GPS receiver, coordinates automatically derived from the receiver. Then a message is sent to server which responds with the results. In case of absence of Internet communication the application can switched to common Short/Multimedia Messaging Systems: the client request data using SMS and the server responds with MMS. We demonstrate the application using results from TEM, VES and HVSR measurements Acknowledgements Work of authors AK, GH and FV is partially supported by the EU-FP6-SSA in the frame of project "CYCLOPS: CYber-Infrastructure for CiviL protection Operative ProcedureS"

Use of remote sensing techniques for mitigation and relief action of the main disaster concerns in Syria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalati, M.

The main disaster concern in Syria is the Earthquakes since that Northwest of Syria is part of one of the very active deformation belt on the Earth today This area and the western part of Syria are located along the great rift Afro-Arabian rift System Those areas are tectonically active and cause time to time a lot of seismically events This faulting zone system represent a unique structural feature in the Mediterranean Region The system formed initially as a result of the break up of the Arabian plate from the African plate since the mid-Cenozoic The other disaster concern in Syria is Landslides whom caused significant damaging in Syria during the last decades especially in the Northwestern and Southwestern regions Landslide disasters killed some people and destroyed many mud and cement houses coastal mountains and cut off some roads few years ago It is known that many of the earthquakes and landslides that ever happened on our planet are located in active faults zones So it is of most important to obtain detailed information on regional tectonic structures The main approach of active faults survey at present is to use geological and geophysical methods such as in-situ measuring drilling and analysis of gravity and magnetic fields However because of the magnitude of the work there are still many uncertainties that we cannot figure out by traditional approaches Remote sensing has been brought forward for many years and has applications in many hazard

Decision support model for assessing aquifer pollution hazard and prioritizing groundwater resources management in the wet Pampa plain, Argentina.

PubMed

Lima, M Lourdes; Romanelli, Asunción; Massone, Héctor E

2013-06-01

This paper gives an account of the implementation of a decision support system for assessing aquifer pollution hazard and prioritizing subwatersheds for groundwater resources management in the southeastern Pampa plain of Argentina. The use of this system is demonstrated with an example from Dulce Stream Basin (1,000 km(2) encompassing 27 subwatersheds), which has high level of agricultural activities and extensive available data regarding aquifer geology. In the logic model, aquifer pollution hazard is assessed as a function of two primary topics: groundwater and soil conditions. This logic model shows the state of each evaluated landscape with respect to aquifer pollution hazard based mainly on the parameters of the DRASTIC and GOD models. The decision model allows prioritizing subwatersheds for groundwater resources management according to three main criteria including farming activities, agrochemical application, and irrigation use. Stakeholder participation, through interviews, in combination with expert judgment was used to select and weight each criterion. The resulting subwatershed priority map, by combining the logic and decision models, allowed identifying five subwatersheds in the upper and middle basin as the main aquifer protection areas. The results reasonably fit the natural conditions of the basin, identifying those subwatersheds with shallow water depth, loam-loam silt texture soil media and pasture land cover in the middle basin, and others with intensive agricultural activity, coinciding with the natural recharge area to the aquifer system. Major difficulties and some recommendations of applying this methodology in real-world situations are discussed.

Use of in situ and confocal Raman spectroscopy to study the nature and distribution of carotenoids in brown patinas from a deteriorated wall painting in Marcus Lucretius House (Pompeii).

PubMed

Maguregui, M; Knuutinen, U; Trebolazabala, J; Morillas, H; Castro, K; Martinez-Arkarazo, I; Madariaga, J M

2012-02-01

Colonisation of wall paintings by microorganisms and other organisms is a well-known problematic phenomenon. Besides taxonomic identification of the biodeteriogen, it is essential to evaluate the consequences of the colonisation, e.g., unsightly coloured patinas. This work proposes new methodology for characterisation of the nature of the main carotenoids and their distribution in brown stains or patinas of a deteriorated wall painting on the north wall of the atrium of Marcus Lucretius House (Pompeii, Italy). Characterisation of the brown patinas and surrounding areas (plaster and polychromy) from the wall painting started with in situ screening using, mainly, a portable Raman instrument with a handheld FTIR (DRIFTS sampling interface) in order to select the sampling areas suitable for further analysis in the laboratory. Two wall painting fragments were then analysed in the laboratory in two steps. First, microscopic observations (SEM and phase-contrast microscopy) were used to determine whether biodeteriogens were present in the samples. In a second step, confocal Raman microscopy (785 and 514 nm excitation lasers) was used to characterise the main biogenic compounds of the brown stains. Because of the resonance Raman effect (514 nm excitation laser), it was possible to obtain reliable Raman features to assign not only the nature of the main biogenic pigments (carotenoids) present in the stains, but also their spatial conformation. Moreover, Raman confocal applications, for example, Raman imaging and depth profiling were also used in a first attempt to determine the distribution of biosynthesised carotenoids in the stains, and to determine the thickness of the brown patinas.

