Petroleum marketing monthly, January 1998 with data for October 1997

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

NONE

1998-01-01

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. 7 figs., 50 tabs.

US refining margin trend: austerity continues

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

Not Available

Should crude oil prices hold near current levels in 1988, US refining margins might improve little, if at all. If crude oil prices rise, margins could blush pink or worse. If they drop, US refiners would still probably not see much margin improvement. In fact, if crude prices fall, they could set off another free fall in products markets and threaten refiner survival. Volatility in refined products markets and low product demand growth are the underlying reasons for caution or pessimism as the new year approaches. Recent directional patterns in refining margins are scrutinized in this issue. This issue alsomore » contains the following: (1) the ED refining netback data for the US Gulf and West Coasts, Rotterdam, and Singapore for late November, 1987; and (2) the ED fuel price/tax series for countries of the Eastern Hemisphere, November, 1987 edition. 4 figures, 6 tables.« less

76 FR 36103 - Combined Notice of Filings #1

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-21

...-2077-005. Applicants: Delaware City Refining Company LLC, PBF Power Marketing LLC. Desciption: Delaware City Refining Company LLC, Triennial Market Power Analysis and Notice of Change in Status. Filed Date..., 2011. Docket Numbers: ER10-2074-001; ER10-2097-003. Applicants: Kansas City Power & Light Company, KCP...

77 FR 15125 - Notice of Lodging of Second Consent Decree Under the Clean Air Act

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-14

... Kansas v. Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC et. al., 04-cv-01064 (D. Kan. 2004), was lodged... Decree in this action (Docket No. 8) that required Defendant Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing... Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community...

Petroleum marketing monthly, February 1999 with data for November 1998

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

NONE

1999-02-01

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. Monthly statistics on purchases of crude oil and sales of petroleum products aremore » presented in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly in six sections: Initial Estimates; Summary Statistics; Crude Oil Prices; Prices of Petroleum Products; Volumes of Petroleum Products; and Prime Supplier Sales Volumes of Petroleum Products for Local Consumption. 7 figs., 50 tabs.« less

Petroleum marketing monthly, March 1999 with data for December 1998

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

NONE

1999-03-01

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. Monthly statistics on purchases of crude oil and sales of petroleum products aremore » presented in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly in five sections: summary statistics; crude oil prices; prices of petroleum products; volumes of petroleum products; and prime supplier sales volumes of petroleum products for local consumption. 7 figs., 50 tabs.« less

40 CFR 52.2501 - Best available retrofit technology (BART) requirement for the Tesoro Refining and Marketing...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Best available retrofit technology... Best available retrofit technology (BART) requirement for the Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company oil... 10, to the following email address: [email protected] Effective Date Note: At 79 FR 33454...

Reformulated Gasoline Market Affected Refiners Differently, 1995

EIA Publications

1996-01-01

This article focuses on the costs of producing reformulated gasoline (RFG) as experienced by different types of refiners and on how these refiners fared this past summer, given the prices for RFG at the refinery gate.

Petroleum marketing annual 1993

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

Not Available

1995-01-01

The Petroleum Marketing Annual (PMA) contains statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication provides statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the free-on-board (f.o.b.) and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners acquisition cost of crude oil. Sales data for motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane are presented. For this publication, all estimates have been recalculated since their earlier publication in the Petroleummore » Marketing Monthly (PMM). These calculations made use of additional data and corrections that were received after the PMM publication dates.« less

Prospects for the U.S. energy and refining industries: Markets, profitability and key drivers for change

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

Burke, B.F.

The US refining industry has experienced an extended period of change covering the past 20 years. Growing regulatory requirements, combined with shifting market characteristics, have resulted in massive investments and significant and ongoing structural change. Despite excellent capacity utilization, recent profitability has been poor. Industry psychology can be described as depressed, with honest concern about the long-term attractiveness of domestic refining as an area for continued participation and investment. This paper provides an overview of how the industry arrived at these levels of poor profitability, examines the current situation and future drivers, and presents Chem Systems` views on the outlookmore » for domestic refining.« less

Petroleum marketing monthly, May 1994

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

Not Available

1994-05-26

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. The Petroleum Marketing Division, Office of Oil and Gas, Energy Information Administration ensures the accuracy, quality, and confidentiality of the published datamore » in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly.« less

Contraceptive social marketing: a continuous cycle of planning, testing and evaluating.

PubMed

1985-01-01

This article outlines the contraceptive marketing process used by the Social Marketing for Change (SOMARC) project. The 1st stage of the process involves analysis of the market, the consumer, and the social marketing organization's capabilities. In the 2nd stage, planning, data collected in the analysis stage are used to define objectives, segment target markets, and devise strategies for each element in the marketing mix. In the 3rd stage, all the elements in the marketing mix are developed and tested (e.g. product concepts, pricing, packaging, communication messages) and refined on the basis of test results. In stage 4, the action plan is implemented and marketing progress and institutional performance are monitored. Stage 5 includes an assessment of in-market effectiveness in terms of responses from consumers, retailers, and health professionals. The last stage feeds back to the 1st. All the reviewed data are recycled into analysis to begin again the continuous process of refinement and improvement.

76 FR 65694 - Non-Market Economy Antidumping Proceedings: Assessment of Antidumping Duties

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-24

...After consideration of public comments, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is hereby adopting a refinement in its practice with respect to the rate at which it instructs U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to liquidate certain non-reviewed entries. Specifically, the Department is refining its practice to instruct CBP to liquidate such entries at the non-market economy (``NME'')-wide rate.

US refining sector still a whipping-boy: what will it take

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

Not Available

1988-01-27

The fast moving US product markets are exerting a powerful pull on crude oil prices. This has meant unalleviated downward pressure on refining margins for most of the past year. Downstream of refining, product marketers want the lower rack and spot prices from refineries. Upstream, independent and major-integrated producers want the highest crude prices they can obtain, with the latter producers also wanting the highest product value realizations. Refiners, especially the major-integrated ones, are rooting for OPEC discipline louder than anybody else. This issue also contains the following: (1) weighted dollar values by product for total product barrel at variousmore » sites around the globe; (2) ED refining netback data for the US Gulf and West Coasts, Rotterdam, and Singapore for late January 1988; and (3) ED fuel price/tax series for both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, Jan. 1988 edition. 5 figures, 18 tables.« less

Dinosaurs can fly -- High performance refining

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

Treat, J.E.

1995-09-01

High performance refining requires that one develop a winning strategy based on a clear understanding of one`s position in one`s company`s value chain; one`s competitive position in the products markets one serves; and the most likely drivers and direction of future market forces. The author discussed all three points, then described measuring performance of the company. To become a true high performance refiner often involves redesigning the organization as well as the business processes. The author discusses such redesigning. The paper summarizes ten rules to follow to achieve high performance: listen to the market; optimize; organize around asset or areamore » teams; trust the operators; stay flexible; source strategically; all maintenance is not equal; energy is not free; build project discipline; and measure and reward performance. The paper then discusses the constraints to the implementation of change.« less

Performance-Based Service Acquisition (PBSA) Study and Graduate Level Course Material

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-12-01

Realizing Marketplace Potential, Acquisition Solutions, Inc (Advisory), February 2001 Dickson, Bob, March 10, 2003. Federal 7 Contract Law : Feds...Management and Policy Federal Contract Law : Feds should use market research to refine IT plans Session 4: The Performance Requirements and...March 10, 2003. Federal Contract Law : Feds should use market research to refine IT plans, Post-Newsweek Media, Inchttp://appserv.gcn.com/cgi- bin/udt

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

NONE

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. Monthly statistics on purchases of crude oil and sales of petroleum products aremore » presented in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly in five sections: summary statistics; crude oil prices; prices of petroleum products; volumes of petroleum products; and prime supplier sales volumes of petroleum products for local consumption. 7 figs., 50 tabs.« less

Impact of Environmental Compliance Costs on U.S. Refining Profitability 1995-2001

EIA Publications

2003-01-01

This report assesses the effects of pollution abatement requirements on the financial performance of U.S. petroleum refining and marketing operations during the 1995 to 2001 period. This study is a follow-up to the October 1997 publication entitled The Impact of Environmental Compliance Costs on U.S. Refining Profitability, that focused on the financial impacts of U.S. refining pollution abatement investment requirements in the 1988 to1995 period.

Aspects of Western Refining, Inc.'s Proposed Acquisition of Giant Industries, Inc.

EIA Publications

2006-01-01

Presentation of company-level, non-proprietary data and relevant aggregate data for U.S. refinery capacity and gasoline marketing of Western Refining and Giant Industries to inform discussions of Western Refining Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Giant Industries Inc. for a total of $1.5 billion, which was announced August 28, 2006.

Petroleum marketing monthly, June 1994

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

Not Available

1994-06-01

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. Monthly statistics on purchases of crude oil and sales of petroleum products aremore » presented in five sections: Summary Statistics; Crude Oil Prices; Prices of Petroleum Products; Volumes of Petroleum Products; and Prime Supplier Sales Volumes of Petroleum Products for Local Consumption. The feature article is entitled ``The Second Oxygenated Gasoline Season.`` 7 figs., 50 tabs.« less

The Plight of the Millennials: Pedagogy as Marketing, Marketing as Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Ralph V.; Meaghan, Diane E.; Doughty, Howard A.

2009-01-01

Anyone who already regards college education as a business should have no trouble with corollary notion that marketing is essential to success. In the information and service industries including education, marketing depends more upon image than it does in resource extraction, refining and manufacturing. In this article, the authors focus on Diana…

HPI markets and strategies

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

Ekolf, W.D.

1988-03-01

How the HPI and government react to new directions will not only set the course for the future of refining and marketing, it will have profound implications for the entire energy industry. Strategies developed by individual refiners and marketers in response to this changing environment will determine their future in the industry. In developing scenarios for the downstream, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), has identified three forces that will determine the downstream playing field in the nineties: 1. Imbalances between market demands and refinery capacity will continue to promote intense competition and to depress margins, 2. Product and crude pricemore » volatility will be at least as great in the future as it has been in the last three years and 3. Renewed environmental concerns will add new capital investment burdens to the industry. The implications of these three forces on refiners are clear - being in the downstream business is likely to become increasingly expensive, competitive and risky. The author shares CERA's perspective on why these forces have evolved and, in turn, led to new strategies and developments in the industry. Then he outlines how we think these new themes may affect players in the industry. Finally, he summarizes some key uncertainties the future holds.« less

Drug companies monitor prescriptions and sales to fine-tune their marketing strategies.

PubMed

2010-06-01

Market research companies analyse drug prescriptions and sales in community and hospital pharmacies, thus enabling drug companies to refine their marketing strategies. Some information of interest to drug companies is provided directly by healthcare professionals, sometimes unwittingly, and sometimes in return for small "favours".

40 CFR 279.70 - Applicability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... THE MANAGEMENT OF USED OIL Standards for Used Oil Fuel Marketers § 279.70 Applicability. (a) Any... forth in § 279.11. (b) The following persons are not marketers subject to this subpart: (1) Used oil... oil to processor/re-refiners who incidentally burn used oil are not marketers subject to this Subpart...

7 CFR 1530.102 - Nature of the license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... subheading 1701.11.20 of the HTS, and export an equivalent quantity of refined sugar onto the world market or transfer an equivalent quantity of refined sugar to licensees under the Sugar Containing Products Re-export... Program or Polyhydric Alcohol Program permits licensees to receive transfers and export an equivalent...

7 CFR 1530.102 - Nature of the license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... subheading 1701.11.20 of the HTS, and export an equivalent quantity of refined sugar onto the world market or transfer an equivalent quantity of refined sugar to licensees under the Sugar Containing Products Re-export... Program or Polyhydric Alcohol Program permits licensees to receive transfers and export an equivalent...

7 CFR 1530.102 - Nature of the license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... subheading 1701.11.20 of the HTS, and export an equivalent quantity of refined sugar onto the world market or transfer an equivalent quantity of refined sugar to licensees under the Sugar Containing Products Re-export... Program or Polyhydric Alcohol Program permits licensees to receive transfers and export an equivalent...

7 CFR 1530.102 - Nature of the license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... subheading 1701.11.20 of the HTS, and export an equivalent quantity of refined sugar onto the world market or transfer an equivalent quantity of refined sugar to licensees under the Sugar Containing Products Re-export... Program or Polyhydric Alcohol Program permits licensees to receive transfers and export an equivalent...

7 CFR 1530.102 - Nature of the license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... subheading 1701.11.20 of the HTS, and export an equivalent quantity of refined sugar onto the world market or transfer an equivalent quantity of refined sugar to licensees under the Sugar Containing Products Re-export... Program or Polyhydric Alcohol Program permits licensees to receive transfers and export an equivalent...

Potential Impacts of Reductions in Refinery Activity on Northeast Petroleum Product Markets

EIA Publications

2012-01-01

Potential Impacts of Reductions in Refinery Activity on Northeast Petroleum Product Markets is an update to a previous Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, Reductions in Northeast Refining Activity: Potential Implications for Petroleum Product Markets, released in December 2011. This update analyzes possible market responses and impacts in the event Sunoco's Philadelphia refinery closes this summer, in addition to the recently idled refineries on the East Coast and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

77 FR 47048 - Agency Information Collection Extension

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-07

... collection requests a three-year extension of its Petroleum Marketing Program, OMB Control Number 1905-0174... as the needs of EIA's public and private customers. Data collected include costs, sales, prices, and... petroleum marketing survey forms listed below: EIA-14, ``Refiners' Monthly Cost Report'' EIA-182, ``Domestic...

Focus Groups Help To Focus the Marketing Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashar, Hanna; Lane, Maureen

1996-01-01

A university-based degree completion program for adults conducted focus group research to refine market positioning and promotion. Focus groups averaged five current students and recent graduates who reflected, demographically, the current student population. Results gave insight into reasons for selecting the university, aspects of the program…

77 FR 20616 - Agency Information Collection Extension

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-05

..., pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, intends to extend for 3 years the petroleum marketing survey forms listed below with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): EIA-14, ``Refiners' Monthly... Marketing Program; (3) Type of Request: Renewal with change; (4) Purpose: The Federal Energy Administration...

Off-Season Enrollment Building.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wassom, Julie

2002-01-01

Maintains that the winter months are an ideal time to review and refine a child care center's marketing program. Highlights the following target areas for review: (1) marketing plan; (2) action plan; (3) center or company identity package; (4) center brochure; (5) photos; (6) web site; (7) advertisements; (8) publicity; (9) voice mail message;…

26 CFR 1.613-5 - Taxable income from the property.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... into account shall be determined in accordance with the principles set forth in paragraph (d)(2) and (3... activities of the association relate to production, treatment and marketing of the crude oil or gas or raw... association is to advise, promote, or assist in the production, marketing, or sale of refined, manufactured...

The Race to Refinance Debt: Market Offers Opportunities to Reduce Interest Costs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuPont, Lorrie A.

1992-01-01

In this interest market, colleges and universities could benefit from careful evaluation of debt portfolios. Refinancing debt is an opportunity to lower debt service costs, ease cash flow, change security pledges, eliminate debt service reserves, update bond documents. Timing is important. Existing and new bonds can also be combined…

Variations in mature market consumer behavior within a health care product: implications for marketing strategy.

PubMed

Hopper, J A; Busbin, J W

1995-01-01

America is undergoing a profound age shift in its demographic make-up with people 55 and over comprising an increasing proportion of the population. Marketers may need to increase their response rate to this shift, especially in refining the application of marketing theory and practice to older age consumers. To this end, a survey of older couple buying behavior for health insurance coverage is reported here. Results clarify evaluative criteria and the viability of multiple market segmentation for health care coverage among older consumers as couples. Commentary on the efficacy of present health coverage marketing programs is provided.

The Coast Artillery Journal. Volume 64, Number 5, May 1926

DTIC Science & Technology

1926-05-01

PROFESSIONAL NOTES Non-Detonating Motor Fnels By hEUT. COL. JAMES PRENTICE Coast Artiller)" Corps No longer need the refiner market his cracked...principles involved. Shortly after this there appeared on the market some sickly yellow gasolines which, when burned in gas engines, emitted frightful...odors. These came in for the ridicule and disapproval of the popular press and soon disappeared from the market . Technical men said that these gasses

26 CFR 1.901-3 - Reduction in amount of foreign taxes on foreign mineral income allowed as a credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... possession of the United States all income from such sources derived from the production of oil, the refining... gasoline. Similarly, income from such sources from the refining, distribution, or marketing of fuel oil by... example: Example. (a) Throughout 1974, M, a domestic corporation, owns all the one class of stock of N, a...

26 CFR 1.901-3 - Reduction in amount of foreign taxes on foreign mineral income allowed as a credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... possession of the United States all income from such sources derived from the production of oil, the refining... gasoline. Similarly, income from such sources from the refining, distribution, or marketing of fuel oil by... example: Example. (a) Throughout 1974, M, a domestic corporation, owns all the one class of stock of N, a...

26 CFR 1.901-3 - Reduction in amount of foreign taxes on foreign mineral income allowed as a credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... possession of the United States all income from such sources derived from the production of oil, the refining... gasoline. Similarly, income from such sources from the refining, distribution, or marketing of fuel oil by... example: Example. (a) Throughout 1974, M, a domestic corporation, owns all the one class of stock of N, a...

26 CFR 1.901-3 - Reduction in amount of foreign taxes on foreign mineral income allowed as a credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... possession of the United States all income from such sources derived from the production of oil, the refining... gasoline. Similarly, income from such sources from the refining, distribution, or marketing of fuel oil by... example: Example. (a) Throughout 1974, M, a domestic corporation, owns all the one class of stock of N, a...

Essays on refining markets and environmental policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oladunjoye, Olusegun Akintunde

This thesis is comprised of three essays. The first two essays examine empirically the relationship between crude oil price and wholesale gasoline prices in the U.S. petroleum refining industry while the third essay determines the optimal combination of emissions tax and environmental research and development (ER&D) subsidy when firms organize ER&D either competitively or as a research joint venture (RJV). In the first essay, we estimate an error correction model to determine the effects of market structure on the speed of adjustment of wholesale gasoline prices, to crude oil price changes. The results indicate that market structure does not have a strong effect on the dynamics of price adjustment in the three regional markets examined. In the second essay, we allow for inventories to affect the relationship between crude oil and wholesale gasoline prices by allowing them to affect the probability of regime change in a Markov-switching model of the refining margin. We find that low gasoline inventory increases the probability of switching from the low margin regime to the high margin regime and also increases the probability of staying in the high margin regime. This is consistent with the predictions of the competitive storage theory. In the third essay, we extend the Industrial Organization R&D theory to the determination of optimal environmental policies. We find that RJV is socially desirable. In comparison to competitive ER&D, we suggest that regulators should encourage RJV with a lower emissions tax and higher subsidy as these will lead to the coordination of ER&D activities and eliminate duplication of efforts while firms internalize their technological spillover externality.

Feasibility of Department of Defense Used Lubricating Oil Re-refining.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

greater product selectivity (increasing cost effec- tiveness by tailoring the process to meet market demand ). In addition most processes have high yields...However, several issues were surfaced. The question of who in DLA is responsible for the administra- tion of a re-refining program must be resolved...Both the Property Disposal and Supply groups have a role. The Disposal group now has responsibility for .1%- iv -. d

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

Guariguata, U.G.

The European refining industry, along with its counterparts, is struggling with low profitability due to excess primary and conversion capacity, high operating costs and impending decisions of stringent environmental regulations that will require significant investments with hard to justify returns. This region was also faced in the early 1980s with excess capacity on the order of 4 MMb/d and satisfying the {open_quotes}at that point{close_quotes} demand by operating at very low utilization rates (60%). As was the case in the US, the rebalancing of the capacity led to the closure of some 51 refineries. Since the early 1990s, the increase inmore » demand growth has essentially balanced the capacity threshold and utilization rates are settled around the 90% range. During the last two decades, the major oil companies have reduced their presence in the European refining sector, giving some state oil companies and producing countries the opportunity to gain access to the consumer market through the purchase of refining capacity in various countries-specifically, Kuwait in Italy; Libya and Venezuela in Germany; and Norway in other areas of Scandinavia. Although the market share for this new cast of characters remains small (4%) relative to participation by the majors (35%), their involvement in the European refining business set the foundation whereby US independent refiners relinquished control over assets that could not be operated profitably as part of a previous vertically integrated structure, unless access to the crude was ensured. The passage of time still seems to render this model valid.« less

Petroleum Market Model of the National Energy Modeling System. Part 1

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

NONE

The purpose of this report is to define the objectives of the Petroleum Market Model (PMM), describe its basic approach, and provide detail on how it works. This report is intended as a reference document for model analysts, users, and the public. The PMM models petroleum refining activities, the marketing of petroleum products to consumption regions, the production of natural gas liquids in gas processing plants, and domestic methanol production. The PMM projects petroleum product prices and sources of supply for meeting petroleum product demand. The sources of supply include crude oil, both domestic and imported; other inputs including alcoholsmore » and ethers; natural gas plant liquids production; petroleum product imports; and refinery processing gain. In addition, the PMM estimates domestic refinery capacity expansion and fuel consumption. Product prices are estimated at the Census division level and much of the refining activity information is at the Petroleum Administration for Defense (PAD) District level.« less

26 CFR 1.901-3 - Reduction in amount of foreign taxes on foreign mineral income allowed as a credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... integrated oil company must treat as foreign mineral income from sources within a foreign country or... of crude oil into gasoline, the distribution of gasoline to marketing outlets, and the retail sale of gasoline. Similarly, income from such sources from the refining, distribution, or marketing of fuel oil by...

Effects of different contractual arrangements: the case of retail gasoline markets

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

Barron, J.M.; Umbeck, J.R.

The change in the contractual arrangement at a gasoline station from a refiner-controlled to a franchise operation implies different incentives for the individual who sets prices and determines hours, but reflects no change in the product nor the market environment. The outcome can lead to higher prices and reduced hours at the station affected. The divorcement experience in Maryland illustrates how change can be imposed by the legal system. Average self-service and full-serve prices rose, and hours of operation fell relative to those of competitors even though refiner operations that were forced to franchise had previously had prices below themore » competition. The evidence of an effect on the prices and hours of competitors is less convincing. 16 references, 2 tables.« less

Washington State petroleum markets data book. [Contains Glossary

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

Lagerberg, B.; Anderson, M.

1992-01-01

The Data Book is a resource for policymakers and analysis who work on energy issues. It is also for Washington citizens who are interested in knowing more about the role petroleum plays in Washington State. The Data Book is organized into four parts and four appendixes. Each part discusses a particular aspect of the petroleum market: supply (crude and refined products, refinery production, and distribution); consumption (by sector and by fuel); prices (crude and refined products, spot and transaction, wholesale and retail); and reliability of supply (stocks, reserves, emergencies, and the environment). Each part is followed by tables of supportingmore » data. The appendixes contain related and supporting tables, a glossary of technical terms, and a list of the sources of data for each part of the book.« less

A General Safety Assessment for Purified Food Ingredients Derived From Biotechnology Crops: Case Study of Brazilian Sugar and Beverages Produced From Insect-Protected Sugarcane.

PubMed

Kennedy, Reese D; Cheavegatti-Gianotto, Adriana; de Oliveira, Wladecir S; Lirette, Ronald P; Hjelle, Jerry J

2018-01-01

Insect-protected sugarcane that expresses Cry1Ab has been developed in Brazil. Analysis of trade information has shown that effectively all the sugarcane-derived Brazilian exports are raw or refined sugar and ethanol. The fact that raw and refined sugar are highly purified food ingredients, with no detectable transgenic protein, provides an interesting case study of a generalized safety assessment approach. In this study, both the theoretical protein intakes and safety assessments of Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, NPTII, and Bar proteins used in insect-protected biotechnology crops were examined. The potential consumption of these proteins was examined using local market research data of average added sugar intakes in eight diverse and representative Brazilian raw and refined sugar export markets (Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Russia, and the USA). The average sugar intakes, which ranged from 5.1 g of added sugar/person/day (India) to 126 g sugar/p/day (USA) were used to calculated possible human exposure. The theoretical protein intake estimates were carried out in the "Worst-case" scenario, assumed that 1 μg of newly-expressed protein is detected/g of raw or refined sugar; and the "Reasonable-case" scenario assumed 1 ng protein/g sugar. The "Worst-case" scenario was based on results of detailed studies of sugarcane processing in Brazil that showed that refined sugar contains less than 1 μg of total plant protein /g refined sugar. The "Reasonable-case" scenario was based on assumption that the expression levels in stalk of newly-expressed proteins were less than 0.1% of total stalk protein. Using these calculated protein intake values from the consumption of sugar, along with the accepted NOAEL levels of the four representative proteins we concluded that safety margins for the "Worst-case" scenario ranged from 6.9 × 10 5 to 5.9 × 10 7 and for the "Reasonable-case" scenario ranged from 6.9 × 10 8 to 5.9 × 10 10 . These safety margins are very high due to the extremely low possible exposures and the high NOAELs for these non-toxic proteins. This generalized approach to the safety assessment of highly purified food ingredients like sugar illustrates that sugar processed from Brazilian GM varieties are safe for consumption in representative markets globally.

European Science Notes Information Bulletin Reports on Current European/Middle Eastern Science,

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-05-01

Nanotechnology Products ........................... Paul Roman 37 Superior Integrated Photon Counter Marketed in England ................ Paul Roman 37 UK...marketing. In the ap- plication of this technique, a product is offered for a Regulation of Individual Cognitive Construc- ridiculously low price...made, and that a considerably higher price must concerned with the refinement of a method that they be paid to obtain the product . Surprisingly, those

Petroleum: An Energy Profile 1999

EIA Publications

1999-01-01

Explains in layman's terms the major components and operations of the U.S. petroleum industry that include: petroleum products, resources and reserves, drilling and exploration, refining, storage and transportation, imports, exports, and petroleum marketing.

10 CFR 626.4 - General acquisition strategy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... current level of private inventories; (3) Days of net import protection; (4) Current price levels for...) Existing or potential disruptions in supply or refining capability; (7) The level of market volatility; (8...

10 CFR 626.4 - General acquisition strategy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... current level of private inventories; (3) Days of net import protection; (4) Current price levels for...) Existing or potential disruptions in supply or refining capability; (7) The level of market volatility; (8...

10 CFR 626.4 - General acquisition strategy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... current level of private inventories; (3) Days of net import protection; (4) Current price levels for...) Existing or potential disruptions in supply or refining capability; (7) The level of market volatility; (8...

10 CFR 626.4 - General acquisition strategy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... current level of private inventories; (3) Days of net import protection; (4) Current price levels for...) Existing or potential disruptions in supply or refining capability; (7) The level of market volatility; (8...

