Feasibility of vibration monitoring of small rotating machines for the environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) of the NASA advanced space craft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Milner, G. Martin; Black, Mike; Hovenga, Mike; Mcclure, Paul; Miller, Patrice

1988-01-01

The application of vibration monitoring to the rotating machinery typical of ECLSS components in advanced NASA spacecraft was studied. It is found that the weighted summation of the accelerometer power spectrum is the most successful detection scheme for a majority of problem types. Other detection schemes studied included high-frequency demodulation, cepstrum, clustering, and amplitude processing.

An automatic chip structure optical inspection system for electronic components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Zhichao; Xue, Bindang; Liang, Jiyuan; Wang, Ke; Chen, Junzhang; Liu, Yunhe

2018-01-01

An automatic chip structure inspection system based on machine vision is presented to ensure the reliability of electronic components. It consists of four major modules, including a metallographic microscope, a Gigabit Ethernet high-resolution camera, a control system and a high performance computer. An auto-focusing technique is presented to solve the problem that the chip surface is not on the same focusing surface under the high magnification of the microscope. A panoramic high-resolution image stitching algorithm is adopted to deal with the contradiction between resolution and field of view, caused by different sizes of electronic components. In addition, we establish a database to storage and callback appropriate parameters to ensure the consistency of chip images of electronic components with the same model. We use image change detection technology to realize the detection of chip images of electronic components. The system can achieve high-resolution imaging for chips of electronic components with various sizes, and clearly imaging for the surface of chip with different horizontal and standardized imaging for ones with the same model, and can recognize chip defects.

The Chandra Source Catalog: Background Determination and Source Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCollough, Michael; Rots, Arnold; Primini, Francis A.; Evans, Ian N.; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Hain, Roger; Anderson, Craig S.; Bonaventura, Nina R.; Chen, Judy C.; Davis, John E.; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Galle, Elizabeth C.; Danny G. Gibbs, II; Grier, John D.; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; He, Xiang Qun (Helen); Houck, John C.; Karovska, Margarita; Kashyap, Vinay L.; Lauer, Jennifer; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph B.; Mitschang, Arik W.; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Plummer, David A.; Refsdal, Brian L.; Siemiginowska, Aneta L.; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael S.; van Stone, David W.; Winkelman, Sherry L.; Zografou, Panagoula

2009-09-01

The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a major project in which all of the pointed imaging observations taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory are used to generate one of the most extensive X-ray source catalog produced to date. Early in the development of the CSC it was recognized that the ability to estimate local background levels in an automated fashion would be critical for essential CSC tasks such as source detection, photometry, sensitivity estimates, and source characterization. We present a discussion of how such background maps are created directly from the Chandra data and how they are used in source detection. The general background for Chandra observations is rather smoothly varying, containing only low spatial frequency components. However, in the case of ACIS data, a high spatial frequency component is added that is due to the readout streaks of the CCD chips. We discuss how these components can be estimated reliably using the Chandra data and what limitations and caveats should be considered in their use. We will discuss the source detection algorithm used for the CSC and the effects of the background images on the detection results. We will also touch on some the Catalog Inclusion and Quality Assurance criteria applied to the source detection results. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

Chandra Source Catalog: Background Determination and Source Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCollough, Michael L.; Rots, A. H.; Primini, F. A.; Evans, I. N.; Glotfelty, K. J.; Hain, R.; Anderson, C. S.; Bonaventura, N. R.; Chen, J. C.; Davis, J. E.; Doe, S. M.; Evans, J. D.; Fabbiano, G.; Galle, E.; Gibbs, D. G.; Grier, J. D.; Hall, D. M.; Harbo, P. N.; He, X.; Houck, J. C.; Karovska, M.; Lauer, J.; McDowell, J. C.; Miller, J. B.; Mitschang, A. W.; Morgan, D. L.; Nichols, J. S.; Nowak, M. A.; Plummer, D. A.; Refsdal, B. L.; Siemiginowska, A. L.; Sundheim, B. A.; Tibbetts, M. S.; Van Stone, D. W.; Winkelman, S. L.; Zografou, P.

2009-01-01

The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a major project in which all of the pointed imaging observations taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory will used to generate the most extensive X-ray source catalog produced to date. Early in the development of the CSC it was recognized that the ability to estimate local background levels in an automated fashion would be critical for essential CSC tasks such as source detection, photometry, sensitivity estimates, and source characterization. We present a discussion of how such background maps are created directly from the Chandra data and how they are used in source detection. The general background for Chandra observations is rather smoothly varying, containing only low spatial frequency components. However, in the case of ACIS data, a high spatial frequency component is added that is due to the readout streaks of the CCD chips. We discuss how these components can be estimated reliably using the Chandra data and what limitations and caveats should be considered in their use. We will discuss the source detection algorithm used for the CSC and the effects of the background images on the detection results. We will also touch on some the Catalog Inclusion and Quality Assurance criteria applied to the source detection results. This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-03060 (CXC).

Antibody response to Ehrlichia risticii and antibody reactivity to the component antigens in horses with induced Potomac horse fever.

PubMed

Dutta, S K; Mattingly, B L; Shankarappa, B

1989-10-01

The antibody response and the antibody reactivity to component antigens of Ehrlichia risticii were studied in horses with induced Potomac horse fever. These horses had no detectable antibodies to E. risticii in their preinoculation (PrI) sera by indirect fluorescent-antibody assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All the horses exhibited typical disease features following experimental infection and responded with specific antibodies, as measured by ELISA and indirect fluorescent-antibody assay. A primary antibody response was detected in 70% of the horses, while a secondary-type antibody response was detected in 30% of the horses by ELISA. In the primary antibody response, a distinct titer was observed at 2 weeks postinoculation (PI), when the immunoglobulin M (IgM)/IgG ratio was 2 to 5, and the overall antibody titer peaked at 6 to 8 weeks PI. The secondary-type antibody response exhibited a characteristic titer at 1 week PI, the IgM and IgG titers were about equal at 2 weeks PI, and the overall antibody titer peaked at 6 weeks PI. A transient depression in the IgG response at 4 weeks PI was observed in both response types. The antibody was maintained at a high titer for over a year in all horses. Western immunoblot reactivity showed that the antisera collected from these infected horses at 4 to 5 weeks PI recognized some or all of the six major E. risticii component antigens (70, 55, 51, 44, 33, and 28 kilodaltons), all of which were apparent surface components. The 6- to 8-week PI antisera recognized up to 16 component antigens, including 9 major antigens (110, 86, 70, 55, 51, 49, 44, 33, and 28 kilodaltons). However, the PrI sera of these horses showed reactivity at various intensities with one to seven of the component antigens. There was no apparent correlation between this reactivity pattern and the subsequent antibody response types.

A new method for text detection and recognition in indoor scene for assisting blind people

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jabnoun, Hanen; Benzarti, Faouzi; Amiri, Hamid

2017-03-01

Developing assisting system of handicapped persons become a challenging ask in research projects. Recently, a variety of tools are designed to help visually impaired or blind people object as a visual substitution system. The majority of these tools are based on the conversion of input information into auditory or tactile sensory information. Furthermore, object recognition and text retrieval are exploited in the visual substitution systems. Text detection and recognition provides the description of the surrounding environments, so that the blind person can readily recognize the scene. In this work, we aim to introduce a method for detecting and recognizing text in indoor scene. The process consists on the detection of the regions of interest that should contain the text using the connected component. Then, the text detection is provided by employing the images correlation. This component of an assistive blind person should be simple, so that the users are able to obtain the most informative feedback within the shortest time.

Investigation of Axial Electric Field Measurements with Grounded-Wire TEM Surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Nan-nan; Xue, Guo-qiang; Li, Hai; Hou, Dong-yang

2018-01-01

The grounded-wire transient electromagnetic (TEM) surveying is often performed along the equatorial direction with its observation lines paralleling to the transmitting wire with a certain transmitter-receiver distance. However, such method takes into account only the equatorial component of the electromagnetic field, and a little effort has been made on incorporating the other major component along the transmitting wire, here denoted as axial field. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of its fundamental characteristics and guide the designing of the corresponding observation system for reliable anomaly detection, this study for the first time investigates the axial electric field from three crucial aspects, including its decay curve, plane distribution, and anomaly sensitivity, through both synthetic modeling and real application to one major coal field in China. The results demonstrate a higher sensitivity to both high- and low-resistivity anomalies by the electric field in axial direction and confirm its great potentials for robust anomaly detection in the subsurface.

Mimicking Insect Communication: Release and Detection of Pheromone, Biosynthesized by an Alcohol Acetyl Transferase Immobilized in a Microreactor

PubMed Central

Muñoz, Lourdes; Dimov, Nikolay; Carot-Sans, Gerard; Bula, Wojciech P.; Guerrero, Angel; Gardeniers, Han J. G. E.

2012-01-01

Infochemical production, release and detection of (Z,E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate, the major component of the pheromone of the moth Spodoptera littoralis, is achieved in a novel microfluidic system designed to mimic the final step of the pheromone biosynthesis by immobilized recombinant alcohol acetyl transferase. The microfluidic system is part of an “artificial gland”, i.e., a chemoemitter that comprises a microreactor connected to a microevaporator and is able to produce and release a pre-defined amount of the major component of the pheromone from the corresponding (Z,E)-9,11-tetradecadienol. Performance of the entire chemoemitter has been assessed in electrophysiological and behavioral experiments. Electroantennographic depolarizations of the pheromone produced by the chemoemitter were ca. 40% relative to that evoked by the synthetic pheromone. In a wind tunnel, the pheromone released from the evaporator elicited on males a similar attraction behavior as 3 virgin females in most of the parameters considered. PMID:23155372

Online damage inspection of optics for ATP system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jing; Jiang, Yu; Mao, Yao; Gan, Xun; Liu, Qiong

2016-09-01

In the Electro-Optical acquisition-tracking-pointing system (ATP), the optical components will be damaged with the several influencing factors. In this situation, the rate will increase sharply when the arrival of damage to some extent. As the complex processing techniques and long processing cycle of optical components, the damage will cause the great increase of the system development cost and cycle. Therefore, it is significant to detect the laser-induced damage in the ATP system. At present, the major research on the on-line damage detection technology of optical components is for the large optical system in the international. The relevant detection systems have complicated structures and many of components, and require enough installation space reserved, which do not apply for ATP system. To solve the problem mentioned before, This paper use a method based on machine vision to detect the damage on-line for the present ATP system. To start with, CCD and PC are used for image acquisition. Secondly, smoothing filters are used to restrain false damage points produced by noise. Then, with the shape feature included in the damage image, the OTSU Method which can define the best segmentation threshold automatically is used to achieve the goal to locate the damage regions. At last, we can supply some opinions for the lifetime of the optical components by analyzing the damage data, such as damage area, damage position. The method has the characteristics of few-detectors and simple-structures which can be installed without any changes of the original light path. With the method, experimental results show that it is stable and effective to achieve the goal of detecting the damage of optical components on-line in the ATP system.

[Absorption and metabolism of Chuanxiong Rhizoma decoction with multi-component sequential metabolism method].

PubMed

Liu, Yang; Luo, Zhi-Qiang; Lv, Bei-Ran; Zhao, Hai-Yu; Dong, Ling

2016-04-01

The multiple components in Chinese herbal medicines (CHMS) will experience complex absorption and metabolism before entering the blood system. Previous studies often lay emphasis on the components in blood. However, the dynamic and sequential absorption and metabolism process following multi-component oral administration has not been studied. In this study, the in situ closed-loop method combined with LC-MS techniques were employed to study the sequential process of Chuanxiong Rhizoma decoction (RCD). A total of 14 major components were identified in RCD. Among them, ferulic acid, senkyunolide J, senkyunolide I, senkyunolide F, senkyunolide G, and butylidenephthalide were detected in all of the samples, indicating that the six components could be absorbed into blood in prototype. Butylphthalide, E-ligustilide, Z-ligustilide, cnidilide, senkyunolide A and senkyunolide Q were not detected in all the samples, suggesting that the six components may not be absorbed or metabolized before entering the hepatic portal vein. Senkyunolide H could be metabolized by the liver, while senkyunolide M could be metabolized by both liver and intestinal flora. This study clearly demonstrated the changes in the absorption and metabolism process following multi-component oral administration of RCD, so as to convert the static multi-component absorption process into a comprehensive dynamic and continuous absorption and metabolism process. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Detection of dim targets in multiple environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mirsky, Grace M.; Woods, Matthew; Grasso, Robert J.

2013-10-01

The proliferation of a wide variety of weapons including Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA), rockets, and small arms presents a substantial threat to both military and civilian aircraft. To address this ever-present threat, Northrop Grumman has assessed unguided threat phenomenology to understand the underlying physical principles for detection. These principles, based upon threat transit through the atmosphere, exploit a simple phenomenon universal to all objects moving through an atmosphere comprised of gaseous media to detect and track the threat in the presence of background and clutter. Threat detection has rapidly become a crucial component of aircraft survivability systems that provide situational awareness to the crew. It is particularly important to platforms which may spend a majority of their time at low altitudes and within the effective range of a large variety of weapons. Detection of these threats presents a unique challenge as this class of threat typically has a dim signature coupled with a short duration. Correct identification of each of the threat components (muzzle flash and projectile) is important to determine trajectory and intent while minimizing false alarms and maintaining a high detection probability in all environments.

Remote health monitoring system for detecting cardiac disorders.

PubMed

Bansal, Ayush; Kumar, Sunil; Bajpai, Anurag; Tiwari, Vijay N; Nayak, Mithun; Venkatesan, Shankar; Narayanan, Rangavittal

2015-12-01

Remote health monitoring system with clinical decision support system as a key component could potentially quicken the response of medical specialists to critical health emergencies experienced by their patients. A monitoring system, specifically designed for cardiac care with electrocardiogram (ECG) signal analysis as the core diagnostic technique, could play a vital role in early detection of a wide range of cardiac ailments, from a simple arrhythmia to life threatening conditions such as myocardial infarction. The system that the authors have developed consists of three major components, namely, (a) mobile gateway, deployed on patient's mobile device, that receives 12-lead ECG signals from any ECG sensor, (b) remote server component that hosts algorithms for accurate annotation and analysis of the ECG signal and (c) point of care device of the doctor to receive a diagnostic report from the server based on the analysis of ECG signals. In the present study, their focus has been toward developing a system capable of detecting critical cardiac events well in advance using an advanced remote monitoring system. A system of this kind is expected to have applications ranging from tracking wellness/fitness to detection of symptoms leading to fatal cardiac events.

The preattentive processing of major vs. minor chords in the human brain: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Virtala, Paula; Berg, Venla; Kivioja, Maari; Purhonen, Juha; Salmenkivi, Marko; Paavilainen, Petri; Tervaniemi, Mari

2011-01-10

Western music has two classifications that are highly familiar to all Western listeners: the dichotomy between the major and minor modalities and consonance vs. dissonance. We aimed at determining whether these classifications already take place at the level of the elicitation of the change-related mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential (ERP). To this end, we constructed an oddball-paradigm with root minor, dissonant and inverted major chords in a context of root major chords. These stimuli were composed so that the standard and deviant chords did not include a physically deviant frequency which could cause the MMN. The standard chords were transposed into 12 different keys (=pitch levels) and delivered to the participants while they were watching a silent movie (ignore condition) or detecting softer target sounds (detection condition). In the ignore condition, the MMN was significant for all but inverted major chords. In the detection condition, the MMN was significant for dissonant chords and soft target chords. Our results indicate that the processes underlying MMN are able to make discriminations which are qualitative by nature. Whether the classifications between major and minor modalities and consonance vs. dissonance are innate or based on implicit learning remains a question for the future. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Raspberry Ketone Trifluoroacetate, a new attractant for the Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt))

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni, Q-fly) is a major agricultural pest in eastern Australia. The deployment of male lures comprises an important component of several control and detection strategies for this pest. A novel fluorinated analog of raspberry ketone, raspberry ketone trifluoroac...

APDS: Autonomous Pathogen Detection System

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

Langlois, R G; Brown, S; Burris, L

An early warning system to counter bioterrorism, the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) continuously monitors the environment for the presence of biological pathogens (e.g., anthrax) and once detected, it sounds an alarm much like a smoke detector warns of a fire. Long before September 11, 2001, this system was being developed to protect domestic venues and events including performing arts centers, mass transit systems, major sporting and entertainment events, and other high profile situations in which the public is at risk of becoming a target of bioterrorist attacks. Customizing off-the-shelf components and developing new components, a multidisciplinary team developed APDS,more » a stand-alone system for rapid, continuous monitoring of multiple airborne biological threat agents in the environment. The completely automated APDS samples the air, prepares fluid samples in-line, and performs two orthogonal tests: immunoassay and nucleic acid detection. When compared to competing technologies, APDS is unprecedented in terms of flexibility and system performance.« less

Phosphatase activity tunes two-component system sensor detection threshold.

PubMed

Landry, Brian P; Palanki, Rohan; Dyulgyarov, Nikola; Hartsough, Lucas A; Tabor, Jeffrey J

2018-04-12

Two-component systems (TCSs) are the largest family of multi-step signal transduction pathways in biology, and a major source of sensors for biotechnology. However, the input concentrations to which biosensors respond are often mismatched with application requirements. Here, we utilize a mathematical model to show that TCS detection thresholds increase with the phosphatase activity of the sensor histidine kinase. We experimentally validate this result in engineered Bacillus subtilis nitrate and E. coli aspartate TCS sensors by tuning their detection threshold up to two orders of magnitude. We go on to apply our TCS tuning method to recently described tetrathionate and thiosulfate sensors by mutating a widely conserved residue previously shown to impact phosphatase activity. Finally, we apply TCS tuning to engineer B. subtilis to sense and report a wide range of fertilizer concentrations in soil. This work will enable the engineering of tailor-made biosensors for diverse synthetic biology applications.

Depression, anxiety and alexithymia symptoms are major determinants of health related quality of life (HRQoL) in cirrhotic patients.

PubMed

Nardelli, Silvia; Pentassuglio, Ilaria; Pasquale, Chiara; Ridola, Lorenzo; Moscucci, Federica; Merli, Manuela; Mina, Concetta; Marianetti, Massimo; Fratino, Mariangela; Izzo, Chiara; Merkel, Carlo; Riggio, Oliviero

2013-06-01

HRQoL is impaired in cirrhosis. Establishing the relevance of depression, anxiety, alexithymia and cirrhosis stage on the patients' HRQoL. Sixty cirrhotics underwent a neuropsychological assessment, including ZUNG-SDS, STAI Y1-Y2 and TAS-20. Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) was detected by PHES, HRQoL by Short-Form-36 (SF-36). Depression was detected in 34 patients (57 %, 95%CI = 44-70 %), state-anxiety in 16 (27 %, 95%CI = 15-38 %), trait-anxiety in 17 (28 %, 95%CI = 17-40 %), alexithymia in 14 (31 % 95%CI = 16-46 %) and MHE in 22 (37 %, 95%CI = 24-49 %). Neuropsychological symptoms were unrelated to cirrhosis stage, hepatocellular carcinoma or MHE. A significant correlation was observed among psychological test scores and summary components of SF-36. At multiple linear regression analysis including Child-Pugh and MELD scores, previous-HE and the psychological test scores as possible covariates, alexithymia and depression as well as to the Child-Pugh score were significantly related to the SF-36 mental component; while trait-anxiety was the only variable significantly and independently related to the SF-36 physical component. Depression, state and trait-anxiety and alexithymia symptoms are frequent in cirrhotics and are among the major determinants of the altered HRQoL.

Quantum Dots of InAs/GaSb Type II Superlattice for Infrared Sensing

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-01-01

QWIP )[1]. Unfortunately, fast Auger recombination rate in such interband detectors[2] and high thermal generation rate in the Electronic mail: razcghi...detectors operating at different cutoff wavelength[5]. The major noise component at zero bias is the Johnson noise , and hence the detectivity of the...which leads to a Johnson noise limited detectivity of about 3.71xl0..cm’HzŖ /W. Under reverse bias, the I/f noise will show up. However with

Applicability of a Crack-Detection System for Use in Rotor Disk Spin Test Experiments Being Evaluated

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abdul-Aziz, Ali; Baaklini, George Y.; Roth, Don J.

2004-01-01

Engine makers and aviation safety government institutions continue to have a strong interest in monitoring the health of rotating components in aircraft engines to improve safety and to lower maintenance costs. To prevent catastrophic failure (burst) of the engine, they use nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and major overhauls for periodic inspections to discover any cracks that might have formed. The lowest cost fluorescent penetrant inspection NDE technique can fail to disclose cracks that are tightly closed during rest or that are below the surface. The NDE eddy current system is more effective at detecting both crack types, but it requires careful setup and operation and only a small portion of the disk can be practically inspected. So that sensor systems can sustain normal function in a severe environment, health-monitoring systems require the sensor system to transmit a signal if a crack detected in the component is above a predetermined length (but below the length that would lead to failure) and lastly to act neutrally upon the overall performance of the engine system and not interfere with engine maintenance operations. Therefore, more reliable diagnostic tools and high-level techniques for detecting damage and monitoring the health of rotating components are very essential in maintaining engine safety and reliability and in assessing life.

Identification of major allergens in watermelon.

PubMed

Pastor, Carlos; Cuesta-Herranz, Javier; Cases, Barbara; Pérez-Gordo, Marina; Figueredo, Elena; de las Heras, Manuel; Vivanco, Fernando

2009-01-01

Watermelon is a worldwide consumed Cucurbitaceae fruit that can elicit allergic reactions. However, the major allergens of watermelon are not known. The aim of this study is to identify and characterize major allergens in watermelon. Twenty-three patients allergic to watermelon took part in the study. The diagnosis was based on a history of symptoms and positive skin prick-prick tests to watermelon, confirmed by positive open oral challenge testing to watermelon pulp. Allergenic components were detected by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. Molecular characterization of IgE-binding bands was performed by N-terminal amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry. Allergens were purified combining several chromatographic steps. Several IgE binding bands (8-120 kDa) were detected in watermelon extract. Three major allergens were identified as malate dehydrogenase (36 kDa), triose phosphate isomerase (28 kDa) and profilin (13 kDa). Purified allergens individually inhibited IgE binding to the whole watermelon extract. All in all these results indicate that malate dehydrogenase, triose phosphate isomerase and profilin are major allergens involved in watermelon allergy. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

[Analysis of the components of floral scent in Glochidion puberum using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with dynamic headspace adsorption].

PubMed

Huang, Daihong; Zhang, Zhenguo; Chen, Guoping; Li, Houhun; Shi, Fuchen

2015-03-01

The floral scent plays the important key role in maintaining the obligate pollination mutualism between Glochidion plants and Epicephala moths. In the study, the dynamic headspace adsorption technique was employed to collect the floral scent emitted by Glochidion puberum, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used for the detection and identification of volatile chemical components in headspace samples of flowers from G. puberum. The peak area normalization was used to determine the relative contents of each odour component. The results showed that 45 compounds mainly consisting of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes were isolated from the floral scent produced by G. puberum. Especially, both linalool (38.06%) and β-elemene (23.84%) were considered as the major scent components of G. puberum. It was speculated that linalool and β-elemene may be the two potential compounds attracting female Epicephala moths. The study provided the basic data for further electroantennographic detection and bioassays to identify the compounds having the actual physiological activity to female Epicephala moths.

Interfaces - Weak Links, Yet Great Opportunities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hendricks, Robert C.; Dimofte, Florin; Chupp, Raymond E.; Steinetz, Bruce M.

2011-01-01

Inadequate turbomachine interface design can rapidly degrade system performance, yet provide great opportunity for improvements. Engineered coatings of seals and bearing interfaces are major issues in the operational life of power systems. Coatings, films, and combined use of both metals and ceramics play a major role in maintaining component life. Interface coatings, like lubricants, are sacrificial for the benefit of the component. Bearing and sealing surfaces are routinely protected by tribologically paired coatings such as silicon diamond like coatings (SiDLC) in combination with an oil lubricated wave bearing that prolongs bearing operational life. Likewise, of several methods used or researched for detecting interface failures, dopants within coatings show failures in functionally graded ceramic coatings. The Bozzolo-Ferrante-Smith (BFS) materials models and quantum mechanical tools, employed in interface design, are discussed.

Hydrochemical variations in selected geothermal groundwater and carbonated springs in Korea: a baseline study for early detection of CO2 leakage.

PubMed

Choi, Hanna; Piao, Jize; Woo, Nam C; Cho, Heuynam

2017-02-01

A baseline hydrochemistry of the above zone aquifer was examined for the potential of CO 2 early detection monitoring. Among the major ionic components and stable isotope ratios of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, components with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of <10 % for the seasonal variation were selected as relatively stable. These components were tested for sensitivity to the introduction of 0.1 mol/L CO 2 (g) using the PHREEQC simulation results. If the relatively stable components were sensitive to the introduction of CO 2 , then they could be used as indicators of CO 2 leakage into the above zone. As an analog to the zone above CO 2 storage formation, we sampled deep groundwater, including geothermal groundwater from well depths of 400-700 m below the ground surface (bgs) and carbonated springs with a high CO 2 content in Korea. Under the natural conditions of inland geothermal groundwater, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), bicarbonate (HCO 3 ), δ 18 O, δ 2 H, and δ 13 C were relatively stable as well as sensitive to the introduction of CO 2 (g), thus showing good potential as monitoring parameters for early detection of CO 2 leakage. In carbonated springs, the parameters identified were pH, δ 18 O, and δ 2 H. Baseline hydrochemistry monitoring could provide information on parameters useful for detecting anomalies caused by CO 2 leakage as measures for early warning.

Petroleum and individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

USGS Publications Warehouse

Albers, Peter H.; Hoffman, David J.; Rattner, Barnett A.; Burton, G. Allen; Cairns, John

1995-01-01

Crude petroleum, refined-petroleum products, and individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contained within petroleum are found throughout the world. their presence has been detected in living and nonliving components of ecosystems. Petroleum can be an environmental hazard for wild animals and plants. Individual PAHs are also hazardous to wildlife, but they are most commonly associated with human illnesses. Because petroleum is a major environmental source of these PAHs, petroleum and PAHs are jointly presented in this chapter. Composition, sources, environmental fate, and toxic effects on all living components of aquatic and terrestrial environments are addessed.

Multidimensional profiling of components in complex mixtures of natural products for metabolic analysis, proof of concept: application to Quillaja saponins.

PubMed

Bankefors, Johan; Nord, Lars I; Kenne, Lennart

2010-02-01

A method for separation and detection of major and minor components in complex mixtures has been developed, utilising two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography (2D-HPLC) combined with electrospray ionisation ion-trap multiple-stage mass spectrometry (ESI-ITMS(n)). Chromatographic conditions were matched with mass spectrometric detection to maximise the number of components that could be separated. The described procedure has proven useful to discern several hundreds of saponin components when applied to Quillaja saponaria Molina bark extracts. The discrimination of each saponin component relies on the fact that three coordinates (x, y, z) for each component can be derived from the retention time of the two chromatographic steps (x, y) and the m/z-values from the multiple-stage mass spectrometry (z(n), n=1, 2, ...). Thus an improved graphical representation was obtained by combining retention times from the two-stage separation with +MS(1) (z(1)) and the additional structural information from the second mass stage +MS(2) (z(2), z(3)) corresponding to the main fragment ions. By this approach three-dimensional plots can be made that reveal both the chromatographic and structural properties of a specific mixture which can be useful in fingerprinting of complex mixtures. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

RADIUM IN MARYLAND COASTAL PLAIN GROUND WATER: AN EMERGING ISSUE RESULTING FROM A MULTI-AGENCY STUDY OF CARCINGENS IN WELL WATER

EPA Science Inventory

In 1997, radium-226 plus radium-228 concentrations as high as 66 picocuries per liter were detected in domestic well-water samples from the (Cretaceous) Potomac Group and Magothy Formation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Furthermore, radium-224 was found to be a major component...

Alarm Pheromones of the Ant Atta Texana

Treesearch

John C. Moser; R. C. Brownlee; R. Silverstein

1968-01-01

Methyl-3-heptanone (0.59 μg/head) and 2-heptanone (0.14 μg/head) are the main volatile components of the mandibular glands of major workers. In the laboratory, worker ants detected and were attracted by 4-methyl-3-heptanone at a concentration of 5.7 x 10-13 g/cm3 (2.7 x 107 molecules...

Online Oxide Contamination Measurement and Purification Demonstration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bradley, D. E.; Godfroy, T. J.; Webster, K. L.; Garber, A. E.; Polzin, K. A.; Childers, D. J.

2011-01-01

Liquid metal sodium-potassium (NaK) has advantageous thermodynamic properties indicating its use as a fission reactor coolant for a surface (lunar, martian) power system. A major area of concern for fission reactor cooling systems is system corrosion due to oxygen contaminants at the high operating temperatures experienced. A small-scale, approximately 4-L capacity, simulated fission reactor cooling system employing NaK as a coolant was fabricated and tested with the goal of demonstrating a noninvasive oxygen detection and purification system. In order to generate prototypical conditions in the simulated cooling system, several system components were designed, fabricated, and tested. These major components were a fully-sealed, magnetically-coupled mechanical NaK pump, a graphite element heated reservoir, a plugging indicator system, and a cold trap. All system components were successfully demonstrated at a maximum system flow rate of approximately 150 cc/s at temperatures up to 550 C. Coolant purification was accomplished using a cold trap before and after plugging operations which showed a relative reduction in oxygen content.

Gold nanoparticles based imaging technique and drug delivery for the detection and treatment of atherosclerotic vascular disease

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ankri, Rinat; Leshem-Lev, Dorit; Lev, Eli I.; Motiei, Menachem; Hochhauser, Edith; Fixler, Dror

2016-03-01

In our study we aim to develop a new, simple and non-invasive method to detect and to treat atherosclerosis. We use gold nanoparticles (GNPs) combined with the diffusion reflection (DR) method to demonstrate the detection of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. Our method is based on the fact that macrophages are a major component in the vulnerable plaque and are able to uptake metal nanoparticles that can be discovered by the DR system. Moreover, it is well known that high density lipoprotein (HDL) reduces ASVD by inhibiting pro-inflammatory factors, enabling the specific treatment of atherosclerosis.

Measurement of T1 of the Ultrashort T2* Components in White Matter of the Brain at 3T

PubMed Central

Du, Jiang; Sheth, Vipul; He, Qun; Carl, Michael; Chen, Jun; Corey-Bloom, Jody; Bydder, Graeme M.

2014-01-01

Recent research demonstrates that white matter of the brain contains not only long T2 components, but a minority of ultrashort T2* components. Adiabatic inversion recovery prepared dual echo ultrashort echo time (IR-dUTE) sequences can be used to selectively image the ultrashort T2* components in white matter of the brain using a clinical whole body scanner. The T2*s of the ultrashort T2* components can be quantified using mono-exponential decay fitting of the IR-dUTE signal at a series of different TEs. However, accurate T1 measurement of the ultrashort T2* components is technically challenging. Efficient suppression of the signal from the majority of long T2 components is essential for robust T1 measurement. In this paper we describe a novel approach to this problem based on the use of IR-dUTE data acquisitions with different TR and TI combinations to selectively detect the signal recovery of the ultrashort T2* components. Exponential recovery curve fitting provides efficient T1 estimation, with minimized contamination from the majority of long T2 components. A rubber phantom and a piece of bovine cortical bone were used for validation of this approach. Six healthy volunteers were studied. An averaged T2* of 0.32±0.09 ms, and a short mean T1 of 226±46 ms were demonstrated for the healthy volunteers at 3T. PMID:25093859

Military efforts in nanosensors, 3D printing, and imaging detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Eugene; Booth, Janice C.; Roberts, J. Keith; Brantley, Christina L.; Crutcher, Sihon H.; Whitley, Michael; Kranz, Michael; Seif, Mohamed; Ruffin, Paul

2017-04-01

A team of researchers and support organizations, affiliated with the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), has initiated multidiscipline efforts to develop nano-based structures and components for advanced weaponry, aviation, and autonomous air/ground systems applications. The main objective of this research is to exploit unique phenomena for the development of novel technology to enhance warfighter capabilities and produce precision weaponry. The key technology areas that the authors are exploring include nano-based sensors, analysis of 3D printing constituents, and nano-based components for imaging detection. By integrating nano-based devices, structures, and materials into weaponry, the Army can revolutionize existing (and future) weaponry systems by significantly reducing the size, weight, and cost. The major research thrust areas include the development of carbon nanotube sensors to detect rocket motor off-gassing; the application of current methodologies to assess materials used for 3D printing; and the assessment of components to improve imaging seekers. The status of current activities, associated with these key areas and their implementation into AMRDEC's research, is outlined in this paper. Section #2 outlines output data, graphs, and overall evaluations of carbon nanotube sensors placed on a 16 element chip and exposed to various environmental conditions. Section #3 summarizes the experimental results of testing various materials and resulting components that are supplementary to additive manufacturing/fused deposition modeling (FDM). Section #4 recapitulates a preliminary assessment of the optical and electromechanical components of seekers in an effort to propose components and materials that can work more effectively.

Built-In Data-Flow Integration Testing in Large-Scale Component-Based Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piel, Éric; Gonzalez-Sanchez, Alberto; Gross, Hans-Gerhard

Modern large-scale component-based applications and service ecosystems are built following a number of different component models and architectural styles, such as the data-flow architectural style. In this style, each building block receives data from a previous one in the flow and sends output data to other components. This organisation expresses information flows adequately, and also favours decoupling between the components, leading to easier maintenance and quicker evolution of the system. Integration testing is a major means to ensure the quality of large systems. Their size and complexity, together with the fact that they are developed and maintained by several stake holders, make Built-In Testing (BIT) an attractive approach to manage their integration testing. However, so far no technique has been proposed that combines BIT and data-flow integration testing. We have introduced the notion of a virtual component in order to realize such a combination. It permits to define the behaviour of several components assembled to process a flow of data, using BIT. Test-cases are defined in a way that they are simple to write and flexible to adapt. We present two implementations of our proposed virtual component integration testing technique, and we extend our previous proposal to detect and handle errors in the definition by the user. The evaluation of the virtual component testing approach suggests that more issues can be detected in systems with data-flows than through other integration testing approaches.

The impact of wine components on fractionation of Cu and Fe in model wine systems: Macromolecules, phenolic and sulfur compounds.

PubMed

Kontoudakis, Nikolaos; Smith, Mark; Guo, Anque; Smith, Paul A; Scollary, Geoffrey R; Wilkes, Eric N; Clark, Andrew C

2017-08-01

A variety of techniques have been developed with the ability to measure different forms of metals in wine with the ultimate aim of providing a more accurate indicator of metal induced spoilage of wine. This study was conducted in order to identify which wine components influence the measurement of Cu and Fe in their fractionated and/or electrochemically active forms. The measurement techniques involved detection of labile Cu by stripping potentiometry and fractionation of Cu and Fe by sequential solid phase extraction, with detection by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. The wine components assessed included those extracted from wine (red wine tannin, white wine protein, white wine polysaccharide, red wine polyphenol, white wine polyphenol), and commercially available monomeric compounds, including phenolic compounds and sulfur-containing compounds. For Cu, only hydrogen sulfide, which is known to induce the formation of Cu(I) sulfide, showed any appreciable influence on the fractionation and electrochemical detection of Cu. This form of Cu was also identified as the major component of red and white wines. For Fe, the fractionation was different for red versus white wine, and influenced significantly by extracted red wine polyphenol, (-)-epicatechin, gallic acid and tartaric acid. The wine components showed more influence on Fe at pH4.00 compared to pH3.25. These results enable a targeted use of these techniques in the assessment of metal-induced spoilage of wine. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Targeted and non-targeted detection of lemon juice adulteration by LC-MS and chemometrics.

PubMed

Wang, Zhengfang; Jablonski, Joseph E

2016-01-01

Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of lemon juice was detected by LC-MS and principal component analysis (PCA). Twenty-two batches of freshly squeezed lemon juice were adulterated by adding an aqueous solution containing 5% citric acid and 6% sucrose to pure lemon juice to obtain 30%, 60% and 100% lemon juice samples. Their total titratable acidities, °Brix and pH values were measured, and then all the lemon juice samples were subject to LC-MS analysis. Concentrations of hesperidin and eriocitrin, major phenolic components of lemon juice, were quantified. The PCA score plots for LC-MS datasets were used to preview the classification of pure and adulterated lemon juice samples. Results showed a large inherent variability in the chemical properties among 22 batches of 100% lemon juice samples. Measurement or quantitation of one or several chemical properties (targeted detection) was not effective in detecting lemon juice adulteration. However, by using the LC-MS datasets, including both chromatographic and mass spectrometric information, 100% lemon juice samples were successfully differentiated from adulterated samples containing 30% lemon juice in the PCA score plot. LC-MS coupled with chemometric analysis can be a complement to existing methods for detecting juice adulteration.

Aliphatic Chains of Esterified Lipids in Isolated Eyespots of Euglena gracilis var. bacillaris1

PubMed Central

Hilenski, Lula L.; Walne, Patricia L.; Snyder, Fred

1976-01-01

Isolated eyespot granules of Euglena gracilis Klebs var. bacillaris Pringsheim contained approximately 6% lipids (based on protein). Separation of the lipid extracts by thin layer chromatography revealed four major fractions: wax esters, triacylglycerols, free fatty acids, and phospholipids. Methanolysis of each fraction yielded between 27 and 29 different fatty acids ranging from 12:0 to 22:6. Acetates of the fatty alcohols of the wax fraction consisted of 11:0 to 18:0 carbon chains, with 14:0 being the major component; unsaturated alcohols were not detected. PMID:16659543

Identification and characterization of podocalyxin--the major sialoprotein of the renal glomerular epithelial cell

PubMed Central

1984-01-01

The glomerular epithelial polyanion is a specialized cell surface component found on renal glomerular epithelial cells (podocytes) that is rich in sialoprotein(s), as detected by staining with cationic dyes (colloidal iron, alcian blue) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). We have isolated rat glomeruli and analyzed their protein composition by SDS PAGE in 5-10% gradient gels. When the gels were stained with alcian blue or "Stains All," a single band with an apparent Mr of 140,000 was detected that also stained very prominently with silver, but not with Coomassie Blue. This band predominated in fluorograms of gels of isolated glomeruli that had been labeled in their sialic acid residues by periodate-[3H]borohydride. In lectin overlays, the 140-kilodalton (kd) band was virtually the only one that bound [125I]wheat germ agglutinin, and this binding could be prevented by predigestion with neuraminidase. [125I]Peanut lectin bound exclusively to the 140-kd band after neuraminidase treatment. An antibody was prepared that specifically recognizes only the 140-kd band by immunoprecipitation and immuneoverlay. By immunoperoxidase and immunogold techniques, it was localized to the surface coat of the glomerular epithelium and, less extensively, to that of endothelial cells. When analyzed (after electroelution from preparative SDS gels), the 140-kd band was found to contain approximately 20% hexose and approximately 4.5% sialic acid. These findings indicate that the 140-kd protein is the major sialoprotein of the glomerulus, and it is the only component of glomerular lysates with an affinity for cationic dyes and lectins identical to that defined histochemically for the epithelial polyanion in situ. Since this molecule is a major component of the cell coat or glycocalyx of the podocytes, we have called it "podocalyxin." PMID:6371025

Topological image texture analysis for quality assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asaad, Aras T.; Rashid, Rasber Dh.; Jassim, Sabah A.

2017-05-01

Image quality is a major factor influencing pattern recognition accuracy and help detect image tampering for forensics. We are concerned with investigating topological image texture analysis techniques to assess different type of degradation. We use Local Binary Pattern (LBP) as a texture feature descriptor. For any image construct simplicial complexes for selected groups of uniform LBP bins and calculate persistent homology invariants (e.g. number of connected components). We investigated image quality discriminating characteristics of these simplicial complexes by computing these models for a large dataset of face images that are affected by the presence of shadows as a result of variation in illumination conditions. Our tests demonstrate that for specific uniform LBP patterns, the number of connected component not only distinguish between different levels of shadow effects but also help detect the infected regions as well.

DC current distribution mapping system of the solar panels using a HTS-SQUID gradiometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyazaki, Shingo; Kasuya, Syohei; Mawardi Saari, Mohd; Sakai, Kenji; Kiwa, Toshihiko; Tsukamoto, Akira; Adachi, Seiji; Tanabe, Keiichi; Tsukada, Keiji

2014-05-01

Solar panels are expected to play a major role as a source of sustainable energy. In order to evaluate solar panels, non-destructive tests, such as defect inspections and response property evaluations, are necessary. We developed a DC current distribution mapping system of the solar panels using a High Critical Temperature Superconductor Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (HTS-SQUID) gradiometer with ramp edge type Josephson junctions. Two independent components of the magnetic fields perpendicular to the panel surface (∂Bz/∂x, ∂Bz/∂y) were detected. The direct current of the solar panel is visualized by calculating the composition of the two signal components, the phase angle, and mapping the DC current vector. The developed system can evaluate the uniformity of DC current distributions precisely and may be applicable for defect detection of solar panels.

[Burning mouth caused by denture material].

PubMed

Feilzer, A J

2009-09-01

A 60-year-old man with an edentulous maxilla was referred by his dentist to an allergy clinic with complaints of burning mouth and bad taste. In the majority of cases, it is hard or impossible to detect the cause of burning mouth. In this case, ultimately the complaint could be solved by eliminating exposure to possible allergenic components of denture base resins.

Sensitive detection of major food allergens in breast milk: first gateway for allergenic contact during breastfeeding.

PubMed

Pastor-Vargas, C; Maroto, A S; Díaz-Perales, A; Villaba, M; Casillas Diaz, N; Vivanco, F; Cuesta-Herranz, J

2015-08-01

Food allergy is recognized as a major public health issue, especially in early childhood. It has been hypothesized that early sensitization to food allergens maybe due to their ingestion as components dissolved in the milk during the breastfeeding, explaining reaction to a food, which has never been taken before. Thus, the aim of this work has been to detect the presence of the food allergens in breast milk by microarray technology. We produced a homemade microarray with antibodies produced against major food allergens. The antibody microarray was incubated with breast milk from 14 women collected from Fundación Jiménez Díaz Hospital. In this way, we demonstrated the presence of major foods allergens in breast milk. The analysis of allergens presented in breast milk could be a useful tool in allergy prevention and could provide us a key data on the role of this feeding in tolerance induction or sensitization in children. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sedative effects of the jasmine tea odor and (R)-(-)-linalool, one of its major odor components, on autonomic nerve activity and mood states.

PubMed

Kuroda, Kyoko; Inoue, Naohiko; Ito, Yuriko; Kubota, Kikue; Sugimoto, Akio; Kakuda, Takami; Fushiki, Tohru

2005-10-01

We investigated the effects of the odor of jasmine tea on autonomic nerve activity and mood states in a total of 24 healthy volunteers. We used the odor of jasmine tea at the lowest concentration that could be detected by each subject but that did not elicit any psychological effects. R-R intervals and the POMS test were measured before and after inhalation of the odors for 5 min. Both jasmine tea and lavender odors at perceived similar intensity caused significant decreases in heart rate and significant increases in spectral integrated values at high-frequency component in comparison with the control (P < 0.05). In the POMS tests, these odors produced calm and vigorous mood states. We also examined the effects of (R)-(-)-linalool, one of its major odor components, at the same concentration as in the tea, and (S)-(+)-linalool. Only (R)-(-)-linalool elicited a significant decrease in heart rate (P < 0.05) and an increase in high-frequency component in comparison with the controls, and produced calm and vigorous mood states. Thus, the low intensity of jasmine tea odor has sedative effects on both autonomic nerve activity and mood states, and (R)-(-)-linalool, one of its components, can mimic these effects.

Chemical UPLC-ESI-MS/MS profiling of aconitum alkaloids and their metabolites in rat plasma and urine after oral administration of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. Root extract.

PubMed

Zhang, Mingjie; Wang, Manman; Liang, Jiajia; Wen, Yongqing; Xiong, Zhili

2018-02-01

In this paper, an ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method in positive ion mode was established to systematically identify and to compare the major aconitum alkaloids and their metabolites in rat plasma and urine after oral administration of Fuzi extract. A total twenty-nine components including twenty-five C19-diterpenoid alkaloids and four C20-diterpenoid alkaloids were identified in Fuzi extract. Thirteen of the parent components and five metabolites were detected in rat plasma and sixteen parent compounds and six metabolites in urine. These parent components found in rat plasma and urine were mainly C19-diterpenoid alkaloids. All of the metabolites in vivo were demethylated metabolites (phase I metabolites), which suggested that demethylation was the major metabolic pathway of aconitum alkaloids in vivo. A comparison of the parent components in rat plasma and urine revealed that 3-deoxyacontine was found in plasma but not in urine, while kalacolidine, senbusine and 16-β-hydroxycardiopetaline existed in urine but not in plasma, which indicated that most alkaloids components were disposed and excreted in prototype form. This research provides some important information for further metabolic investigations of Fuzi in vivo. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

APDS: the autonomous pathogen detection system.

PubMed

Hindson, Benjamin J; Makarewicz, Anthony J; Setlur, Ujwal S; Henderer, Bruce D; McBride, Mary T; Dzenitis, John M

2005-04-15

We have developed and tested a fully autonomous pathogen detection system (APDS) capable of continuously monitoring the environment for airborne biological threat agents. The system was developed to provide early warning to civilians in the event of a bioterrorism incident and can be used at high profile events for short-term, intensive monitoring or in major public buildings or transportation nodes for long-term monitoring. The APDS is completely automated, offering continuous aerosol sampling, in-line sample preparation fluidics, multiplexed detection and identification immunoassays, and nucleic acid-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and detection. Highly multiplexed antibody-based and duplex nucleic acid-based assays are combined to reduce false positives to a very low level, lower reagent costs, and significantly expand the detection capabilities of this biosensor. This article provides an overview of the current design and operation of the APDS. Certain sub-components of the ADPS are described in detail, including the aerosol collector, the automated sample preparation module that performs multiplexed immunoassays with confirmatory PCR, and the data monitoring and communications system. Data obtained from an APDS that operated continuously for 7 days in a major U.S. transportation hub is reported.

Possible complex organic compounds on Mars.

PubMed

Kobayashi, K; Sato, T; Kajishima, S; Kaneko, T; Ishikawa, Y; Saito, T

1997-01-01

It is suggested that primitive Mars had somehow similar environments as primitive Earth. If life was born on the primitive earth using organic compounds which were produced from the early Earth environment, the same types of organic compounds were also formed on primitive Mars. Such organic compounds might have been preserved on Mars still now. We are studying possible organic formation on primitive and present Mars. A gaseous mixture of CO2, CO, N2 and H2O with various mixing ratios were irradiated with high energy protons (major components of cosmic rays). Hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde were detected among volatile products, and yellow-brown-colored water-soluble non-volatile substances were produced, which gave amino acids after acid-hydrolysis. Major part of "amino acid precursors" were not simple molecules like aminonitriles, but complex compounds which eluted earlier than free amino acids in cation-exchange HPLC. These organic compounds should be major targets in the future Mars mission. Strategy for the detection of the complex organics on Mars will be discussed.

The Compact Microimaging Spectrometer (CMIS): A New Tool for In-Situ Planetary Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Armstrong, J. C.; Sellar, R. G.

2004-01-01

In-situ identification of trace minerals, ices, or organics in planetary samples may be difficult with panchromatic microscopic imagery and spot spectroscopy. The panchromatic imagery acquired by a microscopic imager provides morphological information and albedo, but these are generally insufficient for unambiguous identification. The spatially-averaged spectra acquired by a nonimaging ( point- or spot- ) spectrometer may enable identification of the major components but identification of unknown trace components is difficult at best. With our Compact Micro-Imaging Spectrometer (CMIS), however, we acquire spectroscopic data in an imaging format at microscopic scales. The distinct spectra of individual grains, provided by our approach, make detection and identification possible even for trace components in regolith or heterogeneous samples.

Simultaneous determination of eight major steroids from Polyporus umbellatus by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detections.

PubMed

Zhao, Ying-yong; Cheng, Xian-long; Zhang, Yongmin; Zhao, Ye; Lin, Rui-chao; Sun, Wen-ji

2010-02-01

Polyporus umbellatus is a widely used diuretic herbal medicine. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometric detection (HPLC-APCI-MS) method was developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of steroids, as well as for the quality control of Polyporus umbellatus. The selectivity, reproducibility and sensitivity were compared with HPLC with photodiode array detection and evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD). Selective ion monitoring in positive mode was used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of eight major components and beta-ecdysterone was used as the internal standard. Limits of detection and quantification fell in the ranges 7-21 and 18-63 ng/mL for the eight analytes with an injection of 10 microL samples, and all calibration curves showed good linear regression (r(2) > 0.9919) within the test range. The quantitative results demonstrated that samples from different localities showed different qualities. Advantages, in comparison with conventional HPLC-diode array detection and HPLC-ELSD, are that reliable identification of target compounds could be achieved by accurate mass measurements along with characteristic retention time, and the great enhancement in selectivity and sensitivity allows identification and quantification of low levels of constituents in complex Polyporus umbellatus matrixes. (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Soluble components of the flagellar export apparatus, FliI, FliJ, and FliH, do not deliver flagellin, the major filament protein, from the cytosol to the export gate.

PubMed

Sajó, Ráchel; Liliom, Károly; Muskotál, Adél; Klein, Agnes; Závodszky, Péter; Vonderviszt, Ferenc; Dobó, József

2014-11-01

Flagella, the locomotion organelles of bacteria, extend from the cytoplasm to the cell exterior. External flagellar proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm and exported by the flagellar type III secretion system. Soluble components of the flagellar export apparatus, FliI, FliH, and FliJ, have been implicated to carry late export substrates in complex with their cognate chaperones from the cytoplasm to the export gate. The importance of the soluble components in the delivery of the three minor late substrates FlgK, FlgL (hook-filament junction) and FliD (filament-cap) has been convincingly demonstrated, but their role in the transport of the major filament component flagellin (FliC) is still unclear. We have used continuous ATPase activity measurements and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) studies to characterize interactions between the soluble export components and flagellin or the FliC:FliS substrate-chaperone complex. As controls, interactions between soluble export component pairs were characterized providing Kd values. FliC or FliC:FliS did not influence the ATPase activity of FliI alone or in complex with FliH and/or FliJ suggesting lack of interaction in solution. Immobilized FliI, FliH, or FliJ did not interact with FliC or FliC:FliS detected by QCM. The lack of interaction in the fluid phase between FliC or FliC:FliS and the soluble export components, in particular with the ATPase FliI, suggests that cells use different mechanisms for the export of late minor substrates, and the major substrate, FliC. It seems that the abundantly produced flagellin does not require the assistance of the soluble export components to efficiently reach the export gate. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Resolution and identification of the protein components of the photosystem II antenna system of higher plants by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with electrospray-mass spectrometric detection.

PubMed

Corradini, D; Huber, C G; Timperio, A M; Zolla, L

2000-07-21

Reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was interfaced to mass spectrometry (MS) with an electrospray ion (ESI) source for the separation and accurate molecular mass determination of the individual intrinsic membrane proteins that comprise the photosystem II (PS II) major light-harvesting complex (LHC II) and minor (CP24, CP26 and CP29) antenna system, whose molecular masses range between 22,000 and 29,000. PS II is a supramolecular complex intrinsic of the thylacoid membrane, which plays the important role in photosynthesis of capturing solar energy, and transferring it to photochemical reaction centers where energy conversion occurs. The protein components of the PS II major and minor antenna systems were extracted from spinach thylacoid membranes and separated using a butyl-silica column eluted by an acetonitrile gradient in 0.05% (v/v) aqueous trifluoroacetic acid. On-line electrospray MS allowed accurate molecular mass determination and identification of the protein components of PS II major and minor antenna system. The proposed RPLC-ESI-MS method holds several advantages over sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the conventional technique for studying membrane proteins, including a better protein separation, mass accuracy, speed and efficiency.

Raman and Autofluorescence Spectrum Dynamics along the HRG-Induced Differentiation Pathway of MCF-7 Cells

PubMed Central

Morita, Shin-ichi; Takanezawa, Sota; Hiroshima, Michio; Mitsui, Toshiyuki; Ozaki, Yukihiro; Sako, Yasushi

2014-01-01

Cellular differentiation proceeds along complicated pathways, even when it is induced by extracellular signaling molecules. One of the major reasons for this complexity is the highly multidimensional internal dynamics of cells, which sometimes causes apparently stochastic responses in individual cells to extracellular stimuli. Therefore, to understand cell differentiation, it is necessary to monitor the internal dynamics of cells at single-cell resolution. Here, we used a Raman and autofluorescence spectrum analysis of single cells to detect dynamic changes in intracellular molecular components. MCF-7 cells are a human cancer-derived cell line that can be induced to differentiate into mammary-gland-like cells with the addition of heregulin (HRG) to the culture medium. We measured the spectra in the cytoplasm of MCF-7 cells during 12 days of HRG stimulation. The Raman scattering spectrum, which was the major component of the signal, changed with time. A multicomponent analysis of the Raman spectrum revealed that the dynamics of the major components of the intracellular molecules, including proteins and lipids, changed cyclically along the differentiation pathway. The background autofluorescence signals of Raman scattering also provided information about the differentiation process. Using the total information from the Raman and autofluorescence spectra, we were able to visualize the pathway of cell differentiation in the multicomponent phase space. PMID:25418290

An Efficient Neural-Network-Based Microseismic Monitoring Platform for Hydraulic Fracture on an Edge Computing Architecture.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiaopu; Lin, Jun; Chen, Zubin; Sun, Feng; Zhu, Xi; Fang, Gengfa

2018-06-05

Microseismic monitoring is one of the most critical technologies for hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production. To detect events in an accurate and efficient way, there are two major challenges. One challenge is how to achieve high accuracy due to a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The other one is concerned with real-time data transmission. Taking these challenges into consideration, an edge-computing-based platform, namely Edge-to-Center LearnReduce, is presented in this work. The platform consists of a data center with many edge components. At the data center, a neural network model combined with convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) is designed and this model is trained by using previously obtained data. Once the model is fully trained, it is sent to edge components for events detection and data reduction. At each edge component, a probabilistic inference is added to the neural network model to improve its accuracy. Finally, the reduced data is delivered to the data center. Based on experiment results, a high detection accuracy (over 96%) with less transmitted data (about 90%) was achieved by using the proposed approach on a microseismic monitoring system. These results show that the platform can simultaneously improve the accuracy and efficiency of microseismic monitoring.

Computing in the presence of soft bit errors. [caused by single event upset on spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rasmussen, R. D.

1984-01-01

It is shown that single-event-upsets (SEUs) due to cosmic rays are a significant source of single bit error in spacecraft computers. The physical mechanism of SEU, electron hole generation by means of Linear Energy Transfer (LET), it discussed with reference made to the results of a study of the environmental effects on computer systems of the Galileo spacecraft. Techniques for making software more tolerant of cosmic ray effects are considered, including: reducing the number of registers used by the software; continuity testing of variables; redundant execution of major procedures for error detection; and encoding state variables to detect single-bit changes. Attention is also given to design modifications which may reduce the cosmic ray exposure of on-board hardware. These modifications include: shielding components operating in LEO; removing low-power Schottky parts; and the use of CMOS diodes. The SEU parameters of different electronic components are listed in a table.

Typification of cider brandy on the basis of cider used in its manufacture.

PubMed

Rodríguez Madrera, Roberto; Mangas Alonso, Juan J

2005-04-20

A study of typification of cider brandies on the basis of the origin of the raw material used in their manufacture was conducted using chemometric techniques (principal component analysis, linear discriminant analysis, and Bayesian analysis) together with their composition in volatile compounds, as analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization to detect the major volatiles and by mass spectrometric to detect the minor ones. Significant principal components computed by a double cross-validation procedure allowed the structure of the database to be visualized as a function of the raw material, that is, cider made from fresh apple juice versus cider made from apple juice concentrate. Feasible and robust discriminant rules were computed and validated by a cross-validation procedure that allowed the authors to classify fresh and concentrate cider brandies, obtaining classification hits of >92%. The most discriminating variables for typifying cider brandies according to their raw material were 1-butanol and ethyl hexanoate.

Near-infrared face recognition utilizing open CV software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellami, Louiza; Ngo, Hau; Fowler, Chris J.; Kearney, Liam M.

2014-06-01

Commercially available hardware, freely available algorithms, and authors' developed software are synergized successfully to detect and recognize subjects in an environment without visible light. This project integrates three major components: an illumination device operating in near infrared (NIR) spectrum, a NIR capable camera and a software algorithm capable of performing image manipulation, facial detection and recognition. Focusing our efforts in the near infrared spectrum allows the low budget system to operate covertly while still allowing for accurate face recognition. In doing so a valuable function has been developed which presents potential benefits in future civilian and military security and surveillance operations.

The polyphenolic content of fruit and vegetables and their antioxidant activities. What does a serving constitute?

PubMed

Paganga, G; Miller, N; Rice-Evans, C A

1999-02-01

Analysis of the major flavone, flavonol, anthocyanidin and hydroxycinnamic acid constituents (and their glycosides) of onion, tomato, egg plant and apple has been undertaken and the antioxidant activities of the phenolic extracts determined. The major phenolic antioxidant components of egg plant are chlorogenic acid in the flesh and a delphinidin conjugate in the skin. In the case of apple, the major phenolic antioxidants detected are chlorogenic acid, procyanidins/catechin compounds, rutin and phloridzin. Quercetin glycosides are well-known to be the major phenolic components of onion. Assessment of the antioxidant activities of a serving of 100g fresh weight fruit, vegetable and comparison with previously reported findings for 150 ml beverage (500 ml portion in the case of beer), expressed in micromol Trolox equivalents show that the antioxidant activities of 1 glass (150 ml) red wine equivalent to 12 glasses white wine equivalent to 2 cups of tea equivalent to 4 apples equivalent to 5 portions of onion equivalent to 5.5 portions egg plant equivalent to 3.5 glasses of blackcurrant juice equivalent to 3.5 (500 ml) glasses of beer equivalent to 7 glasses of orange juice equivalent to 20 glasses of apple juice (long life).

Bee venom phospholipase A2 induces a primary type 2 response that is dependent on the receptor ST2 and confers protective immunity

PubMed Central

Palm, Noah W.; Rosenstein, Rachel K.; Yu, Shuang; Schenten, Dominik; Florsheim, Esther; Medzhitov, Ruslan

2013-01-01

SUMMARY Venoms consist of toxic components that are delivered to their victims via bites or stings. Venoms also represent a major class of allergens in humans. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is a conserved component of venoms from multiple species and is the major allergen in bee venom. Here we examined how bee venom PLA2 is sensed by the innate immune system and induces a type 2 immune response in mice. We found that bee venom PLA2 induced a T helper type 2 (Th2) cell-type response and group 2 innate lymphoid cell activation via the enzymatic cleavage of membrane phospholipids and release of interleukin-33. Furthermore, we showed that the IgE response to PLA2 could protect mice from future challenge with a near-lethal dose of PLA2. These data suggest that the innate immune system can detect the activity of a conserved component of venoms and induce a protective immune response against a venom toxin. PMID:24210353

Sulfur volatiles in guava (Psidium guajava L.) leaves: possible defense mechanism.

PubMed

Rouseff, Russell L; Onagbola, Ebenezer O; Smoot, John M; Stelinski, Lukasz L

2008-10-08

Volatiles from crushed and intact guava leaves (Psidium guajava L.) were collected using static headspace SPME and determined using GC-PFPD, pulsed flame photometric detection, and GC-MS. Leaf volatiles from four common citrus culitvars were examined similarly to determine the potential component(s) responsible for guava's protective effect against the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama), which is the insect vector of Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease. Seven sulfur volatiles were detected: hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), methional, and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS). Identifications were based on matching linear retention index values on ZB-5, DB-Wax, and PLOT columns and MS spectra in the case of DMDS and DMS. DMDS is an insect toxic, defensive volatile produced only by wounded guava but not citrus leaves and, thus, may be the component responsible for the protective effect of guava against the HLB vector. DMDS is formed immediately after crushing, becoming the major headspace volatile within 10 min. Forty-seven additional leaf volatiles were identified from LRI and MS data in the crushed guava leaf headspace.

Proposed biomimetic molecular sensor array for astrobiology applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cullen, D. C.; Grant, W. D.; Piletsky, S.; Sims, M. R.

2001-08-01

A key objective of future astrobiology lander missions, e.g. to Mars and Europa, is the detection of biomarkers - molecules whose presence indicates the existence of either current or extinct life. To address limitations of current analytical methods for biomarker detection, we describe the methodology of a new project for demonstration of a robust molecular-recognition sensor array for astrobiology biomarkers. The sensor array will be realised by assembling components that have been demonstrated individually in previous or current research projects. The major components are (1) robust artificial molecular receptors comprised of molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) recognition systems and (2) a sensor array comprised of both optical and electrochemical sensor elements. These components will be integrated together using ink-jet printing technology coupled with in situ photo-polymerisation of MIPs. For demonstration, four model biomarkers are chosen as targets and represent various classes of potential biomarkers. Objectives of the proposed work include (1) demonstration of practical proof-of-concept, (2) identify areas for further development and (3) provide performance and design data for follow-up projects leading to astrobiology missions.

Hyperspectral target detection using heavy-tailed distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willis, Chris J.

2009-09-01

One promising approach to target detection in hyperspectral imagery exploits a statistical mixture model to represent scene content at a pixel level. The process then goes on to look for pixels which are rare, when judged against the model, and marks them as anomalies. It is assumed that military targets will themselves be rare and therefore likely to be detected amongst these anomalies. For the typical assumption of multivariate Gaussianity for the mixture components, the presence of the anomalous pixels within the training data will have a deleterious effect on the quality of the model. In particular, the derivation process itself is adversely affected by the attempt to accommodate the anomalies within the mixture components. This will bias the statistics of at least some of the components away from their true values and towards the anomalies. In many cases this will result in a reduction in the detection performance and an increased false alarm rate. This paper considers the use of heavy-tailed statistical distributions within the mixture model. Such distributions are better able to account for anomalies in the training data within the tails of their distributions, and the balance of the pixels within their central masses. This means that an improved model of the majority of the pixels in the scene may be produced, ultimately leading to a better anomaly detection result. The anomaly detection techniques are examined using both synthetic data and hyperspectral imagery with injected anomalous pixels. A range of results is presented for the baseline Gaussian mixture model and for models accommodating heavy-tailed distributions, for different parameterizations of the algorithms. These include scene understanding results, anomalous pixel maps at given significance levels and Receiver Operating Characteristic curves.

Comparing Independent Component Analysis with Principle Component Analysis in Detecting Alterations of Porphyry Copper Deposit (case Study: Ardestan Area, Central Iran)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahmoudishadi, S.; Malian, A.; Hosseinali, F.

2017-09-01

The image processing techniques in transform domain are employed as analysis tools for enhancing the detection of mineral deposits. The process of decomposing the image into important components increases the probability of mineral extraction. In this study, the performance of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) has been evaluated for the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and Shortwave infrared (SWIR) subsystems of ASTER data. Ardestan is located in part of Central Iranian Volcanic Belt that hosts many well-known porphyry copper deposits. This research investigated the propylitic and argillic alteration zones and outer mineralogy zone in part of Ardestan region. The two mentioned approaches were applied to discriminate alteration zones from igneous bedrock using the major absorption of indicator minerals from alteration and mineralogy zones in spectral rang of ASTER bands. Specialized PC components (PC2, PC3 and PC6) were used to identify pyrite and argillic and propylitic zones that distinguish from igneous bedrock in RGB color composite image. Due to the eigenvalues, the components 2, 3 and 6 account for 4.26% ,0.9% and 0.09% of the total variance of the data for Ardestan scene, respectively. For the purpose of discriminating the alteration and mineralogy zones of porphyry copper deposit from bedrocks, those mentioned percentages of data in ICA independent components of IC2, IC3 and IC6 are more accurately separated than noisy bands of PCA. The results of ICA method conform to location of lithological units of Ardestan region, as well.

Quantification of flavonol glycosides in Camellia sinensis by MRM mode of UPLC-QQQ-MS/MS.

PubMed

Wu, Yahui; Jiang, Xiaolan; Zhang, Shuxiang; Dai, Xinlong; Liu, Yajun; Tan, Huarong; Gao, Liping; Xia, Tao

2016-04-01

Phenolic compounds are major components of tea flavour, in which catechins and flavonol glycosides play important roles in the astringent taste of tea infusion. However, the flavonol glycosides are difficult to quantify because of the large variety, as well as the inefficient seperation on chromatography. In this paper, a total of 15 flavonol glycosides in the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) were identified by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS), and a quantitative method was established based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (QQQ-MS/MS). It provided the limit of detection and quantification to the order of picogram, which was more sensitive than the HPLC detection of the order of nanogram. The relative standard deviations of the intra- and inter-day variations in retention time and signal intensity (peak area) of six analytes were less than 0.26% and 4%, respectively. The flavonol glycosides of four tea cultivars were relatively quantified using the signal intensity (peak area) of product ion, in which six flavonol glycosides were quantified by the authentic standards. The results showed that the flavonol mono-, di- and tri-glycoside mostly accumulated in young leaves of the four tea cultivars. Notably, the myricetin 3-O-galactoside was the major component among the six flavonol glycosides detected. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vicilin and convicilin are potential major allergens from pea.

PubMed

Sanchez-Monge, R; Lopez-Torrejón, G; Pascual, C Y; Varela, J; Martin-Esteban, M; Salcedo, G

2004-11-01

Allergic reactions to pea (Pisum sativum) ingestion are frequently associated with lentil allergy in the Spanish population. Vicilin have been described as a major lentil allergen. To identify the main IgE binding components from pea seeds and to study their potential cross-reactivity with lentil vicilin. A serum pool or individual sera from 18 patients with pea allergy were used to detect IgE binding proteins from pea seeds by immunodetection and immunoblot inhibition assays. Protein preparations enriched in pea vicilin were obtained by gel filtration chromatography followed by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). IgE binding components were identified by means of N-terminal amino acid sequencing. Complete cDNAs encoding pea vicilin were isolated by PCR, using primers based on the amino acid sequence of the reactive proteins. IgE immunodetection of crude pea extracts revealed that convicilin (63 kDa), as well as vicilin (44 kDa) and one of its proteolytic fragments (32 kDa), reacted with more than 50% of the individual sera tested. Additional proteolytic subunits of vicilin (36, 16 and 13 kDa) bound IgE from approximately 20% of the sera. The lentil vicilin allergen Len c 1 strongly inhibited the IgE binding to all components mentioned above. The characterization of cDNA clones encoding pea vicilin has allowed the deduction of its complete amino acid sequence (90% of sequence identity to Len c 1), as well as those of its reactive proteolytic processed subunits. Vicilin and convicilin are potential major allergens from pea seeds. Furthermore, proteolytic fragments from vicilin are also relevant IgE binding pea components. All these proteins cross-react with the major lentil allergen Len c 1.

Investigation of liquid wax components of Egyptian jojoba seeds.

PubMed

El-Mallah, Mohammed Hassan; El-Shami, Safinaz Mohammed

2009-01-01

Egyptian jojoba seeds newly cultivated in Ismailia desert in Egypt promoted us to determine its lipid components. Fatty alcohols, fatty acids, wax esters and sterols patterns were determined by capillary GLC whereas, tocopherols profile, isopropenoid alcohols and sterylglycosides were determined by HPLC. The Egyptian seeds are rich in wax esters (55 %) with fatty alcohols C20:1 and C22:1 as major components and amounted to 43.0 % and 45.6 % respectively followed by C24:1 and C18:1(9.6 % and 1.3 % respectively). The fatty acids profile showed that C20:1 is the major constituent (60 %) followed by C18:1 and C22:1 (14.5 and 11.8 % respectively) whereas C24:1 was present at low concentration amounted to 1.6 %. In addition, the Egyptian jojoba wax contained C18:2 fatty acid at a level of 8.7 %. Wax esters composition showed that the local wax had C42 and C40 esters as major components amounted to 51.1 and 30.1 % respectively. Also, it had C44 and C38 at reasonable amounts (10.0 and 6.3 % respectively). Whereas C36 and C46 were present at lower concentrations amounted to 1.4 and 1.1 respectively. The sterols analysis showed the presence of campe-, stigma-, beta-sito-, and isofuco- sterol amounting to 18.4 %, 6.9 %, 68.7 %, and 6.0 % respectively. The tocopherols pattern revealed that the local seed wax contained gamma-tocopherol as major constituent (79.2 %) followed by alpha-tocopherol (20.3 %). beta-tocopherol as well as delta-tocopherol were found as minor constituents. The isopropenoid alcohols and the sterylglycosides (free and acylated) were not detected. The wax is proposed to be used in oleo chemistry and cosmetics.

A new type of tri-axial accelerometers with high dynamic range MEMS for earthquake early warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Chaoyong; Chen, Yang; Chen, Quansheng; Yang, Jiansi; Wang, Hongti; Zhu, Xiaoyi; Xu, Zhiqiang; Zheng, Yu

2017-03-01

Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) has shown its efficiency for earthquake damage mitigation. As the progress of low-cost Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS), many types of MEMS-based accelerometers have been developed and widely used in deploying large-scale, dense seismic networks for EEWS. However, the noise performance of these commercially available MEMS is still insufficient for weak seismic signals, leading to the large scatter of early-warning parameters estimation. In this study, we developed a new type of tri-axial accelerometer based on high dynamic range MEMS with low noise level using for EEWS. It is a MEMS-integrated data logger with built-in seismological processing. The device is built on a custom-tailored Linux 2.6.27 operating system and the method for automatic detecting seismic events is STA/LTA algorithms. When a seismic event is detected, peak ground parameters of all data components will be calculated at an interval of 1 s, and τc-Pd values will be evaluated using the initial 3 s of P wave. These values will then be organized as a trigger packet actively sent to the processing center for event combining detection. The output data of all three components are calibrated to sensitivity 500 counts/cm/s2. Several tests and a real field test deployment were performed to obtain the performances of this device. The results show that the dynamic range can reach 98 dB for the vertical component and 99 dB for the horizontal components, and majority of bias temperature coefficients are lower than 200 μg/°C. In addition, the results of event detection and real field deployment have shown its capabilities for EEWS and rapid intensity reporting.

Ceftriaxone-associated gallbladder sludge. Identification of calcium-ceftriaxone salt as a major component of gallbladder precipitate

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

Park, H.Z.; Lee, S.P.; Schy, A.L.

1991-06-01

Ceftriaxone, a third-generation cephalosporin, is partially excreted into bile. With its clinical use, the formation of gallbladder sludge detected by ultrasonography has been reported. Four surgical specimens were examined and no gallstones were found. Instead, fine precipitates of 20-250 microns were present. Microscopically, there was a small number of cholesterol monohydrate crystals and bilirubin granules among an abundant amount of granular-crystalline material that was not morphologically cholesterol monohydrate crystals. The chemical composition of the precipitates (n = 4) was determined. There was a small amount of cholesterol (1.7% +/- 0.8%) and bilirubin (13.9% +/- 0.74%). The major component of themore » precipitate was a residue. On further analysis using thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, and electron microprobe analysis, the residue was identified as a calcium salt of ceftriaxone. The residue also had identical crystal morphology and chromatographic elution profile as authentic calcium-ceftriaxone standards. It is concluded that ceftriaxone, after excretion and being concentrated in the gallbladder bile, can form a precipitate. The major constituent has been identified as a ceftriaxone-calcium salt.« less

Analysis of biodiesel and biodiesel-petrodiesel blends by high performance thin layer chromatography combined with easy ambient sonic-spray ionization mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Eberlin, Livia S; Abdelnur, Patricia V; Passero, Alan; de Sa, Gilberto F; Daroda, Romeu J; de Souza, Vanderlea; Eberlin, Marcos N

2009-08-01

High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) combined with on-spot detection and characterization via easy ambient sonic-spray ionization mass spectrometry (EASI-MS) is applied to the analysis of biodiesel (B100) and biodiesel-petrodiesel blends (BX). HPTLC provides chromatographic resolution of major components whereas EASI-MS allows on-spot characterization performed directly on the HPTLC surface at ambient conditions. Constituents (M) are detected by EASI-MS in a one component-one ion fashion as either [M + Na](+) or [M + H](+). For both B100 and BX samples, typical profiles of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) detected as [FAME + Na](+) ions allow biodiesel typification. The spectrum of the petrodiesel spot displays a homologous series of protonated alkyl pyridines which are characteristic for petrofuels (natural markers). The spectrum for residual or admixture oil spots is characterized by sodiated triglycerides [TAG + Na](+). The application of HPTLC to analyze B100 and BX samples and its combination with EASI-MS for on-spot characterization and quality control is demonstrated.