Assistant Personal Robot (APR): Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot.

PubMed

Clotet, Eduard; Martínez, Dani; Moreno, Javier; Tresanchez, Marcel; Palacín, Jordi

2016-04-28

This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short) and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot.

PEDOT-based composites as electrode materials for supercapacitors.

PubMed

Zhao, Zhiheng; Richardson, Georgia F; Meng, Qingshi; Zhu, Shenmin; Kuan, Hsu-Chiang; Ma, Jun

2016-01-29

Poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (denoted PEDOT) already has a brief history of being used as an active material in supercapacitors. It has many advantages such as low-cost, flexibility, and good electrical conductivity and pseudocapacitance. However, the major drawback is low stability, which means an obvious capacitance drop after a certain number of charge-discharge cycles. Another disadvantage is its limited capacitance and this becomes an issue for industrial applications. To solve these problems, there are several approaches including the addition of conducting nanofillers to increase conductivity, and mixing or depositing metal oxide to enhance capacitance. Furthermore, expanding the surface area of PEDOT is one of the main methods to improve its performance in energy storage applications through special processes; for example using a three-dimensional substrate or preparing PEDOT aerogel through freeze drying. This paper reviews recent techniques and outcomes of PEDOT based composites for supercapacitors, as well as detailed calculations about capacitances. Finally, this paper outlines the new direction and recent challenges of PEDOT based composites for supercapacitor applications.

Stem cells in clinical practice: applications and warnings.

PubMed

Lodi, Daniele; Iannitti, Tommaso; Palmieri, Beniamino

2011-01-17

Stem cells are a relevant source of information about cellular differentiation, molecular processes and tissue homeostasis, but also one of the most putative biological tools to treat degenerative diseases. This review focuses on human stem cells clinical and experimental applications. Our aim is to take a correct view of the available stem cell subtypes and their rational use in the medical area, with a specific focus on their therapeutic benefits and side effects. We have reviewed the main clinical trials dividing them basing on their clinical applications, and taking into account the ethical issue associated with the stem cell therapy. We have searched Pubmed/Medline for clinical trials, involving the use of human stem cells, using the key words "stem cells" combined with the key words "transplantation", "pathology", "guidelines", "properties" and "risks". All the relevant clinical trials have been included. The results have been divided into different categories, basing on the way stem cells have been employed in different pathological conditions.

Overview of the Meso-NH model version 5.4 and its applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lac, Christine; Chaboureau, Jean-Pierre; Masson, Valéry; Pinty, Jean-Pierre; Tulet, Pierre; Escobar, Juan; Leriche, Maud; Barthe, Christelle; Aouizerats, Benjamin; Augros, Clotilde; Aumond, Pierre; Auguste, Franck; Bechtold, Peter; Berthet, Sarah; Bielli, Soline; Bosseur, Frédéric; Caumont, Olivier; Cohard, Jean-Martial; Colin, Jeanne; Couvreux, Fleur; Cuxart, Joan; Delautier, Gaëlle; Dauhut, Thibaut; Ducrocq, Véronique; Filippi, Jean-Baptiste; Gazen, Didier; Geoffroy, Olivier; Gheusi, François; Honnert, Rachel; Lafore, Jean-Philippe; Lebeaupin Brossier, Cindy; Libois, Quentin; Lunet, Thibaut; Mari, Céline; Maric, Tomislav; Mascart, Patrick; Mogé, Maxime; Molinié, Gilles; Nuissier, Olivier; Pantillon, Florian; Peyrillé, Philippe; Pergaud, Julien; Perraud, Emilie; Pianezze, Joris; Redelsperger, Jean-Luc; Ricard, Didier; Richard, Evelyne; Riette, Sébastien; Rodier, Quentin; Schoetter, Robert; Seyfried, Léo; Stein, Joël; Suhre, Karsten; Taufour, Marie; Thouron, Odile; Turner, Sandra; Verrelle, Antoine; Vié, Benoît; Visentin, Florian; Vionnet, Vincent; Wautelet, Philippe

2018-05-01

This paper presents the Meso-NH model version 5.4. Meso-NH is an atmospheric non hydrostatic research model that is applied to a broad range of resolutions, from synoptic to turbulent scales, and is designed for studies of physics and chemistry. It is a limited-area model employing advanced numerical techniques, including monotonic advection schemes for scalar transport and fourth-order centered or odd-order WENO advection schemes for momentum. The model includes state-of-the-art physics parameterization schemes that are important to represent convective-scale phenomena and turbulent eddies, as well as flows at larger scales. In addition, Meso-NH has been expanded to provide capabilities for a range of Earth system prediction applications such as chemistry and aerosols, electricity and lightning, hydrology, wildland fires, volcanic eruptions, and cyclones with ocean coupling. Here, we present the main innovations to the dynamics and physics of the code since the pioneer paper of Lafore et al. (1998) and provide an overview of recent applications and couplings.