Well-to-Wheels Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis of High-Octane Fuels with Various Market Shares and Ethanol Blending Levels

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

Han, Jeongwoo; Elgowainy, Amgad; Wang, Michael

2015-07-14

In this study, we evaluated the impacts of producing HOF with a RON of 100, using a range of ethanol blending levels (E10, E25, and E40), vehicle efficiency gains, and HOF market penetration scenarios (3.4% to 70%), on WTW petroleum use and GHG emissions. In particular, we conducted LP modeling of petroleum refineries to examine the impacts of different HOF production scenarios on petroleum refining energy use and GHG emissions. We compared two cases of HOF vehicle fuel economy gains of 5% and 10% in terms of MPGGE to baseline regular gasoline vehicles. We incorporated three key factors in GREETmore » — (1) refining energy intensities of gasoline components for the various ethanol blending options and market shares, (2) vehicle efficiency gains, and (3) upstream energy use and emissions associated with the production of different crude types and ethanol — to compare the WTW GHG emissions of various HOF/vehicle scenarios with the business-as-usual baseline regular gasoline (87 AKI E10) pathway.« less

EIA model documentation: Petroleum market model of the national energy modeling system

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

NONE

1995-12-28

The purpose of this report is to define the objectives of the Petroleum Market Model (PMM), describe its basic approach, and provide detail on how it works. This report is intended as a reference document for model analysts, users, and the public. Documentation of the model is in accordance with EIA`s legal obligation to provide adequate documentation in support of its models. The PMM models petroleum refining activities, the marketing of petroleum products to consumption regions, the production of natural gas liquids in gas processing plants, and domestic methanol production. The PMM projects petroleum product prices and sources of supplymore » for meeting petroleum product demand. The sources of supply include crude oil, both domestic and imported; other inputs including alcohols and ethers; natural gas plant liquids production; petroleum product imports; and refinery processing gain. In addition, the PMM estimates domestic refinery capacity expansion and fuel consumption. Product prices are estimated at the Census division level and much of the refining activity information is at the Petroleum Administration for Defense (PAD) District level.« less

Report to Congress on the feasibility of establishing a heating oil component to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Volume 2: Appendices

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

NONE

Nine appendices to the main report are included in this volume. They are: Northeastern US distillate supply systems; New England fuel oil storage capacities and inventories; Characteristics of the northeast natural gas market; Documentation of statistical models and calculation of benefits; Regional product reserve study; Other countries` experience with refined product storage; Global refining supply demand appraisal; Summary of federal authorities relevant to the establishment of petroleum product reserves; Product stability and turnover requirements.

Gasoline Marketing: Premium Gasoline Overbuying May Be Occurring, but Extent Unknown.

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-02-01

Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) Mobil Oil Company Shell Oil Company Sun Refining and Marketing Company Consumer Groups American Automobile Association...Chairman: Consumers have the option of purchasing several different grades of unleaded gasoline-regular, mid-grade, and premium-which are classi...determine: (1) whether consumers were buying premium gasoline that they may not need, (2) whether the I .higher retail price of premium gasoline includes

Refined composite multiscale weighted-permutation entropy of financial time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yongping; Shang, Pengjian

2018-04-01

For quantifying the complexity of nonlinear systems, multiscale weighted-permutation entropy (MWPE) has recently been proposed. MWPE has incorporated amplitude information and been applied to account for the multiple inherent dynamics of time series. However, MWPE may be unreliable, because its estimated values show large fluctuation for slight variation of the data locations, and a significant distinction only for the different length of time series. Therefore, we propose the refined composite multiscale weighted-permutation entropy (RCMWPE). By comparing the RCMWPE results with other methods' results on both synthetic data and financial time series, RCMWPE method shows not only the advantages inherited from MWPE but also lower sensitivity to the data locations, more stable and much less dependent on the length of time series. Moreover, we present and discuss the results of RCMWPE method on the daily price return series from Asian and European stock markets. There are significant differences between Asian markets and European markets, and the entropy values of Hang Seng Index (HSI) are close to but higher than those of European markets. The reliability of the proposed RCMWPE method has been supported by simulations on generated and real data. It could be applied to a variety of fields to quantify the complexity of the systems over multiple scales more accurately.

Clark fights weak margins and high crude costs by leveraging capital and costs

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

Melnuk, P.D.

1997-03-01

Clark Refining & Marketing`s past year included unprofitable quarters and a legal challenge from the Illinois Attorney General that nearly shuttered the company`s Chicago-area refinery. Yet despite those valleys, there were clearly peaks for the independent refiner--notably, a deal to become one of the first hypermarket suppliers in the US and extension and upgrades of its retail network. Based in St. Louis, Clark employs 7,000 people and operates three refineries, two in Illinois with a combined capacity of 130,000 b/d, and one in Texas with a 200,000-b/d capacity. In addition, the company operates 16 product terminals, a crude oil terminalmore » and about 870 gasoline stations throughout the midwestern US. In an exclusive interview with Hart Fuels Group Editor Carol Cole, Melnuk discusses the company`s accomplishments and shortcomings, along with his personal goals for Clark.« less

Polycrystalline silicon study: Low-cost silicon refining technology prospects and semiconductor-grade polycrystalline silicon availability through 1988

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Costogue, E. N.; Ferber, R.; Lutwack, R.; Lorenz, J. H.; Pellin, R.

1984-01-01

Photovoltaic arrays that convert solar energy into electrical energy can become a cost effective bulk energy generation alternative, provided that an adequate supply of low cost materials is available. One of the key requirements for economic photovoltaic cells is reasonably priced silicon. At present, the photovoltaic industry is dependent upon polycrystalline silicon refined by the Siemens process primarily for integrated circuits, power devices, and discrete semiconductor devices. This dependency is expected to continue until the DOE sponsored low cost silicon refining technology developments have matured to the point where they are in commercial use. The photovoltaic industry can then develop its own source of supply. Silicon material availability and market pricing projections through 1988 are updated based on data collected early in 1984. The silicon refining industry plans to meet the increasing demands of the semiconductor device and photovoltaic product industries are overviewed. In addition, the DOE sponsored technology research for producing low cost polycrystalline silicon, probabilistic cost analysis for the two most promising production processes for achieving the DOE cost goals, and the impacts of the DOE photovoltaics program silicon refining research upon the commercial polycrystalline silicon refining industry are addressed.

PES Holdings, LLC, et. al. Bankruptcy Renewable Fuel Standard Settlement

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

PES Holdings, LLC, North Yard Financing, LLC, North Yard GP, LLC, North Yard Logistics, L.P., PES Administrative Services, LLC, PES Logistics GP, LLC, PES Logistics Partners, L.P., Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining and Marketing LLC (PESRM),

Midwest Regional Rail System : a transportation network for the 21st century

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-02-01

This report includes an assessment of and refinements to the Midwest Regional Rail System Plan published in August 1998. The report addresses an extensive range of issues, including infrastructure and operational requirements, level of travel market ...

Estimates of immediate effects on world markets of a hypothetical disruption to Russia’s supply of six mineral commodities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Safirova, Elena; Barry, James J.; Hastorun, Sinan; Matos, Grecia R.; Perez, Alberto Alexander; Bedinger, George M.; Bray, E. Lee; Jasinski, Stephen M.; Kuck, Peter H.; Loferski, Patricia J.

2017-05-18

The potential immediate effects of a hypothetical shock to Russia’s supply of selected mineral commodities on the world market and on individual countries were determined and monetized (in 2014 U.S. dollars). The mineral commodities considered were aluminum (refined primary), nickel (refined primary), palladium (refined) and platinum (refined), potash, and titanium (mill products), and the regions and countries of primary interest were the United States, the European Union (EU–28), and China. The shock is assumed to have infinite duration, but only the immediate effects, those limited by a 1-year period, are considered.A methodology for computing and monetizing the potential impacts was developed. Then the data pertaining to all six mineral commodities were collected and the most likely effects were computed. Because of the uncertainties associated with some of the data, sensitivity analyses were conducted to confirm the validity of the results.Results indicate that the impact on the United States arising from a shock to Russia’s supply, in terms of the value of net exports, would range from a gain of \\$336 million for titanium mill products to a loss of \\$237 million for potash; thus, the overall effect of a supply shock is likely to be quite modest. The study also demonstrates that, taken alone, Russia’s share in the world production of a particular commodity is not necessarily indicative of the size of potential impacts resulting from a supply shock; other factors, such as prices, domestic production, and the structure of international commodity flows were found to be important as well.

Solarize Guidebook: A Community Guide to Collective Purchasing of Residential PV Systems (Book)

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

Not Available

2012-05-01

This guidebook is intended as a road map for project planners and solar advocates who want to convert 'interest' into 'action,' to break through market barriers and permanently transform the market for residential solar installations in their communities. It describes the key elements of the Solarize campaigns in Portland, and offers several program refinements from projects beyond Portland. The guidebook provides lessons, considerations, and step-by-step plans for project organizers to replicate the success of Solarize Portland.

Acute, subchronic, and developmental toxicological properties of lubricating oil base stocks.

PubMed

Dalbey, Walden E; McKee, Richard H; Goyak, Katy Olsavsky; Biles, Robert W; Murray, Jay; White, Russell

2014-01-01

Lubricating oil base stocks (LOBs) are substances used in the manufacture of finished lubricants and greases. They are produced from residue remaining after atmospheric distillation of crude oil that is subsequently fractionated by vacuum distillation and additional refining steps. Initial LOB streams that have been produced by vacuum distillation but not further refined may contain polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) and may present carcinogenic hazards. In modern refineries, LOBs are further refined by multistep processes including solvent extraction and/or hydrogen treatment to reduce the levels of PACs and other undesirable constituents. Thus, mildly (insufficiently) refined LOBs are potentially more hazardous than more severely (sufficiently) refined LOBs. This article discusses the evaluation of LOBs using statistical models based on content of PACs; these models indicate that insufficiently refined LOBs (potentially carcinogenic LOBs) can also produce systemic and developmental effects with repeated dermal exposure. Experimental data were also obtained in ten 13-week dermal studies in rats, eight 4-week dermal studies in rabbits, and seven dermal developmental toxicity studies with sufficiently refined LOBs (noncarcinogenic and commonly marketed) in which no observed adverse effect levels for systemic toxicity and developmental toxicity were 1000 to 2000 mg/kg/d with dermal exposures, typically the highest dose tested. Results in both oral and inhalation developmental toxicity studies were similar. This absence of toxicologically relevant findings was consistent with lower PAC content of sufficiently refined LOBs. Based on data on reproductive organs with repeated dosing and parameters in developmental toxicity studies, sufficiently refined LOBs are likely to have little, if any, effect on reproductive parameters.

Refining historical limits method to improve disease cluster detection, New York City, New York, USA.

PubMed

Levin-Rector, Alison; Wilson, Elisha L; Fine, Annie D; Greene, Sharon K

2015-02-01

Since the early 2000s, the Bureau of Communicable Disease of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has analyzed reportable infectious disease data weekly by using the historical limits method to detect unusual clusters that could represent outbreaks. This method typically produced too many signals for each to be investigated with available resources while possibly failing to signal during true disease outbreaks. We made method refinements that improved the consistency of case inclusion criteria and accounted for data lags and trends and aberrations in historical data. During a 12-week period in 2013, we prospectively assessed these refinements using actual surveillance data. The refined method yielded 74 signals, a 45% decrease from what the original method would have produced. Fewer and less biased signals included a true citywide increase in legionellosis and a localized campylobacteriosis cluster subsequently linked to live-poultry markets. Future evaluations using simulated data could complement this descriptive assessment.

Community-based prevention marketing: organizing a community for health behavior intervention.

PubMed

Bryant, Carol A; Brown, Kelli R McCormack; McDermott, Robert J; Forthofer, Melinda S; Bumpus, Elizabeth C; Calkins, Susan A; Zapata, Lauren B

2007-04-01

This article describes the application and refinement of community-based prevention marketing (CBPM), an example of community-based participatory research that blends social marketing theories and techniques and community organization principles to guide voluntary health behavior change. The Florida Prevention Research Center has worked with a community coalition in Sarasota County, Florida to define locally important health problems and issues and to develop responsive health-promotion interventions. The CBPM framework has evolved as academic and community-based researchers have gained experience applying it. Community boards can use marketing principles to design evidence-based strategies for addressing local public health concerns. Based on 6 years of experience with the "Believe in All Your Possibilities" program, lessons learned that have led to revision and improvement of the CBPM framework are described.

Path of the Giant: Part II. Gasoline marketing in the United States

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

Not Available

1986-12-19

Overkill in US petroleum industry investment in its distribution and retailing system was a consequence of regulatory conditions, especially the crude oil depletion allowance. Contraction within the gasoline market has made marketing more efficient, on the one hand, while on the other hand, accompanying changes in products and consumer response have caused the profileration of distinctly different price categories. This issue also contains the following: (1) ED refining netback data for mid-December 1986 for the US Gulf and West Coasts, Rotterdam, and Singapore; and the latest ED fuel price tax series for countries of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.more » 7 figures, 6 tables.« less

76 FR 34046 - Non-Market Economy Antidumping Proceedings: Assessment of Antidumping Duties

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-10

...In antidumping duty (``AD'') administrative reviews involving non-market economy countries (``NME''), the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') currently instructs U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to liquidate entries from non-reviewed exporters at the cash-deposit rate required at the time the subject merchandise entered into the United States, consistent with 19 CFR 351.212(c)(i). The Department is aware of instances where merchandise from a non- reviewed exporter enters the United States at the cash-deposit rate of an exporter subject to review but where the basis for that cash deposit is not consistent with information subsequently reported to the Department during an administrative review. Accordingly, to ensure that entries are liquidated at appropriate rates and in accordance with the information reported to the Department during an administrative review, the Department is proposing to refine its practice with respect to the rate at which it instructs CBP to liquidate certain entries from non- reviewed exporters. Specifically, the Department proposes to instruct CBP to liquidate such entries at the NME-wide rate. Through this notice, the Department invites the public to comment on the proposed refinement to its practice. Effective Date: The Department proposes that this refinement in practice apply to all entries for which the anniversary for requesting an administrative review of an AD order is on or after the date of publication of a final notice on this issue.

An Export-Marketing Model for Pharmaceutical Firms (The Case of Iran)

PubMed Central

Mohammadzadeh, Mehdi; Aryanpour, Narges

2013-01-01

Internationalization is a matter of committed decision-making that starts with export marketing, in which an organization tries to diagnose and use opportunities in target markets based on realistic evaluation of internal strengths and weaknesses with analysis of macro and microenvironments in order to gain presence in other countries. A developed model for export and international marketing of pharmaceutical companies is introduced. The paper reviews common theories of the internationalization process, followed by examining different methods and models for assessing preparation for export activities and examining conceptual model based on a single case study method on a basket of seven leading domestic firms by using mainly questionares as the data gathering tool along with interviews for bias reduction. Finally, in keeping with the study objectives, the special aspects of the pharmaceutical marketing environment have been covered, revealing special dimensions of pharmaceutical marketing that have been embedded within the appropriate base model. The new model for international activities of pharmaceutical companies was refined by expert opinions extracted from result of questionnaires. PMID:24250597

An export-marketing model for pharmaceutical firms (the case of iran).

PubMed

Mohammadzadeh, Mehdi; Aryanpour, Narges

2013-01-01

Internationalization is a matter of committed decision-making that starts with export marketing, in which an organization tries to diagnose and use opportunities in target markets based on realistic evaluation of internal strengths and weaknesses with analysis of macro and microenvironments in order to gain presence in other countries. A developed model for export and international marketing of pharmaceutical companies is introduced. The paper reviews common theories of the internationalization process, followed by examining different methods and models for assessing preparation for export activities and examining conceptual model based on a single case study method on a basket of seven leading domestic firms by using mainly questionares as the data gathering tool along with interviews for bias reduction. Finally, in keeping with the study objectives, the special aspects of the pharmaceutical marketing environment have been covered, revealing special dimensions of pharmaceutical marketing that have been embedded within the appropriate base model. The new model for international activities of pharmaceutical companies was refined by expert opinions extracted from result of questionnaires.

Demand, Supply, and Price Outlook for Reformulated Motor Gasoline 1995

EIA Publications

1994-01-01

Provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 designed to reduce ground-level ozone will increase the demand for reformulated motor gasoline in a number of U.S. metropolitan areas. This article discusses the effects of the new regulations on the motor gasoline market and the refining industry.

Technology transfer-transportation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anyos, T.; Lizak, R.; Wilhelm, J.

1974-01-01

Problems in the public transportation industry and refining methods for decreasing the time gap between the development and the marketing of new technology are considered. Eight NASA innovations are either being adapted for use on highways, railways, or rapid transit, or are already entering the marketplace. Chronologies for three of these programs are provided.

Hazardous Waste Management System - Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste - Toxicity Characteristic - Hydrocarbon Recovery Operations - Federal Register Notice, October 5, 1990

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Agency is promulgating an interim final rule to extend the compliance date of the Toxicity Characteristic rule for petroleum refining facilities, marketing terminals and bulk plants engaged in the recovery and remediation operation for 120 days.

Silicon material development for terrestrial solar cells. Phase of exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirtl, E.

1983-03-01

A material project based on a multicrystalline silicon is reported. It consists of refining the metallurgical grade silicon via hydro and pyrometallurgical processes, preparation of square shaped ingots by (inert) gas protected or open hearth casting methods, and high speed slicing, using a multiple blade slurry saw. Second generation pilot equipment was constructed. Aluminothermic reduction of quartz sand into silicon and the foil casting process were tested. It is concluded that the production of silicon thru the gaseous phase depends upon the marketing of very cheap basic material (SG-Si 10 dollar/Kg) and that the purification of metallurgical grade silicon by refining is the most promising method.

Lead and the London Metal Exchange — a happy marriage? The outlook for prices and pricing issues confronting the lead industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keen, A.

The outlook for the supply-demand balance for refined lead is addressed and takes into account the growing non-fundamental forces on price determination. The market for refined lead is presently experiencing its first year of surplus since the major crisis of the early 1990s. Earlier in the decade, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and recession in developed economies led to a significant rise in London Metal Exchange (LME) stocks. An acceleration absorbed these stocks in an 18-month period in the mid-1990s, and LME lead prices reacted to the market deficit by peaking above US900. Since then the market has balanced, yet prices have declined steadily to less that 50% of their peak levels. It is argued that, on fundamental grounds, prices have fallen below justified levels. As much of the reason for this depression between 1997 and 1999 has been the generally depressive effect of the Asian economic crisis on financial markets, the level of lead prices may now be due for a correction. Other metals have begun to increase during the first half of 1999 and lead, given its neutral fundamental outlook, is now poised to participate in the generally more buoyant moods across LME metals. An increase of approximately 10% in average LME 3-month settlement prices is forecast and will result in annual average prices of US 570/tonne over the course of 1999. Monthly averages and spot prices are predicted to exceed this level, particularly during peak third-quarter demand.

EIA model documentation: Petroleum Market Model of the National Energy Modeling System

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

NONE

1994-12-30

The purpose of this report is to define the objectives of the Petroleum Market Model (PMM), describe its basic approach, and provide detail on how it works. This report is intended as a reference document for model analysts, users, and the public. Documentation of the model is in accordance with EIA`s legal obligation to provide adequate documentation in support of its models (Public Law 94-385, section 57.b.2). The PMM models petroleum refining activities, the marketing of products, the production of natural gas liquids and domestic methanol, projects petroleum provides and sources of supplies for meeting demand. In addition, the PMMmore » estimates domestic refinery capacity expansion and fuel consumption.« less

Points of Interest: What Determines Interest Rates?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schilling, Tim

Interest rates can significantly influence people's behavior. When rates decline, homeowners rush to buy new homes and refinance old mortgages; automobile buyers scramble to buy new cars; the stock market soars, and people tend to feel more optimistic about the future. But even though individuals respond to changes in rates, they may not fully…

Maritime industry : as U.S. single-hull oil vessels are eliminated, few double-hull vessels may replace them

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-04-01

Ships and barges are a major link in the country's oil transportation network, both for transporting crude oil to U.S. refineries and for transporting refined oil products to market. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 made extensive changes designed to ma...

Labor Market Slackens for New Science and Engineering Graduates. Science Resources Studies Highlights.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Div. of Science Resources Studies.

Recent recruiting experiences of firms that employ scientific and engineering (S/E) personnel were determined in a followup to a 1981 survey. The following industries, which employ almost three-fourths of the scientists and engineers in private industry, were included in the survey: mining, construction, petroleum refining and extraction,…

77 FR 67040 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; BOX Options Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-08

... Proposal Regarding Quote Mitigation November 2, 2012. Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) under the Securities... (Quote Mitigation) and refine the current quote mitigation strategy for its options trading facility, BOX Market LLC (``BOX'') by replacing the current quote mitigation rule with a ``holdback timer'' mechanism...

40 CFR 279.72 - On-specification used oil fuel.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 27 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false On-specification used oil fuel. 279.72... (CONTINUED) STANDARDS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF USED OIL Standards for Used Oil Fuel Marketers § 279.72 On-specification used oil fuel. (a) Analysis of used oil fuel. A generator, transporter, processor/re-refiner, or...

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

Grissom, M.C.

This bibliography includes 4715 citations arranged in the broad subject categories: reserves and exploration; site geology and hydrology; drilling, fracturing, and mining; oil production, recovery, and refining; properties and composition; direct uses and by-products; health and safety; marketing and economics; waste research and management; environmental aspects; regulations; and general. There are corporate, author, subject, contract number, and report number indexes.

33 CFR 148.105 - What must I include in my application?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

..., refining, or marketing oil or natural gas and natural gas liquids, along with a copy of each existing or... fuel oils; (v) Other refinery products; (vi) Natural gas; and (vii) Natural gas liquids. (h... liquid cargo, and the loading and unloading of vessels. (2) For each affiliate that has a significant...

Refining models for quantifying the water quality benefits of improved animal management for use in water quality trading

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Water quality trading (WQT) is a market-based approach that allows point sources of water pollution to meet their water quality obligations by purchasing credits from the reduced discharges from other point or nonpoint sources. Non-permitted animal operations and fields of permitted animal operatio...

Incentives for new antibiotics: the Options Market for Antibiotics (OMA) model.

PubMed

Brogan, David M; Mossialos, Elias

2013-11-07

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat resulting from the convergence of biological, economic and political pressures. Investment in research and development of new antimicrobials has suffered secondary to these pressures, leading to an emerging crisis in antibiotic resistance. Current policies to stimulate antibiotic development have proven inadequate to overcome market failures. Therefore innovative ideas utilizing market forces are necessary to stimulate new investment efforts. Employing the benefits of both the previously described Advanced Market Commitment and a refined Call Options for Vaccines model, we describe herein a novel incentive mechanism, the Options Market for Antibiotics. This model applies the benefits of a financial call option to the investment in and purchase of new antibiotics. The goal of this new model is to provide an effective mechanism for early investment and risk sharing while maintaining a credible purchase commitment and incentives for companies to ultimately bring new antibiotics to market. We believe that the Options Market for Antibiotics (OMA) may help to overcome some of the traditional market failures associated with the development of new antibiotics. Additional work must be done to develop a more robust mathematical model to pave the way for practical implementation.

Incentives for new antibiotics: the Options Market for Antibiotics (OMA) model

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat resulting from the convergence of biological, economic and political pressures. Investment in research and development of new antimicrobials has suffered secondary to these pressures, leading to an emerging crisis in antibiotic resistance. Methods Current policies to stimulate antibiotic development have proven inadequate to overcome market failures. Therefore innovative ideas utilizing market forces are necessary to stimulate new investment efforts. Employing the benefits of both the previously described Advanced Market Commitment and a refined Call Options for Vaccines model, we describe herein a novel incentive mechanism, the Options Market for Antibiotics. Results This model applies the benefits of a financial call option to the investment in and purchase of new antibiotics. The goal of this new model is to provide an effective mechanism for early investment and risk sharing while maintaining a credible purchase commitment and incentives for companies to ultimately bring new antibiotics to market. Conclusions We believe that the Options Market for Antibiotics (OMA) may help to overcome some of the traditional market failures associated with the development of new antibiotics. Additional work must be done to develop a more robust mathematical model to pave the way for practical implementation. PMID:24199835

Petroleum Market Model of the National Energy Modeling System

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

NONE

1997-01-01

The purpose of this report is to define the objectives of the Petroleum Market Model (PMM), describe its basic approach, and provide detail on how it works. This report is intended as a reference document for model analysts, users, and the public. The PMM models petroleum refining activities, the marketing of petroleum products to consumption regions. The production of natural gas liquids in gas processing plants, and domestic methanol production. The PMM projects petroleum product prices and sources of supply for meeting petroleum product demand. The sources of supply include crude oil, both domestic and imported; other inputs including alcoholsmore » and ethers; natural gas plant liquids production; petroleum product imports; and refinery processing gain. In addition, the PMM estimates domestic refinery capacity expansion and fuel consumption. Product prices are estimated at the Census division level and much of the refining activity information is at the Petroleum Administration for Defense (PAD) District level. This report is organized as follows: Chapter 2, Model Purpose; Chapter 3, Model Overview and Rationale; Chapter 4, Model Structure; Appendix A, Inventory of Input Data, Parameter Estimates, and Model Outputs; Appendix B, Detailed Mathematical Description of the Model; Appendix C, Bibliography; Appendix D, Model Abstract; Appendix E, Data Quality; Appendix F, Estimation methodologies; Appendix G, Matrix Generator documentation; Appendix H, Historical Data Processing; and Appendix I, Biofuels Supply Submodule.« less

Gas projects surge in the Middle East as governments seek new revenue sources

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

Williams, M.D.

The rapid development of natural gas and condensate reserves in the Middle East results from a simple motivation: the desire of governments to earn revenues. For the past decade, Middle East governments have run budget deficits, which they funded by drawing down foreign assets and issuing debt. Now in the process of structural economic reform, they have begun to use an under-utilized resource--natural gas, of which Middle East governments own about one third of the world`s reserves. Governments receive revenues from several sources in natural gas developments, which makes the projects very attractive. Revenue comes from the sale of themore » natural gas in the domestic market and, if exported, the international market; the sale of associated condensates; the additional exports of crude oil or refined products if natural gas is substituted for refined products in domestic markets; the increased sale of crude oil if natural gas is injected into reservoirs to maintain pressure; and the sale of petrochemicals where natural gas is used as feedstock. Large projects under way in the Middle East highlight the consequences of multiple revenue sources and interlinked costs of natural gas and condensate development. Other countries in the region are undertaking similar projects, so examples cited represent only a portion of what is occurring. The paper describes Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.« less

Pdvsa, seeks foreign investment hike

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

Roosen, G.

1992-08-03

Looking at a protracted cash crunch, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA plans to encourage accelerated investment by foreign companies in Venezuela's oil sector. Pdvsa late last month sliced about $1 billion from its capital and operating budget for 1992. This paper reports that in the medium term, Pdvsa plans to focus on investment in quicker payout projects in oil production and refining while seeking foreign capital for as many projects as possible in oil and gas exploration and development, petrochemicals, and coal. And it will continue to expand its presence in other countries, especially the US, to maintainmore » market shares of crude and refined products exports. Those are among the business strategies outlined by new Pdvsa Pres. Gustavo Roosen after his first 100 days on the job. Pdvsa sees a key window of opportunity in gaining part of the market share lost by US crude producers as their production continues to decline. Pdvsa production outlays this decade are estimated at $4.4 billion. Pdvsa continues to hold to its target of crude productive capacity at 3.3 million b/d by 1996. The company wants to jump capacity as quickly as prudently possible from the yearend 1991 level of 2.83 million b/d. Currently, Pdvsa must buy 6000,000 b/d of oil on the US market to meet all of its commitments.« less

Shoppers' perceived embeddedness and its impact on purchasing behavior at an organic farmers' market.