Volatile Compounds from the Different Organs of Houttuynia cordata and Litsea cubeba (L. citriodora).

PubMed

Asakawa, Yoshinori; Tomiyama, Kenichi; Sakurai, Kazutoshi; Kawakami, Yukihiro; Yaguchi, Yoshihiro

2017-08-01

The volatile compounds obtained from the different organs of Houttuynia cordata (Saururaceae) and Litsea cubeba (Lauraceae) were analyzed by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS), Headspace Solid Phase Micro Extraction-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS), and GC/olfactometry (GC/O). The major component of all parts of H. cordata is assigned as 4-tridecanone. Each organ produces myrcene as the major monoterpenoid. The major monoterpene in the rhizomes and roots was β-pinene instead of myrcene. 1-Decanal which was responsible for the unpleasant odor of this plant, was the predominant polyketide in both leaves and stems. The presence of 1-decanal was very poor in flowers, stem collected in summer, rhizomes, and roots. GC/MS analyses were very simple in case of the crude extracts of flowers. The content of sesquiterpenoids was extremely poor. (8Z)-Heptadecene, geranial, and neral were detected as the major components in Litsea cubeba. Odor-contributing components by GC/O analysis of the ether extract of the fresh flowers of L. cubeba were neral and geranial which played an important role in sweet-lemon fragrance of the flowers. The role of a high content of (8Z)-heptadecene was still unknown but it might play a significant role in the dispersion of the volatile monoterpene hydrocarbons and aldehydes. The flower volatiles of the Japanese L. cubeba were chemically quite different from those of the Chinese same species.

Improvement of retinal blood vessel detection using morphological component analysis.

PubMed

Imani, Elaheh; Javidi, Malihe; Pourreza, Hamid-Reza

2015-03-01

Detection and quantitative measurement of variations in the retinal blood vessels can help diagnose several diseases including diabetic retinopathy. Intrinsic characteristics of abnormal retinal images make blood vessel detection difficult. The major problem with traditional vessel segmentation algorithms is producing false positive vessels in the presence of diabetic retinopathy lesions. To overcome this problem, a novel scheme for extracting retinal blood vessels based on morphological component analysis (MCA) algorithm is presented in this paper. MCA was developed based on sparse representation of signals. This algorithm assumes that each signal is a linear combination of several morphologically distinct components. In the proposed method, the MCA algorithm with appropriate transforms is adopted to separate vessels and lesions from each other. Afterwards, the Morlet Wavelet Transform is applied to enhance the retinal vessels. The final vessel map is obtained by adaptive thresholding. The performance of the proposed method is measured on the publicly available DRIVE and STARE datasets and compared with several state-of-the-art methods. An accuracy of 0.9523 and 0.9590 has been respectively achieved on the DRIVE and STARE datasets, which are not only greater than most methods, but are also superior to the second human observer's performance. The results show that the proposed method can achieve improved detection in abnormal retinal images and decrease false positive vessels in pathological regions compared to other methods. Also, the robustness of the method in the presence of noise is shown via experimental result. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nuclear lamins are not required for lamina-associated domain organization in mouse embryonic stem cells.

PubMed

Amendola, Mario; van Steensel, Bas

2015-05-01

In mammals, the nuclear lamina interacts with hundreds of large genomic regions, termed lamina-associated domains (LADs) that are generally in a transcriptionally repressed state. Lamins form the major structural component of the lamina and have been reported to bind DNA and chromatin. Here, we systematically evaluate whether lamins are necessary for the LAD organization in murine embryonic stem cells. Surprisingly, removal of essentially all lamins does not have any detectable effect on the genome-wide interaction pattern of chromatin with emerin, a marker of the inner nuclear membrane. This suggests that other components of the lamina mediate these interactions. © 2015 The Authors.

Immunological properties of Micrococcus lysodeikticus membranes.

PubMed

Fukui, Y; Nachbar, M S; Salton, M R

1971-01-01

Membranes of Micrococcus lysodeikticus possess antigens which are distinct from other cellular components such as cytoplasm, ribosomes, and cell walls. Only a few (two to three) components are found when dissociated membranes are examined by immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis techniques. Membranes treated with 0.3% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 0.3% Triton X-100, trypsin, phospholipase A or C, or by sonic oscillation at pH 9.0, all showed the same pattern (three major bands) when examined against membrane antisera by immunoelectrophoresis. Immunological analysis of fractions isolated by sucrose gradient centrifugation or by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis suggests that individual components cross-react. Antibodies to adenosine triphosphatase (EC 3.6.1.3) and fast-moving component are not removed by absorption with protoplasts. Removal of antibody to one of the membrane antigens by protoplast absorption indicated a surface location. Glutaraldehyde fixation of protoplasts resulted in the loss of membrane antigens detectable by immunodiffusion.

Structural analysis of N-linked glycans in Caenorhabditis elegans.

PubMed

Natsuka, Shunji; Adachi, Jiro; Kawaguchi, Masahumi; Nakakita, Shin-ichi; Hase, Sumihiro; Ichikawa, Akira; Ikura, Koji

2002-06-01

Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model for morphogenetic research. However, little information is available on the structure of cell-surface glycans in C. elegans, although several lines of evidence have suggested a role for these glycans in cell-cell interactions during development. In this study, we analyzed N-glycan structures. Oligosaccharides liberated by hydrazinolysis from a total membrane fraction were labeled by pyridylamination, and around 90% of the N-glycans were detected as neutral oligosaccharides. The most dominant structure was Man(alpha)1-6(Man(alpha)1-3)Man(beta)1-4GlcNAc(beta)1-4GlcNAc, which is commonly found in insects. Branching structures of major oligomannose-type glycans were the same as those found in mammals. Structures that had a core fucose or non-reducing end N-acetylglucosamine were also identified, but ordinary complex-type glycans with N-acetyllactosamine were not detected as major components.

Fresenius AS.TEC204 blood cell separator.

PubMed

Sugai, Mikiya

2003-02-01

Fresenius AS.TEC204 is a third-generation blood cell separator that incorporates the continuous centrifugal separation method and automatic control of the cell separation process. Continuous centrifugation separates cell components according to their specific gravity, and different cell components are either harvested or eliminated as needed. The interface between the red blood cell and plasma is optically detected, and the Interface Control (IFC) cooperates with different pumps, monitors and detectors to harvest required components automatically. The system is composed of three major sections; the Front Panel Unit; the Pump Unit, and the Centrifuge Unit. This unit can be used for a wide variety of clinical applications including collection of platelets, peripheral blood stem cells, bone marrow stem cells, granulocytes, mononuclear cells, and exchange of plasma or red cells, and for plasma treatment.

Assessing carotid atherosclerosis by fiber-optic multispectral photoacoustic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hui, Jie; Li, Rui; Wang, Pu; Phillips, Evan; Bruning, Rebecca; Liao, Chien-Sheng; Sturek, Michael; Goergen, Craig J.; Cheng, Ji-Xin

2015-03-01

Atherosclerotic plaque at the carotid bifurcation is the underlying cause of the majority of ischemic strokes. Noninvasive imaging and quantification of the compositional changes preceding gross anatomic changes within the arterial wall is essential for diagnosis of disease. Current imaging modalities such as duplex ultrasound, computed tomography, positron emission tomography are limited by the lack of compositional contrast and the detection of flow-limiting lesions. Although high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging has been developed to characterize atherosclerotic plaque composition, its accessibility for wide clinical use is limited. Here, we demonstrate a fiber-based multispectral photoacoustic tomography system for excitation of lipids and external acoustic detection of the generated ultrasound. Using sequential ultrasound imaging of ex vivo preparations we achieved ~2 cm imaging depth and chemical selectivity for assessment of human arterial plaques. A multivariate curve resolution alternating least squares analysis method was applied to resolve the major chemical components, including intravascular lipid, intramuscular fat, and blood. These results show the promise of detecting carotid plaque in vivo through esophageal fiber-optic excitation of lipids and external acoustic detection of the generated ultrasound. This imaging system has great potential for serving as a point-ofcare device for early diagnosis of carotid artery disease in the clinic.

Refinery evaluation of optical imaging to locate fugitive emissions.

PubMed

Robinson, Donald R; Luke-Boone, Ronke; Aggarwal, Vineet; Harris, Buzz; Anderson, Eric; Ranum, David; Kulp, Thomas J; Armstrong, Karla; Sommers, Ricky; McRae, Thomas G; Ritter, Karin; Siegell, Jeffrey H; Van Pelt, Doug; Smylie, Mike

2007-07-01

Fugitive emissions account for approximately 50% of total hydrocarbon emissions from process plants. Federal and state regulations aiming at controlling these emissions require refineries and petrochemical plants in the United States to implement a Leak Detection and Repair Program (LDAR). The current regulatory work practice, U.S. Environment Protection Agency Method 21, requires designated components to be monitored individually at regular intervals. The annual costs of these LDAR programs in a typical refinery can exceed US$1,000,000. Previous studies have shown that a majority of controllable fugitive emissions come from a very small fraction of components. The Smart LDAR program aims to find cost-effective methods to monitor and reduce emissions from these large leakers. Optical gas imaging has been identified as one such technology that can help achieve this objective. This paper discusses a refinery evaluation of an instrument based on backscatter absorption gas imaging technology. This portable camera allows an operator to scan components more quickly and image gas leaks in real time. During the evaluation, the instrument was able to identify leaking components that were the source of 97% of the total mass emissions from leaks detected. More than 27,000 components were monitored. This was achieved in far less time than it would have taken using Method 21. In addition, the instrument was able to find leaks from components that are not required to be monitored by the current LDAR regulations. The technology principles and the parameters that affect instrument performance are also discussed in the paper.

One-step multiplex PCR method for the determination of pecan and Brazil nut allergens in food products.

PubMed

Hubalkova, Zora; Rencova, Eva

2011-10-01

A one-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for the simultaneous detection of the major allergens of pecan and Brazil nuts was developed. Primer pairs for the amplification of partial sequences of genes encoding the allergens were designed and tested for their specificity on a range of food components. The targeted amplicon size was 173 bp of Ber e 1 gene of Brazil nuts and 72 bp of vicilin-like seed storage protein gene in pecan nuts. The primer pair detecting the noncoding region of the chloroplast DNA was used as the internal control of amplification. The intrinsic detection limit of the PCR method was 100 pg mL(-1) pecan or Brazil nuts DNA. The practical detection limit was 0.1% w/w (1 g kg(-1)). The method was applied for the investigation of 63 samples with the declaration of pecans, Brazil nuts, other different nut species or nuts generally. In 15 food samples pecans and Brazil nuts allergens were identified in the conformity with the food declaration. The presented multiplex PCR method is specific enough and can be used as a fast approach for the detection of major allergens of pecan or Brazil nuts in food. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

Seasonal trends, chemical speciation and source apportionment of fine PM in Tehran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arhami, Mohammad; Hosseini, Vahid; Zare Shahne, Maryam; Bigdeli, Mostafa; Lai, Alexandra; Schauer, James J.

2017-03-01

Frequent air pollution episodes have been reported for Tehran, Iran, mainly because of critically high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The composition and sources of these particles are poorly known, so this study aims to identify the major components and heavy metals in PM2.5 along with their seasonal trends and associated sources. 24-hour PM2.5 samples were collected at a main residential station every 6 days for a full year from February 2014 to February 2015. The samples were analyzed for ions, organic carbon (including water-soluble and insoluble portions), elemental carbon (EC), and all detectable elements. The dominant mass components, which were determined by means of chemical mass closure, were organic matter (35%), dust (25%), non-sea salt sulfate (11%), EC (9%), ammonium (5%), and nitrate (2%). Organic matter and EC together comprised 44% of fine PM on average (increased to >70% in the colder season), which reflects the significance of anthropogenic urban sources (i.e. vehicles). The contributions of different components varied considerably throughout the year, particularly the dust component that varied from 7% in the cold season to 56% in the hot and dry season. Principal component analyses were applied, resulting in 5 major source factors that explained 85% of the variance in fine PM. Factor 1, representing soil dust, explained 53%; Factor 2 denotes heavy metals mainly found in industrial sources and accounted for 18%; and rest of factors, mainly representing combustion sources, explained 14% of the variation. The levels of major heavy metals were further evaluated, and their trends showed considerable increases during cold seasons. The results of this study provide useful insight to fine PM in Tehran, which could help in identifying their health effects and sources, and also adopting effective control strategies.

Altered expression of γ-secretase components in animal model of major depressive disorder induced by reserpine administration.

PubMed

Lee, Hye-Ryun; Hwang, In-Sik; Kim, Ji-Eun; Choi, Sun-Il; Lee, Young-Ju; Goo, Jun-Seo; Lee, Eon-Pil; Choi, Hae-Wook; Kim, Hong-Sung; Lee, Jae-Ho; Jung, Young-Jin; Hwang, Dae-Youn

2012-06-01

Altered expression of neurotrophic factors as well as neuroinflammation is commonly associated with Major depressive disorder (MDD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). To investigate whether or not reserpine-induced MDD affects the expression of AD-related proteins, the expression of γ-secretase components and substrate were measured in brains of ICR mice following reserpine treatment for 15 days. In active avoidance test, total response time and peak slightly increased in the 2 mg/kg reserpine (RSP2)-treated group compared to vehicle-treated group (P<0.05). Expression and phosphorylation of MKP-1, which is a key factor in MDD pathology, were both higher in the RSP2-treated group than the vehicle- and 1 mg/kg reserpine (RSP1)-treated groups (P<0.02). Furthermore, full-length expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) was enhanced in the RSP1 and RSP2-treated groups compared to the vehicle-treated group, whereas expression of γ-secretase components decreased (P<0.03). Among the three components of the γ-secretase complex, nicastrin protein underwent the largest decrease in expression, as detected by Western blotting (P<0.03). Therefore, the data presented here provide additional evidence about the pathological correlation between MDD and AD.

Simultaneous Determination of Crypto-Chlorogenic Acid, Isoquercetin, and Astragalin Contents in Moringa oleifera Leaf Extracts by TLC-Densitometric Method.

PubMed

Vongsak, Boonyadist; Sithisarn, Pongtip; Gritsanapan, Wandee

2013-01-01

Moringa oleifera Lamarck (Moringaceae) is used as a multipurpose medicinal plant for the treatment of various diseases. Isoquercetin, astragalin, and crypto-chlorogenic acid have been previously found to be major active components in the leaves of this plant. In this study, a thin-layer-chromatography (TLC-)densitometric method was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of these major components in the 70% ethanolic extracts of M. oleifera leaves collected from 12 locations. The average amounts of crypto-chlorogenic acid, isoquercetin, and astragalin were found to be 0.0473, 0.0427, and 0.0534% dry weight, respectively. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and robustness. The linearity was obtained in the range of 100-500 ng/spot with a correlation coefficient (r) over 0.9961. Intraday and interday precisions demonstrated relative standard deviations of less than 5%. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by determining the recovery. The average recoveries of each component from the extracts were in the range of 98.28 to 99.65%. Additionally, the leaves from Chiang Mai province contained the highest amounts of all active components. The proposed TLC-densitometric method was simple, accurate, precise, and cost-effective for routine quality controlling of M. oleifera leaf extracts.

Musical duplex perception: perception of figurally good chords with subliminal distinguishing tones.

PubMed

Hall, M D; Pastore, R E

1992-08-01

In a variant of duplex perception with speech, phoneme perception is maintained when distinguishing components are presented below intensities required for separate detection, forming the basis for the claim that a phonetic module takes precedence over nonspeech processing. This finding is replicated with music chords (C major and minor) created by mixing a piano fifth with a sinusoidal distinguishing tone (E or E flat). Individual threshold intensities for detecting E or E flat in the context of the fixed piano tones are established. Chord discrimination thresholds defined by distinguishing tone intensity were determined. Experiment 2 verified masked detection thresholds and subliminal chord identification for experienced musicians. Accurate chord perception was maintained at distinguishing tone intensities nearly 20 dB below the threshold for separate detection. Speech and music findings are argued to demonstrate general perceptual principles.

Delineating slowly and rapidly evolving fractions of the Drosophila genome.

PubMed

Keith, Jonathan M; Adams, Peter; Stephen, Stuart; Mattick, John S

2008-05-01

Evolutionary conservation is an important indicator of function and a major component of bioinformatic methods to identify non-protein-coding genes. We present a new Bayesian method for segmenting pairwise alignments of eukaryotic genomes while simultaneously classifying segments into slowly and rapidly evolving fractions. We also describe an information criterion similar to the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) for determining the number of classes. Working with pairwise alignments enables detection of differences in conservation patterns among closely related species. We analyzed three whole-genome and three partial-genome pairwise alignments among eight Drosophila species. Three distinct classes of conservation level were detected. Sequences comprising the most slowly evolving component were consistent across a range of species pairs, and constituted approximately 62-66% of the D. melanogaster genome. Almost all (>90%) of the aligned protein-coding sequence is in this fraction, suggesting much of it (comprising the majority of the Drosophila genome, including approximately 56% of non-protein-coding sequences) is functional. The size and content of the most rapidly evolving component was species dependent, and varied from 1.6% to 4.8%. This fraction is also enriched for protein-coding sequence (while containing significant amounts of non-protein-coding sequence), suggesting it is under positive selection. We also classified segments according to conservation and GC content simultaneously. This analysis identified numerous sub-classes of those identified on the basis of conservation alone, but was nevertheless consistent with that classification. Software, data, and results available at www.maths.qut.edu.au/-keithj/. Genomic segments comprising the conservation classes available in BED format.

Equatorial sandhoppers use body scans to detect the earth's magnetic field.

PubMed

Ugolini, A

2006-01-01

Adults of Talorchestia martensii were individually released in a confined environment, with and without the natural magnetic field, under the sun and in a dark room. The sandhoppers scanned the horizontal component of the magnetic field by left and right oscillations of the entire major body axis. The frequency of this behaviour increased in a zeroed magnetic field, as did the frequencies of other behavioural indicators that reflect the difficulty in identifying the ecologically efficient orientation direction (sea-land axis). Therefore, like head scans in birds, body scans seem to be used by equatorial sandhoppers to detect the magnetic symmetry plane.

Detection of urban expansion in an urban-rural landscape with multitemporal QuickBird images

PubMed Central

Lu, Dengsheng; Hetrick, Scott; Moran, Emilio; Li, Guiying

2011-01-01

Accurately detecting urban expansion with remote sensing techniques is a challenge due to the complexity of urban landscapes. This paper explored methods for detecting urban expansion with multitemporal QuickBird images in Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Different techniques, including image differencing, principal component analysis (PCA), and comparison of classified impervious surface images with the matched filtering method, were used to examine urbanization detection. An impervious surface image classified with the hybrid method was used to modify the urbanization detection results. As a comparison, the original multispectral image and segmentation-based mean-spectral images were used during the detection of urbanization. This research indicates that the comparison of classified impervious surface images with matched filtering method provides the best change detection performance, followed by the image differencing method based on segmentation-based mean spectral images. The PCA is not a good method for urban change detection in this study. Shadows and high spectral variation within the impervious surfaces represent major challenges to the detection of urban expansion when high spatial resolution images are used. PMID:21799706

Specificity of antibodies directed against the cytolethal distending toxin of Haemophilus ducreyi in patients with chancroid.

PubMed

Mbwana, Judica; Ahmed, Hinda J; Ahlman, Karin; Sundaeus, Vivian; Dahlén, Gunnar; Lyamuya, Eligius; Lagergård, Teresa

2003-09-01

Antibodies specific for the cytolethal-distending toxin of Haemophilus ducreyi (HdCDT) complex and for the CdtA, CdtB, and CdtC components were measured by ELISA in the sera of 50 patients with culture and/or PCR proven chancroid, 42 patients with periodontitis, 50 blood donors from Tanzania, 50 blood donors from Sweden. In addition, the biological activity e.g. neutralization capacity of the sera were tested. Our results demonstrate that majority of chancroid patients and healthy individuals had detectable levels of serum antibodies to HdCDT complex and to separate toxin components. However, high levels (> or =100 units) of antibodies to HdCDT complex were significantly more prevalent in the sera of patients with both chancroid and periodontitis than in the sera of the corresponding controls (P=0.001 and P=0.04, respectively). In the sera of the 50 patients with chancroid, antibodies to CdtA, CdtB, and CdtC were detected in 50, 35, and 34 individuals, respectively. Antibodies to CdtC, being less frequently detected than the antibodies to other components, show a good correlation with the neutralizing capacity of sera. High levels of neutralizing antibodies (> or =160) were detected in only 22 and 2% of the patients with chancroid and periodontitis, respectively. The data suggest that the low levels of anti-HdCDT antibodies, which include neutralizing antibodies, may contribute to limited protection in chancroid and since anti-HdCDT antibodies, may be detected in healthy individuals and in patients with certain disease conditions (e.g. periodontitis), they may not be specific markers for chancroid infection.

Antibodies against Stachybotrys chartarum extract and its antigenic components, Stachyhemolysin and Stachyrase-A: a new clinical biomarker.

PubMed

Vojdani, Aristo

2005-05-01

IgG and IgE antibodies against Stachybotrys extract have been reported in allergic patients and residents of water-damaged buildings. Detection of these antibodies in blood was partially attributed to cross-reacting proteins from other fungi. There is a need for a specific method to detect antibodies against characteristic components of S. chartarum. We measured IgG and IgE antibodies against Stachybotrys hemolysin and proteinase-Stachyrase-A by ELISA and ELISA-inhibition techniques. Of 50 reference sera with IgE greater than 500 IU ml and positive against different mold extracts used in this study, significant elevation in IgG or IgE antibodies against S. chartarum extract was present in 25 and 21 specimens. Of these specimens 20 (80%) and 10 (40%) were positive for IgG anti-Stachybotrys hemolysin and anti-Stachyrase-A, while 8 out of 21 sera (38%) and 17 out of 21 (81%) specimens were positive for IgE anti-Stachybotrys hemolysin and anti-Stachyrase-A respectively. Inhibition studies using Stachybotrys hemolysin and Stachyrase-A at a concentration of 50 microg/ml prevented binding of anti-Stachybotrys to S. chartarum extract. Detection of IgG as well as IgE antibodies against Stachybotrys hemolysin and Stachyrase-A and inhibition of anti-Stachybotrys binding to Stachybotrys antigens indicate that Stachybotrys hemolysin and Stachyrase-A are two major antigenic components of S. chartarum extract, which can be used in antibody assays. Measurement of antibodies against these characteristic components of S. chartarum may be considered for demonstration of exposure and possibly allergy to the fungus.

Integrated Blade Inspection System (IBIS) Upgrade Study

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-12-01

the maintenance contract for the IBIS is equally divided among its 4-1 three major components, then the FPIM’s maintenance costs account for 33% of...network to the blade inspection problem, the output of the network must be interpreted in a slightly different manner to account for the cost of the...missed detections, respectively. The costs associated with the two types of error are drastically different and should be accounted for in the

A Legal Reasoning Component of a Network Security Command and Control System

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

United States Code VA Vulnerability Assessment VLC Virtual Legal Cell xv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to humbly thank Professor Bret...cyberspace environment. In this thesis, the authors address the information warrior’s challenge of obtaining just-in-time legal advice. They...PROPOSED VIRTUAL DYNAMIC LEGAL CELL One of the challenges in cyberspace is to define and detect a hostile act or the use of force. Another major

Configuration of electro-optic fire source detection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fabian, Ram Z.; Steiner, Zeev; Hofman, Nir

2007-04-01

The recent fighting activities in various parts of the world have highlighted the need for accurate fire source detection on one hand and fast "sensor to shooter cycle" capabilities on the other. Both needs can be met by the SPOTLITE system which dramatically enhances the capability to rapidly engage hostile fire source with a minimum of casualties to friendly force and to innocent bystanders. Modular system design enable to meet each customer specific requirements and enable excellent future growth and upgrade potential. The design and built of a fire source detection system is governed by sets of requirements issued by the operators. This can be translated into the following design criteria: I) Long range, fast and accurate fire source detection capability. II) Different threat detection and classification capability. III) Threat investigation capability. IV) Fire source data distribution capability (Location, direction, video image, voice). V) Men portability. ) In order to meet these design criteria, an optimized concept was presented and exercised for the SPOTLITE system. Three major modular components were defined: I) Electro Optical Unit -Including FLIR camera, CCD camera, Laser Range Finder and Marker II) Electronic Unit -including system computer and electronic. III) Controller Station Unit - Including the HMI of the system. This article discusses the system's components definition and optimization processes, and also show how SPOTLITE designers successfully managed to introduce excellent solutions for other system parameters.

Update on the Chemical Composition Of Crystalline, Smectite, and Amorphous Components for Rocknest Soil and John Klein and Cumberland Mudstone Drill Fines at Gale Crater, Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, R. V.; Ming, D. W.; Gellert, R.; Vaniman, D. T.; Bish, D. L.; Blake, D. F.; Chipera, S. J.; Morrison, S. M.; Downs, R. T.; Rampe, E. B.;

System and method for detecting cells or components thereof

DOEpatents

Porter, Marc D [Ames, IA; Lipert, Robert J [Ames, IA; Doyle, Robert T [Ames, IA; Grubisha, Desiree S [Corona, CA; Rahman, Salma [Ames, IA

2009-01-06

A system and method for detecting a detectably labeled cell or component thereof in a sample comprising one or more cells or components thereof, at least one cell or component thereof of which is detectably labeled with at least two detectable labels. In one embodiment, the method comprises: (i) introducing the sample into one or more flow cells of a flow cytometer, (ii) irradiating the sample with one or more light sources that are absorbed by the at least two detectable labels, the absorption of which is to be detected, and (iii) detecting simultaneously the absorption of light by the at least two detectable labels on the detectably labeled cell or component thereof with an array of photomultiplier tubes, which are operably linked to two or more filters that selectively transmit detectable emissions from the at least two detectable labels.

Status of the Prototype Pulsed Photonuclear Assessment (PPA) Inspection System

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

Prototype Photonuclear Inspection Technoloby - An

Prototype Photonuclear Inspection Technology – An Integrated Systems Approach* James L. Jonesa, Daren R. Normana, Kevin J. Haskella, James W. Sterbentza, Woo Y. Yoona, Scott M. Watsona, James T. Johnsona, John M. Zabriskiea, Calvin E. Mossb, Frank Harmonc a – Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625-2802, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415-2802 b – Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS B228, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87585 c – Idaho State University, 1500 Alvin Ricken Dr., Pocatello, Idaho 83201 Active interrogation technologies are being pursued in order to address many of today’s challenging inspection requirements related to both nuclear and non-nuclearmore » material detection. The Idaho National Laboratory, along with the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Idaho State University’s Idaho Accelerator Center, continue to develop electron accelerator-based, photonuclear inspection technologies for the detection of shielded nuclear material within air-, rail-, and especially, maritime-cargo containers. This paper presents an overview and status of the prototype Pulsed Photonuclear Assessment (PPA) inspection system and its ability to detect shielded nuclear material by focusing on the integration of three major detection system components: delayed neutron measurement, delayed gamma-ray measurements, and a transmission, gray-scale mapping for shield material detection. Areas of future development and advancement within each detection component will be presented. *Supported in part by the Department of Homeland Security under DOE-ID Contract Number DE-AC07-99ID13727. POC: James L. Jones, 208-526-1730« less

Differential principal component analysis of ChIP-seq.

PubMed

Ji, Hongkai; Li, Xia; Wang, Qian-fei; Ning, Yang

2013-04-23

We propose differential principal component analysis (dPCA) for analyzing multiple ChIP-sequencing datasets to identify differential protein-DNA interactions between two biological conditions. dPCA integrates unsupervised pattern discovery, dimension reduction, and statistical inference into a single framework. It uses a small number of principal components to summarize concisely the major multiprotein synergistic differential patterns between the two conditions. For each pattern, it detects and prioritizes differential genomic loci by comparing the between-condition differences with the within-condition variation among replicate samples. dPCA provides a unique tool for efficiently analyzing large amounts of ChIP-sequencing data to study dynamic changes of gene regulation across different biological conditions. We demonstrate this approach through analyses of differential chromatin patterns at transcription factor binding sites and promoters as well as allele-specific protein-DNA interactions.

Study Acoustic Emissions from Composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, James L.; Workman, Gary L.

1997-01-01

The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of future propulsion systems utilizing advanced composite structures for the storage of cryogenic fuels, such as liquid hydrogen or oxygen, presents many challenges. Economic justification for these structures requires, light weight, reusable components with an infrastructure allowing periodic evaluation of structural integrity after enduring demanding stresses during operation. A major focus has been placed on the use of acoustic emission NDE to detect propagating defects, in service, necessitating an extensive study into characterizing the nature of acoustic signal propagation at very low temperatures and developing the methodology of applying AE sensors to monitor cryogenic components. This work addresses the question of sensor performance in the cryogenic environment. Problems involving sensor mounting, spectral response and durability are addressed. The results of this work provides a common point of measure from which sensor selection can be made when testing composite components at cryogenic temperatures.

[Determination of the Plant Origin of Licorice Oil Extract, a Natural Food Additive, by Principal Component Analysis Based on Chemical Components].

PubMed

Tada, Atsuko; Ishizuki, Kyoko; Sugimoto, Naoki; Yoshimatsu, Kayo; Kawahara, Nobuo; Suematsu, Takako; Arifuku, Kazunori; Fukai, Toshio; Tamura, Yukiyoshi; Ohtsuki, Takashi; Tahara, Maiko; Yamazaki, Takeshi; Akiyama, Hiroshi

2015-01-01

"Licorice oil extract" (LOE) (antioxidant agent) is described in the notice of Japanese food additive regulations as a material obtained from the roots and/or rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, G. inflata or G. glabra. In this study, we aimed to identify the original Glycyrrhiza species of eight food additive products using LC/MS. Glabridin, a characteristic compound in G. glabra, was specifically detected in seven products, and licochalcone A, a characteristic compound in G. inflata, was detected in one product. In addition, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) (a kind of multivariate analysis) using the data of LC/MS or (1)H-NMR analysis was performed. The data of thirty-one samples, including LOE products used as food additives, ethanol extracts of various Glycyrrhiza species and commercially available Glycyrrhiza species-derived products were assessed. Based on the PCA results, the majority of LOE products was confirmed to be derived from G. glabra. This study suggests that PCA using (1)H-NMR analysis data is a simple and useful method to identify the plant species of origin of natural food additive products.

Physics in the Confrontation of Nuclear Weapons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toevs, James

2011-03-01

Had the detonations on 9/11 involved nuclear explosives rather than jet fuel the number of deaths and the costs would have been multiplied by 100 or 1,000. This talk will briefly describe the nuclear threat and then focus on the technologies, both extant and evolving, for the detection and interdiction of clandestine trafficking of nuclear weapons and nuclear and radiological material. The methods vary from passive detection of heat, gamma radiation, neutrons, or other signatures from nuclear material, through radiological approaches to examine contents of vehicles and cargo containers, to active interrogation concepts that are under development. All of these methods have major physics components ranging from simple gamma ray detection as learned in a senior undergraduate lab to the latest ideas in muon production and acceleration.

Spacecraft fault tolerance: The Magellan experience

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasuda, Rick; Packard, Donna Sexton

1993-01-01

Interplanetary and earth orbiting missions are now imposing unique fault tolerant requirements upon spacecraft design. Mission success is the prime motivator for building spacecraft with fault tolerant systems. The Magellan spacecraft had many such requirements imposed upon its design. Magellan met these requirements by building redundancy into all the major subsystem components and designing the onboard hardware and software with the capability to detect a fault, isolate it to a component, and issue commands to achieve a back-up configuration. This discussion is limited to fault protection, which is the autonomous capability to respond to a fault. The Magellan fault protection design is discussed, as well as the developmental and flight experiences and a summary of the lessons learned.

The metabolism of the anti-inflammatory drug eterylate in rat, dog and man.

PubMed

Wood, S G; John, B A; Chasseaud, L F; Johnstone, I; Biggs, S R; Hawkins, D R; Priego, J G; Darragh, A; Lambe, R F

1983-12-01

Oral doses of 14C-eterylate were well absorbed by rat and man and excreted mainly in the urine (94% dose by rat in three days and 91% by man in five days). Oral doses to dogs were excreted in similar proportions in both the urine and faeces, although faecal 14C was probably derived in part, from biliary-excreted material. Peak plasma 14C and drug concn. were generally reached between one and three hours after oral doses. In humans, only two metabolites, salicylic acid and 4-acetamido-phenoxyacetic acid, were detected in plasma. The latter was cleared more rapidly than the former and hence plasma salicyclate concn. reached a peak (10.9 and 19.8 micrograms/ml in Subjects 1 and 2, respectively) and initially declined with a half-life of about two-three hours. Plasma 4-acetamidophenoxyacetic acid concn. reached a peak (4.3, 10.0 micrograms/ml, respectively) and declined with a half-life of about one hour. Tissue concn. of 14C were generally greater in dogs than in rats. Highest conc. occurred at three hours in dogs and at one hour in rats. Apart from those in the liver and kidneys, tissue concn. were lower than those in the corresponding plasma. Unchanged drug was not detected in urine or plasma of any species and was rapidly metabolized in human plasma. The major 14C components in human urine were identified as salicyluric acid and 4-acetamidophenoxyacetic acid; minor metabolites were salicylic acid, gentisic acid and paracetamol. These metabolites were also detected in rat urine albeit in different proportions to those in human urine. Dog urine contained less of these metabolites and a major proportion of the 14C was associated with relatively non-polar components. Although salicylic acid and 4-acetamidophenoxyacetic acid were the only major circulating metabolites in man and rat, dog plasma also contained the non-polar urine metabolites.

Chemical composition of the Lippia origanoides essential oils and their antigenotoxicity against bleomycin-induced DNA damage.

PubMed

Vicuña, Gloria Carolina; Stashenko, Elena E; Fuentes, Jorge Luis

2010-07-01

The present work evaluated the chemical composition of the essential oils (EO) obtained from Lippia origanoides and their DNA protective effect against bleomycin-induced genotoxicity. L. origanoides EO chemical composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The major compounds of the L. origanoides EOs were thymol (34-58%) and carvacrol (26%). The antigenotoxic effects of the EOs, major compounds and standard compound (epigallocatechin gallate) were assayed in co-incubation procedures using the SOS chromotest in Escherichia coli. Both EOs and their major compounds protected bacterial cells against bleomycin-induced genotoxicity indicating that these two compounds were principally responsible for the antigenotoxicity detected in the oils. Thymol and carvacrol antigenotoxicity was lower than those observed with epigallocatechin gallate. The results were discussed in relation to the chemopreventive potential of L. origanoides EOs and their major components, carvacrol and thymol. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of hydraulic fracturing additives by LC/Q-TOF-MS.

PubMed

Ferrer, Imma; Thurman, E Michael

2015-08-01

The chemical additives used in fracturing fluids can be used as tracers of water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing operations. For this purpose, a complete chemical characterization is necessary using advanced analytical techniques. Liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC/Q-TOF-MS) was used to identify chemical additives present in flowback and produced waters. Accurate mass measurements of main ions and fragments were used to characterize the major components of fracking fluids. Sodium adducts turned out to be the main molecular adduct ions detected for some additives due to oxygen-rich structures. Among the classes of chemical components analyzed by mass spectrometry include gels (guar gum), biocides (glutaraldehyde and alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride), and surfactants (cocamidopropyl dimethylamines, cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaines, and cocamidopropyl derivatives). The capabilities of accurate mass and MS-MS fragmentation are explored for the unequivocal identification of these compounds. A special emphasis is given to the mass spectrometry elucidation approaches used to identify a major class of hydraulic fracturing compounds, surfactants.

Supervised chemical pattern recognition in almond ( Prunus dulcis ) Portuguese PDO cultivars: PCA- and LDA-based triennial study.

PubMed

Barreira, João C M; Casal, Susana; Ferreira, Isabel C F R; Peres, António M; Pereira, José Alberto; Oliveira, M Beatriz P P

2012-09-26

Almonds harvested in three years in Trás-os-Montes (Portugal) were characterized to find differences among Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Amêndoa Douro and commercial non-PDO cultivars. Nutritional parameters, fiber (neutral and acid detergent fibers, acid detergent lignin, and cellulose), fatty acids, triacylglycerols (TAG), and tocopherols were evaluated. Fat was the major component, followed by carbohydrates, protein, and moisture. Fatty acids were mostly detected as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated forms, with relevance of oleic and linoleic acids. Accordingly, 1,2,3-trioleoylglycerol and 1,2-dioleoyl-3-linoleoylglycerol were the major TAG. α-Tocopherol was the leading tocopherol. To verify statistical differences among PDO and non-PDO cultivars independent of the harvest year, data were analyzed through an analysis of variance, a principal component analysis, and a linear discriminant analysis (LDA). These differences identified classification parameters, providing an important tool for authenticity purposes. The best results were achieved with TAG analysis coupled with LDA, which proved its effectiveness to discriminate almond cultivars.

Continuous AE crack monitoring of a dissimilar metal weldment at Limerick Unit 1

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

Hutton, P.H.; Friesel, M.A.; Dawson, J.F.

1993-12-01

Acoustic emission (AE) technology for continuous surveillance of a reactor component(s) to detect crack initiation and/or crack growth has been developed at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL). The technology was validated off-reactor in several major tests, but it had not been validated by monitoring crack growth on an operating reactor system. A flaw indication was identified during normal inservice inspection of piping at Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) Limerick Unit 1 reactor during the 1989 refueling outage. Evaluation of the flaw indication showed that it could remain in place during the subsequent fuel cycle without compromising safety. The existence of this flawmore » indication offered a long sought opportunity to validate AE surveillance to detect and evaluate crack growth during reactor operation. AE instrumentation was installed by PNL and PECO to monitor the flaw indication during two complete fuel cycles. This report discusses the results obtained from the AE monitoring over the period May 1989 to March 1992 (two fuel cycles).« less

White matter microstructure and cognitive decline in metabolic syndrome: a review of diffusion tensor imaging.

PubMed

Alfaro, Freddy J; Gavrieli, Anna; Saade-Lemus, Patricia; Lioutas, Vasileios-Arsenios; Upadhyay, Jagriti; Novak, Vera

2018-01-01

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors defined by the presence of abdominal obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertension and/or dyslipidemia. It is a major public health epidemic worldwide, and a known risk factor for the development of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. Several studies have demonstrated a positive association between the presence of metabolic syndrome and worse cognitive outcomes, however, evidence of brain structure pathology is limited. Diffusion tensor imaging has offered new opportunities to detect microstructural white matter changes in metabolic syndrome, and a possibility to detect associations between functional and structural abnormalities. This review analyzes the impact of metabolic syndrome on white matter microstructural integrity, brain structure abnormalities and their relationship to cognitive function. Each of the metabolic syndrome components exerts a specific signature of white matter microstructural abnormalities. Metabolic syndrome and its components exert both additive/synergistic, as well as, independent effects on brain microstructure thus accelerating brain aging and cognitive decline. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation and Characterization of Fasciola hepatica Tegument Protein Extract for Serodiagnosis of Human Fascioliasis

PubMed Central

Morales, Adelaida

2012-01-01

Tegument protein extract from Fasciola hepatica adult flukes (FhTA) was obtained and assessed for its potential as a diagnostic agent for the serological detection of human fascioliasis using an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In an analysis of sera from 45 patients infected with F. hepatica, sera from 41 patients with other parasitic infections, and sera from 33 healthy controls, the FhTA-ELISA showed sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 91.1%, 97.3%, and 95%, respectively. Specific IgG1 and IgG4 were the antibody isotypes mainly detected in sera from patients with fascioliasis. Polypeptides of 52, 38, 24 to 26, and 12 to 14 kDa were identified by Western blotting as the most immunoreactive components of the FhTA. A proteomic approach led us to identify enolase, aldolase, glutathione S-transferase, and fatty acid binding protein as the major immunoreactive components of the FhTA. PMID:23015645

A bipolar outflow of ionized gas in K3-50A: H76 alpha radio recombination line and continuum observations of K3-50

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Depree, C. G.; Goss, W. M.; Palmer, Patrick; Rubin, Robert H.

1994-01-01

The H II regions near K3-50 (G70.3 + 1.6) have been imaged at high angular resolution (approximately 1 sec .3) in the continuum and the recombination lines H76(sub alpha and He76(sub alpha) using the Very Large Array (VLA). The helium line is detected in only the brightest component K3-50A while the hydrogen line is detected in three components (K3-50A, B and C1). K3-50A shows a pronounced velocity gradient of approximately 150 km/sec/pc along its major axis (P.A. = 160 deg); in addition a wide range of line widths are observed, from 20 to 65 km/sec. Kinematics from the line data and the morphology of the continuum emission suggest that the ionized material associated with K3-50A is undergoing a high-velocity bipolar outflow.

Signs of magnetic acceleration and multizone emission in GRB 080825C

DOE PAGES

Moretti, Elena; Axelsson, Magnus

2016-03-03

One of the major results from the study of gamma-ray bursts with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been the confirmation that several emission components can be present in the energy spectrum. In this paper, we reanalyse the spectrum of GRB 080825C using data from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) and Gamma-ray Burst Monitor instruments. Although fairly weak, it is the first gamma-ray burst detected by the Fermi-LAT. We improve on the original analysis by using the LAT Low Energy events covering the 30–100 MeV band. We find evidence of an additional component above the main emission peak (modelled usingmore » a Band function) with a significance of 3.5σ in two out of the four time bins. The component is well fitted by a Planck function, but shows unusual behaviour: the peak energy increases in the prompt emission phase, reaching energies of several MeV. This is the first time such a trend has been seen, and implies that the origin of this component is different from those previously detected. We suggest that the two spectral components likely arise in different regions of the outflow, and that strong constraints can be achieved by assuming one of them originates from the photosphere. Finally, the most promising model appears to be that the high-energy peak is the result of photospheric emission in a Poynting flux dominated outflow where the magnetization increases with time.« less

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

Moretti, Elena; Axelsson, Magnus

One of the major results from the study of gamma-ray bursts with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been the confirmation that several emission components can be present in the energy spectrum. In this paper, we reanalyse the spectrum of GRB 080825C using data from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) and Gamma-ray Burst Monitor instruments. Although fairly weak, it is the first gamma-ray burst detected by the Fermi-LAT. We improve on the original analysis by using the LAT Low Energy events covering the 30–100 MeV band. We find evidence of an additional component above the main emission peak (modelled usingmore » a Band function) with a significance of 3.5σ in two out of the four time bins. The component is well fitted by a Planck function, but shows unusual behaviour: the peak energy increases in the prompt emission phase, reaching energies of several MeV. This is the first time such a trend has been seen, and implies that the origin of this component is different from those previously detected. We suggest that the two spectral components likely arise in different regions of the outflow, and that strong constraints can be achieved by assuming one of them originates from the photosphere. Finally, the most promising model appears to be that the high-energy peak is the result of photospheric emission in a Poynting flux dominated outflow where the magnetization increases with time.« less

Origin and z-distribution of Galactic diffuse [C II] emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velusamy, T.; Langer, W. D.

2014-12-01

Context. The [C ii] emission is an important probe of star formation in the Galaxy and in external galaxies. The GOT C+ survey and its follow up observations of spectrally resolved 1.9 THz [C ii] emission using Herschel HIFI provides the data needed to quantify the Galactic interstellar [C ii] gas components as tracers of star formation. Aims: We determine the source of the diffuse [C ii] emission by studying its spatial (radial and vertical) distributions by separating and evaluating the fractions of [C ii] and CO emissions in the Galactic ISM gas components. Methods: We used the HIFI [C ii] Galactic survey (GOT C+), along with ancillary H i, 12CO, 13CO, and C18O data toward 354 lines of sight, and several HIFI [C ii] and [C i] position-velocity maps. We quantified the emission in each spectral line profile by evaluating the intensities in 3 km s-1 wide velocity bins, "spaxels". Using the detection of [C ii] with CO or [C i], we separated the dense and diffuse gas components. We derived 2D Galactic disk maps using the spaxel velocities for kinematic distances. We separated the warm and cold H2 gases by comparing CO emissions with and without associated [C ii]. Results: We find evidence of widespread diffuse [C ii] emission with a z-scale distribution larger than that for the total [C ii] or CO. The diffuse [C ii] emission consists of (i) diffuse molecular (CO-faint) H2 clouds and (ii) diffuse H i clouds and/or WIM. In the inner Galaxy we find a lack of [C ii] detections in a majority (~62%) of H i spaxels and show that the diffuse component primarily comes from the WIM (~21%) and that the H i gas is not a major contributor to the diffuse component (~6%). The warm-H2 radial profile shows an excess in the range 4 to 7 kpc, consistent with enhanced star formation there. Conclusions: We derive, for the first time, the 2D [C ii] spatial distribution in the plane and the z-distributions of the individual [C ii] gas component. From the GOT C+ detections we estimate the fractional [C ii] emission tracing (i) H2 gas in dense and diffuse molecular clouds as ~48% and ~14%, respectively, (ii) in the H i gas ~18%, and (iii) in the WIM ~21%. Including non-detections from H i increases the [C ii] in H i to ~27%. The z-scale distributions FWHM from smallest to largest are [C ii] sources with CO, ~130 pc, (CO-faint) diffuse H2 gas, ~200 pc, and the diffuse H i and WIM, ~330 pc. When combined with [C ii], CO observations probe the warm-H2 gas, tracing star formation. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Determination of monosaccharides derivatized with 2-aminobenzoic Acid by capillary electrophoresis.

PubMed

Abo, Mitsuru; He, Li-Ping; Sato, Kae; Okubo, Akira

2013-01-01

Reducing monosaccharides were derivatized with 2-aminobenzoic acid (2-AA) through reductive amination using sodium cyanoborohydride as a reductant, and the derivatives were separated by capillary zone electrophoresis with UV detection using 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 5.5) or 150 mM sodium borate-50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 7.0) running buffer. The derivatives of monosaccharides, which are major components of various carbohydrate materials, were completely separated within 25 min.

Chemical characterization of detrital sugar chains with peptides in oceanic surface particulate organic matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsukasaki, A.; Nishida, T.; Tanoue, E.

2016-02-01

For better understanding of the dynamics of organic matter in the ocean interior, particulate organic matter (POM) in oceanic surface water is a key material as a starting material in food chain and biological carbon pump, and the source of dissolved organic matter. POM consists of a mixture of non-living POM (detritus) and small amount of living POM (organisms). Particulate combined amino acids (PCAAs) are one of the major components of POM and the most important source of nitrogen and carbon for heterotrophic organisms in marine environments. In our previous studies of molecular-level characterization of PCAAs using electrophoretic separation (SDS-PAGE: sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) with specific detection of protein/peptide and sugar chains, we reported that most of PCAAs existed as small-sized peptide chains with carbohydrate-rich remnants. Although carbohydrates are one of the major carbon components of POM, the details of molecular-level structures including sugar chains are unknown. In this study, we applied electrophoretic separation for sugar chains (FACE: fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis) to the POM samples collected from the surface water of the Pacific Ocean. The results showed that sugar chains with various degree of polymerization were detected in POM. The possible roles of such sugar chains in marine biogeochemical cycle of organic matter are discussed in the presentation.

myo-Inositol hexakisphosphate is a major component of an extracellular structure in the parasitic cestode Echinococcus granulosus.

PubMed Central

Irigoín, Florencia; Ferreira, Fernando; Fernández, Cecilia; Sim, Robert B; Díaz, Alvaro

2002-01-01

myo-Inositol hexakisphosphate (IP(6)) is an abundant intracellular component of animal cells. In this study we describe the presence of extracellular IP(6) in the hydatid cyst wall (HCW) of the larval stage of the cestode parasite Echinococcus granulosus. The HCW comprises an inner cellular layer and an outer, acellular (laminated) layer up to 2 mm in thickness that protects the parasite from host immune cells. A compound, subsequently identified as IP(6), was detected in and purified from an HCW extract on the basis of its capacity to inhibit complement activation. The identification of the isolated compound was carried out by a combination of NMR, MS and TLC. The majority of IP(6) in the HCW was found in the acellular layer, with only a small fraction of the compound being extracted from cells. In the laminated layer, IP(6) was present in association with calcium, and accounted for up to 15% of the total dry mass of the HCW. IP(6) was not detected in any other structures or stages of the parasite. Our results imply that IP(6) is secreted by the larval stage of the parasite in a polarized fashion towards the interface with the host. This is the first report of the secretion of IP(6), and the possible implications beyond the biology of E. granulosus are discussed. PMID:11853537

Simultaneous Determination of Crypto-Chlorogenic Acid, Isoquercetin, and Astragalin Contents in Moringa oleifera Leaf Extracts by TLC-Densitometric Method

PubMed Central

Vongsak, Boonyadist; Sithisarn, Pongtip; Gritsanapan, Wandee

2013-01-01

Moringa oleifera Lamarck (Moringaceae) is used as a multipurpose medicinal plant for the treatment of various diseases. Isoquercetin, astragalin, and crypto-chlorogenic acid have been previously found to be major active components in the leaves of this plant. In this study, a thin-layer-chromatography (TLC-)densitometric method was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of these major components in the 70% ethanolic extracts of M. oleifera leaves collected from 12 locations. The average amounts of crypto-chlorogenic acid, isoquercetin, and astragalin were found to be 0.0473, 0.0427, and 0.0534% dry weight, respectively. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and robustness. The linearity was obtained in the range of 100–500 ng/spot with a correlation coefficient (r) over 0.9961. Intraday and interday precisions demonstrated relative standard deviations of less than 5%. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by determining the recovery. The average recoveries of each component from the extracts were in the range of 98.28 to 99.65%. Additionally, the leaves from Chiang Mai province contained the highest amounts of all active components. The proposed TLC-densitometric method was simple, accurate, precise, and cost-effective for routine quality controlling of M. oleifera leaf extracts. PMID:23533530

The relative proportions of different lipid classes and their fatty acid compositions change with culture age in the cariogenic dental pathogen Streptococcus mutans UA159.

PubMed

Custer, Jenny E; Goddard, Bryan D; Matter, Stephen F; Kaneshiro, Edna S

2014-06-01

The oral cariogenic bacterial pathogen Streptococcus mutans strain UA159 has become an important research organism strain since its genome was sequenced. However, there is a paucity of information on its lipidome using direct analytical biochemical approaches. We here report on comprehensive analyses of the major lipid classes and their fatty acids in cells grown in batch standing cultures. Using 2-D high-performance thin-layer chromatography lipid class composition changes were detected with culture age. More lipid components were detected in the stationary-phase compared to log-phase cells. The major lipids identified included 1,3-bis(sn-3'-phosphatidyl)-sn-glycerol (phosphatidylglycerol), 1,3-diphosphatidylglycerol (cardiolipin), aminoacyl-phosphatidylglycerol, monoglucosyldiacylglycerol, diglucosyldiacylglycerol, diglucosylmonoacylglycerol and, glycerophosphoryldiglucosyldiacylglycerol. Culture age also affected the fatty acid composition of the total polar lipid fraction. Thus, the major lipid classes detected in log-phase and stationary-phase cells were isolated and their fatty acids were analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography to determine the basis for the fatty acid compositional changes in the total polar lipid fraction. The analyses showed that the relative proportions of these acids changed with culture age within individual lipid classes. Hence fatty acid changes in the total polar lipid fraction reflected changes in both lipid class composition and fatty acid compositions within individual lipid classes.

Lipophilic extracts of Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis (DC): a source of valuable bioactive terpenic compounds.

PubMed

Ramos, Patrícia A B; Guerra, Ângela R; Guerreiro, Olinda; Freire, Carmen S R; Silva, Artur M S; Duarte, Maria F; Silvestre, Armando J D

2013-09-04

Lipophilic extracts of Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis (DC) from the south of Portugal (Baixo Alentejo) were studied by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. One sesquiterpene lactone, four pentacyclic triterpenes, and four sterols were reported for the first time as cultivated cardoon components, namely, deacylcynaropicrin, β- and α-amyrin, lupenyl and ψ-taraxasteryl acetates, stigmasterol, 24-methylenecholesterol, campesterol, and Δ(5)-avenasterol. In addition, other new compounds were identified: ten fatty acids, eight long-chain aliphatic alcohols, and six aromatic compounds. Four triterpenyl fatty acid esters were also detected. Sesquiterpene lactones and pentacyclic triterpenes were the major lipophilic families, representing respectively 2-46% and 10-89% of the detected compounds. Cynaropicrin was the most abundant sesquiterpene lactone, while taraxasteryl acetate was the main pentacyclic triterpene. Fatty acids and sterols, mainly hexadecanoic acid and β-sitosterol, were present at lower amounts (1-20% and 1-11% of the detected compounds). Long-chain aliphatic alcohols and aromatic compounds were detected at reduced abundances (1-6% of the detected compounds).

Detection of convulsive seizures using surface electromyography.

PubMed

Beniczky, Sándor; Conradsen, Isa; Wolf, Peter

2018-06-01

Bilateral (generalized) tonic-clonic seizures (TCS) increase the risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), especially when patients are unattended. In sleep, TCS often remain unnoticed, which can result in suboptimal treatment decisions. There is a need for automated detection of these major epileptic seizures, using wearable devices. Quantitative surface electromyography (EMG) changes are specific for TCS and characterized by a dynamic evolution of low- and high-frequency signal components. Algorithms targeting increase in high-frequency EMG signals constitute biomarkers of TCS; they can be used both for seizure detection and for differentiating TCS from convulsive nonepileptic seizures. Two large-scale, blinded, prospective studies demonstrated the accuracy of wearable EMG devices for detecting TCS with high sensitivity (76%-100%). The rate of false alarms (0.7-2.5/24 h) needs further improvement. This article summarizes the pathophysiology of muscle activation during convulsive seizures and reviews the published evidence on the accuracy of EMG-based seizure detection. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 International League Against Epilepsy.

Automated Extraction of Secondary Flow Features

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dorney, Suzanne M.; Haimes, Robert

2005-01-01

The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become standard practice in the design and development of the major components used for air and space propulsion. To aid in the post-processing and analysis phase of CFD many researchers now use automated feature extraction utilities. These tools can be used to detect the existence of such features as shocks, vortex cores and separation and re-attachment lines. The existence of secondary flow is another feature of significant importance to CFD engineers. Although the concept of secondary flow is relatively understood there is no commonly accepted mathematical definition for secondary flow. This paper will present a definition for secondary flow and one approach for automatically detecting and visualizing secondary flow.

Visible spectrum-based non-contact HRV and dPTT for stress detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaur, Balvinder; Hutchinson, J. Andrew; Ikonomidou, Vasiliki N.

2017-05-01

Stress is a major health concern that not only compromises our quality of life, but also affects our physical health and well-being. Despite its importance, our ability to objectively detect and quantify it in a real-time, non-invasive manner is very limited. This capability would have a wide variety of medical, military, and security applications. We have developed a pipeline of image and signal processing algorithms to make such a system practical, which includes remote cardiac pulse detection based on visible spectrum videos and physiological stress detection based on the variability in the remotely detected cardiac signals. First, to determine a reliable cardiac pulse, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied for noise reduction and independent component analysis (ICA) was applied for source selection. To determine accurate cardiac timing for heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, a blind source separation method based least squares (LS) estimate was used to determine signal peaks that were closely related to R-peaks of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. A new metric, differential pulse transit time (dPTT), defined as the difference in arrival time of the remotely acquired cardiac signal at two separate distal locations, was derived. It was demonstrated that the remotely acquired metrics, HRV and dPTT, have potential for remote stress detection. The developed algorithms were tested against human subject data collected under two physiological conditions using the modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and the Affective Stress Response Test (ASRT). This research provides evidence that the variability in remotely-acquired blood wave (BW) signals can be used for stress (high and mild) detection, and as a guide for further development of a real-time remote stress detection system based on remote HRV and dPTT.

Observations of Leonids 2009 by the Tajikistan Fireball Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borovicka, J.; Borovicka, J.

2011-01-01

The fireball network in Tajikistan has operated since 2009. Five stations of the network covering the territory of near eleven thousands square kilometers are equipped with all-sky cameras with the Zeiss Distagon "fish-eye" objectives and by digital SLR cameras Nikon with the Nikkor "fish-eye" objectives. Observations of the Leonid activity in 2009 were carried out during November 13-21. In this period, 16 Leonid fireballs have been photographed. As a result of astrometric and photometric reductions, the precise data including atmospheric trajectories, velocities, orbits, light curves, photometric masses and densities were determined for 10 fireballs. The radiant positions during the maximum night suggest that the majority of the fireball activity was caused by the annual stream component with only minor contribution from the 1466 trail. According to the PE criterion, the majority of Leonid fireballs belonged to the most fragile and weak fireball group IIIB. However, one detected Leonid belonged to the fireball group I. This is the first detection of an anomalously strong Leonid individual.

Detection in subsurface air of radioxenon released from medical isotope production

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

Johnson, Christine; Biegalski, Steven; Haas, Derek

Abstract Under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, an On-Site Inspection (OSI) may be conducted to clarify whether a nuclear explosion has been carried out in violation of Article I of the Treaty. A major component of an OSI is the measurement of subsurface gases in order to detect radioactive noble gases that are produced in a nuclear explosion, particularly radioxenon and radioargon. In order to better understand potential backgrounds of these gases, a sampling campaign was performed near Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in the Ottawa River Valley, a major source of environmental radioxenon. First of their kind measurements of atmospheric radioxenon imprintedmore » into the shallow subsurface from an atmospheric pressure driven force were made using current OSI techniques to measure both atmospheric and subsurface gas samples which were analyzed for radioxenon. These measurements indicate that under specific sampling conditions, on the order of one percent of the atmospheric radioxenon concentration may be measured via subsurface sampling.« less

Principal component analysis of dynamic fluorescence images for diagnosis of diabetic vasculopathy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Jihye; An, Yuri; Lee, Jungsul; Ku, Taeyun; Kang, Yujung; Ahn, Chulwoo; Choi, Chulhee

2016-04-01

Indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence imaging has been clinically used for noninvasive visualizations of vascular structures. We have previously developed a diagnostic system based on dynamic ICG fluorescence imaging for sensitive detection of vascular disorders. However, because high-dimensional raw data were used, the analysis of the ICG dynamics proved difficult. We used principal component analysis (PCA) in this study to extract important elements without significant loss of information. We examined ICG spatiotemporal profiles and identified critical features related to vascular disorders. PCA time courses of the first three components showed a distinct pattern in diabetic patients. Among the major components, the second principal component (PC2) represented arterial-like features. The explained variance of PC2 in diabetic patients was significantly lower than in normal controls. To visualize the spatial pattern of PCs, pixels were mapped with red, green, and blue channels. The PC2 score showed an inverse pattern between normal controls and diabetic patients. We propose that PC2 can be used as a representative bioimaging marker for the screening of vascular diseases. It may also be useful in simple extractions of arterial-like features.

[Effect of Gegen Qinlian decoction on hepatic cytochrome CYP450 isozymes in rats by HPLC-MS/MS].

PubMed

Liu, Zi-hua; An, Rui; Zhang, Yi-zhu; Gu, Qing-qing; You, Li-sha; Wang, Xin-hong

2015-08-01

To study the effect of Gegen Qinlian decoction and its major effective components on five hepatic microsomal CYP450 isozymes in rats. The in vitro hepatic microsomal incubation technique was used to co-culture Gegen Qinlian decoction and its major effective components together with each probe substrate. HPLC-MS/MS was used to establish the analytical method for metabolites of the five isoform probe substrates of CYP450 isozymes, detect the linearity among micoromal protein concentration, incubation time and metabolite formation amount. And HPLC-MS/MS was applied to determine the formation rate (V) of corresponding metabolites (acetaminophen, 4-OH-chlorzoxazone, dextrophan, 6-OH-chlorzoxazone and 6β-hydroxytestosterone) specific probe substrates of the five isoform probe substrates of CYP450 isozymes (phenacetin, polbutamide, dextromethorphan, chlorzoxazone, testosterone), in order to determine the activity of each isozyme. The result showed good linearity among acetaminophen, 4-OH-tolbutamide, dextrophan, 6-OH-chlorzoxazone and 6β-hydroxytestosterone, satisfactory precision, stability and average recovery, suggesting the method was feasible. The optimized in vitro microsomal incubation conditions conformed to the requirements in the guideline of drug-drug interaction. Gegen Qinlian decoction showed different degrees of inhibitor effect on 5 CYP450 isoforms (CYP1A2, CYP2C11, CYP2D2, CYP2E1, CYP3A1/2). Its major effective component berberine could inhibit each CYP450 isoform at high concentrations (except for CYP1A2, CYP3A1/2).

Major royal jelly proteins as markers of authenticity and quality of honey.

PubMed

Bilikova, Katarina; Kristof Krakova, Tatiana; Yamaguchi, Kikuji; Yamaguchi, Yoshihisa

2015-12-01

Until now, the properties of honey have been defined based exclusively on the content of plant components in the nectar of given plant. We showed that apalbumin1, the major royal jelly (RJ) protein, is an authentic and regular component of honey. Apalbumin1 and other RJ proteins and peptides are responsible for the immunostimulatory properties and antibiotic activity of honey. For the quantification of apalbumin1, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed using polyclonal anti-apalbumin1 antibody. The method is suitable for honey authenticity determination; moreover it is useful for detection of the honey, honeybee pollen and RJ in products of medicine, pharmacy, cosmetics, and food industry, where presences of these honeybee products are declared. Results from the analysis for presence and amount of apalbumin1 in honeys will be used for high-throughput screening of honey samples over the world. On the basis of our experiments which show that royal jelly proteins are regular and physiologically active components of honey we propose to change the definition of honey (according to the EU Honey Directive 2001/110/EC) as follows: Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from nectar of plants or from secretions of plants, or excretions of plant sucking insects, which honey bees collect, transform by combining with major royal jelly proteins and other specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature.

Shear wave elastography using Wigner-Ville distribution: a simulated multilayer media study.

PubMed

Bidari, Pooya Sobhe; Alirezaie, Javad; Tavakkoli, Jahan

2016-08-01

Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) is a quantitative ultrasound-based imaging modality for distinguishing normal and abnormal tissue types by estimating the local viscoelastic properties of the tissue. These properties have been estimated in many studies by propagating ultrasound shear wave within the tissue and estimating parameters such as speed of wave. Vast majority of the proposed techniques are based on the cross-correlation of consecutive ultrasound images. In this study, we propose a new method of wave detection based on time-frequency (TF) analysis of the ultrasound signal. The proposed method is a modified version of the Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD) technique. The TF components of the wave are detected in a propagating ultrasound wave within a simulated multilayer tissue and the local properties are estimated based on the detected waves. Image processing techniques such as Alternative Sequential Filters (ASF) and Circular Hough Transform (CHT) have been utilized to improve the estimation of TF components. This method has been applied to a simulated data from Wave3000™ software (CyberLogic Inc., New York, NY). This data simulates the propagation of an acoustic radiation force impulse within a two-layer tissue with slightly different viscoelastic properties between the layers. By analyzing the local TF components of the wave, we estimate the longitudinal and shear elasticities and viscosities of the media. This work shows that our proposed method is capable of distinguishing between different layers of a tissue.

FTIR gas chromatographic analysis of perfumes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diederich, H.; Stout, Phillip J.; Hill, Stephen L.; Krishnan, K.

1992-03-01

Perfumes, natural or synthetic, are complex mixtures consisting of numerous components. Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques have been extensively utilized for the analysis of perfumes and essential oils. A limited number of perfume samples have also been analyzed by FT-IR gas chromatographic (GC-FTIR) techniques. Most of the latter studies have been performed using the conventional light pipe (LP) based GC-FTIR systems. In recent years, cold-trapping (in a matrix or neat) GC-FTIR systems have become available. The cold-trapping systems are capable of sub-nanogram sensitivities. In this paper, comparison data between the LP and the neat cold-trapping GC- FTIR systems is presented. The neat cold-trapping interface is known as Tracer. The results of GC-FTIR analysis of some commercial perfumes is also presented. For comparison of LP and Tracer GC-FTIR systems, a reference (synthetic) mixture containing 16 major and numerous minor constituents was used. The components of the mixture are the compounds commonly encountered in commercial perfumes. The GC-FTIR spectra of the reference mixture was obtained under identical chromatographic conditions from an LP and a Tracer system. A comparison of the two sets of data thus generated do indeed show the enhanced sensitivity level of the Tracer system. The comparison also shows that some of the major components detected by the Tracer system were absent from the LP data. Closer examination reveals that these compounds undergo thermal decomposition on contact with the hot gold surface that is part of the LP system. GC-FTIR data were obtained for three commercial perfume samples. The major components of these samples could easily be identified by spectra search against a digitized spectral library created using the Tracer data from the reference mixture.

Application of High-Density DNA Resequencing Microarray for Detection and Characterization of Botulinum Neurotoxin-Producing Clostridia

PubMed Central

Vanhomwegen, Jessica; Berthet, Nicolas; Mazuet, Christelle; Guigon, Ghislaine; Vallaeys, Tatiana; Stamboliyska, Rayna; Dubois, Philippe; Kennedy, Giulia C.; Cole, Stewart T.; Caro, Valérie; Manuguerra, Jean-Claude; Popoff, Michel-Robert

2013-01-01

Background Clostridium botulinum and related clostridia express extremely potent toxins known as botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) that cause severe, potentially lethal intoxications in humans. These BoNT-producing bacteria are categorized in seven major toxinotypes (A through G) and several subtypes. The high diversity in nucleotide sequence and genetic organization of the gene cluster encoding the BoNT components poses a great challenge for the screening and characterization of BoNT-producing strains. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present study, we designed and evaluated the performances of a resequencing microarray (RMA), the PathogenId v2.0, combined with an automated data approach for the simultaneous detection and characterization of BoNT-producing clostridia. The unique design of the PathogenID v2.0 array allows the simultaneous detection and characterization of 48 sequences targeting the BoNT gene cluster components. This approach allowed successful identification and typing of representative strains of the different toxinotypes and subtypes, as well as the neurotoxin-producing C. botulinum strain in a naturally contaminated food sample. Moreover, the method allowed fine characterization of the different neurotoxin gene cluster components of all studied strains, including genomic regions exhibiting up to 24.65% divergence with the sequences tiled on the arrays. Conclusions/Significance The severity of the disease demands rapid and accurate means for performing risk assessments of BoNT-producing clostridia and for tracing potentials sources of contamination in outbreak situations. The RMA approach constitutes an essential higher echelon component in a diagnostics and surveillance pipeline. In addition, it is an important asset to characterise potential outbreak related strains, but also environment isolates, in order to obtain a better picture of the molecular epidemiology of BoNT-producing clostridia. PMID:23818983

Study of Acoustic Emissions from Composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, James L.; Workman, Gary L.

1997-01-01

The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of future propulsion systems utilizing advanced composite structures for the storage of cryogenic fuels, such as liquid hydrogen or oxygen, presents many challenges. Economic justification for these structures requires light weight, reusable components with an infrastructure allowing periodic evaluation of structural integrity after enduring demanding stresses during operation. A major focus has been placed on the use of acoustic emission NDE to detect propagating defects, in service, necessitating an extensive study into characterizing the nature of acoustic signal propagation at very low temperatures and developing the methodology of applying AE sensors to monitor cryogenic components. This work addresses the question of sensor performance in the cryogenic environment. Problems involving sensor mounting, spectral response and durability are addressed. The results of this work provides a common point of measure from which sensor selection can be made when testing composite components at cryogenic temperatures.

Targeted profiling of hydrophilic constituents of royal jelly by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Pina, Athanasia; Begou, Olga; Kanelis, Dimitris; Gika, Helen; Kalogiannis, Stavros; Tananaki, Chrysoula; Theodoridis, Georgios; Zotou, Anastasia

2018-01-05

In the present work a Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) method was developed for the efficient separation and quantification of a large number of small polar bioactive molecules in Royal Jelly. The method was validated and provided satisfactory detection sensitivity for 88 components. Quantification was proven to be precise for 64 components exhibiting good linearity, recoveries R% >90% for the majority of analytes and intra- and inter-day precision from 0.14 to 20% RSD. Analysis of 125 fresh royal jelly samples of Greek origin provided useful information on royal jelly's hydrophilic bioactive components revealing lysine, ribose, proline, melezitose and glutamic acid to be in high abundance. In addition the occurrence of 18 hydrophilic nutrients which have not been reported previously as royal jelly constituents is shown. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determination of active components of Ginkgo biloba in human urine by capillary high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry with on-line column-switching purification.

PubMed

Ding, Shujing; Dudley, Ed; Chen, Lijuan; Plummer, Sue; Tang, Jiandong; Newton, Russell P; Brenton, A Gareth

2006-01-01

Ginkgo biloba is one of the most popular herbal nutritional supplements, with terpene lactones and flavonoids being the two major active components. An on-line purification high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) method was successfully developed for the quantitative determination of flavonoids and terpene lactones excreted in human urine after ingesting the herbal supplement. Satisfactory separation was obtained using a C18 capillary column made in-house with sample clean-up and pre-concentration achieved using a C18 pre-column with column switching. High selectivity and limits of detection of 1-18 ng/mL were achieved using a selected ion monitoring (SIM) scan in negative ion mode; the on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) recovery of the active components in Ginkgo biloba determined in this study was greater than 75%. Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Design challenges in nanoparticle-based platforms: Implications for targeted drug delivery systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mullen, Douglas Gurnett

Characterization and control of heterogeneous distributions of nanoparticle-ligand components are major design challenges for nanoparticle-based platforms. This dissertation begins with an examination of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-based targeted delivery platform. A folic acid targeted modular platform was developed to target human epithelial cancer cells. Although active targeting was observed in vitro, active targeting was not found in vivo using a mouse tumor model. A major flaw of this platform design was that it did not provide for characterization or control of the component distribution. Motivated by the problems experienced with the modular design, the actual composition of nanoparticle-ligand distributions were examined using a model dendrimer-ligand system. High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) resolved the distribution of components in samples with mean ligand/dendrimer ratios ranging from 0.4 to 13. A peak fitting analysis enabled the quantification of the component distribution. Quantified distributions were found to be significantly more heterogeneous than commonly expected and standard analytical parameters, namely the mean ligand/nanoparticle ratio, failed to adequately represent the component heterogeneity. The distribution of components was also found to be sensitive to particle modifications that preceded the ligand conjugation. With the knowledge gained from this detailed distribution analysis, a new platform design was developed to provide a system with dramatically improved control over the number of components and with improved batch reproducibility. Using semi-preparative HPLC, individual dendrimer-ligand components were isolated. The isolated dendrimer with precise numbers of ligands were characterized by NMR and analytical HPLC. In total, nine different dendrimer-ligand components were obtained with degrees of purity ≥80%. This system has the potential to serve as a platform to which a precise number of functional molecules can be attached and has the potential to dramatically improve platform efficacy. An additional investigation of reproducibility challenges for current dendrimer-based platform designs is also described. The mass transport quality during the partial acetylation reaction of the dendrimer was found to have a major impact on subsequent dendrimer-ligand distributions that cannot be detected by standard analytical techniques. Consequently, this reaction should be eliminated from the platform design. Finally, optimized protocols for purification and characterization of PAMAM dendrimer were detailed.

A high performance parallel computing architecture for robust image features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Renyan; Liu, Leibo; Wei, Shaojun

2014-03-01

A design of parallel architecture for image feature detection and description is proposed in this article. The major component of this architecture is a 2D cellular network composed of simple reprogrammable processors, enabling the Hessian Blob Detector and Haar Response Calculation, which are the most computing-intensive stage of the Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm. Combining this 2D cellular network and dedicated hardware for SURF descriptors, this architecture achieves real-time image feature detection with minimal software in the host processor. A prototype FPGA implementation of the proposed architecture achieves 1318.9 GOPS general pixel processing @ 100 MHz clock and achieves up to 118 fps in VGA (640 × 480) image feature detection. The proposed architecture is stand-alone and scalable so it is easy to be migrated into VLSI implementation.

Laboratory Detection and Analysis of Organic Compounds in Rocks Using HPLC and XRD Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dragoi, D.; Kanik, I.; Bar-Cohen, Y.; Sherrit, S.; Tsapin, A.; Kulleck, J.

2004-01-01

In this work we describe an analytical method for determining the presence of organic compounds in rocks, limestone, and other composite materials. Our preliminary laboratory experiments on different rocks/limestone show that the organic component in mineralogical matrices is a minor phase on order of hundreds of ppm and can be better detected using high precision liquid chromatography (HPLC). The matrix, which is the major phase, plays an important role in embedding and protecting the organic molecules from the harsh Martian environment. Some rocks bear significant amounts of amino acids therefore, it is possible to identify these phases using powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) by crystallizing the organic. The method of detection/analysis of organics, in particular amino acids, that have been associated with life will be shown in the next section.