Potential diffusion of doramectin into a soil amended with female pig manure. A field experiment.

PubMed

Gil-Díaz, María Del Mar; Pérez-Sanz, Araceli; Martín, Margarita; Lobo, Maria Carmen

2011-10-12

Doramectin is a veterinary drug used as an antihelminthic and is excreted mainly in the feces as the nonmetabolized drug. This study investigated the time profile of doramectin excretion in pig feces and the potential transfer and persistence of doramectin in the soil when the pig manure is used as an organic amendment to the soil. The concentration of doramectin in feces peaked at 143.0 ng/g in the dry feces 4 days after treatment. On day 62, the drug was still detected in the pig feces. After the land application of pig manure, the maximum concentration of doramectin in soil (ppb level) was detected 6 days after treatment. Seven months after the manure application, traces of doramectin were detected in the soil from the surface to a depth of 90 cm. Successive applications of manure from pigs treated with doramectin in a specific area could produce an accumulation of this drug in the soil.

Extraction of polysaccharides by autohydrolysis of spent coffee grounds and evaluation of their antioxidant activity.

PubMed

Ballesteros, Lina F; Teixeira, José A; Mussatto, Solange I

2017-02-10

The extraction of polysaccharides by autohydrolysis of spent coffee grounds (SCG) was studied. Experimental assays were performed using different temperatures (160-200°C), liquid/solid ratios (5-15ml water/g SCG) and extraction times (10-50min) in order to determine the conditions that maximize the extraction of polysaccharides with high antioxidant activity. Autohydrolysis was demonstrated to be an efficient technique to recover antioxidant polysaccharides from SCG. The best process conditions consisted in using 15ml water/g SCG, during 10min at 160°C. The polysaccharides obtained under these conditions were mainly in the form of galactomannans and arabinogalactans. They presented high antioxidant activity (assessed by four different methods), were thermostable in a large range of temperature, and had a typical carbohydrate pattern, being of interest for industrial applications, mainly in the food area. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of uranium in clinical and environmental samples by FIAS-ICPMS

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

Karpas, Z.; Lorber, A.; Halicz, L.

Uranium may enter the human body through ingestion or inhalation. Ingestion of uranium compounds through the diet, mainly drinking water, is a common occurrence, as these compounds are present in the biosphere. Inhalation of uranium-containing particles is mainly an occupational safety problem, but may also take place in areas where uranium compounds are abundant. The uranium concentration in urine samples may serve as an indication of the total uranium body content. A method based on flow injection and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (FIAS-ICPMS) was found to be most suitable for determination of uranium in clinical samples (urine and serum),more » environmental samples (seawater, wells and carbonate rocks) and in liquids consumed by humans (drinking water and commercial beverages). Some examples of the application of the FIAS-ICPMS method are reviewed and presented here.« less

Inorganic fullerenes and nanotubes: Wealth of materials and morphologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bar-Sadan, M.; Kaplan-Ashiri, I.; Tenne, R.

2007-10-01

It is already well established today that numerous materials form closed-cage structures, of which carbon fullerenes and nanotubes are a special case [1]. Inorganic fullerene-like nanoparticles (designated IF) and inorganic nanotubes (INT) have been produced by different routes and experimental techniques, achieving persistent growth of a variety of materials and structural wealth within them. The research in this area has focused on synthesizing new IF and INT materials and understanding their different properties as well as scaling up the synthetic process in order to make it suitable for industrial applications. In this review, the main synthetic procedures to obtain inorganic fullerene-like nanoparticles and nanotubes will be discussed alongside with the different mechanisms that affect the morphology of the final product. The main differences between the morphologies will be presented. Some general considerations relating the properties of the parent compound with the morphology of the product will be mentioned.

Perspectives on anaerobic treatment in developing countries.

PubMed

Foresti, E

2001-01-01

Developing countries occupy regions where the climate is warm most of the time. Even in sub-tropical areas, low temperatures do not persist for long periods. This is the main factor that makes the use of anaerobic technology applicable and less expensive, even for the treatment of low-strength industrial wastewaters and domestic sewage. Based mainly on papers presented at the "VI Latin-American Workshop and Seminar on Anaerobic Digestion" held in Recife, Brazil, in November 2000, this text approaches the perspectives of anaerobic treatment of wastewaters in developing countries. Emphasis is given to domestic sewage treatment and to the use of compact systems in which sequential batch reactors (SBR) or dissolvedair flotation (DAF) systems are applied for the post-treatment of anaerobic reactor effluents. Experiments on bench- and pilot-plants have indicated that these systems can achieve high performance in removing organic matter and nutrients during the treatment of domestic sewage at ambient temperatures.