PubMed

Chen, Weiping; Scott, Steffanie

2014-12-01

This study explores the concept of perceived embeddedness (PE) and its impact on purchasing behavior at an organic farmers' market. Based on a review of the prior literature, the study refines the conceptualization and measurement of PE as a second-order factor construct reflected in its three dimensions: perceived social embeddedness, perceived spatial embeddedness, and perceived natural embeddedness. The study also suggests that organic farmers' market shoppers' PE is positively related to the two measures of purchasing behavior: expenditure per visit and repurchase intention. In a sample of 492 organic farmers' market shoppers in Beijing municipality, China, the study find support for the second-order factor structure of PE and the theorized relationship between the shoppers' PE and their purchasing behavior. The study also discusses theoretical and managerial implications of the findings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Crossed and Locked Quotes in a Multi-Market Simulation

PubMed Central

Todd, Andrew; Beling, Peter; Scherer, William

2016-01-01

Financial markets are often fragmented, introducing the possibility that quotes in identical securities may become crossed or locked. There are a number of theoretical explanations for the existence of crossed and locked quotes, including competition, simultaneous actions, inattentiveness, fee structure and market access. In this paper, we perform a simulation experiment designed to examine the effect of simple order routing procedures on the properties of a fragmented market consisting of a single security trading in two independent limit order books. The quotes in the two markets are connected solely by the routing decision of the market participants. We report on the health of the consolidated market as measured by the duration of crossed and locked states, as well as the spread and the volatility of transaction prices in the consolidated market. We aim to quantify exactly how the prevalence of order routing among a population of market participants affects properties of the consolidated market. Our model contributes to the zero-intelligence literature by treating order routing as an experimental variable. Additionally, we introduce a parsimonious heuristic for limit order routing, allowing us to study the effects of both market order routing and limit order routing. Our model refines intuition for the sometimes subtle relationships between the prevalence of order routing and various market measures. Our model also provides a benchmark for more complex agent-based models. PMID:26959416

Crossed and Locked Quotes in a Multi-Market Simulation.

PubMed

Todd, Andrew; Beling, Peter; Scherer, William

2016-01-01

Financial markets are often fragmented, introducing the possibility that quotes in identical securities may become crossed or locked. There are a number of theoretical explanations for the existence of crossed and locked quotes, including competition, simultaneous actions, inattentiveness, fee structure and market access. In this paper, we perform a simulation experiment designed to examine the effect of simple order routing procedures on the properties of a fragmented market consisting of a single security trading in two independent limit order books. The quotes in the two markets are connected solely by the routing decision of the market participants. We report on the health of the consolidated market as measured by the duration of crossed and locked states, as well as the spread and the volatility of transaction prices in the consolidated market. We aim to quantify exactly how the prevalence of order routing among a population of market participants affects properties of the consolidated market. Our model contributes to the zero-intelligence literature by treating order routing as an experimental variable. Additionally, we introduce a parsimonious heuristic for limit order routing, allowing us to study the effects of both market order routing and limit order routing. Our model refines intuition for the sometimes subtle relationships between the prevalence of order routing and various market measures. Our model also provides a benchmark for more complex agent-based models.

Essays on Industry Response to Energy and Environmental Policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sweeney, Richard Leonard

This dissertation consists of three essays on the relationship between firm incentives and energy and environmental policy outcomes. Chapters 1 and 2 study the impact of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments on the United States oil refining industry. This legislation imposed extensive restrictions on refined petroleum product markets, requiring select end users to purchase new cleaner versions of gasoline and diesel. In Chapter 2, I estimate the static impact of this intervention on refining costs, product prices and consumer welfare. Isolating these effects is complicated by several challenges likely to appear in other regulatory settings, including overlap between regulated and non-regulated markets and deviations from perfect competition. Using a rich database of refinery operations, I estimate a structural model that incorporates each of these dimensions, and then use this cost structure to simulate policy counterfactuals. I find that the policies increased gasoline production costs by 7 cents per gallon and diesel costs by 3 cents per gallon on average, although these costs varied considerably across refineries. As a result of these restrictions, consumers in regulated markets experienced welfare losses on the order of 3.7 billion per year, but this welfare loss was partially offset by gains of 1.5 billion dollars per year among consumers in markets not subject to regulation. The results highlight the importance of accounting for imperfect competition and market spillovers when assessing the cost of environmental regulation. Chapter 2 estimates the sunk costs incurred by United States oil refineries as a result of the low sulfur diesel program. The complex, regionally integrated nature of the industry poses many challenges for estimating these costs. I overcome them by placing the decision to invest in sulfur removal technology within the framework of a two period model and estimate the model using moment inequalities. I find that the regulation induced between 2.8 and 3.3 billion worth of investment in order to produce this new fuel. The results highlight the importance of accounting for sunk costs when evaluating environmental regulation, and suggest that the estimation approach used here might provide a viable way to estimate the sunk costs of other environmental policies. Chapter 3, coauthored with Hunt Allcott, turns the to retail market for water heaters to study the topic of energy efficiency. We run a natural field experiment at a large nationwide retailer to measure the effects of energy use information disclosure, customer rebates, and sales agent incentives on demand for energy efficient durable goods. We find that while a combination of large rebates plus sales incentives substantially increases market share, information and sales incentives alone each have zero statistical effect and explain at most a small fraction of the low baseline market share. Sales agents strategically comply only partially with the experiment, targeting information at more interested consumers but not discussing energy efficiency with the disinterested majority. These results suggest that at current prices in this context, seller-provided information is not a major barrier to energy efficiency investments. We theoretically and empirically explore the novel policy option of combining customer subsidies with government-provided sales incentives.

Warren Recommendation on Student Debt: What Will Work to Help America's Students?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Karen

2014-01-01

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has had concerns about student debt for decades. Her recent solution seeks to redistribute tax revenue from the richest Americans to enable students to refinance their postgraduation indebtedness; this would allow students to benefit from the low interest rates in today's financial markets. The Massachusetts…

78 FR 35244 - Seamless Refined Copper Pipe and Tube from Mexico: Final Results of Antidumping Duty...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-12

..., Golden Dragon) and Nacional de Cobre, S.A. de C.V. (Nacobre).\\2\\ We gave interested parties an...\\ on January 9, 2013. We received rebuttal briefs from Golden Dragon, Nacobre, and the petitioners on... for Golden Dragon and Nacobre to use the home market sales data they reported in their post...

DoD Mobility Fuels Guidelines Short-Term Issues,

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-06-01

built domestic plants . However, if no sub- stantial increase in domestic refinery capacity is forthcoming, this will encourage construction of new...from refinery investment. Under the Clean Air Act, refiners feel considerable uncertainty regarding fuel additives and refinery emissions . This has...II- 7 Market Structure ......... .................... II- 7 Refinery Capacity ........ .................... I- 9 Proposed Conversion to JP-8

40 CFR 281.39 - Lender liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... management of the UST or UST system as defined under § 280.210 of this chapter, and who does not engage in petroleum production, refining, and marketing as defined under § 280.200(b) of this chapter is not: (A) An..., provided the holder is not in control of or does not have responsibility for the daily operation of the UST...

Aviation fuels outlook

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Momenthy, A. M.

1980-01-01

Options for satisfying the future demand for commercial jet fuels are analyzed. It is concluded that the most effective means to this end are to attract more refiners to the jet fuel market and encourage development of processes to convert oil shale and coal to transportation fuels. Furthermore, changing the U.S. refineries fuel specification would not significantly alter jet fuel availability.

78 FR 16491 - Combined Notice of Filings #1

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-15

... Due: 5 p.m. e.t. 3/28/13. Docket Numbers: ER13-1047-000. Applicants: Tesoro Refining & Marketing.... Comments Due: 5 p.m. e.t. 3/25/13. Take notice that the Commission received the following electric rate... p.m. e.t. 3/26/13. Docket Numbers: ER13-1040-000. Applicants: Wisconsin Public Service Corporation...

Crude Oil Price Modeling...A Macro- Economic Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-01-01

tire industry of hotels , restaurants and service stations exploded across the landscape to support an increasingly mobile population.22 A Shifting...Refining Capacity Ratio(PRCR) eßmlim^Sß^ SmmS /iß^Mmn- LNofPRCR .< , iir’l ■:■’■■ -. Ill’ U". Square of PRCR OPEC Market Share NA NA

Dilemma for high-tech refiners

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

Not Available

The price difference between lighter and heavier crude oils, and between light and heavy refined products, amounts to the incentive for refiners to upgrade processing facilities. When that differential widens, the incentive to utilize lower price, lower quality crude is enhanced; when it narrows, the desirability of relying on light oil prices and supplies is intensified. The incentive to upgrade has been eroded ever since 1981 ushered in world-wide overproduction of crude oil. Lower demand due to recession met with increased pressure on producers to compete for market shares to maintain vital revenue levels - for private and national oilmore » companies alike. Light crude prices suffered, while heavy crude prices improved. As of mid-1984, the shrinkage of the price differential went into dormancy (see Energy Detente 8/8/84, A Hey-Day for Heavy Crudes) after both Mexico and Venezuela raised heavy oil prices by US $0.50 per barrel (bbl). Energy Detente refining netback data for the first half of October are presented for the US Gulf Coast and the US West Coast. The fuel price/tax series and the industrial fuel prices for October 1984 are included for countries of the Eastern Hemisphere.« less

Market turbulence creates financing opportunity.

PubMed

Cooper, James H

2012-03-01

The flight to high-quality assets resulting from Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating has dropped the yield on U.S. Treasury securities as investors have sought refuge amid uncertain market conditions. Consequently, hospitals can now obtain mortgage insurance from the U.S. government to finance expansions and refinance their debt with GNMA securities at taxable interest rates that are often more favorable than tax-exempt bond fixed rates. Because GNMA certificates can be sold in a forward purchase transaction that locks in a fixed interest rate while avoiding payment of interest until construction funds are disbursed, they can help avoid the effects of negative arbitrage.

Economic impact and market analysis of a special event: The Great New England Air Show

Treesearch

Rodney B. Warnick; David C. Bojanic; Atul Sheel; Apurv Mather; Deepak Ninan

2010-01-01

We conducted a post-event evaluation for the Great New England Air Show to assess its general economic impact and to refine economic estimates where possible. In addition to the standard economic impact variables, we examined travel distance, purchase decision involvement, event satisfaction, and frequency of attendance. Graphic mapping of event visitors' home ZIP...

Include Your Patrons in Web Design. Computers in Small Libraries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Gary

2005-01-01

Successful Web publishing requires not only technical skills but also a refined sense of taste, a good understanding of design, and strong writing abilities. When designing a library Web page, a person must possess all of these talents and be able to market to a broad spectrum of patrons. As a result, library sites vary widely in their style and…

75 FR 60725 - Seamless Refined Copper Pipe and Tube From the People's Republic of China: Final Determination of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-01

... Tube From the People's Republic of China and Mexico: Initiation of Antidumping Duty Investigations, 74... purchases by Golden Dragon from a certain supplier in the Peoples's Republic of China as non-market economy... and Tube From the People's Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value...

Value added product recovery from sludge generated during gum arabic refining process by vermicomposting.

PubMed

Das, Veena; Satyanarayan, Sanjeev; Satyanarayan, Shanta

2016-09-01

Gum arabic is multifunctional and used in food products, pharmaceutical, confectionery, cosmetic, printing and textile industry. Gum arabic has an excellent market and its production is being increased to meet the market demand. In the process, huge quantity of solid waste is generated during its refining process. An attempt has been made to vermicompost this organic waste using Eudrilus eugeniae. This research work is first of its kind. Literature on this substrate has not been reported anywhere else for vermicomposting. Results were excellent with volatile solid reduction of 51.34 %; C/N ratio reduced to 16.31 % indicating efficient loss of carbon as carbon dioxide during vermicomposting period. Manurial value, i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in the range, required for the plants also increased. Porosity of 67.74 % and water holding capacity of 65.75 % were observed. The maturity of the vermicompost was evaluated through scanning electron microscopy wherein the complete conversion of large raw material particles into finer particles forming a uniform matrix with more surface area was observed indicating its efficient conversion. Microbial quality of vermicompost was also studied. The final vermicompost is free of fungal cells and pathogenic bacteria.

Penny-pinching strategy pays off at the gas pumps. [Hudson Oil Co

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

Nazem, S.G.

1978-06-05

Mary Hudson Vandergrift is president and chief executive of Hudson Oil Company. She reigns over the oldest and one of the largest independent gasoline-marketing companies in the U.S., with 300 service stations scattered across thirty-six states, and her own refinery. Her company rang up sales of $230 million last year, and FORTUNE estimates that profits were in the neighborhood of $10 million. Many of Miss Hudson's strategies in gasoline marketing have been getting to be commonplace in the business. She runs a lean operation, cutting costs to the bone. She shuns grease racks and service bays; at each station amore » small, austere kiosk houses only a cash box and rest rooms. Most customers must serve themselves. She undersells the major oil companies by 1 to 2 cents per gallon. Her refinery turns out 450,000 gallons of gasoline daily, enough to fill 50% of Hudson's retail needs and for every barrel of crude it refines, Hudson Oil gets a rebate of about $2 from the government as part of the entitlements program that aims to keep small refiners competitive with the majors. (MCW)« less

First oxygenated gasoline season shakes out differently than expected

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

Dale, C.; Hackworth, J.H.; Shore, J.M.

1993-10-25

The U.S.'s first oxygenated gasoline season began Nov. 1, 1992. Refiners and marketers achieved compliance with these new specs with little upset to the gasoline production and distribution system. But although the season went smoothly, it did not shake out exactly as projected. Demand for oxygenated gasoline and, in particular, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), was lower than expected. Prior to the season, refiners were concerned that oxygenates might be in short supply. No supply shortages developed, however, and prices of both oxygenates and gasoline decreased during the season. The paper discusses gasoline demand, administration of the oxygenated gasoline program,more » spillover, reduced demand, ethanol, oxygenate supply, prices, ethanol tax credit, refinery economics, and the outlook for next season.« less

Mine to market: The legal issues

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

Not Available

1985-01-01

The movement of mineral products from mine to market is the fundamental objective of every mining enterprise. However, the difficult and recurring legal problems encountered in these activities have been overlooked by legal scholars, and little literature is available. The manual from the Foundation's Special Institute on Mine to Market: The Legal Issues is intended to help cure this deficiency, and will be invaluable to individuals involved in any phase of the production and sale or purchase of minerals - from negotiating an initial lease to preparing an agreement for the purchase or sale of a refined product. Included inmore » the manual are discussions of: the mining process - from severance to saleable product; marketing strategy and the lawyer - methods of selling and hedging used in the mining industry; metal markets and pricing mechanisms; the impact of the uniform commercial code on contracts for the sale of minerals and other goods; contracts for the international sale of minerals; countertrade - commercial practices, legal issues, and policy dilemmas; commercial impracticability in mineral transactions; price and payment terms in mineral agreements; and mineral sales and processing agreements.« less

Refinery suppliers face tough times

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

Rotman, D.; Walsh, K.

1997-03-12

Despite a handful of bright spots in hydroprocessing and petrochemical sectors, economic woes plague much of the refinery and petrochemical catalysts business, as suppliers are feeling the impact of mature markets and refiners` ongoing cost cutting. Industry experts say the doldrums could spur further restructuring in the catalyst business, with suppliers scrambling for market share and jockeying for position in growing sectors. Expect further consolidation over the next several years, says Pierre Bonnifay, president of IFP Enterprises (New York). {open_quotes}There are still too many players for the mature [refinery catalyst] markets.{close_quotes} Others agree. {open_quotes}Only about seven [or] eight major suppliersmore » will survive,{close_quotes} says Robert Allsmiller, v.p./refinery and petrochemical catalysts at United Catalysts Inc. (UCI; Louisville, KY). {open_quotes}Who they [will be] is still up in the air.{close_quotes}« less

Development of an Agent-based Model to Analyze Contemporary Helium Markets

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

Riddle, Matthew E.; Uckun, Canan; Conzelmann, Guenter

Although U.S. helium demand has remained relatively flat since 2009, exports of helium have increased significantly since then, driven primarily by demand for electronic and semiconductor manufacturing in Asia. In the midst of this global demand shift, the Helium Act dictates a new procedure for pricing and distributing the gas through a reserve that historically functioned as a loose “oligarchy.” The new procedure requires prices to be determined by the open market through auctions and a survey of market prices, as opposed to increasing prices according to the consumer price index. Response to these changes has caused temporary shortages, pricemore » increases, and a significant increase in the development of the helium extraction technologies used to produce helium from formerly marginal sources. Technologies are being developed and refined to extract helium from formerly low-yielding natural gas fields containing much lower amounts of helium than the previously considered economic threshold of 0.3%. Combining these transformative policies with the potential for new and significant global supplies from Qatar, Algeria, and Russia could lead to new and unforeseen market behaviors and reactions from global helium markets. The objective of the project is to analyze the global helium markets.« less

Consensus modeling to develop the farmers' market readiness assessment and decision instrument.

PubMed

Lee, Eunlye; Dalton, Jarrod; Ngendahimana, David; Bebo, Pat; Davis, Ashley; Remley, Daniel; Smathers, Carol; Freedman, Darcy A

2017-09-01

Nutrition-related policy, system, and environmental (PSE) interventions such as farmers' markets have been recommended as effective strategies for promoting healthy diet for chronic disease prevention. Tools are needed to assess community readiness and capacity factors influencing successful farmers' market implementation among diverse practitioners in different community contexts. We describe a multiphase consensus modeling approach used to develop a diagnostic tool for assessing readiness and capacity to implement farmers' market interventions among public health and community nutrition practitioners working with low-income populations in diverse contexts. Modeling methods included the following: phase 1, qualitative study with community stakeholders to explore facilitators and barriers influencing successful implementation of farmers' market interventions in low-income communities; phase 2, development of indicators based on operationalization of qualitative findings; phase 3, assessment of relevance and importance of indicators and themes through consensus conference with expert panel; phase 4, refinement of indicators based on consensus conference; and phase 5, pilot test of the assessment tool. Findings illuminate a range of implementation factors influencing farmers' market PSE interventions and offer guidance for tailoring intervention delivery based on levels of community, practitioner, and organizational readiness and capacity.

Comparing market orientation culture of businesses and schools of business: an extension and refinement.

PubMed

Webster, Robert L; Hammond, Kevin L; Harmon, Harry A

2005-04-01

This study extends previous work concerning the market orientation culture within specialty businesses and schools of business. Specifically, member schools of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International are separated into public and private universities. Data were collected via a mailed survey to business schools holding membership. 106 public school deans and 35 private school deans responded, for a 23% response rate. Input from the deans was sought on their perceptions of the market orientation culture within the schools. Respondents' perceptions, rated on a 7-point scale, measured four dimensions of market orientation: customer orientation, competitor orientation, organizational coordination, and overall market orientation. Data for specialty businesses were drawn from a previous study. Comparison testing between the public and private business schools' deans and business managers was conducted. Analysis indicated perceived market orientation was significantly higher for deans of private business schools than public business schools. Compared with business managers, private school deans were statistically different on only one of the four dimensions, whereas public business school deans' scores were significantly different from those of business managers on all four. Compared with each other, business school deans were statistically different on three dimensions, with private school deans reporting greater market orientation.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: History, Perspectives, and Issues

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-28

Germany , Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden...Iran. Firms providing, or insuring tankers carrying, refined product to Iran would also be included in the prohibition. The Drawdown Authorities The...taking place in the operation of oil markets after the experiences of the 1970s, and deregulation of oil price and supply. Sales of SPR oil authorized

Refined two-index entropy and multiscale analysis for complex system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bian, Songhan; Shang, Pengjian

2016-10-01

As a fundamental concept in describing complex system, entropy measure has been proposed to various forms, like Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) entropy, one-index entropy, two-index entropy, sample entropy, permutation entropy etc. This paper proposes a new two-index entropy Sq,δ and we find the new two-index entropy is applicable to measure the complexity of wide range of systems in the terms of randomness and fluctuation range. For more complex system, the value of two-index entropy is smaller and the correlation between parameter δ and entropy Sq,δ is weaker. By combining the refined two-index entropy Sq,δ with scaling exponent h(δ), this paper analyzes the complexities of simulation series and classifies several financial markets in various regions of the world effectively.

Expanding the use of administrative claims databases in conducting clinical real-world evidence studies in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Capkun, Gorana; Lahoz, Raquel; Verdun, Elisabetta; Song, Xue; Chen, Weston; Korn, Jonathan R; Dahlke, Frank; Freitas, Rita; Fraeman, Kathy; Simeone, Jason; Johnson, Barbara H; Nordstrom, Beth

2015-05-01

Administrative claims databases provide a wealth of data for assessing the effect of treatments in clinical practice. Our aim was to propose methodology for real-world studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) using these databases. In three large US administrative claims databases: MarketScan, PharMetrics Plus and Department of Defense (DoD), patients with MS were selected using an algorithm identified in the published literature and refined for accuracy. Algorithms for detecting newly diagnosed ('incident') MS cases were also refined and tested. Methodology based on resource and treatment use was developed to differentiate between relapses with and without hospitalization. When various patient selection criteria were applied to the MarketScan database, an algorithm requiring two MS diagnoses at least 30 days apart was identified as the preferred method of selecting patient cohorts. Attempts to detect incident MS cases were confounded by the limited continuous enrollment of patients in these databases. Relapse detection algorithms identified similar proportions of patients in the MarketScan and PharMetrics Plus databases experiencing relapses with (2% in both databases) and without (15-20%) hospitalization in the 1 year follow-up period, providing findings in the range of those in the published literature. Additional validation of the algorithms proposed here would increase their credibility. The methods suggested in this study offer a good foundation for performing real-world research in MS using administrative claims databases, potentially allowing evidence from different studies to be compared and combined more systematically than in current research practice.

Substitution for petroleum products in Brasil: Urgent issues

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

de Araujo, J.L.; Ghirardi, A.

Brazililan energy policy during the last decade has focused on the replacement of imported petroleum with domestic energy sources, combined with efforts at conservation. The substitution results, however, have been more spectacular by far. The strategy of replacement is based on two elements. first, to increase domestic petroleum exploration and production. Second, to promote non-petroleum fuels as alternatives to the industrial and transportation sectors, for the substitution of fuel oil and gasoline, respectively. A combination of the substitution strategy, the country's petroleum refining structure, and the composition of the substitution strategy, the country's petroleum refining structure, and the composition ofmore » demand, has resulted in large surpluses of both gasoline and fuel oil, while diesel has become the most used among petroleum products. The surpluses are not easily exportable because there is ample availability of fuel oil in the world market, and because the low octane number of the gasoline produced in Brasil is not compatible with the engines of cars elsewhere in the region and in the world. Furthermore, although gasoline might be upgraded, the question remains that prospects for the world market are not encouraging, and an export-based strategy does not seem justified in view of the growing surpluses. The objective of this analysis is to review the mechanisms of themajor petroleum-substitution programs currently in existence, identifying their past impact on the energy market and the possible consequences of changes in the goals and operating conditions of these programs, in the light of the new prospects for increased domestic oil production and self-sufficiency. 23 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.« less

A focus on the consumer: social marketing for change.

PubMed

Lucaire, L E

1985-01-01

Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing principles to advance a social cause, issue, behavior, product, or service. Social marketing has added a framework to social efforts that heretofore lacked organization and has inspired projects that otherwise might never have been initiated. In the US, social marketing techniques have been particularly successful in the health field. Although advertising and other communications are central to social marketing, the discipline also depends upon other elements of what is termed the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. Social marketing is a cyclical process involving 6 steps: analysis; planning; development, testing, and refining elements of the plan; implementation; assessment of in-market effectiveness; and feedback. In developing countries, health has similarly been the greatest beneficiary to date of applied social marketing techniques. Family planning programs and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) projects have used social marketing techniques effectively in numerous developing countries. Social marketing has been even more widely applied in the sale of contraceptives in developing countries. Contraceptive social marketing (CSM) programs are well established in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Nepal, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, and Egypt. More recently programs have been established in Honduras, Guatemala, Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia. SOMARC (Social Marketing for Change) is a project funded by the US Agency for International Development (AID) and is working with existing CSM programs and helping to launch new CSM programs. CSM programs are successfully functioning as legitimate marketing organizations in developing countries and are using local private sector resources in the process. Program results are encouraging. Social marketing requires both experience and sensitivity to local conditions. Many developing countries now have their own marketing resources. Local private sector advertising and marketing agencies are helping public and private sector programs. In countries where local resources are scarce, AID has created several programs to provide technical assistance in social marketing.

Budgetary and Programmatic Fluctuations during the System Development and Demonstration Phase: A Case Study of the Marine Corps H-1 Upgrade Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

impact of economic change might include a closing factory, market manipulation, the signing of international trade 17 treaties, or the global...Refinement System Intergration System Demonstration Concept Decision BA C LRIP Full-Rate Production & Deployment System Development and Demonstration...BLOCK III Concept Exploration Component Advanced Development Concept and Technology Development System Intergration System Demonstration Decision Review

Mineral resource of the month: fluorspar

USGS Publications Warehouse

Miller, M. Michael

2003-01-01

Fluorspar, this month’s featured mineral resource commodity, has been widely used in steelmaking since the introduction of basic open-hearth furnace technology in the late 19th century. Its uses have grown and changed over the last 100 years, and now fluorspar’s most important markets are fluorochemicals, aluminum refining and steel. M. Michael Miller, Fluorspar Commodity Specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, has prepared the following information about fluorspar.

Maritime Interdiction Operations in Logistically Barren Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-01

and its specification, can only be done as refinements suggested herein are fielded by operational forces. Surveys of boarding teams, ship’s captains...how well the recommendations were as compared to what is being used now. 124 A market survey of commercially available products was conducted to...and shore installations around the globe. 2. Approach In keeping with the timeframe of 2013-2014, surveys were taken of the current technological

Potential synergies and challenges in refining cellulosic biomass to fuels, chemicals, and power.

PubMed

Wyman, Charles E

2003-01-01

Lignocellulosic biomass such as agricultural and forestry residues and dedicated crops provides a low-cost and uniquely sustainable resource for production of many organic fuels and chemicals that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, improve the economy, dispose of problematic solid wastes, and improve air quality. A technoeconomic analysis of biologically processing lignocellulosics to ethanol is adapted to project the cost of making sugar intermediates for producing a range of such products, and sugar costs are predicted to drop with plant size as a result of economies of scale that outweigh increased biomass transport costs for facilities processing less than about 10,000 dry tons per day. Criteria are then reviewed for identifying promising chemicals in addition to fuel ethanol to make from these low cost cellulosic sugars. It is found that the large market for ethanol makes it possible to achieve economies of scale that reduce sugar costs, and coproducing chemicals promises greater profit margins or lower production costs for a given return on investment. Additionally, power can be sold at low prices without a significant impact on the selling price of sugars. However, manufacture of multiple products introduces additional technical, marketing, risk, scale-up, and other challenges that must be considered in refining of lignocellulosics.

Oil and gas markets, companies, and technology in the 1990`s and beyond

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

Kennedy, J.L.

1995-08-01

During the late 1990`s and beyond, oil prices will be stagnant while costs increase, competition for markets and capital will be fierce, funds available for exploration and development will be limited, and environmental extremists will keep prospective areas off-limits. Higher taxes will limit growth in oil and gas demand and reapportion energy market shares. And a campaign to brand oil use as an ``addiction`` that must be cured will gather steam. But opportunities abound, too, even in the US High-quality properties are available throughout the US, independents can find and develop reserves cheaper than the majors, and new tools aremore » available to reduce risks both in the field and in the market. Gas prices are firming and natural gas is often labeled the ``fuel of the future.`` To succeed in the petroleum industry of the 1990`s, all companies must accept change, be creative, and take initiative. To prosper, oil and gas producers and refiners and those who supply and serve the industry must face the new realities of the market. They cannot mark time until the return of 4,000 active rigs and $40/bbl oil. those days are never coming back. Never.« less

Comparing Alcohol Marketing and Alcohol Warning Message Policies Across Canada.