Current Status of Hybrid Bearing Damage Detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dempsey, Paula J.; Certo, Joseph M.; Morales, Wilfredo

2004-01-01

Advances in material development and processing have led to the introduction of ceramic hybrid bearings for many applications. The introduction of silicon nitride hybrid bearings into the high pressure oxidizer turbopump, on the space shuttle main engine, led NASA to solve a highly persistent and troublesome bearing problem. Hybrid bearings consist of ceramic balls and steel races. The majority of hybrid bearings utilize Si3N4 balls. The aerospace industry is currently studying the use of hybrid bearings and naturally the failure modes of these bearings become an issue in light of the limited data available. In today s turbine engines and helicopter transmissions, the health of the bearings is detected by the properties of the debris found in the lubrication line when damage begins to occur. Current oil debris sensor technology relies on the magnetic properties of the debris to detect damage. Since the ceramic rolling elements of hybrid bearings have no metallic properties, a new sensing system must be developed to indicate the system health if ceramic components are to be safely implemented in aerospace applications. The ceramic oil debris sensor must be capable of detecting ceramic and metallic component damage with sufficient reliability and forewarning to prevent a catastrophic failure. The objective of this research is to provide a background summary on what is currently known about hybrid bearing failure modes and to report preliminary results on the detection of silicon nitride debris, in oil, using a commercial particle counter.

Detection of molecular signatures of oral squamous cell carcinoma and normal epithelium - application of a novel methodology for unsupervised segmentation of imaging mass spectrometry data.

PubMed

Widlak, Piotr; Mrukwa, Grzegorz; Kalinowska, Magdalena; Pietrowska, Monika; Chekan, Mykola; Wierzgon, Janusz; Gawin, Marta; Drazek, Grzegorz; Polanska, Joanna

2016-06-01

Intra-tumor heterogeneity is a vivid problem of molecular oncology that could be addressed by imaging mass spectrometry. Here we aimed to assess molecular heterogeneity of oral squamous cell carcinoma and to detect signatures discriminating normal and cancerous epithelium. Tryptic peptides were analyzed by MALDI-IMS in tissue specimens from five patients with oral cancer. Novel algorithm of IMS data analysis was developed and implemented, which included Gaussian mixture modeling for detection of spectral components and iterative k-means algorithm for unsupervised spectra clustering performed in domain reduced to a subset of the most dispersed components. About 4% of the detected peptides showed significantly different abundances between normal epithelium and tumor, and could be considered as a molecular signature of oral cancer. Moreover, unsupervised clustering revealed two major sub-regions within expert-defined tumor areas. One of them showed molecular similarity with histologically normal epithelium. The other one showed similarity with connective tissue, yet was markedly different from normal epithelium. Pathologist's re-inspection of tissue specimens confirmed distinct features in both tumor sub-regions: foci of actual cancer cells or cancer microenvironment-related cells prevailed in corresponding areas. Hence, molecular differences detected during automated segmentation of IMS data had an apparent reflection in real structures present in tumor. © 2016 The Authors. Proteomics Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Robust Spacecraft Component Detection in Point Clouds.

PubMed

Wei, Quanmao; Jiang, Zhiguo; Zhang, Haopeng

2018-03-21

Automatic component detection of spacecraft can assist in on-orbit operation and space situational awareness. Spacecraft are generally composed of solar panels and cuboidal or cylindrical modules. These components can be simply represented by geometric primitives like plane, cuboid and cylinder. Based on this prior, we propose a robust automatic detection scheme to automatically detect such basic components of spacecraft in three-dimensional (3D) point clouds. In the proposed scheme, cylinders are first detected in the iteration of the energy-based geometric model fitting and cylinder parameter estimation. Then, planes are detected by Hough transform and further described as bounded patches with their minimum bounding rectangles. Finally, the cuboids are detected with pair-wise geometry relations from the detected patches. After successive detection of cylinders, planar patches and cuboids, a mid-level geometry representation of the spacecraft can be delivered. We tested the proposed component detection scheme on spacecraft 3D point clouds synthesized by computer-aided design (CAD) models and those recovered by image-based reconstruction, respectively. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed scheme can detect the basic geometric components effectively and has fine robustness against noise and point distribution density.

Robust Spacecraft Component Detection in Point Clouds

PubMed Central

Wei, Quanmao; Jiang, Zhiguo

2018-01-01

Automatic component detection of spacecraft can assist in on-orbit operation and space situational awareness. Spacecraft are generally composed of solar panels and cuboidal or cylindrical modules. These components can be simply represented by geometric primitives like plane, cuboid and cylinder. Based on this prior, we propose a robust automatic detection scheme to automatically detect such basic components of spacecraft in three-dimensional (3D) point clouds. In the proposed scheme, cylinders are first detected in the iteration of the energy-based geometric model fitting and cylinder parameter estimation. Then, planes are detected by Hough transform and further described as bounded patches with their minimum bounding rectangles. Finally, the cuboids are detected with pair-wise geometry relations from the detected patches. After successive detection of cylinders, planar patches and cuboids, a mid-level geometry representation of the spacecraft can be delivered. We tested the proposed component detection scheme on spacecraft 3D point clouds synthesized by computer-aided design (CAD) models and those recovered by image-based reconstruction, respectively. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed scheme can detect the basic geometric components effectively and has fine robustness against noise and point distribution density. PMID:29561828

A Natural Component-Based Oxygen Indicator with In-Pack Activation for Intelligent Food Packaging.

PubMed

Won, Keehoon; Jang, Nan Young; Jeon, Junsu

2016-12-28

Intelligent food packaging can provide consumers with reliable and correct information on the quality and safety of packaged foods. One of the key constituents in intelligent packaging is a colorimetric oxygen indicator, which is widely used to detect oxygen gas involved in food spoilage by means of a color change. Traditional oxygen indicators consisting of redox dyes and strong reducing agents have two major problems: they must be manufactured and stored under anaerobic conditions because air depletes the reductant, and their components are synthetic and toxic. To address both of these serious problems, we have developed a natural component-based oxygen indicator characterized by in-pack activation. The conventional oxygen indicator composed of synthetic and artificial components was redesigned using naturally occurring compounds (laccase, guaiacol, and cysteine). These natural components were physically separated into two compartments by a fragile barrier. Only when the barrier was broken were all of the components mixed and the function as an oxygen indicator was begun (i.e., in-pack activation). Depending on the component concentrations, the natural component-based oxygen indicator exhibited different response times and color differences. The rate of the color change was proportional to the oxygen concentration. This novel colorimetric oxygen indicator will contribute greatly to intelligent packaging for healthier and safer foods.

Purification of high-molecular-weight subfraction from porcine skin inhibiting proliferation of A431 human carcinoma epidermoid cells.

PubMed

Belova, O V; Sergienko, V I; Arion, V Ya; Lukanidina, T A; Moskvina, S N; Zimina, I V; Borisenko, G G; Lutsenko, G V; Grechikhina, M V; Kovaleva, E V; Klyuchnikova, Zh I

2014-07-01

Subfraction with a molecular weight >250 kDa isolated from porcine skin and inhibiting the proliferation of A431 human carcinoma epidermoid cells was purified by DEAE 32 anion exchange chromatography with NaCl concentration step-gradient. The effects of the initial subfraction and fractions obtained by separation in DEAE 32 on the proliferation of A431 human carcinoma epidermoid cells were studied in vitro in two tests (MTT and fluorescent test). The more sensitive fluorescent test showed the highest inhibitory activity of fraction No. 2 released from the column at 0.15 M NaCl. One major protein component and a series of minor protein components were detected in this fraction by vertical PAAG-SDS electrophoresis.

Analysis of a risk prevention document using dependability techniques: a first step towards an effectiveness model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrer, Laetitia; Curt, Corinne; Tacnet, Jean-Marc

2018-04-01

Major hazard prevention is a main challenge given that it is specifically based on information communicated to the public. In France, preventive information is notably provided by way of local regulatory documents. Unfortunately, the law requires only few specifications concerning their content; therefore one can question the impact on the general population relative to the way the document is concretely created. Ergo, the purpose of our work is to propose an analytical methodology to evaluate preventive risk communication document effectiveness. The methodology is based on dependability approaches and is applied in this paper to the Document d'Information Communal sur les Risques Majeurs (DICRIM; in English, Municipal Information Document on Major Risks). DICRIM has to be made by mayors and addressed to the public to provide information on major hazards affecting their municipalities. An analysis of law compliance of the document is carried out thanks to the identification of regulatory detection elements. These are applied to a database of 30 DICRIMs. This analysis leads to a discussion on points such as usefulness of the missing elements. External and internal function analysis permits the identification of the form and content requirements and service and technical functions of the document and its components (here its sections). Their results are used to carry out an FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis), which allows us to define the failure and to identify detection elements. This permits the evaluation of the effectiveness of form and content of each components of the document. The outputs are validated by experts from the different fields investigated. Those results are obtained to build, in future works, a decision support model for the municipality (or specialised consulting firms) in charge of drawing up documents.

Development of Methods for the Real-Time and Rapid Identification and Detection of TSE in Living Animals Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy of the Eye

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-07-01

retina . Our experiments have so far been limited to sheep. Our experiments have been designed to address the following questions: 1. Can ocular...We dissected sheep and cow eyes and performed fluorescence spectroscopy on all the major eye components and reports that the cornea, lens, retina ...excitation wavelengths λex = 410, 470, and 520 nm: retina ; optic nerve; outer tissue (sclera); and lens. • Contrary to the conclusions we

Wind shear detection using measurement of aircraft total energy change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joppa, R. G.

1976-01-01

Encounters with wind shears are of concern and have caused major accidents, particularly during landing approaches. Changes in the longitudinal component of the wind affect the aircraft by changing its kinetic energy with respect to the air. It is shown that an instrument which will measure and display the rate of change of total energy of the aircraft with respect to the air will give a leading indication of wind shear problems. The concept is outlined and some instrumentation and display considerations are discussed.

Plant odorants interfere with detection of sex pheromone signals by male Heliothis virescens

PubMed Central

Pregitzer, Pablo; Schubert, Marco; Breer, Heinz; Hansson, Bill S.; Sachse, Silke; Krieger, Jürgen

2012-01-01

In many insects, mate finding relies on female-released sex pheromones, which have to be deciphered by the male olfactory system within an odorous background of plant volatiles present in the environment of a calling female. With respect to pheromone-mediated mate localization, plant odorants may be neutral, favorable, or disturbing. Here we examined the impact of plant odorants on detection and coding of the major sex pheromone component, (Z)-11-hexadecenal (Z11-16:Ald) in the noctuid moth Heliothis virescens. By in vivo imaging the activity in the male antennal lobe (AL), we monitored the interference at the level of olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) to illuminate mixture interactions. The results show that stimulating the male antenna with Z11-16:Ald and distinct plant-related odorants simultaneously suppressed pheromone-evoked activity in the region of the macroglomerular complex (MGC), where Z11-16:Ald-specific OSNs terminate. Based on our previous findings that antennal detection of Z11-16:Ald involves an interplay of the pheromone binding protein (PBP) HvirPBP2 and the pheromone receptor (PR) HR13, we asked if the plant odorants may interfere with any of the elements involved in pheromone detection. Using a competitive fluorescence binding assay, we found that the plant odorants neither bind to HvirPBP2 nor affect the binding of Z11-16:Ald to the protein. However, imaging experiments analyzing a cell line that expressed the receptor HR13 revealed that plant odorants significantly inhibited the Z11-16:Ald-evoked calcium responses. Together the results indicate that plant odorants can interfere with the signaling process of the major sex pheromone component at the receptor level. Consequently, it can be assumed that plant odorants in the environment may reduce the firing activity of pheromone-specific OSNs in H. virescens and thus affect mate localization. PMID:23060749

21 CFR 864.2360 - Mycoplasma detection media and components.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Mycoplasma detection media and components. 864.2360 Section 864.2360 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... § 864.2360 Mycoplasma detection media and components. (a) Identification. Mycoplasma detection media and...

21 CFR 864.2360 - Mycoplasma detection media and components.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Mycoplasma detection media and components. 864.2360 Section 864.2360 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... § 864.2360 Mycoplasma detection media and components. (a) Identification. Mycoplasma detection media and...

21 CFR 864.2360 - Mycoplasma detection media and components.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Mycoplasma detection media and components. 864.2360 Section 864.2360 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... § 864.2360 Mycoplasma detection media and components. (a) Identification. Mycoplasma detection media and...

21 CFR 864.2360 - Mycoplasma detection media and components.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Mycoplasma detection media and components. 864.2360 Section 864.2360 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... § 864.2360 Mycoplasma detection media and components. (a) Identification. Mycoplasma detection media and...

Screening Active Components from Yu-Ping-Feng-San for Regulating Initiative Key Factors in Allergic Sensitization

PubMed Central

Zhu, Zhijie; Yu, Xi; Liu, Hailiang; Wang, Huizhu; Fan, Hongwei; Wang, Dawei; Jiang, Guorong; Hong, Min

2014-01-01

Yu-ping-feng-san (YPFS) is a Chinese medical formula that is used clinically for allergic diseases and characterized by reducing allergy relapse. Our previous studies demonstrated that YPFS efficiently inhibited T helper 2 cytokines in allergic inflammation. The underlying mechanisms of action of YPFS and its effective components remain unclear. In this study, it was shown that YPFS significantly inhibited production of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), an epithelial cell-derived initiative factor in allergic inflammation, in vitro and in vivo. A method of human bronchial epithelial cell (16HBE) binding combined with HPLC-MS (named 16HBE-HPLC-MS) was established to explore potential active components of YPFS. The following five components bound to 16HBE cells: calycosin-7-glucoside, ononin, claycosin, sec-o-glucosylhamaudol and formononetin. Serum from YPFS-treated mice was analyzed and three major components were detected claycosin, formononetin and cimifugin. Among these, claycosin and formononetin were detected by 16HBE-HPLC-MS and in the serum of YPFS-treated mice. Claycosin and formononetin decreased the level of TSLP markedly at the initial stage of allergic inflammation in vivo. Nuclear factor (NF)-κB, a key transcription factor in TSLP production, was also inhibited by claycosin and formononetin, either in terms of transcriptional activation or its nuclear translocation in vitro. Allergic inflammation was reduced by claycosin and formononetin when they are administered only at the initial stage in a murine model of atopic contact dermatitis. Thus, epithelial cell binding combined with HPLC-MS is a valid method for screening active components from complex mixtures of Chinese medicine. It was demonstrated that the compounds screened from YPFS significantly attenuated allergic inflammation probably by reducing TSLP production via regulating NF-κB activation. PMID:25198676

Profiling of volatile fragrant components in a mini-core collection of mango germplasms from seven countries

PubMed Central

Zhan, Ru-Lin; Wu, Hong-Xia; Yao, Quan-Sheng; Xu, Wen-Tian; Luo, Chun; Zhou, Yi-Gang; Liang, Qing-Zhi; Wang, Song-Biao

2017-01-01

Aroma is important in assessing the quality of fresh fruit and their processed products, and could provide good indicators for the development of local cultivars in the mango industry. In this study, the volatile diversity of 25 mango cultivars from China, America, Thailand, India, Cuba, Indonesia, and the Philippines was investigated. The volatile compositions, their relative contents, and the intervarietal differences were detected with headspace solid phase microextraction tandem gas chromatography-mass spectrometer methods. The similarities were also evaluated with a cluster analysis and correlation analysis of the volatiles. The differences in mango volatiles in different districts are also discussed. Our results show significant differences in the volatile compositions and their relative contents among the individual cultivars and regions. In total, 127 volatiles were found in all the cultivars, belonging to various chemical classes. The highest and lowest qualitative abundances of volatiles were detected in ‘Zihua’ and ‘Mallika’ cultivars, respectively. Based on the cumulative occurrence of members of the classes of volatiles, the cultivars were grouped into monoterpenes (16 cultivars), proportion and balanced (eight cultivars), and nonterpene groups (one cultivars). Terpene hydrocarbons were the major volatiles in these cultivars, with terpinolene, 3-carene, caryophyllene and α-Pinene the dominant components depending on the cultivars. Monoterpenes, some of the primary volatile components, were the most abundant aroma compounds, whereas aldehydes were the least abundant in the mango pulp. β-Myrcene, a major terpene, accounted for 58.93% of the total flavor volatile compounds in ‘Xiaofei’ (Philippens). γ-Octanoic lactone was the only ester in the total flavor volatile compounds, with its highest concentration in ‘Guiya’ (China). Hexamethyl cyclotrisiloxane was the most abundant volatile compound in ‘Magovar’ (India), accounting for 46.66% of the total flavor volatiles. A typical aldehydic aroma 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-sec-butylphenol, was detected in ‘Gleck’. A highly significant positive correlation was detected between Alc and K, Alk and Nt, O and L. Cultivars originating from America, Thailand, Cuba, India, Indonesia and the Philippines were more similar to each other than to those from China. This study provides a high-value dataset for use in development of health care products, diversified mango breeding, and local extension of mango cultivars. PMID:29211747

Nutrients and pesticides in ground water of the Ozark Plateaus in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma

USGS Publications Warehouse

Adamski, James C.

1997-01-01

A total of 229 ground-water samples were collected from 215 sites as part of the Ozark Plateaus study unit of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. These samples were collected from 1993 through 1995 using a network of springs and wells with three scale-dependent components. The first component, the study-unit survey, consisted of 99 randomly selected springs and domestic wells in the Springfield Plateau and Ozark aquifers. The second component, two land-use studies, consisted of 42 springs and domestic wells in a poultry-dominated agricultural area and 40 springs and domestic wells in a cattle-dominated agricultural area overlying the Springfield Plateau aquifer. The third component, the small-watershed study, consisted of 4 springs, 18 domestic wells, and 11 monitoring wells in a small basin within the poultry land-use study area. Samples were analyzed for major ions, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon, methylene blue active substances, tritium, and 88 pesticides and metabolites.The water-quality data from these samples were analyzed with descriptive and statistical methods. Nitrite plus nitrate, which was detected more often and in greater concentrations than any of the other nutrients, ranged from less than 0.05 to 25 milligrams per liter as nitrogen. Nitrite plus nitrate concentrations positively correlated to percent agricultural land use around each site. Median nitrite plus nitrate concentrations generally were greater in samples from springs than in samples from wells. Concentrations of nitrite, ammonia, and ammonia plus organic nitrogen were also affected by land use and also by concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the ground water. Concentrations of phosphorus and orthophosphate probably were affected by land use and also by phosphorus solubility. Pesticides were detected in 80 of 229 samples from 73 of 215 sites. A total of 20 pesticides were detected with a maximum of 5 pesticides detected in any 1 sample. The most commonly detected pesticides were tebuthiuron, atrazine, prometon, desethylatrazine, and simazine. Maximum concentrations ranged from 0.003 to 1.0 microgram per liter. The occurrence and distribution of pesticides were related to land use. Percent agricultural land use was greater for samples with pesticides detected than for samples with no pesticides detected. Pesticides were detected more often in samples from springs than in samples from wells. The occurrence of pesticides also was related to seasonality and chemical characteristics, such as solubility and persistence, of the compounds.

Biochemical and immunochemical analyses of detergent solubilized antigens from membrane vesicles of Aspergillus fumigatus.

PubMed

Piechura, J E; Riefel, R S; Daft, L J

1987-11-01

A membrane vesicle fraction isolated from exponentially growing Aspergillus fumigatus strain Ag 507 cultures was obtained by mechanical disruption of intact Aspergillus cells under specific osmotic conditions followed by a pH fractionation technique. Electron micrographs of the membrane vesicles indicated unit membrane structures free from cell wall material. High glucose-6-phosphatase and low lactate dehydrogenase activities verified the relative purity of the membrane vesicle fraction. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) patient and normal human sera were incubated with the membrane vesicle fraction followed by colloidal gold tagged rabbit antiserum to human IgG or IgE. Electron micrographs indicated ABPA patient sera possessed specific IgG and IgE antibodies to membranous components. The detergent octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside was used to extract membrane vesicle components (MC). The enzyme profile of MC compared with cell sap components (CS) showed differences in types of enzymes. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analyses of MC and CS detected components shared as well as unique to each fraction. In crossed immunoelectrophoresis using both rabbit antisera raised to MC and ABPA patient sera, 5 peaks were detected, while analysis of CS using rabbit antisera raised to CS produced 20 major peaks. Immunoelectrophoresis and double immunodiffusion data supported the crossed immunoelectrophoretic data: MC differed from CS. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay indicated high specific IgG and IgE antibody levels to MC in ABPA patient sera. Crossed immuno-affinoelectrophoresis with concanavalin A partially characterized the MC, which consist of components which have glycoprotein elements (i.e., containing alpha-D-glucose or alpha-D-mannose).

An Enhanced Smoke Detection Using MODIS Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Y.; Qu, J.; Xiong, X.; Hao, X.; Wang, W.; Wang, L.

2005-12-01

Smoke emitted from wildfire fires or prescribed fires is one of the major pollutions that pose a risk to human health and affect the air quality significantly. The remote sensing technique has been demonstrated as an efficient approach for detecting and tracing smoke plume. As a mixture pollutant, smoke does not have stable spectral signature because of diversified component mixing levels in different situation, but it has some particular characteristics different from others such as cloud, soil, water and so on. In earlier studies, we have already developed a multi-threshold algorithm to detect smoke in the eastern United States by combining both MODIS reflective solar bands and thermal emissive bands measurements. In order to apply out approach to global scale, we have enhanced the smoke detection algorithm by taking the land surface type into account. Smoke pixels will be output as well as the confidence in the quality of product in final result. In addition, smoke detection is also helpful to fire detection. With current fire detection algorithm, some small and cool fires can not be detected. However, understanding the features and spread direction of smoke can provide us a potential way to identify these fires.

Damage Assessment of Creep Tested and Thermally Aged Metallic Alloys Using Acousto-Ultrasonics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gyekenyesi, Andrew L.; Kautz, Harold E.; Baaklini, George Y.

2001-01-01

In recent years emphasis has been placed on the early detection of material changes experienced in turbine powerplant components. During the scheduled overhaul of a turbine, the current techniques of examination of various hot section components aim to find flaws such as cracks, wear, and erosion, as well as excessive deformations. Thus far, these localized damage modes have been detected with satisfactory results. However, the techniques used to find these flaws provide no information on life until the flaws are actually detected. Major improvements in damage assessment, safety, as well as more accurate life prediction could be achieved if nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques could be utilized to sense material changes that occur prior to the localized defects mentioned. Because of elevated temperatures and excessive stresses, turbine components may experience creep behavior. As a result, it is desirable to monitor and access the current condition of such components. Research at the NASA Glenn Research Center involves developing and utilizing an NDE technique that discloses distributed material changes that occur prior to the localized damage detected by the current methods of inspection. In a recent study, creep processes in a nickel-base alloy were the life-limiting condition of interest, and the NDE technique was acousto-ultrasonics (AU). AU is an NDE technique that utilizes two ultrasonic transducers to interrogate the condition of a test specimen. The sending transducer introduces an ultrasonic pulse at a point on the surface of the specimen while a receiving transducer detects the signal after it has passed through the material. The goal of the method is to correlate certain parameters of the detected waveform to characteristics of the material between the two transducers. Here, the waveform parameter of interest is the attenuation due to internal damping for which information is being garnered from the frequency domain. The parameters utilized to indirectly quantify the attenuation are the ultrasonic decay rate as well as various moments of the frequency power spectrum. A new, user-friendly, graphical interface AU system was developed at NASA Glenn. This system is an all-inclusive, multifunction system that controls the sending and receiving ultrasonic transducers as well as all posttest signal analysis. The system's postprocessing software calculates the multiple parameters used to study the material of interest.

An automated and integrated framework for dust storm detection based on ogc web processing services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, F.; Shea, G. Y. K.; Wong, M. S.; Campbell, J.

2014-11-01

Dust storms are known to have adverse effects on public health. Atmospheric dust loading is also one of the major uncertainties in global climatic modelling as it is known to have a significant impact on the radiation budget and atmospheric stability. The complexity of building scientific dust storm models is coupled with the scientific computation advancement, ongoing computing platform development, and the development of heterogeneous Earth Observation (EO) networks. It is a challenging task to develop an integrated and automated scheme for dust storm detection that combines Geo-Processing frameworks, scientific models and EO data together to enable the dust storm detection and tracking processes in a dynamic and timely manner. This study develops an automated and integrated framework for dust storm detection and tracking based on the Web Processing Services (WPS) initiated by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The presented WPS framework consists of EO data retrieval components, dust storm detecting and tracking component, and service chain orchestration engine. The EO data processing component is implemented based on OPeNDAP standard. The dust storm detecting and tracking component combines three earth scientific models, which are SBDART model (for computing aerosol optical depth (AOT) of dust particles), WRF model (for simulating meteorological parameters) and HYSPLIT model (for simulating the dust storm transport processes). The service chain orchestration engine is implemented based on Business Process Execution Language for Web Service (BPEL4WS) using open-source software. The output results, including horizontal and vertical AOT distribution of dust particles as well as their transport paths, were represented using KML/XML and displayed in Google Earth. A serious dust storm, which occurred over East Asia from 26 to 28 Apr 2012, is used to test the applicability of the proposed WPS framework. Our aim here is to solve a specific instance of a complex EO data and scientific model integration problem by using a framework and scientific workflow approach together. The experimental result shows that this newly automated and integrated framework can be used to give advance near real-time warning of dust storms, for both environmental authorities and public. The methods presented in this paper might be also generalized to other types of Earth system models, leading to improved ease of use and flexibility.

NMESys: An expert system for network fault detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Peter C.; Warpinski, Janet

1991-01-01

The problem of network management is becoming an increasingly difficult and challenging task. It is very common today to find heterogeneous networks consisting of many different types of computers, operating systems, and protocols. The complexity of implementing a network with this many components is difficult enough, while the maintenance of such a network is an even larger problem. A prototype network management expert system, NMESys, implemented in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS). NMESys concentrates on solving some of the critical problems encountered in managing a large network. The major goal of NMESys is to provide a network operator with an expert system tool to quickly and accurately detect hard failures, potential failures, and to minimize or eliminate user down time in a large network.

Lipophilic extracts from banana fruit residues: a source of valuable phytosterols.

PubMed

Oliveira, Lúcia; Freire, Carmen S R; Silvestre, Armando J D; Cordeiro, Nereida

2008-10-22

The chemical composition of the lipophilic extracts of unripe pulp and peel of banana fruit 'Dwarf Cavendish' was studied by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Fatty acids, sterols, and steryl esters are the major families of lipophilic components present in banana tissues, followed by diacylglycerols, steryl glucosides, long chain fatty alcohols, and aromatic compounds. Fatty acids are more abundant in the banana pulp (29-90% of the total amount of lipophilic extract), with linoleic, linolenic, and oleic acids as the major compounds of this family. In banana peel, sterols represent about 49-71% of the lipophilic extract with two triterpenic ketones (31-norcyclolaudenone and cycloeucalenone) as the major components. The detection of high amounts of steryl esters (469-24405 mg/kg) and diacylglycerols (119-878 mg/kg), mainly present in the banana peel extract, explains the increase in the abundance of fatty acids and sterols after alkaline hydrolysis. Several steryl glucosides were also found in significative amounts (273-888 mg/kg), particularly in banana pulp (888 mg/kg). The high content of sterols (and their derivatives) in the 'Dwarf Cavendish' fruit can open new strategies for the valorization of the banana residues as a potential source of high-value phytochemicals with nutraceutical and functional food additive applications.

Thermal Decomposition of Calcium Perchlorate/Iron-Mineral Mixtures: Implications of the Evolved Oxygen from the Rocknest Eolian Deposit in Gale Crater, Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bruck, A. M.; Sutter, B.; Ming, D. W.; Mahaffy, P.

2014-01-01

A major oxygen release between 300 and 500 C was detected by the Mars Curiosity Rover Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument at the Rocknest eolian deposit. Thermal decomposition of perchlorate (ClO4-) salts in the Rocknest samples are a possible explanation for this evolved oxygen release. Releative to Na-, K-, Mg-, and Fe-perchlorate, the thermal decomposition of Ca-perchlorate in laboratory experiments released O2 in the temperature range (400-500degC) closest to the O2 release temperatures observed for the Rocknest material. Furthermore, calcium perchlorate could have been the source of Cl in the chlorinated-hydrocarbons species that were detected by SAM. Different components in the Martian soil could affect the decomposition temperature of calcium per-chlorate or another oxychlorine species. This interaction of the two components in the soil could result in O2 release temperatures consistent with those detected by SAM in the Rocknest materials. The decomposition temperatures of various alkali metal perchlorates are known to decrease in the presence of a catalyst. The objective of this work is to investigate catalytic interactions on calcium perchlorate from various iron-bearing minerals known to be present in the Rocknest material

A comparison of robust principal component analysis techniques for buried object detection in downward looking GPR sensor data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinar, Anthony; Havens, Timothy C.; Rice, Joseph; Masarik, Matthew; Burns, Joseph; Thelen, Brian

2016-05-01

Explosive hazards are a deadly threat in modern conflicts; hence, detecting them before they cause injury or death is of paramount importance. One method of buried explosive hazard discovery relies on data collected from ground penetrating radar (GPR) sensors. Threat detection with downward looking GPR is challenging due to large returns from non-target objects and clutter. This leads to a large number of false alarms (FAs), and since the responses of clutter and targets can form very similar signatures, classifier design is not trivial. One approach to combat these issues uses robust principal component analysis (RPCA) to enhance target signatures while suppressing clutter and background responses, though there are many versions of RPCA. This work applies some of these RPCA techniques to GPR sensor data and evaluates their merit using the peak signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) of the RPCA-processed B-scans. Experimental results on government furnished data show that while some of the RPCA methods yield similar results, there are indeed some methods that outperform others. Furthermore, we show that the computation time required by the different RPCA methods varies widely, and the selection of tuning parameters in the RPCA algorithms has a major effect on the peak SCR.

Detection and diagnosis of periodontal conditions amenable to prevention

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Gingivitis and chronic periodontitis are highly prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases. Gingivitis affects the majority of people, and advanced periodontitis is estimated to affect 5-15% of adults. The detection and diagnosis of these common diseases is a fundamentally important component of oral health care. All patients should undergo periodontal assessment as part of routine oral examination. Periodontal screening using methods such as the Basic Periodontal Examination/Community Periodontal Index or Periodontal Screening Record should be performed for all new patients, and also on a regular basis as part of ongoing oral health care. If periodontitis is identified, full periodontal assessment is required, involving recording of full mouth probing and bleeding data, together with assessment of other relevant parameters such as plaque levels, furcation involvement, recession and tooth mobility. Radiographic assessment of alveolar bone levels is driven by the clinical situation, and is required to assess bone destruction in patients with periodontitis. Risk assessment (such as assessing diabetes status and smoking) and risk management (such as promoting smoking cessation) should form a central component of periodontal therapy. This article provides guidance to the oral health care team regarding methods and frequencies of appropriate clinical and radiographic examinations to assess periodontal status, to enable appropriate detection and diagnosis of periodontal conditions. PMID:26390822

Swallowable fluorometric capsule for wireless triage of gastrointestinal bleeding.

PubMed

Nemiroski, A; Ryou, M; Thompson, C C; Westervelt, R M

2015-12-07

Real-time detection of gastrointestinal bleeding remains a major challenge because there does not yet exist a minimally invasive technology that can both i) monitor for blood from an active hemorrhage and ii) uniquely distinguish it from blood left over from an inactive hemorrhage. Such a device would be an important tool for clinical triage. One promising solution, which we have proposed previously, is to inject a fluorescent dye into the blood stream and to use it as a distinctive marker of active bleeding by monitoring leakage into the gastrointestinal tract with a wireless fluorometer. This paper reports, for the first time to our knowledge, the development of a swallowable, wireless capsule with a built-in fluorometer capable of detecting fluorescein in blood, and intended for monitoring gastrointestinal bleeding in the stomach. The embedded, compact fluorometer uses pinholes to define a microliter sensing volume and to eliminate bulky optical components. The proof-of-concept capsule integrates optics, low-noise analog sensing electronics, a microcontroller, battery, and low power Zigbee radio, all into a cylindrical package measuring 11 mm × 27 mm and weighing 10 g. Bench-top experiments demonstrate wireless fluorometry with a limit-of-detection of 20 nM aqueous fluorescein. This device represents a major step towards a technology that would enable simple, rapid detection of active gastrointestinal bleeding, a capability that would save precious time and resources and, ultimately, reduce complications in patients.

Antibacterial activity and GC/MS analysis of the essential oils from flower, leaf and stem of Origanum vulgare ssp. viride growing wild in north-west Iran.

PubMed

Shafaghat, Ali

2011-09-01

Essential oils obtained from flowers, leaves and stems of Origanum vulgare L. ssp. viride (Boiss.) Hayek., growing wild in Ardabil Province (north-west Iran), were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. beta-Caryophyllene was the major constituent in all three oils (48.1%, 50.1% and 60.2%, respectively). Of the 19 components detected in the flower oil, comprising 96.3% of the total, the major components were 1,8-cineole (11.6%), alpha-pinene (6.9%), and gamma-cadinene (4.8%). 1-Octen-3-ol (23.8%), and 1,8-cineole (8.5%) predominated in the leafoil. In the stem oil, other main constituents were bicyclogermacrene (9.8%), 1,8-cineole (6.4%), borneol (5.1%), and pinocarvone (4.4%). The essential oils were evaluated for their antibacterial activity against 10 selected microorganisms. The data obtained contribute to the future use of certain essential oils as natural preservatives for food products, due to their safety and positive effect on shelf life.

Major Odorants Released as Urinary Volatiles by Urinary Incontinent Patients

PubMed Central

Pandey, Sudhir Kumar; Kim, Ki-Hyun; Choi, Si On; Sa, In Young; Oh, Soo Yeon

2013-01-01

In this study, volatile urinary components were collected using three different types of samples from patients suffering from urinary incontinence (UI): (1) urine (A); (2) urine + non-used pad (B); and (3) urine + used pad (C). In addition, urine + non-used pad (D) samples from non-patients were also collected as a reference. The collection of urinary volatiles was conducted with the aid of a glass impinger-based mini-chamber method. Each of the four sample types (A through D) was placed in a glass impinger and incubated for 4 hours at 37 °C. Ultra pure air was then passed through the chamber, and volatile urine gas components were collected into Tedlar bags at the other end. These bag samples were then analyzed for a wide range of VOCs and major offensive odorants (e.g., reduced sulfur compounds (RSCs), carbonyls, trimethylamine (TMA), ammonia, etc.). Among the various odorants, sulfur compounds (methanethiol and hydrogen sulfide) and aldehydes (acetaldehyde, butylaldehyde, and isovaleraldehyde) were detected above odor threshold and predicted to contribute most effectively to odor intensity of urine incontinence. PMID:23823973

Profiles of phenolic compounds and purine alkaloids during the development of seeds of Theobroma cacao cv. Trinitario.

PubMed

Pereira-Caro, Gema; Borges, Gina; Nagai, Chifumi; Jackson, Mel C; Yokota, Takao; Crozier, Alan; Ashihara, Hiroshi

2013-01-16

Changes occurring in phenolic compounds and purine alkaloids, during the growth of seeds of cacao (Theobroma cacao) cv. Trinitario, were investigated using HPLC-MS/MS. Extracts of seeds with a fresh weight of 125, 700, 1550, and 2050 mg (stages 1-4, respectively) were analyzed. The phenolic compounds present in highest concentrations in developing and mature seeds (stages 3 and 4) were flavonols and flavan-3-ols. Flavan-3-ols existed as monomers of epicatechin and catechin and as procyanidins. Type B procyanidins were major components and varied from dimers to pentadecamer. Two anthocyanins, cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside and cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, along with the N-phenylpropernoyl-l-amino acids, N-caffeoyl-l-aspartate, N-coumaroyl-l-aspartate, N-coumaroyl-3-hydroxytyrosine (clovamide), and N-coumaroyltyrosine (deoxyclovamide), and the purine alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, were present in stage 3 and 4 seeds. Other purine alkaloids, such as theophylline and additional methylxanthines, did not occur in detectable quantities. Flavan-3-ols were the only components to accumulate in detectable quantities in young seeds at developmental stages 1 and 2.

Oxidation/vaporization of silicide coated columbium base alloys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kohl, F. J.; Stearns, C. A.

1971-01-01

Mass spectrometric and target collection experiments were made at 1600 K to elucidate the mode of oxidative vaporization of two columbium alloys, fused-slurry-coated with a complex silicide former (Si-20Cr-Fe). At oxygen pressures up to 0.0005 torr the major vapor component detected by mass spectrometry for oxidized samples was gaseous silicon monoxide. Analysis of condensates collected at oxygen pressures of 0.1, 1.0 and 10 torr revealed that chromium-, silicon-, iron- and tungsten- containing species were the major products of vaporization. Equilibrium thermochemical diagrams were constructed for the metal-oxygen system corresponding to each constituent metal in both the coating and base alloy. The major vaporizing species are expected to be the gaseous oxides of chromium, silicon, iron and tungsten. Plots of vapor phase composition and maximum vaporization rate versus oxygen pressure were calculated for each coating constituent. The major contribution to weight loss by vaporization at oxygen pressures above 1 torr was shown to be the chromium-containing species.

High-throughput multiplex HLA-typing by ligase detection reaction (LDR) and universal array (UA) approach.

PubMed

Consolandi, Clarissa

2009-01-01

One major goal of genetic research is to understand the role of genetic variation in living systems. In humans, by far the most common type of such variation involves differences in single DNA nucleotides, and is thus termed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). The need for improvement in throughput and reliability of traditional techniques makes it necessary to develop new technologies. Thus the past few years have witnessed an extraordinary surge of interest in DNA microarray technology. This new technology offers the first great hope for providing a systematic way to explore the genome. It permits a very rapid analysis of thousands genes for the purpose of gene discovery, sequencing, mapping, expression, and polymorphism detection. We generated a series of analytical tools to address the manufacturing, detection and data analysis components of a microarray experiment. In particular, we set up a universal array approach in combination with a PCR-LDR (polymerase chain reaction-ligation detection reaction) strategy for allele identification in the HLA gene.

A Sparsity-Promoted Method Based on Majorization-Minimization for Weak Fault Feature Enhancement

PubMed Central

Hao, Yansong; Song, Liuyang; Tang, Gang; Yuan, Hongfang

2018-01-01

Fault transient impulses induced by faulty components in rotating machinery usually contain substantial interference. Fault features are comparatively weak in the initial fault stage, which renders fault diagnosis more difficult. In this case, a sparse representation method based on the Majorzation-Minimization (MM) algorithm is proposed to enhance weak fault features and extract the features from strong background noise. However, the traditional MM algorithm suffers from two issues, which are the choice of sparse basis and complicated calculations. To address these challenges, a modified MM algorithm is proposed in which a sparse optimization objective function is designed firstly. Inspired by the Basis Pursuit (BP) model, the optimization function integrates an impulsive feature-preserving factor and a penalty function factor. Second, a modified Majorization iterative method is applied to address the convex optimization problem of the designed function. A series of sparse coefficients can be achieved through iterating, which only contain transient components. It is noteworthy that there is no need to select the sparse basis in the proposed iterative method because it is fixed as a unit matrix. Then the reconstruction step is omitted, which can significantly increase detection efficiency. Eventually, envelope analysis of the sparse coefficients is performed to extract weak fault features. Simulated and experimental signals including bearings and gearboxes are employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. In addition, comparisons are made to prove that the proposed method outperforms the traditional MM algorithm in terms of detection results and efficiency. PMID:29597280

A Sparsity-Promoted Method Based on Majorization-Minimization for Weak Fault Feature Enhancement.

PubMed

Ren, Bangyue; Hao, Yansong; Wang, Huaqing; Song, Liuyang; Tang, Gang; Yuan, Hongfang

2018-03-28

Fault transient impulses induced by faulty components in rotating machinery usually contain substantial interference. Fault features are comparatively weak in the initial fault stage, which renders fault diagnosis more difficult. In this case, a sparse representation method based on the Majorzation-Minimization (MM) algorithm is proposed to enhance weak fault features and extract the features from strong background noise. However, the traditional MM algorithm suffers from two issues, which are the choice of sparse basis and complicated calculations. To address these challenges, a modified MM algorithm is proposed in which a sparse optimization objective function is designed firstly. Inspired by the Basis Pursuit (BP) model, the optimization function integrates an impulsive feature-preserving factor and a penalty function factor. Second, a modified Majorization iterative method is applied to address the convex optimization problem of the designed function. A series of sparse coefficients can be achieved through iterating, which only contain transient components. It is noteworthy that there is no need to select the sparse basis in the proposed iterative method because it is fixed as a unit matrix. Then the reconstruction step is omitted, which can significantly increase detection efficiency. Eventually, envelope analysis of the sparse coefficients is performed to extract weak fault features. Simulated and experimental signals including bearings and gearboxes are employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. In addition, comparisons are made to prove that the proposed method outperforms the traditional MM algorithm in terms of detection results and efficiency.

Developing an effective lung cancer program in a community hospital setting.

PubMed

Fischel, Richard J; Dillman, Robert O

2009-07-01

Lung cancer remains the number one cause of cancer-based mortality in men and women. The importance of proper lung cancer care outside of major academic centers cannot be overemphasized because the vast majority of lung cancer care occurs in community hospital settings. We have had the opportunity to develop a highly successful community hospital-based lung cancer program. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, we have achieved steadily improving survival rates that are much higher than those observed nationally for patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Key components of this successful program include: (1) a weekly multidisciplinary lung cancer case conference with medical doctor representatives from medical oncology, thoracic surgery, pulmonary medicine, radiology, radiation oncology, and nuclear medicine who discuss patient presentation, test results, treatment history, and plans for therapy; (2) thoracic surgeons skilled in minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery; (3) nurse navigator/coordinators to help patients through the process from detection to recovery and provide a personal bond that greatly improves patient satisfaction; (4) utilization of treatment guidelines for patient-specific treatment strategies; (5) formal continuing medical education; (6) an emphasis on early detection that includes consideration of computed tomography screening of former smokers; (6) a cancer center that allows for many services to be offered at a single location for patient convenience and to promote interdisciplinary care; and (7) access to research protocols. These components have helped us provide a quality lung cancer program in a community hospital setting that is associated with excellent clinical outcomes.

Motorcyclists safety system to avoid rear end collisions based on acoustic signatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muzammel, M.; Yusoff, M. Zuki; Malik, A. Saeed; Mohamad Saad, M. Naufal; Meriaudeau, F.

2017-03-01

In many Asian countries, motorcyclists have a higher fatality rate as compared to other vehicles. Among many other factors, rear end collisions are also contributing for these fatalities. Collision detection systems can be useful to minimize these accidents. However, the designing of efficient and cost effective collision detection system for motorcyclist is still a major challenge. In this paper, an acoustic information based, cost effective and efficient collision detection system is proposed for motorcycle applications. The proposed technique uses the Short time Fourier Transform (STFT) to extract the features from the audio signal and Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to reduce the feature vector length. The reduction of feature length, further increases the performance of this technique. The proposed technique has been tested on self recorded dataset and gives accuracy of 97.87%. We believe that this method can help to reduce a significant number of motorcycle accidents.

Fungal contamination and selected mycotoxins in pre- and post-harvest maize in Honduras.

PubMed

Julian, A M; Wareing, P W; Phillips, S I; Medlock, V F; MacDonald, M V; del Río, L E

1995-01-01

Sixty nine samples of maize were collected from pre-harvest standing crops and on-farm storage facilities from 52 smallholder farms located within 4 regions of Honduras during October 1992 and November 1993. Samples were visually assessed for insect damage and fungal spoilage, and the mycoflora quantified on artificial media. The major components of the ear rot complex were: Fusarium moniliforme, F. moniliforme var. subglutinans, Penicillium species, Stenocarpella maydis, S. macrospora and Acremonium spp. Representative samples were also assayed for mycotoxin content. Fumonisin B1 was detected in all 24 samples tested at levels of between 68-6,555 (micrograms/kg), and aflatoxin was detected in 2 samples heavily contaminated with Aspergillus flavus. Moniliformin and tenuazonic acid were not detected in the samples tested. The implications of these findings for human and livestock health risk are discussed, together with possible strategies for controlling these pathogens.

Early detection of ecosystem regime shifts: a multiple method evaluation for management application.

PubMed

Lindegren, Martin; Dakos, Vasilis; Gröger, Joachim P; Gårdmark, Anna; Kornilovs, Georgs; Otto, Saskia A; Möllmann, Christian

2012-01-01

Critical transitions between alternative stable states have been shown to occur across an array of complex systems. While our ability to identify abrupt regime shifts in natural ecosystems has improved, detection of potential early-warning signals previous to such shifts is still very limited. Using real monitoring data of a key ecosystem component, we here apply multiple early-warning indicators in order to assess their ability to forewarn a major ecosystem regime shift in the Central Baltic Sea. We show that some indicators and methods can result in clear early-warning signals, while other methods may have limited utility in ecosystem-based management as they show no or weak potential for early-warning. We therefore propose a multiple method approach for early detection of ecosystem regime shifts in monitoring data that may be useful in informing timely management actions in the face of ecosystem change.

Development of validated high-temperature reverse-phase UHPLC-PDA analytical method for simultaneous analysis of five natural isothiocyanates in cruciferous vegetables.

PubMed

Robin; Arora, Rohit; Arora, Saroj; Vig, Adarsh Pal

2018-01-15

In the present study reverse-phase UHPLC-PDA technique was developed at 60°C for simultaneous quantification of allyl, 3-butenyl, 4-(methylthio)butyl, benzyl and phenethyl isothiocyanates. The validation parameter showed a very good linearity, with a correlation coefficient of 1.00 for all detected standard analytes. Also, high precision and accuracy were observed with lowest obtained values of 1.39% and 99.1%, respectively. Different varieties of three plants, viz. Brassica rapa var. rapa L., Raphanus sativus L. var. oleiformis Pers. and Eruca sativa Mill., were analyzed with this method. After analysis, 4-(methylthio)butyl isothiocyanate was observed to be the major component in the varieties of arugula. Allyl, benzyl and phenethyl isothiocyanates were detected in turnip varieties and, in addition, 3-butenyl isothiocyanate was detected in radish varieties. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early Detection of Ecosystem Regime Shifts: A Multiple Method Evaluation for Management Application

PubMed Central

Lindegren, Martin; Dakos, Vasilis; Gröger, Joachim P.; Gårdmark, Anna; Kornilovs, Georgs; Otto, Saskia A.; Möllmann, Christian

2012-01-01

Critical transitions between alternative stable states have been shown to occur across an array of complex systems. While our ability to identify abrupt regime shifts in natural ecosystems has improved, detection of potential early-warning signals previous to such shifts is still very limited. Using real monitoring data of a key ecosystem component, we here apply multiple early-warning indicators in order to assess their ability to forewarn a major ecosystem regime shift in the Central Baltic Sea. We show that some indicators and methods can result in clear early-warning signals, while other methods may have limited utility in ecosystem-based management as they show no or weak potential for early-warning. We therefore propose a multiple method approach for early detection of ecosystem regime shifts in monitoring data that may be useful in informing timely management actions in the face of ecosystem change. PMID:22808007

Automatic quadrature control and measuring system. [using optical coupling circuitry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hamlet, J. F. (Inventor)

1974-01-01

A quadrature component cancellation and measuring system comprising a detection system for detecting the quadrature component from a primary signal, including reference circuitry to define the phase of the quadrature component for detection is described. A Raysistor optical coupling control device connects an output from the detection system to a circuit driven by a signal based upon the primary signal. Combining circuitry connects the primary signal and the circuit controlled by the Raysistor device to subtract quadrature components. A known current through the optically sensitive element produces a signal defining the magnitude of the quadrature component.

41 CFR 102-85.40 - What are the major components of the pricing policy?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... components of the pricing policy? 102-85.40 Section 102-85.40 Public Contracts and Property Management...-PRICING POLICY FOR OCCUPANCY IN GSA SPACE Pricing Policy-General § 102-85.40 What are the major components of the pricing policy? The major components of the pricing policy are: (a) An OA between a customer...

Semiconductor radiation detector

DOEpatents

Bell, Zane W.; Burger, Arnold

2010-03-30

A semiconductor detector for ionizing electromagnetic radiation, neutrons, and energetic charged particles. The detecting element is comprised of a compound having the composition I-III-VI.sub.2 or II-IV-V.sub.2 where the "I" component is from column 1A or 1B of the periodic table, the "II" component is from column 2B, the "III" component is from column 3A, the "IV" component is from column 4A, the "V" component is from column 5A, and the "VI" component is from column 6A. The detecting element detects ionizing radiation by generating a signal proportional to the energy deposited in the element, and detects neutrons by virtue of the ionizing radiation emitted by one or more of the constituent materials subsequent to capture. The detector may contain more than one neutron-sensitive component.

Intestinal absorption of hawthorn flavonoids--in vitro, in situ and in vivo correlations.

PubMed

Zuo, Zhong; Zhang, Li; Zhou, Limin; Chang, Qi; Chow, Moses

2006-11-25

Our previous studies identified hyperoside (HP), isoquercitrin (IQ) and epicatechin (EC) to be the major active flavonoid components of the hawthorn phenolic extract from hawthorn fruits demonstrating inhibitory effect on in vitro Cu(+2)-mediated low density lipoproteins oxidation. Among these three hawthorn flavonoids, EC was the only one detectable in plasma after the oral administration of hawthorn phenolic extract to rats. The present study aims to investigate the intestinal absorption mechanisms of these three hawthorn flavonoids by in vitro Caco-2 monolayer model, rat in situ intestinal perfusion model and in vivo pharmacokinetics studies in rats. In addition, in order to investigate the effect of the co-occurring components in hawthorn phenolic extract on the intestinal absorption of these three major hawthorn flavonoids, intestinal absorption transport profiles of HP, IQ and EC in forms of individual pure compound, mixture of pure compounds and hawthorn phenolic extract were studied and compared. The observations from in vitro Caco-2 monolayer model and in situ intestinal perfusion model indicated that all three studied hawthorn flavonoids have quite limited permeabilities. EC and IQ demonstrated more extensive metabolism in the rat in situ intestinal perfusion model and in vivo study than in Caco-2 monolayer model. Moreover, results from the Caco-2 monolayer model, rat in situ intestinal perfusion model as well as the in vivo pharmacokinetics studies in rats consistently showed that the co-occurring components in hawthorn phenolic extract might not have significant effect on the intestinal absorption of the three major hawthorn flavonoids studied.

Trail Pheromone of the Argentine Ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

PubMed Central

Choe, Dong-Hwan; Villafuerte, David B.; Tsutsui, Neil D.

2012-01-01

The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) is recognized as one of the world's most damaging invasive species. One reason for the ecological dominance of introduced Argentine ant populations is their ability to dominate food and habitat resources through the rapid mobilization and recruitment of thousands of workers. More than 30 years ago, studies showed that (Z)-9-hexadecenal strongly attracted Argentine ant workers in a multi-choice olfactometer, suggesting that (Z)-9-hexadecenal might be the trail pheromone, or a component of a trail pheromone mixture. Since then, numerous studies have considered (Z)-9-hexadecenal as the key component of the Argentine ant trails. Here, we report the first chemical analyses of the trails laid by living Argentine ants and find that (Z)-9-hexadecenal is not present in a detectible quantity. Instead, two iridoids, dolichodial and iridomyrmecin, appear to be the primary chemical constituents of the trails. Laboratory choice tests confirmed that Argentine ants were attracted to artificial trails comprised of these two chemicals significantly more often than control trails. Although (Z)-9-hexadecenal was not detected in natural trails, supplementation of artificial dolichodial+iridomyrmecin trails with an extremely low concentraion of (Z)-9-hexadecenal did increase the efficacy of the trail-following behavior. In stark contrast with previous dogma, our study suggests that dolichodial and iridomyrmecin are major components of the Argentine ant trail pheromone. (Z)-9-hexadecenal may act in an additive manner with these iridoids, but it does not occur in detectable quantities in Argentine ant recruitment trails. PMID:23028739

Temperature Programmed Desorption of Quench-condensed Krypton and Acetone in Air; Selective Concentration of Ultra-trace Gas Components.

PubMed

Suzuki, Taku T; Sakaguchi, Isao

2016-01-01

Selective concentration of ultra-trace components in air-like gases has an important application in analyzing volatile organic compounds in the gas. In the present study, we examined quench-condensation of the sample gas on a ZnO substrate below 50 K followed by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) (low temperature TPD) as a selective gas concentration technique. We studied two specific gases in the normal air; krypton as an inert gas and acetone as a reactive gas. We evaluated the relationship between the operating condition of low temperature TPD and the lowest detection limit. In the case of krypton, we observed the selective concentration by exposing at 6 K followed by thermal desorption at about 60 K. On the other hand, no selectivity appeared for acetone although trace acetone was successfully concentrated. This is likely due to the solvent effect by a major component in the air, which is suggested to be water. We suggest that pre-condensation to remove the water component may improve the selectivity in the trace acetone analysis by low temperature TPD.

Machine learning of frustrated classical spin models. I. Principal component analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ce; Zhai, Hui

2017-10-01

This work aims at determining whether artificial intelligence can recognize a phase transition without prior human knowledge. If this were successful, it could be applied to, for instance, analyzing data from the quantum simulation of unsolved physical models. Toward this goal, we first need to apply the machine learning algorithm to well-understood models and see whether the outputs are consistent with our prior knowledge, which serves as the benchmark for this approach. In this work, we feed the computer data generated by the classical Monte Carlo simulation for the X Y model in frustrated triangular and union jack lattices, which has two order parameters and exhibits two phase transitions. We show that the outputs of the principal component analysis agree very well with our understanding of different orders in different phases, and the temperature dependences of the major components detect the nature and the locations of the phase transitions. Our work offers promise for using machine learning techniques to study sophisticated statistical models, and our results can be further improved by using principal component analysis with kernel tricks and the neural network method.

Detecting defective electrical components in heterogeneous infra-red images by spatial control charts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamshidieini, Bahman; Fazaee, Reza

2016-05-01

Distribution network components connect machines and other loads to electrical sources. If resistance or current of any component is more than specified range, its temperature may exceed the operational limit which can cause major problems. Therefore, these defects should be found and eliminated according to their severity. Although infra-red cameras have been used for inspection of electrical components, maintenance prioritization of distribution cubicles is mostly based on personal perception and lack of training data prevents engineers from developing image processing methods. New research on the spatial control chart encouraged us to use statistical approaches instead of the pattern recognition for the image processing. In the present study, a new scanning pattern which can tolerate heavy autocorrelation among adjacent pixels within infra-red image was developed and for the first time combination of kernel smoothing, spatial control charts and local robust regression were used for finding defects within heterogeneous infra-red images of old distribution cubicles. This method does not need training data and this advantage is crucially important when the training data is not available.

Investigation of image components affecting the detection of lung nodules in digital chest radiography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bath, Magnus; Hakansson, Markus; Borjesson, Sara; Hoeschen, Christoph; Tischenko, Oleg; Bochud, Francois O.; Verdun, Francis R.; Ullman, Gustaf; Kheddache, Susanne; Tingberg, Anders; Mansson, Lars Gunnar

2005-04-01

The aim of this work was to investigate and quantify the effects of system noise, nodule location, anatomical noise and anatomical background on the detection of lung nodules in different regions of the chest x-ray. Simulated lung nodules of diameter 10 mm but with varying detail contrast were randomly positioned in four different kinds of images: 1) clinical images collected with a 200 speed CR system, 2) images containing only system noise (including quantum noise) at the same level as the clinical images, 3) clinical images with removed anatomical noise, 4) artificial images with similar power spectrum as the clinical images but random phase spectrum. An ROC study was conducted with 5 observers. The detail contrast needed to obtain an Az of 0.80, C0.8, was used as measure of detectability. Five different regions of the chest x-ray were investigated separately. The C0.8 of the system noise images ranged from only 2% (the hilar regions) to 20% (the lateral pulmonary regions) of those of the clinical images. Compared with the original clinical images, the C0.8 was 16% lower for the de-noised clinical images and 71% higher for the random phase images, respectively, averaged over all five regions. In conclusion, regarding the detection of lung nodules with a diameter of 10 mm, the system noise is of minor importance at clinically relevant dose levels. The removal of anatomical noise and other noise sources uncorrelated from image to image leads to somewhat better detection, but the major component disturbing the detection is the overlapping of recognizable structures, which are, however, the main aspect of an x-ray image.

Development of an ultrasonic nondestructive inspection method for impact damage detection in composite aircraft structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capriotti, M.; Kim, H. E.; Lanza di Scalea, F.; Kim, H.

2017-04-01

High Energy Wide Area Blunt Impact (HEWABI) due to ground service equipment can often occur in aircraft structures causing major damages. These Wide Area Impact Damages (WAID) can affect the internal components of the structure, hence are usually not visible nor detectable by typical one-sided NDE techniques and can easily compromise the structural safety of the aircraft. In this study, the development of an NDI method is presented together with its application to impacted aircraft frames. The HEWABI from a typical ground service scenario has been previously tested and the desired type of damages have been generated, so that the aircraft panels could become representative study cases. The need of the aircraft industry for a rapid, ramp-friendly system to detect such WAID is here approached with guided ultrasonic waves (GUW) and a scanning tool that accesses the whole structure from the exterior side only. The wide coverage of the specimen provided by GUW has been coupled to a differential detection approach and is aided by an outlier statistical analysis to be able to inspect and detect faults in the challenging composite material and complex structure. The results will be presented and discussed with respect to the detection capability of the system and its response to the different damage types. Receiving Operating Characteristics curves (ROC) are also produced to quantify and assess the performance of the proposed method. Ongoing work is currently aimed at the penetration of the inner components of the structure, such as shear ties and C-frames, exploiting different frequency ranges and signal processing techniques. From the hardware and tool development side, different transducers and coupling methods, such as air-coupled transducers, are under investigation together with the design of a more suitable scanning technique.

Automated Eddy Current Inspection on Space Shuttle Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartmann, John; Felker, Jeremy

2007-01-01

Over the life time of the Space Shuttle program, metal parts used for the Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRMs) have been nondestructively inspected for cracks and surface breaking discontinuities using magnetic particle (steel) and penetrant methods. Although these inspections adequately screened for critical sized cracks in most regions of the hardware, it became apparent after detection of several sub-critical flaws that the processes were very dependent on operator attentiveness and training. Throughout the 1990's, eddy current inspections were added to areas that had either limited visual access or were more fracture critical. In the late 1990's. a project was initiated to upgrade NDE inspections with the overall objective of improving inspection reliability and control. An automated eddy current inspection system was installed in 2001. A figure shows one of the inspection bays with the robotic axis of the system highlighted. The system was programmed to inspect the various case, nozzle, and igniter metal components that make up an RSRM. both steel and aluminum. For the past few years, the automated inspection system has been a part of the baseline inspection process for steel components. Although the majority of the RSRM metal part inventory ts free of detectable surface flaws, a few small, sub-critical manufacturing defects have been detected with the automated system. This paper will summarize the benefits that have been realized with the current automated eddy current system, as well as the flaws that have been detected.

Identification of Major Histocompatibility Complex-Regulated Body Odorants by Statistical Analysis of a Comparative Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Experiment

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

Willse, Alan R.; Belcher, Ann; Preti, George

2005-04-15

Gas chromatography (GC), combined with mass spectrometry (MS) detection, is a powerful analytical technique that can be used to separate, quantify, and identify volatile compounds in complex mixtures. This paper examines the application of GC-MS in a comparative experiment to identify volatiles that differ in concentration between two groups. A complex mixture might comprise several hundred or even thousands of volatile compounds. Because their number and location in a chromatogram generally are unknown, and because components overlap in populous chromatograms, the statistical problems offer significant challenges beyond traditional two-group screening procedures. We describe a statistical procedure to compare two-dimensional GC-MSmore » profiles between groups, which entails (1) signal processing: baseline correction and peak detection in single ion chromatograms; (2) aligning chromatograms in time; (3) normalizing differences in overall signal intensities; and (4) detecting chromatographic regions that differ between groups. Compared to existing approaches, the proposed method is robust to errors made at earlier stages of analysis, such as missed peaks or slightly misaligned chromatograms. To illustrate the method, we identify differences in GC-MS chromatograms of ether-extracted urine collected from two nearly identical inbred groups of mice, to investigate the relationship between odor and genetics of the major histocompatibility complex.« less

Development of Methods for the Real-Time and Rapid Identification and Detection of TSE in Living Animals Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy of the Eye

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-07-01

and cow eyes and performed fluorescence spectroscopy on all the major eye components and reports that the cornea, lens, retina , and optic nerve show...appears that while the optic nerve presents the richest spectra with the most detail, the retina is the most promising target for use as a probe. This... retinas is striking and is illustrated in Figure 1. • Preliminary data of total eye fluorescence from mice as a function of age are presented

Mapping the mineralogy and lithology of Canyonlands, Utah with imaging spectrometer data and the multiple spectral feature mapping algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Roger N.; Swayze, Gregg A.; Gallagher, Andrea

1992-01-01

The sedimentary sections exposed in the Canyonlands and Arches National Parks region of Utah (generally referred to as 'Canyonlands') consist of sandstones, shales, limestones, and conglomerates. Reflectance spectra of weathered surfaces of rocks from these areas show two components: (1) variations in spectrally detectable mineralogy, and (2) variations in the relative ratios of the absorption bands between minerals. Both types of information can be used together to map each major lithology and the Clark spectral features mapping algorithm is applied to do the job.

Experimental Design and Power Calculation for RNA-seq Experiments.

PubMed

Wu, Zhijin; Wu, Hao

2016-01-01

Power calculation is a critical component of RNA-seq experimental design. The flexibility of RNA-seq experiment and the wide dynamic range of transcription it measures make it an attractive technology for whole transcriptome analysis. These features, in addition to the high dimensionality of RNA-seq data, bring complexity in experimental design, making an analytical power calculation no longer realistic. In this chapter we review the major factors that influence the statistical power of detecting differential expression, and give examples of power assessment using the R package PROPER.

Distribution and significance of long-chain alkenones as salinity and temperature indicators in Spanish saline lake sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearson, Emma J.; Juggins, Steve; Farrimond, Paul

2008-08-01

We investigated relationships between sedimentary solvent-extractable long-chain alkenone (LCA) concentration and composition and environmental factors in a suite of endorheic lakes from inland Spain. LCAs were found in 14 of the 54 lakes examined, with concentrations comparable with those from previously published lacustrine settings. The composition of LCAs in our sites, however, contrast from the majority of those previously reported from lake environments; in our study the tri-unsaturated component is the most abundant component at most sites where LCAs are detected, and C 38:3 is the most abundant LCA in the majority of sites. LCA occurrence appears to be restricted to brackish-hypersaline sites and C 37 LCAs are absent above a salinity of ˜40 g L -1 suggesting a salinity control on LCA-producing organisms in these sites. Low concentrations of C 37 LCA components means U37k and U37k temperature indices are generally not applicable. Instead we find good relationships between C 38 components and (in particular mean autumn) temperature and the strongest LCA-temperature relationships are found when using a combination of all C 37 and C 38 compounds. We propose a new alkenone temperature index for lakes with elevated salinity and where the C 38 components dominate the LCA distributions. This is expressed as U3738k=0.0464×MAutAT-0.867 ( r2 = 0.80, n = 13). In this paper, we provide the first account of sedimentary LCA distributions from lakes in inland Spain, extending the range of environments within which these compounds have been found and highlighting their significance as indicators of both salinity and temperature in saline, endorheic lake environments. This has important implications for extending the potential role of LCAs as palaeoclimatic indicators in lacustrine environments.

Long Term Precipitation Pattern Identification and Derivation of Non Linear Precipitation Trend in a Catchment using Singular Spectrum Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Unnikrishnan, Poornima; Jothiprakash, Vinayakam

2017-04-01

Precipitation is the major component in the hydrologic cycle. Awareness of not only the total amount of rainfall pertaining to a catchment, but also the pattern of its spatial and temporal distribution are equally important in the management of water resources systems in an efficient way. Trend is the long term direction of a time series; it determines the overall pattern of a time series. Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) is a time series analysis technique that decomposes the time series into small components (eigen triples). This property of the method of SSA has been utilized to extract the trend component of the rainfall time series. In order to derive trend from the rainfall time series, we need to select components corresponding to trend from the eigen triples. For this purpose, periodogram analysis of the eigen triples have been proposed to be coupled with SSA, in the present study. In the study, seasonal data of England and Wales Precipitation (EWP) for a time period of 1766-2013 have been analyzed and non linear trend have been derived out of the precipitation data. In order to compare the performance of SSA in deriving trend component, Mann Kendall (MK) test is also used to detect trends in EWP seasonal series and the results have been compared. The result showed that the MK test could detect the presence of positive or negative trend for a significance level, whereas the proposed methodology of SSA could extract the non-linear trend present in the rainfall series along with its shape. We will discuss further the comparison of both the methodologies along with the results in the presentation.

Bifidobacterium breve C50 secretes lipoprotein with CHAP domain recognized in aggregated form by TLR2.

PubMed

Scuotto, Angelo; Djorie, Serge; Colavizza, Michel; Romond, Pierre-Charles; Romond, Marie-Bénédicte

2014-12-01

Extracellular components secreted by Bifidobacterium breve C50 can induce maturation, high IL-10 production and prolonged survival of dendritic cells via a TLR2 pathway. In this study, the components were isolated from the supernatant by gel filtration chromatography. Antibodies raised against the major compounds with molecular weight above 600 kDa (Bb C50BC) also recognized compounds of lower molecular weight (200–600 kDa). TLR2 and TLR6 bound to the components already recognized by the antibodies. Trypsin digestion of Bb C50BC released three major peptides whose sequences displayed close similarities to a putative secreted protein with a CHAP amidase domain from B. breve. The 1300-bp genomic region corresponding to the hypothetical protein was amplified by PCR. The deduced polypeptide started with an N-terminal signal sequence of 45 amino acids, containing the lipobox motif (LAAC) with the cysteine in position 25, and 2 positively charged residues within the first 14 residues of the signal sequence. Lipid detection in Bb C50BC by GC/MS further supported the implication of a lipoprotein. Sugars were also detected in Bb C50BC. Close similarity with the glucan-binding protein B from Bifidobacterium animalis of two released peptides from Bb C50BC protein suggested that glucose moieties, possibly in glucan form, could be bound to the lipoprotein. Finally, heating at 100 °C for 5 min led to the breakdown of Bb C50BC in compounds of molecular weight below 67 kDa, which suggested that Bb C50BC was an aggregate. One might assume that a basic unit was formed by the lipoprotein bound putatively to glucan. Besides the other sugars and hexosamines recognized by galectin 1 were localized at the surface of the Bb C50BC aggregate. In conclusion, the extracellular components secreted by B. breve C50 were constituted of a lipoprotein putatively associated with glucose moieties and acting in an aggregating form as an agonist of TLR2/TLR6.

Antioxidant activities of ginger extract and its constituents toward lipids.

PubMed

Si, Wenhui; Chen, Yan Ping; Zhang, Jianhao; Chen, Zhen-Yu; Chung, Hau Yin

2018-01-15

Lipid oxidation-a major cause of food product deterioration-necessitates the use of food additives to inhibit food oxidation. Ginger extract (GE) has been reported to possess antioxidant properties. However, components isolated from ginger have been rarely reported to inhibit fat oxidation. Herein, antioxidant properties of GE and four pure components derived from it (6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, 10-gingerol, and 6-shogaol) were examined and their properties were compared to those of butylated hydroxytoluene. GE and the constituent components exhibited antioxidant properties that might be attributed to their hydroxyl groups and suitable solubilizing side chains. 6-Shogaol and 10-gingerol exhibited higher activity at 60°C than 6-gingerol and 8-gingerol. Low antioxidant activity was detected at high temperatures (120/180°C). Overall, GE displayed the strongest dose-dependent antioxidant properties, especially at high temperatures, thereby demonstrating that GE can be employed as a natural antioxidant in lipid-containing processed foods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Germacrone derivatives: synthesis, biological activity, molecular docking studies and molecular dynamics simulations.

PubMed

Wu, Jie; Feng, Yu; Han, Chao; Huang, Wu; Shen, Zhibin; Yang, Mengdie; Chen, Weiqiang; Ye, Lianbao

2017-02-28

Germacrone is one of the major bioactive components in the Curcuma zedoaria oil product, which is extracted from Curcuma zedoaria Roscoe, known as zedoary. The present study designed some novel germacrone derivatives based on combination principles, synthesized these compounds, and investigated their inhibitions on Bel-7402, HepG2, A549 and HeLa cells. Meanwhile, the study evaluated inhibitions of these derivatives on c-Met kinase, which has been detected in a number of cancers. The results suggested that the majority of the compounds showed stronger inhibitory effect on cancers and c-Met kinase than germacrone. Furthermore, our docking experiments analyzed the results and explained the molecular mechanism. Molecular dynamics simulations were then applied to perform further evaluation of the binding stabilities between compounds and their receptors.

Introduction. ERIC Processing Manual, Section I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandhorst, Ted, Ed.

This document describes the major organizational components of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) system, the interactions between those components, and the major products and services provided by those components. (WTB)

A Submillimeter Continuum Survey of Local Dust-obscured Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jong Chul; Hwang, Ho Seong; Lee, Gwang-Ho

2016-12-01

We conduct a 350 μm dust continuum emission survey of 17 dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs) at z = 0.05-0.08 with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). We detect 14 DOGs with S 350 μm = 114-650 mJy and signal-to-noise > 3. By including two additional DOGs with submillimeter data in the literature, we are able to study dust content for a sample of 16 local DOGs, which consist of 12 bump and four power-law types. We determine their physical parameters with a two-component modified blackbody function model. The derived dust temperatures are in the range 57-122 K and 22-35 K for the warm and cold dust components, respectively. The total dust mass and the mass fraction of the warm dust component are 3-34 × 107 M ⊙ and 0.03%-2.52%, respectively. We compare these results with those of other submillimeter-detected infrared luminous galaxies. The bump DOGs, the majority of the DOG sample, show similar distributions of dust temperatures and total dust mass to the comparison sample. The power-law DOGs show a hint of smaller dust masses than other samples, but need to be tested with a larger sample. These findings support that the reason DOGs show heavy dust obscuration is not an overall amount of dust content, but probably the spatial distribution of dust therein.

Determination of neuroprotective oxysterols in Calculus bovis, human gallstones, and traditional Chinese medicine preparations by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Wang, Yalong; Jiang, Han; Huang, Huizhi; Xie, Yanqi; Zhao, Yunshi; You, Xiuhua; Tang, Lipeng; Wang, Youqiong; Yin, Wei; Qiu, Pengxin; Yan, Guangmei; Hu, Haiyan

2015-03-01

So far, the components responsible for the neuroprotective effects of Calculus bovis are unclear. Cholesterol, one of the major components in Calculus bovis, is easily oxidized into oxysterols, which possess direct or indirect neuroprotective effects proved by our and others' previous studies. Therefore, a liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method coupled with ultrasonic extraction and solid-phase extraction was developed for the determination of neuroprotective oxysterols in Calculus bovis, human gallstones, and traditional Chinese medicine preparations. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18 column with isocratic elution at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The established method showed good linearity (R(2) > 0.998), sensitivity with low limits of detection (0.06-0.39 μg/g), acceptable precisions (relative standard deviations ≤ 7.4%), stability (relative standard deviations ≤ 5.9%), and satisfactory accuracy (92.4-102.9%) for all analytes identified by different retention times, which could be applied for the determination of oxysterols. Five kinds of oxysterols proved to function as neuroprotectants were detected at different concentrations. Among them, 7β-hydroxycholesterol and cholestane-3β,5α,6β-triol were rather abundant in the samples. It could be concluded that the potential neuroprotective components in Calculus bovis may be these oxysterols. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Consideration on the Long Ecological Half-Life Component of (137)Cs in Demersal Fish Based on Field Observation Results Obtained after the Fukushima Accident.

PubMed

Tagami, Keiko; Uchida, Shigeo

2016-02-16

Radiocesium concentrations in most marine fish collected off the coast of Fukushima and surrounding prefectures have decreased with time, and four years after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident occurred, radiocesium concentrations have generally fallen below the detectable level (ca. < 10 Bq kg(-1)-raw). Only in some demersal fish species have detectable concentration levels still been found, and even these species have showed slow radiocesium decreases. The food web was considered as the major factor causing this phenomenon; however, slow elimination rates of radiocesium from these fish species also could be the cause. The latter effect was examined by considering that the (137)Cs concentration decreasing trend in fish could be fit with a set of three exponentially decreasing components; that is, having short, intermediate, and long biological half-lives. The long ecological half-life component was calculated using a 400-1500 d period of monitoring results for Japanese rockfish (Sebastes cheni) and compared with previous reported laboratory results for biological half-life. The obtained ecological half-lives ranged from 274-365 d, and these values agreed with the biological half-life of this fish species. This result implied that the long biological half-lives of radiocesium in some demersal fish species made their radiocesium contamination periods longer.