DNA Nanotechnology-Enabled Interfacial Engineering for Biosensor Development.

PubMed

Ye, Dekai; Zuo, Xiaolei; Fan, Chunhai

2018-06-12

Biosensors represent biomimetic analytical tools for addressing increasing needs in medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, security, and biodefense. Nevertheless, widespread real-world applications of biosensors remain challenging due to limitations of performance, including sensitivity, specificity, speed, and reproducibility. In this review, we present a DNA nanotechnology-enabled interfacial engineering approach for improving the performance of biosensors. We first introduce the main challenges of the biosensing interfaces, especially under the context of controlling the DNA interfacial assembly. We then summarize recent progress in DNA nanotechnology and efforts to harness DNA nanostructures to engineer various biological interfaces, with a particular focus on the use of framework nucleic acids. We also discuss the implementation of biosensors to detect physiologically relevant nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules, ions, and other biomarkers. This review highlights promising applications of DNA nanotechnology in interfacial engineering for biosensors and related areas.

Improving animal research facility operations through the application of lean principles.

PubMed

Khan, Nabeel; Umrysh, Brian M

2008-06-01

Animal research is a vital component of US research and well-functioning animal research facilities are critical both to the research itself and to the housing and feeding of the animals. The Office of Animal Care (OAC) at Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute realized it had to improve the efficiency and safety of its animal research facility (ARF) to prepare for expansion and to advance the Institute's mission. The main areas for improvement concerned excessive turnaround time to process animal housing and feeding equipment; the movement and flow of equipment and inventory; and personnel safety. To address these problems, management held two process improvement workshops to educate employees about lean principles. In this article we discuss the application of these principles and corresponding methods to advance Children's Research Institute's mission of preventing, treating, and eliminating childhood diseases.

Real-Time Human Ambulation, Activity, and Physiological Monitoring: Taxonomy of Issues, Techniques, Applications, Challenges and Limitations

PubMed Central

Khusainov, Rinat; Azzi, Djamel; Achumba, Ifeyinwa E.; Bersch, Sebastian D.

2013-01-01

Automated methods of real-time, unobtrusive, human ambulation, activity, and wellness monitoring and data analysis using various algorithmic techniques have been subjects of intense research. The general aim is to devise effective means of addressing the demands of assisted living, rehabilitation, and clinical observation and assessment through sensor-based monitoring. The research studies have resulted in a large amount of literature. This paper presents a holistic articulation of the research studies and offers comprehensive insights along four main axes: distribution of existing studies; monitoring device framework and sensor types; data collection, processing and analysis; and applications, limitations and challenges. The aim is to present a systematic and most complete study of literature in the area in order to identify research gaps and prioritize future research directions. PMID:24072027

Silicon-Germanium Films Grown on Sapphire for Ka-Band Communications Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alterovitz, Samuel A.; Mueller, Carl H.; Croke, Edward T.

2004-01-01

NASA's vision in the space communications area is to develop a broadband data network in which there is a high degree of interconnectivity among the various satellite systems, ground stations, and wired systems. To accomplish this goal, we will need complex electronic circuits integrating analog and digital data handling at the Ka-band (26 to 40 GHz). The purpose of this project is to show the feasibility of a new technology for Ka-band communications applications, namely silicon germanium (SiGe) on sapphire. This new technology will have several advantages in comparison to the existing silicon-substrate- based circuits. The main advantages are extremely low parasitic reactances that enable much higher quality active and passive components, better device isolation, higher radiation tolerance, and the integration of digital and analog circuitry on a single chip.

Some problems in mechanics of growing solids with applications to AM technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manzhirov, A. V.

2018-04-01

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are an exciting area of the modern industrial revolution and have applications in engineering, medicine, electronics, aerospace industry, etc. AM enables cost-effective production of customized geometry and parts by direct fabrication from 3D data and mathematical models. Despite much progress in AM technologies, problems of mechanical analysis for AM fabricated parts yet remain to be solved. This paper deals with three main mechanical problems: the onset of residual stresses, which occur in the AM process and can lead to failure of the parts, the distortion of the final shape of AM fabricated parts, and the development of technological solutions aimed at improving existing AM technologies and creating new ones. An approach proposed deals with the construction of adequate analytical model and effective methods for the simulation of AM processes for fabricated solid parts.