PubMed

Wettlaufer, Ashley; Cukier, Samantha N; Giesbrecht, Norman

2017-08-24

In order to reduce harms from alcohol, evidence-based policies are to be introduced and sustained. To facilitate the dissemination of policies that reduce alcohol-related harms by documenting, comparing, and sharing information on effective alcohol polices related to restrictions on alcohol marketing and alcohol warning messaging in 10 Canadian provinces. Team members developed measurable indicators to assess policies on (a) restrictions on alcohol marketing, and (b) alcohol warning messaging. Indicators were peer-reviewed by three alcohol policy experts, refined, and data were collected, submitted for validation by provincial experts, and scored independently by two team members. The national average score was 52% for restrictions on marketing policies and 18% for alcohol warning message policies. Most provinces had marketing regulations that went beyond the federal guidelines with penalties for violating marketing regulations. The provincial liquor boards' web pages focused on product promotion, and there were few restrictions on sponsorship activities. No province has implemented alcohol warning labels, and Ontario was the sole province to have legislated warning signs at all points-of-sale. Most provinces provided a variety of warning signs to be displayed voluntarily at points-of-sale; however, the quality of messages varied. Conclusions/Importance: There is extensive alcohol marketing with comparatively few messages focused on the potential harms associated with alcohol. It is recommended that governments collaborate with multiple stakeholders to maximize the preventive impact of restrictions on alcohol marketing and advertising, and a broader implementation of alcohol warning messages.

Labour market income inequality and mortality in North American metropolitan areas.

PubMed

Sanmartin, C; Ross, N A; Tremblay, S; Wolfson, M; Dunn, J R; Lynch, J

2003-10-01

To investigate relations between labour market income inequality and mortality in North American metropolitan areas. An ecological cross sectional study of relations between income inequality and working age (25-64 years) mortality in 53 Canadian (1991) and 282 US (1990) metropolitan areas using four measures of income inequality. Two labour market income concepts were used: labour market income for households with non-trivial attachment to the labour market and labour market income for all households, including those with zero and negative incomes. Relations were assessed with weighted and unweighted bivariate and multiple regression analyses. US metropolitan areas were more unequal than their Canadian counterparts, across inequality measures and income concepts. The association between labour market income inequality and working age mortality was robust in the US to both the inequality measure and income concept, but the association was inconsistent in Canada. Three of four inequality measures were significantly related to mortality in Canada when households with zero and negative incomes were included. In North American models, increases in earnings inequality were associated with hypothetical increases in working age mortality rates of between 23 and 33 deaths per 100 000, even after adjustment for median metropolitan incomes. This analysis of labour market inequality provides more evidence regarding the robust nature of the relation between income inequality and mortality in the US. It also provides a more refined understanding of the nature of the relation in Canada, pointing to the role of unemployment in generating Canadian metropolitan level health inequalities.

Solar industrial process heat: A study of applications and attitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, V.

1981-04-01

Data were gathered through site visits to 100 industrial plants. The site specific data suggests several possible near term market opportunities for solar thermal energy systems. Plants using electricity as their primary fuel for industrial process heat were identified, on the basis of their high fuel prices, as attractive early entry markets for solar energy. Additional opportunities were reflected in plants that had accomplished much of their conservation plans, or bad sizeable percentages of their operating budgets committed to energy expenses. A suitability analysis identified eleven industrial plants as highly suitable for solar thermal applications, they included producers of fluid milk, pottery, canned and bottled soft drinks, fabricated structural metal, refined petroleum, aluminum cans, chrome and nickel plating and stamped frame metal and metal finishings.

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

Aalund, L.R

Lost in the controversy over project cost overruns during the late 1980s was the fact that Statoil, Norway's state-owned oil company, was turning its Mongstad plant into one of Europe's most modern refiners. The expansion and revamp project was completed and put on stream during the last half of 1989. The author reports how the modernized refinery's output of top quality products has implications for markets not only throughout Scandinavia but also in northwestern Europe and the United States.

Phosphoric acid fuel cell platinum use study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lundblad, H. L.

1983-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy is promoting the private development of phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) power plants for terrestrial applications. Current PAFC technology utilizes platinum as catalysts in the power electrodes. The possible repercussions that the platinum demand of PAFC power plant commercialization will have on the worldwide supply and price of platinum from the outset of commercialization to the year 2000 are investigated. The platinum demand of PAFC commercialization is estimated by developing forecasts of platinum use per unit of generating capacity and penetration of PAFC power plants into the electric generation market. The ability of the platinum supply market to meet future demands is gauged by assessing the size of platinum reserves and the capability of platinum producers to extract, refine and market sufficient quantities of these reserves. The size and timing of platinum price shifts induced by the added demand of PAFC commercialization are investigated by several analytical methods. Estimates of these price shifts are then used to calculate the subsequent effects on PAFC power plant capital costs.

NREL Spectrum of Clean Energy Innovation (Brochure)

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

Not Available

2011-09-01

This brochure describes the NREL Spectrum of Clean Energy Innovation, which includes analysis and decision support, fundamental science, market relevant research, systems integration, testing and validation, commercialization and deployment. Through deep technical expertise and an unmatched breadth of capabilities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) leads an integrated approach across the spectrum of renewable energy innovation. From scientific discovery to accelerating market deployment, NREL works in partnership with private industry to drive the transformation of our nation's energy systems. NREL integrates the entire spectrum of innovation, including fundamental science, market relevant research, systems integration, testing and validation, commercialization, and deployment.more » Our world-class analysis and decision support informs every point on the spectrum. The innovation process at NREL is inter-dependent and iterative. Many scientific breakthroughs begin in our own laboratories, but new ideas and technologies may come to NREL at any point along the innovation spectrum to be validated and refined for commercial use.« less

Manufacture of ammonium sulfate fertilizer from gypsum-rich byproduct of flue gas desulfurization - A prefeasibility cost estimate

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chou, I.-Ming; Rostam-Abadi, M.; Lytle, J.M.; Achorn, F.P.

1996-01-01

Costs for constructing and operating a conceptual plant based on a proposed process that converts flue gas desulfurization (FGD)-gypsum to ammonium sulfate fertilizer has been calculated and used to estimate a market price for the product. The average market price of granular ammonium sulfate ($138/ton) exceeds the rough estimated cost of ammonium sulfate from the proposed process ($111/ ton), by 25 percent, if granular size ammonium sulfate crystals of 1.2 to 3.3 millimeters in diameters can be produced by the proposed process. However, there was at least ??30% margin in the cost estimate calculations. The additional costs for compaction, if needed to create granules of the required size, would make the process uneconomical unless considerable efficiency gains are achieved to balance the additional costs. This study suggests the need both to refine the crystallization process and to find potential markets for the calcium carbonate produced by the process.

Phosphoric acid fuel cell platinum use study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lundblad, H. L.

1983-05-01

The U.S. Department of Energy is promoting the private development of phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) power plants for terrestrial applications. Current PAFC technology utilizes platinum as catalysts in the power electrodes. The possible repercussions that the platinum demand of PAFC power plant commercialization will have on the worldwide supply and price of platinum from the outset of commercialization to the year 2000 are investigated. The platinum demand of PAFC commercialization is estimated by developing forecasts of platinum use per unit of generating capacity and penetration of PAFC power plants into the electric generation market. The ability of the platinum supply market to meet future demands is gauged by assessing the size of platinum reserves and the capability of platinum producers to extract, refine and market sufficient quantities of these reserves. The size and timing of platinum price shifts induced by the added demand of PAFC commercialization are investigated by several analytical methods. Estimates of these price shifts are then used to calculate the subsequent effects on PAFC power plant capital costs.

Survey data on consumer behaviour in olive oil markets: The role of product knowledge and brand credence.

PubMed

Salazar-Ordóñez, Melania; Rodríguez-Entrena, Macario; Cabrera, Elena R; Henseler, Jörg

2018-06-01

This paper presents data conducted to analyse consumer behaviour in agri-food markets, where product differentiation failures occur, with the aim of disentangling the roles played by both consumer information and inferences made from informational stimuli. We thus examined consumer knowledge structures and brand credence related to attitudes towards a particular foodstuff and a product alternative, as well as the actual consumption of the foodstuff. To do so, the selected case study was the olive oil markets in Spain, given that products such as extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and refined olive oil (ROO), that differ in terms of intrinsic features, become undifferentiated. The data of the observed variables were collected from 700 regular buyers from an online panel at the household level in southern Spain. The data were processed using both Excel for checking, cleaning and descriptive purposes and ADANCO 2.0 (Dijkstra and Henseler, 2015) [1] for performing the model estimations.

Waste Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel for Diesel Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-01

processor has a 160 gallon capacity, a fuel dryer , and features automatic mixing of the chemicals. The chemicals needed consist of lye (sodium...to distinguish it as tax-exempt. Fuel taxes are reported to the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) when the fuel is distributed to the “Service...collected in the commercial market. The refiner will pay the tax per gallon directly to the 22 IRS . When the fuel is sold, the end user pays the tax

Aggregate exposure modelling of zinc pyrithione in rinse-off personal cleansing products using a person-orientated approach with market share refinement.

PubMed

Tozer, Sarah A; Kelly, Seamus; O'Mahony, Cian; Daly, E J; Nash, J F

2015-09-01

Realistic estimates of chemical aggregate exposure are needed to ensure consumer safety. As exposure estimates are a critical part of the equation used to calculate acceptable "safe levels" and conduct quantitative risk assessments, methods are needed to produce realistic exposure estimations. To this end, a probabilistic aggregate exposure model was developed to estimate consumer exposure from several rinse off personal cleansing products containing the anti-dandruff preservative zinc pyrithione. The model incorporates large habits and practices surveys, containing data on frequency of use, amount applied, co-use along with market share, and combines these data at the level of the individual based on subject demographics to better estimate exposure. The daily-applied exposure (i.e., amount applied to the skin) was 3.79 mg/kg/day for the 95th percentile consumer. The estimated internal dose for the 95th percentile exposure ranged from 0.01-1.29 μg/kg/day after accounting for retention following rinsing and dermal penetration of ZnPt. This probabilistic aggregate exposure model can be used in the human safety assessment of ingredients in multiple rinse-off technologies (e.g., shampoo, bar soap, body wash, and liquid hand soap). In addition, this model may be used in other situations where refined exposure assessment is required to support a chemical risk assessment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The refining of secondary lead for use in advanced lead-acid batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellis, Timothy W.; Mirza, Abbas H.

Secondary lead, i.e. material produced by the recycling of lead-acid batteries has become the primary source of lead in much of the world. This has been important to the secondary lead industry as other uses have dwindled, e.g. lead based pigments, chemicals, fuel additives, solders and CRT glasses [1]. Presently, battery manufacturing accounts for greater than 80% of lead consumption while recycled lead accounts for approximately the same market share of lead supply. These two facts strongly demonstrate the battery manufacturing and recycled lead are intimately coupled in everyday life. In this paper we will explore how recycled lead has become the material of choice for battery construction through the development of a recovery and refining process that exceeds the industries requirements. Particular focus will be on addressing the results presented by Prengaman [2] on the effects of contaminant or tramp elements on gassing in lead-acid batteries.

Robotic System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

A complicated design project, successfully carried out by New York manufacturing consultant with help from NERAC, Inc., resulted in new type robotic system being marketed for industrial use. Consultant Robert Price, operating at E.S.I, Inc. in Albany, NY, sought help from NERAC to develop an automated tool for deburring the inside of 8 inch breech ring assemblies for howitzers produced by Watervliet Arsenal. NERAC conducted a search of the NASA data base and six others. From information supplied, Price designed a system consisting of a standard industrial robot arm, with a specially engineered six-axis deburring tool fitted to it. A microcomputer and computer program direct the tool on its path through the breech ring. E.S.I. markets the system to aerospace and metal cutting industries for deburring, drilling, routing and refining machined parts.

Major advances in testing of dairy products: milk component and dairy product attribute testing.

PubMed

Barbano, D M; Lynch, J M

2006-04-01

Milk component analysis is relatively unusual in the field of quantitative analytical chemistry because an analytical test result determines the allocation of very large amounts of money between buyers and sellers of milk. Therefore, there is high incentive to develop and refine these methods to achieve a level of analytical performance rarely demanded of most methods or laboratory staff working in analytical chemistry. In the last 25 yr, well-defined statistical methods to characterize and validate analytical method performance combined with significant improvements in both the chemical and instrumental methods have allowed achievement of improved analytical performance for payment testing. A shift from marketing commodity dairy products to the development, manufacture, and marketing of value added dairy foods for specific market segments has created a need for instrumental and sensory approaches and quantitative data to support product development and marketing. Bringing together sensory data from quantitative descriptive analysis and analytical data from gas chromatography olfactometry for identification of odor-active compounds in complex natural dairy foods has enabled the sensory scientist and analytical chemist to work together to improve the consistency and quality of dairy food flavors.

Perspectives for Web Service Intermediaries: How Influence on Quality Makes the Difference

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scholten, Ulrich; Fischer, Robin; Zirpins, Christian

In the service-oriented computing paradigm and the Web service architecture, the broker role is a key facilitator to leverage technical capabilities of loose coupling to achieve organizational capabilities of dynamic customer-provider-relationships. In practice, this role has quickly evolved into a variety of intermediary concepts that refine and extend the basic functionality of service brokerage with respect to various forms of added value like platform or market mechanisms. While this has initially led to a rich variety of Web service intermediaries, many of these are now going through a phase of stagnation or even decline in customer acceptance. In this paper we present a comparative study on insufficient service quality that is arguably one of the key reasons for this phenomenon. In search of a differentiation with respect to quality monitoring and management patterns, we categorize intermediaries into Infomediaries, e-Hubs, e-Markets and Integrators. A mapping of quality factors and control mechanisms to these categories depicts their respective strengths and weaknesses. The results show that Integrators have the highest overall performance, followed by e-Markets, e-Hubs and lastly Infomediaries. A comparative market survey confirms the conceptual findings.

The lead and lead-acid battery industries during 2002 and 2007 in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, H. Y.; Li, A. J.; Finlow, D. E.

In the past 15 years, the center of the international lead market has shifted to China. China has become the largest producer of raw and refined lead, plus the largest consumer. This paper reviews the status of the lead and lead-acid battery industries in China, including lead mining, lead refining, secondary lead production, the lead-acid battery industry, new opportunities for lead-acid batteries, and the environmental problems associated with lead and lead-acid batteries. The output of raw and refined lead has increased annually in China, and now accounts for more than 30% of the world total. As a result of a change in the Chinese government's policy regarding the export of lead, plus an increase in the price of lead, the profits of Chinese lead manufacturers were significantly reduced, the trade deficit of the Chinese lead industry increased, the operating rates of lead smelter enterprises greatly reduced, and some small enterprises were forced to shut down. At the present time, an increasing number of enterprises have begun to produce secondary lead, and the scale of production has expanded from tens of tons to tens of thousands of tons. In 2006, the output of secondary lead in China reached 700,000 tons, but outdated technology and equipment limited development of the secondary lead industry. Because of serious pollution problems, raw material shortages, and fierce price competition in the battery market, changes in the development of the lead-acid battery industry have been dramatic; approximately one thousand medium-sized and small lead-acid battery producers have been closed in the past 3 years. The output of large lead-acid battery enterprises has not been reduced, however, as a result of their manufacturing technology and equipment being comparable to those in other advanced industrial countries. In China, the flourishing development of electric bicycles, electric tricycles, and photovoltaic energy systems should provide ongoing opportunities for the lead-acid battery industry.

Energy data report: prices and margins of No. 2 distillate fuel oil. Monthly report, January 1982

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

Whatley, A.

1982-03-22

Data are presented on the average prices and gross margins for the refining, reselling, and retailing sectors of the No. 2 distillate fuel oil market. Data are tabulated on prices and sales volumes of No. 2 fuel oil and No. 2 diesel fuel for residential, industrial/commercial, institutional/utility, other ultimate consumer sales, and nonultimate consumer sales. A brief discussion of the sampling and estimation procedures used in this report appears in the appendix.

Energy data report: prices and margins of No. 2 distillate fuel oil. Monthly report, October 1982

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

Whatley, A.

1982-12-20

Data are presented on the average prices and gross margins for the refining, reselling, and retailing sectors of the No. 2 distillate fuel oil market. Data are tabulated on prices and sales volumes of No. 2 fuel oil and No. 2 diesel fuel for residential, industrial/commercial, institutional/utility, other ultimate consumer sales, and nonultimate consumer sales. A brief discussion of the sampling and estimation procedures used in this report appears in the appendix.

Energy data report: prices and margins of No. 2 distillate fuel oil. Monthly report, November 1982

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

Whatley, A.

1983-01-18

Data are presented on the average prices and gross margins for the refining, reselling, and retailing sectors of the No. 2 distillate fuel oil market. Data are tabulated on prices and sales volumes of No. 2 fuel oil and No. 2 diesel fuel for residential, industrial/commercial, institutional/utility, other ultimate consumer sales, and nonultimate consumer sales. A brief discussion of the sampling and estimation procedures used in this report appears in the appendix.

Energy data report: prices and margins of No. 2 distillate fuel oil. Monthly report, December 1981

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

Whatley, A.

1982-02-22

Data are presented on the average prices and gross margins for the refining, reselling, and retailing sectors of the No. 2 distillate fuel oil market. Data are tabulated on prices and sales volumes of No. 2 fuel oil and No. 2 diesel fuel for residential, industrial/commercial, institutional/utility, other ultimate consumer sales, and nonultimate consumer sales. A brief discussion of the sampling and estimation procedures used in this report appears in the appendix.

NREL Spectrum of Innovation

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

None

2011-02-25

There are many voices calling for a future of abundant clean energy. The choices are difficult and the challenges daunting. How will we get there? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory integrates the entire spectrum of innovation including fundamental science, market relevant research, systems integration, testing and validation, commercialization and deployment. The innovation process at NREL is interdependent and iterative. Many scientific breakthroughs begin in our own laboratories, but new ideas and technologies come to NREL at any point along the innovation spectrum to be validated and refined for commercial use.

NREL Spectrum of Innovation

ScienceCinema

None

2018-05-11

There are many voices calling for a future of abundant clean energy. The choices are difficult and the challenges daunting. How will we get there? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory integrates the entire spectrum of innovation including fundamental science, market relevant research, systems integration, testing and validation, commercialization and deployment. The innovation process at NREL is interdependent and iterative. Many scientific breakthroughs begin in our own laboratories, but new ideas and technologies come to NREL at any point along the innovation spectrum to be validated and refined for commercial use.

Understanding agent-based models of financial markets: A bottom-up approach based on order parameters and phase diagrams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lye, Ribin; Tan, James Peng Lung; Cheong, Siew Ann

2012-11-01

We describe a bottom-up framework, based on the identification of appropriate order parameters and determination of phase diagrams, for understanding progressively refined agent-based models and simulations of financial markets. We illustrate this framework by starting with a deterministic toy model, whereby N independent traders buy and sell M stocks through an order book that acts as a clearing house. The price of a stock increases whenever it is bought and decreases whenever it is sold. Price changes are updated by the order book before the next transaction takes place. In this deterministic model, all traders based their buy decisions on a call utility function, and all their sell decisions on a put utility function. We then make the agent-based model more realistic, by either having a fraction fb of traders buy a random stock on offer, or a fraction fs of traders sell a random stock in their portfolio. Based on our simulations, we find that it is possible to identify useful order parameters from the steady-state price distributions of all three models. Using these order parameters as a guide, we find three phases: (i) the dead market; (ii) the boom market; and (iii) the jammed market in the phase diagram of the deterministic model. Comparing the phase diagrams of the stochastic models against that of the deterministic model, we realize that the primary effect of stochasticity is to eliminate the dead market phase.

Protecting children from myopia: a PMT perspective for improving health marketing communications.

PubMed

Lwin, May O; Saw, Seang-Mei

2007-01-01

This research examined the predictive utility of the protection motivation theory (PMT) model for myopia prevention amongst children. An integrative model for myopia prevention behavior of parents was first developed in the context of theory and survey instruments then refined using information gathered from two focus groups. Empirical data then was collected from parents of primary school children in Singapore, a country with one of the highest rates of myopia in the world, and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Our findings revealed that coping appraisal variables were more significantly associated with protection motivation, relative to threat appraisal variables. In particular, perceived self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of parental intention to enforce good visual health behaviors, while perceived severity was relatively weak. Health marketing communications and public policy implications are discussed.

How PV system ownership can impact the market value of residential homes

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

Klise, Geoffrey Taylor; Johnson, Jamie L.

2014-01-01

There are multiple ways for a homeowner to obtain the electricity generating and savings benefits offered by a photovoltaic (PV) system. These include purchasing a PV system through various financing mechanisms, or by leasing the PV system from a third party with multiple options that may include purchase, lease renewal or PV system removal. The different ownership options available to homeowners presents a challenge to appraisal and real estate professionals during a home sale or refinance in terms of how to develop a value that is reflective of the PV systems operational characteristics, local market conditions, and lender and underwritermore » requirements. This paper presents these many PV system ownership options with a discussion of what considerations an appraiser must make when developing the contributory value of a PV system to a residential property.« less

Ethanol mandate thrown out by appeals court

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

Begley, R.

1995-05-10

In a victory for the oil industry, a federal appeals court has overturned EPA`s mandate for ethanol use in reformulated gasoline (REG), saying the agency lacks authority to require 30% of the oxygenate market be reserved for ethanol. EPA says the ruling does not prevent ethanols use in RFG - {open_quotes}It only says that EPA cannot dictate the recipe.{close_quotes} Charles DiBona, president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), says {open_quotes}API and its member companies are not opposed to the use of ethanol as an oxygenate. We oppose this illegal mandate.{close_quotes} Urvan Sternfels, president of the National Petroleum Refiners Association, says,more » {open_quotes}Mandating market shares for any product is unsound economic policy.{close_quotes} The two trade groups led the legal battle against the ethanol requirement.« less

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

Not Available

This report summarizes the work done by InterTechnology/Solar Corporation, its consultants, Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation and the University of Delaware Institute for Energy Conversion, and its consultants, during the marketing analysis of near and intermediate term photovoltaic power applications. To obtain estimates of the domestic and foreign market potential for photovoltaically powered devices two approaches were used. First, the study was identifying then screening all possible photovoltaic power supply applications. This approach encompassed the first two tasks of the study: (1) a survey of the current uses of photovoltaic systems, both domestic and international, and a projection of themore » usage of those systems into the future; and (2) a new idea generation task which attempted to come up with new ways of using photovoltaic power. Second, the study required in-depth analysis of key near-term and intermediate-term photovoltaic applications identified during the first phase to obtain reasonable estimates of photovoltaic market potential. This process encompassed the third and fourth tasks of the analysis: (3) refinement of ideas generated in Task 2 so that certain products/applications could be identified, the product defined and a market survey carried out; and (4) development of a detailed product scenario which forecasts sales, barriers to market acceptance, and technical innovationsrequired for proper introduction of the products. The work performed and findings of each task are presented.« less

Project SAGE: solar assisted gas energy. Final report and executive summary

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

Not Available

The Phase III basic objective was establishment of a technical and economic baseline for proper assessment of the practical potential of solar water heating for apartments. Plans can then be formulated to improve SAGE technical design and performance; reduce SAGE costs; refine SAGE market assessment; and identify policies to encourage the use of SAGE. Two SAGE water heating systems were installed and tested. One system was retrofit onto an existing apartment building; the other was installed in a new apartment building. Each installation required approximately 1000 square feet of collector area tilted to an angle of 37/sup 0/ from themore » horizontal, and each was designed to supply about 70 percent of the energy for heating water for approximately 32 to 40 units of a typical two-story apartment complex in Southern California. Actual contruction costs were carefully compiled, and both installations were equipped with performance monitoring equipment. In addition, the operating and maintenance requirements of each installation was evaluated by gas company maintenance engineers. Upon completion of the installation analysis, the SAGE installation cost was further refined by obtaining firm SAGE construction bids from two plumbing contractors in Southern California. Market penetration was assessed by developing a computer simulation program using the technical and economic analysis from the installation experience. Also, the project examined the public policies required to encourage SAGE and other solar energy options. Results are presented and discussed. (WHK)« less

Emulsified industrial oils recycling

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

Gabris, T.

1982-04-01

The industrial lubricant market has been analyzed with emphasis on current and/or developing recycling and re-refining technologies. This task has been performed for the United States and other industrialized countries, specifically France, West Germany, Italy and Japan. Attention has been focused at emulsion-type fluids regardless of the industrial application involved. It was found that emulsion-type fluids in the United States represent a much higher percentage of the total fluids used than in other industrialized countries. While recycling is an active matter explored by the industry, re-refining is rather a result of other issues than the mere fact that oil canmore » be regenerated from a used industrial emulsion. To extend the longevity of an emulsion is a logical step to keep expenses down by using the emulsion as long as possible. There is, however, another important factor influencing this issue: regulations governing the disposal of such fluids. The ecological question, the respect for nature and the natural balances, is often seen now as everybody's task. Regulations forbid dumping used emulsions in the environment without prior treatment of the water phase and separation of the oil phase. This is a costly procedure, so recycling is attractive since it postpones the problem. It is questionable whether re-refining of these emulsions - as a business - could stand on its own if these emulsions did not have to be taken apart for disposal purposes. Once the emulsion is separated into a water and an oil phase, however, re-refining of the oil does become economical.« less

[U.S. renewable fuel standard implementation mechanism and market tracking].

PubMed

Kang, Liping; Earley, Robert; An, Feng; Zhang, Yu

2013-03-01

U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a mandatory policy for promoting the utilization of biofuels in road transpiration sector in order to reduce the country's dependency on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines the proportion of renewable fuels according to RFS annual target, and requests obligated parties such like fossil fuel refiner, blenders and importer in the U.S. to complete Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) every year. Obligated parties prove they have achieved their RVO through a renewable fuels certification system, which generates Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) for every gallon of qualified renewable fuels produced or imported into U.S., RINs is a key for tracking renewable fuel consumption, which in turn is a key for implementing the RFS in the U.S., separated RINs can be freely traded in market and obligated parties could fulfill their RVO through buying RINs from other stakeholders. This briefing paper highlights RFS policy implementing mechanism and marketing tracking, mainly describes importance of RINs, and the method for generating and tracking RINs by both government and fuels industry participants.

Electronic Cigarette Marketing Online: a Multi-Site, Multi-Product Comparison.

PubMed

Chu, Kar-Hai; Sidhu, Anupreet K; Valente, Thomas W

2015-01-01

Electronic cigarette awareness and use has been increasing rapidly. E-cigarette brands have utilized social networking sites to promote their products, as the growth of the e-cigarette industry has paralleled that of Web 2.0. These online platforms are cost-effective and have unique technological features and user demographics that can be attractive for selective marketing. The popularity of multiple sites also poses a risk of exposure to social networks where e-cigarette brands might not have a presence. To examine the marketing strategies of leading e-cigarette brands on multiple social networking sites, and to identify how affordances of the digital media are used to their advantage. Secondary analyses include determining if any brands are benefitting from site demographics, and exploring cross-site diffusion of marketing content through multi-site users. We collected data from two e-cigarette brands from four social networking sites over approximately 2.5 years. Content analysis is used to search for themes, population targeting, marketing strategies, and cross-site spread of messages. Twitter appeared to be the most frequently used social networking site for interacting directly with product users. Facebook supported informational broadcasts, such as announcements regarding political legislation. E-cigarette brands also differed in their approaches to their users, from informal conversations to direct product marketing. E-cigarette makers use different strategies to market their product and engage their users. There was no evidence of direct targeting of vulnerable populations, but the affordances of the different sites are exploited to best broadcast context-specific messages. We developed a viable method to study cross-site diffusion, although additional refinement is needed to account for how different types of digital media are used.