Quantification of vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components in rice germ and bran.

PubMed

Yu, Shanggong; Nehus, Zachary T; Badger, Thomas M; Fang, Nianbai

2007-09-05

Rice bran is a rich natural source of vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol, which have been extensively studied and reported to possess important health-promoting properties. However, commercial rice bran is a mixture of rice bran and germ, and profiles of vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components in these two different materials are less well-studied. In the current study, vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components in rice bran and germ were analyzed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. The components were identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) with both positive- and negative-ion modes. Both deprotonated molecular ion [M - H](-) and protonated molecular ion [M + H](+) found as the base peaks in spectra of vitamin E components made ESI-MS a valuable analytic method in detecting vitamin E compounds, especially when they were at very low levels in samples. Ultraviolet absorption was used for quantification of vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components. While the level of vitamin E in rice germ was 5 times greater than in rice bran, the level of gamma-oryzanol in rice germ was 5 times lower than in rice bran. Also, the major vitamin E component was alpha-tocopherol in rice germ and gamma-tocotrienol in rice bran. These data suggest that rice bran and germ have significantly different profiles of vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components. The method enables rapid and direct on-line identification and quantification of the vitamin E and gamma-oryzanol components in rice bran and germ.

Characterization of thiol-conjugated metabolites of ginger components shogaols in mouse and human urine and modulation of the glutathione levels in cancer cells by [6]-shogaol.

PubMed

Chen, Huadong; Soroka, Dominique N; Hu, Yuhui; Chen, Xiaoxin; Sang, Shengmin

2013-03-01

Shogaols, a series of major constituents in dried ginger with the most abundant being [6]-, [8]-, and [10]-shogaols, show much higher anticancer potencies than gingerols. Previously, we reported the mercapturic acid pathway as a major metabolic route for [6]-shogaol in mice. However, it is still unclear how the side chain length affects the metabolism of shogaols and how shogaols are metabolized in humans. We first investigate the metabolism of [10]-shogaol in mouse urine, and then investigate the biotransformation of shogaols in human urine. Our results show that eight major thiol-conjugated metabolites of [10]-shogaol were detected in mouse urine, while six major thiol-conjugated metabolites of [6]-shogaol, two thiol-conjugated metabolites of [8]-shogaol, and two thiol-conjugated metabolites of [10]-shogaol were detected in urine collected from human after drinking ginger tea, using LC/ESI-MS/MS. Our results clearly indicate the mercapturic acid pathway is a major metabolic route for [10]-shogaol in mice and for shogaols in human. Furthermore, we also investigated the regulation of glutathione (GSH) by [6]-shogaol in human colon cancer cells HCT-116. Our results show [6]-shogaol, after initially depleting glutathione levels, can subsequently restore and increase GSH levels over time. Shogaols are metabolized extensively in mouse and human to form thiol-conjugated metabolites and GSH might play an important role in the cancer-preventive activity of ginger. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Characterization of thiol-conjugated metabolites of ginger components shogaols in mouse and human rrine and modulation of the glutathione levels in cancer cells by [6]-shogaol

PubMed Central

Chen, Huadong; Soroka, Dominique N.; Hu, Yuhui; Chen, Xiaoxin; Sang, Shengmin

2013-01-01

Scope Shogaols, a series of major constituents in dried ginger with the most abundant being [6]-, [8]-, and [10]-shogaols, show much higher anti-cancer potencies than gingerols. Previously, we reported the mercapturic acid pathway as a major metabolic route for [6]-shogaol in mice. However, it is still unclear how the side chain length affects the metabolism of shogaols and how shogaols are metabolized in humans. Methods and results We first investigate the metabolism of [10]-shogaol in mouse urine, and then investigate the biotransformation of shogaols in human urine. Our results show that eight major thiol-conjugated metabolites of [10]-shogaol were detected in mouse urine, while six major thiol-conjugated metabolites of [6]-shogaol, two thiol-conjugated metabolites of [8]-shogaol, and two thiol-conjugated metabolites of [10]-shogaol were detected in urine collected from human after drinking ginger tea, using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Our results clearly indicate the mercapturic acid pathway is a major metabolic route for [10]-shogaol in mice and for shogaols in human. Furthermore, we also investigated the regulation of glutathione (GSH) by [6]-shogaol in human colon cancer cells HCT-116. Our results show [6]-shogaol, after initially depleting glutathione levels, can subsequently restore and increase GSH levels over time. Conclusion Shogaols are metabolized extensively in mouse and human to form thiol-conjugated metabolites and GSH might play an important role in the cancer preventative activity of ginger. PMID:23322393

The Use of F2 Screening for Detection of Resistance to Emamectin Benzoate, Chlorantraniliprole, and Indoxacarb in Australian Populations of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).

PubMed

Bird, L J; Drynan, L J; Walker, P W

2017-04-01

The ability to effectively detect changes in susceptibility to insecticides is an integral component of resistance management strategies and is highly dependent upon precision of methods deployed. Between 2013 and 2016, F2 screens were performed for detection of resistance alleles in Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) to emamectin benzoate, chlorantraniliprole, and indoxacarb in major cropping regions of eastern Australia. Resistance to emamectin benzoate was not detected. There were low but detectable levels of survival at discriminating concentrations of chlorantraniliprole and indoxacarb. Alleles conferring an advantage to chlorantraniliprole were present at a frequency of 0.0027 (95% CI 0.0012-0.0064; n = 1,817). Alleles conferring an advantage to indoxacarb were present at a frequency of 0.027 (95% CI 0.020-0.035; n = 1,863). Complementation tests for allelism in six of seven positive indoxacarb tests indicated that resistance was due to alleles present at the same locus. The majority (88%) of lines that tested positive for indoxacarb resistance deviated from a model of recessive inheritance. Pheromone-caught male moths contributed significantly greater numbers of F2 lines compared with moths derived from field-collected eggs or larvae. There was no difference in the detectability of indoxacarb resistance in F2 lines from pheromone-caught moths compared with moths derived from immature stages collected from the field and reared to adult under laboratory conditions. Therefore, we recommend the use of pheromone traps for sourcing insects for F2 screening as a more cost- and time-efficient alternative to traditional methods of sampling. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A New Approach for Quantitative Evaluation of Ultrasonic Wave Attenuation in Composites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Qing-Qing; Li, Ran; Xia, Hong

2017-02-01

When ultrasonic waves propagate in composite materials, the propagation behaviors result from the combination effects of various factors, such as material anisotropy and viscoelastic property, internal microstructure and defects, incident wave characteristics and interface condition between composite components. It is essential to make it clear how these factors affect the ultrasonic wave propagation and attenuation characteristics, and how they mutually interact on each other. In the present paper, based on a newly developed time-domain finite element analysis code, PZflex, a unique approach for clarifying the detailed influence mechanism of aforementioned factors is proposed, in which each attenuation component can be extracted from the overall attenuation and analyzed respectively. By taking into consideration the interrelation between each individual attenuation component, the variation behaviors of each component and internal dynamic stress distribution against material anisotropy and matrix viscosity are separately and quantitatively evaluated. From the detailed analysis results of each attenuation component, the energy dissipation at interface is a major component in ultrasonic wave attenuation characteristics, which can provide a maximum contribution rate of 68.2 % to the overall attenuation, and each attenuation component is closely related to the material anisotropy and viscoelasticity. The results clarify the correlation between ultrasonic wave propagation characteristics and material viscoelastic properties, which will be useful in the further development of ultrasonic technology in defect detection.

Detection and discrimination of cotton foreign matter using push-broom based hyperspectral imaging: system design and capability.

PubMed

Jiang, Yu; Li, Changying

2015-01-01

Cotton quality, a major factor determining both cotton profitability and marketability, is affected by not only the overall quantity of but also the type of the foreign matter. Although current commercial instruments can measure the overall amount of the foreign matter, no instrument can differentiate various types of foreign matter. The goal of this study was to develop a hyperspectral imaging system to discriminate major types of foreign matter in cotton lint. A push-broom based hyperspectral imaging system with a custom-built multi-thread software was developed to acquire hyperspectral images of cotton fiber with 15 types of foreign matter commonly found in the U.S. cotton lint. A total of 450 (30 replicates for each foreign matter) foreign matter samples were cut into 1 by 1 cm2 pieces and imaged on the lint surface using reflectance mode in the spectral range from 400-1000 nm. The mean spectra of the foreign matter and lint were extracted from the user-defined region-of-interests in the hyperspectral images. The principal component analysis was performed on the mean spectra to reduce the feature dimension from the original 256 bands to the top 3 principal components. The score plots of the 3 principal components were used to examine clusterization patterns for classifying the foreign matter. These patterns were further validated by statistical tests. The experimental results showed that the mean spectra of all 15 types of cotton foreign matter were different from that of the lint. Nine types of cotton foreign matter formed distinct clusters in the score plots. Additionally, all of them were significantly different from each other at the significance level of 0.05 except brown leaf and bract. The developed hyperspectral imaging system is effective to detect and classify cotton foreign matter on the lint surface and has the potential to be implemented in commercial cotton classing offices.

Use of regularized principal component analysis to model anatomical changes during head and neck radiation therapy for treatment adaptation and response assessment

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

Chetvertkov, Mikhail A., E-mail: chetvertkov@wayne

2016-10-15

Purpose: To develop standard (SPCA) and regularized (RPCA) principal component analysis models of anatomical changes from daily cone beam CTs (CBCTs) of head and neck (H&N) patients and assess their potential use in adaptive radiation therapy, and for extracting quantitative information for treatment response assessment. Methods: Planning CT images of ten H&N patients were artificially deformed to create “digital phantom” images, which modeled systematic anatomical changes during radiation therapy. Artificial deformations closely mirrored patients’ actual deformations and were interpolated to generate 35 synthetic CBCTs, representing evolving anatomy over 35 fractions. Deformation vector fields (DVFs) were acquired between pCT and syntheticmore » CBCTs (i.e., digital phantoms) and between pCT and clinical CBCTs. Patient-specific SPCA and RPCA models were built from these synthetic and clinical DVF sets. EigenDVFs (EDVFs) having the largest eigenvalues were hypothesized to capture the major anatomical deformations during treatment. Results: Principal component analysis (PCA) models achieve variable results, depending on the size and location of anatomical change. Random changes prevent or degrade PCA’s ability to detect underlying systematic change. RPCA is able to detect smaller systematic changes against the background of random fraction-to-fraction changes and is therefore more successful than SPCA at capturing systematic changes early in treatment. SPCA models were less successful at modeling systematic changes in clinical patient images, which contain a wider range of random motion than synthetic CBCTs, while the regularized approach was able to extract major modes of motion. Conclusions: Leading EDVFs from the both PCA approaches have the potential to capture systematic anatomical change during H&N radiotherapy when systematic changes are large enough with respect to random fraction-to-fraction changes. In all cases the RPCA approach appears to be more reliable at capturing systematic changes, enabling dosimetric consequences to be projected once trends are established early in a treatment course, or based on population models.« less

A validated ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of polymyxin B in mouse serum and epithelial lining fluid: application to pharmacokinetic studies

PubMed Central

He, Jie; Gao, Song; Hu, Ming; Chow, Diana S.-L.; Tam, Vincent H.

2013-01-01

Objectives A rapid, sensitive and robust ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the quantification of four major polymyxin B components (polymyxin B1, polymyxin B2, polymyxin B3 and isoleucine-polymyxin B1) in serum and epithelial lining fluid (ELF) samples. Methods A Waters Acquity UPLC HSS C18 column was used with 0.1% formic acid in water/acetonitrile as mobile phases. Analysis was performed in a positive ionization mode with multiple-reactions monitoring scan type. Five percent trichloroacetic acid was used to precipitate proteins in biological samples and to increase the sensitivity of detection. Results Our results showed a linear concentration range of 0.0065–3.2 mg/L for all the major polymyxin B components in both serum and ELF, respectively; the interday variation was <10% and the accuracy was 88%–115%. The validated method was used to characterize the pharmacokinetics (serum and ELF) of polymyxin B in mice. Conclusions This is the first report, to date, examining the individual pharmacokinetics of various polymyxin B components in mice. Our results revealed no considerable differences in clearances among the components. The limited exposure of polymyxin B in ELF observed was consistent with the less favourable efficacy of polymyxin B reported for the treatment of pulmonary infections. This method can be used to further examine the pharmacokinetics of polymyxin B in a variety of clinical and experimental settings. PMID:23341128

Allergic reactions to measles-mumps-rubella vaccination.

PubMed

Patja, A; Mäkinen-Kiljunen, S; Davidkin, I; Paunio, M; Peltola, H

2001-02-01

Immunization of egg-allergic children against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) is often deferred or even denied, although the safety of this vaccination has been clearly shown. Moreover, the majority of severe allergic reactions have occurred in egg-tolerant vaccinees. Other allergenic vaccine components have been sought, and gelatin has been suggested as one cause of allergic adverse events. The aim of this study was to further characterize the actual allergenic vaccine components. Serum samples from 36 recipients of MMR vaccine with anaphylaxis, urticaria with or without angioedema, asthmatic symptoms, or Henoch-Schönlein purpura were analyzed by CAP System radioallergosorbent test (RAST) and immunospot methods to detect the allergenic vaccine component. To evaluate the correspondence between the findings in the CAP System RAST or the immunospot and clinical symptoms, histories of allergies and present hypersensitivity symptoms were assessed. Of the 36 participants, 10 were demonstrated to be allergic to gelatin. Seven of them had persistent allergic symptoms, possibly attributable to foods containing gelatin or cross-reactive allergens. The results of the immunospot suggested concomitant allergy to gelatin and egg, chicken, and feathers, as well as cow's milk, or they reflected allergen cross-reactivity. Although severe allergic adverse events attributable to MMR vaccination are extremely rare, all serious allergic reactions should be further assessed to detect the likely causative vaccine component, including gelatin. The current recommendation for immunization of egg-allergic persons according to standard MMR vaccination schedules is reinforced. measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, immunization, adverse effects, allergic reactions, gelatin allergy, CAP System, radioallergosorbent test, immunospot, immunoglobulin E.

CPAD: Cyber-Physical Attack Detection

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

Ferragut, Erik M; Laska, Jason A

The CPAD technology relates to anomaly detection and more specifically to cyber physical attack detection. It infers underlying physical relationships between components by analyzing the sensor measurements of a system. It then uses these measurements to detect signs of a non-physically realizable state, which is indicative of an integrity attack on the system. CPAD can be used on any highly-instrumented cyber-physical system to detect integrity attacks and identify the component or components compromised. It has applications to power transmission and distribution, nuclear and industrial plants, and complex vehicles.

Removal of NO in NO/N2, NO/N2/O2, NO/CH4/N2, and NO/CH4/O2/N2 systems by flowing microwave discharges.

PubMed

Hueso, José L; Gonzalez-Elipe, Agustín R; Cotrino, José; Caballero, Alfonso

2007-02-15

In this paper, continuing previous work, we report on experiments carried out to investigate the removal of NO from simulated flue gas in nonthermal plasmas. The plasma-induced decomposition of small concentrations of NO in N2 used as the carrier gas and O2 and CH4 as minority components has been studied in a surface wave discharge induced with a surfatron launcher. The reaction products and efficiency have been monitored by mass spectrometry as a function of the composition of the mixture. NO is effectively decomposed into N2 and O2 even in the presence of O2, provided always that enough CH4 is also present in the mixture. Other majority products of the plasma reactions under these conditions are NH3, CO, and H2. In the absence of O2, decomposition of NO also occurs, although in that case HCN accompanies the other reaction products as a majority component. The plasma for the different reaction mixtures has been characterized by optical emission spectroscopy. Intermediate excited species of NO*, C*, CN*, NH*, and CH* have been monitored depending on the gas mixture. The type of species detected and their evolution with the gas composition are in agreement with the reaction products detected in each case. The observations by mass spectrometry and optical emission spectroscopy are in agreement with the kinetic reaction models available in literature for simple plasma reactions in simple reaction mixtures.

Agrin is a major heparan sulfate proteoglycan in the human glomerular basement membrane.

PubMed

Groffen, A J; Ruegg, M A; Dijkman, H; van de Velden, T J; Buskens, C A; van den Born, J; Assmann, K J; Monnens, L A; Veerkamp, J H; van den Heuvel, L P

1998-01-01

Agrin is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) that is highly concentrated in the synaptic basal lamina at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Agrin-like immunoreactivity is also detected outside the NMJ. Here we show that agrin is a major HSPG component of the human glomerular basement membrane (GBM). This is in addition to perlecan, a previously characterized HSPG of basement membranes. Antibodies against agrin and against an unidentified GBM HSPG produced a strong staining of the GBM and the NMJ, different from that observed with anti-perlecan antibodies. In addition, anti-agrin antisera recognized purified GBM HSPG and competed with an anti-GBM HSPG monoclonal antibody in ELISA. Furthermore, both antibodies recognized a molecule that migrated in SDS-PAGE as a smear and had a molecular mass of approximately 200-210 kD after deglycosylation. In immunoelectron microscopy, agrin showed a linear distribution along the GBM and was present throughout the width of the GBM. This was again different from perlecan, which was exclusively present on the endothelial side of the GBM and was distributed in a nonlinear manner. Quantitative ELISA showed that, compared with perlecan, the agrin-like GBM HSPG showed a sixfold higher molarity in crude glomerular extract. These results show that agrin is a major component of the GBM, indicating that it may play a role in renal ultrafiltration and cell matrix interaction. (J Histochem Cytochem 46:19-27, 1998)

X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study of the Heating Effects on Pd/6H-SiC Schottky Structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Liang-Yu; Hunter, Gary W.; Neudeck, Philip G.; Knight, Dak

1998-01-01

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to study the effects of heat treatment on the Pd/6H-SiC Schottky diode structure. After heating the structure at 425 C for 140 h, a very thin surface layer of PdO mixed with SiO(x) formed on the palladium surface of the Schottky structure. Heat treatment promoted interfacial diffusion and reaction which significantly broadened the interfacial region. In the interfacial region, the palladium concentration decreases with depth, and the interfacial products are Pd(x)Si (x = 1,2,3,4). In the high Pd concentration regions, Pd4Si is the major silicide component while gr and Pd2Si are major components in the low Pd concentration region. At the center of the interface, where the total palladium concentration equals that of silicon, the concentrations of palladium associated with various palladium silicides (Pd(x)Si, x= 1,2,3,4) are approximately equal. The surface passivation layer composed of PdO and SiO, may significantly affect the electronic and catalytic properties of the surface of the Schottky diode which plays a major role in gas detection. The electronic properties of the Schottky structure may be dominated by a (Pd+Pd(x)Si)/SiC interface. In order to stabilize the properties of the Schottky structure the surface and interface diffusion and reactions must be controlled.

Preventive effects of a major component of green tea, epigallocathechin-3-gallate, on hepatitis-B virus DNA replication.

PubMed

Karamese, Murat; Aydogdu, Sabiha; Karamese, Selina Aksak; Altoparlak, Ulku; Gundogdu, Cemal

2015-01-01

Hepatitis B virus infection is one of the major world health problems. Epigallocatechin-3 gallate is the major component of the polyphenolic fraction of green tea and it has an anti-viral, anti-mutagenic, anti- tumorigenic, anti-angiogenic, anti-proliferative, and/or pro-apoptotic effects on mammalian cells. In this study, our aim was to investigate the inhibition of HBV replication by epigallocatechin-3 gallate in the Hep3B2.1-7 hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. HBV-replicating Hep3B2.1-7 cells were used to investigate the preventive effects of epigallocatechin-3 gallate on HBV DNA replication. The expression levels of HBsAg and HBeAg were determined using ELISA. Quantitative real-time-PCR was applied for the determination of the expression level of HBV DNA. Cytotoxicity of epigallocathechin-3-gallate was not observed in the hepatic carcinoma cell line when the dose was lower than 100 μM. The ELISA method demonstrated that epigallocatechin-3 gallate have strong effects on HBsAg and HBeAg levels. Also it was detected by real-time PCR that epigallocatechin-3 gallate could prevent HBV DNA replication. The obtained data pointed out that although the exact mechanism of HBV DNA replication and related diseases remains unclear, epigallocatechin-3 gallate has a potential as an effective anti-HBV agent with low toxicity.

A major host plant volatile, 1-octen-3-ol, contributes to mating in the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bendera, M.; Ekesi, S.; Ndung'u, M.; Srinivasan, R.; Torto, B.

2015-10-01

Previous studies on the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), a serious pest of cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. (Fabales: Fabaceae), in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on sex pheromones, but the role of the host plant on sexual behavior has not been explored. We investigated this interaction in the laboratory using behavioral assays and chemical analyses. We found that the presence of cowpea seedlings and a dichloromethane extract of the leaf increased coupling in the legume pod borer by 33 and 61 %, respectively, compared to the control, suggesting the involvement of both contact and olfactory cues. We used coupled gas chromatography-electroantennographic detection (GC/EAD) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to identify compounds from the cowpea leaf extract, detected by M. vitrata antenna. We found that the antennae of the insect consistently detected four components, with 1-octen-3-ol identified as a common and dominant component in both the volatiles released by the intact cowpea plant and leaf extract. We therefore investigated its role in the coupling of M. vitrata. In dose-response assays, 1-octen-3-ol increased coupling in M. vitrata with increasing dose of the compound compared to the control. Our results suggest that the cowpea volatile 1-octen-3-ol contributes to M. vitrata sexual behavior.

Detection of DNA–protein crosslinks (DPCs) by novel direct fluorescence labeling methods: distinct stabilities of aldehyde and radiation-induced DPCs

PubMed Central

Shoulkamy, Mahmoud I.; Nakano, Toshiaki; Ohshima, Makiko; Hirayama, Ryoichi; Uzawa, Akiko; Furusawa, Yoshiya; Ide, Hiroshi

2012-01-01

Proteins are covalently trapped on DNA to form DNA–protein crosslinks (DPCs) when cells are exposed to DNA-damaging agents. DPCs interfere with many aspects of DNA transactions. The current DPC detection methods indirectly measure crosslinked proteins (CLPs) through DNA tethered to proteins. However, a major drawback of such methods is the non-linear relationship between the amounts of DNA and CLPs, which makes quantitative data interpretation difficult. Here we developed novel methods of DPC detection based on direct CLP measurement, whereby CLPs in DNA isolated from cells are labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and quantified by fluorometry or western blotting using anti-FITC antibodies. Both formats successfully monitored the induction and elimination of DPCs in cultured cells exposed to aldehydes and mouse tumors exposed to ionizing radiation (carbon-ion beams). The fluorometric and western blotting formats require 30 and 0.3 μg of DNA, respectively. Analyses of the isolated genomic DPCs revealed that both aldehydes and ionizing radiation produce two types of DPC with distinct stabilities. The stable components of aldehyde-induced DPCs have half-lives of up to days. Interestingly, that of radiation-induced DPCs has an infinite half-life, suggesting that the stable DPC component exerts a profound effect on DNA transactions over many cell cycles. PMID:22730301

Proposed standardized definitions for vertical resolution and uncertainty in the NDACC lidar ozone and temperature algorithms - Part 3: Temperature uncertainty budget

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leblanc, Thierry; Sica, Robert J.; van Gijsel, Joanna A. E.; Haefele, Alexander; Payen, Guillaume; Liberti, Gianluigi

2016-08-01

A standardized approach for the definition, propagation, and reporting of uncertainty in the temperature lidar data products contributing to the Network for the Detection for Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) database is proposed. One important aspect of the proposed approach is the ability to propagate all independent uncertainty components in parallel through the data processing chain. The individual uncertainty components are then combined together at the very last stage of processing to form the temperature combined standard uncertainty. The identified uncertainty sources comprise major components such as signal detection, saturation correction, background noise extraction, temperature tie-on at the top of the profile, and absorption by ozone if working in the visible spectrum, as well as other components such as molecular extinction, the acceleration of gravity, and the molecular mass of air, whose magnitudes depend on the instrument, data processing algorithm, and altitude range of interest. The expression of the individual uncertainty components and their step-by-step propagation through the temperature data processing chain are thoroughly estimated, taking into account the effect of vertical filtering and the merging of multiple channels. All sources of uncertainty except detection noise imply correlated terms in the vertical dimension, which means that covariance terms must be taken into account when vertical filtering is applied and when temperature is integrated from the top of the profile. Quantitatively, the uncertainty budget is presented in a generic form (i.e., as a function of instrument performance and wavelength), so that any NDACC temperature lidar investigator can easily estimate the expected impact of individual uncertainty components in the case of their own instrument. Using this standardized approach, an example of uncertainty budget is provided for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lidar at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawai'i, which is typical of the NDACC temperature lidars transmitting at 355 nm. The combined temperature uncertainty ranges between 0.1 and 1 K below 60 km, with detection noise, saturation correction, and molecular extinction correction being the three dominant sources of uncertainty. Above 60 km and up to 10 km below the top of the profile, the total uncertainty increases exponentially from 1 to 10 K due to the combined effect of random noise and temperature tie-on. In the top 10 km of the profile, the accuracy of the profile mainly depends on that of the tie-on temperature. All other uncertainty components remain below 0.1 K throughout the entire profile (15-90 km), except the background noise correction uncertainty, which peaks around 0.3-0.5 K. It should be kept in mind that these quantitative estimates may be very different for other lidar instruments, depending on their altitude range and the wavelengths used.

Comparison of Timothy grass pollen extract- and single major allergen-induced gene expression and mediator release in airway epithelial cells: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Röschmann, K I L; van Kuijen, A-M; Luiten, S; Jonker, M J; Breit, T M; Fokkens, W J; Petersen, A; van Drunen, C M

2012-10-01

Seasonal allergic rhinitis (AR) is a global health problem and its prevalence has increased considerably in the last decades. As the allergic response with its clinical manifestations is triggered by only a few proteins within natural extracts, there is an increasing tendency for single-component-resolved diagnosis and immunotherapy. As natural exposure is not to single proteins, but to complex mixtures of molecules, we were interested in comparing the activation of respiratory epithelial cells induced by the purified major allergen Phl p 1 with the induction caused by a complete extract of Timothy grass pollen (GPE). NCI-H292 cells were exposed to GPE or Ph1 p 1 for 24 h, isolated RNA and cell culture supernatants were used for microarray analysis, multiplex enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and subsequent analysis. We found 262 genes that showed a GPE-induced change of at least 3-fold, whereas Ph1 p 1-stimulation resulted in 71 genes with a fold induction of more than 3-fold. Besides genes that were regulated by both stimuli, we also detected genes displaying an opposite response after stimulation, suggesting that GPE might be more than purified major allergens with regard to induced immune responses. Additional components within GPE and the resulting modulation of general processes affecting gene transcription and signalling pathways might be crucial to maintain/overcome the diseased phenotype and to induce the influx of cells contributing to late-phase allergic responses. When the initial process of sensitization is the matter of interest or late-phase allergic responses, one might miss important immune modulatory molecules and their interaction with allergens by applying single components only. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Extended PCR conditions to reduce drop-out frequencies in low template STR typing including unequal mixtures.

PubMed

Weiler, Natalie E C; Matai, Anuska S; Sijen, Titia

2012-01-01

Forensic laboratories employ various approaches to obtain short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from minimal traces (<100 pg DNA input). Most approaches aim to sensitize DNA profiling by increasing the amplification level by a higher cycle number or enlarging the amount of PCR products analyzed during capillary electrophoresis. These methods have limitations when unequal mixtures are genotyped, since the major component will be over-amplified or over-loaded. This study explores an alternative strategy for improved detection of the minor components in low template (LT) DNA typing that may be better suited for the detection of the minor component in mixtures. The strategy increases the PCR amplification efficiency by extending the primer annealing time several folds. When the AmpFℓSTR(®) Identifiler(®) amplification parameters are changed to an annealing time of 20 min during all 28 cycles, the drop-out frequency is reduced for both pristine DNA and single or multiple donor mock case work samples. In addition, increased peak heights and slightly more drop-ins are observed while the heterozygous peak balance remains similar as with the conventional Identifiler protocol. By this extended protocol, full DNA profiles were obtained from only 12 sperm heads (which corresponds to 36 pg of DNA) that were collected by laser micro dissection. Notwithstanding the improved detection, allele drop-outs do persist, albeit in lower frequencies. Thus a LT interpretation strategy such as deducing consensus profiles from multiple independent amplifications is appropriate. The use of extended PCR conditions represents a general approach to improve detection of unequal mixtures as shown using four commercially available kits (AmpFℓSTR(®) Identifiler, SEfiler Plus, NGM and Yfiler). The extended PCR protocol seems to amplify more of the molecules in LT samples during PCR, which results in a lower drop-out frequency. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrated geophysical study of the geothermal system in the southern part of Nisyros Island, Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lagios, E.; Apostolopoulos, G.

1995-10-01

The study of the high-enthalpy geothermal field of Nisyros Island is of great importance, because of the planned construction of a geothermal power station. The purpose of the applied geophysical surveys — gravity, SP, VLF and audio-magnetotelluric — in southernmost Nisyros was to investigate the major and minor faulting zones which are geothermally active, i.e. whether geothermal fluid circulation occurs in these zones. The survey lines, four parallel traverses of about 1500 m length, were chosen to be almost transverse to the main faults of the area. The SP method was the main reconnaissance technique, with the VLF and gravity measurements correlating with the "SP model". Previously proposed SP data acquisition and reduction techniques were used, followed by a 2-D interpretation of the SP map which apparently locates the position of the fracture zones (geothermally active). The SP and VLF anomalies are believed to be generated by the same source (subsurface flow of fluid, heat and ions). Hence, at the place of a vertical geothermal fluid circulation zone, the curve of SP dipole-like anomaly changes its behaviour and the curve of the VLF anomaly takes maximum values for the in-phase component and minimum values for the out-of-phase component. On the VLF map of the survey area, the zones detected with the SP interpretation coincide with the maximum values of the VLF in-phase component. The geothermal fluid circulation zones, detected by the SP method, appear to be well correlated with corresponding features derived from the gravity and the AMT surveys. In particular, the AMT soundings indicate two zones of geothermal fluid circulation instead of the one the SP method detected in the central part of the investigated area.

Solving the Excitation and Chemical Abundances in Shocks: The Case of HH 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giannini, T.; Antoniucci, S.; Nisini, B.; Bacciotti, F.; Podio, L.

2015-11-01

We present deep spectroscopic (3600-24700 Å ) X-shooter observations of the bright Herbig-Haro object HH 1, one of the best laboratories to study the chemical and physical modifications caused by protostellar shocks on the natal cloud. We observe atomic fine structure lines, H i and He i recombination lines and H2 ro-vibrational lines (more than 500 detections in total). Line emission was analyzed by means of Non-local Thermal Equilibiurm codes to derive the electron temperature and density, and for the first time we are able to accurately probe different physical regimes behind a dissociative shock. We find a temperature stratification in the range 4000 K \\div 80,000 K, and a significant correlation between temperature and ionization energy. Two density regimes are identified for the ionized gas, a more tenuous, spatially broad component (density ˜103 cm-3), and a more compact component (density ≥slant 105 cm-3) likely associated with the hottest gas. A further neutral component is also evidenced, having a temperature ≲10,000 K and a density >104 cm-3. The gas fractional ionization was estimated by solving the ionization equilibrium equations of atoms detected in different ionization stages. We find that neutral and fully ionized regions co-exist inside the shock. Also, indications in favor of at least partially dissociative shock as the main mechanism for molecular excitation are derived. Chemical abundances are estimated for the majority of the detected species. On average, abundances of non-refractory/refractory elements are lower than solar of about 0.15/0.5 dex. This indicates the presence of dust inside the medium, with a depletion factor of iron of ˜40%. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, (92.C-0058).

Clinical characteristics of pain in patients with pituitary adenomas.

PubMed

Dimopoulou, C; Athanasoulia, A P; Hanisch, E; Held, S; Sprenger, T; Toelle, T R; Roemmler-Zehrer, J; Schopohl, J; Stalla, G K; Sievers, C

2014-11-01

Clinical presentation of pituitary adenomas frequently involves pain, particularly headache, due to structural and functional properties of the tumour. Our aim was to investigate the clinical characteristics of pain in a large cohort of patients with pituitary disease. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed 278 patients with pituitary disease (n=81 acromegaly; n=45 Cushing's disease; n=92 prolactinoma; n=60 non-functioning pituitary adenoma). Pain was studied using validated questionnaires to screen for nociceptive vs neuropathic pain components (painDETECT), determine pain severity, quality, duration and location (German pain questionnaire) and to assess the impact of pain on disability (migraine disability assessment, MIDAS) and quality of life (QoL). We recorded a high prevalence of bodily pain (n=180, 65%) and headache (n=178, 64%); adrenocorticotropic adenomas were most frequently associated with pain (n=34, 76%). Headache was equally frequent in patients with macro- and microadenomas (68 vs 60%; P=0.266). According to painDETECT, the majority of the patients had a nociceptive pain component (n=193, 80%). Despite high prevalence of headache, 72% reported little or no headache-related disability (MIDAS). Modifiable factors including tumour size, genetic predisposition, previous surgery, irradiation or medical therapy did not have significant impact neither on neuropathic pain components (painDETECT) nor on headache-related disability (MIDAS). Neuropathic pain and pain-related disability correlated significantly with depression and impaired QoL. Pain appears to be a frequent problem in pituitary disease. The data suggest that pain should be integrated in the diagnostic and therapeutic work-up of patients with pituitary disease in order to treat them appropriately and improve their QoL. © 2014 European Society of Endocrinology.

Model based approach to UXO imaging using the time domain electromagnetic method

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

Lavely, E.M.

1999-04-01

Time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) sensors have emerged as a field-worthy technology for UXO detection in a variety of geological and environmental settings. This success has been achieved with commercial equipment that was not optimized for UXO detection and discrimination. The TDEM response displays a rich spatial and temporal behavior which is not currently utilized. Therefore, in this paper the author describes a research program for enhancing the effectiveness of the TDEM method for UXO detection and imaging. Fundamental research is required in at least three major areas: (a) model based imaging capability i.e. the forward and inverse problem, (b) detectormore » modeling and instrument design, and (c) target recognition and discrimination algorithms. These research problems are coupled and demand a unified treatment. For example: (1) the inverse solution depends on solution of the forward problem and knowledge of the instrument response; (2) instrument design with improved diagnostic power requires forward and inverse modeling capability; and (3) improved target recognition algorithms (such as neural nets) must be trained with data collected from the new instrument and with synthetic data computed using the forward model. Further, the design of the appropriate input and output layers of the net will be informed by the results of the forward and inverse modeling. A more fully developed model of the TDEM response would enable the joint inversion of data collected from multiple sensors (e.g., TDEM sensors and magnetometers). Finally, the author suggests that a complementary approach to joint inversions is the statistical recombination of data using principal component analysis. The decomposition into principal components is useful since the first principal component contains those features that are most strongly correlated from image to image.« less

Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a Brightest Cluster Galaxy at z = 1.7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, Tracy M. A.; Lowenthal, James; Yun, Min; Noble, Allison G.; Muzzin, Adam; Wilson, Gillian; Yee, H. K. C.; Cybulski, Ryan; Aretxaga, I.; Hughes, D. H.

2017-08-01

We report the detection of CO(2-1) emission coincident with the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the high-redshift galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56, with the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR) on the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). We confirm a spectroscopic redshift for the gas of z = 1.7091 ± 0.0004, which is consistent with the systemic redshift of the cluster galaxies of z = 1.709. The line is well fit by a single-component Gaussian with an RSR-resolution-corrected FWHM of 569 ± 63 km s-1. We see no evidence for multiple velocity components in the gas, as might be expected from the multiple image components seen in near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure the integrated flux of the line to be 3.6 ± 0.3 Jy km s-1, and using {α }{CO} = 0.8 M ⊙ (K km s-1 pc2)-1, we estimate a total molecular gas mass of 1.1 ± 0.1 × 1011 M ⊙ and a M H2/M ⋆ ˜ 0.4. This is the largest gas reservoir detected in a BCG above z > 1 to date. Given the infrared-estimated star formation rate of 860 ± 130 M ⊙ yr-1, this corresponds to a gas depletion timescale of ˜0.1 Gyr. We discuss several possible mechanisms for depositing such a large gas reservoir to the cluster center—e.g., a cooling flow, a major galaxy-galaxy merger, or the stripping of gas from several galaxies—but conclude that these LMT data are not sufficient to differentiate between them.

Low-resolution ship detection from high-altitude aerial images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qi, Shengxiang; Wu, Jianmin; Zhou, Qing; Kang, Minyang

2018-02-01

Ship detection from optical images taken by high-altitude aircrafts such as unmanned long-endurance airships and unmanned aerial vehicles has broad applications in marine fishery management, ship monitoring and vessel salvage. However, the major challenge is the limited capability of information processing on unmanned high-altitude platforms. Furthermore, in order to guarantee the wide detection range, unmanned aircrafts generally cruise at high altitudes, resulting in imagery with low-resolution targets and strong clutters suffered by heavy clouds. In this paper, we propose a low-resolution ship detection method to extract ships from these high-altitude optical images. Inspired by a recent research on visual saliency detection indicating that small salient signals could be well detected by a gradient enhancement operation combined with Gaussian smoothing, we propose the facet kernel filtering to rapidly suppress cluttered backgrounds and delineate candidate target regions from the sea surface. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used to compute the orientation of the target axis, followed by a simplified histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) descriptor to characterize the ship shape property. Finally, support vector machine (SVM) is applied to discriminate real targets and false alarms. Experimental results show that the proposed method actually has high efficiency in low-resolution ship detection.

Differential bacterial load on components of total knee prosthesis in patients with prosthetic joint infection.

PubMed

Holinka, Johannes; Pilz, Magdalena; Hirschl, Alexander M; Graninger, Wolfgang; Windhager, Reinhard; Presterl, Elisabeth

2012-10-01

The purpose of our study was to evaluate and quantify the bacterial adherence on different components of total knee prosthesis with the sonication culture method. Explanted components of all patients with presumptive prosthetic or implant infection were treated by sonication separately in sterile containers to dislodge the adherent bacteria from the surfaces and cultured. The bacterial load of the different knee components (femur, tibia, PE-inlay and patella) was evaluated by counting of colony-forming units (CFU) dislodged from the components surfaces using the sonication culture method. Overall, 27 patients had positive sonication cultures of explanted total knee prostheses. Microorganisms were detected from 88 of 100 explanted components. Twenty femoral components were culture positive and 7 negative, 23 tibial components as well as 23 polyethylene (PE) platforms had positive microorganism detection from the surface. Staphylococcus epidermidis adhered to the highest number of components whereas Staphylococcus aureus yielded the highest load of CFU in the sonication cultures. Although not significant, PE-inlays and tibial components were most often affected. The highest CFU count was detected in polyethylene components. The sonication culture method is a reliable method to detect bacteria from the components. Additionally, the results demonstrate that bacterial adherence is not affecting a single component of knee prosthesis only. Thus, in septic revision surgery partial prosthetic exchange or exchange of single polyethylene components alone may be not sufficient.

Combination of HPLC-MS and QAMS as a new analytical approach for determination of saponins in ginseng containing products.

PubMed

Stavrianidi, Andrey; Stekolshchikova, Elena; Porotova, Anna; Rodin, Igor; Shpigun, Oleg

2017-01-05

Conventional liquid chromatographic methods coupled with ultraviolet detection with low-wavelength range are lacking selectivity and sensitivity to determine both polar and less polar ginsenosides. Also the lack of standard substances for such quality control methods is leading to development of the approaches using single standard for quantitative analysis of multi-component system (QAMS). The objective of present study was to establish and compare for the first time liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry QAMS methods for the simultaneous determination of protopanaxatriol-type and protopanaxadiol-type ginsenosides in a variety of ginseng products. Sixteen polar and less polar ginsenosides were separated on a reversed-phase C18-column (150mm×2.0mm, 2.2μm) with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. Components were then detected by means of ultraviolet and mass spectrometry detection. Characteristic sapogenin fragmentation signals with m/z 423 and 425 for two major groups of ginseng saponins allowed their simultaneous determination in a single chromatographic run, while the use of ultraviolet detection tends to give overvalued results. Structural correlation between the relative response factors and saponin structure was demonstrated. The method was linear (R 2 >0.999) and sensitive (LODs, 0.01-0.03mg/mL) within the concentration range tested. Concentrations of individual ginsenosides and several quality control parameters were determined in ginseng root extracts and commercial ginseng products of different types (root slices, tablets and tea samples), and results showed that ginsenoside content can be successfully measured by means of QAMS approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a genetically programed vanillin-sensing bacterium for high-throughput screening of lignin-degrading enzyme libraries.

PubMed

Sana, Barindra; Chia, Kuan Hui Burton; Raghavan, Sarada S; Ramalingam, Balamurugan; Nagarajan, Niranjan; Seayad, Jayasree; Ghadessy, Farid J

2017-01-01

Lignin is a potential biorefinery feedstock for the production of value-added chemicals including vanillin. A huge amount of lignin is produced as a by-product of the paper industry, while cellulosic components of plant biomass are utilized for the production of paper pulp. In spite of vast potential, lignin remains the least exploited component of plant biomass due to its extremely complex and heterogenous structure. Several enzymes have been reported to have lignin-degrading properties and could be potentially used in lignin biorefining if their catalytic properties could be improved by enzyme engineering. The much needed improvement of lignin-degrading enzymes by high-throughput selection techniques such as directed evolution is currently limited, as robust methods for detecting the conversion of lignin to desired small molecules are not available. We identified a vanillin-inducible promoter by RNAseq analysis of Escherichia coli cells treated with a sublethal dose of vanillin and developed a genetically programmed vanillin-sensing cell by placing the 'very green fluorescent protein' gene under the control of this promoter. Fluorescence of the biosensing cell is enhanced significantly when grown in the presence of vanillin and is readily visualized by fluorescence microscopy. The use of fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis further enhances the sensitivity, enabling dose-dependent detection of as low as 200 µM vanillin. The biosensor is highly specific to vanillin and no major response is elicited by the presence of lignin, lignin model compound, DMSO, vanillin analogues or non-specific toxic chemicals. We developed an engineered E. coli cell that can detect vanillin at a concentration as low as 200 µM. The vanillin-sensing cell did not show cross-reactivity towards lignin or major lignin degradation products including vanillin analogues. This engineered E. coli cell could potentially be used as a host cell for screening lignin-degrading enzymes that can convert lignin to vanillin.

Aquarius main structure configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eremenko, A.

The Aquarius/SAC-D Observatory is a joint US-Argentine mission to map the salinity at the ocean surface. This information is critical to improving our understanding of two major components of Earth's climate system - the water cycle and ocean circulation. By measuring ocean salinity from space, the Aquarius/SAC-D Mission will provide new insights into how the massive natural exchange of freshwater between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate. Aquarius is the primary instrument on the SAC-D spacecraft. It consists of a Passive Microwave Radiometer to detect the surface emission that is used to obtain salinity and an Active Scatterometer to measure the ocean waves that affect the precision of the salinity measurement. The Aquarius Primary Structure houses instrument electronics, feed assemblies, and supports a deployable boom with a 2.5 m Reflector, and provides the structural interface to the SAC-D Spacecraft. The key challenge for the Aquarius main structure configuration is to satisfy the needs of component accommodations, ensuring that the instrument can meet all operational, pointing, environmental, and launch vehicle requirements. This paper describes the evolution of the Aquarius main structure configuration, the challenges of balancing the conflicting requirements, and the major configuration driving decisions and compromises.

Chemosensory Responses to the Repellent Nepeta Essential Oil and Its Major Component Nepetalactone by Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), a Vector of Zika Virus.

PubMed

Sparks, Jackson T; Bohbot, Jonathan D; Ristic, Mihailo; Mišic, Danijela; Skoric, Marijana; Mattoo, Autar; Dickens, Joseph C

2017-07-01

Nepeta essential oil (Neo; catnip) and its major component, nepetalactone, have long been known to repel insects including mosquitoes. However, the neural mechanisms through which these repellents are detected by mosquitoes, including the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti (L.), an important vector of Zika virus, were poorly understood. Here we show that Neo volatiles activate olfactory receptor neurons within the basiconic sensilla on the maxillary palps of female Ae. aegypti. A gustatory receptor neuron sensitive to the feeding deterrent quinine and housed within sensilla on the labella of females was activated by both Neo and nepetalactone. Activity of a second gustatory receptor neuron sensitive to the feeding stimulant sucrose was suppressed by both repellents. Our results provide neural pathways for the reported spatial repellency and feeding deterrence of these repellents. A better understanding of the neural input through which female mosquitoes make decisions to feed will facilitate design of new repellents and management strategies involving their use. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Starburst galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weedman, Daniel W.

1987-01-01

The infrared properties of star-forming galaxies, primarily as determined by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), are compared to X-ray, optical, and radio properties. Luminosity functions are reviewed and combined with those derived from optically discovered samples using 487 Markarian galaxies with redshifts and published IRAS 60 micron fluxes, and 1074 such galaxies in the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey. It is found that the majority of infrared galaxies which could be detected are low luminosity sources already known from the optical samples, but non-infrared surveys have found only a very small fraction of the highest luminosity sources. Distributions of infrared to optical fluxes and available spectra indicate that the majority of IRAS-selected galaxies are starburst galaxies. Having a census of starburst galaxies and associated dust allow severl important global calculations. The source counts are predicted as a function of flux limits for both infrared and radio fluxes. These galaxies are found to be important radio sources at faint flux limits. Taking the integrated flux to z = 3 indicates that such galaxies are a significant component of the diffuse X-ray background, and could be the the dominant component depending on the nature of the X-ray spectra and source evolution.

Aquarius Main Structure Configuration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eremenko, Alexander

2012-01-01

The Aquarius/SAC-D Observatory is a joint US-Argentine mission to map the salinity at the ocean surface. This information is critical to improving our understanding of two major components of Earth's climate system - the water cycle and ocean circulation. By measuring ocean salinity from space, the Aquarius/SAC-D Mission will provide new insights into how the massive natural exchange of freshwater between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate. Aquarius is the primary instrument on the SAC-D spacecraft. It consists of a Passive Microwave Radiometer to detect the surface emission that is used to obtain salinity and an Active Scatterometer to measure the ocean waves that affect the precision of the salinity measurement. The Aquarius Primary Structure houses instrument electronics, feed assemblies, and supports a deployable boom with a 2.5 m Reflector, and provides the structural interface to the SAC-D Spacecraft. The key challenge for the Aquarius main structure configuration is to satisfy the needs of component accommodations, ensuring that the instrument can meet all operational, pointing, environmental, and launch vehicle requirements. This paper describes the evolution of the Aquarius main structure configuration, the challenges of balancing the conflicting requirements, and the major configuration driving decisions and compromises.

Genus- and species-level identification of dermatophyte fungi by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

PubMed

Witkowska, Evelin; Jagielski, Tomasz; Kamińska, Agnieszka

2018-03-05

This paper demonstrates that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) coupled with principal component analysis (PCA) can serve as a fast and reliable technique for detection and identification of dermatophyte fungi at both genus and species level. Dermatophyte infections are the most common mycotic diseases worldwide, affecting a quarter of the human population. Currently, there is no optimal method for detection and identification of fungal diseases, as each has certain limitations. Here, for the first time, we have achieved with a high accuracy, differentiation of dermatophytes representing three major genera, i.e. Trichophyton, Microsporum, and Epidermophyton. Two first principal components (PC), namely PC-1 and PC-2, gave together 97% of total variance. Additionally, species-level identification within the Trichophyton genus has been performed. PC-1 and PC-2, which are the most diagnostically significant, explain 98% of the variance in the data obtained from spectra of: Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton menatgrophytes, Trichophyton interdigitale and Trichophyton tonsurans. This study offers a new diagnostic approach for the identification of dermatophytes. Being fast, reliable and cost-effective, it has the potential to be incorporated in the clinical practice to improve diagnostics of medically important fungi. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genus- and species-level identification of dermatophyte fungi by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witkowska, Evelin; Jagielski, Tomasz; Kamińska, Agnieszka

2018-03-01

This paper demonstrates that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) coupled with principal component analysis (PCA) can serve as a fast and reliable technique for detection and identification of dermatophyte fungi at both genus and species level. Dermatophyte infections are the most common mycotic diseases worldwide, affecting a quarter of the human population. Currently, there is no optimal method for detection and identification of fungal diseases, as each has certain limitations. Here, for the first time, we have achieved with a high accuracy, differentiation of dermatophytes representing three major genera, i.e. Trichophyton, Microsporum, and Epidermophyton. Two first principal components (PC), namely PC-1 and PC-2, gave together 97% of total variance. Additionally, species-level identification within the Trichophyton genus has been performed. PC-1 and PC-2, which are the most diagnostically significant, explain 98% of the variance in the data obtained from spectra of: Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton menatgrophytes, Trichophyton interdigitale and Trichophyton tonsurans. This study offers a new diagnostic approach for the identification of dermatophytes. Being fast, reliable and cost-effective, it has the potential to be incorporated in the clinical practice to improve diagnostics of medically important fungi.

Extensions of algebraic image operators: An approach to model-based vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lerner, Bao-Ting; Morelli, Michael V.

1990-01-01

Researchers extend their previous research on a highly structured and compact algebraic representation of grey-level images which can be viewed as fuzzy sets. Addition and multiplication are defined for the set of all grey-level images, which can then be described as polynomials of two variables. Utilizing this new algebraic structure, researchers devised an innovative, efficient edge detection scheme. An accurate method for deriving gradient component information from this edge detector is presented. Based upon this new edge detection system researchers developed a robust method for linear feature extraction by combining the techniques of a Hough transform and a line follower. The major advantage of this feature extractor is its general, object-independent nature. Target attributes, such as line segment lengths, intersections, angles of intersection, and endpoints are derived by the feature extraction algorithm and employed during model matching. The algebraic operators are global operations which are easily reconfigured to operate on any size or shape region. This provides a natural platform from which to pursue dynamic scene analysis. A method for optimizing the linear feature extractor which capitalizes on the spatially reconfiguration nature of the edge detector/gradient component operator is discussed.

Transcription-Coupled Repair and Complex Biology.

PubMed

Portman, James R; Strick, Terence R

2018-05-04

All active living organisms mitigate DNA damage via DNA repair, and the so-called nucleotide excision repair pathway (NER) represents a functionally major part of the cell's DNA repair repertoire [1]. In this pathway, the damaged strand of DNA is incised and removed before being resynthesized. This form of DNA repair requires a multitude of proteins working in a complex choreography. Repair thus typically involves detection of a DNA lesion; validation of that detection event; search for an appropriate incision site and subsequent DNA incision; DNA unwinding/removal; and DNA resynthesis and religation. These activities are ultimately the result of molecules randomly diffusing and bumping into each other and acting in succession. It is also true however that repair components are often assembled into functional complexes which may be more efficient or regular in their mode of action. Studying DNA repair complexes for their mechanisms of assembly, action, and disassembly can help address fundamental questions such as whether DNA repair pathways are branched or linear; whether for instance they tolerate fluctuations in numbers of components; and more broadly how search processes between macromolecules take place or can be enhanced. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Toward Failure Modeling In Complex Dynamic Systems: Impact of Design and Manufacturing Variations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumer, Irem Y.; McAdams, Daniel A.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

When designing vehicle vibration monitoring systems for aerospace devices, it is common to use well-established models of vibration features to determine whether failures or defects exist. Most of the algorithms used for failure detection rely on these models to detect significant changes during a flight environment. In actual practice, however, most vehicle vibration monitoring systems are corrupted by high rates of false alarms and missed detections. Research conducted at the NASA Ames Research Center has determined that a major reason for the high rates of false alarms and missed detections is the numerous sources of statistical variations that are not taken into account in the. modeling assumptions. In this paper, we address one such source of variations, namely, those caused during the design and manufacturing of rotating machinery components that make up aerospace systems. We present a novel way of modeling the vibration response by including design variations via probabilistic methods. The results demonstrate initial feasibility of the method, showing great promise in developing a general methodology for designing more accurate aerospace vehicle vibration monitoring systems.

Water system virus detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fraser, A. S.; Wells, A. F.; Tenoso, H. J.

1975-01-01

A monitoring system developed to test the capability of a water recovery system to reject the passage of viruses into the recovered water is described. A nonpathogenic marker virus, bacteriophage F2, is fed into the process stream before the recovery unit and the reclaimed water is assayed for its presence. Detection of the marker virus consists of two major components, concentration and isolation of the marker virus, and detection of the marker virus. The concentration system involves adsorption of virus to cellulose acetate filters in the presence of trivalent cations and low pH with subsequent desorption of the virus using volumes of high pH buffer. The detection of the virus is performed by a passive immune agglutination test utilizing specially prepared polystyrene particles. An engineering preliminary design was performed as a parallel effort to the laboratory development of the marker virus test system. Engineering schematics and drawings of a fully functional laboratory prototype capable of zero-G operation are presented. The instrument consists of reagent pump/metering system, reagent storage containers, a filter concentrator, an incubation/detector system, and an electronic readout and control system.

New sensors and techniques for the structural health monitoring of propulsion systems.

PubMed

Woike, Mark; Abdul-Aziz, Ali; Oza, Nikunj; Matthews, Bryan

2013-01-01

The ability to monitor the structural health of the rotating components, especially in the hot sections of turbine engines, is of major interest to aero community in improving engine safety and reliability. The use of instrumentation for these applications remains very challenging. It requires sensors and techniques that are highly accurate, are able to operate in a high temperature environment, and can detect minute changes and hidden flaws before catastrophic events occur. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through the Aviation Safety Program (AVSP), has taken a lead role in the development of new sensor technologies and techniques for the in situ structural health monitoring of gas turbine engines. This paper presents a summary of key results and findings obtained from three different structural health monitoring approaches that have been investigated. This includes evaluating the performance of a novel microwave blade tip clearance sensor; a vibration based crack detection technique using an externally mounted capacitive blade tip clearance sensor; and lastly the results of using data driven anomaly detection algorithms for detecting cracks in a rotating disk.

Detection of Oil Chestnuts Infected by Blue Mold Using Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Combined with Artificial Neural Networks.

PubMed

Feng, Lei; Zhu, Susu; Lin, Fucheng; Su, Zhenzhu; Yuan, Kangpei; Zhao, Yiying; He, Yong; Zhang, Chu

2018-06-15

Mildew damage is a major reason for chestnut poor quality and yield loss. In this study, a near-infrared hyperspectral imaging system in the 874⁻1734 nm spectral range was applied to detect the mildew damage to chestnuts caused by blue mold. Principal component analysis (PCA) scored images were firstly employed to qualitatively and intuitively distinguish moldy chestnuts from healthy chestnuts. Spectral data were extracted from the hyperspectral images. A successive projections algorithm (SPA) was used to select 12 optimal wavelengths. Artificial neural networks, including back propagation neural network (BPNN), evolutionary neural network (ENN), extreme learning machine (ELM), general regression neural network (GRNN) and radial basis neural network (RBNN) were used to build models using the full spectra and optimal wavelengths to distinguish moldy chestnuts. BPNN and ENN models using full spectra and optimal wavelengths obtained satisfactory performances, with classification accuracies all surpassing 99%. The results indicate the potential for the rapid and non-destructive detection of moldy chestnuts by hyperspectral imaging, which would help to develop online detection system for healthy and blue mold infected chestnuts.

Selective attention and the auditory vertex potential. I - Effects of stimulus delivery rate. II - Effects of signal intensity and masking noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwent, V. L.; Hillyard, S. A.; Galambos, R.

1976-01-01

The effects of varying the rate of delivery of dichotic tone pip stimuli on selective attention measured by evoked-potential amplitudes and signal detectability scores were studied. The subjects attended to one channel (ear) of tones, ignored the other, and pressed a button whenever occasional targets - tones of a slightly higher pitch were detected in the attended ear. Under separate conditions, randomized interstimulus intervals were short, medium, and long. Another study compared the effects of attention on the N1 component of the auditory evoked potential for tone pips presented alone and when white noise was added to make the tones barely above detectability threshold in a three-channel listening task. Major conclusions are that (1) N1 is enlarged to stimuli in an attended channel only in the short interstimulus interval condition (averaging 350 msec), (2) N1 and P3 are related to different modes of selective attention, and (3) attention selectivity in multichannel listening task is greater when tones are faint and/or difficult to detect.

New Sensors and Techniques for the Structural Health Monitoring of Propulsion Systems

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The ability to monitor the structural health of the rotating components, especially in the hot sections of turbine engines, is of major interest to aero community in improving engine safety and reliability. The use of instrumentation for these applications remains very challenging. It requires sensors and techniques that are highly accurate, are able to operate in a high temperature environment, and can detect minute changes and hidden flaws before catastrophic events occur. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through the Aviation Safety Program (AVSP), has taken a lead role in the development of new sensor technologies and techniques for the in situ structural health monitoring of gas turbine engines. This paper presents a summary of key results and findings obtained from three different structural health monitoring approaches that have been investigated. This includes evaluating the performance of a novel microwave blade tip clearance sensor; a vibration based crack detection technique using an externally mounted capacitive blade tip clearance sensor; and lastly the results of using data driven anomaly detection algorithms for detecting cracks in a rotating disk. PMID:23935425

Method of detecting leakage of reactor core components of liquid metal cooled fast reactors

DOEpatents

Holt, Fred E.; Cash, Robert J.; Schenter, Robert E.

1977-01-01

A method of detecting the failure of a sealed non-fueled core component of a liquid-metal cooled fast reactor having an inert cover gas. A gas mixture is incorporated in the component which includes Xenon-124; under neutron irradiation, Xenon-124 is converted to radioactive Xenon-125. The cover gas is scanned by a radiation detector. The occurrence of 188 Kev gamma radiation and/or other identifying gamma radiation-energy level indicates the presence of Xenon-125 and therefore leakage of a component. Similarly, Xe-126, which transmutes to Xe-127 and Kr-84, which produces Kr-85.sup.m can be used for detection of leakage. Different components are charged with mixtures including different ratios of isotopes other than Xenon-124. On detection of the identifying radiation, the cover gas is subjected to mass spectroscopic analysis to locate the leaking component.

Concentrations and distribution of manmade organic compounds in the Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California, 1997-99

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lico, Michael S.; Pennington, Nyle

1999-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Lahontan Regional Water-Quality Control Board, sampled Lake Tahoe, major tributary streams to Lake Tahoe, and several other lakes in the Lake Tahoe Basin for manmade organic compounds during 1997-99. Gasoline components were found in all samples collected from Lake Tahoe during the summer boating season. Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) were the commonly detected compounds in these samples. Most samples from tributary streams and lakes with no motorized boating had no detectable concentrations of gasoline components. Motorized boating activity appears to be directly linked in space and time to the occurrence of these gasoline components. Other sources of gasoline components to Lake Tahoe, such as the atmosphere, surface runoff, and subsurface flow, are minor compared to the input by motorized boating. Water sampled from Lake Tahoe during mid-winter, when motorized boating activity is low, had no MTBE and only one sample had any detectable BTEX compounds. Soluble pesticides rarely were detected in water samples from the Lake Tahoe Basin. The only detectable concentrations of these compounds were in samples from Blackwood and Taylor Creeks collected during spring runoff. Concentrations found in these samples were low, in the 1 to 4 nanograms per liter range. Organochlorine compounds were detected in samples collected from semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD's) collected from Lake Tahoe, tributary streams, and Upper Angora Lake. In Lake Tahoe, SPMD samples collected offshore from urbanized areas contained the largest number and highest concentrations of organochlorine compounds. The most commonly detected organochlorine compounds were cis- and trans-chlordane, p, p'-DDE, and hexachlorobenzene. In tributary streams, SPMD samples collected during spring runoff generally had higher combined concentrations of organochlorine compounds than those collected during baseflow conditions. Upper Angora Lake had the fewest number of organochlorine compounds detected of all lake samples. Dioxins and furans were not detected in SPMD samples from two sites in Lake Tahoe or from two tributary streams. The number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds and their combined concentrations generally were higher in samples from Lake Tahoe than those from tributary streams. Areas of high-motorized boating activity at Lake Tahoe had the largest number and highest concentrations of PAH's. PAH compounds were detected in samples from SPMD's in four of six tributary streams during spring runoff, all tributary streams during baseflow conditions, and at all lake sites. The most commonly detected PAH's in tributary streams during spring runoff were phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and chrysene, and during baseflow conditions were phenanthrene, 1-methylphenanthrene, diethylnaphthalene, and pyrene. Upper Truckee River, which has an urban area in its drainage basin, had the largest number and highest combined concentration of PAH's of all stream samples. Bottom-sediment from Lake Tahoe had detectable concentrations of p-cresol, a phenol, in all but one sample. A sample collected near Chambers Lodge contained phenol at an estimated concentration of 4 micrograms per kilogram (?g/kg). Bottom-sediment samples from tributary streams had no detectable concentrations of organochlorine or PAH compounds. Several compounds were detected in bottom sediment from Upper Angora Lake at high concentrations. These compounds and their concentrations were p, p'-DDD (10 ?g/kg), p, p'-DDE (7.4 ?g/kg), 2,6-dimethylnaphthalene (estimated at 190 ?g/kg), pentachlorophenol (3,000 ?g/kg), and p-cresol (4,400 ?g/kg).

Metabolism of [6]-shogaol in mice and in cancer cells.

PubMed

Chen, Huadong; Lv, Lishuang; Soroka, Dominique; Warin, Renaud F; Parks, Tiffany A; Hu, Yuhui; Zhu, Yingdong; Chen, Xiaoxin; Sang, Shengmin

2012-04-01

Ginger has received extensive attention because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor activities. However, the metabolic fate of its major components is still unclear. In the present study, the metabolism of [6]-shogaol, one of the major active components in ginger, was examined for the first time in mice and in cancer cells. Thirteen metabolites were detected and identified, seven of which were purified from fecal samples collected from [6]-shogaol-treated mice. Their structures were elucidated as 1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-4-decen-3-ol (M6), 5-methoxy-1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M7), 3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl-decan-3-one (M8), 1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-ol (M9), 5-methylthio-1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M10), 1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M11), and 5-methylthio-1-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-ol (M12) on the basis of detailed analysis of their (1)H, (13)C, and two-dimensional NMR data. The rest of the metabolites were identified as 5-cysteinyl-M6 (M1), 5-cysteinyl-[6]-shogaol (M2), 5-cysteinylglycinyl-M6 (M3), 5-N-acetylcysteinyl-M6 (M4), 5-N-acetylcysteinyl-[6]-shogaol (M5), and 5-glutathiol-[6]-shogaol (M13) by analysis of the MS(n) (n = 1-3) spectra and comparison to authentic standards. Among the metabolites, M1 through M5, M10, M12, and M13 were identified as the thiol conjugates of [6]-shogaol and its metabolite M6. M9 and M11 were identified as the major metabolites in four different cancer cell lines (HCT-116, HT-29, H-1299, and CL-13), and M13 was detected as a major metabolite in HCT-116 human colon cancer cells. We further showed that M9 and M11 are bioactive compounds that can inhibit cancer cell growth and induce apoptosis in human cancer cells. Our results suggest that 1) [6]-shogaol is extensively metabolized in these two models, 2) its metabolites are bioactive compounds, and 3) the mercapturic acid pathway is one of the major biotransformation pathways of [6]-shogaol.

Metabolism of [6]-Shogaol in Mice and in Cancer Cells

PubMed Central

Chen, Huadong; Lv, Lishuang; Soroka, Dominique; Warin, Renaud F.; Parks, Tiffany A.; Hu, Yuhui; Zhu, Yingdong; Chen, Xiaoxin

2012-01-01

Ginger has received extensive attention because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor activities. However, the metabolic fate of its major components is still unclear. In the present study, the metabolism of [6]-shogaol, one of the major active components in ginger, was examined for the first time in mice and in cancer cells. Thirteen metabolites were detected and identified, seven of which were purified from fecal samples collected from [6]-shogaol-treated mice. Their structures were elucidated as 1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-4-decen-3-ol (M6), 5-methoxy-1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M7), 3′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl-decan-3-one (M8), 1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-ol (M9), 5-methylthio-1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M10), 1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (M11), and 5-methylthio-1-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-ol (M12) on the basis of detailed analysis of their 1H, 13C, and two-dimensional NMR data. The rest of the metabolites were identified as 5-cysteinyl-M6 (M1), 5-cysteinyl-[6]-shogaol (M2), 5-cysteinylglycinyl-M6 (M3), 5-N-acetylcysteinyl-M6 (M4), 5-N-acetylcysteinyl-[6]-shogaol (M5), and 5-glutathiol-[6]-shogaol (M13) by analysis of the MSn (n = 1–3) spectra and comparison to authentic standards. Among the metabolites, M1 through M5, M10, M12, and M13 were identified as the thiol conjugates of [6]-shogaol and its metabolite M6. M9 and M11 were identified as the major metabolites in four different cancer cell lines (HCT-116, HT-29, H-1299, and CL-13), and M13 was detected as a major metabolite in HCT-116 human colon cancer cells. We further showed that M9 and M11 are bioactive compounds that can inhibit cancer cell growth and induce apoptosis in human cancer cells. Our results suggest that 1) [6]-shogaol is extensively metabolized in these two models, 2) its metabolites are bioactive compounds, and 3) the mercapturic acid pathway is one of the major biotransformation pathways of [6]-shogaol. PMID:22246389

Quantitative method to assess caries via fluorescence imaging from the perspective of autofluorescence spectral analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Q. G.; Zhu, H. H.; Xu, Y.; Lin, B.; Chen, H.

2015-08-01

A quantitative method to discriminate caries lesions for a fluorescence imaging system is proposed in this paper. The autofluorescence spectral investigation of 39 teeth samples classified by the International Caries Detection and Assessment System levels was performed at 405 nm excitation. The major differences in the different caries lesions focused on the relative spectral intensity range of 565-750 nm. The spectral parameter, defined as the ratio of wavebands at 565-750 nm to the whole spectral range, was calculated. The image component ratio R/(G + B) of color components was statistically computed by considering the spectral parameters (e.g. autofluorescence, optical filter, and spectral sensitivity) in our fluorescence color imaging system. Results showed that the spectral parameter and image component ratio presented a linear relation. Therefore, the image component ratio was graded as <0.66, 0.66-1.06, 1.06-1.62, and >1.62 to quantitatively classify sound, early decay, established decay, and severe decay tissues, respectively. Finally, the fluorescence images of caries were experimentally obtained, and the corresponding image component ratio distribution was compared with the classification result. A method to determine the numerical grades of caries using a fluorescence imaging system was proposed. This method can be applied to similar imaging systems.

Antioxidant activity and nutritional quality of traditional red-grained rice varieties containing proanthocyanidins.

PubMed

Gunaratne, Anil; Wu, Kao; Li, Dongqin; Bentota, Amitha; Corke, Harold; Cai, Yi-Zhong

2013-06-01

Proanthocyanidin-containing rice varieties have been rarely reported. Antioxidant capacity, major antioxidant components, and nutritional parameters of eight traditional red-grained rice varieties containing proanthocyanidins grown in Sri Lanka were investigated. The tested traditional red varieties, on the average, had over sevenfold higher both total antioxidant capacity and phenolic content than three light brown-grained new-improved rice varieties. Major antioxidant phenolic compounds identified in this study included proanthocyanidins, phenolic acids and γ-oryzanols (ferulic acid derivatives). Proanthocyanidins were detected only in the traditional red varieties, but not found in new-improved ones. Most traditional red varieties also contained significantly higher levels of protein with well balanced amino acids and higher contents of fat, fibre and vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols) than the new-improved ones. Great variations in antioxidant capacity, major phenolics, and nutritional parameters were observed among different rice varieties. These Sri Lankan traditional red-grained rice varieties containing proanthocyanidins may be used as important genetic sources for rice breeding. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Magnon detection using a ferroic collinear multilayer spin valve.

PubMed

Cramer, Joel; Fuhrmann, Felix; Ritzmann, Ulrike; Gall, Vanessa; Niizeki, Tomohiko; Ramos, Rafael; Qiu, Zhiyong; Hou, Dazhi; Kikkawa, Takashi; Sinova, Jairo; Nowak, Ulrich; Saitoh, Eiji; Kläui, Mathias

2018-03-14

Information transport and processing by pure magnonic spin currents in insulators is a promising alternative to conventional charge-current-driven spintronic devices. The absence of Joule heating and reduced spin wave damping in insulating ferromagnets have been suggested for implementing efficient logic devices. After the successful demonstration of a majority gate based on the superposition of spin waves, further components are required to perform complex logic operations. Here, we report on magnetization orientation-dependent spin current detection signals in collinear magnetic multilayers inspired by the functionality of a conventional spin valve. In Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 |CoO|Co, we find that the detection amplitude of spin currents emitted by ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping depends on the relative alignment of the Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 and Co magnetization. This yields a spin valve-like behavior with an amplitude change of 120% in our systems. We demonstrate the reliability of the effect and identify its origin by both temperature-dependent and power-dependent measurements.

Highly sensitive quantitative PCR for the detection and differentiation of Pseudogymnoascus destructans and other Pseudogymnoascus species.

PubMed

Shuey, Megan M; Drees, Kevin P; Lindner, Daniel L; Keim, Paul; Foster, Jeffrey T

2014-03-01

White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations across eastern North America. Identification of the etiologic agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (formerly Geomyces destructans), in environmental samples is essential to proposed management plans. A major challenge is the presence of closely related species, which are ubiquitous in many soils and cave sediments and often present in high abundance. We present a dual-probe real-time quantitative PCR assay capable of detecting and differentiating P. destructans from closely related fungi in environmental samples from North America. The assay, based on a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) specific to P. destructans, is capable of rapid low-level detection from various sampling media, including sediment, fecal samples, wing biopsy specimens, and skin swabs. This method is a highly sensitive, high-throughput method for identifying P. destructans, other Pseudogymnoascus spp., and Geomyces spp. in the environment, providing a fundamental component of research and risk assessment for addressing this disease, as well as other ecological and mycological work on related fungi.

Surface activity and oscillation amplitudes of red giants in eclipsing binaries

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

Gaulme, P.; Jackiewicz, J.; Appourchaux, T.

2014-04-10

Among the 19 red-giant stars belonging to eclipsing binary systems that have been identified in Kepler data, 15 display solar-like oscillations. We study whether the absence of mode detection in the remaining 4 is an observational bias or possibly evidence of mode damping that originates from tidal interactions. A careful analysis of the corresponding Kepler light curves shows that modes with amplitudes that are usually observed in red giants would have been detected if they were present. We observe that mode depletion is strongly associated with short-period systems, in which stellar radii account for 16%-24% of the semi-major axis, andmore » where red-giant surface activity is detected. We suggest that when the rotational and orbital periods synchronize in close binaries, the red-giant component is spun up, so that a dynamo mechanism starts and generates a magnetic field, leading to observable stellar activity. Pressure modes would then be damped as acoustic waves dissipate in these fields.« less

Accumulating pyramid spatial-spectral collaborative coding divergence for hyperspectral anomaly detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Hao; Zou, Huanxin; Zhou, Shilin

2016-03-01

Detection of anomalous targets of various sizes in hyperspectral data has received a lot of attention in reconnaissance and surveillance applications. Many anomaly detectors have been proposed in literature. However, current methods are susceptible to anomalies in the processing window range and often make critical assumptions about the distribution of the background data. Motivated by the fact that anomaly pixels are often distinctive from their local background, in this letter, we proposed a novel hyperspectral anomaly detection framework for real-time remote sensing applications. The proposed framework consists of four major components, sparse feature learning, pyramid grid window selection, joint spatial-spectral collaborative coding and multi-level divergence fusion. It exploits the collaborative representation difference in the feature space to locate potential anomalies and is totally unsupervised without any prior assumptions. Experimental results on airborne recorded hyperspectral data demonstrate that the proposed methods adaptive to anomalies in a large range of sizes and is well suited for parallel processing.

Molecular characterization of 5S ribosomal RNA genes and transcripts in the protozoan parasite Leishmania major.

PubMed

Moreno-Campos, Rodrigo; Florencio-Martínez, Luis E; Nepomuceno-Mejía, Tomás; Rojas-Sánchez, Saúl; Vélez-Ramírez, Daniel E; Padilla-Mejía, Norma E; Figueroa-Angulo, Elisa; Manning-Cela, Rebeca; Martínez-Calvillo, Santiago

2016-12-01

Eukaryotic 5S rRNA, synthesized by RNA polymerase III (Pol III), is an essential component of the large ribosomal subunit. Most organisms contain hundreds of 5S rRNA genes organized into tandem arrays. However, the genome of the protozoan parasite Leishmania major contains only 11 copies of the 5S rRNA gene, which are interspersed and associated with other Pol III-transcribed genes. Here we report that, in general, the number and order of the 5S rRNA genes is conserved between different species of Leishmania. While in most organisms 5S rRNA genes are normally associated with the nucleolus, combined fluorescent in situ hybridization and indirect immunofluorescence experiments showed that 5S rRNA genes are mainly located at the nuclear periphery in L. major. Similarly, the tandemly repeated 5S rRNA genes in Trypanosoma cruzi are dispersed throughout the nucleus. In contrast, 5S rRNA transcripts in L. major were localized within the nucleolus, and scattered throughout the cytoplasm, where mature ribosomes are located. Unlike other rRNA species, stable antisense RNA complementary to 5S rRNA is not detected in L. major.

Detection of Leaks in Water Distribution System using Non-Destructive Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aslam, H.; Kaur, M.; Sasi, S.; Mortula, Md M.; Yehia, S.; Ali, T.

2018-05-01

Water is scarce and needs to be conserved. A considerable amount of water which flows in the water distribution systems was found to be lost due to pipe leaks. Consequently, innovations in methods of pipe leakage detections for early recognition and repair of these leaks is vital to ensure minimum wastage of water in distribution systems. A major component of detection of pipe leaks is the ability to accurately locate the leak location in pipes through minimum invasion. Therefore, this paper studies the leak detection abilities of the three NDT’s: Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) and spectrometer and aims at determining whether these instruments are effective in identifying the leak. An experimental setup was constructed to simulate the underground conditions of water distribution systems. After analysing the experimental data, it was concluded that both the GPR and the spectrometer were effective in detecting leaks in the pipes. However, the results obtained from the spectrometer were not very differentiating in terms of observing the leaks in comparison to the results obtained from the GPR. In addition to this, it was concluded that both instruments could not be used if the water from the leaks had reached on the surface, resulting in surface ponding.

Suitability of optical, physical and chemical measurements for detection of changes in bacterial drinking water quality.

PubMed

Ikonen, Jenni; Pitkänen, Tarja; Miettinen, Ilkka T

2013-10-25

In this study, different optical, physical and chemical measurements were tested for their capacity to detect changes in water quality. The tests included UV-absorbance at 254 nm, absorbance at 420 nm, turbidity, particle counting, temperature, pH, electric conductivity (EC), free chlorine concentration and ATP concentration measurements. Special emphasis was given to investigating the potential for measurement tools to detect changes in bacterial concentrations in drinking water. Bacterial colony counts (CFU) and total bacterial cell counts (TBC) were used as reference methods for assessing the bacterial water quality. The study consists of a series of laboratory scale experiments: monitoring of regrowth of Pseudomonas fluorescens, estimation of the detection limits for optical measurements using Escherichia coli dilutions, verification of the relationships by analysing grab water samples from various distribution systems and utilisation of the measurements in the case of an accidentally contaminated distribution network. We found significant correlations between the tested measurements and the bacterial water quality. As the bacterial contamination of water often co-occurs with the intrusion of matrixes containing mainly non-bacterial components, the tested measurement tools can be considered to have the potential to rapidly detect any major changes in drinking water quality.

Breast cancer detection in rotational thermography images using texture features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francis, Sheeja V.; Sasikala, M.; Bhavani Bharathi, G.; Jaipurkar, Sandeep D.

2014-11-01

Breast cancer is a major cause of mortality in young women in the developing countries. Early diagnosis is the key to improve survival rate in cancer patients. Breast thermography is a diagnostic procedure that non-invasively images the infrared emissions from breast surface to aid in the early detection of breast cancer. Due to limitations in imaging protocol, abnormality detection by conventional breast thermography, is often a challenging task. Rotational thermography is a novel technique developed in order to overcome the limitations of conventional breast thermography. This paper evaluates this technique's potential for automatic detection of breast abnormality, from the perspective of cold challenge. Texture features are extracted in the spatial domain, from rotational thermogram series, prior to and post the application of cold challenge. These features are fed to a support vector machine for automatic classification of normal and malignant breasts, resulting in a classification accuracy of 83.3%. Feature reduction has been performed by principal component analysis. As a novel attempt, the ability of this technique to locate the abnormality has been studied. The results of the study indicate that rotational thermography holds great potential as a screening tool for breast cancer detection.

Suitability of Optical, Physical and Chemical Measurements for Detection of Changes in Bacterial Drinking Water Quality

PubMed Central

Ikonen, Jenni; Pitkänen, Tarja; Miettinen, Ilkka T.

2013-01-01

In this study, different optical, physical and chemical measurements were tested for their capacity to detect changes in water quality. The tests included UV-absorbance at 254 nm, absorbance at 420 nm, turbidity, particle counting, temperature, pH, electric conductivity (EC), free chlorine concentration and ATP concentration measurements. Special emphasis was given to investigating the potential for measurement tools to detect changes in bacterial concentrations in drinking water. Bacterial colony counts (CFU) and total bacterial cell counts (TBC) were used as reference methods for assessing the bacterial water quality. The study consists of a series of laboratory scale experiments: monitoring of regrowth of Pseudomonas fluorescens, estimation of the detection limits for optical measurements using Escherichia coli dilutions, verification of the relationships by analysing grab water samples from various distribution systems and utilisation of the measurements in the case of an accidentally contaminated distribution network. We found significant correlations between the tested measurements and the bacterial water quality. As the bacterial contamination of water often co-occurs with the intrusion of matrixes containing mainly non-bacterial components, the tested measurement tools can be considered to have the potential to rapidly detect any major changes in drinking water quality. PMID:24284353

Determining the Requisite Components of Visual Threat Detection to Improve Operational Performance

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

cognitive processes, and may be enhanced by focusing training development on the principle components such as causal reasoning. The second report will...discuss the development and evaluation of a research-based training exemplar. Visual threat detection pervades many military contexts, but is also... developing computer-controlled exercises to study the primary components of visual threat detection. Similarly, civilian law enforcement officers were

AFLP-based genetic diversity assessment of commercially important tea germplasm in India.

PubMed

Sharma, R K; Negi, M S; Sharma, S; Bhardwaj, P; Kumar, R; Bhattachrya, E; Tripathi, S B; Vijayan, D; Baruah, A R; Das, S C; Bera, B; Rajkumar, R; Thomas, J; Sud, R K; Muraleedharan, N; Hazarika, M; Lakshmikumaran, M; Raina, S N; Ahuja, P S

2010-08-01

India has a large repository of important tea accessions and, therefore, plays a major role in improving production and quality of tea across the world. Using seven AFLP primer combinations, we analyzed 123 commercially important tea accessions representing major populations in India. The overall genetic similarity recorded was 51%. No significant differences were recorded in average genetic similarity among tea populations cultivated in various geographic regions (northwest 0.60, northeast and south both 0.59). UPGMA cluster analysis grouped the tea accessions according to geographic locations, with a bias toward China or Assam/Cambod types. Cluster analysis results were congruent with principal component analysis. Further, analysis of molecular variance detected a high level of genetic variation (85%) within and limited genetic variation (15%) among the populations, suggesting their origin from a similar genetic pool.

Cuticular extracts of five common mantids (Mantodea:Mantidae) of the eastern United States.

PubMed

Jones, T H; Moran, M D; Hurd, L E

1997-04-01

We undertook a preliminary investigation of the cuticular extracts of five common mantid species in the eastern United States: Tenodera sinensis (Saussure), T. angustipennis (Saussure) and Mantis religiosa (Linnaeus) introduced from the Old World and Stagmomantis carolina (Johannson) and Bruneria borealis (Scudder), which are New World species. The major components of these mixtures were normal alkanes, predominately hentriacontane, or in the case of the parthenogenic species B. borealis, tritriacontane. Tricontanal was detected in the extracts of all five species, and smaller amounts of other aldehydes and n-tricontanol were detected in some species. Complex mixtures of methyl and dimethylalkanes also were present in these extracts. The composition of the cuticular hydrocarbons of these mantids may be an adaptation for reduction of evaporative water loss in these insects that inhabit open fields.

Solving the Dark Matter Problem

ScienceCinema

Baltz, Ted

2018-05-11

Cosmological observations have firmly established that the majority of matter in the universe is of an unknown type, called 'dark matter'. A compelling hypothesis is that the dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the mass range around 100 GeV. If the WIMP hypothesis is correct, such particles could be created and studied at accelerators. Furthermore they could be directly detected as the primary component of our galaxy. Solving the dark matter problem requires that the connection be made between the two. We describe some theoretical and experimental avenues that might lead to this connection.

Analytical Components of the Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990-2020, the Second Prospective Study

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The major analytical components of the Second Prospective Study are shown on this page. For other major components of the study, supporting technical reports are available which provide additional technical information.

Determination of Polyphenols, Capsaicinoids, and Vitamin C in New Hybrids of Chili Peppers

PubMed Central

Daood, Hussein; Ambrózy, Zsuzsanna; Helyes, Lajos

2015-01-01

Six hybrids were subjected to chromatographic analyses by HPLC for the determination of phytochemicals such as capsaicinoid, polyphenol, and vitamin C. The dynamics of ripening of 4 of the hybrids were also characterised. Seven capsaicinoids could be separated and determined; the major compounds were nordihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin, and dihydrocapsaicin, while homocapsaicin and homodihydrocapsaicin derivatives were detected as minor constituents. Capsaicin content ranged between 95.5 ± 4.15 and 1610.2 ± 91.46 μg/g FW, and the highest value was found in Bandai (C. frutescens) at the green ripening stage. The major capsaicinoids had a decreasing tendency in Bandai and Chili 3735 hybrids, while no change was observed in Beibeihong and Lolo during ripening. Nine polyphenol compounds were detected including 8 flavonoids and a nonflavonoid compound in the pods of all hybrids. The major components were naringenin-diglucoside, catechin, and vanillic acid-derivative and luteolin-glucoside. Naringenin-diglucoside ranged from 93.5 ± 4.26 to 368.8 ± 30.77 μg/g FW. Except vanillic acid-derivative, dominant polyphenols increased or remained unchanged during ripening. As for vitamin C, its content tended to increase with the advance in ripening in all hybrids included in this study. The highest value of 3689.4 ± 39.50 μg/g FW was recorded in Fire Flame hybrid. PMID:26495153

Overview of IMS infrasound station and engineering projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marty, J.; Doury, B.; Kramer, A.; Martysevich, P.

2015-12-01

The Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO) has a continuous interest in enhancing its capability in acoustic source detection, localization and characterization. The infrasound component of the International Monitoring System (IMS) constitutes the only worldwide ground-based infrasound network. It consists of sixty stations, among which forty-eight are already certified and continuously transmit data to the International Data Centre (IDC) in Vienna, Austria. Each infrasound station is composed of an array of infrasound sensors capable of measuring micro-pressure changes produced at ground level by infrasonic waves. The characteristics of infrasonic waves are computed in near real-time by IDC automatic detection software and are used as an input to IDC source categorization and localization algorithms. The PTS is continuously working towards the completion and sustainment of the IMS infrasound network. The objective of this presentation is to review the main activities performed in the IMS infrasound network over the last five years. This includes construction, installation, certification, major upgrade and revalidation activities. Major technology development projects to improve the reliability and robustness of IMS infrasound stations as well as their compliance with IMS Operational Manual requirements will also be presented. This includes advances in array geometry, wind noise reduction, system calibration, meteorological data as well as power and communication infrastructures. Finally the impact of all these changes on the overall detection capability of the IMS infrasound network will be highlighted.

Role of polysaccharides in food, digestion, and health

PubMed Central

Lovegrove, A.; Edwards, C. H.; De Noni, I.; Patel, H.; El, S. N.; Grassby, T.; Zielke, C.; Ulmius, M.; Nilsson, L.; Butterworth, P. J.; Ellis, P. R; Shewry, P. R.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Polysaccharides derived from plant foods are major components of the human diet, with limited contributions of related components from fungal and algal sources. In particular, starch and other storage carbohydrates are the major sources of energy in all diets, while cell wall polysaccharides are the major components of dietary fiber. We review the role of these components in the human diet, including their structure and distribution, their modification during food processing and effects on functional properties, their behavior in the gastrointestinal tract, and their contribution to healthy diets. PMID:25921546

Role of polysaccharides in food, digestion, and health.

PubMed

Lovegrove, A; Edwards, C H; De Noni, I; Patel, H; El, S N; Grassby, T; Zielke, C; Ulmius, M; Nilsson, L; Butterworth, P J; Ellis, P R; Shewry, P R

2017-01-22

Polysaccharides derived from plant foods are major components of the human diet, with limited contributions of related components from fungal and algal sources. In particular, starch and other storage carbohydrates are the major sources of energy in all diets, while cell wall polysaccharides are the major components of dietary fiber. We review the role of these components in the human diet, including their structure and distribution, their modification during food processing and effects on functional properties, their behavior in the gastrointestinal tract, and their contribution to healthy diets.

Detecting Close-In Extrasolar Giant Planets with the Kepler Photometer via Scattered Light

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jenkins, J. M.; Doyle, L. R.; Kepler Discovery Mission Team

2003-05-01

NASA's Kepler Mission will be launched in 2007 primarily to search for transiting Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of solar-like stars. In addition, it will be poised to detect the reflected light component from close-in extrasolar giant planets (CEGPs) similar to 51 Peg b. Here we use the DIARAD/SOHO time series along with models for the reflected light signatures of CEGPs to evaluate Kepler's ability to detect such planets. We examine the detectability as a function of stellar brightness, stellar rotation period, planetary orbital inclination angle, and planetary orbital period, and then estimate the total number of CEGPs that Kepler will detect over its four year mission. The analysis shows that intrinsic stellar variability of solar-like stars is a major obstacle to detecting the reflected light from CEGPs. Monte Carlo trials are used to estimate the detection threshold required to limit the total number of expected false alarms to no more than one for a survey of 100,000 stellar light curves. Kepler will likely detect 100-760 51 Peg b-like planets by reflected light with orbital periods up to 7 days. LRD was supported by the Carl Sagan Chair at the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, a division of the SETI Institute. JMJ received support from the Kepler Mission Photometer and Science Office at NASA Ames Research Center.

Final Report on the Detection of Green Monopropellants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gibson, Tracy L.; DeVor, Robert W.; Bauer, Brint M.; Captain, James; Coutts, Janelle L.; Surma, Jan M.

2015-01-01

In 2014, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) funded a project titled "Familiarization and Detection of Green Monopropellants" utilizing Independent Research and Technology Development (IR&TD) and Center Innovation Fund (CIF) funding. The purpose of the project was to evaluate methods of detection for ammonium dinitramide (ADN) and hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN). An Engineering Services Contract (ESC) task order was created with the scope of evaluation of several methods of detecting ADN- and HAN-based propellants, as well as development of methods for detection. Detection methods include developed methods such as colorimetric indicating absorbent socks, and commercial-off-the- shelf (COTS) units for ammonia detection. An additional goal of the task order was for ESC to become familiar with ADN's and HAN's material properties and material compatibility. Two approaches were initially investigated as possible methods for the detection of HAN (or AFM315E) and ADN (or LMP-103S). These approaches were colorimetric analysis and instrumentation-based COTS vapor sensors utilization. Initial testing showed that the relatively non-existent vapor pressure of the AF-M315E (of which HAN is a major component) propellant would make the use of COTS sensors difficult for real-time area monitoring of HAN; a small response was detected through the use of active COTS sensors, including the RAE Systems MultiRAE Lite and Drager X-act (registered) 5000, but the levels detected were below the threshold limit value for the toxic gas ammonia. Therefore, a detection system ased upon a colorimetric indicator impregnated into an absorbent material was developed. Preliminary analysis (ESC-245-FDG-001) identified a particularly outstanding candidate as a colorimetric indicator for the detection of the presence of AF-M315E in the form of a Methyl Red (Basic) indicator. Materials impregnated with this indicator exhibit significant color change and the materials are not susceptible to interference from exposure to water or carbon dioxide. The completed detection system for HAN/AF-M315E consists of absorbent socks packed with Fisher Universal Spill Absorbent capable of absorbing and containing any propellant spills that they come into contact with along with indicating wipes. The absorbent socks are also chemically treated with a Methyl Red (Basic) indicator solution to provide the end user with a visual indication that a leak has occurred and proper protective precautions must be undertaken. An added benefit of this detection system is that the absorbent socks should neutralize/absorb any commodity that it comes into contact with (until saturation is reached). Additional adsorbent socks can be deployed until a color change is not seen, indicating that the HAN/AF-M315E contamination has been contained. The indicating wipes provide the user the opportunity to wipe surfaces to determine if there is any HAN/AF-M315E or HAN/AFM315E residue present. The wipes should allow the detection of fuel levels that may be too small to detect with the absorbent socks. The development of a detection system for the ADN/LMP-103S focused on the use of various COTS sensors used as real-time area monitoring devices and personal dosimeters. These COTS based sensor systems were of several different types, including both actively pumped and diffusion-based passive systems, as well as a "rope"-type chemical sensing cable. The results highlighted some of the major differences between the two monopropellants undergoing evaluation. Unlike HAN, ADN (which is the major constituent of LMP-103S) exhibits a much more volatile nature in comparison to AF-M315E. In fact, testing showed that a large percentage of the fuel was lost during the sampling measurement (greater than 10 percent by mass); although this testing cannot tell if the volatile component is the ADN itself or another component of the monopropellant solution. Not surprisingly, all four of the procured vapor-based COTS sensors showed positive results when exposed to solutions of the LMP-103S (ESC-245-FDG-002). The completed detection system for ADN/LMP-103S consists of a combination of two of the tested COTS sensor systems, the RAE Systems MultiRAE Lite and the BW Technologies GasAlert Extreme. These systems are meant to be used in conjunction with one another, which allows for the end-user to have both real-time area monitoring (MultiRAE Lite) as well as a personal dosimeter device (GasAlert Extreme) which can be worn as additional personal protective equipment. An stainless steel extension wand was fabricated and included in the detection system for the MultiRAE Lite to allow for more remote sensing, and connects via the active pumping inlet of the sensor. As stated, the final results of this testing resulted in the production of two "kits" which can be used for the detection of HAN/AF-M315E and ADN/LMP-103s (ESC-245-FDG-003).

Comparative analysis of gene regulatory networks: from network reconstruction to evolution.

PubMed

Thompson, Dawn; Regev, Aviv; Roy, Sushmita

2015-01-01

Regulation of gene expression is central to many biological processes. Although reconstruction of regulatory circuits from genomic data alone is therefore desirable, this remains a major computational challenge. Comparative approaches that examine the conservation and divergence of circuits and their components across strains and species can help reconstruct circuits as well as provide insights into the evolution of gene regulatory processes and their adaptive contribution. In recent years, advances in genomic and computational tools have led to a wealth of methods for such analysis at the sequence, expression, pathway, module, and entire network level. Here, we review computational methods developed to study transcriptional regulatory networks using comparative genomics, from sequence to functional data. We highlight how these methods use evolutionary conservation and divergence to reliably detect regulatory components as well as estimate the extent and rate of divergence. Finally, we discuss the promise and open challenges in linking regulatory divergence to phenotypic divergence and adaptation.

Inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis: where are we?

PubMed

Fiocchi, Claudio

2015-03-01

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is presently one of the most investigated human disorders. Expansion of knowledge of its pathophysiology has helped in developing novel medications to combat gut inflammation with a considerably degree of success. Despite this progress, much more remains to be done in regard to gaining a more profound understanding of IBD pathogenesis, detecting inflammation before it clinically manifests, implementing lifestyle modifications, and developing agents that can modify the natural course of the disease. One of the limitations to achieve these goals is the lack of integration of the major components of IBD pathogenesis, that is the exposome, the genome, the gut microbiome, and the immunome. An "IBD integrome" approach that takes advantage of all functional information derived from the detailed investigation of each single pathogenic component through the use of systems biology may offer the solution to understand IBD and cure it. © 2015 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Thermogravimetric analysis of the gasification of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris.

PubMed

Figueira, Camila Emilia; Moreira, Paulo Firmino; Giudici, Reinaldo

2015-12-01

The gasification of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris under an atmosphere of argon and water vapor was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The data were interpreted by using conventional isoconversional methods and also by the independent parallel reaction (IPR) model, in which the degradation is considered to happen individually to each pseudo-component of biomass (lipid, carbohydrate and protein). The IPR model allows obtaining the kinetic parameters of the degradation reaction of each component. Three main stages were observed during the gasification process and the differential thermogravimetric curve was satisfactorily fitted by the IPR model considering three pseudocomponents. The comparison of the activation energy values obtained by the methods and those found in the literature for other microalgae was satisfactory. Quantification of reaction products was performed using online gas chromatography. The major products detected were H2, CO and CH4, indicating the potential for producing fuel gas and syngas from microalgae. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long term trending of engineering data for the Hubble Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cox, Ross M.

1993-01-01

A major goal in spacecraft engineering analysis is the detection of component failures before the fact. Trending is the process of monitoring subsystem states to discern unusual behaviors. This involves reducing vast amounts of data about a component or subsystem into a form that helps humans discern underlying patterns and correlations. A long term trending system has been developed for the Hubble Space Telescope. Besides processing the data for 988 distinct telemetry measurements each day, it produces plots of 477 important parameters for the entire 24 hours. Daily updates to the trend files also produce 339 thirty day trend plots each month. The total system combines command procedures to control the execution of the C-based data processing program, user-written FORTRAN routines, and commercial off-the-shelf plotting software. This paper includes a discussion the performance of the trending system and of its limitations.

A SUBMILLIMETER CONTINUUM SURVEY OF LOCAL DUST-OBSCURED GALAXIES

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

Lee, Jong Chul; Hwang, Ho Seong; Lee, Gwang-Ho, E-mail: jclee@kasi.re.kr

We conduct a 350 μ m dust continuum emission survey of 17 dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs) at z = 0.05–0.08 with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). We detect 14 DOGs with S{sub 350μm} = 114–650 mJy and signal-to-noise > 3. By including two additional DOGs with submillimeter data in the literature, we are able to study dust content for a sample of 16 local DOGs, which consist of 12 bump and four power-law types. We determine their physical parameters with a two-component modified blackbody function model. The derived dust temperatures are in the range 57–122 K and 22–35 K for themore » warm and cold dust components, respectively. The total dust mass and the mass fraction of the warm dust component are 3–34 × 10{sup 7} M {sub ⊙} and 0.03%–2.52%, respectively. We compare these results with those of other submillimeter-detected infrared luminous galaxies. The bump DOGs, the majority of the DOG sample, show similar distributions of dust temperatures and total dust mass to the comparison sample. The power-law DOGs show a hint of smaller dust masses than other samples, but need to be tested with a larger sample. These findings support that the reason DOGs show heavy dust obscuration is not an overall amount of dust content, but probably the spatial distribution of dust therein.« less

The Use of Intraservice Work per Unit of Time (IWPUT) and the Building Block Method (BBM) for the Calculation of Surgical Work

PubMed Central

Mabry, Charles D.; McCann, Barton C.; Harris, Jean A.; Martin, Janet; Gage, John O.; Fischer, Josef E.; Opelka, Frank G.; Zwolak, Robert; Borman, Karen; Preskitt, John T.; Collicott, Paul E.; McGinnis, LaMar; Cohn, Isidore

2005-01-01

Objective: We will review the contribution to the Medicare Fee Schedule (MFS) by the techniques of intensity of work per unit of time (IWPUT), the building block methodology (BBM), and the work accomplished by the American College of Surgeons General Surgery Coding & Reimbursement Committee (GSCRC) in using IWPUT/BBM to detect undervalued surgical procedures and recommend payment increases. Summary Background Data: The MFS has had a major impact on surgeons’ income since its introduction in 1992 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and additionally has been adopted for use by many commercial insurers. A major component of MFS is physician work, measured as the relative value of work (RVW), which has 2 components: time and intensity. These components are incorporated by: RVW = time × intensity. Methods: This work formula can be rearranged to give the IWPUT, which has become a powerful tool to calculate the amount of RVW performed by physicians. Most procedures are valued by the total RVW in the global surgical package, which includes pre-, intra-, and postoperative care for a time after surgery. Summing these perioperative components into RVW is called the building block methodology (BBM). Results: Using these techniques, the GSCRC increased the values for 314 surgery procedures during a recent CMS 5-year review, resulting in an increase to general surgeons of roughly $76 million annually. Conclusions: The use of IWPUT/BBM has been instrumental to correct payment for undervalued surgical procedures. They are powerful methods to measure RVW across specialties and to solve reimbursement, compensation, and practice management problems facing surgeons. PMID:15912042

Plastoglobules in algae: A comprehensive comparative study of the presence of major structural and functional components in complex plastids.

PubMed

Lohscheider, Jens N; Río Bártulos, Carolina

2016-08-01

Plastoglobules (PG) are lipophilic droplets attached to thylakoid membranes in higher plants and green algae and are implicated in prenyl lipid biosynthesis. They might also represent a central hub for integration of plastid signals under stress and therefore the adaptation of the thylakoid membrane under such conditions. In Arabidopsis thaliana, PG contain around 30 specific proteins of which Fibrillins (FBN) and Activity of bc1 complex kinases (ABC1K) represent the majority with respect to both number and protein mass. However, nothing is known about the presence of PG in most algal species, which are responsible for about 50% of global primary production. Therefore, we searched the genomes of publicly available algal genomes for components of PG and the associated functional network in order to predict their presence and potential evolutionary conservation of physiological functions. We could identify homologous sequences for core components of PG, like FBN and ABC1K, in most investigated algal species. Furthermore, proteins at central and interesting positions within the PG functional coexpression network were identified. Phylogenetic sequence analysis revealed diversity within FBN and ABC1K sequences among algal species with complex plastids of the red lineage and large differences compared with green lineage species. Two types of FBN were detected that differ in their isoelectric point which seems to correlate with subcellular localization. Subgroups of FBN were shared between many investigated species and modeling of their 3D-structure implied a conserved structure. FBN and ABC1K are essential structural and functional components of PG. Their occurrence in investigated algal species suggests presence of PG therein and functions in prenyl lipid metabolism and adaptation of the thylakoid membrane that are conserved during evolution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The malaria PTEX component PTEX88 interacts most closely with HSP101 at the host-parasite interface.

PubMed

Chisholm, Scott A; Kalanon, Ming; Nebl, Thomas; Sanders, Paul R; Matthews, Kathryn M; Dickerman, Benjamin K; Gilson, Paul R; de Koning-Ward, Tania F

2018-04-10

The pathogenic nature of malaria infections is due in part to the export of hundreds of effector proteins that actively remodel the host erythrocyte. The Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins (PTEX) has been shown to facilitate the trafficking of proteins into the host cell, a process that is essential for the survival of the parasite. The role of the auxiliary PTEX component PTEX88 remains unclear, as previous attempts to elucidate its function through reverse genetic approaches showed that in contrast to the core components PTEX150 and HSP101, knockdown of PTEX88 did not give rise to an export phenotype. Here, we have used biochemical approaches to understand how PTEX88 assembles within the translocation machinery. Proteomic analysis of the PTEX88 interactome showed that PTEX88 interacts closely with HSP101 but has a weaker affinity with the other core constituents of PTEX. PTEX88 was also found to associate with other PV-resident proteins, including chaperones and members of the exported protein-interacting complex that interacts with the major virulence factor PfEMP1, the latter contributing to cytoadherence and parasite virulence. Despite being expressed for the duration of the blood-stage life cycle, PTEX88 was only discretely observed at the parasitophorous vacuole membrane during ring stages and could not always be detected in the major high molecular weight complex that contains the other core components of PTEX, suggesting that its interaction with the PTEX complex may be dynamic. Together, these data have enabled the generation of an updated model of PTEX that now includes how PTEX88 assembles within the complex. © 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Observations of a hydrofracture induced earthquake sequence in Harrison County Ohio in 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friberg, P. A.; Brudzinski, M. R.; Currie, B. S.; Skoumal, R.

2015-12-01

On October 7, 2014, a Mw 1.9 earthquake was detected and located using the IRIS Earthscope Transportable Array stations in Ohio. The earthquake was located at a depth of ~3 km near the interface of the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks with the crystalline Precambrian basement. The location is within a few kilometers laterally of a 2013 earthquake sequence that was linked to hydraulic fracturing (HF) operations on three wells in Harrison county (Friberg et al, 2014). Using the Mw 1.9 event as a template in a multi-component cross correlation detector on station O53A, over 1000 matching detections were revealed between September 26 - October 17, 2014. These detections were all coincident in time with HF operations on 3 nearby (< 1km away) horizontally drilled wells (Tarbert 1H, 3H, and 5H) in the Utica formation (~2.4 km depth). The HF operations at two of the wells (1H and 5H) were coincident with the majority of the detected events. The final well (3H) stimulated in the series, produced only about 20 identified events. In addition to the coincident timing with nearby HF operations, the time clustered nature of the detections were similar to the 2013 sequence and two other Ohio HF induced sequences in 2014 (Skoumal et al, 2015). All of the other HF induced earthquake sequences in Ohio were related to operations in the Utica formation. Interestingly, this sequence of earthquakes did not follow a simple Gutenberg-Richter magnitude frequency relationship and was deficient in positive magnitude events; the magnitude 1.9 was preceded by a magnitude 1.7, and only a ½ dozen events slightly above magnitude 0.0. The majority of the events detected were below magnitude 0.0, with some as low as magnitude -2.0. While the majority of detections are too small to locate, high similarity in waveform character indicate they are spatially near to the magnitude 1.9 event. Furthermore, gradual shifts in P phase arrival relative to S phases indicate events are moving away from the station with progressive HF stages. Given the orientation of the wells relative to the station, the migration of events away from the station with progressive stages is also supportive of this being an induced sequence.

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

Ashraf-Khorassani, M.; Taylor, L.T.

The solubilities of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and wax have been measured in supercritical carbon dioxide (Co{sub 2}) at three pressures and temperatures under static conditions. The concentrations of each component were determined off-line via ultraviolet (TNT) and evaporative light scattering (wax) detection. The solubility of TNT was an order of magnitude higher than that of wax. Gas chromatographic assay of the wax extract revealed that only the lower molecular weight components dissolved. Fractionation of the TNT and wax from an explosive material referred to as Composition B was attempted by making incremental increases in CO{sub 2} density. Composition B contains 59.5%more » cyclotrimethylene triamine (RDX), 39.5% TNT, and 1% wax. While TNT and Wax could be easily isolated from nitramine TDX, attempts to separate TNT from wax were not totally successful. More specifically, the initial fractions contained the lower molecular weight wax components in addition to major amounts of TNT. Since the percentage of TNT was approximately 50 times the amount of wax, later fractions were 100% TNT although most of the TNT was removed at the lower densities.« less

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

Ferraro, F. R.; Dalessandro, E.; Lanzoni, B.

The Galactic bulge is dominated by an old, metal-rich stellar population. The possible presence and the amount of a young (a few gigayears old) minor component is one of the major issues debated in the literature. Recently, the bulge stellar system Terzan 5 was found to harbor three sub-populations with iron content varying by more than one order of magnitude (from 0.2 up to two times the solar value), with chemical abundance patterns strikingly similar to those observed in bulge field stars. Here we report on the detection of two distinct main-sequence turnoff points in Terzan 5, providing the agemore » of the two main stellar populations: 12 Gyr for the (dominant) sub-solar component and 4.5 Gyr for the component at super-solar metallicity. This discovery classifies Terzan 5 as a site in the Galactic bulge where multiple bursts of star formation occurred, thus suggesting a quite massive progenitor possibly resembling the giant clumps observed in star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. This connection opens a new route of investigation into the formation process and evolution of spheroids and their stellar content.« less

Feasibility of real-time location systems in monitoring recovery after major abdominal surgery.

PubMed

Dorrell, Robert D; Vermillion, Sarah A; Clark, Clancy J

2017-12-01

Early mobilization after major abdominal surgery decreases postoperative complications and length of stay, and has become a key component of enhanced recovery pathways. However, objective measures of patient movement after surgery are limited. Real-time location systems (RTLS), typically used for asset tracking, provide a novel approach to monitoring in-hospital patient activity. The current study investigates the feasibility of using RTLS to objectively track postoperative patient mobilization. The real-time location system employs a meshed network of infrared and RFID sensors and detectors that sample device locations every 3 s resulting in over 1 million data points per day. RTLS tracking was evaluated systematically in three phases: (1) sensitivity and specificity of the tracking device using simulated patient scenarios, (2) retrospective passive movement analysis of patient-linked equipment, and (3) prospective observational analysis of a patient-attached tracking device. RTLS tracking detected a simulated movement out of a room with sensitivity of 91% and specificity 100%. Specificity decreased to 75% if time out of room was less than 3 min. All RTLS-tagged patient-linked equipment was identified for 18 patients, but measurable patient movement associated with equipment was detected for only 2 patients (11%) with 1-8 out-of-room walks per day. Ten patients were prospectively monitored using RTLS badges following major abdominal surgery. Patient movement was recorded using patient diaries, direct observation, and an accelerometer. Sensitivity and specificity of RTLS patient tracking were both 100% in detecting out-of-room ambulation and correlated well with direct observation and patient-reported ambulation. Real-time location systems are a novel technology capable of objectively and accurately monitoring patient movement and provide an innovative approach to promoting early mobilization after surgery.

Hyperspectral remote sensing for advanced detection of early blight (Alternaria solani) disease in potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atherton, Daniel

Early detection of disease and insect infestation within crops and precise application of pesticides can help reduce potential production losses, reduce environmental risk, and reduce the cost of farming. The goal of this study was the advanced detection of early blight (Alternaria solani) in potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants using hyperspectral remote sensing data captured with a handheld spectroradiometer. Hyperspectral reflectance spectra were captured 10 times over five weeks from plants grown to the vegetative and tuber bulking growth stages. The spectra were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA), spectral change (ratio) analysis, partial least squares (PLS), cluster analysis, and vegetative indices. PCA successfully distinguished more heavily diseased plants from healthy and minimally diseased plants using two principal components. Spectral change (ratio) analysis provided wavelengths (490-510, 640, 665-670, 690, 740-750, and 935 nm) most sensitive to early blight infection followed by ANOVA results indicating a highly significant difference (p < 0.0001) between disease rating group means. In the majority of the experiments, comparisons of diseased plants with healthy plants using Fisher's LSD revealed more heavily diseased plants were significantly different from healthy plants. PLS analysis demonstrated the feasibility of detecting early blight infected plants, finding four optimal factors for raw spectra with the predictor variation explained ranging from 93.4% to 94.6% and the response variation explained ranging from 42.7% to 64.7%. Cluster analysis successfully distinguished healthy plants from all diseased plants except for the most mildly diseased plants, showing clustering analysis was an effective method for detection of early blight. Analysis of the reflectance spectra using the simple ratio (SR) and the normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) was effective at differentiating all diseased plants from healthy plants, except for the most mildly diseased plants. Of the analysis methods attempted, cluster analysis and vegetative indices were the most promising. The results show the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing for the detection of early blight in potato plants.

Simultaneous quantification of the major bile acids in artificial Calculus bovis by high-performance liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization and its application in quality control.

PubMed

Shi, Yan; Xiong, Jing; Sun, Dongmei; Liu, Wei; Wei, Feng; Ma, Shuangcheng; Lin, Ruichao

2015-08-01

An accurate and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with ultralviolet detection and precolumn derivatization was developed for the simultaneous quantification of the major bile acids in Artificial Calculus bovis, including cholic acid, hyodeoxycholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, and deoxycholic acid. The extraction, derivatization, chromatographic separation, and detection parameters were fully optimized. The samples were extracted with methanol by ultrasonic extraction. Then, 2-bromine-4'-nitroacetophenone and 18-crown ether-6 were used for derivatization. The chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent SB-C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm id, 5 μm) at a column temperature of 30°C and liquid flow rate of 1.0 mL/min using water and methanol as the mobile phase with a gradient elution. The detection wavelength was 263 nm. The method was extensively validated by evaluating the linearity (r(2) ≥ 0.9980), recovery (94.24-98.91%), limits of detection (0.25-0.31 ng) and limits of quantification (0.83-1.02 ng). Seventeen samples were analyzed using the developed and validated method. Then, the amounts of bile acids were analyzed by hierarchical agglomerative clustering analysis and principal component analysis. The results of the chemometric analysis showed that the contents of these compounds reflect the intrinsic quality of artificial Calculus bovis, and two compounds (hyodeoxycholic acid and chenodeoxycholic acid) were the most important markers for quality evaluating. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

SCADA alarms processing for wind turbine component failure detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez, E.; Reder, M.; Melero, J. J.

2016-09-01

Wind turbine failure and downtime can often compromise the profitability of a wind farm due to their high impact on the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Early detection of failures can facilitate the changeover from corrective maintenance towards a predictive approach. This paper presents a cost-effective methodology to combine various alarm analysis techniques, using data from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, in order to detect component failures. The approach categorises the alarms according to a reviewed taxonomy, turning overwhelming data into valuable information to assess component status. Then, different alarms analysis techniques are applied for two purposes: the evaluation of the SCADA alarm system capability to detect failures, and the investigation of the relation between components faults being followed by failure occurrences in others. Various case studies are presented and discussed. The study highlights the relationship between faulty behaviour in different components and between failures and adverse environmental conditions.

Crack detection using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy

DOEpatents

Migliori, A.; Bell, T.M.; Rhodes, G.W.

1994-10-04

Method and apparatus are provided for detecting crack-like flaws in components. A plurality of exciting frequencies are generated and applied to a component in a dry condition to obtain a first ultrasonic spectrum of the component. The component is then wet with a selected liquid to penetrate any crack-like flaws in the component. The plurality of exciting frequencies are again applied to the component and a second ultrasonic spectrum of the component is obtained. The wet and dry ultrasonic spectra are then analyzed to determine the second harmonic components in each of the ultrasonic resonance spectra and the second harmonic components are compared to ascertain the presence of crack-like flaws in the component. 5 figs.

Crack detection using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy

DOEpatents

Migliori, Albert; Bell, Thomas M.; Rhodes, George W.

1994-01-01

Method and apparatus are provided for detecting crack-like flaws in components. A plurality of exciting frequencies are generated and applied to a component in a dry condition to obtain a first ultrasonic spectrum of the component. The component is then wet with a selected liquid to penetrate any crack-like flaws in the component. The plurality of exciting frequencies are again applied to the component and a second ultrasonic spectrum of the component is obtained. The wet and dry ultrasonic spectra are then analyzed to determine the second harmonic components in each of the ultrasonic resonance spectra and the second harmonic components are compared to ascertain the presence of crack-like flaws in the component.

R-on-1 automatic mapping: A new tool for laser damage testing

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

Hue, J.; Garrec, P.; Dijon, J.

1996-12-31

Laser damage threshold measurement is statistical in nature. For a commercial qualification or for a user, the threshold determined by the weakest point is a satisfactory characterization. When a new coating is designed, threshold mapping is very useful. It enables the technology to be improved and followed more accurately. Different statistical parameters such as the minimum, maximum, average, and standard deviation of the damage threshold as well as spatial parameters such as the threshold uniformity of the coating can be determined. Therefore, in order to achieve a mapping, all the tested sites should give data. This is the major interestmore » of the R-on-1 test in spite of the fact that the laser damage threshold obtained by this method may be different from the 1-on-1 test (smaller or greater). Moreover, on the damage laser test facility, the beam size is smaller (diameters of a few hundred micrometers) than the characteristic sizes of the components in use (diameters of several centimeters up to one meter). Hence, a laser damage threshold mapping appears very interesting, especially for applications linked to large optical components like the Megajoule project or the National Ignition Facility (N.I.F). On the test bench used, damage detection with a Nomarski microscope and scattered light measurement are almost equivalent. Therefore, it becomes possible to automatically detect on line the first defects induced by YAG irradiation. Scattered light mappings and laser damage threshold mappings can therefore be achieved using a X-Y automatic stage (where the test sample is located). The major difficulties due to the automatic capabilities are shown. These characterizations are illustrated at 355 nm. The numerous experiments performed show different kinds of scattering curves, which are discussed in relation with the damage mechanisms.« less

Effectiveness and Cost Efficiency of Different Surveillance Components for Proving Freedom and Early Detection of Disease: Bluetongue Serotype 8 in Cattle as Case Study for Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

PubMed

Welby, S; van Schaik, G; Veldhuis, A; Brouwer-Middelesch, H; Peroz, C; Santman-Berends, I M; Fourichon, C; Wever, P; Van der Stede, Y

2017-12-01

Quick detection and recovery of country's freedom status remain a constant challenge in animal health surveillance. The efficacy and cost efficiency of different surveillance components in proving the absence of infection or (early) detection of bluetongue serotype 8 in cattle populations within different countries (the Netherlands, France, Belgium) using surveillance data from years 2006 and 2007 were investigated using an adapted scenario tree model approach. First, surveillance components (sentinel, yearly cross-sectional and passive clinical reporting) within each country were evaluated in terms of efficacy for substantiating freedom of infection. Yearly cross-sectional survey and passive clinical reporting performed well within each country with sensitivity of detection values ranging around 0.99. The sentinel component had a sensitivity of detection around 0.7. Secondly, how effective the components were for (early) detection of bluetongue serotype 8 and whether syndromic surveillance on reproductive performance, milk production and mortality data available from the Netherlands and Belgium could be of added value were evaluated. Epidemic curves were used to estimate the timeliness of detection. Sensitivity analysis revealed that expected within-herd prevalence and number of herds processed were the most influential parameters for proving freedom and early detection. Looking at the assumed direct costs, although total costs were low for sentinel and passive clinical surveillance components, passive clinical surveillance together with syndromic surveillance (based on reproductive performance data) turned out most cost-efficient for the detection of bluetongue serotype 8. To conclude, for emerging or re-emerging vectorborne disease that behaves such as bluetongue serotype 8, it is recommended to use passive clinical and syndromic surveillance as early detection systems for maximum cost efficiency and sensitivity. Once an infection is detected and eradicated, cross-sectional screening for substantiating freedom of infection and sentinel for monitoring the disease evolution are recommended. © 2016 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Improving Data Collection and Analysis Interface for the Data Acquisition Software of the Spin Laboratory at NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abdul-Aziz, Ali; Curatolo, Ben S.; Woike, Mark R.

2011-01-01

In jet engines, turbines spin at high rotational speeds. The forces generated from these high speeds make the rotating components of the turbines susceptible to developing cracks that can lead to major engine failures. The current inspection technologies only allow periodic examinations to check for cracks and other anomalies due to the requirements involved, which often necessitate entire engine disassembly. Also, many of these technologies cannot detect cracks that are below the surface or closed when the crack is at rest. Therefore, to overcome these limitations, efforts at NASA Glenn Research Center are underway to develop techniques and algorithms to detect cracks in rotating engine components. As a part of these activities, a high-precision spin laboratory is being utilized to expand and conduct highly specialized tests to develop methodologies that can assist in detecting predetermined cracks in a rotating turbine engine rotor. This paper discusses the various features involved in the ongoing testing at the spin laboratory and elaborates on its functionality and on the supporting data system tools needed to enable successfully running optimal tests and collecting accurate results. The data acquisition system and the associated software were updated and customized to adapt to the changes implemented on the test rig system and to accommodate the data produced by various sensor technologies. Discussion and presentation of these updates and the new attributes implemented are herein reported

Random ensemble learning for EEG classification.

PubMed

Hosseini, Mohammad-Parsa; Pompili, Dario; Elisevich, Kost; Soltanian-Zadeh, Hamid

2018-01-01

Real-time detection of seizure activity in epilepsy patients is critical in averting seizure activity and improving patients' quality of life. Accurate evaluation, presurgical assessment, seizure prevention, and emergency alerts all depend on the rapid detection of seizure onset. A new method of feature selection and classification for rapid and precise seizure detection is discussed wherein informative components of electroencephalogram (EEG)-derived data are extracted and an automatic method is presented using infinite independent component analysis (I-ICA) to select independent features. The feature space is divided into subspaces via random selection and multichannel support vector machines (SVMs) are used to classify these subspaces. The result of each classifier is then combined by majority voting to establish the final output. In addition, a random subspace ensemble using a combination of SVM, multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network and an extended k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), called extended nearest neighbor (ENN), is developed for the EEG and electrocorticography (ECoG) big data problem. To evaluate the solution, a benchmark ECoG of eight patients with temporal and extratemporal epilepsy was implemented in a distributed computing framework as a multitier cloud-computing architecture. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and both false positive and false negative ratios of the proposed method were found to be 0.97, 0.98, 0.96, 0.04, and 0.02, respectively. Application of the solution to cases under investigation with ECoG has also been effected to demonstrate its utility. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Novel algorithm for simultaneous component detection and pseudo-molecular ion characterization in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Zhang, Yufeng; Wang, Xiaoan; Wo, Siukwan; Ho, Hingman; Han, Quanbin; Fan, Xiaohui; Zuo, Zhong

2015-01-01

Resolving components and determining their pseudo-molecular ions (PMIs) are crucial steps in identifying complex herbal mixtures by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. To tackle such labor-intensive steps, we present here a novel algorithm for simultaneous detection of components and their PMIs. Our method consists of three steps: (1) obtaining a simplified dataset containing only mono-isotopic masses by removal of background noise and isotopic cluster ions based on the isotopic distribution model derived from all the reported natural compounds in dictionary of natural products; (2) stepwise resolving and removing all features of the highest abundant component from current simplified dataset and calculating PMI of each component according to an adduct-ion model, in which all non-fragment ions in a mass spectrum are considered as PMI plus one or several neutral species; (3) visual classification of detected components by principal component analysis (PCA) to exclude possible non-natural compounds (such as pharmaceutical excipients). This algorithm has been successfully applied to a standard mixture and three herbal extract/preparations. It indicated that our algorithm could detect components' features as a whole and report their PMI with an accuracy of more than 98%. Furthermore, components originated from excipients/contaminants could be easily separated from those natural components in the bi-plots of PCA. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vertical distribution of the subsurface microorganisms in Sagara oil reservoir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nunoura, T.; Oida, H.; Masui, N.; Ingaki, F.; Takai, K.; Nealson, K. H.; Horikoshi, K.

2002-12-01

The recent microbiological studies reported that active microbial habitat for methanogen, sulfate reducers (Archaeoglobus, d-Proteobacteria, gram positives), fermenters (Thermococcus, Thermotogales, gram positives etc.) and other heterotrophs (g-Proteobacteria etc.) are in subsurface petroleum oil reservoirs. However, microbial distribution at vertical distances in depth has not been demonstrated since the samples in previous studies are only to use oil and the formation water. Here, we show the vertical profile of microbial community structure in Japanese terrestrial oil reservoir by a combination of molecular ecological analyses and culture dependent studies. The sequential WRC (Whole Round Core) samples (200 mbsf) were recovered from a drilling project for Sagara oil reservoir, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, conducted in Jar. -Mar. 2002. The lithology of the core samples was composed of siltstone, sandstone, or partially oil containing sand. The major oil components were gasoline, kerosene and light oil, that is a unique feature observed in the Sagara oil reservoir. The direct count of DAPI-stained cells suggested that the biomass was relatively constant, 1.0x104cells/g through the core of the non-oil layers, whereas the oil-bearing layers had quite higher population density at a range of 1.0x105 ? 3.7x107cells/g. The vertical profile of microbial community structures was analyzed by the sequence similarity analysis, phylogenetic analysis and T-RFLP fingerprinting of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA. From bacterial rDNA clone libraries, most of the examined rDNA were similar with the sequence of genera Pseudomanas, Stenotrophomonas and Sphingomonas within g-Proteobacteria. Especially, Pseudomonas stutzeri was predominantly present in all oil-bearing layers. From archaeal rDNA clone libraries, all rDNA clone sequences were phylogenetically associated with uncultured soil group in Crenarchaeota. We detected none of the sequences of sulfate reducers, sulfur dependent fermenters and methanogens that have been previously detected as dominant microbial components in other oil reservoir environments. The absence of methanogen was consistent with the results from the stable isotopic analysis that major hydrocarbon components including methane in Sagara oil reservoir are thermogenic origin. In this presentation, we will also show the activity of the subsurface microbial components by the cultivation assays and discuss about the relationship between the microbial community structure and the formation process of petroleum in Sagara oil reservoir.

Cognitive Components of Developmental Writing Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Decker, Scott L.; Roberts, Alycia M.; Roberts, Kristin L.; Stafford, Allison L.; Eckert, Mark A.

2016-01-01

A significant number of studies have examined the cognitive components of basic academic skills, which has led to major changes in both teaching and early identification assessment practices. However, the majority of previous research has focused solely on reading. This study examines the cognitive components of academic writing skills across…

Proportional counter device for detecting electronegative species in an air sample

DOEpatents

Allman, Steve L.; Chen, Fang C.; Chen, Chung-Hsuan

1994-01-01

Apparatus for detecting an electronegative species comprises an analysis chamber, an inlet communicating with the analysis chamber for admitting a sample containing the electronegative species and an ionizable component, a radioactive source within the analysis chamber for emitting radioactive energy for ionizing a component of the sample, a proportional electron detector within the analysis chamber for detecting electrons emitted from the ionized component, and a circuit for measuring the electrons and determining the presence of the electronegative species by detecting a reduction in the number of available electrons due to capture of electrons by the electronegative species.

Proportional counter device for detecting electronegative species in an air sample

DOEpatents

Allman, S.L.; Chen, F.C.; Chen, C.H.

1994-03-08

Apparatus for detecting an electronegative species comprises an analysis chamber, an inlet communicating with the analysis chamber for admitting a sample containing the electronegative species and an ionizable component, a radioactive source within the analysis chamber for emitting radioactive energy for ionizing a component of the sample, a proportional electron detector within the analysis chamber for detecting electrons emitted from the ionized component, and a circuit for measuring the electrons and determining the presence of the electronegative species by detecting a reduction in the number of available electrons due to capture of electrons by the electronegative species. 2 figures.

Assessing the sensitivity of bovine tuberculosis surveillance in Canada's cattle population, 2009-2013.

PubMed

El Allaki, Farouk; Harrington, Noel; Howden, Krista

2016-11-01

The objectives of this study were (1) to estimate the annual sensitivity of Canada's bTB surveillance system and its three system components (slaughter surveillance, export testing and disease investigation) using a scenario tree modelling approach, and (2) to identify key model parameters that influence the estimates of the surveillance system sensitivity (SSSe). To achieve these objectives, we designed stochastic scenario tree models for three surveillance system components included in the analysis. Demographic data, slaughter data, export testing data, and disease investigation data from 2009 to 2013 were extracted for input into the scenario trees. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify key influential parameters on SSSe estimates. The median annual SSSe estimates generated from the study were very high, ranging from 0.95 (95% probability interval [PI]: 0.88-0.98) to 0.97 (95% PI: 0.93-0.99). Median annual sensitivity estimates for the slaughter surveillance component ranged from 0.95 (95% PI: 0.88-0.98) to 0.97 (95% PI: 0.93-0.99). This shows that slaughter surveillance to be the major contributor to overall surveillance system sensitivity with a high probability to detect M. bovis infection if present at a prevalence of 0.00028% or greater during the study period. The export testing and disease investigation components had extremely low component sensitivity estimates-the maximum median sensitivity estimates were 0.02 (95% PI: 0.014-0.023) and 0.0061 (95% PI: 0.0056-0.0066) respectively. The three most influential input parameters on the model's output (SSSe) were the probability of a granuloma being detected at slaughter inspection, the probability of a granuloma being present in older animals (≥12 months of age), and the probability of a granuloma sample being submitted to the laboratory. Additional studies are required to reduce the levels of uncertainty and variability associated with these three parameters influencing the surveillance system sensitivity. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-Energy Emission From Millisecond Pulsars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harding, Alice K.; Usov, Vladimir V.; Muslimov, Alex G.

2004-01-01

The X-ray and gamma-ray spectrum of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars is investigated in a model for acceleration and pair cascades on open field lines above the polar caps. Although these pulsars have low surface magnetic fields, their short periods allow them to have large magnetospheric potential drops, but the majority do not produce sufficient pairs to completely screen the accelerating electric field. In these sources, the primary and secondary electrons continue to accelerate to high altitude and their Lorentz factors are limited by curvature and synchrotron radiation reaction. The accelerating particles maintain high Lorentz factors and undergo cyclotron resonant absorption of radio emission, that produces and maintains a large pitch angle, resulting in a strong synchrotron component. The resulting spectra consist of several distinct components: curvature radiation from primary electrons dominating from 1 - 100 GeV, synchrotron radiation from primary and secondary electrons dominating up to about 100 MeV, and much weaker inverse-Compton radiation from primary electrons a t 0.1 - 1 TeV. We find that the relative size of these components depends on pulsar period, period derivative, and neutron star mass and radius with the level of the synchrotron component also depending sensitively on the radio emission properties. This model is successful in describing the observed X-ray and gamma-ray spectrum of PSR J0218+4232 as synchrotron radiation, peaking around 100 MeV and extending up to a turnover around several GeV. The predicted curvature radiation components from a number of millisecond pulsars, as well as the collective emission from the millisecond pulsars in globular clusters, should be detectable with AGILE and GLAST. We also discuss a hidden population of X-ray-quiet and radio-quiet millisecond pulsars which have evolved below the pair death line, some of which may be detectable by telescopes sensitive above 1 GeV. Subject headings: pulsars: general - radiation mechanisms: nonthermal - stars: neutron - gamma rays: theory

Effects of cumulative illness severity on hippocampal gray matter volume in major depression: a voxel-based morphometry study.

PubMed

Zaremba, Dario; Enneking, Verena; Meinert, Susanne; Förster, Katharina; Bürger, Christian; Dohm, Katharina; Grotegerd, Dominik; Redlich, Ronny; Dietsche, Bruno; Krug, Axel; Kircher, Tilo; Kugel, Harald; Heindel, Walter; Baune, Bernhard T; Arolt, Volker; Dannlowski, Udo

2018-02-08

Patients with major depression show reduced hippocampal volume compared to healthy controls. However, the contribution of patients' cumulative illness severity to hippocampal volume has rarely been investigated. It was the aim of our study to find a composite score of cumulative illness severity that is associated with hippocampal volume in depression. We estimated hippocampal gray matter volume using 3-tesla brain magnetic resonance imaging in 213 inpatients with acute major depression according to DSM-IV criteria (employing the SCID interview) and 213 healthy controls. Patients' cumulative illness severity was ascertained by six clinical variables via structured clinical interviews. A principal component analysis was conducted to identify components reflecting cumulative illness severity. Regression analyses and a voxel-based morphometry approach were used to investigate the influence of patients' individual component scores on hippocampal volume. Principal component analysis yielded two main components of cumulative illness severity: Hospitalization and Duration of Illness. While the component Hospitalization incorporated information from the intensity of inpatient treatment, the component Duration of Illness was based on the duration and frequency of illness episodes. We could demonstrate a significant inverse association of patients' Hospitalization component scores with bilateral hippocampal gray matter volume. This relationship was not found for Duration of Illness component scores. Variables associated with patients' history of psychiatric hospitalization seem to be accurate predictors of hippocampal volume in major depression and reliable estimators of patients' cumulative illness severity. Future studies should pay attention to these measures when investigating hippocampal volume changes in major depression.

Real-Time Diagnosis of Faults Using a Bank of Kalman Filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kobayashi, Takahisa; Simon, Donald L.

2006-01-01

A new robust method of automated real-time diagnosis of faults in an aircraft engine or a similar complex system involves the use of a bank of Kalman filters. In order to be highly reliable, a diagnostic system must be designed to account for the numerous failure conditions that an aircraft engine may encounter in operation. The method achieves this objective though the utilization of multiple Kalman filters, each of which is uniquely designed based on a specific failure hypothesis. A fault-detection-and-isolation (FDI) system, developed based on this method, is able to isolate faults in sensors and actuators while detecting component faults (abrupt degradation in engine component performance). By affording a capability for real-time identification of minor faults before they grow into major ones, the method promises to enhance safety and reduce operating costs. The robustness of this method is further enhanced by incorporating information regarding the aging condition of an engine. In general, real-time fault diagnostic methods use the nominal performance of a "healthy" new engine as a reference condition in the diagnostic process. Such an approach does not account for gradual changes in performance associated with aging of an otherwise healthy engine. By incorporating information on gradual, aging-related changes, the new method makes it possible to retain at least some of the sensitivity and accuracy needed to detect incipient faults while preventing false alarms that could result from erroneous interpretation of symptoms of aging as symptoms of failures. The figure schematically depicts an FDI system according to the new method. The FDI system is integrated with an engine, from which it accepts two sets of input signals: sensor readings and actuator commands. Two main parts of the FDI system are a bank of Kalman filters and a subsystem that implements FDI decision rules. Each Kalman filter is designed to detect a specific sensor or actuator fault. When a sensor or actuator fault occurs, large estimation errors are generated by all filters except the one using the correct hypothesis. By monitoring the residual output of each filter, the specific fault that has occurred can be detected and isolated on the basis of the decision rules. A set of parameters that indicate the performance of the engine components is estimated by the "correct" Kalman filter for use in detecting component faults. To reduce the loss of diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity in the face of aging, the FDI system accepts information from a steady-state-condition-monitoring system. This information is used to update the Kalman filters and a data bank of trim values representative of the current aging condition.

Ground deformation associated with the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China, estimated using a SAR offset-tracking method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, T.; Takada, Y.; Furuya, M.; Murakami, M.

2008-12-01

Introduction: A catastrophic earthquake struck China"fs Sichuan area on May 12, 2008, with the moment magnitude of 7.9 (USGS). The hypocenter and their aftershocks are distributed along the western edge of the Sichuan Basin, suggesting that this seismic event occurred at the Longmeng Shan fault zone which is constituted of major three active faults (Wenchuan-Maowen, Beichuan, and Pengguan faults). However, it is unclear whether these faults were directly involved in the mainshock rupture. An interferometry SAR (InSAR) analysis generally has a merit that we can detect ground deformation in a vast region with high precision, however, for the Sichuan event, the surface deformation near the fault zone has not been satisfactorily detected from the InSAR analyses due to a low coherency. An offset-tracking method is less precise but more robust for detecting large ground deformation than the interferometric approach. Our purpose is to detect the detail ground deformation immediately near the faults involved in the Sichuan event with applying the offset-tracking method. Analysis Method: We analyzed ALOS/PALSAR images, which have been taken from Path 471 to 476 of ascending track, acquired before and after the mainshock. We processed SAR data from the level-1.0 product, using a software package from Gamma Remote Sensing. For offset-tracking analysis we adopt intensity tracking method which is performed by cross-correlating samples of backscatter intensity of a master SAR image with samples from the corresponding search area of a slave image in order to estimate range and azimuth offset fields. We reduce stereoscopic effects that produce apparent offsets, using SRTM3 DEM data. Results: We have successfully obtained the surface deformation in range (radar look direction) component, while in azimuth (flight direction) no significant deformation can be detected in some orbits due to "gazimuth streaks"h that are errors caused by ionospheric effects. Some concluding remarks are as follows: On the Beichuan F. and its northeastward extension, a clear boundary of a motion toward and away from the satellite can be recognized just along the fault, which is almost consistent with a right-lateral fault motion. On the other hand, in the southwestern region from the Beichuan city where the three major faults are running almost parallel, two boundaries of motions can be recognized; On the Beichuan F. there are a clear displacement boundary in range component, while on the Pengguan F. a boundary can be identified in azimuth component rather than in range, suggesting that the seismic ruptures proceeded with different fault motions at each fault. For the Wenchuan-Maowen F., no significant displacement boundary can be recognized. Acknowledgments: PALSAR data are provided from Earthquake Working Group and PIXEL (PALSAR Interferometry Consortium to Study our Evolving Land surface) under a cooperative research contract with JAXA. The ownership of PALSAR data belongs to METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) and JAXA.

Estimating terrestrial uranium and thorium by antineutrino flux measurements.

PubMed

Dye, Stephen T; Guillian, Eugene H

2008-01-08

Uranium and thorium within the Earth produce a major portion of terrestrial heat along with a measurable flux of electron antineutrinos. These elements are key components in geophysical and geochemical models. Their quantity and distribution drive the dynamics, define the thermal history, and are a consequence of the differentiation of the Earth. Knowledge of uranium and thorium concentrations in geological reservoirs relies largely on geochemical model calculations. This article describes the methods and criteria to experimentally determine average concentrations of uranium and thorium in the continental crust and in the mantle by using site-specific measurements of the terrestrial antineutrino flux. Optimal, model-independent determinations involve significant exposures of antineutrino detectors remote from nuclear reactors at both a midcontinental and a midoceanic site. This would require major, new antineutrino detection projects. The results of such projects could yield a greatly improved understanding of the deep interior of the Earth.

Estimating terrestrial uranium and thorium by antineutrino flux measurements

PubMed Central

Dye, Stephen T.; Guillian, Eugene H.

2008-01-01

Uranium and thorium within the Earth produce a major portion of terrestrial heat along with a measurable flux of electron antineutrinos. These elements are key components in geophysical and geochemical models. Their quantity and distribution drive the dynamics, define the thermal history, and are a consequence of the differentiation of the Earth. Knowledge of uranium and thorium concentrations in geological reservoirs relies largely on geochemical model calculations. This article describes the methods and criteria to experimentally determine average concentrations of uranium and thorium in the continental crust and in the mantle by using site-specific measurements of the terrestrial antineutrino flux. Optimal, model-independent determinations involve significant exposures of antineutrino detectors remote from nuclear reactors at both a midcontinental and a midoceanic site. This would require major, new antineutrino detection projects. The results of such projects could yield a greatly improved understanding of the deep interior of the Earth. PMID:18172211

Ceramic capillary electrophoresis chip for the measurement of inorganic ions in water samples.

PubMed

Fercher, Georg; Haller, Anna; Smetana, Walter; Vellekoop, Michael J

2010-05-01

We present a microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) device build-up in low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) multilayer technology for the analysis of major inorganic ions in water samples in less than 80 s. Contactless conductivity measurement is employed as a robust alternative to direct-contact conductivity detection schemes. The measurement electrodes are placed in a planar way at the top side of the CE chip and are realized by screen printing. Laser-cutting of channel and double-T injector structures is used to minimize irregularities and wall defects, elevating plate numbers per meter up to values of 110,000. Lowest limit of detection is 6 microM. The cost efficient LTCC module is attractive particularly for portable instruments in environmental applications because of its chemical inertness, hermeticity and easy three-dimensional integration capabilities of fluidic, electrical and mechanical components.

Detection of forest decline in Monchegorsk area

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

Hagner, O.; Rigina, O.

1998-01-01

Forests on the Kola Peninsula in Northern Russia are growing close to the limits of the northern tree line. They are subjected to both natural (low temperatures and a short period of biochemical activity) and anthropogenic stress factors. The metallurgic industry complex Severo-nickel close to the city of Monchegorsk in the central Russian Kola Peninsula is one of the major sources of sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}), nickel, and copper emissions in the region. The environmental impact on the surrounding area is dramatic. In this study multispectral changes observed in Landsat-MSS satellite image data from 1978, 1986, and 1992 are usedmore » to evaluate the relevance of a mathematical model of SO{sub 2} concentration in ambient air as a component for assessment of forest decline. The multispectral changes detected were found to have a statistically significant correspondence to the modeled (SO{sub 2}) concentration levels in ambient air.« less

Investigation of methanogenic community structures in rural biogas digesters from different climatic regions in Yunnan, southwest China.

PubMed

Dong, Minghua; Wu, Yan; Li, Qiumin; Tian, Guangliang; Yang, Bin; Li, Yingjuan; Zhang, Lijuan; Wang, Yongxia; Xiao, Wei; Yin, Fang; Zhao, Xingling; Zhang, Wudi; Cui, Xiaolong

2015-05-01

Understanding of the microbial community structures of the biogas digesters in different climatic regions can help improve the methane production in the fermentation process. The methanogenic archaeal diversity in four rural biogas digesters (BNA, JSA, LJA, and XGA) was investigated by a culture-independent rRNA approach in different climatic regions in Yunnan. Community structure composed of 711 clones in the all libraries. A total of 33 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected, and major groups of methanogens were the orders Methanosarcinales and Methanomicrobiales. 63.2 % of all archaeal OTUs belong to the order Methanosarcinales which mostly contain acetotrophic methanogens. Methanomicrobiales (19.5 % in all OTUs) were detected in considerable number. Additionally, there were minor rates of uncultured archaea. The principal component analysis indicated that the genus Methanosaeta was mainly affected by the fermentation temperatures.

Identification of Aroma Compounds of Lamiaceae Species in Turkey Using the Purge and Trap Technique

PubMed Central

Sonmezdag, Ahmet Salih; Kelebek, Hasim; Selli, Serkan

2017-01-01

The present research was planned to characterize the aroma composition of important members of the Lamiaceae family such as Salvia officinalis, Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica. Aroma components of the S. officinalis, L. angustifolia and M. asiatica were extracted with the purge and trap technique with dichloromethane and analyzed with the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) technique. A total of 23, 33 and 33 aroma compounds were detected in Salvia officinalis, Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica, respectively including, acids, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, hydrocarbons and terpenes. Terpene compounds were both qualitatively and quantitatively the major chemical group among the identified aroma compounds, followed by esters. The main terpene compounds were 1,8-cineole, sabinene and linalool in Salvia officinalis, Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica, respectively. Among esters, linalyl acetate was the only and most important ester compound which was detected in all samples. PMID:28231089

Identification of Aroma Compounds of Lamiaceae Species in Turkey Using the Purge and Trap Technique.

PubMed

Sonmezdag, Ahmet Salih; Kelebek, Hasim; Selli, Serkan

2017-02-08

The present research was planned to characterize the aroma composition of important members of the Lamiaceae family such as Salvia officinalis , Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica . Aroma components of the S. officinalis , L. angustifolia and M. asiatica were extracted with the purge and trap technique with dichloromethane and analyzed with the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. A total of 23, 33 and 33 aroma compounds were detected in Salvia officinalis , Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica , respectively including, acids, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, hydrocarbons and terpenes. Terpene compounds were both qualitatively and quantitatively the major chemical group among the identified aroma compounds, followed by esters. The main terpene compounds were 1,8-cineole, sabinene and linalool in Salvia officinalis , Lavandula angustifolia and Mentha asiatica , respectively. Among esters, linalyl acetate was the only and most important ester compound which was detected in all samples.

An acoustical bubble counter for superheated drop detectors.

PubMed

Taylor, Chris; Montvila, Darius; Flynn, David; Brennan, Christopher; d'Errico, Francesco

2006-01-01

A new bubble counter has been developed based on the well-established approach of detecting vaporization events acoustically in superheated drop detectors (SDDs). This counter is called the Framework Scientific ABC 1260, and it represents a major improvement over prior versions of this technology. By utilizing advanced acoustic pattern recognition software, the bubble formation event can be differentiated from ambient background noise, as well as from other acoustic signatures. Additional structural design enhancements include a relocation of the electronic components to the bottom of the device; thus allowing for greater stability, easier access to vial SDDs without exposure to system electronics. Upgrades in the electronics permit an increase in the speed of bubble detection by almost 50%, compared with earlier versions of the counters. By positioning the vial on top of the device, temperature and sound insulation can be accommodated for extreme environments. Lead shells can also be utilized for an enhanced response to high-energy neutrons.

The darkside multiton detector for the direct dark matter search

DOE PAGES

Aalseth, C. E.; Agnes, P.; Alton, A.; ...

2015-01-01

Although the existence of dark matter is supported by many evidences, based on astrophysical measurements, its nature is still completely unknown. One major candidate is represented by weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which could in principle be detected through their collisions with ordinary nuclei in a sensitive target, producing observable low-energy (<100 keV) nuclear recoils. The DarkSide program aims at the WIPMs detection using a liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr-TPC). In this paper we quickly review the DarkSide program focusing in particular on the next generation experiment DarkSide-G2, a 3.6-ton LAr-TPC. The different detector components are described as wellmore » as the improvements needed to scale the detector from DarkSide-50 (50 kg LAr-TPC) up to DarkSide-G2. Finally, the preliminary results on background suppression and expected sensitivity are presented.« less

Process for measuring degradation of sulfur hexafluoride in high voltage systems

DOEpatents

Sauers, Isidor

1986-01-01

This invention is a method of detecting the presence of toxic and corrosive by-products in high voltage systems produced by electrically induced degradation of SF.sub.6 insulating gas in the presence of certain impurities. It is an improvement over previous methods because it is extremely sensitive, detecting by-products present in parts per billion concentrations, and because the device employed is of a simple design and takes advantage of the by-products natural affinity for fluoride ions. The method employs an ion-molecule reaction cell in which negative ions of the by-products are produced by fluorine attachment. These ions are admitted to a negative ion mass spectrometer and identified by their spectra. This spectrometry technique is an improvement over conventional techniques because the negative ion peaks are strong and not obscured by a major ion spectra of the SF.sub.6 component as is the case in positive ion mass spectrometry.

Process for measuring degradation of sulfur hexafluoride in high voltage systems

DOEpatents

Sauers, I.

1985-04-23

This invention is a method of detecting the presence of toxic and corrosive by-products in high voltage systems produced by electrically induced degradation of SF/sub 6/ insulating gas in the presence of certain impurities. It is an improvement over previous methods because it is extremely sensitive, detecting by-products present in parts per billion concentrations, and because the device employed is of a simple design and takes advantage of the by-products natural affinity for fluoride ions. The method employs an ion-molecule reaction cell in which negative ions of the by-products are produced by fluorine attachment. These ions are admitted to a negative ion mass spectrometer and identified by their spectra. This spectrometry technique is an improvement over conventional techniques because the negative ion peaks are strong and not obscured by a major ion spectra of the SF/sub 6/ component as is the case in positive ion mass spectrometry.

Procedure for flaw detection in cast stainless steel

DOEpatents

Kupperman, David S.

1988-01-01

A method of ultrasonic flaw detection in cast stainless steel components incorporating the steps of determining the nature of the microstructure of the cast stainless steel at the site of the flaw detection measurements by ultrasonic elements independent of the component thickness at the site; choosing from a plurality of flaw detection techniques, one such technique appropriate to the nature of the microstructure as determined and detecting flaws by use of the chosen technique.

Kinematic and stellar population properties of the counter-rotating components in the S0 galaxy NGC 1366

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morelli, L.; Pizzella, A.; Coccato, L.; Corsini, E. M.; Dalla Bontà, E.; Buson, L. M.; Ivanov, V. D.; Pagotto, I.; Pompei, E.; Rocco, M.

2017-04-01

Context. Many disk galaxies host two extended stellar components that rotate in opposite directions. The analysis of the stellar populations of the counter-rotating components provides constraints on the environmental and internal processes that drive their formation. Aims: The S0 NGC 1366 in the Fornax cluster is known to host a stellar component that is kinematically decoupled from the main body of the galaxy. Here we successfully separated the two counter-rotating stellar components to independently measure the kinematics and properties of their stellar populations. Methods: We performed a spectroscopic decomposition of the spectrum obtained along the galaxy major axis and separated the relative contribution of the two counter-rotating stellar components and of the ionized-gas component. We measured the line-strength indices of the two counter-rotating stellar components and modeled each of them with single stellar population models that account for the α/Fe overabundance. Results: We found that the counter-rotating stellar component is younger, has nearly the same metallicity, and is less α/Fe enhanced than the corotating component. Unlike most of the counter-rotating galaxies, the ionized gas detected in NGC 1366 is neither associated with the counter-rotating stellar component nor with the main galaxy body. On the contrary, it has a disordered distribution and a disturbed kinematics with multiple velocity components observed along the minor axis of the galaxy. Conclusions: The different properties of the counter-rotating stellar components and the kinematic peculiarities of the ionized gas suggest that NGC 1366 is at an intermediate stage of the acquisition process, building the counter-rotating components with some gas clouds still falling onto the galaxy. Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla-Paranal Observatory under programmes 075.B-0794 and 077.B-0767.

Characteristic of lipids and fatty acid compositions of the neon flying squid, Ommastrephes bartramii.

PubMed

Saito, Hiroaki; Ishikawa, Satoru

2012-01-01

The lipids and fatty acids of the neon flying squid (Ommastrephes bartramii) were an-alyzed to clarify its lipid physiology and health benefit as marine food. Triacylglycerols were the only major component in the digestive gland (liver). In all other organs (mantle, arm, integument, and ovary), sterols and phospholipids were the major components with noticeable levels of ceramide aminoethyl phosphonate and sphingomyelin. The significant levels of sphingolipids suggest the O. bartramii lipids is a useful source for cosmetics. Although the lipid content between the liver and all other tissues markedly differed from each other, the same nine dominant fatty acids in the triacylglycerols were found in all organs; 14:0, 16:0, 18:0, 18:1n-9, 20:1n-9, 20:1n-11, 22:1n-11, 20:5n-3 (icosapentaenoic acid, EPA), and 22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid, DHA). Unusually high 20:1n-11 levels in the O. bartramii triacylglycerols were probably characteristic for western Pacific animal depot lipids, compared with non-detectable levels of 20:1n-11 reported in other marine animals. O. bartramii concurrently has high levels of DHA in their triacylglycerols. The major fatty acids in the phospholipids were 16:0, 18:0, 20:1n-9, EPA, and DHA without 20:1n-11. Markedly high levels of both EPA and DHA were observed in phosphatidylethanolamine, while only DHA was found as the major one in phosphatidylcholine. In particular, high levels of DHA were found both in its depot triacylglycerols and tissue phospholipids in all organs of O. bartramii, similar to that in highly migratory fishes. The high DHA levels in all its organs suggest that O. bartramii lipids is a healthy marine source for DHA supplements.