Electronic Cigarette Marketing Online: a Multi-Site, Multi-Product Comparison

PubMed Central

Sidhu, Anupreet K; Valente, Thomas W

2015-01-01

Background Electronic cigarette awareness and use has been increasing rapidly. E-cigarette brands have utilized social networking sites to promote their products, as the growth of the e-cigarette industry has paralleled that of Web 2.0. These online platforms are cost-effective and have unique technological features and user demographics that can be attractive for selective marketing. The popularity of multiple sites also poses a risk of exposure to social networks where e-cigarette brands might not have a presence. Objective To examine the marketing strategies of leading e-cigarette brands on multiple social networking sites, and to identify how affordances of the digital media are used to their advantage. Secondary analyses include determining if any brands are benefitting from site demographics, and exploring cross-site diffusion of marketing content through multi-site users. Methods We collected data from two e-cigarette brands from four social networking sites over approximately 2.5 years. Content analysis is used to search for themes, population targeting, marketing strategies, and cross-site spread of messages. Results Twitter appeared to be the most frequently used social networking site for interacting directly with product users. Facebook supported informational broadcasts, such as announcements regarding political legislation. E-cigarette brands also differed in their approaches to their users, from informal conversations to direct product marketing. Conclusions E-cigarette makers use different strategies to market their product and engage their users. There was no evidence of direct targeting of vulnerable populations, but the affordances of the different sites are exploited to best broadcast context-specific messages. We developed a viable method to study cross-site diffusion, although additional refinement is needed to account for how different types of digital media are used. PMID:27227129

December 19, 2003 Dismissal of Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company's Petition

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document may be of assistance in applying the Title V air operating permit regulations. This document is part of the Title V Petition Database available at www2.epa.gov/title-v-operating-permits/title-v-petition-database. Some documents in the database are a scanned or retyped version of a paper photocopy of the original. Although we have taken considerable effort to quality assure the documents, some may contain typographical errors. Contact the office that issued the document if you need a copy of the original.

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-07-29

Angie Jackman, a NASA project manager in microgravity research, demonstrates the enhanced resilience of undercooled metal alloys as compared to conventional alloys. Experiments aboard the Space Shuttle helped scientists refine their understanding of the physical properties of certain metal alloys when undercooled (i.e., kept liquid below their normal solidification temperature). This new knowledge then allowed scientists to modify a terrestrial production method so they can now make limited quantities marketed under the Liquid Metal trademark. The exhibit was a part of the NASA outreach activity at AirVenture 2000 sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, WI.

Naval Air Systems Command-Naval Research Laboratory Workshop on Basic Research Needs for Synthetic Hydrocarbon Jet Aircraft Fuels Held at Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC on June 15 and 16, 1978

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-01-01

required for the trans- portation industry and particularly as required by our mobile defense systems. For the production of transportation fuels...nature of the refinery feedstock and the requirements of the market place which is being targeted for product distribution. As with refining, the end...arsenic levels. The nitrogen and oxygen levels dictate a higher hydro- processing severity to make stable products . Due to the small yield of 6500F

Oil products prospects for an open trading regime

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

Wendt, E.A.

The author shows how an open trading regime for oil products can establish a bond of union and friendship and avoid the discord that often characterizes energy trade. Positive actions to implement the International Energy Agency decision to take a common approach rather than individual protectionist actions are the only way to resolve problems arising from growing imports of refined products in Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development countries. The US can show leadership in this effort, but it is unrealistic to expect US markets to remain open if others are closed.

Impacts of the Venezuelan Crude Oil Production Loss

EIA Publications

2003-01-01

This assessment of the Venezuelan petroleum loss examines two areas. The first part of the analysis focuses on the impact of the loss of Venezuelan crude production on crude oil supply for U.S. refiners who normally run a significant fraction of Venezuelan crude oil. The second part of the analysis looks at the impact of the Venezuelan production loss on crude markets in general, with particular emphasis on crude oil imports, refinery crude oil throughput levels, stock levels, and the changes in price differences between light and heavy crude oils.

The making of an instrument: from concept to market.

PubMed

Christoudias, G C

1998-01-01

This is an account of the steps one goes through in the development of a new device or instrument. It starts with the conditions that generate the need and then the concept of a new instrument and goes through the process of designing it and protecting it with a patent; it then proceeds through the development of a working prototype and a final refined product. It provides an outline of the steps needed to get the device into the national or international market by selling or licensing it to a company willing to develop it. To be able to demonstrate this process of invention and give real life to the steps involved in the making of an instrument as mentioned above, I describe the circumstances that generated the idea and the development of the Christoudias Tissue Approximator Grasper. The patent is published as issued to demonstrate its different components.

Beyond 'Doing Gender': Incorporating Race, Class, Place, and Life Transitions into Feminist Drug Research.

PubMed

Miller, Jody; Carbone-Lopez, Kristin

2015-05-01

This essay draws from our research with US rural women methamphetamine users in 2009 to offer strategies for "revisioning" the drug use(r) field to better understand the impact of gender on drug use and drug market participation. We highlight the insights and limitations of a popular strategy in feminist research that conceptualizes gender as performance- commonly referred to as "doing gender"-using illustrations from our research. We encourage scholars to move beyond a primarily normative orientation in studying gender, and investigate gendered organizational features of social life including their intersections with other aspects of social inequality such as those of race, class, and place. In addition, we suggest that feminist scholars can integrate gender in a rigorous way into theoretical perspectives that are typically inattentive to its import, as a means of challenging, enriching, and refining research on drug use, drug users, and drug market participation.

Stability of power systems coupled with market dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Jianping

This Ph.D. thesis presented here spans two relatively independent topics. The first part, Chapter 2 is self-contained, and is dedicated to studies of new algorithms for power system state estimation. The second part, encompassing the remaining chapters, is dedicated to stability analysis of power system coupled with market dynamics. The first part of this thesis presents improved Newton's methods employing efficient vectorized calculations of higher order derivatives in power system state estimation problems. The improved algorithms are proposed based on an exact Newton's method using the second order terms. By efficiently computing an exact gain matrix, combined with a special optimal multiplier method, the new algorithms show more reliable convergence compared with the existing methods of normal equations, orthogonal decomposition, and Hachtel's sparse tableau. Our methods are able to handle ill-conditioned problems, yet show minimal penalty in computational cost for well-conditioned cases. These claims are illustrated through the standard IEEE 118 and 300 bus test examples. The second part of the thesis focuses on stability analysis of market/power systems. The work presented is motivated by an emerging problem. As the frequency of market based dispatch updates increases, there will inevitably be interaction between the dynamics of markets determining the generator dispatch commands, and the physical response of generators and network interconnections, necessitating the development of stability analysis for such coupled systems. We begin with numeric tests using different market models, with detailed machine/exciter/turbine/governor dynamics, in the New England 39 bus test system. A progression of modeling refinements are introduced, including such non-ideal effects as time delays. Electricity market parameter identification algorithms are also studied based on real time data from the PJM electricity market. Finally our power market model is augmented by optimal power flow constraints, allowing study of the so-called congestion problem. These studies show that understanding of potential modes of instability in such coupled systems is of crucial importance both in designing suitable rules for power markets, and in designing physical generator controls that are complementary to market-based dispatch.

H2@Scale: Technical and Economic Potential of Hydrogen as an Energy Intermediate

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

Ruth, Mark F; Jadun, Paige; Pivovar, Bryan S

The H2@Scale concept is focused on developing hydrogen as an energy carrier and using hydrogen's properties to improve the national energy system. Specifically hydrogen has the abilities to (1) supply a clean energy source for industry and transportation and (2) increase the profitability of variable renewable electricity generators such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (PV) farms by providing value for otherwise potentially-curtailed electricity. Thus the concept also has the potential to reduce oil dependency by providing a low-carbon fuel for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants such as NOx, and support domestic energymore » production, manufacturing, and U.S. economic competitiveness. The analysis reported here focuses on the potential market size and value proposition for the H2@Scale concept. It involves three analysis phases: 1. Initial phase estimating the technical potential for hydrogen markets and the resources required to meet them; 2. National-scale analysis of the economic potential for hydrogen and the interactions between willingness to pay by hydrogen users and the cost to produce hydrogen from various sources; and 3. In-depth analysis of spatial and economic issues impacting hydrogen production and utilization and the markets. Preliminary analysis of the technical potential indicates that the technical potential for hydrogen use is approximately 60 million metric tons (MMT) annually for light duty FCEVs, heavy duty vehicles, ammonia production, oil refining, biofuel hydrotreating, metals refining, and injection into the natural gas system. The technical potential of utility-scale PV and wind generation independently are much greater than that necessary to produce 60 MMT / year hydrogen. Uranium, natural gas, and coal reserves are each sufficient to produce 60 MMT / year hydrogen in addition to their current uses for decades to centuries. National estimates of the economic potential of hydrogen production using steam methane reforming of natural gas, high temperature electrolysis coupled with nuclear power plants, and low temperature electrolysis are reported. To generate the estimates, supply curves for those technologies are used. They are compared to demand curves that describe the market size for hydrogen uses and willingness to pay for that hydrogen. Scenarios are developed at prices where supply meets demand and are used to estimate energy use, emissions, and economic impacts.« less

Potential Size of and Value Proposition for H2@Scale Concept

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

Ruth, Mark F; Jadun, Paige; Pivovar, Bryan S

The H2@Scale concept is focused on developing hydrogen as an energy carrier and using hydrogen's properties to improve the national energy system. Specifically hydrogen has the abilities to (1) supply a clean energy source for industry and transportation and (2) increase the profitability of variable renewable electricity generators such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (PV) farms by providing value for otherwise potentially-curtailed electricity. Thus the concept also has the potential to reduce oil dependency by providing a low-carbon fuel for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants such as NOx, and support domestic energymore » production, manufacturing, and U.S. economic competitiveness. The analysis reported here focuses on the potential market size and value proposition for the H2@Scale concept. It involves three analysis phases: 1. Initial phase estimating the technical potential for hydrogen markets and the resources required to meet them; 2. National-scale analysis of the economic potential for hydrogen and the interactions between willingness to pay by hydrogen users and the cost to produce hydrogen from various sources; and 3. In-depth analysis of spatial and economic issues impacting hydrogen production and utilization and the markets. Preliminary analysis of the technical potential indicates that the technical potential for hydrogen use is approximately 60 million metric tons (MMT) annually for light duty FCEVs, heavy duty vehicles, ammonia production, oil refining, biofuel hydrotreating, metals refining, and injection into the natural gas system. The technical potential of utility-scale PV and wind generation independently are much greater than that necessary to produce 60 MMT / year hydrogen. Uranium, natural gas, and coal reserves are each sufficient to produce 60 MMT / year hydrogen in addition to their current uses for decades to centuries. National estimates of the economic potential of hydrogen production using steam methane reforming of natural gas, high temperature electrolysis coupled with nuclear power plants, and low temperature electrolysis are reported. To generate the estimates, supply curves for those technologies are used. They are compared to demand curves that describe the market size for hydrogen uses and willingness to pay for that hydrogen. Scenarios are developed at prices where supply meets demand and are used to estimate energy use, emissions, and economic impacts.« less

A new approach to the oil business in Venezuela

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

Pradas, F.; Valdes, G.

1993-02-01

Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) has been meeting during the past two years with a considerable number of companies (groups) with a view to possible associations for the reactivation of known fields, joint activities in barely explored areas and the exploitation, refining, upgrading and marketing of crudes from the Orinoco Belt holder of immense reserves of extra-heavy crudes and bitumens. In Venezuela, a new approach to the oil business is under way. On January 1976, the law nationalizing the Venezuelan oil industry became effective establishing that the government retains the sole rights to the country's petroleum industry. However, Article 5more » of the law made provision for associations in cases considered to be of [open quotes]National Interest.[close quotes] PDVSA became the wholly government-owned holding entity, encompassing 26 subsidiaries and affiliates. Other energy segments, particularly coal and petrochemicals, were not included in the law and since 1984 several associations with non-governmental entities have been established in Venezuela and very valuable experience has been garnered. Similarly, partnerships and acquisitions have been made in Europe and USA, mostly in refining, through PDVSA. The international petroleum industry foresees a modest, but steady increase in production during the coming decade, particularly in the second half of the nineties. This effect, added to the globalization concept, is making the traditional vertically integrated oil companies look for diverse [open quotes]lateral[close quotes] associations between groups, private and/or state owned with common interests, that will give greater security to sources of supply and market share.« less

D Geomarketing Segmentation: a Higher Spatial Dimension Planning Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suhaibah, A.; Uznir, U.; Rahman, A. A.; Anton, F.; Mioc, D.

2016-09-01

Geomarketing is a discipline which uses geographic information in the process of planning and implementation of marketing activities. It can be used in any aspect of the marketing such as price, promotion or geo targeting. The analysis of geomarketing data use a huge data pool such as location residential areas, topography, it also analyzes demographic information such as age, genre, annual income and lifestyle. This information can help users to develop successful promotional campaigns in order to achieve marketing goals. One of the common activities in geomarketing is market segmentation. The segmentation clusters the data into several groups based on its geographic criteria. To refine the search operation during analysis, we proposed an approach to cluster the data using a clustering algorithm. However, with the huge data pool, overlap among clusters may happen and leads to inefficient analysis. Moreover, geomarketing is usually active in urban areas and requires clusters to be organized in a three-dimensional (3D) way (i.e. multi-level shop lots, residential apartments). This is a constraint with the current Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. To avoid this issue, we proposed a combination of market segmentation based on geographic criteria and clustering algorithm for 3D geomarketing data management. The proposed approach is capable in minimizing the overlap region during market segmentation. In this paper, geomarketing in urban area is used as a case study. Based on the case study, several locations of customers and stores in 3D are used in the test. The experiments demonstrated in this paper substantiated that the proposed approach is capable of minimizing overlapping segmentation and reducing repetitive data entries. The structure is also tested for retrieving the spatial records from the database. For marketing purposes, certain radius of point is used to analyzing marketing targets. Based on the presented tests in this paper, we strongly believe that the structure is capable in handling and managing huge pool of geomarketing data. For future outlook, this paper also discusses the possibilities of expanding the structure.

ASSERT FY16 Analysis of Feedstock Companion Markets

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

Lamers, Patrick; Hansen, Jason; Jacobson, Jacob J.

2016-09-01

Meeting Co-Optima biofuel production targets will require large quantities of mobilized biomass feedstock. Mobilization is of key importance as there is an abundance of biomass resources, yet little is available for purchase, let alone at desired quantity and quality levels needed for a continuous operation, e.g., a biorefinery. Therefore Co-Optima research includes outlining a path towards feedstock production at scale by understanding routes to mobilizing large quantities of biomass feedstock. Continuing along the vertically-integrated path that pioneer cellulosic biorefineries have taken will constrain the bioenergy industry to high biomass yield areas, limiting its ability to reach biofuel production at scale.more » To advance the cellulosic biofuels industry, a separation between feedstock supply and conversion is necessary. Thus, in contrast to the vertically integrated supply chain, two industries are required: a feedstock industry and a conversion industry. The split is beneficial for growers and feedstock processers as they are able to sell into multiple markets. That is, depots that produce value-add feedstock intermediates that are fully fungible in both the biofuels refining and other, so-called companion markets. As the biofuel industry is currently too small to leverage significant investment in up-stream infrastructure build-up, it requires an established (companion) market to secure demand, which de-risks potential investments and makes a build-up of processing and other logistics infrastructure more likely. A common concern to this theory however is that more demand by other markets could present a disadvantage for biofuels production as resource competition may increase prices leading to reduced availability of low-cost feedstock for biorefineries. To analyze the dynamics across multiple markets vying for the same resources, particularly the potential effects on resource price and distribution, the Companion Market Model (CMM) has been developed in this task by experts in feedstock supply chain analysis, market economics, and System Dynamics from the Idaho National Laboratory and MindsEye Computing.« less

Evaluation of wholesale electric power market rules and financial risk management by agent-based simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Nanpeng

As U.S. regional electricity markets continue to refine their market structures, designs and rules of operation in various ways, two critical issues are emerging. First, although much experience has been gained and costly and valuable lessons have been learned, there is still a lack of a systematic platform for evaluation of the impact of a new market design from both engineering and economic points of view. Second, the transition from a monopoly paradigm characterized by a guaranteed rate of return to a competitive market created various unfamiliar financial risks for various market participants, especially for the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs). This dissertation uses agent-based simulation methods to tackle the market rules evaluation and financial risk management problems. The California energy crisis in 2000-01 showed what could happen to an electricity market if it did not go through a comprehensive and rigorous testing before its implementation. Due to the complexity of the market structure, strategic interaction between the participants, and the underlying physics, it is difficult to fully evaluate the implications of potential changes to market rules. This dissertation presents a flexible and integrative method to assess market designs through agent-based simulations. Realistic simulation scenarios on a 225-bus system are constructed for evaluation of the proposed PJM-like market power mitigation rules of the California electricity market. Simulation results show that in the absence of market power mitigation, generation company (GenCo) agents facilitated by Q-learning are able to exploit the market flaws and make significantly higher profits relative to the competitive benchmark. The incorporation of PJM-like local market power mitigation rules is shown to be effective in suppressing the exercise of market power. The importance of financial risk management is exemplified by the recent financial crisis. In this dissertation, basic financial risk management concepts relevant for wholesale electric power markets are carefully explained and illustrated. In addition, the financial risk management problem in wholesale electric power markets is generalized as a four-stage process. Within the proposed financial risk management framework, the critical problem of financial bilateral contract negotiation is addressed. This dissertation analyzes a financial bilateral contract negotiation process between a generating company and a load-serving entity in a wholesale electric power market with congestion managed by locational marginal pricing. Nash bargaining theory is used to model a Pareto-efficient settlement point. The model predicts negotiation results under varied conditions and identifies circumstances in which the two parties might fail to reach an agreement. Both analysis and agent-based simulation are used to gain insight regarding how relative risk aversion and biased price estimates influence negotiated outcomes. These results should provide useful guidance to market participants in their bilateral contract negotiation processes.

Performance profiles of major energy producers, 1997

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

NONE

1999-01-01

The energy industry generally and petroleum and natural gas operations in particular are frequently reacting to a variety of unsettling forces. Falling oil prices, economic upswings, currency devaluations, increasingly rigorous environmental quality standards, deregulation of electricity markets, and continued advances in exploration and production technology were among the challenges and opportunities to the industry in 1997. To analyze the extent to which these and other developments have affected energy industry financial and operating performance, strategies, and industry structure, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) maintains the Financial Reporting Systems (FRS). Through Form EIA-28, major US energy companies annually report to themore » FRS. Financial and operating information is reported by major lines of business, including oil and gas production (upstream), petroleum refining and marketing (downstream), other energy operations, and nonenergy business. Performance Profiles of Major Producers 1997 examines the interplays of energy markets, companies` strategies, and government policies (in 1997 and in historical context) that gave rise to the results given here. The report also analyzes other key aspects of energy company financial performance as seen through the multifaceted lens provided by the FRS data and complementary data for industry overall. 41 figs., 77 tabs.« less

Effectiveness of Fresh to You, a Discount Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market in Low-Income Neighborhoods, on Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Rhode Island, 2010–2011

PubMed Central

Gorham, Gemma; Dulin-Keita, Akilah; Risica, Patricia Markham; Mello, Jennifer; Papandonatos, George; Nunn, Amy; Gorham, Sara; Roberson, Mya

2015-01-01

Introduction Eating fruits and vegetables is associated with lowered risk for many chronic diseases. However, most Americans, especially members of low-income and minority populations, do not eat adequate amounts. Fresh to You is a public–private partnership program that brings discount fresh produce markets into low-income neighborhoods. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of Fresh to You to assess the effect of the program on children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables. Methods A local produce distributor brought the Fresh to You markets to 6 community organizations serving low-income families in Rhode Island. The markets, held weekly for 5 months at each site, sold fresh produce at below-retail prices. Parents (N = 480) of children aged 3 to 13 years were recruited at the markets to participate in a 5-month cohort study. The primary outcome was change in children’s fruit and vegetable intake, measured by a validated screener. We also conducted postintervention focus groups at each site with parents and qualitative interviews with site contacts to collect feedback about Fresh to You. Results From baseline to 5 months, there was a significant increase in children’s daily fruit and vegetable consumption of 0.48 cups (t = 4.16, P < .001). Data from follow-up parent surveys, focus groups, and site contact interviews provided positive feedback about Fresh to You and recommendations for improvement. Conclusion Fresh to You was effective at increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables among racially and ethnically diverse low-income children aged 3 to 13 years whose parents shopped at the markets. The intervention could serve as a model program for replication in other cities. Refinements and a more rigorous evaluation are needed. PMID:26469949

Effectiveness of Fresh to You, a Discount Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market in Low-Income Neighborhoods, on Children's Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Rhode Island, 2010-2011.

PubMed

Gorham, Gemma; Dulin-Keita, Akilah; Risica, Patricia Markham; Mello, Jennifer; Papandonatos, George; Nunn, Amy; Gorham, Sara; Roberson, Mya; Gans, Kim M

2015-10-15

Eating fruits and vegetables is associated with lowered risk for many chronic diseases. However, most Americans, especially members of low-income and minority populations, do not eat adequate amounts. Fresh to You is a public-private partnership program that brings discount fresh produce markets into low-income neighborhoods. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of Fresh to You to assess the effect of the program on children's consumption of fruits and vegetables. A local produce distributor brought the Fresh to You markets to 6 community organizations serving low-income families in Rhode Island. The markets, held weekly for 5 months at each site, sold fresh produce at below-retail prices. Parents (N = 480) of children aged 3 to 13 years were recruited at the markets to participate in a 5-month cohort study. The primary outcome was change in children's fruit and vegetable intake, measured by a validated screener. We also conducted postintervention focus groups at each site with parents and qualitative interviews with site contacts to collect feedback about Fresh to You. From baseline to 5 months, there was a significant increase in children's daily fruit and vegetable consumption of 0.48 cups (t = 4.16, P < .001). Data from follow-up parent surveys, focus groups, and site contact interviews provided positive feedback about Fresh to You and recommendations for improvement. Fresh to You was effective at increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables among racially and ethnically diverse low-income children aged 3 to 13 years whose parents shopped at the markets. The intervention could serve as a model program for replication in other cities. Refinements and a more rigorous evaluation are needed.

Managing for the next big thing. Interview by Paul Hemp.

PubMed

Ruettgers, M

2001-01-01

In this HBR interview, CEO Michael Ruettgers speaks in detail about the managerial practices that have allowed EMC to anticipate and exploit disruptive technologies, market opportunities, and business models ahead of its competitors. He recounts how the company repeatedly ventured into untested markets, ultimately transforming itself from a struggling maker of minicomputer memory boards into a data storage powerhouse and one of the most successful companies of the past decade. The company has achieved sustained and nearly unrivaled revenue, profit, and shareprice growth through a number of means. Emphasizing timing and speed, Ruettgers says, is critical. That's meant staggering products rather than developing them sequentially and avoiding the excessive refinements that slow time to market. Indeed, a sense of urgency, Ruettgers explains, has been critical to EMC's success. Processes such as quarterly goal setting and monthly forecasting meetings help maintain a sense of urgency and allow managers to get early glimpses of changes in the market. So does an environment in which personal accountability is stressed and the corporate focus is single-minded. Perhaps most important, the company has procedures to glean insights from customers. Intensive forums involving EMC engineers and leading-edge customers, who typically push for unconventional solutions to their problems, often yield new product features. Similarly, a customer service system that includes real-time monitoring of product use enables EMC to understand customer needs firsthand.

Petition Requesting the Administrator to Object to Title V Operating Permit for Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document may be of assistance in applying the Title V air operating permit regulations. This document is part of the Title V Petition Database available at www2.epa.gov/title-v-operating-permits/title-v-petition-database. Some documents in the database are a scanned or retyped version of a paper photocopy of the original. Although we have taken considerable effort to quality assure the documents, some may contain typographical errors. Contact the office that issued the document if you need a copy of the original.

Highly sweet compounds of plant origin.

PubMed

Kim, Nam-Cheol; Kinghorn, A Douglas

2002-12-01

The demand for new alternative "low calorie" sweeteners for dietetic and diabetic purposes has increased worldwide. Although the currently developed and commercially used highly sweet sucrose substitutes are mostly synthetic compounds, the search for such compounds from natural sources is continuing. As of mid-2002, over 100 plant-derived sweet compounds of 20 major structural types had been reported, and were isolated from more than 25 different families of green plants. Several of these highly sweet natural products are marketed as sweeteners or flavoring agents in some countries as pure compounds, compound mixtures, or refined extracts. These highly sweet natural substances are reviewed herein.

Marketable transport fuels made from Julia Creek shale oil

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

Not Available

1987-03-01

CSR Limited and the CSIRO Division of Energy Chemistry have been working on the problem of producing refined products from the Julia Creek deposit in Queensland, Australia. Two samples of shale oil, retorted at different temperatures from Julia Creek oil shale, were found to differ markedly in aromaticity. Using conventional hydrotreating technology, high quality jet and diesel fuels could be made from the less aromatic oil. Naphtha suitable for isomerization and reforming to gasoline could be produced from both oils. This paper discusses oil properties, stabilization of topped crudes, second stage hydrotreatment, and naphtha hydrotreating. 1 figure, 4 tables.

Embodied Agents, E-SQ and Stickiness: Improving Existing Cognitive and Affective Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Diesbach, Pablo Brice

This paper synthesizes results from two previous studies of embodied virtual agents on commercial websites. We analyze and criticize the proposed models and discuss the limits of the experimental findings. Results from other important research in the literature are integrated. We also integrate concepts from profound, more business-related, analysis that deepens on the mechanisms of rhetoric in marketing and communication, and the possible role of E-SQ in man-agent interaction. We finally suggest a refined model for the impacts of these agents on web site users, and limits of the improved model are commented.

Storm Warning Service

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

A Huntsville meteorologist of Baron Services, Inc. has formed a commercial weather advisory service. Weather information is based on data from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) collected from antennas in Alabama and Tennessee. Bob Baron refines and enhances MSFC's real time display software. Computer data is changed to audio data for radio transmission, received by clients through an antenna and decoded by computer for display. Using his service, clients can monitor the approach of significant storms and schedule operations accordingly. Utilities and emergency management officials are able to plot a storm's path. A recent agreement with two other companies will promote continued development and marketing.

Order Responding to December 6, 2004 Request that the Administrator Object to Operating Permit for Tesoro Refining and Marketing Co. in Martinez, CA

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document may be of assistance in applying the Title V air operating permit regulations. This document is part of the Title V Petition Database available at www2.epa.gov/title-v-operating-permits/title-v-petition-database. Some documents in the database are a scanned or retyped version of a paper photocopy of the original. Although we have taken considerable effort to quality assure the documents, some may contain typographical errors. Contact the office that issued the document if you need a copy of the original.

November 17, 2003 Petition Requesting the Administrator Object to Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company's Title V Permit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This document may be of assistance in applying the Title V air operating permit regulations. This document is part of the Title V Petition Database available at www2.epa.gov/title-v-operating-permits/title-v-petition-database. Some documents in the database are a scanned or retyped version of a paper photocopy of the original. Although we have taken considerable effort to quality assure the documents, some may contain typographical errors. Contact the office that issued the document if you need a copy of the original.

A local experience is often a global experience, forum attendees hear

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

Not Available

1992-06-01

This paper reports that in the first session on supply/demand Roman Samsonov of NPO Soyuzgastechnologiya gave delegates an insight into developing the Soviet gas industry, providing a look at the structure of the industry and consumption patterns. Residential and petrochemical customers are the basic consumers. As of last Jan. 1, 34.6 million apartments used LPG, with at least 150 million people using the fuel for cooling alone. Consumption has greatly increased since the 1970s. In 1970, 4.9 million tonnes of LPG were consumed and by 1980, 8.81 million tonnes. However, the production of LPG in 1990 had reached only 10.5more » million tonnes, about 70% of its domestic needs. Samsonov noted that complete satisfaction of the domestic market can be reached only at the expense of solving the problem of transportation and investing in repairing and keeping facilities going at the Gorky oil refining plant and the Gnedintsovo and Minnibayev oil refining plants. These actions would allow LPG production to increase by more than 10% from the present day production.« less

Environmental risk assessment of medicinal products for human use according to European Commission recommendations.