Long-period Seismicity at the Napoleonville Salt Dome: Implications for Local Seismic Monitoring of Underground Hydrocarbon Storage Caverns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dreger, D. S.; Ford, S. R.; Nayak, A.

2015-12-01

The formation of a large sinkhole at the Napoleonville salt dome, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, in August 2012 was accompanied by a rich sequence of complex seismic events, including long-period (LP) events that were recorded 11 km away at Transportable Array station 544A in White Castle, Louisiana. The LP events have relatively little energy at short periods, which make them difficult to detect using standard high-frequency power detectors, and the majority of energy that reaches the station is peaked near 0.4 Hz. The analysis of the local records reveals that the onset of the 0.4 Hz signals coincides with the S-wave arrival, and therefore it may be a shaking induced resonance in a fluid filled cavern. We created a low-frequency (0.1-0.6 Hz) power detector (short-term average / long-term average) that operated on all three components of the broadband instrument, since considerable energy was detected on the horizontal components. The detections from the power detector were then used as templates in three-channel correlation detectors thereby increasing the number of detections by a little more than a factor of two to nearly 3000. The rate of LP events is approximately one event every other day at the beginning of recording in March 2011. Around 2 May 2012 the rate changes to approximately 7 events per day and then increases to 25 events per day at the beginning of July 2012. Finally, in the days leading up to the sinkhole formation there are approximately 200 LP events per day. The analysis of these events could aid in the development of local seismic monitoring methods for underground industrial storage caverns. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Structural Damage Detection Using Changes in Natural Frequencies: Theory and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, K.; Zhu, W. D.

2011-07-01

A vibration-based method that uses changes in natural frequencies of a structure to detect damage has advantages over conventional nondestructive tests in detecting various types of damage, including loosening of bolted joints, using minimum measurement data. Two major challenges associated with applications of the vibration-based damage detection method to engineering structures are addressed: accurate modeling of structures and the development of a robust inverse algorithm to detect damage, which are defined as the forward and inverse problems, respectively. To resolve the forward problem, new physics-based finite element modeling techniques are developed for fillets in thin-walled beams and for bolted joints, so that complex structures can be accurately modeled with a reasonable model size. To resolve the inverse problem, a logistical function transformation is introduced to convert the constrained optimization problem to an unconstrained one, and a robust iterative algorithm using a trust-region method, called the Levenberg-Marquardt method, is developed to accurately detect the locations and extent of damage. The new methodology can ensure global convergence of the iterative algorithm in solving under-determined system equations and deal with damage detection problems with relatively large modeling error and measurement noise. The vibration-based damage detection method is applied to various structures including lightning masts, a space frame structure and one of its components, and a pipeline. The exact locations and extent of damage can be detected in the numerical simulation where there is no modeling error and measurement noise. The locations and extent of damage can be successfully detected in experimental damage detection.

Essential Oil of Aristolochia trilobata: Synthesis, Routes of Exposure, Acute Toxicity, Binary Mixtures and Behavioral Effects on Leaf-Cutting Ants.

PubMed

de Oliveira, Bruna Maria S; Melo, Carlisson R; Alves, Péricles B; Santos, Abraão A; Santos, Ane Caroline C; Santana, Alisson da S; Araújo, Ana Paula A; Nascimento, Pedro E S; Blank, Arie F; Bacci, Leandro

2017-02-25

Plants of the genus Aristolochia have been frequently reported as important medicinal plants. Despite their high bioactive potential, to date, there are no reports of their effects on leaf-cutting ants. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the insecticidal activity of the essential oil of Aristolochia trilobata and its major components on Atta sexdens and Acromyrmex balzani , two species of leaf-cutting ants. The bioassays were performed regarding routes of exposure, acute toxicity, binary mixtures of the major components and behavioral effects. Twenty-five components were identified in the essential oil of A. trilobata using a gas chromatographic system equipped with a mass spectrometer and a flame ionization detector. The components found in higher proportions were sulcatyl acetate, limonene, p -cymene and linalool. The essential oil of A. trilobata and its individual major components were efficient against A. balzani and A. sexdens workers when applied by fumigation. These components showed fast and efficient insecticidal activity on ants. The components acted synergistically and additively on A. balzani and A. sexdens , respectively, and caused a strong repellency/irritability in the ants. Thus, our results demonstrate the great potential of the essential oil of A. trilobata and its major components for the development of new insecticides.

The in vitro and in vivo influence of 4-META/MMA-TBB resin components on dental pulp tissues.

PubMed

Inoue, T; Miyakoshi, S; Shimono, M

2001-08-01

The purpose of this study was to qualitate the penetration of the major components of 4-META/MMA-TBB adhesive resin (4-META resin) and to characterize their influence on the in vitro and in vivo wound healing of dental pulp tissues. Fresh 4-META resin was applied to rabbit mesentery; its components penetrated the mesentery to form three of layers, depending on the amounts of monomer components in the tissue. The superficial layer was a soft-tissue hybrid layer (STHL), the intermediate layer contained small particles of polymerized 4-META resin, while the deepest layer contained unpolymerized monomer components including MMA and butanol, which were detected by gas chromatography (GC). To characterize the in vivo effects of the deepest layer, we immersed the pulp tissue in MMA or in 5% 4-META/MMA and autotransplanted it to placement beneath a rabbit kidney capsule. The MMA-immersed pulp was positive for osteocalcin and presented osteodentin formation at 7 days, as did the untreated control pulp tissue. In contrast, the 5% 4-META/MMA-immersed pulp collapsed into the cell-deficient fibrous connective tissue, with slight calcification by 7 days and less osteodentin formation at 14 days. Analysis of these data suggests that MMA does not inhibit osteogenic activity of pulp tissue, while 5% 4-META/MMA does inhibit osteogenic activity to some extent.

The impact of the SSIIa null mutations on grain traits and composition in durum wheat.

PubMed

Botticella, Ermelinda; Sestili, Francesco; Ferrazzano, Gianluca; Mantovani, Paola; Cammerata, Alessandro; D'Egidio, Maria Grazia; Lafiandra, Domenico

2016-09-01

Starch represents a major nutrient in the human diet providing essentially a source of energy. More recently the modification of its composition has been associated with new functionalities both at the nutritional and technological level. Targeting the major starch biosynthetic enzymes has been shown to be a valuable strategy to manipulate the amylose-amylopectin ratio in reserve starch. In the present work a breeding strategy aiming to produce a set of SSIIa (starch synthases IIa) null durum wheat is described. We have characterized major traits such as seed weight, total starch, amylose, protein and β-glucan content in a set of mutant families derived from the introgression of the SSIIa null trait into Svevo, an elite Italian durum wheat cultivar. A large degree of variability was detected and used to select wheat lines with either improved quality traits or agronomic performances. Semolina of a set of two SSIIa null lines showed new rheological behavior and an increased content of all major dietary fiber components, namely arabinoxylans, β-glucans and resistant starch. Furthermore the investigation of gene expression highlighted important differences in some genes involved in starch and β-glucans biosynthesis.

Amyloid substance within stenotic aortic valves promotes mineralization.

PubMed

Audet, Audrey; Côté, Nancy; Couture, Christian; Bossé, Yohan; Després, Jean-Pierre; Pibarot, Philippe; Mathieu, Patrick

2012-10-01

Accumulation of apolipoproteins may play an important role in the pathobiology of calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). We aimed to explore the hypothesis that apolipoprotein-derived amyloid could play a role in the development of CAVD. In 70 explanted CAVD valves and 15 control non-calcified aortic valves, we assessed the presence of amyloid by using Congo red staining. Immunohistochemistry was performed to document the presence of apolipoprotein AI (Apo-AI). Apoptosis was documented by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) studies performed in control and CAVD valves. Control valves were free of amyloid. Deposition of amyloid was detected in all CAVD valves, and the amount was positively correlated with plasma high-density lipoprotein and Apo-AI levels. Apo-AI within CAVD valves co-localized with intense staining of fibrillar amyloid. In turn, deposition of amyloid co-localized with apoptosis near mineralized areas. Isolation of amyloid fibrils confirmed that Apo-AI is a major component of amyloid deposits in CAVD. In vitro, CAVD-derived amyloid extracts increased apoptosis and mineralization of isolated aortic valvular interstitial cells. Apo-AI is a major component of amyloid substance present within CAVD valves. Furthermore, amyloid deposits participate in mineralization in CAVD by promoting apoptosis of valvular interstitial cells. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Comprehensive quality assessment based specific chemical profiles for geographic and tissue variation in Gentiana rigescens using HPLC and FTIR method combined with principal component analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jie; Zhang, Ji; Zhao, Yan-Li; Huang, Heng-Yu; Wang, Yuan-Zhong

2017-12-01

Roots, stems, leaves and flowers of Longdan (Gentiana rigescens Franch. ex Hemsl) were collected from six geographic origins of Yunnan Province (n = 240) to implement the quality assessment based on contents of gentiopicroside, loganic acid, sweroside and swertiamarin and chemical profile using HPLC-DAD and FTIR method combined with principal component analysis (PCA). The content of gentiopicroside (major iridoid glycoside) was the highest in G. rigescens, regardless of tissue and geographic origin. The level of swertiamarin was the lowest, even unable to be detected in samples from Kunming and Qujing. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) between gentiopicroside, loganic acid, sweroside and swertiamarin were found at inter- or intra-tissues, which were highly depended on geographic origins, indicating the influence of environmental conditions on the conversion and transport of secondary metabolites in G. rigescens. Furthermore, samples were reasonably classified as three clusters along large producing areas where have similar climate conditions, characterized by carbohydrates, phenols, benzoates, terpenoids, aliphatic alcohols, aromatic hydrocarbons, and so forth. The present work provided global information on the chemical profile and contents of major iridoid glycosides in G. rigescens originated from six different origins, which is helpful for controlling quality of herbal medicines systematically.

Comprehensive Quality Assessment Based Specific Chemical Profiles for Geographic and Tissue Variation in Gentiana rigescens Using HPLC and FTIR Method Combined with Principal Component Analysis

PubMed Central

Li, Jie; Zhang, Ji; Zhao, Yan-Li; Huang, Heng-Yu; Wang, Yuan-Zhong

2017-01-01

Roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of Longdan (Gentiana rigescens Franch. ex Hemsl) were collected from six geographic origins of Yunnan Province (n = 240) to implement the quality assessment based on contents of gentiopicroside, loganic acid, sweroside and swertiamarin and chemical profile using HPLC-DAD and FTIR method combined with principal component analysis (PCA). The content of gentiopicroside (major iridoid glycoside) was the highest in G. rigescens, regardless of tissue and geographic origin. The level of swertiamarin was the lowest, even unable to be detected in samples from Kunming and Qujing. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) between gentiopicroside, loganic acid, sweroside, and swertiamarin were found at inter- or intra-tissues, which were highly depended on geographic origins, indicating the influence of environmental conditions on the conversion and transport of secondary metabolites in G. rigescens. Furthermore, samples were reasonably classified as three clusters along large producing areas where have similar climate conditions, characterized by carbohydrates, phenols, benzoates, terpenoids, aliphatic alcohols, aromatic hydrocarbons, and so forth. The present work provided global information on the chemical profile and contents of major iridoid glycosides in G. rigescens originated from six different origins, which is helpful for controlling quality of herbal medicines systematically. PMID:29312929

Boiling-Water Reactor internals aging degradation study. Phase 1

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

Luk, K.H.

1993-09-01

This report documents the results of an aging assessment study for boiling water reactor (BWR) internals. Major stressors for BWR internals are related to unsteady hydrodynamic forces generated by the primary coolant flow in the reactor vessel. Welding and cold-working, dissolved oxygen and impurities in the coolant, applied loads and exposures to fast neutron fluxes are other important stressors. Based on results of a component failure information survey, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and fatigue are identified as the two major aging-related degradation mechanisms for BWR internals. Significant reported failures include SCC in jet-pump holddown beams, in-core neutron flux monitor drymore » tubes and core spray spargers. Fatigue failures were detected in feedwater spargers. The implementation of a plant Hydrogen Water Chemistry (HWC) program is considered as a promising method for controlling SCC problems in BWR. More operating data are needed to evaluate its effectiveness for internal components. Long-term fast neutron irradiation effects and high-cycle fatigue in a corrosive environment are uncertainty factors in the aging assessment process. BWR internals are examined by visual inspections and the method is access limited. The presence of a large water gap and an absence of ex-core neutron flux monitors may handicap the use of advanced inspection methods, such as neutron noise vibration measurements, for BWR.« less

The Evolution of Two-Component Systems in Bacteria Reveals Different Strategies for Niche Adaptation

PubMed Central

Arkin, Adam

2006-01-01

Two-component systems including histidine protein kinases represent the primary signal transduction paradigm in prokaryotic organisms. To understand how these systems adapt to allow organisms to detect niche-specific signals, we analyzed the phylogenetic distribution of nearly 5,000 histidine protein kinases from 207 sequenced prokaryotic genomes. We found that many genomes carry a large repertoire of recently evolved signaling genes, which may reflect selective pressure to adapt to new environmental conditions. Both lineage-specific gene family expansion and horizontal gene transfer play major roles in the introduction of new histidine kinases into genomes; however, there are differences in how these two evolutionary forces act. Genes imported via horizontal transfer are more likely to retain their original functionality as inferred from a similar complement of signaling domains, while gene family expansion accompanied by domain shuffling appears to be a major source of novel genetic diversity. Family expansion is the dominant source of new histidine kinase genes in the genomes most enriched in signaling proteins, and detailed analysis reveals that divergence in domain structure and changes in expression patterns are hallmarks of recent expansions. Finally, while these two modes of gene acquisition are widespread across bacterial taxa, there are clear species-specific preferences for which mode is used. PMID:17083272

Liquid biopsies in gastrointestinal malignancies: when is the big day?

PubMed

Lopez, Anthony; Harada, Kazuto; Mizrak Kaya, Dilsa; Dong, Xiaochuan; Song, Shumei; Ajani, Jaffer A

2018-01-01

Tumor tissue sample is currently the gold standard for diagnosing gastrointestinal cancers, but also for genomic/immune component analyses that can help in the selection of therapy. However, this approach of studying a 'representative' sample of the tumor does not address inherent heterogeneity. Liquid biopsies, mainly represented by circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, tumor exosomes, and microRNAs, have the potential to assess various biomarkers for early detection of cancer, carrying out genomic/immune profiling for not only selection of appropriate therapy but also to monitor effect of therapy. Areas covered: This review summarizes the current evidence in the literature on liquid biopsies in gastrointestinal cancers concerning diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapy. The following terms were used in PubMed: 'esophageal', 'gastric', 'colorectal', 'cancer', 'circulating tumor cells', 'circulating tumor DNA', microRNA', 'diagnosis', 'prognosis', 'response', 'resistance'. Expert commentary: Data increasingly supports the potential of liquid biopsies for early detection, selection of therapy, and monitoring response to therapy. One major question is whether assaying various components of the blood would accommodate considerable context-dependent heterogeneity of gastrointestinal tumors. There are many potential strategies to exploit liquid biopsy use. To put them in to perspective, well-designed and meticulous prospective studies will be needed to prove their usefulness.

Complement component 3: characterization and association with mastitis resistance in Egyptian water buffalo and cattle.

PubMed

El-Halawany, Nermin; Abd-El-Monsif, Shawky A; Al-Tohamy Ahmed, F M; Hegazy, Lamees; Abdel-Shafy, Hamdy; Abdel-Latif, Magdy A; Ghazi, Yasser A; Neuhoff, Christiane; Salilew-Wondim, Dessie; Schellander, Karl

2017-03-01

Mastitis is an infectious disease of the mammary gland that leads to reduced milk production and change in milk composition. Complement component C3 plays a major role as a central molecule of the complement cascade involving in killing of microorganisms, either directly or in cooperation with phagocytic cells. C3 cDNA were isolated, from Egyptian buffalo and cattle, sequenced and characterized. The C3 cDNA sequences of buffalo and cattle consist of 5025 and 5019 bp, respectively. Buffalo and cattle C3 cDNAs share 99% of sequence identity with each other. The 4986 bp open reading frame in buffalo encodes a putative protein of 1661 amino acids-as in cattle-and includes all the functional domains. Further, analysis of the C3 cDNA sequences detected six novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in buffalo and three novel SNPs in cattle. The association analysis of the detected SNPs with milk somatic cell score as an indicator of mastitis revealed that the most significant association in buffalo was found in the C>A substitution (ss: 1752816097) in exon 27, whereas in cattle it was in the C>T substitution (ss: 1752816085) in exon 12. Our findings provide preliminary information about the contribution of C3 polymorphisms to mastitis resistance in buffalo and cattle.

Human Eye Development Is Characterized by Coordinated Expression of Fibrillin Isoforms

PubMed Central

Hubmacher, Dirk; Reinhardt, Dieter P.; Plesec, Thomas; Schenke-Layland, Katja; Apte, Suneel S.

2014-01-01

Purpose. Mutations in human fibrillin-1 and -2, which are major constituents of tissue microfibrils, can affect multiple ocular components, including the ciliary zonule, lens, drainage apparatus, cornea, and retina. However, the expression pattern of the three human fibrillins and an integral microfibrillar component, MAGP1, during human eye development is not known. Methods. We analyzed sections from human eyes at gestational weeks (GWs) 6, 8, and 11 and at 1 and 3 years of age with antibodies specific for each human fibrillin isoform or MAGP1, using immunofluorescence microscopy. Results. During embryonic development, each fibrillin isoform was detected in vascular structures bridging the ciliary body and the developing lens, hyaloid vasculature, and retina. In addition, they were present in the developing corneal basement membranes and lens capsule. MAGP1 codistributed with the fibrillin isoforms. In contrast, the juvenile zonule was composed of fibrillin-1 microfibrils containing MAGP1, but fibrillin-2 was absent and fibrillin-3 was only sparsely detected. Conclusions. Fibrillin-1, -2, and, unique to humans, fibrillin-3 are found in various ocular structures during human embryonic eye development, whereas fibrillin-1 dominates the postnatal zonule. We speculate that vasculature spanning the ciliary body and lens, which elaborates fibrillin-2 and -3, may provide an initial scaffold for fibrillin assembly and zonule formation. PMID:25406291

Egg colour matching in an African cuckoo, as revealed by ultraviolet-visible reflectance spectrophotometry.

PubMed Central

Cherry, M I; Bennett, A T

2001-01-01

Despite major differences between human and avian colour vision, previous studies of cuckoo egg mimicry have used human colour vision (or standards based thereon) to assess colour matching. Using ultraviolet-visible reflectance spectrophotometry (300-700 nm), we measured museum collections of eggs of the red-chested cuckoo and its hosts. The first three principal components explained more than 99% of the variance in spectra, and measures of cuckoo host egg similarity derived from these transformations were compared with measures of cuckoo host egg similarity estimated by human observers unaware of the hypotheses we were testing. Monte Carlo methods were used to simulate laying of cuckoo eggs at random in nests. Results showed that host and cuckoo eggs were very highly matched for an ultraviolet versus greenness component, which was not detected by humans. Furthermore, whereas cuckoo and host were dissimilar in achromatic brightness, humans did not detect this difference. Our study thus reveals aspects of cuckoo-host egg colour matching which have hitherto not been described. These results suggest subtleties and complexities in the evolution of host-cuckoo egg mimicry that were not previously suspected. Our results also have the potential to explain the longstanding paradox that some host species accept cuckoo eggs that are non-mimetic to the human eye. PMID:11297172

Application of Independent Component Analysis for the Data Mining of Simultaneous EEG-fMRI: Preliminary Experience on Sleep Onset

PubMed Central

Lee, Jong-Hwan; Oh, Sungsuk; Jolesz, Ferenc A.; Park, Hyunwook; Yoo, Seung-Schik

2010-01-01

The simultaneous acquisition of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional MRI (fMRI) signals is potentially advantageous because of the superior resolution that is achieved in both the temporal and spatial domains, respectively. However, ballistocardiographic artifacts along with the ocular artifacts are a major obstacle for the detection of the EEG signatures of interest. Since the sources corresponding to these artifacts are independent from those producing the EEG signatures, we applied the Infomax-based independent component analysis (ICA) technique to separate the EEG signatures from the artifacts. The isolated EEG signatures were further utilized to model the canonical hemodynamic response functions (HRFs). Subsequently, the brain areas from which these EEG signatures originated were identified as locales of activation patterns from the analysis of fMRI data. Upon the identification and subsequent evaluation of brain areas generating interictal epileptic discharge (IED) spikes from an epileptic subject, the presented method was successfully applied to detect the theta- and alpha-rhythms that are sleep onset related EEG signatures along with the subsequent neural circuitries from a sleep deprived volunteer. These results suggest that the ICA technique may be useful for the preprocessing of simultaneous EEG-fMRI acquisitions, especially when a reference paradigm is unavailable. PMID:19922343

Application of independent component analysis for the data mining of simultaneous Eeg-fMRI: preliminary experience on sleep onset.

PubMed

Lee, Jong-Hwan; Oh, Sungsuk; Jolesz, Ferenc A; Park, Hyunwook; Yoo, Seung-Schik

2009-01-01

The simultaneous acquisition of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional MRI (fMRI) signals is potentially advantageous because of the superior resolution that is achieved in both the temporal and spatial domains, respectively. However, ballistocardiographic artifacts along with ocular artifacts are a major obstacle for the detection of the EEG signatures of interest. Since the sources corresponding to these artifacts are independent from those producing the EEG signatures, we applied the Infomax-based independent component analysis (ICA) technique to separate the EEG signatures from the artifacts. The isolated EEG signatures were further utilized to model the canonical hemodynamic response functions (HRFs). Subsequently, the brain areas from which these EEG signatures originated were identified as locales of activation patterns from the analysis of fMRI data. Upon the identification and subsequent evaluation of brain areas generating interictal epileptic discharge (IED) spikes from an epileptic subject, the presented method was successfully applied to detect the theta and alpha rhythms that are sleep onset-related EEG signatures along with the subsequent neural circuitries from a sleep-deprived volunteer. These results suggest that the ICA technique may be useful for the preprocessing of simultaneous EEG-fMRI acquisitions, especially when a reference paradigm is unavailable.

Electronic aroma detection technology for forensic and law enforcement applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barshick, Stacy-Ann; Griest, Wayne H.; Vass, Arpad A.

1997-02-01

A major problem hindering criminal investigations is the lack of appropriate tools for proper crime scene investigations. Often locating important pieces of evidence means relying on the ability of trained detection canines. Development of analytical technology to uncover and analyze evidence, potentially at the scene, could serve to expedite criminal investigations, searches, and court proceedings. To address this problem, a new technology based on gas sensor arrays was investigated for its applicability to forensic and law enforcement problems. The technology employs an array of sensors that respond to volatile chemical components yielding a characteristic 'fingerprint' pattern representative of the vapor-phase composition of a sample. Sample aromas can be analyzed and identified using artificial neural networks that are trained on known aroma patterns. Several candidate applications based on known technological needs of the forensic and law enforcement communities have been investigated. These applications have included the detection of aromas emanating from cadavers to aid in determining time since death, drug detection for deterring the manufacture, sale, and use of drugs of abuse, and the analysis of fire debris for accelerant identification. The result to date for these applications have been extremely promising and demonstrate the potential applicability of this technology for forensic use.

Video redaction: a survey and comparison of enabling technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sah, Shagan; Shringi, Ameya; Ptucha, Raymond; Burry, Aaron; Loce, Robert

2017-09-01

With the prevalence of video recordings from smart phones, dash cams, body cams, and conventional surveillance cameras, privacy protection has become a major concern, especially in light of legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act. Video redaction is used to obfuscate sensitive and personally identifiable information. Today's typical workflow involves simple detection, tracking, and manual intervention. Automated methods rely on accurate detection mechanisms being paired with robust tracking methods across the video sequence to ensure the redaction of all sensitive information while minimizing spurious obfuscations. Recent studies have explored the use of convolution neural networks and recurrent neural networks for object detection and tracking. The present paper reviews the redaction problem and compares a few state-of-the-art detection, tracking, and obfuscation methods as they relate to redaction. The comparison introduces an evaluation metric that is specific to video redaction performance. The metric can be evaluated in a manner that allows balancing the penalty for false negatives and false positives according to the needs of particular application, thereby assisting in the selection of component methods and their associated hyperparameters such that the redacted video has fewer frames that require manual review.

Nano-sized structures for the detection of food components and contaminants.

PubMed

Dudak, Fahriye Ceyda; Bas, Deniz; Basaran-Akgul, Nese; Tamer, Ugur; Boyaci, Ismail Hakki

2011-06-01

New methods to identify trace amount of food components and/or contaminants (infectious pathogens and chemicals) rapidly, accurately, and with high sensitivity are in constant demand to prevent foodborne illnesses. Multipurpose biofunctionalized engineered nanomaterials are very promising for the detection of food components and contaminants. The unique optical and magnetic properties of the nanoscale materials are very useful in the analysis of food. The objectives of this review paper are to discuss the development of applications of nanoscale structures related to food industries and to provide an overview of available methods of detecting food components and contaminants with particular emphasis on the use of nanoparticles.

A Sensing System for Simultaneous Detection of Urine and its Components Using Plastic Optical Fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ejaz, Tahseen; Takemae, Tadashi; Egami, Chikara; Tsuboi, Naoyuki

A sensing system using plastic optical fibers and reagent papers was developed for the detection of urine and abnormal level of its components simultaneously. Among several components of urine the detection of two main components namely, protein and glucose was confirmed experimentally. Three states of the papers namely dry and wet with and without change in color, were taken into consideration. These three states were divided by setting the lower and upper threshold voltages at 2.2 V and 5.5 V, respectively. This system is considered to be simple in construction, easy to operate and cost-efficient.

Variable pleiotropic effects from mutations at the same locus hamper prediction of fitness from a fitness component.

PubMed

Pepin, Kim M; Samuel, Melanie A; Wichman, Holly A

2006-04-01

The relationship of genotype, fitness components, and fitness can be complicated by genetic effects such as pleiotropy and epistasis and by heterogeneous environments. However, because it is often difficult to measure genotype and fitness directly, fitness components are commonly used to estimate fitness without regard to genetic architecture. The small bacteriophage X174 enables direct evaluation of genetic and environmental effects on fitness components and fitness. We used 15 mutants to study mutation effects on attachment rate and fitness in six hosts. The mutants differed from our lab strain of X174 by only one or two amino acids in the major capsid protein (gpF, sites 101 and 102). The sites are variable in natural and experimentally evolved X174 populations and affect phage attachment rate. Within the limits of detection of our assays, all mutations were neutral or deleterious relative to the wild type; 11 mutants had decreased host range. While fitness was predictable from attachment rate in most cases, 3 mutants had rapid attachment but low fitness on most hosts. Thus, some mutations had a pleiotropic effect on a fitness component other than attachment rate. In addition, on one host most mutants had high attachment rate but decreased fitness, suggesting that pleiotropic effects also depended on host. The data highlight that even in this simple, well-characterized system, prediction of fitness from a fitness component depends on genetic architecture and environment.

Comparison of L-serine uptake by human placental microvillous membrane vesicles and placental villous fragments.

PubMed

Brand, A P; Greenwood, S L; Glazier, J D; Bennett, E J; Godfrey, K M; Sibley, C P; Hanson, M A; Lewis, R M

2010-05-01

Both syncytiotrophoblast microvillous plasma membrane vesicles (MVM) and placental villous fragments are used to characterize the placental uptake of maternal substrate and to investigate changes in uptake associated with pathological conditions. However, the two techniques have not been directly compared. In this study uptake of (14)C-L-serine was compared in placental villous fragments and in MVM prepared from the same placentas. (14)C-L-serine uptake into MVM vesicles was mediated by System L and System A and smaller unidentified Na(+)-dependent and Na(+)-independent components. In villous fragments an unidentified Na(+)-dependent component mediated the majority of (14)C-L-serine uptake followed by System A and System L. The unidentified Na(+)-independent component of L-serine uptake was not detected in villous fragments. The ratio of System A activity to System L activity was similar in villous fragments and MVM vesicles. However, the unidentified Na(+)-dependent component in villous fragments was significantly higher than that in MVM vesicles. This indicates that the main differences in serine uptake mechanisms identified using the two techniques were not due to differences in System A and System L activity but to differences in the unidentified Na(+)-dependent component. This study suggests that uptake of L-serine into MVM vesicles and villous fragments via Systems A and L is comparable, but that this is not true for all components of L-serine uptake. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

TU-AB-207A-03: Image Quality, Dose, and Clinical Applications

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

Dong, F.

Practicing medical physicists are often time charged with the tasks of evaluating and troubleshooting complex image quality issues related to CT scanners. This course will equip them with a solid and practical understanding of common CT imaging chain and its major components with emphasis on acquisition physics and hardware, reconstruction, artifacts, image quality, dose, and advanced clinical applications. The core objective is to explain the effects of these major system components on the image quality. This course will not focus on the rapid-changing advanced technologies given the two-hour time limit, but the fundamental principles discussed in this course may facilitatemore » better understanding of those more complicated technologies. The course will begin with an overview of CT acquisition physics and geometry. X-ray tube and CT detector are important acquisition hardware critical to the overall image quality. Each of these two subsystems consists of several major components. An in-depth description of the function and failure modes of these components will be provided. Examples of artifacts related to these failure modes will be presented: off-focal radiation, tube arcing, heel effect, oil bubble, offset drift effect, cross-talk effect, and bad pixels. The fundamentals of CT image reconstruction will first be discussed on an intuitive level. Approaches that do not require rigorous derivation of mathematical formulations will be presented. This is followed by a detailed derivation of the Fourier slice theorem: the foundation of the FBP algorithm. FBP for parallel-beam, fan-beam, and cone-beam geometries will be discussed. To address the issue of radiation dose related to x-ray CT, recent advances in iterative reconstruction, their advantages, and clinical applications will also be described. Because of the nature of fundamental physics and mathematics, limitations in data acquisition, and non-ideal conditions of major system components, image artifact often arise in the reconstructed images. Because of the limited scope of this course, only major imaging artifacts, their appearance, and possible mitigation and corrections will be discussed. Assessment of the performance of a CT scanner is a complicated subject. Procedures to measure common image quality metrics such as high contrast spatial resolution, low contrast detectability, and slice profile will be described. The reason why these metrics used for FBP may not be sufficient for statistical iterative reconstruction will be explained. Optimizing radiation dose requires comprehension of CT dose metrics. This course will briefly describe various dose metrics, and interaction with acquisition parameters and patient habitus. CT is among the most frequently used imaging tools due to its superior image quality, easy to operate, and a broad range of applications. This course will present several interesting CT applications such as a mobile CT unit on an ambulance for stroke patients, low dose lung cancer screening, and single heartbeat cardiac CT. Learning Objectives: Understand the function and impact of major components of X-ray tube on the image quality. Understand the function and impact of major components of CT detector on the image quality. Be familiar with the basic procedure of CT image reconstruction. Understand the effect of image reconstruction on CT image quality and artifacts. Understand the root causes of common CT image artifacts. Be familiar with image quality metrics especially high and low contrast resolution, noise power spectrum, slice sensitivity profile, etc. Understand why basic image quality metrics used for FBP may not be sufficient to characterize the performance of advanced iterative reconstruction. Be familiar with various CT dose metrics and their interaction with acquisition parameters. New development in advanced CT clinical applications. JH: Employee of GE Healthcare. FD: No disclosure.; J. Hsieh, Jiang Hsieh is an employee of GE Healthcare.« less

Quantification of major flavonoids in carnation tissues (Dianthus caryophyllus) as a tool for cultivar discrimination.

PubMed

Galeotti, Francesco; Barile, Elisa; Lanzotti, Virginia; Dolci, Marcello; Curir, Paolo

2008-01-01

One flavone-C-glycoside and two flavonol-O-glycosides were recognized and isolated as the main flavonoidal components in nine different carnation cultivars, and their chemical structures have been determined by spectroscopic methods, including UV detection, MS and NMR. The distribution of these three compounds in flowers, leaves, stems, young sprouts, and roots of each cultivar was evaluated by a simple HPLC-UV method: the graphic representation of their content in the different tissues allows to identify and characterize unambiguously each considered carnation cultivar. The presented method could be an easy, inexpensive and reliable tool for carnation cultivar discrimination.

Tribology symposium 1995. PD-Volume 72

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

Masudi, H.

After the keynote presentation by Professor Aaron Cohen of Texas A and M University, entitled Processes Used in Design, the program is divided into five major sessions: Research and Development -- Recent research and development of tribological components; Tribology in Manufacturing -- The impact of tribology on modern manufacturing; Design/Design Representation -- Aspects of design related to tribological systems; Tribo-Chemistry/Tribo-Physics -- Discussion of chemical and physical behavior of substances as related to tribology; and Failure Analysis -- An analysis of failure, failure detection, and failure monitoring as related to manufacturing processes. Papers have been processed separately for inclusion on themore » data base.« less

A fluorescence-based centrifugal microfluidic system for parallel detection of multiple allergens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Q. L.; Ho, H. P.; Cheung, K. L.; Kong, S. K.; Suen, Y. K.; Kwan, Y. W.; Li, W. J.; Wong, C. K.

2010-02-01

This paper reports a robust polymer based centrifugal microfluidic analysis system that can provide parallel detection of multiple allergens in vitro. Many commercial food products (milk, bean, pollen, etc.) may introduce allergy to people. A low-cost device for rapid detection of allergens is highly desirable. With this as the objective, we have studied the feasibility of using a rotating disk device incorporating centrifugal microfluidics for performing actuationfree and multi-analyte detection of different allergen species with minimum sample usage and fast response time. Degranulation in basophils or mast cells is an indicator to demonstrate allergic reaction. In this connection, we used acridine orange (AO) to demonstrate degranulation in KU812 human basophils. It was found that the AO was released from granules when cells were stimulated by ionomycin, thus signifying the release of histamine which accounts for allergy symptoms [1-2]. Within this rotating optical platform, major microfluidic components including sample reservoirs, reaction chambers, microchannel and flow-control compartments are integrated into a single bio-compatible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The flow sequence and reaction time can be controlled precisely. Sequentially through varying the spinning speed, the disk may perform a variety of steps on sample loading, reaction and detection. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of using centrifugation as a possible immunoassay system in the future.

Detecting Silent Data Corruption for Extreme-Scale Applications through Data Mining

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

Bautista-Gomez, Leonardo; Cappello, Franck

Supercomputers allow scientists to study natural phenomena by means of computer simulations. Next-generation machines are expected to have more components and, at the same time, consume several times less energy per operation. These trends are pushing supercomputer construction to the limits of miniaturization and energy-saving strategies. Consequently, the number of soft errors is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years. While mechanisms are in place to correct or at least detect some soft errors, a significant percentage of those errors pass unnoticed by the hardware. Such silent errors are extremely damaging because they can make applications silently produce wrongmore » results. In this work we propose a technique that leverages certain properties of high-performance computing applications in order to detect silent errors at the application level. Our technique detects corruption solely based on the behavior of the application datasets and is completely application-agnostic. We propose multiple corruption detectors, and we couple them to work together in a fashion transparent to the user. We demonstrate that this strategy can detect the majority of the corruptions, while incurring negligible overhead. We show that with the help of these detectors, applications can have up to 80% of coverage against data corruption.« less

MSeq-CNV: accurate detection of Copy Number Variation from Sequencing of Multiple samples.

PubMed

Malekpour, Seyed Amir; Pezeshk, Hamid; Sadeghi, Mehdi

2018-03-05

Currently a few tools are capable of detecting genome-wide Copy Number Variations (CNVs) based on sequencing of multiple samples. Although aberrations in mate pair insertion sizes provide additional hints for the CNV detection based on multiple samples, the majority of the current tools rely only on the depth of coverage. Here, we propose a new algorithm (MSeq-CNV) which allows detecting common CNVs across multiple samples. MSeq-CNV applies a mixture density for modeling aberrations in depth of coverage and abnormalities in the mate pair insertion sizes. Each component in this mixture density applies a Binomial distribution for modeling the number of mate pairs with aberration in the insertion size and also a Poisson distribution for emitting the read counts, in each genomic position. MSeq-CNV is applied on simulated data and also on real data of six HapMap individuals with high-coverage sequencing, in 1000 Genomes Project. These individuals include a CEU trio of European ancestry and a YRI trio of Nigerian ethnicity. Ancestry of these individuals is studied by clustering the identified CNVs. MSeq-CNV is also applied for detecting CNVs in two samples with low-coverage sequencing in 1000 Genomes Project and six samples form the Simons Genome Diversity Project.

PSE-HMM: genome-wide CNV detection from NGS data using an HMM with Position-Specific Emission probabilities.

PubMed

Malekpour, Seyed Amir; Pezeshk, Hamid; Sadeghi, Mehdi

2016-11-03

Copy Number Variation (CNV) is envisaged to be a major source of large structural variations in the human genome. In recent years, many studies apply Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data for the CNV detection. However, still there is a necessity to invent more accurate computational tools. In this study, mate pair NGS data are used for the CNV detection in a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The proposed HMM has position specific emission probabilities, i.e. a Gaussian mixture distribution. Each component in the Gaussian mixture distribution captures a different type of aberration that is observed in the mate pairs, after being mapped to the reference genome. These aberrations may include any increase (decrease) in the insertion size or change in the direction of mate pairs that are mapped to the reference genome. This HMM with Position-Specific Emission probabilities (PSE-HMM) is utilized for the genome-wide detection of deletions and tandem duplications. The performance of PSE-HMM is evaluated on a simulated dataset and also on a real data of a Yoruban HapMap individual, NA18507. PSE-HMM is effective in taking observation dependencies into account and reaches a high accuracy in detecting genome-wide CNVs. MATLAB programs are available at http://bs.ipm.ir/softwares/PSE-HMM/ .

Rapid detection of aflatoxigenic Aspergillus sp. in herbal specimens by a simple, bendable, paper-based lab-on-a-chip.

PubMed

Chaumpluk, Piyasak; Plubcharoensook, Pattra; Prasongsuk, Sehanat

2016-06-01

Postharvest herbal product contamination with mycotoxins and mycotoxin-producing fungi represents a potentially carcinogenic hazard. Aspergillus flavus is a major cause of this issue. Available mold detection methods are PCR-based and rely heavily on laboratories; thus, they are unsuitable for on-site monitoring. In this study, a bendable, paper-based lab-on-a-chip platform was developed to rapidly detect toxigenic Aspergillus spp. DNA. The 3.0-4.0 cm(2) chip is fabricated using Whatman™ filter paper, fishing line and a simple plastic lamination process and has nucleic acid amplification and signal detection components. The Aspergillus assay specifically amplifies the aflatoxin biosynthesis gene, aflR, using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP); hybridization between target DNA and probes on blue silvernanoplates (AgNPls) yields colorimetric results. Positive results are indicated by the detection pad appearing blue due to dispersed blue AgNPls; negative results are indicated by the detection pad appearing colorless or pale yellow due to probe/target DNA hybridization and AgNPls aggregation. Assay completion requires less than 40 min, has a limit of detection (LOD) of 100 aflR copies, and has high specificity (94.47%)and sensitivity (100%). Contamination was identified in 14 of 32 herbal samples tested (43.75%). This work demonstrates the fabrication of a simple, low-cost, paper-based lab-on-a-chip platform suitable for rapid-detection applications. Copyright © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

High-speed separation and characterization of major constituents in Radix Paeoniae Rubra by fast high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detection and time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Liu, E-Hu; Qi, Lian-Wen; Li, Bin; Peng, Yong-Bo; Li, Ping; Li, Chang-Yin; Cao, Jun

2009-01-01

A fast high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method coupled with diode-array detection (DAD) and electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOFMS) has been developed for rapid separation and sensitive identification of major constituents in Radix Paeoniae Rubra (RPR). The total analysis time on a short column packed with 1.8-microm porous particles was about 20 min without a loss in resolution, six times faster than the performance of a conventional column analysis (115 min). The MS fragmentation behavior and structural characterization of major compounds in RPR were investigated here for the first time. The targets were rapidly screened from RPR matrix using a narrow mass window of 0.01 Da to restructure extracted ion chromatograms. Accurate mass measurements (less than 5 ppm error) for both the deprotonated molecule and characteristic fragment ions represent reliable identification criteria for these compounds in complex matrices with similar if not even better performance compared with tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 26 components were screened and identified in RPR including 11 monoterpene glycosides, 11 galloyl glucoses and 4 other phenolic compounds. From the point of time savings, resolving power, accurate mass measurement capability and full spectral sensitivity, the established fast HPLC/DAD/TOFMS method turns out to be a highly useful technique to identify constituents in complex herbal medicines. (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fixed Pattern Noise pixel-wise linear correction for crime scene imaging CMOS sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jie; Messinger, David W.; Dube, Roger R.; Ientilucci, Emmett J.

2017-05-01

Filtered multispectral imaging technique might be a potential method for crime scene documentation and evidence detection due to its abundant spectral information as well as non-contact and non-destructive nature. Low-cost and portable multispectral crime scene imaging device would be highly useful and efficient. The second generation crime scene imaging system uses CMOS imaging sensor to capture spatial scene and bandpass Interference Filters (IFs) to capture spectral information. Unfortunately CMOS sensors suffer from severe spatial non-uniformity compared to CCD sensors and the major cause is Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN). IFs suffer from "blue shift" effect and introduce spatial-spectral correlated errors. Therefore, Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) correction is critical to enhance crime scene image quality and is also helpful for spatial-spectral noise de-correlation. In this paper, a pixel-wise linear radiance to Digital Count (DC) conversion model is constructed for crime scene imaging CMOS sensor. Pixel-wise conversion gain Gi,j and Dark Signal Non-Uniformity (DSNU) Zi,j are calculated. Also, conversion gain is divided into four components: FPN row component, FPN column component, defects component and effective photo response signal component. Conversion gain is then corrected to average FPN column and row components and defects component so that the sensor conversion gain is uniform. Based on corrected conversion gain and estimated image incident radiance from the reverse of pixel-wise linear radiance to DC model, corrected image spatial uniformity can be enhanced to 7 times as raw image, and the bigger the image DC value within its dynamic range, the better the enhancement.

[Content determination of twelve major components in Tibetan medicine Zuozhu Daxi by UPLC].

PubMed

Qu, Yan; Li, Jin-hua; Zhang, Chen; Li, Chun-xue; Dong, Hong-jiao; Wang, Chang-sheng; Zeng, Rui; Chen, Xiao-hu

2015-05-01

A quantitative analytical method of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was developed for simultaneously determining twelve components in Tibetan medicine Zuozhu Daxi. SIMPCA 12.0 software was used a principal component analysis PCA) and partial small squares analysis (PLSD-DA) on the twelve components in 10 batches from four pharmaceutical factories. Acquity UPLC BEH C15 column (2.1 mm x 100 mm, 1.7 µm) was adopted at the column temperature of 35 °C and eluted with acetonitrile (A) -0.05% phosphate acid solution (B) as the mobile phase with a flow rate of 0. 3 mL · min(-1). The injection volume was 1 µL. The detection wavelengths were set at 210 nm for alantolactone, isoalantolactone and oleanolic; 260 nm for trychnine and brucine; 288 nm for protopine; 306 nm for protopine, resveratrol and piperine; 370 nm for quercetin and isorhamnetin. The results showed a good separation among index components, with a good linearity relationship (R2 = 0.999 6) within the selected concentration range. The average sample recovery rates ranged between 99.44%-101.8%, with RSD between 0.37%-1.7%, indicating the method is rapid and accurate with a good repeatability and stability. The PCA and PLSD-DA analysis on the sample determination results revealed a great difference among samples from different pharmaceutical factories. The twelve components included in this study contributed significantly to the quantitative determination of intrinsic quality of Zuozhu Daxi. The UPLC established for to the quantitative determination of the twelve components can provide scientific basis for the comprehensive quality evaluation of Zuozhu Daxi.

[Study on high accuracy detection of multi-component gas in oil-immerse power transformer].

PubMed

Fan, Jie; Chen, Xiao; Huang, Qi-Feng; Zhou, Yu; Chen, Gang

2013-12-01

In order to solve the problem of low accuracy and mutual interference in multi-component gas detection, a kind of multi-component gas detection network with high accuracy was designed. A semiconductor laser with narrow bandwidth was utilized as light source and a novel long-path gas cell was also used in this system. By taking the single sine signal to modulate the spectrum of laser and using space division multiplexing (SDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM) technique, the detection of multi-component gas was achieved. The experiments indicate that the linearity relevance coefficient is 0. 99 and the measurement relative error is less than 4%. The system dynamic response time is less than 15 s, by filling a volume of multi-component gas into the gas cell gradually. The system has advantages of high accuracy and quick response, which can be used in the fault gas on-line monitoring for power transformers in real time.

Door detection in images based on learning by components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cicirelli, Grazia; D'Orazio, Tiziana; Ancona, Nicola

2001-10-01

In this paper we present a vision-based technique for detecting targets of the environment which has to be reached by an autonomous mobile robot during its navigational task. The targets the robot has to reach are the doors of our office building. Color and shape information are used as identifying features for detecting principal components of the door. In fact in images the door can appear of different dimensions depending on the attitude of the robot with respect to the door, therefore detection of the door is performed by detecting its most significant components in the image. Positive and negative examples, in form of image patterns, are manually selected from real images for training two neural classifiers in order to recognize the single components. Each classifier has been realized by a feed-forward neural network with one hidden layer and sigmoid activation function. Moreover for selecting negative examples, relevant for the problem at hand, a bootstrap technique has been used during the training process. Finally the detecting system has been applied to several test real images for evaluating its performance.

Method and apparatus for monitoring characteristics of a flow path having solid components flowing therethrough

DOEpatents

Hoskinson, Reed L [Rigby, ID; Svoboda, John M [Idaho Falls, ID; Bauer, William F [Idaho Falls, ID; Elias, Gracy [Idaho Falls, ID

2008-05-06

A method and apparatus is provided for monitoring a flow path having plurality of different solid components flowing therethrough. For example, in the harvesting of a plant material, many factors surrounding the threshing, separating or cleaning of the plant material and may lead to the inadvertent inclusion of the component being selectively harvested with residual plant materials being discharged or otherwise processed. In accordance with the present invention the detection of the selectively harvested component within residual materials may include the monitoring of a flow path of such residual materials by, for example, directing an excitation signal toward of flow path of material and then detecting a signal initiated by the presence of the selectively harvested component responsive to the excitation signal. The detected signal may be used to determine the presence or absence of a selected plant component within the flow path of residual materials.

Occurrence of pesticides in shallow groundwater of the United States: initial results from the National Water-Quality Assessment program

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kolpin, Dana W.; Barbash, Jack E.; Gilliom, Robert J.

1998-01-01

The first phase of intensive data collection for the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) was completed during 1993−1995 in 20 major hydrologic basins of the United States. Groundwater land-use studies, designed to sample recently recharged groundwater (generally within 10 years) beneath specific land-use and hydrogeologic settings, are a major component of the groundwater quality as sessment for NAWQA. Pesticide results from the 41 land-use studies conducted during 1993−1995 indicate that pesticides were commonly detected in shallow groundwater, having been found at 54.4% of the 1034 sites sampled in agricultural and urban settings across the United States. Pesticide concentrations were generally low, with over 95% of the detections at concentrations less than 1 μg/L. Of the 46 pesticide compounds examined, 39 were detected. The compounds detected most frequently were atrazine (38.2%), deethylatrazine (34.2%), simazine (18.0%), metolachlor (14.6%), and prometon (13.9%). Statistically significant relations were observed between frequencies of detection and the use, mobility, and persistence of these compounds. Pesticides were commonly detected in both agricultural (56.4%; 813 sites) and urban (46.6%; 221 sites) settings. Frequent detections of pesticides in urban areas indicate that, as is the case with agricultural pesticide use in agricultural areas, urban and suburban pesticide use significantly contribute to pesticide occurrence in shallow groundwater. Although pesticides were detected in groundwater sampled in urban areas and all nine of the agricultural land-use categories examined, significant variations in occurrence were observed among these categories. Maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water were exceeded for only one pesticide (atrazine, 3 μg/L) at a single location. However, MCLs have been established for only 25 of the 46 pesticide compounds examined, do not cover pesticide degradates, and, at present, do not take into account additive or synergistic effects of combinations of pesticide compounds or potential effects on nearby aquatic ecosystems.

Sex pheromone component ratios and mating isolation among three Lygus plant bug species of North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byers, John A.; Fefer, Daniela; Levi-Zada, Anat

2013-12-01

The plant bugs Lygus hesperus, Lygus lineolaris, and Lygus elisus (Hemiptera: Miridae) are major pests of many agricultural crops in North America. Previous studies suggested that females release a sex pheromone attractive to males. Other studies showed that males and females contain microgram amounts of ( E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal, hexyl butyrate, and ( E)-2-hexenyl butyrate that are emitted as a defense against predators. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we found that female L. lineolaris and L. elisus have a 4:10 ratio of hexyl butyrate to ( E)-2-hexenyl butyrate that is reversed from the 10:1 ratio in female L. hesperus (males of the three species have ~10:1 ratio). These reversed ratios among females of the species suggest a behavioral role. Because both sexes have nearly equal amounts of the major volatiles, females should release more to attract males. This expectation was supported because L. hesperus females released more hexyl butyrate (mean of 86 ng/h) during the night (1800-0700 hours) than did males (<1 ng/h). We used slow-rotating pairs of traps to test the attraction of species to blends of the volatiles with a subtractive method to detect synergism. Each species' major butyrate ester was released at 3 μg/h, the minor butyrate according to its ratio, and ( E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal at 2 μg/h. The resulting catches of only Lygus males suggest that ( E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal is an essential sex pheromone component for all three species, ( E)-2-hexenyl butyrate is essential for L. elisus and L. lineolaris, and hexyl butyrate is essential for L. hesperus. However, all three components are recognized by each species since ratios of the butyrate esters are critical for conspecific attraction and heterospecific avoidance by males and thus play a role in reproductive isolation among the three species. Because L. hesperus males and females are known to emit these major volatiles for repelling ant predators, our study links defensive allomones in Lygus bugs with an additional use as sex pheromones.

Method of detecting system function by measuring frequency response

DOEpatents

Morrison, John L.; Morrison, William H.

2008-07-01

Real time battery impedance spectrum is acquired using one time record, Compensated Synchronous Detection (CSD). This parallel method enables battery diagnostics. The excitation current to a test battery is a sum of equal amplitude sin waves of a few frequencies spread over range of interest. The time profile of this signal has duration that is a few periods of the lowest frequency. The voltage response of the battery, average deleted, is the impedance of the battery in the time domain. Since the excitation frequencies are known, synchronous detection processes the time record and each component, both magnitude and phase, is obtained. For compensation, the components, except the one of interest, are reassembled in the time domain. The resulting signal is subtracted from the original signal and the component of interest is synchronously detected. This process is repeated for each component.

Method of Detecting System Function by Measuring Frequency Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morrison, John L. (Inventor); Morrison, William H. (Inventor)

2008-01-01

Real time battery impedance spectrum is acquired using one time record, Compensated Synchronous Detection (CSD). This parallel method enables battery diagnostics. The excitation current to a test battery is a sum of equal amplitude sin waves of a few frequencies spread over range of interest. The time profile of this signal has duration that is a few periods of the lowest frequency. The voltage response of the battery, average deleted, is the impedance of the battery in the time domain. Since the excitation frequencies are known, synchronous detection processes the time record and each component, both magnitude and phase, is obtained. For compensation, the components, except the one of interest, are reassembled in the time domain. The resulting signal is subtracted from the original signal and the component of interest is synchronously detected. This process is repeated for each component.

Distribution of Dengue Virus Types 1 and 4 in Blood Components from Infected Blood Donors from Puerto Rico

PubMed Central

Añez, Germán; Heisey, Daniel A. R.; Chancey, Caren; Fares, Rafaelle C. G.; Espina, Luz M.; Souza, Kátia P. R.; Teixeira-Carvalho, Andréa; Krysztof, David E.; Foster, Gregory A.; Stramer, Susan L.; Rios, Maria

2016-01-01

Background Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the four dengue viruses (DENV-1 to 4) that can also be transmitted by blood transfusion and organ transplantation. The distribution of DENV in the components of blood from infected donors is poorly understood. Methods We used an in-house TaqMan qRT-PCR assay to test residual samples of plasma, cellular components of whole blood (CCWB), serum and clot specimens from the same collection from blood donors who were DENV-RNA-reactive in a parallel blood safety study. To assess whether DENV RNA detected by TaqMan was associated with infectious virus, DENV infectivity in available samples was determined by culture in mosquito cells. Results DENV RNA was detected by TaqMan in all tested blood components, albeit more consistently in the cellular components; 78.8% of CCWB, 73.3% of clots, 86.7% of sera and 41.8% of plasma samples. DENV-1 was detected in 48 plasma and 97 CCWB samples while DENV-4 was detected in 21 plasma and 31 CCWB samples. In mosquito cell cultures, 29/111 (26.1%) plasma and 32/97 (32.7%) CCWB samples were infectious. A subset of samples from 29 donors was separately analyzed to compare DENV viral loads in the available blood components. DENV viral loads did not differ significantly between components and ranged from 3–8 log10 PCR-detectable units/ml. Conclusions DENV was present in all tested components from most donors, and viral RNA was not preferentially distributed in any of the tested components. Infectious DENV was also present in similar proportions in cultured plasma, clot and CCWB samples, indicating that these components may serve as a resource when sample sizes are limited. However, these results suggest that the sensitivity of the nucleic acid tests (NAT) for these viruses would not be improved by testing whole blood or components other than plasma. PMID:26871560

Distribution of Dengue Virus Types 1 and 4 in Blood Components from Infected Blood Donors from Puerto Rico

DOE PAGES

Anez, German; Heisey, Daniel A. R.; Chancey, Caren; ...

2016-02-12

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the four dengue viruses (DENV-1 to 4) that can also be transmitted by blood transfusion and organ transplantation. The distribution of DENV in the components of blood from infected donors is poorly understood. Here, we used an in-house TaqMan qRT-PCR assay to test residual samples of plasma, cellular components of whole blood (CCWB), serum and clot specimens from the same collection from blood donors who were DENV-RNA-reactive in a parallel blood safety study. To assess whether DENV RNA detected by TaqMan was associated with infectious virus, DENV infectivity in available samples wasmore » determined by culture in mosquito cells. As a result, DENV RNA was detected by TaqMan in all tested blood components, albeit more consistently in the cellular components; 78.8% of CCWB, 73.3% of clots, 86.7% of sera and 41.8% of plasma samples. DENV-1 was detected in 48 plasma and 97 CCWB samples while DENV-4 was detected in 21 plasma and 31 CCWB samples. In mosquito cell cultures, 29/111 (26.1%) plasma and 32/97 (32.7%) CCWB samples were infectious. A subset of samples from 29 donors was separately analyzed to compare DENV viral loads in the available blood components. DENV viral loads did not differ significantly between components and ranged from 3–8 log 10 PCR-detectable units/ml. In conclusion, DENV was present in all tested components from most donors, and viral RNA was not preferentially distributed in any of the tested components. Infectious DENV was also present in similar proportions in cultured plasma, clot and CCWB samples, indicating that these components may serve as a resource when sample sizes are limited. However, these results suggest that the sensitivity of the nucleic acid tests (NAT) for these viruses would not be improved by testing whole blood or components other than plasma.« less

Possible role of cochlear nonlinearity in the detection of mistuning of a harmonic component in a harmonic complex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoelinga, Christophe; Heo, Inseok; Long, Glenis; Lee, Jungmee; Lutfi, Robert; Chang, An-Chieh

2015-12-01

The human auditory system has a remarkable ability to "hear out" a wanted sound (target) in the background of unwanted sounds. One important property of sound which helps us hear-out the target is inharmonicity. When a single harmonic component of a harmonic complex is slightly mistuned, that component is heard to separate from the rest. At high harmonic numbers, where components are unresolved, the harmonic segregation effect is thought to result from detection of modulation of the time envelope (roughness cue) resulting from the mistuning. Neurophysiological research provides evidence that such envelope modulations are represented early in the auditory system, at the level of the auditory nerve. When the mistuned harmonic is a low harmonic, where components are resolved, the harmonic segregation is attributed to more centrally-located auditory processes, leading harmonic components to form a perceptual group heard separately from the mistuned component. Here we consider an alternative explanation that attributes the harmonic segregation to detection of modulation when both high and low harmonic numbers are mistuned. Specifically, we evaluate the possibility that distortion products in the cochlea generated by the mistuned component introduce detectable beating patterns for both high and low harmonic numbers. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured using 3, 7, or 12-tone harmonic complexes with a fundamental frequency (F0) of 200 or 400 Hz. One of two harmonic components was mistuned at each F0: one when harmonics are expected to be resulted and the other from unresolved harmonics. Many non-harmonic DPOAEs are present whenever a harmonic component is mistuned. These non-harmonic DPOAEs are often separated by the amount of the mistuning (ΔF). This small frequency difference will generate a slow beating pattern at ΔF, because this beating is only present when a harmonic component is mistuned, it could provide a cue for behavioral detection of harmonic complex mistuning and may also be associated with the modulation of auditory nerve responses.

Distribution of Dengue Virus Types 1 and 4 in Blood Components from Infected Blood Donors from Puerto Rico

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

Anez, German; Heisey, Daniel A. R.; Chancey, Caren

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the four dengue viruses (DENV-1 to 4) that can also be transmitted by blood transfusion and organ transplantation. The distribution of DENV in the components of blood from infected donors is poorly understood. Here, we used an in-house TaqMan qRT-PCR assay to test residual samples of plasma, cellular components of whole blood (CCWB), serum and clot specimens from the same collection from blood donors who were DENV-RNA-reactive in a parallel blood safety study. To assess whether DENV RNA detected by TaqMan was associated with infectious virus, DENV infectivity in available samples wasmore » determined by culture in mosquito cells. As a result, DENV RNA was detected by TaqMan in all tested blood components, albeit more consistently in the cellular components; 78.8% of CCWB, 73.3% of clots, 86.7% of sera and 41.8% of plasma samples. DENV-1 was detected in 48 plasma and 97 CCWB samples while DENV-4 was detected in 21 plasma and 31 CCWB samples. In mosquito cell cultures, 29/111 (26.1%) plasma and 32/97 (32.7%) CCWB samples were infectious. A subset of samples from 29 donors was separately analyzed to compare DENV viral loads in the available blood components. DENV viral loads did not differ significantly between components and ranged from 3–8 log 10 PCR-detectable units/ml. In conclusion, DENV was present in all tested components from most donors, and viral RNA was not preferentially distributed in any of the tested components. Infectious DENV was also present in similar proportions in cultured plasma, clot and CCWB samples, indicating that these components may serve as a resource when sample sizes are limited. However, these results suggest that the sensitivity of the nucleic acid tests (NAT) for these viruses would not be improved by testing whole blood or components other than plasma.« less

Intelligibility for Binaural Speech with Discarded Low-SNR Speech Components.

PubMed

Schoenmaker, Esther; van de Par, Steven

2016-01-01

Speech intelligibility in multitalker settings improves when the target speaker is spatially separated from the interfering speakers. A factor that may contribute to this improvement is the improved detectability of target-speech components due to binaural interaction in analogy to the Binaural Masking Level Difference (BMLD). This would allow listeners to hear target speech components within specific time-frequency intervals that have a negative SNR, similar to the improvement in the detectability of a tone in noise when these contain disparate interaural difference cues. To investigate whether these negative-SNR target-speech components indeed contribute to speech intelligibility, a stimulus manipulation was performed where all target components were removed when local SNRs were smaller than a certain criterion value. It can be expected that for sufficiently high criterion values target speech components will be removed that do contribute to speech intelligibility. For spatially separated speakers, assuming that a BMLD-like detection advantage contributes to intelligibility, degradation in intelligibility is expected already at criterion values below 0 dB SNR. However, for collocated speakers it is expected that higher criterion values can be applied without impairing speech intelligibility. Results show that degradation of intelligibility for separated speakers is only seen for criterion values of 0 dB and above, indicating a negligible contribution of a BMLD-like detection advantage in multitalker settings. These results show that the spatial benefit is related to a spatial separation of speech components at positive local SNRs rather than to a BMLD-like detection improvement for speech components at negative local SNRs.

Two-lattice models of trace element behavior: A response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellison, Adam J. G.; Hess, Paul C.

1990-08-01

Two-lattice melt components of Bottinga and Weill (1972), Nielsen and Drake (1979), and Nielsen (1985) are applied to major and trace element partitioning between coexisting immiscible liquids studied by RYERSON and Hess (1978) and Watson (1976). The results show that (1) the set of components most successful in one system is not necessarily portable to another system; (2) solution non-ideality within a sublattice severely limits applicability of two-lattice models; (3) rigorous application of two-lattice melt components may yield effective partition coefficients for major element components with no physical interpretation; and (4) the distinction between network-forming and network-modifying components in the sense of the two-lattice models is not clear cut. The algebraic description of two-lattice models is such that they will most successfully limit the compositional dependence of major and trace element solution behavior when the effective partition coefficient of the component of interest is essentially the same as the bulk partition coefficient of all other components within its sublattice.

Multivariate classification of edible salts: Simultaneous Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Yonghoon; Nam, Sang-Ho; Ham, Kyung-Sik; Gonzalez, Jhanis; Oropeza, Dayana; Quarles, Derrick; Yoo, Jonghyun; Russo, Richard E.

2016-04-01

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), both based on laser ablation sampling, can be employed simultaneously to obtain different chemical fingerprints from a sample. We demonstrated that this analysis approach can provide complementary information for improved classification of edible salts. LIBS could detect several of the minor metallic elements along with Na and Cl, while LA-ICP-MS spectra were used to measure non-metallic and trace heavy metal elements. Principal component analysis using LIBS and LA-ICP-MS spectra showed that their major spectral variations classified the sample salts in different ways. Three classification models were developed by using partial least squares-discriminant analysis based on the LIBS, LA-ICP-MS, and their fused data. From the cross-validation performances and confusion matrices of these models, the minor metallic elements (Mg, Ca, and K) detected by LIBS and the non-metallic (I) and trace heavy metal (Ba, W, and Pb) elements detected by LA-ICP-MS provided complementary chemical information to distinguish particular salt samples.

Residual bovine serum albumin (BSA) quantitation in vaccines using automated Capillary Western technology.

PubMed

Loughney, John W; Lancaster, Catherine; Ha, Sha; Rustandi, Richard R

2014-09-15

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) is a major component of fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is commonly used as a culture medium during vaccine production. Because BSA can cause allergic reactions in humans the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a guidance of 50 ng or less residual BSA per vaccine dose. Vaccine manufacturers are expected to develop sensitive assays to detect residual BSA. Generally, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are used in the industry to detect these low levels of BSA. We report the development of a new improved method for residual BSA detection using the SimpleWestern technology to analyze residual BSA in an attenuated virus vaccine. The method is based on automated Capillary Western and has linearity of two logs, >80% spike recovery (accuracy), intermediate precision of CV <15%, and LOQ of 5.2 ng/ml. The final method was applied to analyze BSA in four lots of bulk vaccine products and was used to monitor BSA clearance during vaccine process purification. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High-throughput alternative splicing detection using dually constrained correspondence analysis (DCCA).

PubMed

Baty, Florent; Klingbiel, Dirk; Zappa, Francesco; Brutsche, Martin

2015-12-01

Alternative splicing is an important component of tumorigenesis. Recent advent of exon array technology enables the detection of alternative splicing at a genome-wide scale. The analysis of high-throughput alternative splicing is not yet standard and methodological developments are still needed. We propose a novel statistical approach-Dually Constrained Correspondence Analysis-for the detection of splicing changes in exon array data. Using this methodology, we investigated the genome-wide alteration of alternative splicing in patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated by bevacizumab/erlotinib. Splicing candidates reveal a series of genes related to carcinogenesis (SFTPB), cell adhesion (STAB2, PCDH15, HABP2), tumor aggressiveness (ARNTL2), apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation (PDE4D, FLT3, IL1R2), cell invasion (ETV1), as well as tumor growth (OLFM4, FGF14), tumor necrosis (AFF3) or tumor suppression (TUSC3, CSMD1, RHOBTB2, SERPINB5), with indication of known alternative splicing in a majority of genes. DCCA facilitates the identification of putative biologically relevant alternative splicing events in high-throughput exon array data. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Highly Sensitive Quantitative PCR for the Detection and Differentiation of Pseudogymnoascus destructans and Other Pseudogymnoascus Species

PubMed Central

Shuey, Megan M.; Drees, Kevin P.; Lindner, Daniel L.; Keim, Paul

2014-01-01

White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations across eastern North America. Identification of the etiologic agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (formerly Geomyces destructans), in environmental samples is essential to proposed management plans. A major challenge is the presence of closely related species, which are ubiquitous in many soils and cave sediments and often present in high abundance. We present a dual-probe real-time quantitative PCR assay capable of detecting and differentiating P. destructans from closely related fungi in environmental samples from North America. The assay, based on a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) specific to P. destructans, is capable of rapid low-level detection from various sampling media, including sediment, fecal samples, wing biopsy specimens, and skin swabs. This method is a highly sensitive, high-throughput method for identifying P. destructans, other Pseudogymnoascus spp., and Geomyces spp. in the environment, providing a fundamental component of research and risk assessment for addressing this disease, as well as other ecological and mycological work on related fungi. PMID:24375140

Automatic detection of unattended changes in room acoustics.

PubMed

Frey, Johannes Daniel; Wendt, Mike; Jacobsen, Thomas

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that the human auditory system continuously monitors its acoustic environment, detecting a variety of irregularities (e.g., deviance from prior stimulation regularity in pitch, loudness, duration, and (perceived) sound source location). Detection of irregularities can be inferred from a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), referred to as the mismatch negativity (MMN), even in conditions in which participants are instructed to ignore the auditory stimulation. The current study extends previous findings by demonstrating that auditory irregularities brought about by a change in room acoustics elicit a MMN in a passive oddball protocol (acoustic stimuli with differing room acoustics, that were otherwise identical, were employed as standard and deviant stimuli), in which participants watched a fiction movie (silent with subtitles). While the majority of participants reported no awareness for any changes in the auditory stimulation, only one out of 14 participants reported to have become aware of changing room acoustics or sound source location. Together, these findings suggest automatic monitoring of room acoustics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning to smell: repeated exposure increases sensitivity to androstenone, a major component of boar taint.

PubMed

Mörlein, Daniel; Meier-Dinkel, Lisa; Moritz, Jasmin; Sharifi, Ahmad Reza; Knorr, Christoph

2013-08-01

This study aimed to assess whether repeated exposure affects subjects' ability to detect androstenone. Olfactory acuity of 77 female and 44 male subjects (age 37.5 ± 11.7 years) was assessed three times during six weeks. Replicate triangle tests using various dilutions of androstenone (0.5, 5.0, and 50.0 μg/g) on filter paper smell strips were applied. Subjects were either assigned to a test group (TRAIN) using androstenone for daily training, or to a control group (CONTR) using a placebo. For the low, the intermediate, and the high level of androstenone presented, detection rate increased from 14.1 to 30.6%, 40.5 to 62.8%, and 65.3 to 78.5% respectively within 6 weeks from the initial assessment. Results suggest that mere exposure during repeated olfactory testing increased subjects' ability to correctly discriminate androstenone. The olfactory improvement was, however, more pronounced in the TRAIN group. Androstenone detection appears to be associated with its individual appreciation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Watching the Games: public health surveillance for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

PubMed Central

Jorm, L; Thackway, S; Churches, T; Hills, M

2003-01-01

Design: Planning for the system took almost three years. Its major components included increased surveillance of communicable diseases; presentations to sentinel emergency departments; medical encounters at Olympic venues; cruise ship surveillance; environmental and food safety inspections; surveillance for bioterrorism; and global epidemic intelligence. A daily report integrated data from all sources. Setting: Sydney, Australia. Surveillance spanned the period 28 August to 4 October 2000. Participants: Residents of Sydney, athletes and officials, Australian and international visitors. Main results: No outbreaks of communicable diseases were detected. There were around 5% more presentations to Sydney emergency departments than in comparable periods in other years. Several incidents detected through surveillance, including injuries caused by broken glass, and a cluster of presentations related to the use of the drug ecstasy, prompted further action. Conclusions: Key elements in the success of public health surveillance for the Games included its careful planning, its comprehensive coverage of public health issues, and its timely reporting and communication processes. Future systems need to be flexible enough to detect the unexpected. PMID:12540684

Detection and classification of concealed weapons using a magnetometer-based portal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotter, Dale K.; Roybal, Lyle G.; Polk, Robert E.

2002-08-01

A concealed weapons detection technology was developed through the support of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to provide a non intrusive means for rapid detection, location, and archiving of data (including visual) of potential suspects and weapon threats. This technology, developed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), has been applied in a portal style weapons detection system using passive magnetic sensors as its basis. This paper will report on enhancements to the weapon detection system to enable weapon classification and to discriminate threats from non-threats. Advanced signal processing algorithms were used to analyze the magnetic spectrum generated when a person passes through a portal. These algorithms analyzed multiple variables including variance in the magnetic signature from random weapon placement and/or orientation. They perform pattern recognition and calculate the probability that the collected magnetic signature correlates to a known database of weapon versus non-weapon responses. Neural networks were used to further discriminate weapon type and identify controlled electronic items such as cell phones and pagers. False alarms were further reduced by analyzing the magnetic detector response by using a Joint Time Frequency Analysis digital signal processing technique. The frequency components and power spectrum for a given sensor response were derived. This unique fingerprint provided additional information to aid in signal analysis. This technology has the potential to produce major improvements in weapon detection and classification.

Does Haplodiploidy Purge Inbreeding Depression in Rotifer Populations?

PubMed Central

Tortajada, Ana M.; Carmona, María José; Serra, Manuel

2009-01-01

Background Inbreeding depression is an important evolutionary factor, particularly when new habitats are colonized by few individuals. Then, inbreeding depression by drift could favour the establishment of later immigrants because their hybrid offspring would enjoy higher fitness. Rotifers are the only major zooplanktonic group where information on inbreeding depression is still critically scarce, despite the fact that in cyclical parthenogenetic rotifers males are haploid and could purge deleterious recessive alleles, thereby decreasing inbreeding depression. Methodology/Principal Findings We studied the effects of inbreeding in two populations of the cyclical parthenogenetic rotifer Brachionus plicatilis. For each population, we compared both the parental fertilization proportion and F1 fitness components from intraclonal (selfed) and interclonal (outcrossed) crosses. The parental fertilization proportion was similar for both types of crosses, suggesting that there is no mechanism to avoid selfing. In the F1 generation of both populations, we found evidence of inbreeding depression for the fitness components associated with asexual reproduction; whereas inbreeding depression was only found for one of the two sexual reproduction fitness components measured. Conclusions/Significance Our results show that rotifers, like other major zooplanktonic groups, can be affected by inbreeding depression in different stages of their life cycle. These results suggest that haplodiploidy does not purge efficiently deleterious recessive alleles. The inbreeding depression detected here has important implications when a rotifer population is founded and intraclonal crossing is likely to occur. Thus, during the foundation of new populations inbreeding depression may provide opportunities for new immigrants, increasing gene flow between populations, and affecting genetic differentiation. PMID:19997616

Chromatographic analysis with different detectors in the chemical characterisation and dereplication of African propolis.

PubMed

Zhang, Tong; Omar, Ruwida; Siheri, Weam; Al Mutairi, Sultan; Clements, Carol; Fearnley, James; Edrada-Ebel, RuAngelie; Watson, David

2014-03-01

Propolis or bee glue has very diverse composition and is potentially a source of biologically active compounds. Comprehensive chemical profiling was performed on 22 African propolis samples collected from the sub-Saharan region of Africa by using various hyphenated analytical techniques including Liquid Chromatography (LC)-UltraViolet Detection (UV)-Evaporative Light Scattering Detection (ELSD), LC-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS), Gas Chromatography (GC)-MS and LC-Diode Array Detector (DAD)-HRMS/MS. The diversity of the composition of these African propolis samples could be observed by heat mapping the LC-UV and ELSD data. The characteristic chemical components were uncovered by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the LC-HRMS data and a preliminary dereplication was carried out by searching their accurate masses in the Dictionary of Natural Products (DNP). A further identification was achieved by comparing their GC-MS or LC-DAD-HRMS/MS spectra with previously published data. Generally no clear geographic delineation was observed in the classification of these African propolis samples. Triterpenoids were found as the major chemical components in more than half of the propolis samples analysed in this study and some others were classified as temperate and Eastern Mediterranean type of propolis. Based on the comparative chemical profiling and dereplication studies one uncommon propolis from southern Nigeria stood out from others by presenting prenylated isoflavonoids, which indicated that it was more like Brazilian red propolis, and more significantly a high abundance of stilbenoid compounds which could be novel in propolis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry applied to the identification of valuable phenolic compounds from Eucalyptus wood.

PubMed

Santos, Sónia A O; Vilela, Carla; Freire, Carmen S R; Neto, Carlos Pascoal; Silvestre, Armando J D

2013-11-01

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) was applied for the first time in the analysis of wood extracts. The potential of this technique coupled to ion trap mass spectrometry in the rapid and effective detection and identification of bioactive components in complex vegetal samples was demonstrated. Several dozens of compounds were detected in less than 30min of analysis time, corresponding to more than 3-fold reduction in time, when compared to conventional HPLC analysis of similar extracts. The phenolic chemical composition of Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus urograndis (E. grandis×E. urophylla) and Eucalyptus maidenii wood extracts was assessed for the first time, with the identification of 51 phenolic compounds in the three wood extracts. Twenty of these compounds are reported for the first time as Eucalyptus genus components. Ellagic acid and ellagic acid-pentoside are the major components in all extracts, followed by gallic and quinic acids in E. grandis and E. urograndis and ellagic acid-pentoside isomer, isorhamnetin-hexoside and gallic acid in E. maidenii. The antioxidant scavenging activity of the extracts was evaluated, with E. grandis wood extract showing the lowest IC50 value. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of these extracts was higher than that of the commercial antioxidant BHT and of those of the corresponding bark extracts. These results, together with the phenolic content values, open good perspectives for the exploitation of these renewable resources as a source of valuable phenolic compounds. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Larvicidal effect of Eucalyptus grandis essential oil and turpentine and their major components on Aedes aegypti larvae.

PubMed

Lucia, Alejandro; Gonzalez Audino, Paola; Seccacini, Emilia; Licastro, Susana; Zerba, Eduardo; Masuh, Hector

2007-09-01

In the search for new alternatives for the control of Aedes aegypti the larvicidal activity of Eucalyptus grandis essential oil and pine resin essential oil (turpentine) and their major components (alpha- and beta-pinene and 1,8-cineole) was determined. Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy analysis of E. grandis essential oil revealed that its major components are alpha-pinene and 1,8-cineole. Similar analysis of turpentine obtained by distillation of the resin pitch of conifers showed that alpha- and beta-pinene are the only major components. Third and early 4th instars of the CIPEIN-susceptible strain of Ae. aegypti were exposed to acetonic solutions of E. grandis essential oil, turpentine, and their major components for 24 h. Turpentine, with an LC50 of 14.7 ppm, was more active than the essential oil of E. grandis (LC50: 32.4 ppm). Larvicidal activity of the essential oil components showed that alpha- and beta-pinene present low LC50 values (15.4 and 12.1 ppm, respectively), whereas pure 1,8-cineole showed an LC50 of 57.2 ppm. These results suggest that alpha-pinene in E. grandis and alpha- and beta-pinene in turpentine serve as the principal larvicidal components of both oils. Results obtained on larvicidal effects of essential oil of Eucalyptus grandis and turpentine could be considered a contribution to the search for new biodegradable larvicides of natural origin.

Determination and comparative analysis of major iridoids in different parts and cultivation sources of Morinda citrifolia.

PubMed

Deng, Shixin; West, Brett J; Palu, 'Afa K; Jensen, C Jarakae

2011-01-01

Noni is a medicinal plant with a long history of use as a folk remedy in many tropical areas, and is attracting more attention worldwide. A comprehensive study on the major phytochemicals in different plant parts (fruit, leaf, seed, root and flower) and sources is of great value for fully understanding their diverse medicinal benefits. To quantitatively determine the major iridoid components in different parts of noni plants, and compare iridoids in noni fruits collected from different tropical areas worldwide. The optimal chromatographic conditions were achieved on a C(18) column with gradient elution using 0.1% formic acid aqueous formic acid and acetonitrile at 235  nm. The selective HPLC method was validated for precision, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation and accuracy. Deacetylasperulosidic acid (DAA) was found to be the major iridoid in noni fruit. In order of predominance, DAA concentrations in different parts of the noni plant were dried noni fruit > fruit juice > seed > flower > leaf > root. The order of predominance for asperulosidic acid (AA) concentration was dried noni fruit > leaf > flower > root > fruit juice > seed. DAA and AA contents of methanolic extracts of noni fruits collected from different tropical regions were 13.8-42.9 and 0.7-8.9  mg/g, respectively, with French Polynesia containing the highest total iridoids and the Dominican Republic containing the lowest. Iridoids DAA and AA are found to be present in leaf, root, seed and flower of noni plants, and were identified as the major components in noni fruit. Given the great variation of iridoid contents in noni fruit grown in different tropical areas worldwide, geographical factors appear to have significant effects on fruit composition. The iridoids in noni fruit were stable at the temperatures used during pasteurisation and, therefore, may be useful marker compounds for identity and quality testing of commercial noni products. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phase partitioning and volatility of secondary organic aerosol components formed from α-pinene ozonolysis and OH oxidation: the importance of accretion products and other low volatility compounds

DOE PAGES

Lopez-Hilfiker, F. D.; Mohr, C.; Ehn, M.; ...

2015-07-16

We measured a large suite of gas- and particle-phase multi-functional organic compounds with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO) coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-CIMS) developed at the University of Washington. The instrument was deployed on environmental simulation chambers to study monoterpene oxidation as a secondary organic aerosol (SOA) source. We focus here on results from experiments utilizing an ionization method most selective towards acids (acetate negative ion proton transfer), but our conclusions are based on more general physical and chemical properties of the SOA. Hundreds of compounds were observed in both gas andmore » particle phases, the latter being detected by temperature-programmed thermal desorption of collected particles. Particulate organic compounds detected by the FIGAERO–HR-ToF-CIMS are highly correlated with, and explain at least 25–50 % of, the organic aerosol mass measured by an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). Reproducible multi-modal structures in the thermograms for individual compounds of a given elemental composition reveal a significant SOA mass contribution from high molecular weight organics and/or oligomers (i.e., multi-phase accretion reaction products). Approximately 50 % of the HR-ToF-CIMS particle-phase mass is associated with compounds having effective vapor pressures 4 or more orders of magnitude lower than commonly measured monoterpene oxidation products. The relative importance of these accretion-type and other extremely low volatility products appears to vary with photochemical conditions. We present a desorption-temperature-based framework for apportionment of thermogram signals into volatility bins. The volatility-based apportionment greatly improves agreement between measured and modeled gas-particle partitioning for select major and minor components of the SOA, consistent with thermal decomposition during desorption causing the conversion of lower volatility components into the detected higher volatility compounds.« less

The potential of three different PCR-related approaches for the authentication of mixtures of herbal substances and finished herbal medicinal products.

PubMed

Doganay-Knapp, Kirsten; Orland, Annika; König, Gabriele M; Knöss, Werner

2018-04-01

Herbal substances and preparations thereof play an important role in healthcare systems worldwide. Due to the variety of these products regarding origin, composition and processing procedures, appropriate methodologies for quality assessment need to be considered. A majority of herbal substances is administered as multicomponent mixtures, especially in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine and ayurvedic medicine, but also in finished medicinal products. Quality assessment of complex mixtures of herbal substances with conventional methods is challenging. Thus, emphasis of the present work was directed on the development of complementary methods to elucidate the composition of mixtures of herbal substances and finished herbal medicinal products. An indispensable prerequisite for the safe and effective use of herbal medicines is the unequivocal authentication of the medicinal plants used therein. In this context, we investigated the potential of three different PCR-related methods in the characterization and authentication of herbal substances. A multiplex PCR assay and a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay were established to analyze defined mixtures of the herbal substances Quercus cortex, Juglandis folium, Aristolochiae herba, Matricariae flos and Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma and a finished herbal medicinal product. Furthermore, a standard cloning approach using universal primers targeting the ITS region was established in order to allow the investigation of herbal mixtures with unknown content. The cloning approach had some limitations regarding the detection/recovery of the components in defined mixtures of herbal substances, but the complementary use of two sets of universal primer pairs increased the detection of components out of the mixture. While the multiplex PCR did not retrace all components in the defined mixtures of herbal substances, the established qPCR resulted in simultaneous and specific detection of the five target sequences in all defined mixtures. These data indicate that for authentication purposes, complementary PCR-related methods are highly recommendable for the analysis of herbal mixtures in parallel. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Phase partitioning and volatility of secondary organic aerosol components formed from α-pinene ozonolysis and OH oxidation: the importance of accretion products and other low volatility compounds

DOE PAGES

Lopez-Hilfiker, F. D.; Mohr, C.; Ehn, M.; ...

2015-02-18

We measured a large suite of gas and particle phase multi-functional organic compounds with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO) coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-CIMS) developed at the University of Washington. The instrument was deployed on environmental simulation chambers to study monoterpene oxidation as a secondary organic aerosol (SOA) source. We focus here on results from experiments utilizing an ionization method most selective towards acids (acetate negative ion proton transfer), but our conclusions are based on more general physical and chemical properties of the SOA. Hundreds of compounds were observed in both gasmore » and particle phases, the latter being detected upon temperature programmed thermal desorption of collected particles. Particulate organic compounds detected by the FIGAERO HR-ToF-CIMS are highly correlated with, and explain at least 25–50% of, the organic aerosol mass measured by an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS). Reproducible multi-modal structures in the thermograms for individual compounds of a given elemental composition reveal a significant SOA mass contribution from large molecular weight organics and/or oligomers (i.e. multi-phase accretion reaction products). Approximately 50% of the HR-ToF-CIMS particle phase mass is associated with compounds having effective vapor pressures 4 or more orders of magnitude lower than commonly measured monoterpene oxidation products. The relative importance of these accretion-type and other extremely low volatility products appears to vary with photochemical conditions. We present a desorption temperature based framework for apportionment of thermogram signals into volatility bins. The volatility-based apportionment greatly improves agreement between measured and modeled gas–particle partitioning for select major and minor components of the SOA, consistent with thermal decomposition during desorption causing the conversion of lower volatility components into the detected higher volatility compounds.« less

Seismic monitoring at Cascade Volcanic Centers, 2004?status and recommendations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moran, Seth C.

2004-01-01

The purpose of this report is to assess the current (May, 2004) status of seismic monitoring networks at the 13 major Cascade volcanic centers. Included in this assessment are descriptions of each network, analyses of the ability of each network to detect and to locate seismic activity, identification of specific weaknesses in each network, and a prioritized list of those networks that are most in need of additional seismic stations. At the outset it should be recognized that no Cascade volcanic center currently has an adequate seismic network relative to modern-day networks at Usu Volcano (Japan) or Etna and Stromboli volcanoes (Italy). For a system the size of Three Sisters, for example, a modern-day, cutting-edge seismic network would ideally consist of a minimum of 10 to 12 short-period three-component seismometers (for determining particle motions, reliable S-wave picks, moment tensor inversions, fault-plane solutions, and other important seismic parameters) and 7 to 10 broadband sensors (which, amongst other considerations, enable detection and location of very long period (VLP) and other low-frequency events, moment tensor inversions, and, because of their wide dynamic range, on-scale recording of large-amplitude events). Such a dense, multi component seismic network would give the ability to, for example, detect in near-real-time earthquake migrations over a distance of ~0.5km or less, locate tremor sources, determine the nature of a seismic source (that is, pure shear, implosive, explosive), provide on-scale recordings of very small and very large-amplitude seismic signals, and detect localized changes in seismic stress tensor orientations caused by movement of magma bodies. However, given that programmatic resources are currently limited, installation of such networks at this time is unrealistic. Instead, this report focuses on identifying what additional stations are needed to guarantee that anomalous seismicity associated with volcanic unrest will be detected in a timely manner and, in the case of magnitude = 1 earthquakes, reliably located.

Intra- and extracellular lipid composition and associated gene expression patterns during pollen development in Brassica napus.

PubMed

Piffanelli, P; Ross, J H; Murphy, D J

1997-03-01

Pollen development in angiosperms is regulated by the interaction of products contributed by both the gametophytic (haploid) and sporophytic (diploid) genomes. In entomophilous species, lipids are major products of both sporophytic and gametophytic metabolism during pollen development. Mature pollen grains of Brassica napus are shown to contain three major acyl lipid pools as follows: (i) the extracellular tryphine mainly consisting of medium-chain neutral esters; (ii) the intracellular membranes, particularly endoplasmic reticulum, mainly containing phospholipids; and (iii) the intracellular storage lipids, which are mostly triacylglycerols. This paper reports on the kinetics of accumulation of these lipid classes during pollen maturation and the expression patterns of several lipid biosynthetic genes and their protein products that are differentially regulated in developing microspores/ pollen grains (gametophyte) and tapetal cells (sporophyte) of B. napus. Detailed analysis of three members of the stearoyl-ACP desaturase (sad) gene family by Northern blotting, in situ hybridization and RT-PCR showed that the same individual genes were expressed both in gametophytic and sporophytic tissues, although under different temporal regulation. In the tapetum, maximal expression of two marker genes for lipid biosynthesis (sad and ear) occurred at a bud length of 2-3 mm, and the corresponding gene products SAD and EAR were detected by Western blotting in 3-4 mm buds, coinciding with the maximal rates of tapetal lipid accumulation. These lipids are released following tapetal cell disintegration and are relocated to form the major structural component of the extracellular tryphine layer that coats the mature pollen grain. In contrast, in developing microspores/pollen grains, maximal expression of the lipid marker genes sad, ear, acp and cyb5 was at the 3-5 mm bud stages, with the SAD and EAR gene products detected in 4-7 mm buds. This pattern of expression coincided with accumulation of the intracellular storage and membrane lipid components of pollen. These results suggest that, although the same genes may be expressed in the sporophytic tapetal cells and in gametophytic tissues, they are regulated differentially leading to the production of the various contrasting lipidic structures that are assembled together to give rise to a viable, fertile pollen grain.

A land cover change detection and classification protocol for updating Alaska NLCD 2001 to 2011

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jin, Suming; Yang, Limin; Zhu, Zhe; Homer, Collin G.

2017-01-01

Monitoring and mapping land cover changes are important ways to support evaluation of the status and transition of ecosystems. The Alaska National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 was the first 30-m resolution baseline land cover product of the entire state derived from circa 2001 Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary data. We developed a comprehensive approach named AKUP11 to update Alaska NLCD from 2001 to 2011 and provide a 10-year cyclical update of the state's land cover and land cover changes. Our method is designed to characterize the main land cover changes associated with different drivers, including the conversion of forests to shrub and grassland primarily as a result of wildland fire and forest harvest, the vegetation successional processes after disturbance, and changes of surface water extent and glacier ice/snow associated with weather and climate changes. For natural vegetated areas, a component named AKUP11-VEG was developed for updating the land cover that involves four major steps: 1) identify the disturbed and successional areas using Landsat images and ancillary datasets; 2) update the land cover status for these areas using a SKILL model (System of Knowledge-based Integrated-trajectory Land cover Labeling); 3) perform decision tree classification; and 4) develop a final land cover and land cover change product through the postprocessing modeling. For water and ice/snow areas, another component named AKUP11-WIS was developed for initial land cover change detection, removal of the terrain shadow effects, and exclusion of ephemeral snow changes using a 3-year MODIS snow extent dataset from 2010 to 2012. The overall approach was tested in three pilot study areas in Alaska, with each area consisting of four Landsat image footprints. The results from the pilot study show that the overall accuracy in detecting change and no-change is 90% and the overall accuracy of the updated land cover label for 2011 is 86%. The method provided a robust, consistent, and efficient means for capturing major disturbance events and updating land cover for Alaska. The method has subsequently been applied to generate the land cover and land cover change products for the entire state of Alaska.

A Unified Nonlinear Adaptive Approach for Detection and Isolation of Engine Faults

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tang, Liang; DeCastro, Jonathan A.; Zhang, Xiaodong; Farfan-Ramos, Luis; Simon, Donald L.

2010-01-01

A challenging problem in aircraft engine health management (EHM) system development is to detect and isolate faults in system components (i.e., compressor, turbine), actuators, and sensors. Existing nonlinear EHM methods often deal with component faults, actuator faults, and sensor faults separately, which may potentially lead to incorrect diagnostic decisions and unnecessary maintenance. Therefore, it would be ideal to address sensor faults, actuator faults, and component faults under one unified framework. This paper presents a systematic and unified nonlinear adaptive framework for detecting and isolating sensor faults, actuator faults, and component faults for aircraft engines. The fault detection and isolation (FDI) architecture consists of a parallel bank of nonlinear adaptive estimators. Adaptive thresholds are appropriately designed such that, in the presence of a particular fault, all components of the residual generated by the adaptive estimator corresponding to the actual fault type remain below their thresholds. If the faults are sufficiently different, then at least one component of the residual generated by each remaining adaptive estimator should exceed its threshold. Therefore, based on the specific response of the residuals, sensor faults, actuator faults, and component faults can be isolated. The effectiveness of the approach was evaluated using the NASA C-MAPSS turbofan engine model, and simulation results are presented.

Bacterial contamination of platelet components not detected by BacT/ALERT®.

PubMed

Abela, M A; Fenning, S; Maguire, K A; Morris, K G

2018-02-01

To investigate the possible causes for false negative results in BacT/ALERT ® 3D Signature System despite bacterial contamination of platelet units. The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) routinely extends platelet component shelf life to 7 days. Components are sampled and screened for bacterial contamination using an automated microbial detection system, the BacT/ALERT ® 3D Signature System. We report on three platelet components with confirmed bacterial contamination, which represent false negative BacT/ALERT ® results and near-miss serious adverse events. NIBTS protocols for risk reduction of bacterial contamination of platelet components are described. The methodology for bacterial detection using BacT/ALERT ® is outlined. Laboratory tests, relevant patient details and relevant follow-up information are analysed. In all three cases, Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the platelet residue and confirmed on terminal sub-culture using BacT/ALERT ® . In two cases, S. aureus with similar genetic makeup was isolated from the donors. Risk reduction measures for bacterial contamination of platelet components are not always effective. Automated bacterial culture detection does not eliminate the risk of bacterial contamination. Visual inspection of platelet components prior to release, issue and administration remains an important last line of defence. © 2017 British Blood Transfusion Society.

An RFI Detection Algorithm for Microwave Radiometers Using Sparse Component Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mohammed-Tano, Priscilla N.; Korde-Patel, Asmita; Gholian, Armen; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Schoenwald, Adam; Bradley, Damon

2017-01-01

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is a threat to passive microwave measurements and if undetected, can corrupt science retrievals. The sparse component analysis (SCA) for blind source separation has been investigated to detect RFI in microwave radiometer data. Various techniques using SCA have been simulated to determine detection performance with continuous wave (CW) RFI.

Optical detection of oil on water

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Millard, J. P.; Arvesen, J. C.

1973-01-01

Three radiometric techniques utilizing sunlight reflected and backscattered from water bodies have potential application for remote sensing of oil spills. Oil on water can be detected by viewing perpendicular polarization component of reflected light or difference between polarization components. Best detection is performed in ultraviolet or far-red portions of spectrum and in azimuth directions toward or opposite sun.

A Modified ELISA Accurately Measures Secretion of High Molecular Weight Hyaluronan (HA) by Graves' Disease Orbital Cells

PubMed Central

Krieger, Christine C.

2014-01-01

Excess production of hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid [HA]) in the retro-orbital space is a major component of Graves' ophthalmopathy, and regulation of HA production by orbital cells is a major research area. In most previous studies, HA was measured by ELISAs that used HA-binding proteins for detection and rooster comb HA as standards. We show that the binding efficiency of HA-binding protein in the ELISA is a function of HA polymer size. Using gel electrophoresis, we show that HA secreted from orbital cells is primarily comprised of polymers more than 500 000. We modified a commercially available ELISA by using 1 million molecular weight HA as standard to accurately measure HA of this size. We demonstrated that IL-1β-stimulated HA secretion is at least 2-fold greater than previously reported, and activation of the TSH receptor by an activating antibody M22 from a patient with Graves' disease led to more than 3-fold increase in HA production in both fibroblasts/preadipocytes and adipocytes. These effects were not consistently detected with the commercial ELISA using rooster comb HA as standard and suggest that fibroblasts/preadipocytes may play a more prominent role in HA remodeling in Graves' ophthalmopathy than previously appreciated. PMID:24302624

Rising air and stream-water temperatures in Chesapeake Bay region, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rice, Karen C.; Jastram, John D.

2015-01-01

Monthly mean air temperature (AT) at 85 sites and instantaneous stream-water temperature (WT) at 129 sites for 1960–2010 are examined for the mid-Atlantic region, USA. Temperature anomalies for two periods, 1961–1985 and 1985–2010, relative to the climate normal period of 1971–2000, indicate that the latter period was statistically significantly warmer than the former for both mean AT and WT. Statistically significant temporal trends across the region of 0.023 °C per year for AT and 0.028 °C per year for WT are detected using simple linear regression. Sensitivity analyses show that the irregularly sampled WT data are appropriate for trend analyses, resulting in conservative estimates of trend magnitude. Relations between 190 landscape factors and significant trends in AT-WT relations are examined using principal components analysis. Measures of major dams and deciduous forest are correlated with WT increasing slower than AT, whereas agriculture in the absence of major dams is correlated with WT increasing faster than AT. Increasing WT trends are detected despite increasing trends in streamflow in the northern part of the study area. Continued warming of contributing streams to Chesapeake Bay likely will result in shifts in distributions of aquatic biota and contribute to worsened eutrophic conditions in the bay and its estuaries.

Methodology for determining major constituents of ayahuasca and their metabolites in blood.

PubMed

McIlhenny, Ethan H; Riba, Jordi; Barbanoj, Manel J; Strassman, Rick; Barker, Steven A

2012-03-01

There is an increasing interest in potential medical applications of ayahuasca, a South American psychotropic plant tea with a long cultural history of indigenous medical and religious use. Clinical research into ayahuasca will require specific, sensitive and comprehensive methods for the characterization and quantitation of these compounds and their metabolites in blood. A combination of two analytical techniques (high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and/or fluorescence detection and gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection) has been used for the analysis of some of the constituents of ayahuasca in blood following its oral consumption. We report here a single methodology for the direct analysis of 14 of the major alkaloid components of ayahuasca, including several known and potential metabolites of N,N-dimethyltryptamine and the harmala alkaloids in blood. The method uses 96-well plate/protein precipitation/filtration for plasma samples, and analysis by HPLC-ion trap-ion trap-mass spectrometry using heated electrospray ionization to reduce matrix effects. The method expands the list of compounds capable of being monitored in blood following ayahuasca administration while providing a simplified approach to their analysis. The method has adequate sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility to make it useful for clinical research with ayahuasca. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Investigation on experimental techniques to detect, locate and quantify gear noise in helicopter transmissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flanagan, P. M.; Atherton, W. J.

1985-01-01

A robotic system to automate the detection, location, and quantification of gear noise using acoustic intensity measurement techniques has been successfully developed. Major system components fabricated under this grant include an instrumentation robot arm, a robot digital control unit and system software. A commercial, desktop computer, spectrum analyzer and two microphone probe complete the equipment required for the Robotic Acoustic Intensity Measurement System (RAIMS). Large-scale acoustic studies of gear noise in helicopter transmissions cannot be performed accurately and reliably using presently available instrumentation and techniques. Operator safety is a major concern in certain gear noise studies due to the operating environment. The man-hours needed to document a noise field in situ is another shortcoming of present techniques. RAIMS was designed to reduce the labor and hazard in collecting data and to improve the accuracy and repeatability of characterizing the acoustic field by automating the measurement process. Using RAIMS a system operator can remotely control the instrumentation robot to scan surface areas and volumes generating acoustic intensity information using the two microphone technique. Acoustic intensity studies requiring hours of scan time can be performed automatically without operator assistance. During a scan sequence, the acoustic intensity probe is positioned by the robot and acoustic intensity data is collected, processed, and stored.

Elevations, Major Component Isometric, Propellant Flow Schematic, and External Tank ...

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

Elevations, Major Component Isometric, Propellant Flow Schematic, and External Tank Connection to Shuttle Main Engines - Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX

Soluble scute proteins of healthy and ill desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Homer, B.L.; Li, C.; Berry, K.H.; Denslow, N.D.; Jacobson, E.R.; Sawyer, R.H.; Williams, J.E.

2001-01-01

Objectives - To characterize protein composition of shell scute of desert tortoises and to determine whether detectable differences could be used to identify healthy tortoises from tortoises with certain illnesses. Animals - 20 desert tortoises. Procedures - Complete postmortem examinations were performed on all tortoises. Plastron scute proteins were solubilized, scute proteins were separated by use of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and proteins were analyzed, using densitometry. Two-dimensional immobilized pH gradient-PAGE (2D IPG-PAGE) and immunoblot analysis, using polyclonal antisera to chicken-feather ?? keratin and to alligator-scale ?? keratin, were conducted on representative samples. The 14-kd proteins were analyzed for amino acid composition. Results - The SDS-PAGE and densitometry revealed 7 distinct bands, each with a mean relative protein concentration of > 1 %, ranging from 8 to 47 kd, and a major protein component of approximately 14 kd that constituted up to 75% of the scute protein. The 2D IPG-PAGE revealed additional distinct 62-and 68-kd protein bands. On immunoblot analysis, the 14-, 32-, and 45-kd proteins reacted with both antisera. The 14-kd proteins had an amino acid composition similar to that of chicken ?? keratins. There was a substantial difference in the percentage of the major 14-kd proteins from scute of ill tortoises with normal appearing shells, compared with 14-kd proteins of healthy tortoises. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance - The major protein components of shell scute of desert tortoises have amino acid composition and antigenic features of ?? keratins. Scute protein composition may be altered in tortoises with certain systemic illnesses.

Moderately virulent African swine fever virus infection: blood cell changes and infective virus distribution among blood components.

PubMed

Genovesi, E V; Knudsen, R C; Whyard, T C; Mebus, C A

1988-03-01

Blood samples of pigs infected with a moderately virulent African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolate, obtained from the Dominican Republic (DR-II), were monitored temporally for viremia, infective ASFV association with major blood components, differential changes in blood cell composition, and plasma antibodies to ASFV. After intranasal/oral virus inoculation, pigs underwent acute infection and illness that resolved. Acute illness began on postinoculation day (PID) 4 and continued to PID 11, and pigs were febrile, with maximal infective ASFV titers detected in blood. By PID 11, initial antibody titers to ASFV antigens were detected in plasma. The WBC numbers were maintained near preinoculation counts; however, lymphocyte counts decreased slightly with a compensatory increment in neutrophil and monocyte numbers. From PID 11 to PID 25, rectal temperatures gradually returned to preinoculation values, titers of viremia began to decrease, plasma antibody to ASFV antigens increased to peak titers, and WBC numbers increased slightly. Percentages of lymphocytes returned to preinoculation values, neutrophil percentages decreased to slightly below preinoculation values, monocyte percentages were mildly increased, and eosinophil percentages were unaffected. From PID 25 to PID 46, titers of viremia further decreased, and plasma titers of antibodies to ASFV antigens remained high. In pigs with DR-II viremia (PID 4 to PID 46), most viral infectivity (greater than 95%) was RBC associated. Plasma contained less than 1% infectivity, and less than 0.1% of virus was in the WBC fraction (monocytes, lymphocytes, and granulocytes). After PID 46, viremia was no longer detectable.

Olfactory ensheathing cells: nitric oxide production and innate immunity.

PubMed

Harris, Julie A; West, Adrian K; Chuah, Meng Inn

2009-12-01

Olfactory nerves extend from the nasal cavity to the central nervous system and provide therefore, a direct route for pathogenic infection of the brain. Since actual infection by this route remains relatively uncommon, powerful endogenous mechanisms for preventing microbial infection must exist, but these remain poorly understood. Our previous studies unexpectedly revealed that the unique glial cells that ensheath olfactory nerves, olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), expressed components of the innate immune response. In this study, we show that OECs are able to detect and respond to bacterial challenge via the synthesis of nitric oxide. In vitro studies revealed that inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA and protein were present in Escherichia coli- and Staphylococcus aureus-incubated OECs, but were barely detectable in untreated OECs. Neuronal NOS and endothelial NOS were not expressed by OECs pre- and post-bacterial incubation. Nuclear translocation of nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB), detectable in the majority of OECs 1 h following bacterial incubation, preceded iNOS induction which resulted in the production of nitric oxide. N(G)-methyl-L-arginine significantly attenuated nitric oxide (P < 0.001) and nitrite production (P < 0.001) by OECs. In rat olfactory mucosa which was compromised by irrigation with 0.17M zinc sulfate or 0.7% Triton X-100 to facilitate bacterial infiltration, OECs contributed to a robust synthesis of iNOS. These data strongly support the hypothesis that OECs are an essential component of the innate immune response against bacterial invasion of the central nervous system via olfactory nerves.

Pathologic highlights of dengue hemorrhagic fever in 13 autopsy cases from Myanmar.

PubMed

Aye, Khin Saw; Charngkaew, Komgrid; Win, Ne; Wai, Kyaw Zin; Moe, Kyaw; Punyadee, Nuntaya; Thiemmeca, Somchai; Suttitheptumrong, Aroonroong; Sukpanichnant, Sanya; Prida, Malasit; Halstead, Scott B

2014-06-01

Vascular permeability, thrombocytopenia, liver pathology, complement activation, and altered hemostasis accompanying a febrile disease are the hallmarks of the dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome, a major arthropod-borne viral disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality throughout tropical countries. We studied tissues from 13 children who died of acute dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome at the Childrens' Hospital, Yangon, Myanmar. Dengue viral RNA from each of the 4 dengue viruses (DENVs) was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in 11 cases, and dengue viral proteins (envelope, NS1, or NS3) were detected in 1 or more tissues from all 13 cases. Formalin-fixed and frozen tissues were studied for evidence of virus infection using monoclonal antibodies against DENV structural and nonstructural antigens (E, NS1, and nonsecreting NS3). In the liver, DENV infection occurred in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells but not in endothelial cells. Liver damage was associated with deposition on hepatocytes of complement components of both classical and alternative pathways. Evidence of dengue viral replication was observed in macrophage-like cells in spleens and lymph nodes. No dengue antigens were detected in endothelial cells in any organ. Germinal centers of the spleen and lymph nodes showed a marked reduction in the number of lymphocytes that were replaced by eosinophilic deposits, which contained dengue antigens as well as immunoglobulins, and complement components (C3, C1q, and C9). The latter findings had previously been reported but overlooked as a diagnostic feature. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Detection of bacteria in platelet concentrates prepared from spiked single donations using cultural and molecular genetic methods.

PubMed

Störmer, M; Cassens, U; Kleesiek, K; Dreier, J

2007-02-01

Bacteria show differences in their growth kinetics depending on the type of blood component. On to storage at 22 degrees C, platelet concentrates (PCs) seem to be more prone to bacterial multiplication than red cell concentrates. Knowledge of the potential for bacterial proliferation in blood components, which are stored at a range of temperatures, is essential before considering implementation of a detection strategy. The efficacy of bacterial detection was determined, using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), following bacterial growth in blood components obtained from a deliberately contaminated whole-blood (WB) unit. Cultivation was used as the reference method. WB was spiked with 2 colony-forming units mL(-1)Staphylococcus epidermidis or Klebsiella pneumoniae, kept for 15 h at room temperature and component preparation was processed. Samples were drawn, at intervals throughout the whole separation process, from each blood component. Nucleic acids were extracted using an automated high-volume extraction method. The 15-h storage revealed an insignificant increase in bacterial titre. No bacterial growth was detected in red blood cell or plasma units. K. pneumoniae showed rapid growth in the pooled PC and could be detected immediately after preparation using RT-PCR. S. epidermidis grew slowly and was detected 24 h after separation. These experiments show that sampling is indicative at 24 h after preparation of PCs at the earliest to minimize the sampling error.

Potential for utilization of algal biomass for components of the diet in CELSS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kamarei, A. R.; Nakhost, Z.; Karel, M.

1986-01-01

The major nutritional components of the green algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) grown in a Constant Cell Density Apparatus were determined. Suitable methodology to prepare proteins from which three major undesirable components of these cells (i.e., cell walls, nucleic acids, and pigments) were either removed or substantially reduced was developed. Results showed that processing of green algae to protein isolate enhances is potential nutritional and organoleptic acceptability as a diet component in controlled Ecological Life Support System.

Electrochemiluminescence-PCR detection of genetically modified organisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jinfeng; Xing, Da; Shen, Xingyan; Zhu, Debin

2005-01-01

The detection methods for genetically modified (GM) components in foods have been developed recently. But many of them are complicated and time-consuming; some of them need to use the carcinogenic substance, and can"t avoid false-positive results. In this study, an electrochemiluminescence polymerase chain reaction (ECL-PCR) method for detection GM tobaccos is proposed. The Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S (CaMV35S) promoter was amplified by PCR, Then hybridized with a Ru(bpy)32+ (TBR)-labeled and a biotinylated probe. The hybridization products were captured onto streptavidin-coated paramagnetic beads, and detected by measuring the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) signal of the TBR label. Whether the tobaccos contain GM components was discriminated by detecting the ECL signal of CaMV35S promoter. The experiment results show that the detection limit for CaMV35S promoter is 100 fmol, and the GM components can be clearly identified in GM tobaccos. The ECL-PCR method provide a new means in GMOs detection due to its safety, simplicity and high efficiency.

A geometric approach to failure detection and identification in linear systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massoumnia, M. A.

1986-01-01

Using concepts of (C,A)-invariant and unobservability (complementary observability) subspaces, a geometric formulation of the failure detection and identification filter problem is stated. Using these geometric concepts, it is shown that it is possible to design a causal linear time-invariant processor that can be used to detect and uniquely identify a component failure in a linear time-invariant system, assuming: (1) The components can fail simultaneously, and (2) The components can fail only one at a time. In addition, a geometric formulation of Beard's failure detection filter problem is stated. This new formulation completely clarifies of output separability and mutual detectability introduced by Beard and also exploits the dual relationship between a restricted version of the failure detection and identification problem and the control decoupling problem. Moreover, the frequency domain interpretation of the results is used to relate the concepts of failure sensitive observers with the generalized parity relations introduced by Chow. This interpretation unifies the various failure detection and identification concepts and design procedures.

Nucleolar changes after microinjection of antibodies to RNA polymerase I into the nucleus of mammalian cells.

PubMed

Benavente, R; Reimer, G; Rose, K M; Hügle-Dörr, B; Scheer, U

1988-01-01

After microinjection of antibodies against RNA polymerase I into the nuclei of cultured rat kangaroo (PtK2) and rat (RVF-SMC) cells alterations in nucleolar structure and composition were observed. These were detected by electron microscopy and double-label immunofluorescence microscopy using antibodies to proteins representative of the three major components of the nucleolus. The microinjected antibodies produced a progressive loss of the material of the dense fibrillar component (DFC) from the nucleoli which, at 4 h after injection, were transformed into bodies with purely granular component (GC) structure with attached fibrillar centers (FCs). Concomitantly, numerous extranucleolar aggregates appeared in the nucleoplasm which morphologically resembled fragments of the DFC and contained a protein (fibrillarin) diagnostic for this nucleolar structure. These observations indicate that the topological distribution of the material constituting the DFC can be experimentally influenced in interphase cells, apparently by modulating the transcriptional activity of the rRNA genes. These effects are different from nucleolar lesions induced by inhibitory drugs such as actinomycin D-dependent "nucleolar segregation". The structural alterations induced by antibodies to RNA polymerase I resemble, however, the initial events of nucleolar disintegration during mitotic prophase.

Excitation of the molecular gas in the nuclear region of M 82

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loenen, A. F.; van der Werf, P. P.; Güsten, R.; Meijerink, R.; Israel, F. P.; Requena-Torres, M. A.; García-Burillo, S.; Harris, A. I.; Klein, T.; Kramer, C.; Lord, S.; Martín-Pintado, J.; Röllig, M.; Stutzki, J.; Szczerba, R.; Weiß, A.; Philipp-May, S.; Yorke, H.; Caux, E.; Delforge, B.; Helmich, F.; Lorenzani, A.; Morris, P.; Philips, T. G.; Risacher, C.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.

2010-10-01

We present high-resolution HIFI spectroscopy of the nucleus of the archetypical starburst galaxy M 82. Six 12CO lines, 2 13CO lines and 4 fine-structure lines have been detected. Besides showing the effects of the overall velocity structure of the nuclear region, the line profiles also indicate the presence of multiple components with different optical depths, temperatures, and densities in the observing beam. The data have been interpreted using a grid of PDR models. It is found that the majority of the molecular gas is in low density (n = 103.5 cm-3) clouds, with column densities of NH = 1021.5 cm-2 and a relatively low UV radiation field (G0 = 102). The remaining gas is predominantly found in clouds with higher densities (n = 105 cm-3) and radiation fields (G0 = 102.75), but somewhat lower column densities (NH = 1021.2 cm-2). The highest J CO lines are dominated by a small (1% relative surface filling) component, with an even higher density (n = 106 cm-3) and UV field (G0 = 103.25). These results show the strength of multi-component modelling for interpretating the integrated properties of galaxies.

Pb and Cd Contents in Soil, Water, and Trees at an Afforestation Site, South China.

PubMed

Pei, Nancai; Chen, Bufeng; Liu, Shuguang

2015-11-01

Pb and Cd contents in 13 plantation tree species (leaf and branch components), soil, water (groundwater and river water) at a young (3-5 year-old) seashore afforestation stand were investigated in Nansha district, Guangzhou city in southern China. The results showed that (1) soil, rather than water or trees, had the highest content of both Pb (averagely 48.79 mg/kg) and Cd (0.50 mg/kg), demonstrating that soil might function as a major reservoir for extraneously derived heavy metals; (2) Pb content was higher in branches than in leaves, but Cd content appeared similar in both components, implying possibly different accumulation mechanisms in trees; (3) Pb and Cd appeared to accumulate differently among some tree taxa, whereas almost no significant difference was detected between introduced and indigenous species. The study indicated that trees were potentially useful to remediate sites contaminated with Pb and Cd in the urbanized areas.

Apparent growth phase-dependent phosphorylation of malonyl coenzyme A:acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCAT), a major fatty acid synthase II component in Mycobacterium bovis BCG.

PubMed

Sinha, Indrajit; Boon, Calvin; Dick, Thomas

2003-10-10

Probing protein extracts from exponentially growing and stationary phase cultures of Mycobacterium bovis BCG with anti-phospho amino acid antibodies revealed a 31-kDa anti-phospho threonine antibody-reactive protein specific to growing culture. The corresponding protein was purified via two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and identified via mass spectrometry to be malonyl coenzyme A:acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCAT), a component of the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway. MCAT tagged with histidine reacted with anti-phospho threonine antibody and was positive in an in-gel chemical assay for phospho proteins. Analysis of the growth phase dependence of MCAT-His phosphorylation and protein levels showed that phosphorylated MCAT-His can be detected only in growing culture. In contrast, MCAT-His protein level was growth phase-independent. These results suggest that MCAT may be a substrate of a protein kinase and phosphatase, and that aspects of fatty acid synthesis in tubercle bacilli are regulated by protein phosphorylation.

Molecular composition and paleobotanical origin of Eocene resin from northeast India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudra, Arka; Dutta, Suryendu; Raju, Srinivasan V.

2014-06-01

The molecular composition of fossil resins from early to middle Eocene coal from northeast India, has been analyzed for the first time to infer their paleobotanical source. The soluble component of fossil resin was analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The resin extracts are composed of cadalene-based C15 sesquiterpenoids and diagenetically altered triterpenoids. The macromolecular composition was investigated using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The major pyrolysis products are C15 bicyclic sesquiterpenoids, alkylated naphthalenes, benzenes and a series of C17-C34 n-alkene- n-alkane pairs. Spectroscopic analysis revealed the dominance of aliphatic components. The presence of cadalene-based sequiterpenoids confirms the resin to be Class II or dammar resin, derived from angiosperms of Dipterocarpaceae family. These sesquiterpenoids are often detected in many SE Asian fluvio-deltaic oils. Dipterocarpaceae are characteristic of warm tropical climate suggesting the prevalence of such climate during early Eocene in northeast India.

Chemotypes and Biomarkers of Seven Species of New Caledonian Liverworts from the Bazzanioideae Subfamily.

PubMed

Métoyer, Benjamin; Lebouvier, Nicolas; Hnawia, Edouard; Herbette, Gaëtan; Thouvenot, Louis; Asakawa, Yoshinori; Nour, Mohammed; Raharivelomanana, Phila

2018-06-05

Volatile components of seven species of the Bazzanioideae sub-family (Lepidoziaceae) native to New Caledonia, including three endemic species ( Bazzania marginata , Acromastigum caledonicum and A. tenax ), were analyzed by GC-FID-MS in order to index these plants to known or new chemotypes. Detected volatile constituents in studied species were constituted mainly by sesquiterpene, as well as diterpene compounds. All so-established compositions cannot successfully index some of them to known chemotypes but afforded the discovery of new chemotypes such as cuparane/fusicoccane. The major component of B. francana was isolated and characterized as a new zierane-type sesquiterpene called ziera-12(13),10(14)-dien-5-ol ( 23 ). In addition, qualitative intraspecies variations of chemical composition were very important particularly for B. francana which possessed three clearly defined different compositions. We report here also the first phytochemical investigation of Acromastigum species. Moreover, crude diethyl ether extract of B. vitatta afforded a new bis(bibenzyl) called vittatin ( 51 ), for which a putative biosynthesis was suggested.

Improving the reliability of automated non-destructive inspection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brierley, N.; Tippetts, T.; Cawley, P.

2014-02-01

In automated NDE a region of an inspected component is often interrogated several times, be it within a single data channel, across multiple channels or over the course of repeated inspections. The systematic combination of these diverse readings is recognized to provide a means to improve the reliability of the inspection, for example by enabling noise suppression. Specifically, such data fusion makes it possible to declare regions of the component defect-free to a very high probability whilst readily identifying indications. Registration, aligning input datasets to a common coordinate system, is a critical pre-computation before meaningful data fusion takes place. A novel scheme based on a multiobjective optimization is described. The developed data fusion framework, that is able to identify and rate possible indications in the dataset probabilistically, based on local data statistics, is outlined. The process is demonstrated on large data sets from the industrial ultrasonic testing of aerospace turbine disks, with major improvements in the probability of detection and probability of false call being obtained.

THE PRESENCE OF A GROUP A VARIANT-LIKE ANTIGEN IN STREPTOCOCCI OF OTHER GROUPS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GROUP N

PubMed Central

Elliott, S. D.; Hayward, John; Liu, T. Y.

1971-01-01

A Group A variant-like antigen has been detected in streptococci belonging to Groups D, E, G, M, and N. In Groups D and N the variant-like antigen was located in the streptococcal cell walls. In two strains of Group N streptococci (C559 and B209) the cell walls were chemically different and serologically distinct. In strain C559 N-acetylgalactosamine, and in strain B209, N-acetylglucosamine were the major determinants of serological specificity. The cell walls of strain C559 contained at least three serologically reactive components: a rhamnose-containing fraction that precipitated with an antiserum to Group A-variant carbohydrate; a strain-specific polysaccharide composed of galactosamine and glucosamine, both in the N-acetylated form and probably polymerized with an unidentified phosphorylated substance; and a component of unknown composition serologically related to a Group D streptococcus strain C3 (S. durans). An analogy is drawn between the cell wall structure in streptococcus and Salmonella. PMID:5111438

Investigation of CO2 precursors in roasted coffee.

PubMed

Wang, Xiuju; Lim, Loong-Tak

2017-03-15

Two CO 2 formation pathways (chlorogenic acid (CGA) degradation and Maillard reaction) during coffee roasting were investigated. CGA is shown not a major contributor to CO 2 formation, as heating of this compound under typical roasting conditions did not release a large quantity of CO 2 . However, heating of a CGA moiety, caffeic acid, resulted in high yield of CO 2 (>98%), suggesting that CGA hydrolysis could be the rate limiting step for CO 2 formation from CGA. A large amount of CO 2 was detected from glycine-sucrose model system under coffee roasting conditions, implying the importance of Maillard reactions in CO 2 formation. Further studies on the heating of various components isolated from green coffee beans showed that CO 2 was generated from various green coffee components, including water insoluble proteins and polysaccharides. Around 50% of CO 2 was formed from thermal reactions of lower molecular weight compounds that represent ∼25% by weight in green coffee. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization of organic and conventional sweet basil leaves using chromatographic and flow-injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprints combined with principal component analysis

PubMed Central

Lu, Yingjian; Gao, Boyan; Chen, Pei; Charles, Denys; Yu, Liangli (Lucy)

2014-01-01

Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum., is one of the most important and wildly used spices and has been shown to have antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-diarrheal activities. In this study, high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) and flow-injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprinting techniques were used to differentiate organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the fingerprints indicated that both HPLC and FIMS fingerprints could effectively detect the chemical differences in the organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples. This study suggested that the organic basil sample contained greater concentrations of almost all the major compounds than its conventional counterpart on a per same botanical weight basis. The FIMS method was able to rapidly differentiate the organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples (1 min analysis time), whereas the HPLC fingerprints provided more information about the chemical composition of the basil samples with a longer analytical time. PMID:24518341

Characterisation of organic and conventional sweet basil leaves using chromatographic and flow-injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprints combined with principal component analysis.

PubMed

Lu, Yingjian; Gao, Boyan; Chen, Pei; Charles, Denys; Yu, Liangli Lucy

2014-07-01

Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum, is one of the most important and wildly used spices and has been shown to have antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-diarrheal activities. In this study, high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) and flow-injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprinting techniques were used to differentiate organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the fingerprints indicated that both HPLC and FIMS fingerprints could effectively detect the chemical differences in the organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples. This study suggested that the organic basil sample contained greater concentrations of almost all the major compounds than its conventional counterpart on a per same botanical weight basis. The FIMS method was able to rapidly differentiate the organic and conventional sweet basil leaf samples (1min analysis time), whereas the HPLC fingerprints provided more information about the chemical composition of the basil samples with a longer analytical time. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Use of diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy and HPLC-UV-SPE-NMR to identify undeclared synthetic drugs in medicines illegally sold as phytotherapies.

PubMed

Silva, Lorena M A; Filho, Elenilson G A; Thomasi, Sérgio S; Silva, Bianca F; Ferreira, Antonio G; Venâncio, Tiago

2013-09-01

The informal (and/or illegal) e-commerce of pharmaceutical formulations causes problems that governmental health agencies find hard to control, one of which concerns formulas sold as natural products. The purpose of this work was to explore the advantages and limitations of DOSY and HPLC-UV-SPE-NMR. These techniques were used to identify the components of a formula illegally marketed in Brazil as an herbal medicine possessing anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. DOSY was able to detect the major components present at higher concentrations. Complete characterization was achieved using HPLC-UV-SPE-NMR, and 1D and 2D NMR analyses enabled the identification of known synthetic drugs. These were ranitidine and a mixture of orphenadrine citrate, piroxicam, and dexamethasone, which are co-formulated in a remedy called Rheumazim that is used to relieve severe pain, but it is prohibited in Brazil because of a lack of sufficient pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic information. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Means and method of detection in chemical separation procedures

DOEpatents

Yeung, Edward S.; Koutny, Lance B.; Hogan, Barry L.; Cheung, Chan K.; Ma, Yinfa

1993-03-09

A means and method for indirect detection of constituent components of a mixture separated in a chemical separation process. Fluorescing ions are distributed across the area in which separation of the mixture will occur to provide a generally uniform background fluorescence intensity. For example, the mixture is comprised of one or more charged analytes which displace fluorescing ions where its constituent components separate to. Fluorescing ions of the same charge as the charged analyte components cause a displacement. The displacement results in the location of the separated components having a reduced fluorescence intensity to the remainder of the background. Detection of the lower fluorescence intensity areas can be visually, by photographic means and methods, or by automated laser scanning.

Means and method of detection in chemical separation procedures

DOEpatents

Yeung, E.S.; Koutny, L.B.; Hogan, B.L.; Cheung, C.K.; Yinfa Ma.

1993-03-09

A means and method are described for indirect detection of constituent components of a mixture separated in a chemical separation process. Fluorescing ions are distributed across the area in which separation of the mixture will occur to provide a generally uniform background fluorescence intensity. For example, the mixture is comprised of one or more charged analytes which displace fluorescing ions where its constituent components separate to. Fluorescing ions of the same charge as the charged analyte components cause a displacement. The displacement results in the location of the separated components having a reduced fluorescence intensity to the remainder of the background. Detection of the lower fluorescence intensity areas can be visually, by photographic means and methods, or by automated laser scanning.

[Study on material base of Carthamus tinctorius with antioxidant effect based on selective knock-out].

PubMed

Wang, Lin-Yan; Tang, Yu-Ping; Liu, Xin; Ge, Ya-Hui; Li, Shu-Jiao; Shang, Er-Xin; Duan, Jin-Ao

2014-04-01

To establish a method for studying efficacious materials of traditional Chinese medicines from an overall perspective. Carthamus tinctorius was taken the example. Its major components were depleted by preparing liquid chromatography. Afterwards, the samples with major components depleted were evaluated for their antioxidant effect, so as to compare and analyze the major efficacious materials of C. tinctorius with antioxidant activity and the contributions. Seven major components were depleted from C. tinctorius samples, and six of them were identified with MS data and control comparison. After all of the samples including depleted materials are compared and evaluated for their antioxidant effect, the findings showed that hydroxysafflor yellow A, anhydrosafflor yellow B and 6-hydroxykaempferol-3, 6-di-O-glucoside-7-O-glucuronide were the major efficacious materials. This study explored a novel and effective method for studying efficacious materials of traditional Chinese medicines. Through this method, we could explain the direct and indirect contributions of different components to the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicines, and make the efficacious material expression of traditional Chinese medicines clearer.

Composition and antimicrobial activities of Lippia multiflora Moldenke, Mentha x piperita L. and Ocimum basilicum L. essential oils and their major monoterpene alcohols alone and in combination.

PubMed

Bassolé, Imaël Henri Nestor; Lamien-Meda, Aline; Bayala, Balé; Tirogo, Souleymane; Franz, Chlodwig; Novak, Johannes; Nebié, Roger Charles; Dicko, Mamoudou Hama

2010-11-03

Essential oils from leaves of Lippia multiflora, Mentha x piperita and Ocimum basilicum from Burkina Faso were analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Major components were p-cymene, thymol, b-caryophyllene, carvacrol and carvone for L. multiflora, menthol and iso-menthone for M. x piperita and, linalool and eugenol for O. basilicum. The essential oils and their major monoterpene alcohols were tested against nine bacterial strains using the disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. The essential oils with high phenolic contents were the most effective antimicrobials. The checkerboard method was used to quantify the efficacy of paired combinations of essential oils and their major components. The best synergetic effects among essential oils and major components were obtained with combinations involving O. basilicum essential oil and eugenol, respectively. As phenolic components are characterized by a strong spicy aroma, this study suggests that the selection of certain combinations of EOs could help to reduce the amount of essential oils and consequently reduce any adverse sensory impact in food.

Applying the High Reliability Health Care Maturity Model to Assess Hospital Performance: A VA Case Study.

PubMed

Sullivan, Jennifer L; Rivard, Peter E; Shin, Marlena H; Rosen, Amy K

2016-09-01

The lack of a tool for categorizing and differentiating hospitals according to their high reliability organization (HRO)-related characteristics has hindered progress toward implementing and sustaining evidence-based HRO practices. Hospitals would benefit both from an understanding of the organizational characteristics that support HRO practices and from knowledge about the steps necessary to achieve HRO status to reduce the risk of harm and improve outcomes. The High Reliability Health Care Maturity (HRHCM) model, a model for health care organizations' achievement of high reliability with zero patient harm, incorporates three major domains critical for promoting HROs-Leadership, Safety Culture, and Robust Process Improvement ®. A study was conducted to examine the content validity of the HRHCM model and evaluate whether it can differentiate hospitals' maturity levels for each of the model's components. Staff perceptions of patient safety at six US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals were examined to determine whether all 14 HRHCM components were present and to characterize each hospital's level of organizational maturity. Twelve of the 14 components from the HRHCM model were detected; two additional characteristics emerged that are present in the HRO literature but not represented in the model-teamwork culture and system-focused tools for learning and improvement. Each hospital's level of organizational maturity could be characterized for 9 of the 14 components. The findings suggest the HRHCM model has good content validity and that there is differentiation between hospitals on model components. Additional research is needed to understand how these components can be used to build the infrastructure necessary for reaching high reliability.

Vibration detection of component health and operability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baird, B. C.

1975-01-01

In order to prevent catastrophic failure and eliminate unnecessary periodic maintenance in the shuttle orbiter program environmental control system components, some means of detecting incipient failure in these components is required. The utilization was investigated of vibrational/acoustic phenomena as one of the principal physical parameters on which to base the design of this instrumentation. Baseline vibration/acoustic data was collected from three aircraft type fans and two aircraft type pumps over a frequency range from a few hertz to greater than 3000 kHz. The baseline data included spectrum analysis of the baseband vibration signal, spectrum analysis of the detected high frequency bandpass acoustic signal, and amplitude distribution of the high frequency bandpass acoustic signal. A total of eight bearing defects and two unbalancings was introduced into the five test items. All defects were detected by at least one of a set of vibration/acoustic parameters with a margin of at least 2:1 over the worst case baseline. The design of a portable instrument using this set of vibration/acoustic parameters for detecting incipient failures in environmental control system components is described.

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with flame ionization and time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection: qualitative and quantitative analysis of West Australian sandalwood oil.

PubMed

Shellie, Robert; Marriott, Philip; Morrison, Paul

2004-09-01

The use of gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS), GC-time-of-flight MS (TOFMS), comprehensive two-dimensional GC (GCxGC)-flame ionization detection (FID), and GCxGC-TOFMS is discussed for the characterization of the eight important representative components, including Z-alpha-santalol, epi-alpha-bisabolol, Z-alpha-trans-bergamotol, epi-beta-santalol, Z-beta-santalol, E,E-farnesol, Z-nuciferol, and Z-lanceol, in the oil of west Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum). Single-column GC-MS lacks the resolving power to separate all of the listed components as pure peaks and allow precise analytical measurement of individual component abundances. With enhanced peak resolution capabilities in GCxGC, these components are sufficiently well resolved to be quantitated using flame ionization detection, following initial characterization of components by using GCxGC-TOFMS.

Laser Scanner For Automatic Inspection Of Printed Wiring Boards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geise, Philip; George, Eugene; Freese, Fritz; Brown, Robert; Ruwe, Victor

1980-11-01

An, Instrument is described which inspects unpopulated, populated (components onserted and leads clinched), and soldered printed wiring boards for correct hole location, component presence, correct lead clinch direction and solder bridges. The instrument consists of a low power heliumneon laser, an x-y moving iron galvanometer scanner and several folding mirros. A unique shadow signature is detected by silicon photodiodes located at the optium geometry to allow rapid and reliable detection of components with correctly clinched leads. A reflective glint screen is utilized to inspect for a solder bridges. The detected signal are processed and evaluated by a minocomputer which also controls the scan inspection rate of at least 25 components or 50 components holes per second. The return of investment on this instrument for high volume production of printed wirind boards is less than one yea and only slightly longer for medium run military application.

System and method for motor fault detection using stator current noise cancellation

DOEpatents

Zhou, Wei; Lu, Bin; Nowak, Michael P.; Dimino, Steven A.

2010-12-07

A system and method for detecting incipient mechanical motor faults by way of current noise cancellation is disclosed. The system includes a controller configured to detect indicia of incipient mechanical motor faults. The controller further includes a processor programmed to receive a baseline set of current data from an operating motor and define a noise component in the baseline set of current data. The processor is also programmed to acquire at least on additional set of real-time operating current data from the motor during operation, redefine the noise component present in each additional set of real-time operating current data, and remove the noise component from the operating current data in real-time to isolate any fault components present in the operating current data. The processor is then programmed to generate a fault index for the operating current data based on any isolated fault components.

The relationship between Class I and Class II methanol masers at high angular resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarthy, T. P.; Ellingsen, S. P.; Voronkov, M. A.; Cimò, G.

2018-06-01

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to make the first high-resolution observations of a large sample of class I methanol masers in the 95-GHz (80-71A+) transition. The target sources consist of a statistically complete sample of 6.7-GHz class II methanol masers with an associated 95-GHz class I methanol maser, enabling a detailed study of the relationship between the two methanol maser classes at arcsecond angular resolution. These sources have been previously observed at high resolution in the 36- and 44-GHz transitions, allowing comparison between all three class I maser transitions. In total, 172 95-GHz maser components were detected across the 32 target sources. We find that at high resolution, when considering matched maser components, a 3:1 flux density ratio is observed between the 95- and 44-GHz components, consistent with a number of previous lower angular resolution studies. The 95-GHz maser components appear to be preferentially located closer to the driving sources and this may indicate that this transition is more strongly inverted nearby to background continuum sources. We do not observe an elevated association rate between 95-GHz maser emission and more evolved sources, as indicated by the presence of 12.2-GHz class II masers. We find that in the majority of cases where both class I and class II methanol emission is observed, some component of the class I emission is associated with a likely outflow candidate.

Simultaneous Quantitative Determination of 12 Active Components in Yuanhu Zhitong Prescription by RP-HPLC Coupled with Photodiode Array Detection

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xiaokai; Zhang, Song; Yang, Qian; Cao, Wei; Xie, Yanhua; Qiu, Pengcheng; Wang, Siwang

2015-01-01

Background: Yuanhu Zhitong prescription (YZP) is a famous traditional Chinese medicine formula, which is officially recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia for the treatment of stomach pain, hypochondriac pain, headache and dysmenorrhea caused by qi-stagnancy and blood stasis. It is the first report for the simultaneous determination of 12 active components in YZP. Objective: A newly, simple, accurate and reliable method for the separation and determination of 12 active components (protopine, α-allocryptopine, coptisine, xanthotol, palmatine, dehydrocorydaline, glaucine, tetrahydropalmatine, tetrahydroberberine, imperatorin, corydaline, isoimperatorin) in YZP was developed and validated using HPLC-PAD. Materials and Methods: The analytes were performed on a Phenomenex Luna-C18 (2) column (250×4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) with a gradient elution program using a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1% phosphoric acid water solution (adjusted with triethylamine to pH 5.6) as mobile phase. Analytes were performed at 30°C with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Results: The validated method was applied to analyze four major dosage forms of YZP coming from different manufacturers with good linearity (r2, 0.9981~0.9999), precision (RSD, 0.24~2.89%), repeatability (RSD, 0.15~3.34%), stability (RSD, 0.14~3.35%), recovery (91.13~110.81%) of the 12 components. Conclusion: The proposed method enables the separation and determination of 12 active components in a single run for the quality control of YZP. PMID:25709212

The optimum measurement precision evaluation for blood components using near-infrared spectra on 1000-2500 nm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ziyang; Sun, Di; Han, Tongshuai; Guo, Chao; Liu, Jin

2016-10-01

In the non-invasive blood components measurement using near infrared spectroscopy, the useful signals caused by the concentration variation in the interested components, such as glucose, hemoglobin, albumin etc., are relative weak. Then the signals may be greatly disturbed by a lot of noises in various ways. We improved the signals by using the optimum path-length for the used wavelength to get a maximum variation of transmitted light intensity when the concentration of a component varies. And after the path-length optimization for every wavelength in 1000-2500 nm, we present the detection limits for the components, including glucose, hemoglobin and albumin, when measuring them in a tissue phantom. The evaluated detection limits could be the best reachable precision level since it assumed the measurement uses a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) signal and the optimum path-length. From the results, available wavelengths in 1000-2500 nm for the three component measurements can be screened by comparing their detection limit values with their measurement limit requirements. For other blood components measurement, the evaluation their detection limits could also be designed using the method proposed in this paper. Moreover, we use an equation to estimate the absorbance at the optimum path-length for every wavelength in 1000-2500 nm caused by the three components. It could be an easy way to realize the evaluation because adjusting the sample cell's size to the precise path-length value for every wavelength is not necessary. This equation could also be referred to other blood components measurement using the optimum path-length for every used wavelength.

Cognitive therapy for performance anxiety.

PubMed

Rodebaugh, Thomas L; Chambless, Dianne L

2004-08-01

We present and illustrate the major components of cognitive therapy for performance anxiety, focusing on the performance fears of a client treated with a protocol designed for social phobia. The basic supposition of cognitive theory is that a client's thoughts and beliefs about situations maintain distressing feelings, such as anxiety. Changing these beliefs involves detection and disputation of anxiety-provoking thoughts, as well as testing of these thoughts through exposure to feared situations. Through a process of identifying existing beliefs about performance situations and challenging these beliefs, clients can gain a more realistic and less anxiety-producing perspective on performance tasks. Specific techniques, along with common difficulties and potential solutions, are presented in a detailed case study. Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Conifer-Derived Monoterpenes and Forest Walking

PubMed Central

Sumitomo, Kazuhiro; Akutsu, Hiroaki; Fukuyama, Syusei; Minoshima, Akiho; Kukita, Shin; Yamamura, Yuji; Sato, Yoshiaki; Hayasaka, Taiki; Osanai, Shinobu; Funakoshi, Hiroshi; Hasebe, Naoyuki; Nakamura, Masao

2015-01-01

Conifer and broadleaf trees emit volatile organic compounds in the summer. The major components of these emissions are volatile monoterpenes. Using solid phase microextraction fiber as the adsorbant, monoterpenes were successfully detected and identified in forest air samples. Gas chromatography/mass chromatogram of monoterpenes in the atmosphere of a conifer forest and that of serum from subjects who were walking in a forest were found to be similar each other. The amounts of α-pinene in the subjects became several folds higher after forest walking. The results indicate that monoterpenes in the atmosphere of conifer forests are transferred to and accumulate in subjects by inhalation while they are exposed to this type of environment. PMID:26819913

Synthesis of Globulins in Maize Embryos 1

PubMed Central

Kriz, Alan L.; Schwartz, Drew

1986-01-01

The two major components of the globulin fraction in Zea mays embryos are specified by the Prot gene. Pulse-chase analysis of protein synthesis in cultured, immature embryos indicates that the smaller Prot-specific polypeptide, PROT, is derived from the larger polypeptide, PROT'. These experiments also demonstrate that PROT' is derived from a short-lived precursor polypeptide, prePROT'. The primary Prot-specific translation product, as detected by in vitro translation of immature embryo RNA, is of a lower apparent molecular weight than pre-PROT', suggesting the involvement of co- and/or post-translational modification in the production of prePROT'. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 PMID:16665136

Cutin monomer induces expression of the rice OsLTP5 lipid transfer protein gene.

PubMed

Kim, Tae Hyun; Park, Jong Ho; Kim, Moon Chul; Cho, Sung Ho

2008-01-01

Treatment with the cutin monomer 16-hydroxypalmitic acid (HPA), a major component of cutin, elicited the synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in rice leaves and induced the expression of the lipid transfer protein gene OsLTP5. Treatment with HPA also induced expression of OsLTP1, OsLTP2, and the pathogen-related PR-10 genes to a lesser extent. The OsLTP5 transcript was expressed prominently in stems and flowers, but was barely detectable in leaves. Expression of OsLTP5 was induced in shoots in response to ABA and salicylic acid. It is proposed that HPA is perceived by rice as a signal, inducing defense reactions.

Giant-cell interstitial pneumonia in a gas station worker.

PubMed

Lee, S M; Moon, C H; Oh, Y B; Kim, H Y; Ahn, Y; Ko, E J; Joo, J E

1998-10-01

Giant-cell interstitial Pneumonia (GIP) is a very uncommon respiratory disease. The majority of cases of GIP are caused by exposure to cobalt, tungsten and other hard metals. In this report, we describe GIP in a patient who worked in gas station and dealt in propane gas vessels. He presented with clinical features of chronic interstitial lung disease and underwent an open lung biopsy that showed DIP-like reaction with large numbers of intra-alveolar macrophages and numerous large, multinucleated histiocytes which were admixed with the macrophages. Analysis of lung tissue for hard metals was done. Cobalt was the main component of detected hard metals. Corticosteroid therapy was started and he recovered fully.

Viscoelastic Postseismic Rebound to Strike-Slip Earthquakes in Regions of Oblique Plate Convergence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Steven C.

1999-01-01

According to the slip partitioning concept, the trench parallel component of relative plate motion in regions of oblique convergence is accommodated by strike-slip faulting in the overriding continental lithosphere. The pattern of postseismic surface deformation due to viscoelastic flow in the lower crust and asthenosphere following a major earthquake on such a fault is modified from that predicted from the conventual elastic layer over viscoelastic halfspace model by the presence of the subducting slab. The predicted effects, such as a partial suppression of the postseismic velocities by 1 cm/yr or more immediately following a moderate to great earthquake, are potentially detectable using contemporary geodetic techniques.

Molecular cloning and immunoglobulin E reactivity of a natural rubber latex lecithinase homologue, the major allergenic component of Hev b 4.

PubMed

Sunderasan, E; Bahari, A; Arif, S A M; Zainal, Z; Hamilton, R G; Yeang, H Y

2005-11-01

Hev b 4 is an allergenic natural rubber latex (NRL) protein complex that is reactive in skin prick tests and in vitro immunoassays. On SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Hev b 4 is discerned predominantly at 53-55 kDa together with a 57 kDa minor component previously identified as a cyanogenic glucosidase. Of the 13 NRL allergens recognized by the International Union of Immunological Societies, the 53-55 kDa Hev b 4 major protein is the only candidate that lacks complete cDNA and protein sequence information. We sought to clone the transcript encoding the Hev b 4 major protein, and characterize the native protein and its recombinant form in relation to IgE binding. The 5'/3' rapid amplification of cDNA ends method was employed to obtain the complete cDNA of the Hev b 4 major protein. A recombinant form of the protein was over-expressed in Escherichia coli. The native Hev b 4 major protein was deglycosylated by trifluoromethane sulphonic acid. Western immunoblots of the native, deglycosylated and recombinant proteins were performed using both polyclonal antibodies and sera from latex-allergic patients. The cDNA encoding the Hev b 4 major protein was cloned. Its open reading frame matched lecithinases in the conserved domain database and contained 10 predicted glycosylation sites. Detection of glycans on the Hev b 4 lecithinase homologue confirmed it to be a glycoprotein. The deglycosylated lecithinase homologue was discerned at 40 kDa on SDS-PAGE, this being comparable to the 38.53 kDa mass predicted by its cDNA. Deglycosylation of the lecithinase homologue resulted in the loss of IgE recognition, although reactivity to polyclonal rabbit anti-Hev b 4 was retained. IgE from latex-allergic patients also failed to recognize the non-glycosylated E. coli recombinant lecithinase homologue. The IgE epitopes of the Hev b 4 lecithinase homologue reside mainly in its carbohydrate moiety, which also account for the discrepancy between the observed molecular weight of the protein and the value calculated from its cDNA.

A diffusion-matched principal component analysis (DM-PCA) based two-channel denoising procedure for high-resolution diffusion-weighted MRI

PubMed Central

Chang, Hing-Chiu; Bilgin, Ali; Bernstein, Adam; Trouard, Theodore P.

2018-01-01

Over the past several years, significant efforts have been made to improve the spatial resolution of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), aiming at better detecting subtle lesions and more reliably resolving white-matter fiber tracts. A major concern with high-resolution DWI is the limited signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which may significantly offset the advantages of high spatial resolution. Although the SNR of DWI data can be improved by denoising in post-processing, existing denoising procedures may potentially reduce the anatomic resolvability of high-resolution imaging data. Additionally, non-Gaussian noise induced signal bias in low-SNR DWI data may not always be corrected with existing denoising approaches. Here we report an improved denoising procedure, termed diffusion-matched principal component analysis (DM-PCA), which comprises 1) identifying a group of (not necessarily neighboring) voxels that demonstrate very similar magnitude signal variation patterns along the diffusion dimension, 2) correcting low-frequency phase variations in complex-valued DWI data, 3) performing PCA along the diffusion dimension for real- and imaginary-components (in two separate channels) of phase-corrected DWI voxels with matched diffusion properties, 4) suppressing the noisy PCA components in real- and imaginary-components, separately, of phase-corrected DWI data, and 5) combining real- and imaginary-components of denoised DWI data. Our data show that the new two-channel (i.e., for real- and imaginary-components) DM-PCA denoising procedure performs reliably without noticeably compromising anatomic resolvability. Non-Gaussian noise induced signal bias could also be reduced with the new denoising method. The DM-PCA based denoising procedure should prove highly valuable for high-resolution DWI studies in research and clinical uses. PMID:29694400

Investigation of water quality and aquatic-community structure in Village and Valley Creeks, City of Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, 2000-01

USGS Publications Warehouse

McPherson, Ann K.; Abrahamsen, Thomas A.; Journey, Celeste A.

2002-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a 16-month investigation of water quality, aquatic-community structure, bed sediment, and fish tissue in Village and Valley Creeks, two urban streams that drain areas of highly intensive residential, commercial, and industrial land use in Birmingham, Alabama. Water-quality data were collected between February 2000 and March 2001 at four sites on Village Creek, three sites on Valley Creek, and at two reference sites near Birmingham?Fivemile Creek and Little Cahaba River, both of which drain less-urbanized areas. Stream samples were analyzed for major ions, nutrients, fecal bacteria, trace and major elements, pesticides, and selected organic constituents. Bed-sediment and fish-tissue samples were analyzed for trace and major elements, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and additional organic compounds. Aquatic-community structure was evaluated by conducting one survey of the fish community and in-stream habitat and two surveys of the benthic-invertebrate community. Bed-sediment and fish-tissue samples, benthic-invertebrates, and habitat data were collected between June 2000 and October 2000 at six of the nine water-quality sites; fish communities were evaluated in April and May 2001 at the six sites where habitat and benthic-invertebrate data were collected. The occurrence and distribution of chemical constituents in the water column and bed sediment provided an initial assessment of water quality in the streams. The structure of the aquatic communities, the physical condition of the fish, and the chemical analyses of fish tissue provided an indication of the cumulative effects of water quality on the aquatic biota. Water chemistry was similar at all sites, characterized by strong calcium-bicarbonate component and magnesium components. Median concentrations of total nitrogen and total phosphorus were highest at the headwaters of Valley Creek and lowest at the reference site on Fivemile Creek. In Village Creek, median concentrations of nitrite and ammonia increased in a downstream direction. In Valley Creek, median concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, organic nitrogen, suspended phosphorus, and orthophosphate decreased in a downstream direction. Median concentrations of Escherichia coli and fecal coliform bacteria were highest at the most upstream site of Valley Creek and lowest at the reference site on Fivemile Creek. Concentrations of enterococci exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criterion in 80 percent of the samples; concentrations of Escherichia coli exceeded the criterion in 56 percent of the samples. Concentrations of bacteria at the downstream sites on Village and Valley Creeks were elevated during high flow rather than low flow, indicating the presence of nonpoint sources. Surface-water samples were analyzed for chemical compounds that are commonly found in wastewater and urban runoff. The median number of wastewater indicators was highest at the most upstream site on Valley Creek and lowest at the reference site on Fivemile Creek. Concentrations of total recoverable cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in surface water exceeded acute and chronic aquatic life criteria in up to 24 percent of the samples that were analyzed for trace and major elements. High concentrations of trace and major elements in the water column were detected most frequently during high flow, indicating the presence of nonpoint sources. Of the 24 pesticides detected in surface water, 17 were herbicides and 7 were insecticides. Atrazine, simazine, and prometon were the most commonly detected herbicides; diazinon, chlorpyrifos, and carbaryl were the most commonly detected insecticides. Concentrations of atrazine, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion periodically exceeded criteria for the protection of aquatic life. Trace-element priority pollutants, pesticides, and other organic compounds were detected in higher concentrations in bed sediment at the Village and Valley Creek sites t

A susceptible-infected model of early detection of respiratory infection outbreaks on a background of influenza

PubMed Central

Mohtashemi, Mojdeh; Szolovits, Peter; Dunyak, James; Mandl, Kenneth D.