PubMed

Huschek, Gerd; Hansen, Peter D; Maurer, Hans H; Krengel, Dietmar; Kayser, Anja

2004-06-01

Presented here, based on new recommendations of the European Commission, is an environmental risk assessment (ERA) of a selected group of pharmaceuticals for Phase I, environmental exposure assessment, and Phase II Tier A, initial environmental fate and effect analysis. This pharmaceutical group is composed of the 111 highest-selling human drug substances that have annual sales in Germany of more than 5,000 kg. The data required for this ERA came from analyzing: (1) sales annually (in kg or IU) of the 2671 active pharmaceutical drug substances (2001) on the German market in all medicinal products sold by pharmacies (with and without prescriptions) and used in hospitals in 1996-2001; (2) the use pattern of drug substances as categorized according to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification indexes ATC3 and ATC7; (3) data for excretion, toxicity, and metabolites of the 111 selected human drug substances; (4) the physicochemical properties of these substances; and (5) the degradability of selected drug substances in sewage treatment plants (STPs) by using a validated and accredited liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method. A correction factor for the pharmaceutical therapeutic (PT) activity of metabolites, the PT(Index) (excretion rate/100) for drug substances and PT active metabolites was established to refine the predicted environmental concentration (PEC(SURFACEWATER)). A refinement of the PEC(SURFACEWATER) was carried out with the market penetration factor of the human drug substances in Germany. In addition, for effect analysis the predicted no-effects concentration (PNEC) was calculated using assessment factors. The estimated PEC results were validated with the exposure results of effluents of the STPs. All results on ERA of drug substances have been documented in a Microsoft Access 2000 database. Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Life is getting scary in the oil markets

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

Uttal, B.

1980-01-28

In the four years prior to 1978, crude was plentiful and often sold on the spot market for less than official OPEC prices. Then in late 1978, Iran quit exporting, and a severe winter in Europe drove stocks of heating oil far below their usual levels. Fear of shortages sent spot prices for heating oil up 112%, and crude prices followed. Many OPEC members realized that sticking to the cartel's official selling price was no longer in their interests. Some OPEC members are now pulling contracts out from under the majors and are selling directly to consuming nations. The movemore » away from the majors has increased the chances that an end user will have its supplies disrupted, causing it to buy and stockpile supplies beyond storage capacity. The producing states' new dominance has had its greatest impact not on the majors but on a special class of customers who rely on the majors for much of their crude. These are the third-party buyers, a category that includes independent refiners, governments, and any other customer not directly associated with the majors' captive distribution networks. DOE estimates that some independent refiners have lost 40% of their third-party supplies; Japan has been informed that, as of March 1980, it will lose all of the oil it receives under third-party contracts. It now seems that none of the majors has enough crude to run its own refineries and to keep up supplies to its established third-party customers. And, when supplies are loose, cartel members are likely to cut production. One analyst has said that OPEC could fulfill all of their revenue needs and still slash production by about 70%. (MCW)« less

Learning from Marketing: Rapid Development of Medication Messages that Engage Patients

PubMed Central

Yank, Veronica; Tribett, Erika; Green, Lydia; Pettis, Jasmine

2015-01-01

Objective To adapt marketing approaches in a health services environment. Methods Researchers and advertising professionals partnered in developing advertising-style messages designed to activate patients pre-identified as having chronic kidney disease to ask providers about recommended medications. We assessed feasibility of the development process by evaluating partnership structure, costs, and timeframe. We tested messages with patients and providers using preliminary surveys to refine initial messages and subsequent focus groups to identify the most persuasive ones. Results The partnership achieved an efficient structure, $14,550 total costs, and 4-month timeframe. The advertising team developed 11 initial messages. The research team conducted surveys and focus groups with a total of 13 patients and 8 providers to identify three messages as most activating. Focus group themes suggested the general approach of using advertising-style messages was acceptable if it supported patient-provider relationships and had a credible evidence base. Individual messages were more motivating if they elicited personal identification with imagery, particular emotions, active patient role, and message clarity. Conclusion We demonstrated feasibility of a research-advertising partnership and acceptability and likely impact of advertising-style messages on patient medication-seeking behavior. Practice Implications Healthcare systems may want to replicate our adaptation of marketing approaches to patients with chronic conditions. PMID:25913245

Applying Best Practices to Florida Local Government Retrofit Programs

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

McIlvaine, J.; Sutherland, K.

In some communities, local government and non-profit entities have funds to purchase and renovate distressed, foreclosed homes for resale in the affordable housing market. Numerous opportunities to improve whole house energy efficiency are inherent in these comprehensive renovations. BA-PIRC worked together in a multi-year field study making recommendations in individual homes, meanwhile compiling improvement costs, projected energy savings, practical challenges, and labor force factors surrounding common energy-related renovation measures. The field study, Phase 1 of this research, resulted in a set of best practices appropriate to the current labor pool and market conditions in central Florida to achieve projected annualmore » energy savings of 15-30% and higher. This report describes Phase 2 of the work where researchers worked with a local government partner to implement and refine the 'current best practices.' A simulation study was conducted to characterize savings potential under three sets of conditions representing varying replacement needs for energy-related equipment and envelope components. The three scenarios apply readily to the general remodeling industry as for renovation of foreclosed homes for the affordable housing market. Our new local government partner, the City of Melbourne, implemented the best practices in a community-scale renovation program that included ten homes in 2012.« less

Existing Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Applying Best Practices to Florida Local Government Retrofit Programs - Central Florida

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

None

In some communities, local government and non-profit entities have funds to purchase and renovate distressed, foreclosed homes for resale in the affordable housing market. Numerous opportunities to improve whole house energy efficiency are inherent in these comprehensive renovations. BA-PIRC worked together in a multiyear field study making recommendations in individual homes, meanwhile compiling improvement costs, projected energy savings, practical challenges, and labor force factors surrounding common energy-related renovation measures. The field study, Phase 1 of this research, resulted in a set of best practices appropriate to the current labor pool and market conditions in central Florida to achieve projected annualmore » energy savings of 15%-30% and higher. This case study describes Phase 2 of the work where researchers worked with a local government partner to implement and refine the "current best practices". A simulation study was conducted to characterize savings potential under three sets of conditions representing varying replacement needs for energy-related equipment and envelope components. The three scenarios apply readily to the general remodeling industry as for renovation of foreclosed homes for the affordable housing market. The new local government partner, the City of Melbourne, implemented the best practices in a community-scale renovation program that included ten homes in 2012.« less

Applying Best Practices to Florida Local Government Retrofit Programs, Central Florida (Fact Sheet)

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

None, None

In some communities, local government and non-profit entities have funds to purchase and renovate distressed, foreclosed homes for resale in the affordable housing market. Numerous opportunities to improve whole house energy efficiency are inherent in these comprehensive renovations. BA-PIRC worked together in a multi-year field study making recommendations in individual homes, meanwhile compiling improvement costs, projected energy savings, practical challenges, and labor force factors surrounding common energy-related renovation measures. The field study, Phase 1 of this research, resulted in a set of best practices appropriate to the current labor pool and market conditions in central Florida to achieve projected annualmore » energy savings of 15-30% and higher. This report describes Phase 2 of the work where researchers worked with a local government partner to implement and refine the "current best practices". A simulation study was conducted to characterize savings potential under three sets of conditions representing varying replacement needs for energy-related equipment and envelope components. The three scenarios apply readily to the general remodeling industry as for renovation of foreclosed homes for the affordable housing market. Our new local government partner, the City of Melbourne, implemented the best practices in a community-scale renovation program that included ten homes in 2012.« less

Applying Best Practices to Florida Local Government Retrofit Programs

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

McIlvaine, J.; Sutherland, K.

In some communities, local government and non-profit entities have funds to purchase and renovate distressed, foreclosed homes for resale in the affordable housing market. Numerous opportunities to improve whole house energy efficiency are inherent in these comprehensive renovations. BA-PIRC worked together in a multiyear field study making recommendations in individual homes, meanwhile compiling improvement costs, projected energy savings, practical challenges, and labor force factors surrounding common energy-related renovation measures. The field study, Phase 1 of this research, resulted in a set of best practices appropriate to the current labor pool and market conditions in central Florida to achieve projected annualmore » energy savings of 15%-30% and higher. This report describes Phase 2 of the work where researchers worked with a local government partner to implement and refine the "current best practices". A simulation study was conducted to characterize savings potential under three sets of conditions representing varying replacement needs for energy-related equipment and envelope components. The three scenarios apply readily to the general remodeling industry as for renovation of foreclosed homes for the affordable housing market. The new local government partner, the City of Melbourne, implemented the best practices in a community-scale renovation program that included ten homes in 2012.« less

Learning from marketing: Rapid development of medication messages that engage patients.

PubMed

Yank, Veronica; Tribett, Erika; Green, Lydia; Pettis, Jasmine

2015-08-01

To adapt marketing approaches in a health services environment. Researchers and advertising professionals partnered in developing advertising-style messages designed to activate patients pre-identified as having chronic kidney disease to ask providers about recommended medications. We assessed feasibility of the development process by evaluating partnership structure, costs, and timeframe. We tested messages with patients and providers using preliminary surveys to refine initial messages and subsequent focus groups to identify the most persuasive ones. The partnership achieved an efficient structure, $14,550 total costs, and 4-month timeframe. The advertising team developed 11 initial messages. The research team conducted surveys and focus groups with a total of 13 patients and 8 providers to identify three messages as most activating. Focus group themes suggested the general approach of using advertising-style messages was acceptable if it supported patient-provider relationships and had a credible evidence base. Individual messages were more motivating if they elicited personal identification with imagery, particular emotions, active patient role, and message clarity. We demonstrated feasibility of a research-advertising partnership and acceptability and likely impact of advertising-style messages on patient medication-seeking behavior. Healthcare systems may want to replicate our adaptation of marketing approaches to patients with chronic conditions. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Models for Models: An Introduction to Polymer Models Employing Simple Analogies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarazona, M. Pilar; Saiz, Enrique

1998-11-01

An introduction to the most common models used in the calculations of conformational properties of polymers, ranging from the freely jointed chain approximation to Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics methods, is presented. Mathematical formalism is avoided and simple analogies, such as human chains, gases, opinion polls, or marketing strategies, are used to explain the different models presented. A second goal of the paper is to teach students how models required for the interpretation of a system can be elaborated, starting with the simplest model and introducing successive improvements until the refinements become so sophisticated that it is much better to use an alternative approach.

Reconstruction of Building Outlines in Dense Urban Areas Based on LIDAR Data and Address Points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarzabek-Rychard, M.

2012-07-01

The paper presents a comprehensive method for automated extraction and delineation of building outlines in densely built-up areas. A novel approach to outline reconstruction is the use of geocoded building address points. They give information about building location thus highly reduce task complexity. Reconstruction process is executed on 3D point clouds acquired by airborne laser scanner. The method consists of three steps: building detection, delineation and contours refinement. The algorithm is tested against a data set that presents the old market town and its surroundings. The results are discussed and evaluated by comparison to reference cadastral data.

Study of quiet turbofan STOL aircraft for short-haul transportation. Volume 6: Systems analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

A systems analysis of the quiet turbofan aircraft for short-haul transportation was conducted. The purpose of the study was to integrate the representative data generated by aircraft, market, and economic analyses. Activities of the study were to develop the approach and to refine the methodologies for analytic tradeoff, and sensitivity studies of propulsive lift conceptual aircraft and their performance in simulated regional airlines. The operations of appropriate airlines in each of six geographic regions of the United States were simulated. The offshore domestic regions were evaluated to provide a complete domestic evaluation of the STOL concept applicability.

Epoch Lifetimes in the Dynamics of a Competing Population

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeung, C. H.; Ma, Y. P.; Wong, K. Y. Michael

We propose a dynamical model of a competing population whose agents have a tendency to balance their decisions in time. The model is applicable to financial markets in which the agents trade with finite capital, or other multiagent systems such as routers in communication networks attempting to transmit multiclass traffic in a fair way. We find an oscillatory behavior due to the segregation of agents into two groups. Each group remains winning over epochs. The aggregation of smart agents is able to explain the lifetime distribution of epochs to 8 decades of probability. The existence of the super agents further refines the lifetime distribution of short epochs.

Performance Prediction and Validation: Data, Frameworks, and Considerations

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

Tinnesand, Heidi

2017-05-19

Improving the predictability and reliability of wind power generation and operations will reduce costs and potentially establish a framework to attract new capital into the distributed wind sector, a key cost reduction requirement highlighted in results from the distributed wind future market assessment conducted with dWind. Quantifying and refining the accuracy of project performance estimates will also directly address several of the key challenges identified by industry stakeholders in 2015 as part of the distributed wind resource assessment workshop and be cross-cutting for several other facets of the distributed wind portfolio. This presentation covers the efforts undertaken in 2016 tomore » address these topics.« less

Potential Development Essential Oil Production of Central Java, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alighiri, D.; Eden, W. T.; Supardi, K. I.; Masturi; Purwinarko, A.

2017-04-01

Indonesia is the source of raw essential oil in the world. Essential oils are used in various types of industries such as food and beverage, flavour, fragrance, perfumery, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. However, the development of Indonesian essential oil industry has not been encouraging for the production of essential oils, further it is unable to meet global demand. Besides that, the quality of volatile oil resulted cannot meet the international market standards. Based on the facts, the potential of Indonesian essential oils needs to be developed to provide added value, through increased production, improved quality and product diversification. One part of Indonesia having abundant of raw essential oil source is Central Java. Central Java has the quite large potential production of essential oils. Some essential oils produced from refining industry owned by the government, private and community sectors include cananga oils (Boyolali district), clove oils (Semarang district), patchouli oils (Brebes district, Pemalang district, and Klaten district). The main problem in the development of plants industries that producing essential oil in Central Java is low crops production, farming properties, quality of essential oils are diverse, providing poor-quality products and volatile oil price fluctuations. Marketing constraints of Central Java essential oils are quite complex supply chain. In general, marketing constraints of essential oils due to three factors, namely the low quality due to type of essential oil business that generally shaped small businesses with different capital and technology, domestic marketing is still a buyer-market (price determined by the buyer) because of weak bargaining position processors businessman, and prices fluctuate (domestic and foreign) due to uncontrolled domestic production and inter-country competition among manufacturers.

Beyond "medical tourism": Canadian companies marketing medical travel.

PubMed

Turner, Leigh

2012-06-15

Despite having access to medically necessary care available through publicly funded provincial health care systems, some Canadians travel for treatment provided at international medical facilities as well as for-profit clinics found in several Canadian provinces. Canadians travel abroad for orthopaedic surgery, bariatric surgery, ophthalmologic surgery, stem cell injections, "Liberation therapy" for multiple sclerosis, and additional interventions. Both responding to public interest in medical travel and playing an important part in promoting the notion of a global marketplace for health services, many Canadian companies market medical travel. Research began with the goal of locating all medical tourism companies based in Canada. Various strategies were used to find such businesses. During the search process it became apparent that many Canadian business promoting medical travel are not medical tourism companies. To the contrary, numerous types of businesses promote medical travel. Once businesses promoting medical travel were identified, content analysis was used to extract information from company websites. Company websites were analyzed to establish: 1) where in Canada these businesses are located; 2) the destination countries and health care facilities that they market; 3) the medical procedures they promote; 4) core marketing messages; and 5) whether businesses market air travel, hotel accommodations, and holiday tours in addition to medical procedures. Searches conducted from 2006 to 2011 resulted in identification of thirty-five Canadian businesses currently marketing various kinds of medical travel. The research project began with what seemed to be the straightforward goal of establishing how many medical tourism companies are based in Canada. Refinement of categories resulted in the identification of eighteen businesses fitting the category of what most researchers would identify as medical tourism companies. Seven other businesses market regional, cross-border health services available in the United States and intranational travel to clinics in Canada. In contrast to medical tourism companies, they do not market holiday tours in addition to medical care. Two companies occupy a narrow market niche and promote testing for CCSVI and "Liberation therapy" for multiple sclerosis. Three additional companies offer bariatric surgery and cosmetic surgery at facilities in Mexico. Four businesses offer health insurance products intended to cover the cost of obtaining privately financed health care in the U.S. These businesses also help their clients arrange treatment beyond Canada's borders. Finally, one medical travel company based in Canada markets health services primarily to U.S. citizens. This article uses content analysis of websites of Canadian companies marketing medical travel to provide insight into Canada's medical travel industry. The article reveals a complex marketplace with different types of companies taking distinct approaches to marketing medical travel.

Bitumen performance and chemistry in solvent refined bitumen blends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holleran, Glynn; Holleran, Irina; Wilson, Douglas J.

2017-09-01

In years gone past most oil companies in Australia and New Zealand (NZ) developed experts that bridged the divide between refining and paving. This was supported by laboratories in Australia and sometimes Asia. This is no longer the case and many refineries have ceased bitumen production or closed. With the market moving towards imports and control to supply companies disconnects on bitumen passing a national specification and performance on the road. This reduces both durability and increases costs. This has been addressed by development in NZ of a performance specification for hot mix asphalt binders (including modified) and work being done on sealing grades. This paper discusses the development of the HMA specification with respect to crude sources and the development of methodologies to assess imported binders for suitability in all applications including emulsion. The conclusion is that bitumen quality may be maintained by use of these methodologies that include, chromatographic analysis, measurement of thermodynamic internal stability (Heithaus), aging, and Dynamic Shear Rheometry testing and mix performance testing in the laboratory. This forms a regime capable of use in any context and this leads to better durability of surfaces and extended service life.

The remarkable environmental rebound effect of electric cars: a microeconomic approach.

PubMed

Font Vivanco, David; Freire-González, Jaume; Kemp, René; van der Voet, Ester

2014-10-21

This article presents a stepwise, refined, and practical analytical framework to model the microeconomic environmental rebound effect (ERE) stemming from cost differences of electric cars in terms of changes in multiple life cycle environmental indicators. The analytical framework is based on marginal consumption analysis and hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA). The article makes a novel contribution through a reinterpretation of the traditional rebound effect and methodological refinements. It also provides novel empirical results about the ERE for plug-in hybrid electric (PHE), full-battery electric (FBE), and hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) cars for Europe. The ERE is found to have a remarkable impact on product-level environmental scores. For the PHE car, the ERE causes a marginal increase in demand and environmental pressures due to a small decrease in the cost of using this technology. For FBE and HFC cars, the high capital costs cause a noteworthy decrease in environmental pressures for some indicators (negative rebound effect). The results corroborate the concern over the high influence of cost differences for environmental assessment, and they prompt sustainable consumption policies to consider markets and prices as tools rather than as an immutable background.

The Effect of Niobium Microalloying on Processing and Application Properties of Dual Phase Steel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohrbacher, Hardy

Dual phase steel is widely used in today's car body manufacturing. Its characteristics of high n-value and good elongation (A80) are the basis of good press formability. However, practical experience has shown unexpected failure in forming operations where tight bending, stretch flanging or hole expansion are predominant. The inhomogeneous microstructure of soft ferrite and hard martensite in combination with highly localized straining is the origin of these problems. Furthermore, weldability and delayed cracking have been experienced to cause problems in ultra-high strength DP steel. Refinement and homogenization of the two-phase microstructure as well as lowering of the carbon content have been identified as remedies to the mentioned problems. However, mill processing of DP steel with reduced carbon content is more difficult especially for the higher strength levels. Niobium microalloying proved to be very effective in increasing the processing window of low-carbon DP steels besides of its natural effect of refining the microstructure. Meanwhile the production of niobium microalloyed DP steel has been established in several markets including China. The paper details the fundamentals, demonstrates respective production concepts and presents examples of application of Nb-microalloyed DP steels.

Is this health campaign really social marketing? A checklist to help you decide.

PubMed

Chau, Josephine Y; McGill, Bronwyn; Thomas, Margaret M; Carroll, Tom E; Bellew, William; Bauman, Adrian; Grunseit, Anne C

2018-04-01

Social marketing (SM) campaigns can be a powerful disease prevention and health promotion strategy but health-related campaigns may simply focus on the "promotions" communication activities and exclude other key characteristics of the SM approach. This paper describes the application of a checklist for identifying which lifestyle-related chronic disease prevention campaigns reported as SM actually represent key SM principles and practice. A checklist of SM criteria was developed, reviewed and refined by SM and mass media campaign experts. Papers identified in searches for "social marketing" and "mass media" for obesity, diet and physical activity campaigns in the health literature were classified using the checklist. Using the checklist, 66.6% of papers identified in the "SM" search and 39% of papers identified from the "mass media" search were classified as SM campaigns. Inter-rater agreement for classification using the abstract only was 92.1%. Health-related campaigns that self-identify as "social marketing" or "mass media" may not include the key characteristics of a SM approach. Published literature can provide useful guidance for developing and evaluating health-related SM campaigns, but health promotion professionals need to be able to identify what actually comprises SM in practice. SO WHAT?: SM could be a valuable strategy in comprehensive health promotion interventions, but it is often difficult for non-experts to identify published campaigns that represent a true SM approach. This paper describes the application of a checklist to assist policy makers and practitioners in appraising evidence from campaigns reflecting actual SM in practice. The checklist could also guide reporting on SM campaigns. © 2017 Australian Health Promotion Association.

Venezuela Country Analysis Brief

EIA Publications

2015-01-01

Venezuela is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of crude oil. The country has been one of the largest exporters of crude oil in the Americas. As a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela is an important player in the global oil market. Although oil production has declined since its peak in the late 1990s, Venezuela has been among the top exporters of crude oil to the United States have been among the largest in the world. In recent years, through significant upfront investment, an increasing share of Venezuela’s exports has been delivered to China. While Venezuela is important to the global oil market, the government’s reinvestment of oil revenues into social programs instead of reinvestment into exploration, production, and refining has led to declines in output. In 2014, Venezuela consumed 3.3 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of total energy.1 Oil continues to represent most of the country’s total energy consumed, and natural gas consumption has increased in the past five years. Hydroelectric power meets less than 25% of total demand, and coal represents less than 1%.

Refinery buyers and sellers hunt cash

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

Gill, D.

1995-07-01

There`s a high-risk premium in the petroleum refining business today. The ability to transfer assets is viewed with a high degree of skepticism, and capital is not freely available. There are willing buyers and sellers for refinery assets today, but it is tough to qualify for a loan. Private financing also was responsible for a refinery deal that closed recently - the sale of Kerr-McGee`s 100,000-b/d unit in Corpus Christi, Texas. After nearly 3 years on the market, this unit was finally bought by a deep-pocketed private firm, Koch Industries of Wichita, Kan. The purchase price has not been disclosed,more » but it was probably not rich.« less

Manufactured caverns in carbonate rock

DOEpatents

Bruce, David A.; Falta, Ronald W.; Castle, James W.; Murdoch, Lawrence C.

2007-01-02

Disclosed is a process for manufacturing underground caverns suitable in one embodiment for storage of large volumes of gaseous or liquid materials. The method is an acid dissolution process that can be utilized to form caverns in carbonate rock formations. The caverns can be used to store large quantities of materials near transportation facilities or destination markets. The caverns can be used for storage of materials including fossil fuels, such as natural gas, refined products formed from fossil fuels, or waste materials, such as hazardous waste materials. The caverns can also be utilized for applications involving human access such as recreation or research. The method can also be utilized to form calcium chloride as a by-product of the cavern formation process.

Conceptualizing race in economic models of medical utilization: a case study of community-based elders and the emergency room.

PubMed Central

White-Means, S I

1995-01-01

There is no consensus on the appropriate conceptualization of race in economic models of health care. This is because race is rarely the primary focus for analysis of the market. This article presents an alternative framework for conceptualizing race in health economic models. A case study is analyzed to illustrate the value of the alternative conceptualization. The case study findings clearly document the importance of model stratification according to race. Moreover, the findings indicate that empirical results are improved when medical utilization models are refined in a way that reflects the unique experiences of the population that is studied. PMID:7721593

A strategic endeavor in business planning--an oncology perspective.

PubMed

Eck, C

2000-06-01

Planning is imperative to provide direction for future growth. The purpose of writing a business plan is to cultivate, analyze, and refine ideas. Planning for academic health centers has become increasingly important because of the changes in financing and delivery of health care. Gathering data related to the current patients population as well as the projected future trends is necessary to establish a framework. Identifying the market and financial data and formulating the strategies needed to move forward are key elements of a business plan. The ultimate outcome of the process is to convince others that the vision is achievable and to ensure allocation of resources to carry out the plan.

Engineering hurdles in contact and intraocular lens lathe design: the view ahead

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradley, Norman D.; Keller, John R.; Ball, Gary A.

1994-05-01

Current trends in and intraocular lens design suggest ever- increasing demand for aspheric lens geometries - multisurface and/or toric surfaces - in a variety of new materials. As computer numeric controls (CNC) lathes and mills continue to evolve with he ophthalmic market, engineering hurdles present themselves to designers: Can hardware based upon single-point diamond turning accommodate the demands of software-driven designs? What are the limits of CNC resolution and repeatability in high-throughput production? What are the controlling factors in lathed, polish-free surface production? Emerging technologies in the lathed biomedical optics field are discussed along with their limitations, including refined diamond tooling, vibrational control, automation, and advanced motion control systems.

Effect of governmental regulations on subsidization in the sale of gasoline

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

Ryan, T.C.

1980-03-15

Federal and state governments have, since at least 1781, sought to influence the course of economic events in the US. In the twentieth century, this influence has largely been felt through the use of federal and state regulation and taxation policies. The purpose of this report is to discuss those tax laws and regulations that have had the most substantial effect on the issue of gasoline/marketing subsidization. Most of those that have had the greatest effect on the profitability of petroleum exploration and production (demand proration, mandatory import restrictions, the depletion allowance, the foreign tax credit) have been largely dilutedmore » by current economic events or changes in regulations and tax laws. A new series of regulations continually promulgated between 1973 and the present, however, has substantially affected the issue of subsidization of gasoline. Because of the number and complexity of the regulations, a case method was used to describe some of the effects of these laws on gasoline retailing and the issue of subsidization. Because one of the functions of the regulations is to maintain the market shares of various classes of trade, economic efficiency has tended to suffer at the hands of regulation. As a consequence, it is very likely that the returns available to some refiner/marketers and retailers have been artificially lowered by federal regulations and guidelines while others have been artificially raised.« less

Beyond "medical tourism": Canadian companies marketing medical travel

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Despite having access to medically necessary care available through publicly funded provincial health care systems, some Canadians travel for treatment provided at international medical facilities as well as for-profit clinics found in several Canadian provinces. Canadians travel abroad for orthopaedic surgery, bariatric surgery, ophthalmologic surgery, stem cell injections, “Liberation therapy” for multiple sclerosis, and additional interventions. Both responding to public interest in medical travel and playing an important part in promoting the notion of a global marketplace for health services, many Canadian companies market medical travel. Methods Research began with the goal of locating all medical tourism companies based in Canada. Various strategies were used to find such businesses. During the search process it became apparent that many Canadian business promoting medical travel are not medical tourism companies. To the contrary, numerous types of businesses promote medical travel. Once businesses promoting medical travel were identified, content analysis was used to extract information from company websites. Company websites were analyzed to establish: 1) where in Canada these businesses are located; 2) the destination countries and health care facilities that they market; 3) the medical procedures they promote; 4) core marketing messages; and 5) whether businesses market air travel, hotel accommodations, and holiday tours in addition to medical procedures. Results Searches conducted from 2006 to 2011 resulted in identification of thirty-five Canadian businesses currently marketing various kinds of medical travel. The research project began with what seemed to be the straightforward goal of establishing how many medical tourism companies are based in Canada. Refinement of categories resulted in the identification of eighteen businesses fitting the category of what most researchers would identify as medical tourism companies. Seven other businesses market regional, cross-border health services available in the United States and intranational travel to clinics in Canada. In contrast to medical tourism companies, they do not market holiday tours in addition to medical care. Two companies occupy a narrow market niche and promote testing for CCSVI and “Liberation therapy” for multiple sclerosis. Three additional companies offer bariatric surgery and cosmetic surgery at facilities in Mexico. Four businesses offer health insurance products intended to cover the cost of obtaining privately financed health care in the U.S. These businesses also help their clients arrange treatment beyond Canada’s borders. Finally, one medical travel company based in Canada markets health services primarily to U.S. citizens. Conclusions This article uses content analysis of websites of Canadian companies marketing medical travel to provide insight into Canada’s medical travel industry. The article reveals a complex marketplace with different types of companies taking distinct approaches to marketing medical travel. PMID:22703873

Cost-benefit analysis of copper recovery in remediation projects: A case study from Sweden.

PubMed

Volchko, Yevheniya; Norrman, Jenny; Rosén, Lars; Karlfeldt Fedje, Karin

2017-12-15

Contamination resulting from past industrial activity is a problem throughout the world and many sites are severely contaminated by metals. Advances in research in recent years have resulted in the development of technologies for recovering metal from metal-rich materials within the framework of remediation projects. Using cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and explicitly taking uncertainties into account, this paper evaluates the potential social profitability of copper recovery as part of four remediation alternatives at a Swedish site. One alternative involves delivery of copper-rich ash to a metal production company for refining. The other three alternatives involve metal leaching from materials and sale of the resulting metal sludge for its further processing at a metal production company using metallurgical methods. All the alternatives are evaluated relative to the conventional excavation and disposal method. Metal recovery from the ash, metal sludge sale, and disposal of the contaminated soil and the ash residue at the local landfill site, was found to be the best remediation alternative. However, given the present conditions, its economic potential is low relative to the conventional excavation and disposal method but higher than direct disposal of the copper-rich ash for refining. Volatile copper prices, the high cost of processing equipment, the highly uncertain cost of the metal leaching and washing process, coupled with the substantial project risks, contribute most to the uncertainties in the CBA results for the alternatives involving metal leaching prior to refining. However, investment in processing equipment within the framework of a long-term investment project, production of safe, reusable soil residue, and higher copper prices on the metal market, can make metal recovery technology socially profitable. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New method of 2-dimensional metrology using mask contouring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsuoka, Ryoichi; Yamagata, Yoshikazu; Sugiyama, Akiyuki; Toyoda, Yasutaka

2008-10-01

We have developed a new method of accurately profiling and measuring of a mask shape by utilizing a Mask CD-SEM. The method is intended to realize high accuracy, stability and reproducibility of the Mask CD-SEM adopting an edge detection algorithm as the key technology used in CD-SEM for high accuracy CD measurement. In comparison with a conventional image processing method for contour profiling, this edge detection method is possible to create the profiles with much higher accuracy which is comparable with CD-SEM for semiconductor device CD measurement. This method realizes two-dimensional metrology for refined pattern that had been difficult to measure conventionally by utilizing high precision contour profile. In this report, we will introduce the algorithm in general, the experimental results and the application in practice. As shrinkage of design rule for semiconductor device has further advanced, an aggressive OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) is indispensable in RET (Resolution Enhancement Technology). From the view point of DFM (Design for Manufacturability), a dramatic increase of data processing cost for advanced MDP (Mask Data Preparation) for instance and surge of mask making cost have become a big concern to the device manufacturers. This is to say, demands for quality is becoming strenuous because of enormous quantity of data growth with increasing of refined pattern on photo mask manufacture. In the result, massive amount of simulated error occurs on mask inspection that causes lengthening of mask production and inspection period, cost increasing, and long delivery time. In a sense, it is a trade-off between the high accuracy RET and the mask production cost, while it gives a significant impact on the semiconductor market centered around the mask business. To cope with the problem, we propose the best method of a DFM solution using two-dimensional metrology for refined pattern.

Potential Functional Byproducts from Guava Purée Processing.

PubMed

Lim, Si Yi; Tham, Paik Yean; Lim, Hilary Yi Ler; Heng, Wooi Shin; Chang, Ying Ping

2018-05-10

The valorization of guava waste requires compositional and functional studies. We tested three byproducts of guava purée processing, namely refiner, siever, and decanter. We analyzed the chemical composition and quantified the prebiotic activity score and selected carbohydrates; we also determined the water holding (WHC), oil holding (OHC), cation exchange capacities, bile acid binding, and glucose dialysis retardation (GDR) of the solid fraction and the antioxidative and α-amylase inhibitory capacities (AIC) of the ethanolic extract. Refiner contained 7.7% lipid, 7.08% protein and a relatively high phytate content; it had a high prebiotic activity score and possessed the highest binding capacity with deoxycholic acid. Siever contained high levels of low molecular weight carbohydrates and total tannin but relatively low crude fiber and cellulose contents. It had the highest binding with chenodeoxycholic acid (74.8%), and exhibited the highest 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging capacity. Decanter was rich in cellulose and had a high prebiotic activity score. The WHC and OHC values of decanter were within a narrow range and also exhibited the highest binding with cholic acid (86.6%), and the highest values of GDR and AIC. The refiner waste could be included in animal feed but requires further processing to reduce the high phytate levels. All three guava byproducts had the potential to be a source of antioxidant dietary fiber (DF), a finding that warrants further in vivo study. To differing extents, the guava byproducts exhibited useful physicochemical binding properties and so possessed the potential for health-promoting activity. These byproducts could also be upgraded to other marketable products so the manufacturers of processed guava might be able to develop their businesses sustainably by making better use of them. © 2018 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Social marketing-based communications to integrate and support the HEALTHY study intervention

PubMed Central

DeBar, LL; Schneider, M; Ford, EG; Hernandez, AE; Showell, B; Drews, KL; Moe, EL; Gillis, B; Jessup, AN; Stadler, DD; White, M

2009-01-01

The HEALTHY study was a randomized, controlled, multicenter, middle school-based, multifaceted intervention designed to reduce risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. The study randomized 42 middle schools to intervention or control, and followed students from the sixth to the eighth grades. Participants were a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse cohort from across the United States. Here, we describe the conceptual underpinnings and design of the social marketing-based communications component of the HEALTHY study intervention that combined changes in the school nutrition and physical education (PE) environment with behavior change initiatives. The communications intervention component coordinated multiple elements to deliver campaigns that served to integrate and support all aspects of the HEALTHY intervention. The campaigns unfolded across five semesters of middle school, each targeting a specific theme related to the HEALTHY objectives. Communications campaigns comprised (1) core elements such as branding, posters, banners and visual and verbal messaging, (2) student events supporting the nutrition, PE and behavior intervention components through the application of social marketing and communications strategies, including the incorporation of student-generated media and (3) distribution of premiums and theme enhancers to extend the visibility of the study beyond the intervention environment. Formative research conducted with students, parents and school administrators was used to refine the communications strategy. Student peer communicators selected from the student body were involved to influence the normative student environment. Marketing and creative design experts developed a brand, logo, activities and materials. In the latter half of the study, student-generated messages and media were used to reflect local interests and culture and enhance peer influence. The HEALTHY intervention delivery and impact were strengthened by the communications strategies. The HEALTHY experience provides practical considerations for systematically incorporating a social marketing-based communications approach within future school-based health behavior interventions. PMID:19623190

Social marketing-based communications to integrate and support the HEALTHY study intervention.

PubMed

DeBar, L L; Schneider, M; Ford, E G; Hernandez, A E; Showell, B; Drews, K L; Moe, E L; Gillis, B; Jessup, A N; Stadler, D D; White, M

2009-08-01

The HEALTHY study was a randomized, controlled, multicenter, middle school-based, multifaceted intervention designed to reduce risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. The study randomized 42 middle schools to intervention or control, and followed students from the sixth to the eighth grades. Participants were a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse cohort from across the United States. Here, we describe the conceptual underpinnings and design of the social marketing-based communications component of the HEALTHY study intervention that combined changes in the school nutrition and physical education (PE) environment with behavior change initiatives. The communications intervention component coordinated multiple elements to deliver campaigns that served to integrate and support all aspects of the HEALTHY intervention. The campaigns unfolded across five semesters of middle school, each targeting a specific theme related to the HEALTHY objectives. Communications campaigns comprised (1) core elements such as branding, posters, banners and visual and verbal messaging, (2) student events supporting the nutrition, PE and behavior intervention components through the application of social marketing and communications strategies, including the incorporation of student-generated media and (3) distribution of premiums and theme enhancers to extend the visibility of the study beyond the intervention environment. Formative research conducted with students, parents and school administrators was used to refine the communications strategy. Student peer communicators selected from the student body were involved to influence the normative student environment. Marketing and creative design experts developed a brand, logo, activities and materials. In the latter half of the study, student-generated messages and media were used to reflect local interests and culture and enhance peer influence. The HEALTHY intervention delivery and impact were strengthened by the communications strategies. The HEALTHY experience provides practical considerations for systematically incorporating a social marketing-based communications approach within future school-based health behavior interventions.

Attributing a monetary value to patients' time: A contingent valuation approach.

PubMed

van den Berg, Bernard; Gafni, Amiram; Portrait, France

2017-04-01

It is hard to ignore the importance of patient time investment in the production of health since the influential paper by Grossman (1972). Patients' time includes time to admission, travel time, waiting time, and treatment time and can be substantial. Patients' time is, however, often ignored in economic analyses. This may lead to biased results and inappropriate policy recommendations, which may eventually influence patients' health, wellbeing and welfare. How to value patient time is not straightforward. Although there is some emerging literature on the monetary valuation of patient time, an important challenge remains to develop an approach that can be used to monetarily value time of patients not participating in the labour market. We aim to contribute to the health economics literature by describing and empirically illustrating how to monetarily value the time of patients not participating in the labour market comprehensively, using the contingent valuation method. It is worth noting that our method can also be applied to people participating in the labour market. This paper describes the development of the contingent valuation survey. We apply our survey approach to a sample of 238 Dutch patients not participating in the labour market: n = 107 Radiotherapy department (data collected between November 2011 and January 2013); n = 44 Rehabilitation department (March 2012-May 2012); n = 87 Orthopaedics department (January to June 2013). Results show that those patients value waiting time the highest (€30.10 per hour) and value travel and treatment time equally with respectively €13.20 and €13.32 per hour. This paper encourages future empirical research refining and applying the developed survey methodology to create more data on how other subgroups of individuals value their patients' time. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissemination of Technology to Evaluate Healthy Food Incentive Programs.

PubMed

Freedman, Darcy A; Hunt, Alan R; Merritt, Katie; Shon, En-Jung; Pike, Stephanie N

2017-03-01

Federal policy supports increased implementation of monetary incentive interventions for chronic disease prevention among low-income populations. This study describes how a Prevention Research Center, working with a dissemination partner, developed and distributed technology to support nationwide implementation and evaluation of healthy food incentive programming focused on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. FM Tracks, an iOS-based application and website, was developed to standardize evaluation methods for healthy food incentive program implementation at direct-to-consumer markets. This evaluation examined diffusion and adoption of the technology over 9 months (July 2015-March 2016). Data were analyzed in 2016. FM Tracks was disseminated to 273 markets affiliated with 37 regional networks in 18 states and Washington, DC. All markets adopted the sales transaction data collection feature, with nearly all recording at least one Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (99.3%) and healthy food incentive (97.1%) transaction. A total of 43,493 sales transactions were recorded. By the ninth month of technology dissemination, markets were entering individual sales transactions using the application (34.5%) and website (29.9%) and aggregated transactions via website (35.6%) at similar rates. Use of optional evaluation features like recording a customer ID with individual transactions increased successively with a low of 22.2% during the first month to a high of 69.2% in the ninth month. Systematic and widely used evaluation technology creates possibilities for pragmatic research embedded within ongoing, real-world implementation of food access interventions. Technology dissemination requires supportive technical assistance and continuous refinement that can be advanced through academic-practitioner partnerships. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Advancing the 3Rs in regulatory toxicology - Carcinogenicity testing: Scope for harmonisation and advancing the 3Rs in regulated sectors of the European Union.

PubMed

Annys, Erwin; Billington, Richard; Clayton, Rick; Bremm, Klaus-Dieter; Graziano, Michael; McKelvie, Jo; Ragan, Ian; Schwarz, Michael; van der Laan, Jan Willem; Wood, Charles; Öberg, Mattias; Wester, Piet; Woodward, Kevin N

2014-07-01

Different government agencies operating in the European Union regulate different types of chemical products but all require testing for carcinogenicity to support applications for product marketing and commercialisation. A conference was held in Brussels in 2013 where representatives of the pharmaceutical, animal health, chemical and plant protection industries, together with representatives of regulatory agencies, universities and other stakeholders, met under the auspices of The European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) to discuss the varying requirements for carcinogenicity testing, and how these studies might be refined to improve hazard evaluation and risk assessment while implementing principles of the 3Rs (replacement, refinement and reduction in animal studies). While there are some similarities, the regulatory approaches in pharmaceutical, animal health, chemical and plant protection sectors have varying degrees of flexibility in requirements for carcinogenicity testing, to an extent reflecting concerns over the magnitude and duration of human exposure, either directly as in therapeutic exposure to pharmaceuticals, or indirectly through the ingestion of residues of veterinary drugs or plant protection chemicals. The article discusses these differences and other considerations for modified carcinogenicity testing paradigms on the basis of scientific and 3Rs approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Standardized reporting for rapid relative effectiveness assessments of pharmaceuticals.

PubMed

Kleijnen, Sarah; Pasternack, Iris; Van de Casteele, Marc; Rossi, Bernardette; Cangini, Agnese; Di Bidino, Rossella; Jelenc, Marjetka; Abrishami, Payam; Autti-Rämö, Ilona; Seyfried, Hans; Wildbacher, Ingrid; Goettsch, Wim G

2014-11-01

Many European countries perform rapid assessments of the relative effectiveness (RE) of pharmaceuticals as part of the reimbursement decision making process. Increased sharing of information on RE across countries may save costs and reduce duplication of work. The objective of this article is to describe the development of a tool for rapid assessment of RE of new pharmaceuticals that enter the market, the HTA Core Model® for Rapid Relative Effectiveness Assessment (REA) of Pharmaceuticals. Eighteen member organisations of the European Network of Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) participated in the development of the model. Different versions of the model were developed and piloted in this collaboration and adjusted accordingly based on feedback on the content and feasibility of the model. The final model deviates from the traditional HTA Core Model® used for assessing other types of technologies. This is due to the limited scope (strong focus on RE), the timing of the assessment (just after market authorisation), and strict timelines (e.g. 90 days) required for performing the assessment. The number of domains and assessment elements was limited and it was decided that the primary information sources should preferably be a submission file provided by the marketing authorisation holder and the European Public Assessment Report. The HTA Core Model® for Rapid REA (version 3.0) was developed to produce standardised transparent RE information of pharmaceuticals. Further piloting can provide input for possible improvements, such as further refining the assessment elements and new methodological guidance on relevant areas.

The state-of-play and future of antibody therapeutics.

PubMed

Elgundi, Zehra; Reslan, Mouhamad; Cruz, Esteban; Sifniotis, Vicki; Kayser, Veysel

2017-12-01

It has been over four decades since the development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) using a hybridoma cell line was first reported. Since then more than thirty therapeutic antibodies have been marketed, mostly as oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory therapeutics. While antibodies are very efficient, their cost-effectiveness has always been discussed owing to their high costs, accumulating to more than one billion dollars from preclinical development through to market approval. Because of this, therapeutic antibodies are inaccessible to some patients in both developed and developing countries. The growing interest in biosimilar antibodies as affordable versions of therapeutic antibodies may provide alternative treatment options as well potentially decreasing costs. As certain markets begin to capitalize on this opportunity, regulatory authorities continue to refine the requirements for demonstrating quality, efficacy and safety of biosimilar compared to originator products. In addition to biosimilars, innovations in antibody engineering are providing the opportunity to design biobetter antibodies with improved properties to maximize efficacy. Enhancing effector function, antibody drug conjugates (ADC) or targeting multiple disease pathways via multi-specific antibodies are being explored. The manufacturing process of antibodies is also moving forward with advancements relating to host cell production and purification processes. Studies into the physical and chemical degradation pathways of antibodies are contributing to the design of more stable proteins guided by computational tools. Moreover, the delivery and pharmacokinetics of antibody-based therapeutics are improving as optimized formulations are pursued through the implementation of recent innovations in the field. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Iran`s petroleum policy: Current trends and the future outlook

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

Pezeshki, S.; Fesharaki, F.

1994-12-01

The Iranian economy and political situation have undergone radical changes since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The excesses of the early years of the revolution have gradually given way to moderation and a more pragmatic economic policy--based on the principles of the free market. The petroleum policy, as a subset of the economic policies, has been somewhat affected by the political and economic developments in Iran. The petroleum policy has changed from a position of no foreign participation to a position that includes a desire for foreign participation, the text of a model contract, and an attempt to introduce new technologiesmore » in the upstream sector. This report provides an overview of the key issues facing the Iranian oil industry and the economic context in which the oil industry is operating in Iran. It describes the evolution of policies meant to move the oil industry toward the free market; it discusses Iran`s oil trading partners, the outlook for refining and project investments, and current and likely future developments in the natural gas and petrochemical sectors. In short, the report provides an up-to-date assessment of the Iranian petroleum sector and its likely evolution in the future.« less

40 CFR 80.1344 - What provisions are available to a non-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner's refineries? 80.1344 Section 80.1344... available to a non-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner's refineries? (a) In the case of a refiner that is not an approved small refiner under § 80.1340 and that acquires a refinery from...

40 CFR 80.555 - What provisions are available to a large refiner that acquires a small refiner or one or more of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... large refiner that acquires a small refiner or one or more of its refineries? 80.555 Section 80.555... that acquires a small refiner or one or more of its refineries? (a) In the case of a refiner without approved small refiner status who acquires a refinery from a refiner with approved status as a motor...

The state of the art in organizational cognitive neuroscience: the therapeutic gap and possible implications for clinical practice

PubMed Central

Senior, Carl; Lee, Nick

2013-01-01

In the last decade, researchers in the social sciences have increasingly adopted neuroscientific techniques, with the consequent rise of research inspired by neuroscience in disciplines such as economics, marketing, decision sciences, and leadership. In 2007, we introduced the term organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), in an attempt to clearly demarcate research carried out in these many areas, and provide an overarching paradigm for research utilizing cognitive neuroscientific methods, theories, and concepts, within the organizational and business research fields. Here we will revisit and further refine the OCN paradigm, and define an approach where we feel the marriage of organizational theory and neuroscience will return even greater dividends in the future and that is within the field of clinical practice. PMID:24367310

Encounters in an online brand community: development and validation of a metric for value co-creation by customers.

PubMed

Hsieh, Pei-Ling

2015-05-01

Recent developments in service marketing have demonstrated the potential value co-creation by customers who participate in online brand communities (OBCs). Therefore, this study forecasts the co-created value by understanding the participation/behavior of customers in a multi-stakeholder OBC. This six-phase qualitative and quantitative investigation conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a 12-item three-dimensional scale for measuring key factors that are related to the experience, interpersonal interactions, and social relationships that affect the value co-creation by customers in an OBC. The scale captures stable psychometric properties, measured using various reliability and validity tests, and can be applied across various industries. Finally, the utility implications and limitations of the proposed scale are discussed, and potential future research directions considered.

[Need-based resource allocation--experiences with the RAWP formula in Great Britain].

PubMed

Brand, H; Menke, R

1997-07-01

The RAWP formula used for resource allocation in Great Britain between 1976 and 1991 is a morbidity-oriented instrument of controlling, which has so far received only little attention in Germany. The development of this model was supported by the intention to intervene in the regional pattern of hospital supply by means of resource allocation and to refine it according to the guiding principles of equity and efficiency. The basic elements-regional population, average bed use, ICD chapter-specific SMRs-are discussed and the various modifications outlined. The RAWP formula's potentials of controlling resulted in a progressive reduction of the apparent disparities between regions in hospital supply, and knee was considered to be a "qualified success". The future development in the sense of an internal market addressed.

The state of the art in organizational cognitive neuroscience: the therapeutic gap and possible implications for clinical practice.

PubMed

Senior, Carl; Lee, Nick

2013-01-01

In the last decade, researchers in the social sciences have increasingly adopted neuroscientific techniques, with the consequent rise of research inspired by neuroscience in disciplines such as economics, marketing, decision sciences, and leadership. In 2007, we introduced the term organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), in an attempt to clearly demarcate research carried out in these many areas, and provide an overarching paradigm for research utilizing cognitive neuroscientific methods, theories, and concepts, within the organizational and business research fields. Here we will revisit and further refine the OCN paradigm, and define an approach where we feel the marriage of organizational theory and neuroscience will return even greater dividends in the future and that is within the field of clinical practice.

LCD motion blur reduction: a signal processing approach.

PubMed

Har-Noy, Shay; Nguyen, Truong Q

2008-02-01

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have shown great promise in the consumer market for their use as both computer and television displays. Despite their many advantages, the inherent sample-and-hold nature of LCD image formation results in a phenomenon known as motion blur. In this work, we develop a method for motion blur reduction using the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm in concert with motion vector information from the scene. We further refine our approach by introducing a perceptual significance metric that allows us to weight the amount of processing performed on different regions in the image. In addition, we analyze the role of motion vector errors in the quality of our resulting image. Perceptual tests indicate that our algorithm reduces the amount of perceivable motion blur in LCDs.

Applied mediation analyses: a review and tutorial.

PubMed

Lange, Theis; Hansen, Kim Wadt; Sørensen, Rikke; Galatius, Søren

2017-01-01

In recent years, mediation analysis has emerged as a powerful tool to disentangle causal pathways from an exposure/treatment to clinically relevant outcomes. Mediation analysis has been applied in scientific fields as diverse as labour market relations and randomized clinical trials of heart disease treatments. In parallel to these applications, the underlying mathematical theory and computer tools have been refined. This combined review and tutorial will introduce the reader to modern mediation analysis including: the mathematical framework; required assumptions; and software implementation in the R package medflex. All results are illustrated using a recent study on the causal pathways stemming from the early invasive treatment of acute coronary syndrome, for which the rich Danish population registers allow us to follow patients' medication use and more after being discharged from hospital.

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-07-29

An entranced youngster watches a demonstration of the enhanced resilience of undercooled metal alloys as compared to conventional alloys. Steel bearings are dropped onto plates made of steel, titanium alloy, and zirconium liquid metal alloy, so-called because its molecular structure is amorphous and not crystalline. The bearing on the liquid metal plate bounces for a minute or more longer than on the other plates. Experiments aboard the Space Shuttle helped scientists refine their understanding of the physical properties of certain metal alloys when undercooled (i.e., kept liquid below their normal solidification temperature). This new knowledge then allowed scientists to modify a terrestrial production method so they can now make limited quantities marketed under the Liquid Metal trademark. The exhibit was a part of the NASA outreach activity at AirVenture 2000 sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, WI.

40 CFR 80.553 - Under what conditions may the small refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small refiner of motor vehicle diesel fuel? 80.553... small refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small refiner of motor vehicle diesel fuel? (a) A refiner that has been approved by EPA for small refiner gasoline sulfur standards under § 80.240...

40 CFR 80.553 - Under what conditions may the small refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small refiner of motor vehicle diesel fuel? 80.553... small refiner gasoline sulfur standards be extended for a small refiner of motor vehicle diesel fuel? (a) A refiner that has been approved by EPA for small refiner gasoline sulfur standards under § 80.240...

Using a systematic approach to select flagship species for bird conservation.

PubMed

Veríssimo, Diogo; Pongiluppi, Tatiana; Santos, Maria Cintia M; Develey, Pedro F; Fraser, Iain; Smith, Robert J; MacMilan, Douglas C

2014-02-01

Conservation marketing campaigns that focus on flagship species play a vital role in biological diversity conservation because they raise funds and change people's behavior. However, most flagship species are selected without considering the target audience of the campaign, which can hamper the campaign's effectiveness. To address this problem, we used a systematic and stakeholder-driven approach to select flagship species for a conservation campaign in the Serra do Urubu in northeastern Brazil. We based our techniques on environmental economic and marketing methods. We used choice experiments to examine the species attributes that drive preference and latent-class models to segment respondents into groups by preferences and socioeconomic characteristics. We used respondent preferences and information on bird species inhabiting the Serra do Urubu to calculate a flagship species suitability score. We also asked respondents to indicate their favorite species from a set list to enable comparison between methods. The species' traits that drove audience preference were geographic distribution, population size, visibility, attractiveness, and survival in captivity. However, the importance of these factors differed among groups and groups differed in their views on whether species with small populations and the ability to survive in captivity should be prioritized. The popularity rankings of species differed between approaches, a result that was probably related to the different ways in which the 2 methods measured preference. Our new approach is a transparent and evidence-based method that can be used to refine the way stakeholders are engaged in the design of conservation marketing campaigns. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

The long shadow of work - does time since labour market exit affect the association between socioeconomic position and health in a post-working population.

PubMed

Hyde, Martin; Jones, Ian Rees

2007-06-01

To test the effect of time since labour market exit (LME) on associations between socioeconomic position (SEP) and self-rated health. Retirees from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) were divided into three groups on the basis of the length of time since LME. Seven different indicators of SEP were identified: socioeconomic class, income, wealth, education, tenure, area deprivation and subjective social status. Unadjusted and mutually adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed with poor self-rated health as the outcome. The sample consisted of 2617 men (mean (SD) age 71.69 (7.04) years) and 2619 women (71.29 (8.26) years). In the unadjusted analyses, patterns of association between SEP measures and health were similar for men and women. Most SEP measures were associated with poor health, although the effects were attenuated by time since LME. In the mutually adjusted analyses, wealth was found to have a strong independent effect on health among men, especially in those groups that left the labour market < or = 20 years ago,while for women subjective social status seemed to have the most important effect on health after LME. Time since LME is an important factor to consider when studying health inequalities in a post-working population. The effect of time since LME varies according to gender and the measures of SEP used. Further work in this area should take account of age, period and cohort effects using multiple measures of SEP and more refined measures of LME.

Seeing the Forest through the Trees: Citizen Scientists Provide Critical Data to Refine Aboveground Carbon Estimates in Restored Riparian Forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viers, J. H.

2013-12-01

Integrating citizen scientists into ecological informatics research can be difficult due to limited opportunities for meaningful engagement given vast data streams. This is particularly true for analysis of remotely sensed data, which are increasingly being used to quantify ecosystem services over space and time, and to understand how land uses deliver differing values to humans and thus inform choices about future human actions. Carbon storage and sequestration are such ecosystem services, and recent environmental policy advances in California (i.e., AB 32) have resulted in a nascent carbon market that is helping fuel the restoration of riparian forests in agricultural landscapes. Methods to inventory and monitor aboveground carbon for market accounting are increasingly relying on hyperspatial remotely sensed data, particularly the use of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technologies, to estimate biomass. Because airborne discrete return LiDAR can inexpensively capture vegetation structural differences at high spatial resolution (< 1 m) over large areas (> 1000 ha), its use is rapidly increasing, resulting in vast stores of point cloud and derived surface raster data. While established algorithms can quantify forest canopy structure efficiently, the highly complex nature of native riparian forests can result in highly uncertain estimates of biomass due to differences in composition (e.g., species richness, age class) and structure (e.g., stem density). This study presents the comparative results of standing carbon estimates refined with field data collected by citizen scientists at three different sites, each capturing a range of agricultural, remnant forest, and restored forest cover types. These citizen science data resolve uncertainty in composition and structure, and improve allometric scaling models of biomass and thus estimates of aboveground carbon. Results indicate that agricultural land and horticulturally restored riparian forests store similar amounts of aboveground carbon (< 50 Mg/ha), but significantly less than naturally recruiting riparian forests (50 - 200 Mg/ha). Monitoring and assessment of dynamic ecosystem processes and functions will increasingly use data intensive methodologies; however, this research shows the utility of engaging citizen scientists in developing more robust data streams that not only reduces uncertainty, but also provide invaluable opportunities for improved education and outreach.