2013-01-01

The threat of biological warfare and the emergence of new infectious agents spreading at a global scale have highlighted the need for major enhancements to the public health infrastructure. Early detection of epidemics of infectious diseases requires both real-time data and real-time interpretation of data. Despite moderate advancements in data acquisition, the state of the practice for real-time analysis of data remains inadequate. We present a nonlinear mathematical framework for modeling the transient dynamics of influenza, applied to historical data sets of patients with influenza-like illness. We estimate the vital time-varying epidemiological parameters of infections from historical data, representing normal epidemiological trends. We then introduce simulated outbreaks of different shapes and magnitudes into the historical data, and estimate the parameters representing the infection rates of anomalous deviations from normal trends. Finally, a dynamic threshold-based detection algorithm is devised to assess the timeliness and sensitivity of detecting the irregularities in the data, under a fixed low false-positive rate. We find that the detection algorithm can identify such designated abnormalities in the data with high sensitivity with specificity held at 97%, but more importantly, early during an outbreak. The proposed methodology can be applied to a broad range of influenza-like infectious diseases, whether naturally occurring or a result of bioterrorism, and thus can be an integral component of a real-time surveillance system. PMID:16556450

Occurrence and sources of antibiotics and their metabolites in river water, WWTPs, and swine wastewater in Jiulongjiang River basin, south China.

PubMed

Jiang, Hongyou; Zhang, Dandan; Xiao, Shichang; Geng, Chunnv; Zhang, Xian

2013-12-01

In this study, the occurrence and sources of five cataloged antibiotics and metabolites were studied in Jiulongjiang River basin, south China. Nineteen antibiotics and 13 metabolites were detected in water samples from 16 river sampling sites, wastewater from 5 swine-raising facilities, and effluent from 5 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The results showed that 12 antibiotics and 6 metabolites were detected in river water samples. Sulfonamides (SAs) and their metabolites were detected at high concentrations (8.59-158.94 ng/L). Tetracyclines (TCs) and their metabolites were frequently detected in swine wastewater, and the maximum concentration was up to the level in milligram per liter. Macrolides (MLs) and β-lactams (β-Ls) were found in all WWTP effluent samples and some river samples, while they were never found in any of the swine wastewater samples. SAs and quinolones (QNs) were detected in all samples. Hierarchical cluster analysis of 16 surface water samples was applied to achieve the spatial distribution characteristics of antibiotics in the Jiulongjiang River. As a result, two categories were obviously obtained. Principal component analysis and redundancy analysis showed that TCs and SAs as well as their metabolites were the major antibiotics in Jiulongjiang River, and they mainly originated from swine wastewater, while the QNs, MLs, and β-Ls in the Jiulongjiang River came from WWTP effluent.

Investigation of a Moire Based Crack Detection Technique for Propulsion Health Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woike, Mark R.; Abudl-Aziz, Ali; Fralick, Gustave C.; Wrbanek, John D.

2012-01-01

The development of techniques for the health monitoring of the rotating components in gas turbine engines is of major interest to NASA s Aviation Safety Program. As part of this on-going effort several experiments utilizing a novel optical Moir based concept along with external blade tip clearance and shaft displacement instrumentation were conducted on a simulated turbine engine disk as a means of demonstrating a potential optical crack detection technique. A Moir pattern results from the overlap of two repetitive patterns with slightly different periods. With this technique, it is possible to detect very small differences in spacing and hence radial growth in a rotating disk due to a flaw such as a crack. The experiment involved etching a circular reference pattern on a subscale engine disk that had a 50.8 mm (2 in.) long notch machined into it to simulate a crack. The disk was operated at speeds up to 12 000 rpm and the Moir pattern due to the shift with respect to the reference pattern was monitored as a means of detecting the radial growth of the disk due to the defect. In addition, blade displacement data were acquired using external blade tip clearance and shaft displacement sensors as a means of confirming the data obtained from the optical technique. The results of the crack detection experiments and its associated analysis are presented in this paper.

Comparing the utility of image algebra operations for characterizing landscape changes: the case of the Mediterranean coast.

PubMed

Alphan, Hakan

2011-11-01

The aim of this study is to compare various image algebra procedures for their efficiency in locating and identifying different types of landscape changes on the margin of a Mediterranean coastal plain, Cukurova, Turkey. Image differencing and ratioing were applied to the reflective bands of Landsat TM datasets acquired in 1984 and 2006. Normalized Difference Vegetation index (NDVI) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) differencing were also applied. The resulting images were tested for their capacity to detect nine change phenomena, which were a priori defined in a three-level classification scheme. These change phenomena included agricultural encroachment, sand dune afforestation, coastline changes and removal/expansion of reed beds. The percentage overall accuracies of different algebra products for each phenomenon were calculated and compared. The results showed that some of the changes such as sand dune afforestation and reed bed expansion were detected with accuracies varying between 85 and 97% by the majority of the algebra operations, while some other changes such as logging could only be detected by mid-infrared (MIR) ratioing. For optimizing change detection in similar coastal landscapes, underlying causes of these changes were discussed and the guidelines for selecting band and algebra operations were provided. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preliminary differences in resting state MEG functional connectivity pre- and post-ketamine in major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Nugent, Allison C; Robinson, Stephen E; Coppola, Richard; Zarate, Carlos A

2016-08-30

Functional neuroimaging techniques including magnetoencephalography (MEG) have demonstrated that the brain is organized into networks displaying correlated activity. Group connectivity differences between healthy controls and participants with major depressive disorder (MDD) can be detected using temporal independent components analysis (ICA) on beta-bandpass filtered Hilbert envelope MEG data. However, the response of these networks to treatment is unknown. Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, exerts rapid antidepressant effects. We obtained MEG recordings before and after open-label infusion of 0.5mg/kg ketamine in MDD subjects (N=13) and examined networks previously shown to differ between healthy individuals and those with MDD. Connectivity between the amygdala and an insulo-temporal component decreased post-ketamine in MDD subjects towards that observed in control subjects at baseline. Decreased baseline connectivity of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) with a bilateral precentral network had previously been observed in MDD compared to healthy controls, and the change in connectivity post-ketamine was proportional to the change in sgACC glucose metabolism in a subset (N=8) of subjects receiving [11F]FDG-PET imaging. Ketamine appeared to reduce connectivity, regardless of whether connectivity was abnormally high or low compared to controls at baseline. These preliminary findings suggest that sgACC connectivity may be directly related to glutamate levels. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Overactive lifestyle in patients with fibromyalgia as a core feature of bipolar spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Alciati, Alessandra; Sarzi-Puttini, Piercarlo; Batticciotto, Alberto; Torta, Riccardo; Gesuele, Felice; Atzeni, Fabiola; Angst, Jules

2012-01-01

To test the hypothesis that the premorbid overactivity previously described in subjects with fibromyalgia is a core feature of the manic/hypomanic symptoms characterising bipolar spectrum disorders. 110 consecutive patients with fibromyalgia were assessed for bipolar spectrum disorders using both categorical and dimensional approaches. The first was based on a version of the DSM-IV SCID-CV interview, modified to improve the detection of bipolar spectrum disorders, the second on the hypomania symptom checklist HCL-32, which adopts a dimensional perspective of the manic/hypomanic component of mood by including sub-syndromal hypomania. Both DSM-IV and Zurich criteria diagnosed high rates of bipolar spectrum disorder in patients with fibromyalgia (70% and 86.3%, respectively). Individuals with a major bipolar spectrum disorder (bipolar II disorder) and with a minor bipolar spectrum disorder (subthreshold depression and hypomania) did not differ in their demographic and clinical aspects. Hypomanic symptom counts on the HCL-32 confirmed high estimates of the bipolar spectrum, with 79% of subjects with fibromyalgia scoring 14 (threshold for hypomania) or above. Overactivity reported in previous studies may be considered a core feature of hypomanic symptoms or syndromes comorbid with bipolar spectrum disorders. Major and minor bipolar spectrum disorders are not associated with differences in demographic or clinical characteristics, suggesting that fibromyalgia rather than being related specifically to depression is related to bipolar spectrum disorders and in particular to the hypomania/overactivity component.

Intracellular Distribution of Enzymes of the Cytidine Diphosphate Choline Pathway in Castor Bean Endosperm

PubMed Central

Lord, J. M.; Kagawa, T.; Beevers, Harry

1972-01-01

The occurrence and subcellular distribution of enzymes of the cytidine diphosphate choline pathway of lecithin synthesis have been examined. Choline kinase (EC 2.7.1.32) was completely soluble, while phosphorylcholine-cytidyl transferase (EC 2.7.7.15) and phosphorylcholine-glyceride transferase (EC 2.7.8.2) were associated with particulate fractions. Although components sedimenting at 10,000 to 100,000 × g contained both enzymes, phosphorylcholine-cytidyl transferase and particularly phosphorylcholine-glyceride transferase were present in the 10,000 × g pellet, which contained the major organelles, mitochondria, and glyoxysomes. When the crude homogenate was centrifuged on a sucrose density gradient, four major bands of particulate protein were recovered. A band at density 1.24 g/cm3 contained the glyoxysomes and was devoid of phosphorylcholine-cytidyl transferase and phosphorylcholine-glyceride transferase activity. Enzyme activity was barely detectable in the mitochondria, at density 1.18 g/cm2. Phosphorylcholine-glyceride transferase was found almost exclusively in a sharp band at density 1.12 g/cm3, and phosphorylcholinecytidyl transferase was found in the uppermost band at density 1.08 g/cm3. Thus, for the synthesis of lecithin in their membranes, the glyoxysomes and mitochondria depend on enzymes elsewhere in the cell; the final two steps in lecithin formation occur, apparently exclusively, in separate particulate cell components. Images PMID:4506764

Quality evaluation of Houttuynia cordata Thunb. by high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection (HPLC-DAD).

PubMed

Yang, Zhan-nan; Sun, Yi-ming; Luo, Shi-qiong; Chen, Jin-wu; Chen, Jin-wu; Yu, Zheng-wen; Sun, Min

2014-03-01

A new, validated method, developed for the simultaneous determination of 16 phenolics (chlorogenic acid, scopoletin, vitexin, rutin, afzelin, isoquercitrin, narirutin, kaempferitrin, quercitrin, quercetin, kaempferol, chrysosplenol D, vitexicarpin, 5-hydroxy-3,3',4',7-tetramethoxy flavonoids, 5-hydroxy-3,4',6,7-tetramethoxy flavonoids and kaempferol-3,7,4'-trimethyl ether) in Houttuynia cordata Thunb. was successfully applied to 35 batches of samples collected from different regions or at different times and their total antioxidant activities (TAAs) were investigated. The aim was to develop a quality control method to simultaneously determine the major active components in H. cordata. The HPLC-DAD method was performed using a reverse-phase C18 column with a gradient elution system (acetonitrile-methanol-water) and simultaneous detection at 345 nm. Linear behaviors of method for all the analytes were observed with linear regression relationship (r(2)>0.999) at the concentration ranges investigated. The recoveries of the 16 phenolics ranged from 98.93% to 101.26%. The samples analyzed were differentiated and classified based on the contents of the 16 characteristic compounds and the TAA using hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA). The results analyzed showed that similar chemical profiles and TAAs were divided into the same group. There was some evidence that active compounds, although they varied significantly, may possess uniform anti-oxidant activities and have potentially synergistic effects.

Establishment and application of milk fingerprint by gel filtration chromatography.

PubMed

Gao, P; Li, J; Li, Z; Hao, J; Zan, L

2016-12-01

Raw milk adulteration frequently occurs in undeveloped countries. It not only reduces the nutritional value of milk, but it is also harmful to consumers. In this paper, we focused on investigating an efficient method for the quality control of raw milk protein. A gel filtration chromatography (GFC) fingerprint method combined with chemometrics was developed for fingerprint analysis of raw milk. To optimize the GFC conditions, milk fat was removed by centrifugation, and GFC analysis was performed on a Superdex 75 10/300GL column (Just Scientific, Shanghai, China) with 0.2 M NaH 2 PO 4 -Na 2 HPO 4 buffer (pH 7.0) as the mobile phase. The flow rate was 0.5mL/min, and the detection wavelength was set at 280 nm. Ten batches of 120 raw milk samples were analyzed to establish the GFC fingerprint under optimal conditions. Six major peaks common to the chromatogram of each raw milk sample were selected for fingerprint analysis, and the characteristic peaks were used to establish a standard chromatographic fingerprint. Principal component analysis was then applied to classify GFC information of adulterated milk and raw milk, allowing adulterated samples to be effectively screened out from the raw milk in principal component analysis scores plot. The fingerprint method demonstrates promising features in detecting milk protein adulteration. Copyright © 2016 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The corona of the broad-line radio galaxy 3C 390.3

DOE PAGES

Lohfink, A. M.; Ogle, P.; Tombesi, F.; ...

2015-11-13

We present the results from a joint Suzaku/NuSTAR broadband spectral analysis of 3C 390.3. The high quality data enables us to clearly separate the primary continuum from the reprocessed components allowing us to detect a high energy spectral cut-off (more » $${E}_{\\mathrm{cut}}={117}_{-14}^{+18}$$ keV), and to place constraints on the Comptonization parameters of the primary continuum for the first time. The hard over soft compactness is $${69}_{-24}^{+124}$$ and the optical depth is $${4.1}_{-3.6}^{+0.5},$$ this leads to an electron temperature of $${30}_{-8}^{+32}$$ keV. Expanding our study of the Comptonization spectrum to the optical/UV by studying the simultaneous Swift-UVOT data, we find indications that the compactness of the corona allows only a small fraction of the total UV/optical flux to be Comptonized. Our analysis of the reprocessed emission show that 3C 390.3 only has a small amount of reflection (R ~ 0.3), and of that the vast majority is from distant neutral matter. Furthermore, we also discover a soft-X-ray excess in the source, which can be described by a weak ionized reflection component from the inner parts of the accretion disk. In addition to the backscattered emission, we also detect the highly ionized iron emission lines Fe xxv and Fe xxvi.« less

Pinonaldehyde and some other organics in rain and snow in central Japan.

PubMed

Satsumabayashi, H; Nishizawa, H; Yokouchi, Y; Ueda, H

2001-11-01

Solvent-extractable organic compounds in the rain and snow collected at local cities in the mountainous region in central Japan, were analyzed by GC/MS and GC. Pinonaldehyde (2,2-dimethyl-3-acetyl-cyclobutyl-ethanal), an atmospheric reaction product of alpha-pinene, was detected in the rain and snow for the first time, and n-alkanes (C17-C33), fatty acids (C8-C23), and benzoic acid were also detected as major organic components. Concentrations of pinonaldehyde, C17-C33 n-alkanes, C8-C11 fatty acids, C12-C23 fatty acids and benzoic acid ranged between <0.02-13, 0.10-35, 0.55-5.7, 4.2-19 and <0.02-6.0 microg/l, respectively. Their composition showed some difference in summer and winter. In summer, fatty acids and benzoic acid were more abundant, while pinonaldehyde and n-alkanes were much less. Higher photochemical reactivity and higher bioactivity in summer could explain these seasonal changes except for pinonaldehyde, which would suffer from further oxidation in the atmosphere after its photochemical production from alpha-pinene. Predominance of pinonaldehyde and C12-C23 fatty acids in the rain and snow showed a remarkable contrast to n-alkanes in aerosol phase, which were the most abundant components. It indicated that oxygenated products from biogenic compounds might be important as cloud condensation nuclei in forest areas.

Oligomers, organosulfates, and nitroxy organosulfates in rainwater identified by ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization FT-ICR mass spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altieri, K. E.; Turpin, B. J.; Seitzinger, S. P.

2008-09-01

Wet deposition is an important removal mechanism for atmospheric organic matter, and a potentially important input for receiving ecosystems, yet less than 50% of rainwater organic matter is considered chemically characterized. Precipitation samples collected in New Jersey, USA, were analyzed by negative ion ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Elemental compositions of 552 unique molecular species were determined in the mass range 50 500 Da in the rainwater. Three main groups of organic compounds were identified: compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (CHO) only, sulfur (S) containing CHOS compounds, and S- and nitrogen containing CHONS compounds. Organic acids commonly identified in precipitation were detected, as well as linear alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are persistent pollutants commonly measured in river water, seawater, and sediments, but to our knowledge, not previously documented in atmospheric samples. Within the three main groups of compounds detected in the rainwater, oligomers, organosulfates, and nitroxy-organosulfates were identified. The majority of the compounds identified are products of atmospheric reactions and are known contributors to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed from gas phase, aerosol phase, and in-cloud reactions in the atmosphere. It is suggested that the large uncharacterized component of SOA is the main contributor to the large uncharacterized component of rainwater organic matter.

Compton imaging tomography for nondestructive evaluation of large multilayer aircraft components and structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanov, Volodymyr; Grubsky, Victor; Zahiri, Feraidoon

2017-02-01

We present a novel NDT/NDE tool for non-contact, single-sided 3D inspection of aerospace components, based on Compton Imaging Tomography (CIT) technique, which is applicable to large, non-uniform, and/or multilayer structures made of composites or lightweight metals. CIT is based on the registration of Compton-scattered X-rays, and permits the reconstruction of the full 3D (tomographic) image of the inspected objects. Unlike conventional computerized tomography (CT), CIT requires only single-sided access to objects, and therefore can be applied to large structures without their disassembly. The developed tool provides accurate detection, identification, and precise 3D localizations and measurements of any possible internal and surface defects (corrosions, cracks, voids, delaminations, porosity, and inclusions), and also disbonds, core and skin defects, and intrusion of foreign fluids (e.g., fresh and salt water, oil) inside of honeycomb sandwich structures. The NDE capabilities of the system were successfully demonstrated on various aerospace structure samples provided by several major aerospace companies. Such a CIT-based tool can detect and localize individual internal defects with dimensions about 1-2 mm3, and honeycomb disbond defects less than 6 mm by 6 mm area with the variations in the thickness of the adhesive by 100 m. Current maximum scanning speed of aircraft/spacecraft structures is about 5-8 min/ft2 (50-80 min/m2).

Usefulness of component resolved analysis of cat allergy in routine clinical practice.

PubMed

Eder, Katharina; Becker, Sven; San Nicoló, Marion; Berghaus, Alexander; Gröger, Moritz

2016-01-01

Cat allergy is of great importance, and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. Cat allergens and house dust mite allergens represent the major indoor allergens; however, they are ubiquitous. Cat sensitization and allergy are known risk factors for rhinitis, bronchial hyperreactivity and asthma. Thus, the diagnosis of sensitization to cats is important for any allergist. 70 patients with positive skin prick tests for cats were retrospectively compared regarding their skin prick test results, as well as their specific immunoglobulin E antibody profiles with regard to their responses to the native cat extract, rFel d 1, nFel d 2 and rFel d 4. 35 patients were allergic to cats, as determined by positive anamnesis and/or nasal provocation with cat allergens, and 35 patients exhibited clinically non-relevant sensitization, as indicated by negative anamnesis and/or a negative nasal allergen challenge. Native cat extract serology testing detected 100% of patients who were allergic to cats but missed eight patients who showed sensitization in the skin prick test and did not have allergic symptoms. The median values of the skin prick test, as well as those of the specific immunoglobulin E antibodies against the native cat extract, were significantly higher for allergic patients than for patients with clinically non-relevant sensitization. Component based diagnostic testing to rFel d 1 was not as reliable. Sensitization to nFel d 2 and rFel d 4 was seen only in individual patients. Extract based diagnostic methods for identifying cat allergy and sensitization, such as the skin prick test and native cat extract serology, remain crucial in routine clinical practice. In our study, component based diagnostic testing could not replace these methods with regard to the detection of sensitization to cats and differentiation between allergy and sensitization without clinical relevance. However, component resolved allergy diagnostic tools have individual implications, and future studies may facilitate a better understanding of its use and subsequently may improve the clinical management of allergic patients.

Broadband X-Ray Spectra of GX 339-4 and the Geometry of Accreting Black Holes in the Hard State

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsick, John A.; Kalemci, Emrah; Kaaret, Philip; Markoff, Sera; Corbel, Stephane; Migliari, Simone; Fender, Rob; Bailyn, Charles D.; Buxton, Michelle M.

2008-01-01

A major question in the study of black hole binaries involves our understanding of the accretion geometry when the sources are in the "hard" state, with an X-ray energy spectrum dominated by a hard power-law component and radio emission coming from a steady "compact" jet. Although the common hard state picture is that the accretion disk is truncated, perhaps at hundreds of gravitational radii (Rg) from the black hole, recent results for the recurrent transient GX 339-4 by Miller and coworkers show evidence for disk material very close to the black hole's innermost stable circular orbit. That work studied GX 339-4 at a luminosity of approximately 5% of the Eddington limit (L(sub Edd) and used parameters from a relativistic reflection model and the presence of a thermal component as diagnostics. Here we use similar diagnostics but extend the study to lower luminosities (2.3% and 0.8% L(sub Edd)) using Swift and RXTE observations of GX 339-4. We detect a thermal component with an inner disk temperature of approximately 0.2 keV at 2.3% L (sub Edd). At both luminosities, we detect broad features due to iron K-alpha that are likely related to reflection of hard X-rays off disk material. If these features are broadened by relativistic effects, they indicate that the material resides within 10 Rg, and the measurements are consistent with the disk's inner radius remaining at approximately 4 Rg down to 0.8% L(sub Edd). However, we also discuss an alternative model for the broadening, and we note that the evolution of the thermal component is not entirely consistent with the constant inner radius interpretation. Finally, we discuss the results in terms of recent theoretical work by Liu and co-workers on the possibility that material may condense out of an Advection-Dominated Accretion Flow to maintain an inner optically thick disk.

Application of SERS spectroscopy for detection of trace components in urinary deposits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pucetaite, Milda; Velicka, Martynas; Tamosaityte, Sandra; Sablinskas, Valdas

2014-03-01

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy can be a useful tool in regard to disease diagnosis and prevention. Advantage of SERS over conventional Raman spectroscopy is its significantly increased signal (up to factor of 106-108) which allows detection of trace amounts of substances in the sample. So far, this technique is successfully used for analysis of food, pieces of art and various biochemical/biomedical samples. In this work, we survey the possibility of applying SERS spectroscopy for detection of trace components in urinary deposits. Early discovery together with the identification of the exact chemical composition of urinary sediments could be crucial for taking appropriate preventive measures that inhibit kidney stone formation or growth processes. In this initial study, SERS spectra (excitation wavelength - 1064 nm) of main components of urinary deposits (calcium oxalate, uric acid, cystine, etc.) were recorded by using silver (Ag) colloid. Spectra of 10-3-10-5 M solutions were obtained. While no/small Raman signal was detected without the Ag colloid, characteristic peaks of the substances could be clearly separated in the SERS spectra. This suggests that even small amounts of the components could be detected and taken into account while determining the type of kidney stone forming in the urinary system. We found for the first time that trace amounts of components constituting urinary deposits could be detected by SERS spectroscopy. In the future study, the analysis of centrifuged urine samples will be carried out.

Utilization of non-conventional systems for conversion of biomass to food components: Potential for utilization of algae in engineered foods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karel, M.; Kamarei, A. R.; Nakhost, Z.

1985-01-01

The major nutritional components of the green algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) grown in a Constant Cell density Apparatus were determined. Suitable methodology to prepare proteins from which three major undesirable components of these cells (i.e., cell walls, nucleic acids, and pigments) were either removed or substantially reduced was developed. Results showed that processing of green algae to protein isolate enhances its potential nutritional and organoleptic acceptability as a diet component in a Controlled Ecological Life Support System.

Rapid detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biomarkers in biological fluids using surface-enhanced Raman scattering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Xiaomeng; Chen, Jing; Zhao, Yiping; Zughaier, Susu M.

2014-05-01

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes major infection not only in Cystic Fibrosis patients but also in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in critically ill patients in intensive care units. Successful antibiotic treatment of the infection relies on accurate and rapid identification of the infectious agents. Conventional microbiological detection methods usually take more than 3 days to obtain accurate results. We have developed a rapid diagnostic technique based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering to directly identify PA from biological fluids. P. aeruginosa strains, PAO1 and PA14, are cultured in lysogeny broth, and the SERS spectra of the broth show the signature Raman peaks from pyocyanin and pyoverdine, two major biomarkers that P. aeruginosa secretes during its growth, as well as lipopolysaccharides. This provides the evidence that the presence of these biomarkers can be used to indicate P. aeruginosa infection. A total of 22 clinical exhaled breath condensates (EBC) samples were obtained from subjects with CF disease and from non-CF healthy donors. SERS spectra of these EBC samples were obtained and further analyzed by both principle component analysis and partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). PLS-DA can discriminate the samples with P. aeruginosa infection and the ones without P. aeruginosa infection at 99.3% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity. In addition, this technique can also discriminate samples from subject with CF disease and healthy donor with 97.5% sensitivity and 100% specificity. These results demonstrate the potential of using SERS of EBC samples as a rapid diagnostic tool to detect PA infection.

A Small Leak Detection Method Based on VMD Adaptive De-Noising and Ambiguity Correlation Classification Intended for Natural Gas Pipelines.

PubMed

Xiao, Qiyang; Li, Jian; Bai, Zhiliang; Sun, Jiedi; Zhou, Nan; Zeng, Zhoumo

2016-12-13

In this study, a small leak detection method based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and ambiguity correlation classification (ACC) is proposed. The signals acquired from sensors were decomposed using the VMD, and numerous components were obtained. According to the probability density function (PDF), an adaptive de-noising algorithm based on VMD is proposed for noise component processing and de-noised components reconstruction. Furthermore, the ambiguity function image was employed for analysis of the reconstructed signals. Based on the correlation coefficient, ACC is proposed to detect the small leak of pipeline. The analysis of pipeline leakage signals, using 1 mm and 2 mm leaks, has shown that proposed detection method can detect a small leak accurately and effectively. Moreover, the experimental results have shown that the proposed method achieved better performances than support vector machine (SVM) and back propagation neural network (BP) methods.

A Small Leak Detection Method Based on VMD Adaptive De-Noising and Ambiguity Correlation Classification Intended for Natural Gas Pipelines

PubMed Central

Xiao, Qiyang; Li, Jian; Bai, Zhiliang; Sun, Jiedi; Zhou, Nan; Zeng, Zhoumo

2016-01-01

In this study, a small leak detection method based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and ambiguity correlation classification (ACC) is proposed. The signals acquired from sensors were decomposed using the VMD, and numerous components were obtained. According to the probability density function (PDF), an adaptive de-noising algorithm based on VMD is proposed for noise component processing and de-noised components reconstruction. Furthermore, the ambiguity function image was employed for analysis of the reconstructed signals. Based on the correlation coefficient, ACC is proposed to detect the small leak of pipeline. The analysis of pipeline leakage signals, using 1 mm and 2 mm leaks, has shown that proposed detection method can detect a small leak accurately and effectively. Moreover, the experimental results have shown that the proposed method achieved better performances than support vector machine (SVM) and back propagation neural network (BP) methods. PMID:27983577

Sensor devices comprising a metal-organic framework material and methods of making and using the same

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

Wang, Alan X.; Chang, Chih-hung; Kim, Ki-Joong

Disclosed herein are embodiments of sensor devices comprising a sensing component able to determine the presence of, detect, and/or quantify detectable species in a variety of environments and applications. The sensing components disclosed herein can comprise MOF materials, plasmonic nanomaterials, or combinations thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, light guides can be coupled with the sensing components described herein to provide sensor devices capable of increased NIR detection sensitivity in determining the presence of detectable species, such as gases and volatile organic compounds. In another exemplary embodiment, optical properties of the plasmonic nanomaterials combined with MOF materials can be monitored directlymore » to detect analyte species through their impact on external conditions surrounding the particle or as a result of charge transfer to and from the plasmonic material as a result of interactions with the plasmonic material and/or the MOF material.« less

Acquisition of electrical signals using commercial electronic components for detection system of Lead ion in distilled water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pujiyanto; Yasin, M.; Rusydi, F.

2018-03-01

Development of lead ion detection systems is expected to have an advantage in terms of simplicity of the device and easy for concentration analysis of a lead ion with very high performance. One important part of lead ion detection systems are electrical signal acquisition parts. The electrical signal acquisition part uses the main electronic components: non inverting op-amplifier, instrumentation amplifier, multiplier circuit and logarithmic amplifier. Here will be shown the performance of lead ion detection systems when the existing electrical signal processors use commercial electronic components. The results that can be drawn from this experimental were the lead ion sensor that has been developed can be used to detect lead ions with a sensitivity of 10.48 mV/ppm with the linearity 97.11% and had a measurement range of 0.1 ppm to 80 ppm.

Multimodal integration of fMRI and EEG data for high spatial and temporal resolution analysis of brain networks

PubMed Central

Mantini, D.; Marzetti, L.; Corbetta, M.; Romani, G.L.; Del Gratta, C.

2017-01-01

Two major non-invasive brain mapping techniques, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have complementary advantages with regard to their spatial and temporal resolution. We propose an approach based on the integration of EEG and fMRI, enabling the EEG temporal dynamics of information processing to be characterized within spatially well-defined fMRI large-scale networks. First, the fMRI data are decomposed into networks by means of spatial independent component analysis (sICA), and those associated with intrinsic activity and/or responding to task performance are selected using information from the related time-courses. Next, the EEG data over all sensors are averaged with respect to event timing, thus calculating event-related potentials (ERPs). The ERPs are subjected to temporal ICA (tICA), and the resulting components are localized with the weighted minimum norm (WMNLS) algorithm using the task-related fMRI networks as priors. Finally, the temporal contribution of each ERP component in the areas belonging to the fMRI large-scale networks is estimated. The proposed approach has been evaluated on visual target detection data. Our results confirm that two different components, commonly observed in EEG when presenting novel and salient stimuli respectively, are related to the neuronal activation in large-scale networks, operating at different latencies and associated with different functional processes. PMID:20052528

Breast Shape Analysis With Curvature Estimates and Principal Component Analysis for Cosmetic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery.

PubMed

Catanuto, Giuseppe; Taher, Wafa; Rocco, Nicola; Catalano, Francesca; Allegra, Dario; Milotta, Filippo Luigi Maria; Stanco, Filippo; Gallo, Giovanni; Nava, Maurizio Bruno

2018-03-20

Breast shape is defined utilizing mainly qualitative assessment (full, flat, ptotic) or estimates, such as volume or distances between reference points, that cannot describe it reliably. We will quantitatively describe breast shape with two parameters derived from a statistical methodology denominated principal component analysis (PCA). We created a heterogeneous dataset of breast shapes acquired with a commercial infrared 3-dimensional scanner on which PCA was performed. We plotted on a Cartesian plane the two highest values of PCA for each breast (principal components 1 and 2). Testing of the methodology on a preoperative and postoperative surgical case and test-retest was performed by two operators. The first two principal components derived from PCA are able to characterize the shape of the breast included in the dataset. The test-retest demonstrated that different operators are able to obtain very similar values of PCA. The system is also able to identify major changes in the preoperative and postoperative stages of a two-stage reconstruction. Even minor changes were correctly detected by the system. This methodology can reliably describe the shape of a breast. An expert operator and a newly trained operator can reach similar results in a test/re-testing validation. Once developed and after further validation, this methodology could be employed as a good tool for outcome evaluation, auditing, and benchmarking.

System and method for bearing fault detection using stator current noise cancellation

DOEpatents

Zhou, Wei; Lu, Bin; Habetler, Thomas G.; Harley, Ronald G.; Theisen, Peter J.

2010-08-17

A system and method for detecting incipient mechanical motor faults by way of current noise cancellation is disclosed. The system includes a controller configured to detect indicia of incipient mechanical motor faults. The controller further includes a processor programmed to receive a baseline set of current data from an operating motor and define a noise component in the baseline set of current data. The processor is also programmed to repeatedly receive real-time operating current data from the operating motor and remove the noise component from the operating current data in real-time to isolate any fault components present in the operating current data. The processor is then programmed to generate a fault index for the operating current data based on any isolated fault components.

Simulating and Detecting Radiation-Induced Errors for Onboard Machine Learning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wagstaff, Kiri L.; Bornstein, Benjamin; Granat, Robert; Tang, Benyang; Turmon, Michael

2009-01-01

Spacecraft processors and memory are subjected to high radiation doses and therefore employ radiation-hardened components. However, these components are orders of magnitude more expensive than typical desktop components, and they lag years behind in terms of speed and size. We have integrated algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT) methods into onboard data analysis algorithms to detect radiation-induced errors, which ultimately may permit the use of spacecraft memory that need not be fully hardened, reducing cost and increasing capability at the same time. We have also developed a lightweight software radiation simulator, BITFLIPS, that permits evaluation of error detection strategies in a controlled fashion, including the specification of the radiation rate and selective exposure of individual data structures. Using BITFLIPS, we evaluated our error detection methods when using a support vector machine to analyze data collected by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. We found ABFT error detection for matrix multiplication is very successful, while error detection for Gaussian kernel computation still has room for improvement.

Rotor damage detection by using piezoelectric impedance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Y.; Tao, Y.; Mao, Y. F.

2016-04-01

Rotor is a core component of rotary machinery. Once the rotor has the damage, it may lead to a major accident. Thus the quantitative rotor damage detection method based on piezoelectric impedance is studied in this paper. With the governing equation of piezoelectric transducer (PZT) in a cylindrical coordinate, the displacement along the radius direction is derived. The charge of PZT is calculated by the electric displacement. Then, by the use of the obtained displacement and charge, an analytic piezoelectric impedance model of the rotor is built. Given the circular boundary condition of a rotor, annular elements are used as the analyzed objects and spectral element method is used to set up the damage detection model. The Electro-Mechanical (E/M) coupled impedance expression of an undamaged rotor is deduced with the application of a low-cost impedance test circuit. A Taylor expansion method is used to obtain the approximate E/M coupled impedance expression for the damaged rotor. After obtaining the difference between the undamaged and damaged rotor impedance, a rotor damage detection method is proposed. This method can directly calculate the change of bending stiffness of the structural elements, it follows that the rotor damage can be effectively detected. Finally, a preset damage configuration is used for the numerical simulation. The result shows that the quantitative damage detection algorithm based on spectral element method and piezoelectric impedance proposed in this paper can identify the location and the severity of the damaged rotor accurately.

On damage detection in wind turbine gearboxes using outlier analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antoniadou, Ifigeneia; Manson, Graeme; Dervilis, Nikolaos; Staszewski, Wieslaw J.; Worden, Keith

2012-04-01

The proportion of worldwide installed wind power in power systems increases over the years as a result of the steadily growing interest in renewable energy sources. Still, the advantages offered by the use of wind power are overshadowed by the high operational and maintenance costs, resulting in the low competitiveness of wind power in the energy market. In order to reduce the costs of corrective maintenance, the application of condition monitoring to gearboxes becomes highly important, since gearboxes are among the wind turbine components with the most frequent failure observations. While condition monitoring of gearboxes in general is common practice, with various methods having been developed over the last few decades, wind turbine gearbox condition monitoring faces a major challenge: the detection of faults under the time-varying load conditions prevailing in wind turbine systems. Classical time and frequency domain methods fail to detect faults under variable load conditions, due to the temporary effect that these faults have on vibration signals. This paper uses the statistical discipline of outlier analysis for the damage detection of gearbox tooth faults. A simplified two-degree-of-freedom gearbox model considering nonlinear backlash, time-periodic mesh stiffness and static transmission error, simulates the vibration signals to be analysed. Local stiffness reduction is used for the simulation of tooth faults and statistical processes determine the existence of intermittencies. The lowest level of fault detection, the threshold value, is considered and the Mahalanobis squared-distance is calculated for the novelty detection problem.

Comparative studies on polyphenolic profile and antimicrobial activity of propolis samples selected from distinctive geographical areas of Hungary.

PubMed

Molnár, Szabolcs; Mikuska, Kata; Patonay, Katalin; Sisa, Krisztina; Daood, Hussein G; Némedi, Erzsébet; Kiss, Attila

2017-06-01

The present paper reports about a comparative survey on the chemical composition, antioxidant activity and in vitro antimicrobial activity of selected propolis samples collected in Hungary. The total levels of polyphenolic compounds including flavonoids in ethanolic extracts of propolis were assessed. The major constituents of ethanolic extracts of propolis were analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis. Total phenolic content was determined spectrophotometrically using a Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Free radical scavenging activities were evaluated by means of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay. In vitro inhibitory activity was investigated against eight different bacterial strains by agar well diffusion assay. An extensive comparison was carried out regarding general parameters and specific polyphenolic components. The experimental data led to the observation that there is considerable variability in terms of the quality and the biological value of the distinctive propolis samples. These findings confirm the hypothesis of the study; versatile experimental results are required for proper, well-reasoned, balanced and standardised industrial applications. The major flavonoid components were found to be chrysin and pinocembrin; however, versatile minor components were also detected. The total polyphenol content of ethanolic extracts of propolis ranged between 104.6 mg/g and 286.9 mg/g (gallic acid equivalent). The radical scavenging activity of ethanolic extracts of propolis varied between 101.7 mg/g and 286.9 mg/g (ascorbic acid equivalent). As the quality of propolis depends on the season, vegetation and the area of collection, marked differences were found among the different products examined in terms of both composition and general characteristics. The studied samples exhibited significant differences in term of antimicrobial activities.

Terpenoid Metabolism in Wild-Type and Transgenic Arabidopsis PlantsW⃞

PubMed Central

Aharoni, Asaph; Giri, Ashok P.; Deuerlein, Stephan; Griepink, Frans; de Kogel, Willem-Jan; Verstappen, Francel W. A.; Verhoeven, Harrie A.; Jongsma, Maarten A.; Schwab, Wilfried; Bouwmeester, Harro J.

2003-01-01

Volatile components, such as terpenoids, are emitted from aerial parts of plants and play a major role in the interaction between plants and their environment. Analysis of the composition and emission pattern of volatiles in the model plant Arabidopsis showed that a range of volatile components are released, primarily from flowers. Most of the volatiles detected were monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, which in contrast to other volatiles showed a diurnal emission pattern. The active terpenoid metabolism in wild-type Arabidopsis provoked us to conduct an additional set of experiments in which transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing two different terpene synthases were generated. Leaves of transgenic plants constitutively expressing a dual linalool/nerolidol synthase in the plastids (FaNES1) produced linalool and its glycosylated and hydroxylated derivatives. The sum of glycosylated components was in some of the transgenic lines up to 40- to 60-fold higher than the sum of the corresponding free alcohols. Surprisingly, we also detected the production and emission of nerolidol, albeit at a low level, suggesting that a small pool of its precursor farnesyl diphosphate is present in the plastids. Transgenic lines with strong transgene expression showed growth retardation, possibly as a result of the depletion of isoprenoid precursors in the plastids. In dual-choice assays with Myzus persicae, the FaNES1-expressing lines significantly repelled the aphids. Overexpression of a typical cytosolic sesquiterpene synthase resulted in the production of only trace amounts of the expected sesquiterpene, suggesting tight control of the cytosolic pool of farnesyl diphosphate, the precursor for sesquiterpenoid biosynthesis. This study further demonstrates the value of Arabidopsis for studies of the biosynthesis and ecological role of terpenoids and provides new insights into their metabolism in wild-type and transgenic plants. PMID:14630967

Component-Resolved Diagnostic Study of Dermatophagoides Pteronyssinus Major Allergen Molecules in a Southern Chinese Cohort.

PubMed

Zeng, G; Luo, W; Zheng, P; Wei, N; Huang, H; Sun, B; Zhao, X

2015-01-01

Little is known about component-resolved diagnosis (CRD) for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Der p) sensitization in the Chinese population. We aimed to evaluate sensitization to Der p components in southern China. Two-hundred immunotherapy-naïve patients with asthma and/or rhinitis positive to specific IgE (sIgE) against Der p extract, along with 20 Der p-negative nonallergic healthy controls, were tested for sIgE against Der p 1, Der p 2, and Der p 10 using ImmunoCAP 100. Seventy-five were further examined with the ImmunoCAP Immuno Solid-phase Allergen Chip (ISAC). Der p 10-positive patients were also tested for sIgE against crude extracts of cockroach, moth, and shrimp. In total, 183 (91.5%) of the 200 patients were sensitized to Der p 1 and/or Der p 2. The proportion of positive results and the median level of s1gE against Der p 1 were higher in children than in adults. Der p 1 and Der p 2 correlated with Der p in sIgE levels. ImmunoCAP ISAC demonstrated 100% specificity and 84% sensitivity in detecting Der p 1, Der p 2, and Der p 10 compared with ImmunoCAP 100. Sensitization to Der p 10 correlated well with sIgE to shrimp, moths, cockroaches, Pen m 1, Bla g 7, and Ani s 3. The detection of Der p 1 and Der p 2 provided a good reflection of atopy to Der p in a Chinese cohort. Sensitization to Der p 10 may result from cross-reactivity with seafood and cockroaches in coastal southern China. ImmunoCAP ISAC may be a useful tool for CRD, with comparable performance to ImmunoCAP 100.

Variability of hazardous air pollutants in an urban area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spicer, Chester W.; Buxton, Bruce E.; Holdren, Michael W.; Smith, Deborah L.; Kelly, Thomas J.; Rust, Steven W.; Pate, Alan D.; Sverdrup, George M.; Chuang, Jane C.

The variability of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) is an important factor in determining human exposure to such chemicals, and in designing HAP measurement programs. This study has investigated the factors which contribute to HAP variability in an urban area. Six measurement sites separated by up to 12 km collected data with 3 h time resolution to examine spatial variability within neighborhoods and between neighborhoods. The measurements were made in Columbus, OH. The 3 h results also were used to study temporal variability, and duplicate samples collected at each site were used to determine the component of variability attributable to the measurement process. Hourly samples collected over 10 days at one site provided further insight into the temporal resolution needed to capture short-term peak concentrations. Measurements at the 6 spatial sites focused on 78 chemicals. Twenty-three of these species were found in at least 95% of the 3 h samples, and 39 chemicals were present at least 60% of the time. The relative standard deviations for most of these 39 frequently detected chemicals was 1.0 or lower. Variability was segmented into temporal, spatial, and measurement components. Temporal variation was the major contributor to HAP variability for 19 of the 39 frequently detected compounds, based on the 3 h data. Measurement imprecision contributed less than 25% for most of the volatile organic species, but 30% or more of the variability for carbonyl compounds, trace elements, and particle-bound extractable organic mass. Interestingly, the spatial component contributed less than 20% of the total variability for all the chemicals except sulfur. Based on the data with hourly resolution, peak to median ratios (hourly peak to 24 h median) averaged between 2 and 4 for most of the volatile organic compounds, but there were two species with peak to median ratios of about 10.

Evaluation of non-enteric sources of non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) emissions from dairies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chung, Myeong Y.; Beene, Matt; Ashkan, Shawn; Krauter, Charles; Hasson, Alam S.

2010-02-01

Dairies are believed to be a major source of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in Central California, but few studies have characterized VOC emissions from these facilities. In this work, samples were collected from six sources of VOCs (Silage, Total Mixed Rations, Lagoons, Flushing Lanes, Open Lots and Bedding) at six dairies in Central California during 2006-2007 using emission isolation flux chambers and polished stainless steel canisters. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/flame ionization detection. Forty-eight VOCs were identified and quantified in the samples, including alcohols, carbonyls, alkanes and aromatics. Silage and Total Mixed Rations are the dominant sources of VOCs tested, with ethanol as the major VOC present. Emissions from the remaining sources are two to three orders of magnitude smaller, with carbonyls and aromatics as the main components. The data suggest that animal feed rather than animal waste are the main source of non-enteric VOC emissions from dairies.

Molecular regulation of plant cell wall extensibility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cosgrove, D. J.

1998-01-01

Gravity responses in plants often involve spatial and temporal changes in cell growth, which is regulated primarily by controlling the ability of the cell wall to extend. The wall is thought to be a cellulose-hemicellulose network embedded in a hydrated matrix of complex polysaccharides and a small amount of structural protein. The wall extends by a form of polymer creep, which is mediated by expansins, a novel group of wall-loosening proteins. Expansins were discovered during a molecular dissection of the "acid growth" behavior of cell walls. Expansin alters the rheology of plant walls in profound ways, yet its molecular mechanism of action is still uncertain. It lacks detectable hydrolytic activity against the major components of the wall, but it is able to disrupt noncovalent adhesion between wall polysaccharides. The discovery of a second family of expansins (beta-expansins) sheds light on the biological role of a major group of pollen allergens and implies that expansins have evolved for diverse developmental functions. Finally, the contribution of other processes to wall extensibility is briefly summarized.

Moraxella species are primarily responsible for generating malodor in laundry.

PubMed

Kubota, Hiromi; Mitani, Asako; Niwano, Yu; Takeuchi, Kohei; Tanaka, Atsushi; Yamaguchi, Noriko; Kawamura, Yoshiaki; Hitomi, Jun

2012-05-01

Many people in Japan often detect an unpleasant odor generated from laundry that is hung to dry indoors or when using their already-dried laundry. Such an odor is often described as a "wet-and-dirty-dustcloth-like malodor" or an "acidic or sweaty odor." In this study, we isolated the major microorganisms associated with such a malodor, the major component of which has been identified as 4-methyl-3-hexenoic acid (4M3H). The isolates were identified as Moraxella osloensis by morphological observation and biochemical and phylogenetic tree analyses. M. osloensis has the potential to generate 4M3H in laundry. The bacterium is known to cause opportunistic infections but has never been known to generate a malodor in clothes. We found that M. osloensis exists at a high frequency in various living environments, particularly in laundry in Japan. The bacterium showed a high tolerance to desiccation and UV light irradiation, providing one of the possible reasons why they survive in laundry during and even after drying.

Molecular targets in urothelial cancer: detection, treatment, and animal models of bladder cancer

PubMed Central

Smolensky, Dmitriy; Rathore, Kusum; Cekanova, Maria

2016-01-01

Bladder cancer remains one of the most expensive cancers to treat in the United States due to the length of required treatment and degree of recurrence. In order to treat bladder cancer more effectively, targeted therapies are being investigated. In order to use targeted therapy in a patient, it is important to provide a genetic background of the patient. Recent advances in genome sequencing, as well as transcriptome analysis, have identified major pathway components altered in bladder cancer. The purpose of this review is to provide a broad background on bladder cancer, including its causes, diagnosis, stages, treatments, animal models, as well as signaling pathways in bladder cancer. The major focus is given to the PI3K/AKT pathway, p53/pRb signaling pathways, and the histone modification machinery. Because several promising immunological therapies are also emerging in the treatment of bladder cancer, focus is also given on general activation of the immune system for the treatment of bladder cancer. PMID:27784990

L2, the minor capsid protein of papillomavirus

PubMed Central

Wang, Joshua W.; Roden, Richard B.S.

2013-01-01

The capsid protein L2 plays major roles in both papillomavirus assembly and the infectious process. While L1 forms the majority of the capsid and can self-assemble into empty virus-like particles (VLPs), L2 is a minor capsid component and lacks the capacity to form VLPs. However, L2 co-assembles with L1 into VLPs, enhancing their assembly. L2 also facilitates encapsidation of the ~8kbp circular and nucleosome-bound viral genome during assembly of the non-enveloped T=7d virions in the nucleus of terminally differentiated epithelial cells, although, like L1, L2 is not detectably expressed in infected basal cells. With respect to infection, L2 is not required for particles to bind to and enter cells. However L2 must be cleaved by furin for endosome escape. L2 then travels with the viral genome to the nucleus, wherein it accumulates at ND-10 domains. Here, we provide an overview of the biology of L2. PMID:23689062

Phenol removal from hypersaline wastewaters in a Membrane Biological Reactor (MBR): operation and microbiological characterisation.

PubMed

Dosta, J; Nieto, J M; Vila, J; Grifoll, M; Mata-Álvarez, J

2011-03-01

In this study, two Membrane Biological Reactors (MBR) with submerged flat membranes, one at lab-scale conditions and the other at pilot-plant conditions, were operated at environmental temperature to treat an industrial wastewater characterised by low phenol concentrations (8-16 mg L(-1)) and high salinity (∼ 150-160 mS cm(-1)). During the operation of both reactors, the phenol loading rate was progressively increased and less than 1mg phenol L(-1) was detected even at very low HRTs (0.5-0.7 days). Membrane fouling was minimized by the cross flow aeration rate inside the MBRs and by intermittent permeation. Microbial community analysis of both reactors revealed that members of the genera Halomonas and Marinobacter (gammaproteobacteria) were major components. Growth-linked phenol degradation by pure cultures of Marinobacter isolates demonstrated that this bacterium played a major role in the removal of phenol from the bioreactors. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Three-camera stereo vision for intelligent transportation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergendahl, Jason; Masaki, Ichiro; Horn, Berthold K. P.

1997-02-01

A major obstacle in the application of stereo vision to intelligent transportation system is high computational cost. In this paper, a PC based three-camera stereo vision system constructed with off-the-shelf components is described. The system serves as a tool for developing and testing robust algorithms which approach real-time performance. We present an edge based, subpixel stereo algorithm which is adapted to permit accurate distance measurements to objects in the field of view using a compact camera assembly. Once computed, the 3D scene information may be directly applied to a number of in-vehicle applications, such as adaptive cruise control, obstacle detection, and lane tracking. Moreover, since the largest computational costs is incurred in generating the 3D scene information, multiple applications that leverage this information can be implemented in a single system with minimal cost. On-road applications, such as vehicle counting and incident detection, are also possible. Preliminary in-vehicle road trial results are presented.

Experimental evidence of vocal recognition in young and adult black-legged kittiwakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mulard, Hervé; Aubin, T.; White, J.F.; Hatch, Shyla A.; Danchin, E.

2008-01-01

Individual recognition is required in most social interactions, and its presence has been confirmed in many species. In birds, vocal cues appear to be a major component of recognition. Curiously, vocal recognition seems absent or limited in some highly social species such as the black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla. Using playback experiments, we found that kittiwake chicks recognized their parents vocally, this capacity being detectable as early as 20 days after hatching, the youngest age tested. Mates also recognized each other's long calls. Some birds reacted to their partner's voice when only a part of the long call was played back. Nevertheless, only about a third of the tested birds reacted to their mate's or parents' call and we were unable to detect recognition among neighbours. We discuss the low reactivity of kittiwakes in relation to their cliff-nesting habit and compare our results with evidence of vocal recognition in other larids. ?? 2008 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Coincidence ion imaging with a fast frame camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Suk Kyoung; Cudry, Fadia; Lin, Yun Fei; Lingenfelter, Steven; Winney, Alexander H.; Fan, Lin; Li, Wen

2014-12-01

A new time- and position-sensitive particle detection system based on a fast frame CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductors) camera is developed for coincidence ion imaging. The system is composed of four major components: a conventional microchannel plate/phosphor screen ion imager, a fast frame CMOS camera, a single anode photomultiplier tube (PMT), and a high-speed digitizer. The system collects the positional information of ions from a fast frame camera through real-time centroiding while the arrival times are obtained from the timing signal of a PMT processed by a high-speed digitizer. Multi-hit capability is achieved by correlating the intensity of ion spots on each camera frame with the peak heights on the corresponding time-of-flight spectrum of a PMT. Efficient computer algorithms are developed to process camera frames and digitizer traces in real-time at 1 kHz laser repetition rate. We demonstrate the capability of this system by detecting a momentum-matched co-fragments pair (methyl and iodine cations) produced from strong field dissociative double ionization of methyl iodide.

Submillimeter evidence for the coeval growth of massive black holes and galaxy bulges.

PubMed

Page, M J; Stevens, J A; Mittaz, J P; Carrera, F J

2001-12-21

The correlation, found in nearby galaxies, between black hole mass and stellar bulge mass implies that the formation of these two components must be related. Here we report submillimeter photometry of eight x-ray-absorbed active galactic nuclei that have luminosities and redshifts characteristic of the sources that produce the bulk of the accretion luminosity in the universe. The four sources with the highest redshifts are detected at 850 micrometers, with flux densities between 5.9 and 10.1 millijanskies, and hence are ultraluminous infrared galaxies. If the emission is from dust heated by starbursts, then the majority of stars in spheroids were formed at the same time as their central black holes built up most of their mass by accretion. This would account for the observed demography of massive black holes in the local universe. The skewed rate of submillimeter detection with redshift is consistent with a high redshift epoch of star formation in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, similar to that seen in radio galaxies.

Humoral immune responses induced by Kudoa sp. (Myxosporea: Multivalvulida) in BALB/c mice: oral administration, immunization and cross-reactions with Myxobolus aeglefini (Myxosporea: Bivalvulida).

PubMed

Martínez de Velasco, Gonzalo; Cuéllar, Carmen

2003-01-01

The majority of Kudoa species infect the somatic muscle of fish, establishing cysts. Because there is no effective method to detect infected fish without destroying them, these parasitized fish reach the consumer. The elevated humoral responses detected previously by us in BALB/c mice immunized with Kudoa sp. pseudocyst extracts showed the possible immunopathological effects in man from the ingestion of Kudoa-infected fish. In this work, the high IgG1 and IgE levels induced by the oral administration of Kudoa pseudocysts to BALB/c mice confirmed the allergenic nature of some of their components. An alternative way of preparing the soluble extract by using a FastPrep' shaker indicated the inconvenience of using sonication to prepare the Kudoa sp. extract. IgG+M, IgG, IgG3 and IgA cross-reactions of Kudoa sp. with another myxosporean, Myxobolus aeglefini, were found.

A rapid isothermal assay for the detection of Hop stunt viroid in hop plants (Humulus lupulus), and its application in disease surveys.

PubMed

Kappagantu, Madhu; Villamor, Dan Edward V; Bullock, Jeff M; Eastwell, Kenneth C

2017-07-01

Hop stunt disease caused by Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) is a growing threat to hop cultivation globally. HSVd spreads mainly by use of contaminated planting material and by mechanical means. Thorough testing of hop yards and removal of infected bines are critical components of efforts to control the spread of the disease. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has become the primary technique used for HSVd detection; however, sample handling and analysis are technically challenging. In this study, a robust reverse transcription-recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) assay was developed to facilitate analysis of multiple samples. The assay was optimized with all major variants of HSVd from other host species in addition to hop variants. Used in conjunction with sample collection cards, RT-RPA accommodates large sample numbers. Greenhouse and farm samples tested with RT-RPA were also tested with RT-PCR and a 100% correlation between the two techniques was found. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Ipsilateral medial olivocochlear reflex adaptation of the primary-source DPOAE component measured with pulsed tones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalhoff, Ernst; Zelle, Dennis; Gummer, Anthony W.

2015-12-01

Measurement of contralateral suppression or ipsilateral adaptation of DPOAE due to the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) in humans has so far been complicated by interference between the two major contributors to a DPOAE signal, namely, the nonlinear and the reflection-source components. For instance, while the MOCR has been shown to act inhibitory to the cochlear amplifier, a considerable share of the measured responses has been reported to be of the excitatory type (e.g. 22% for contralateral adaptation in [11]), and it has been shown that the magnitudes of ipsilateral adaptation as well as contralateral suppression depend on the precise frequency choice relative to the position of dips in the DPOAE fine structure [3, 8]. To separate MOCR effects on both source components, we developed a paradigm consisting of five short f2 pulses presented during a 0.35 s on-period of the f1 primary within blocks of 1.35 s length. The responses at f1 and f2 were cancelled using the primary-tone phase variation technique [13]. In 16 normal-hearing subjects, we measured MOCR-induced ipsilateral adaptation at three near-by frequencies in the DPOAE fine structure, corresponding roughly to characteristic interference states between the two major source components of a DPOAE, i.e. constructive, destructive and quadrature interference. Measurements were performed in the frequency range 1.7 ≤ f2 ≤ 2 kHz, f2/f1 = 1.2, and with moderate primary-tone levels (L2 = 45 dB SPL, L1 = 57 dB SPL). Analysis of the DPOAE time traces showed that the nonlinear component typically presents inhibitory adaptation between the 1st and the 5th pulses (median: 0.92 dB). Fitting a single exponential function to the pooled data yielded adaptation of 1.49 dB. From 26 statistically significant MOCR effects (P < 0.1) ranging between 0.29 and 2.81 dB, no excitatory response was detected. The separation of the DPOAE sources when analysing MOCR effects on ipsilateral DPOAE offers the potential of investigating the human efferent system more specifically than hitherto possible.

Apollo experience report: Development of the extravehicular mobility unit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lutz, C. C.; Stutesman, H. L.; Carson, M. A.; Mcbarron, J. W., II

1975-01-01

The development and performance history of the Apollo extravehicular mobility unit and its major subsystems is described. The three major subsystems, the pressure garment assembly, the portable life-support system, and the oxygen purge system, are defined and described in detail as is the evolutionary process that culminated in each major subsystem component. Descriptions of ground-support equipment and the qualification testing process for component hardware are also presented.

Sleep spindle and K-complex detection using tunable Q-factor wavelet transform and morphological component analysis

PubMed Central

Lajnef, Tarek; Chaibi, Sahbi; Eichenlaub, Jean-Baptiste; Ruby, Perrine M.; Aguera, Pierre-Emmanuel; Samet, Mounir; Kachouri, Abdennaceur; Jerbi, Karim

2015-01-01

A novel framework for joint detection of sleep spindles and K-complex events, two hallmarks of sleep stage S2, is proposed. Sleep electroencephalography (EEG) signals are split into oscillatory (spindles) and transient (K-complex) components. This decomposition is conveniently achieved by applying morphological component analysis (MCA) to a sparse representation of EEG segments obtained by the recently introduced discrete tunable Q-factor wavelet transform (TQWT). Tuning the Q-factor provides a convenient and elegant tool to naturally decompose the signal into an oscillatory and a transient component. The actual detection step relies on thresholding (i) the transient component to reveal K-complexes and (ii) the time-frequency representation of the oscillatory component to identify sleep spindles. Optimal thresholds are derived from ROC-like curves (sensitivity vs. FDR) on training sets and the performance of the method is assessed on test data sets. We assessed the performance of our method using full-night sleep EEG data we collected from 14 participants. In comparison to visual scoring (Expert 1), the proposed method detected spindles with a sensitivity of 83.18% and false discovery rate (FDR) of 39%, while K-complexes were detected with a sensitivity of 81.57% and an FDR of 29.54%. Similar performances were obtained when using a second expert as benchmark. In addition, when the TQWT and MCA steps were excluded from the pipeline the detection sensitivities dropped down to 70% for spindles and to 76.97% for K-complexes, while the FDR rose up to 43.62 and 49.09%, respectively. Finally, we also evaluated the performance of the proposed method on a set of publicly available sleep EEG recordings. Overall, the results we obtained suggest that the TQWT-MCA method may be a valuable alternative to existing spindle and K-complex detection methods. Paths for improvements and further validations with large-scale standard open-access benchmarking data sets are discussed. PMID:26283943

Examinations for leak tightness of actively cooled components in ITER and fusion devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirai, T.; Barabash, V.; Carrat, R.; Chappuis, Ph; Durocher, A.; Escourbiac, F.; Merola, M.; Raffray, R.; Worth, L.; Boscary, J.; Chantant, M.; Chuilon, B.; Guilhem, D.; Hatchressian, J.-C.; Hong, S. H.; Kim, K. M.; Masuzaki, S.; Mogaki, K.; Nicolai, D.; Wilson, D.; Yao, D.

2017-12-01

Any leak in one of the ITER actively cooled components would cause significant consequences for machine operations; therefore, the risk of leak must be minimized as much as possible. In this paper, the strategy of examination to ensure leak tightness of the ITER internal components (i.e. examination of base materials, vacuum boundary joints and final components) and the hydraulic parameters for ITER internal components are summarized. The experiences of component tests, especially hot helium leak tests in recent fusion devices, were reviewed and the parameters were discussed. Through these experiences, it was confirmed that the hot He leak test was effective to detect small leak paths which were not always possible to detect by volumetric examination due to limited spatial resolution.

Noninvasive deep Raman detection with 2D correlation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hyung Min; Park, Hyo Sun; Cho, Youngho; Jin, Seung Min; Lee, Kang Taek; Jung, Young Mee; Suh, Yung Doug

2014-07-01

The detection of poisonous chemicals enclosed in daily necessaries is prerequisite essential for homeland security with the increasing threat of terrorism. For the detection of toxic chemicals, we combined a sensitive deep Raman spectroscopic method with 2D correlation analysis. We obtained the Raman spectra from concealed chemicals employing spatially offset Raman spectroscopy in which incident line-shaped light experiences multiple scatterings before being delivered to inner component and yielding deep Raman signal. Furthermore, we restored the pure Raman spectrum of each component using 2D correlation spectroscopic analysis with chemical inspection. Using this method, we could elucidate subsurface component under thick powder and packed contents in a bottle.

Failure detection and identification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massoumnia, Mohammad-Ali; Verghese, George C.; Willsky, Alan S.

1989-01-01

Using the geometric concept of an unobservability subspace, a solution is given to the problem of detecting and identifying control system component failures in linear, time-invariant systems. Conditions are developed for the existence of a causal, linear, time-invariant processor that can detect and uniquely identify a component failure, first for the case where components can fail simultaneously, and then for the case where they fail only one at a time. Explicit design algorithms are provided when these conditions are satisfied. In addition to time-domain solvability conditions, frequency-domain interpretations of the results are given, and connections are drawn with results already available in the literature.

Detecting Land Cover Change by Trend and Seasonality of Remote Sensing Time Series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliveira, J. C.; Epiphanio, J. N.; Mello, M. P.

2013-05-01

Natural resource managers demand knowledge of information on the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover change, and detection and characteristics change over time is an initial step for the understanding of the mechanism of change. The propose of this research is the use the approach BFAST (Breaks For Additive Seasonal and Trend) for detects trend and seasonal changes within Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series. BFAST integrates the decomposition of time series into trend, seasonal, and noise components with methods for detecting change within time series without the need to select a reference period, set a threshold, or define a change trajectory. BFAST iteratively estimates the time and number of changes, and characterizes change by its magnitude and direction. The general model is of the form Yt = Tt + St + et (t= 1,2,3,…, n) where Yt is the observed data at time t, Tt is the trend component, St is the seasonal component, and et is the remainder component. In this study was used MODIS NDVI time series datasets (MOD13Q1) over 11 years (2000 - 2010) on an intensive agricultural area in Mato Grosso - Brazil. At first it was applied a filter for noise reduction (4253H twice) over spectral curve of each MODIS pixel, and subsequently each time series was decomposed into seasonal, trend, and remainder components by BFAST. Were detected one abrupt change from a single pixel of forest and two abrupt changes on trend component to a pixel of the agricultural area. Figure 1 shows the number of phonological change with base in seasonal component for study area. This paper demonstrated the ability of the BFAST to detect long-term phenological change by analyzing time series while accounting for abrupt and gradual changes. The algorithm iteratively estimates the dates and number of changes occurring within seasonal and trend components, and characterizes changes by extracting the magnitude and direction of change. Changes occurring in the seasonal component indicate phenological changes, while changes occurring in the trend component indicate gradual and abrupt change. BFAST can be used to analyze different types of remotely sensed time series and can be applied to other time series such as econometrics, climatology, and hydrology. The algorithm used in this study is available in BFAT package for R from CRAN (http://cran.r-project.org/package=bfast).; Figure 1 - Number of the phonological change with base in seasonal component.

Evidence of major genes for plasma HDL, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels at baseline and in response to 20 weeks of endurance training: the HERITAGE Family Study.

PubMed

An, P; Borecki, I B; Rankinen, T; Després, J-P; Leon, A S; Skinner, J S; Wilmore, J H; Bouchard, C; Rao, D C

2005-01-01

This study assessed major gene effects for baseline HDL-C, LDL-C, TG, and their training responses (post-training minus baseline) in 527 individuals from 99 White families and 326 individuals from 113 Black families in the HERITAGE Family Study. The baseline phenotypes were adjusted for the effects of age and BMI, and the training response phenotypes were adjusted for the effects of age, BMI, and their respective baseline values, within each of the sex-by-generation-by-race groups, prior to genetic analyses. In Whites, we found that LDL-C at baseline and HDL-C training response were under influence of major recessive genes (accounting for 2--30 % of the variance) and multifactorial (polygenic and familial environmental) effects. Interactions of these major genes with sex, age, and BMI were tested, and found to be nonsignificant. In Blacks, we found that baseline HDL-C was influenced by a major dominant gene without a multifactorial component. This major gene effect accounted for 45 % of the variance, and exhibited no significant genotype-specific interactions with age, sex, and BMI. Evidence of major genes for the remaining phenotypes at baseline and in response to endurance training were not found in both races, though some were influenced by major effects that did not follow Mendelian expectations or were with ambiguous transmission from parents to offspring. In summary, major gene effects that influence baseline plasma HDL-C and LDL-C levels as well as changes in HDL-C levels in response to regular exercise were detected in the current study.

An automatic method for detecting sliding railway wheels and hot bearings using thermal imagery.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-05-03

One of the most important safety-related tasks in the rail industry is early detection of defective rolling : stock components. Railway wheels and wheel bearings are two components prone to damage due to : their interactions with brakes and railway t...

Detecting decay in wood components

Treesearch

R.J. Ross; X. Wang; B.K. Brashaw

2005-01-01

This chapter presents a summary of the Wood and Timber Condition Assessment Manual. It focuses on current inspection techniques for decay detection and provides guidelines on the use of various non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods in locating and defining areas of deterioration in timber bridge components and other civil structures.

NASA's Aqua Satellite Celebrates 10th Annivesary

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA's Aqua Satellite Celebrates 10th Anniversary The Aqua satellite mission has proved to be a major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) for its ability to gather unprecedented amounts of information on Earth’s water cycle, including measurements on water vapor, clouds, precipitation, ice, and snow. Aqua data has helped improve weather prediction, detection of forest fires, volcanic ash, and sandstorms. In addition, Aqua data have been used to detect and monitor such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane, and to examine the energy imbalance at the top of the Earth's atmosphere and the various components of it. With these uses of Aqua data, scientists have been able to better understand our Earth over the course of the past ten years. Aqua is a major international Earth Science satellite mission centered at NASA. Launched on May 4, 2002, the satellite has six different Earth-observing instruments on board and is named for the large amount of information being obtained about water in the Earth system from its stream of approximately 89 Gigabytes of data a day. The water variables being measured include almost all elements of the water cycle and involve water in its liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Additional variables being measured include radiative energy fluxes, aerosols, vegetation cover on the land, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans, and air, land, and water temperatures. For more information about NASA's Aqua satellite, visit: aqua.nasa.gov ------------ Caption: Artist rendition of the NASA's Aqua satellite, which carries the MODIS and AIRS instruments. Credit: NASA NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Control system failure monitoring using generalized parity relations. M.S. Thesis Interim Technical Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vanschalkwyk, Christiaan Mauritz

1991-01-01

Many applications require that a control system must be tolerant to the failure of its components. This is especially true for large space-based systems that must work unattended and with long periods between maintenance. Fault tolerance can be obtained by detecting the failure of the control system component, determining which component has failed, and reconfiguring the system so that the failed component is isolated from the controller. Component failure detection experiments that were conducted on an experimental space structure, the NASA Langley Mini-Mast are presented. Two methodologies for failure detection and isolation (FDI) exist that do not require the specification of failure modes and are applicable to both actuators and sensors. These methods are known as the Failure Detection Filter and the method of Generalized Parity Relations. The latter method was applied to three different sensor types on the Mini-Mast. Failures were simulated in input-output data that were recorded during operation of the Mini-Mast. Both single and double sensor parity relations were tested and the effect of several design parameters on the performance of these relations is discussed. The detection of actuator failures is also treated. It is shown that in all the cases it is possible to identify the parity relations directly from input-output data. Frequency domain analysis is used to explain the behavior of the parity relations.

Target detection using the background model from the topological anomaly detection algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorado Munoz, Leidy P.; Messinger, David W.; Ziemann, Amanda K.

2013-05-01

The Topological Anomaly Detection (TAD) algorithm has been used as an anomaly detector in hyperspectral and multispectral images. TAD is an algorithm based on graph theory that constructs a topological model of the background in a scene, and computes an anomalousness ranking for all of the pixels in the image with respect to the background in order to identify pixels with uncommon or strange spectral signatures. The pixels that are modeled as background are clustered into groups or connected components, which could be representative of spectral signatures of materials present in the background. Therefore, the idea of using the background components given by TAD in target detection is explored in this paper. In this way, these connected components are characterized in three different approaches, where the mean signature and endmembers for each component are calculated and used as background basis vectors in Orthogonal Subspace Projection (OSP) and Adaptive Subspace Detector (ASD). Likewise, the covariance matrix of those connected components is estimated and used in detectors: Constrained Energy Minimization (CEM) and Adaptive Coherence Estimator (ACE). The performance of these approaches and the different detectors is compared with a global approach, where the background characterization is derived directly from the image. Experiments and results using self-test data set provided as part of the RIT blind test target detection project are shown.

Onboard Nonlinear Engine Sensor and Component Fault Diagnosis and Isolation Scheme

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tang, Liang; DeCastro, Jonathan A.; Zhang, Xiaodong

2011-01-01

A method detects and isolates in-flight sensor, actuator, and component faults for advanced propulsion systems. In sharp contrast to many conventional methods, which deal with either sensor fault or component fault, but not both, this method considers sensor fault, actuator fault, and component fault under one systemic and unified framework. The proposed solution consists of two main components: a bank of real-time, nonlinear adaptive fault diagnostic estimators for residual generation, and a residual evaluation module that includes adaptive thresholds and a Transferable Belief Model (TBM)-based residual evaluation scheme. By employing a nonlinear adaptive learning architecture, the developed approach is capable of directly dealing with nonlinear engine models and nonlinear faults without the need of linearization. Software modules have been developed and evaluated with the NASA C-MAPSS engine model. Several typical engine-fault modes, including a subset of sensor/actuator/components faults, were tested with a mild transient operation scenario. The simulation results demonstrated that the algorithm was able to successfully detect and isolate all simulated faults as long as the fault magnitudes were larger than the minimum detectable/isolable sizes, and no misdiagnosis occurred

Capillary electrophoretic determination of main components of natural dyes with MS detection.

PubMed

Surowiec, Izabella; Pawelec, Katarzyna; Rezeli, Melinda; Kilar, Ferenc; Trojanowicz, Marek

2008-07-01

CE with UV-Vis and MS detections was investigated as a technique for detection of main components of selected natural dyes of plant and insect origin. The BGE giving the best separation of the investigated flavonoids and anthraquinoids, suitable for MS detection consisted of 40 mM ammonium acetate solution of pH 9.5 with 40% ACN. LODs obtained with MS detection were even one order of magnitude lower than the ones obtained with UV-Vis detection. Application of MS detection enabled determination of eleven dye compounds from three different chemical groups in 15 min. and proved to be more satisfactory than diode-array detection in the electrophoretic analysis of main classes of natural dyes both in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of analysis.

Occurrences, toxicities, and ecological risks of benzophenone-3, a common component of organic sunscreen products: a mini-review.

PubMed

Kim, Sujin; Choi, Kyungho

2014-09-01

Benzophenone-3 (BP-3) has been widely used in sunscreens and many other consumer products, including cosmetics. The widespread use of BP-3 has resulted in its release into the water environment, and hence its potential impact on aquatic ecosystem is of concern. To better understand the risk associated with BP-3 in aquatic ecosystems, we conducted a thorough review of available articles regarding the physicochemical properties, toxicokinetics, environmental occurrence, and toxic effects of BP-3 and its suspected metabolites. BP-3 is lipophilic, photostable, and bioaccumulative, and can be rapidly absorbed via oral and dermal routes. BP-3 is reported to be transformed into three major metabolites in vivo, i.e., benzophenone-1 (BP-1), benzophenone-8 (BP-8), and 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzophenone (THB). BP-1 has a longer biological half-life than its parent compound and exhibits greater estrogenic potency in vitro. BP-3 has been detected in water, soil, sediments, sludge, and biota. The maximum detected level in ambient freshwater and seawater is 125ng/L and 577.5ng/L, respectively, and in wastewater influent is 10,400ng/L. The major sources of BP-3 are reported to be human recreational activities and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. BP-3 and its derivatives have been also detected in fish lipid. In humans, BP-3 has been detected in urine, serum, and breast milk samples worldwide. BP-1 has also been detected in placental tissues of delivering women. While sunscreens and cosmetics are known to be major sources of exposure, the fact that BP-3 has been detected frequently among young children and men suggests other sources. An increasing number of in vitro studies have indicated the endocrine disrupting capacity of BP-3. Based on a receptor binding assay, BP-3 has shown strong anti-androgenic and weak estrogenic activities but at the same time BP-3 displays anti-estrogenic activity as well. Predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) for BP-3 was derived at 1.32μg/L. The levels observed in ambient water are generally an order of magnitude lower than the PNEC, but in wastewater influents, hazard quotients (HQs) greater than 1 were noted. Considering limited ecotoxicological information and significant seasonal and spatial variations of BP-3 in water, further studies on environmental monitoring and potential consequences of long-term exposure in aquatic ecosystem are warranted. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.