A template-based approach for parallel hexahedral two-refinement

DOE PAGES

Owen, Steven J.; Shih, Ryan M.; Ernst, Corey D.

2016-10-17

Here, we provide a template-based approach for generating locally refined all-hex meshes. We focus specifically on refinement of initially structured grids utilizing a 2-refinement approach where uniformly refined hexes are subdivided into eight child elements. The refinement algorithm consists of identifying marked nodes that are used as the basis for a set of four simple refinement templates. The target application for 2-refinement is a parallel grid-based all-hex meshing tool for high performance computing in a distributed environment. The result is a parallel consistent locally refined mesh requiring minimal communication and where minimum mesh quality is greater than scaled Jacobian 0.3more » prior to smoothing.« less

A template-based approach for parallel hexahedral two-refinement

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

Owen, Steven J.; Shih, Ryan M.; Ernst, Corey D.

Here, we provide a template-based approach for generating locally refined all-hex meshes. We focus specifically on refinement of initially structured grids utilizing a 2-refinement approach where uniformly refined hexes are subdivided into eight child elements. The refinement algorithm consists of identifying marked nodes that are used as the basis for a set of four simple refinement templates. The target application for 2-refinement is a parallel grid-based all-hex meshing tool for high performance computing in a distributed environment. The result is a parallel consistent locally refined mesh requiring minimal communication and where minimum mesh quality is greater than scaled Jacobian 0.3more » prior to smoothing.« less

Comparison of lab, pilot, and industrial scale low consistency mechanical refining for improvements in enzymatic digestibility of pretreated hardwood.

PubMed

Jones, Brandon W; Venditti, Richard; Park, Sunkyu; Jameel, Hasan

2014-09-01

Mechanical refining has been shown to improve biomass enzymatic digestibility. In this study industrial high-yield sodium carbonate hardwood pulp was subjected to lab, pilot and industrial refining to determine if the mechanical refining improves the enzymatic hydrolysis sugar conversion efficiency differently at different refining scales. Lab, pilot and industrial refining increased the biomass digestibility for lignocellulosic biomass relative to the unrefined material. The sugar conversion was increased from 36% to 65% at 5 FPU/g of biomass with industrial refining at 67.0 kWh/t, which was more energy efficient than lab and pilot scale refining. There is a maximum in the sugar conversion with respect to the amount of refining energy. Water retention value is a good predictor of improvements in sugar conversion for a given fiber source and composition. Improvements in biomass digestibility with refining due to lab, pilot plant and industrial refining were similar with respect to water retention value. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Private initiatives and policy options: recent health system experience in India.

PubMed

Purohit, B C

2001-03-01

In the recent past the impact of structural adjustment in the Indian health care sector has been felt in the reduction in central grants to States for public health and disease control programmes. This falling share of central grants has had a more pronounced impact on the poorer states, which have found it more difficult to raise local resources to compensate for this loss of revenue. With the continued pace of reforms, the likelihood of increasing State expenditure on the health care sector is limited in the future. As a result, a number of notable trends are appearing in the Indian health care sector. These include an increasing investment by non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the hospital industry, leading to a spurt in corporatization in the States of their original domicile and an increasing participation by multinational companies in diagnostics aiming to capture the potential of the Indian health insurance market. The policy responses to these private initiatives are reflected in measures comprising strategies to attract private sector participation and management inputs into primary health care centres (PHCs), privatization or semi-privatization of public health facilities such as non-clinical services in public hospitals, innovating ways to finance public health facilities through non-budgetary measures, and tax incentives by the State governments to encourage private sector investment in the health sector. Bearing in mind the vital importance of such market forces and policy responses in shaping the future health care scenario in India, this paper examines in detail both of these aspects and their implications for the Indian health care sector. The analysis indicates that despite the promising newly emerging atmosphere, there are limits to market forces; appropriate refinement in the role of government should be attempted to avoid undesirable consequences of rising costs, increasing inequity and consumer exploitation. This may require opening the health insurance market to multinational companies, the proper channelling of tax incentives to set up medical institutions in backward areas, and reinforcing appropriate regulatory mechanisms.

40 CFR 80.1340 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Provisions § 80.1340 How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner? (a) Applications for small refiner status must be submitted to EPA by December 31, 2007. (b) For U.S. Postal delivery, applications... small refiner status application must contain the following information for the company seeking small...

Mutagenicity of edible palm oil on the Ghanaian market before and after repeated heating.

PubMed

Asare, George A; Okyere, Genevieve O; Asante, Matilda; Brown, Charles A; Santa, Sheila; Asiedu, Bernice

2013-12-01

Red palm oil produced in Ghana largely by village folks has never been tested for its mutagenic potential. The study aimed at determining the mutagenicity of high-energy heated red palm oil (RRPO) and refined, bleached imported palm oil (PO) on the Ghanaian market. Samples of RRPO and PO were 1× and 5× heated for 10 min at 180 °C with a cooling period of 5 h in-between. Unheated, together with heated samples, were tested for mutagenicity using Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 tester stains. Unheated PO was negative for the Ames mutagenicity test with TA 98 strain. However, 1× and 5× heated PO were mutagenic (P = 0.05, each). Testing PO, using TA 100 strain was negative. RRPO was mutagenic with TA 98 strain for heated oils (P = 0.05, each). Assays with TA 100 strain showed highly significant mutations (P = 0.001, each) that increased with increasing heating frequency. PO 1× and 5× heated samples caused significant frameshift mutation in the S. typhimurium TA 98 strain. RRPO caused highly significant point and frameshift mutations in heated samples. Furthermore, unheated RRPO mutagenic potential has serious health implications. © 2013 Institute of Food Technologists®

Commercial industry on the horizon

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

Belcher, J.

2000-01-01

About 5,000 Tcf of stranded gas reserves exist worldwide--gas that is not economically feasible to recover and move to market through pipelines. For oil producers, this is problematic for a number of reasons. What do you do with associated gas when environmental regulations worldwide are banning flaring due to concerns over greenhouse gas emissions? Reinjection is costly and may not be the best solution in every reservoir. While many producers have enormous gas reserves, they are of no value if that gas is just sitting in the ground with no potential markets at hand. How can you monetize these reserves?more » A potential solution to the problem of stranded gas reserves is GTL processing. This process takes methane and converts it to synthesis gas, uses the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process to convert the synthesis gas to syncrude, and upgrades the syncrude to various hydrocarbon chains to produce a variety of refined products. Three recent developments favor commercial GTL development: environmental regulations are creating a premium for ultraclean fuels; new technology is lowering the capital costs and operating costs of GTL development; and world oil prices have risen above $20/bbl. Therefore, the oil and gas industry is taking a serious look at commercialization of GTL.« less

Methodological approaches of health technology assessment.

PubMed

Goodman, C S; Ahn, R

1999-12-01

In this era of evolving health care systems throughout the world, technology remains the substance of health care. Medical informatics comprises a growing contribution to the technologies used in the delivery and management of health care. Diverse, evolving technologies include artificial neural networks, computer-assisted surgery, computer-based patient records, hospital information systems, and more. Decision-makers increasingly demand well-founded information to determine whether or how to develop these technologies, allow them on the market, acquire them, use them, pay for their use, and more. The development and wider use of health technology assessment (HTA) reflects this demand. While HTA offers systematic, well-founded approaches for determining the value of medical informatics technologies, HTA must continue to adapt and refine its methods in response to these evolving technologies. This paper provides a basic overview of HTA principles and methods.

[Genetically modified food and allergies - an update].

PubMed

Niemann, Birgit; Pöting, Annette; Braeuning, Albert; Lampen, Alfonso

2016-07-01

Approval by the European Commission is mandatory for placing genetically modified plants as food or feed on the market in member states of the European Union (EU). The approval is preceded by a safety assessment based on the guidance of the European Food Safety Authority EFSA. The assessment of allergenicity of genetically modified plants and their newly expressed proteins is an integral part of this assessment process. Guidance documents for the assessment of allergenicity are currently under revision. For this purpose, an expert workshop was conducted in Brussels on June 17, 2015. There, methodological improvements for the assessment of coeliac disease-causing properties of proteins, as well as the use of complex models for in vitro digestion of proteins were discussed. Using such techniques a refinement of the current, proven system of allergenicity assessment of genetically modified plants can be achieved.

Agile IT: Thinking in User-Centric Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Margaria, Tiziana; Steffen, Bernhard

We advocate a new teaching direction for modern CS curricula: extreme model-driven development (XMDD), a new development paradigm designed to continuously involve the customer/application expert throughout the whole systems' life cycle. Based on the `One-Thing Approach', which works by successively enriching and refining one single artifact, system development becomes in essence a user-centric orchestration of intuitive service functionality. XMDD differs radically from classical software development, which, in our opinion is no longer adequate for the bulk of application programming - in particular when it comes to heterogeneous, cross organizational systems which must adapt to rapidly changing market requirements. Thus there is a need for new curricula addressing this model-driven, lightweight, and cooperative development paradigm that puts the user process in the center of the development and the application expert in control of the process evolution.

A New Lift for Those Who Need It

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

The eZ-uP device was designed by NASA engineer, Paul Neal, who worked with Kennedy Space Center. He took his idea to RJDesigns & Associates. With refinements, they developed a lightweight aluminium structure to assist the elderly in lifting themselves from seated positions. It can support people in excess of 500 pounds and is quickly assembled without tools. It is completely adjustable to fit under most sofas, chairs, and beds and will not slip on wood or tile floors. Also, it is relatively inexpensive compared to other products on the market. The apparatus is placed under the seat and adjusted so that the hand supports are in front of the person just under shoulder level. The seated person then takes hold and easily lifts himself from the seat. Product still commercially available as of March 2002.

Producing gallium arsenide crystals in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Randolph, R. L.

1984-01-01

The production of high quality crystals in space is a promising near-term application of microgravity processing. Gallium arsenide is the selected material for initial commercial production because of its inherent superior electronic properties, wide range of market applications, and broad base of on-going device development effort. Plausible product prices can absorb the high cost of space transportation for the initial flights provided by the Space Transportation System. The next step for bulk crystal growth, beyond the STS, is planned to come later with the use of free flyers or a space station, where real benefits are foreseen. The use of these vehicles, together with refinement and increasing automation of space-based crystal growth factories, will bring down costs and will support growing demands for high quality GaAs and other specialty electronic and electro-optical crystals grown in space.

Pemex to acquire interest in Shell Texas refinery

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

Not Available

1992-08-31

This paper reports that Petroleos Mexicanos and Shell Oil Co. have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint refining venture involving Shell's 225,000 b/d Deer Park, Tex., refinery. Under the agreement, Mexico's state owned oil company is to purchase a 50% interest in the refinery, and Shell is to sell Pemex unleaded gasoline on a long term basis. Under the venture, Shell and Pemex plan to add undisclosed conversion and upgrading units tailored to process heavy Mexican crude. The revamp will allow Pemex to place more than 100,000 b/d of Mayan heavy crude on the U.S. market. Mayanmore » accounts for 70% of Mexico's crude oil exports. In turn, Shell will sell Pemex as much as 45,000 b/d of unleaded gasoline to help meet Mexico's rapidly growing demand.« less

Space Research Benefits Demonstrated

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

An entranced youngster watches a demonstration of the enhanced resilience of undercooled metal alloys as compared to conventional alloys. Steel bearings are dropped onto plates made of steel, titanium alloy, and zirconium liquid metal alloy, so-called because its molecular structure is amorphous and not crystalline. The bearing on the liquid metal plate bounces for a minute or more longer than on the other plates. Experiments aboard the Space Shuttle helped scientists refine their understanding of the physical properties of certain metal alloys when undercooled (i.e., kept liquid below their normal solidification temperature). This new knowledge then allowed scientists to modify a terrestrial production method so they can now make limited quantities marketed under the Liquid Metal trademark. The exhibit was a part of the NASA outreach activity at AirVenture 2000 sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, WI.

40 CFR 80.1344 - What provisions are available to a non-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1344 What provisions are... a small refiner approved under § 80.1340, the small refiner provisions of the gasoline benzene...

40 CFR 80.1344 - What provisions are available to a non-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1344 What provisions are... a small refiner approved under § 80.1340, the small refiner provisions of the gasoline benzene...

40 CFR 80.1344 - What provisions are available to a non-small refiner that acquires one or more of a small refiner...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1344 What provisions are... a small refiner approved under § 80.1340, the small refiner provisions of the gasoline benzene...

EPA releases hold on reformulated gas and CFC regulations

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

Begley, R.; Kirschner, E.

1993-02-03

The Environmental Protection Agency has released the White House-instituted hold and review on the Bush Administration's last-minute rules and proposals. Of the 32 actions, EPA administrator Carol Browner has held back only one, which proposed a fee system for discharges to water. Any changes in the future were deemed to best be considered either in the comment period for proposals or with new proposed addendums for final rules, said Browner. Although a proposal concerning standards for reformulated gasoline was approved for publication, Browner emphasizes that the EPA can modify or drop provisions for ethanol mixtures and remains committed to negotiatedmore » rulemaking procedures. The proposed rule includes measures - set out by Bush last October - to grant ethanol a waiver from gasoline vapor pressure limits, resulting in a 30% market share for northern cities in violation of ozone limits. Ethanol could take a 20% share in southern cities. Under the ethanol waiver, refiners would have to offset the increased emissions from ethanol at a cost of at least $250 million, according to the American Petroleum Institute, API, state air pollution regulators, and environmentalists say the proposal violates a regulatory negotiation. Regarding the one-week delay, API says, The lengthy rule-making process already has drastically reduced the lead time available to refiners, who must begin selling this fuel on January 1, 1995'. Also released is the ozone-depleter phase-out proposal. In addition to chlorofluorocarbons, the Bush EPA slated methyl bromide for phase-outby the year 2000.« less

40 CFR 80.1622 - Approval for small refiner and small volume refinery status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... appropriate data to correct the record when the company submits its application. (ii) Foreign small refiners... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Approval for small refiner and small... Approval for small refiner and small volume refinery status. (a) Applications for small refiner or small...

Drug development: from concept to marketing!

PubMed

Tamimi, Nihad A M; Ellis, Peter

2009-01-01

Drug development is an expensive, long and high-risk business taking 10-15 years and is associated with a high attrition rate. It is driven by medical need, disease prevalence and the likelihood of success. Drug candidate selection is an iterative process between chemistry and biology, refining the molecular properties until a compound suitable for advancing to man is found. Typically, about one in a thousand synthesised compounds is ever selected for progression to the clinic. Prior to administration to humans, the pharmacology and biochemistry of the drug is established using an extensive range of in vitro and in vivo test procedures. It is also a regulatory requirement that the drug is administered to animals to assess its safety. Later-stage animal testing is also required to assess carcinogenicity and effects on the reproductive system. Clinical phases of drug development include phase I in healthy volunteers to assess primarily pharmacokinetics, safety and toleration, phase II in a cohort of patients with the target disease to establish efficacy and dose-response relationship and large-scale phase III studies to confirm safety and efficacy. Experience tells us that approximately only 1 in 10 drugs that start the clinical phase will make it to the market. Each drug must demonstrate safety and efficacy in the intended patient population and its benefits must outweigh its risks before it will be approved by the regulatory agencies. Strict regulatory standards govern the conduct of pre-clinical and clinical trials as well as the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. The assessment of the new medicinal product's safety continues beyond the initial drug approval through post-marketing monitoring of adverse events. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Liberian energy consumption and sectoral distribution for 1981

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

Samuels, G.

1985-02-01

This report is one of a series of project papers providing background information for an assessment of energy options for Liberia, West Africa; it summarizes 1981 Liberian energy consumption data collected during 1982. Total Liberian primary energy consumption in 1981 was equivalent to 11,400,000 barrels of crude oil (BCOE) - 64% from wood, 31% from petroleum, and 5% from hydro. About 71% (8,100,000 BCOE) entered the domestic market. The difference represents exports (400,000 BCOE), refining losses (200,000 BCOE), and losses in converting wood to charcoal (2,600,000 BCOE). Of the 8,100,000 BCOE entering the domestic market, 58% was in the formmore » of wood and charcoal, 35% petroleum products, and 7% hydro. Excluding wood and charcoal, electricity generation consumed 59% of the energy entering the domestic market. The three iron ore mining companies accounted for 60% of all electricity production; the Liberia Electricity Corporation for 35%, and private organizations and individuals for 5%. The mining operations (including electricity generation and transportation uses) consumed about 60% of all petroleum products. The transportation sector consumed 30% of all petroleum of which 85% was for road transport, 12% for the railroads owned and operated by the mining companies, and 3% for sea and air transport. Nontransportation energy use in the industrial, commercial, government, and agriculture and forestry sectors is small. Together, these sectors account for less than 10% of the petroleum products consumed. Wood and charcoal were used almost entirely by the residential sector, which also consumed an additional 530,000 BCOE of other fuels. Over 90% of the 530,000 BCOE was for electricity and 290,000 (56%) was from petroleum. Over half of the petroleum (150,000 BCOE) was for generation at the mines for their associated communities. 8 references, 10 tables.« less

40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... application for small refiner status. EPA may accept such alternate data at its discretion. (4) For motor... a small refiner under this subpart? 80.551 Section 80.551 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship...

40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... application for small refiner status. EPA may accept such alternate data at its discretion. (4) For motor... a small refiner under this subpart? 80.551 Section 80.551 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship...

40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... application for small refiner status. EPA may accept such alternate data at its discretion. (4) For motor... a small refiner under this subpart? 80.551 Section 80.551 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship...

40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... application for small refiner status. EPA may accept such alternate data at its discretion. (4) For motor... a small refiner under this subpart? 80.551 Section 80.551 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship...

Computer simulation of refining process of a high consistency disc refiner based on CFD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ping; Yang, Jianwei; Wang, Jiahui

2017-08-01

In order to reduce refining energy consumption, the ANSYS CFX was used to simulate the refining process of a high consistency disc refiner. In the first it was assumed to be uniform Newton fluid of turbulent state in disc refiner with the k-ɛ flow model; then meshed grids and set the boundary conditions in 3-D model of the disc refiner; and then was simulated and analyzed; finally, the viscosity of the pulp were measured. The results show that the CFD method can be used to analyze the pressure and torque on the disc plate, so as to calculate the refining power, and streamlines and velocity vectors can also be observed. CFD simulation can optimize parameters of the bar and groove, which is of great significance to reduce the experimental cost and cycle.

Application of Al-2La-1B Grain Refiner to Al-10Si-0.3Mg Casting Alloy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Lijun; Pan, Ye; Lu, Tao; Li, Chenlin; Pi, Jinhong; Sheng, Ningyue

2018-05-01

This paper reports the application and microstructure refining effect of an Al-2La-1B grain refiner in Al-10Si-0.3Mg casting alloy. Compared with the traditional Al-5Ti-1B refiner, Al-2La-1B refiner shows better performances on the grain refinement of Al-10Si-0.3Mg alloy. Transmission electron microscopy analysis suggests that the crystallite structure features of LaB6 are beneficial to the heterogeneous nucleation of α-Al grains. Regarding the mechanical performances, tensile properties of Al-10Si-0.3Mg casting alloy are prominently improved, due to the refined microstructures.

NMRe: a web server for NMR protein structure refinement with high-quality structure validation scores.

PubMed

Ryu, Hyojung; Lim, GyuTae; Sung, Bong Hyun; Lee, Jinhyuk

2016-02-15

Protein structure refinement is a necessary step for the study of protein function. In particular, some nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structures are of lower quality than X-ray crystallographic structures. Here, we present NMRe, a web-based server for NMR structure refinement. The previously developed knowledge-based energy function STAP (Statistical Torsion Angle Potential) was used for NMRe refinement. With STAP, NMRe provides two refinement protocols using two types of distance restraints. If a user provides NOE (Nuclear Overhauser Effect) data, the refinement is performed with the NOE distance restraints as a conventional NMR structure refinement. Additionally, NMRe generates NOE-like distance restraints based on the inter-hydrogen distances derived from the input structure. The efficiency of NMRe refinement was validated on 20 NMR structures. Most of the quality assessment scores of the refined NMR structures were better than those of the original structures. The refinement results are provided as a three-dimensional structure view, a secondary structure scheme, and numerical and graphical structure validation scores. NMRe is available at http://psb.kobic.re.kr/nmre/. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Estimates of Dietary Exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) from Light Metal Packaging using Food Consumption and Packaging usage Data: A Refined Deterministic Approach and a Fully Probabilistic (FACET) Approach

PubMed Central

Oldring, P.K.T.; Castle, L.; O'Mahony, C.; Dixon, J.

2013-01-01

The FACET tool is a probabilistic model to estimate exposure to chemicals in foodstuffs, originating from flavours, additives and food contact materials. This paper demonstrates the use of the FACET tool to estimate exposure to BPA (bisphenol A) from light metal packaging. For exposure to migrants from food packaging, FACET uses industry-supplied data on the occurrence of substances in the packaging, their concentrations and construction of the packaging, which were combined with data from a market research organisation and food consumption data supplied by national database managers. To illustrate the principles, UK packaging data were used together with consumption data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) dietary survey for 19–64 year olds for a refined deterministic verification. The UK data were chosen mainly because the consumption surveys are detailed, data for UK packaging at a detailed level were available and, arguably, the UK population is composed of high consumers of packaged foodstuffs. Exposures were run for each food category that could give rise to BPA from light metal packaging. Consumer loyalty to a particular type of packaging, commonly referred to as packaging loyalty, was set. The BPA extraction levels used for the 15 types of coating chemistries that could release BPA were in the range of 0.00005–0.012 mg dm−2. The estimates of exposure to BPA using FACET for the total diet were 0.0098 (mean) and 0.0466 (97.5th percentile) mg/person/day, corresponding to 0.00013 (mean) and 0.00059 (97.5th percentile) mg kg−1 body weight day−1 for consumers of foods packed in light metal packaging. This is well below the current EFSA (and other recognised bodies) TDI of 0.05 mg kg−1 body weight day. These probabilistic estimates were compared with estimates using a refined deterministic approach drawing on the same input data. The results from FACET for the mean, 95th and 97.5th percentile exposures to BPA lay between the lowest and the highest estimates from the refined deterministic calculations. Since this should be the case, for a fully probabilistic compared with a deterministic approach, it is concluded that the FACET tool has been verified in this example. A recent EFSA draft opinion on exposure to BPA from different sources showed that canned foods were a major contributor and compared results from various models, including those from FACET. The results from FACET were overall conservative. PMID:24405320

Refinement Of Hexahedral Cells In Euler Flow Computations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Melton, John E.; Cappuccio, Gelsomina; Thomas, Scott D.

1996-01-01

Topologically Independent Grid, Euler Refinement (TIGER) computer program solves Euler equations of three-dimensional, unsteady flow of inviscid, compressible fluid by numerical integration on unstructured hexahedral coordinate grid refined where necessary to resolve shocks and other details. Hexahedral cells subdivided, each into eight smaller cells, as needed to refine computational grid in regions of high flow gradients. Grid Interactive Refinement and Flow-Field Examination (GIRAFFE) computer program written in conjunction with TIGER program to display computed flow-field data and to assist researcher in verifying specified boundary conditions and refining grid.

Developing a heart institute: the execution of a strategic plan.

PubMed

Krawczeski, Catherine D; McDonald, Mark B

2013-01-01

The Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center was chartered in July 2008 with the purpose of integrating clinical cardiovascular medicine with basic science research to foster innovations in care of patients with congenital heart problems. The initial administrative steering committee included representation from a basic scientist, a cardiologist, and a cardiothoracic surgeon and was charged with the development of a strategic plan for the evolution of the Institute over a five-year horizon. Using structured focus groups and staff interviews, the vision, mission, and goals were identified and refined. An integrated implementation plan addressing recruitment, capitalization, infrastructure, and market opportunities was created and executed. The preliminary results demonstrated clinical outcome improvements, increased scientific and academic productivity, and financial sustainability. All of the goals identified in the initial planning sequence were achieved within the five-year time frame, prompting an early evaluation and revision of the strategic plan.

The economic feasibility of producing sweet sorghum as an ethanol feedstock in Mississippi

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linton, Joseph Andrew

This study examines the feasibility of producing sweet sorghum as an ethanol feedstock in Mississippi. An enterprise budgeting system is used along with estimates of transportation costs to estimate farmers' breakeven costs for producing and delivering sweet sorghum biomass. This breakeven cost for the farmer, along with breakeven costs for the producer based on wholesale ethanol price, production costs, and transportation and marketing costs for the refined ethanol, is used to estimate the amounts that farmers and ethanol producers would be willing to accept (WTA) and willing to pay (WTP), respectively, for sweet sorghum biomass. These WTA and WTP estimates are analyzed by varying key factors in the biomass and ethanol production processes. Deterministic and stochastic models are used to estimate profits for sweet sorghum and competing crops in two representative counties in Mississippi, with sweet sorghum consistently yielding negative per-acre profits in both counties.

Measurement fundamentals

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

Webb, R.A.

The need to have accurate petroleum measurement is obvious. Petroleum measurement is the basis of commerce between oil producers, royalty owners, oil transporters, refiners, marketers, the Department of Revenue, and the motoring public. Furthermore, petroleum measurements are often used to detect operational problems or unwanted releases in pipelines, tanks, marine vessels, underground storage tanks, etc. Therefore, consistent, accurate petroleum measurement is an essential part of any operation. While there are several methods and different types of equipment used to perform petroleum measurement, the basic process stays the same. The basic measurement process is the act of comparing an unknown quantity,more » to a known quantity, in order to establish its magnitude. The process can be seen in a variety of forms; such as measuring for a first-down in a football game, weighing meat and produce at the grocery, or the use of an automobile odometer.« less

DNA based identification of medicinal materials in Chinese patent medicines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Rong; Dong, Juan; Cui, Xin; Wang, Wei; Yasmeen, Afshan; Deng, Yun; Zeng, Xiaomao; Tang, Zhuo

2012-12-01

Chinese patent medicines (CPM) are highly processed and easy to use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The market for CPM in China alone is tens of billions US dollars annually and some of the CPM are also used as dietary supplements for health augmentation in the western countries. But concerns continue to be raised about the legality, safety and efficacy of many popular CPM. Here we report a pioneer work of applying molecular biotechnology to the identification of CPM, particularly well refined oral liquids and injections. What's more, this PCR based method can also be developed to an easy to use and cost-effective visual chip by taking advantage of G-quadruplex based Hybridization Chain Reaction. This study demonstrates that DNA identification of specific Medicinal materials is an efficient and cost-effective way to audit highly processed CPM and will assist in monitoring their quality and legality.

NASA total quality management 1989 accomplishments report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tai, Betty P. (Editor); Stewart, Lynne M. (Editor)

1990-01-01

NASA and contractor employees achieved many notable improvements in 1989. The highlights of those improvements, described in this seventh annual Accomplishments Report, demonstrate that the people who support NASA's activities are getting more involved in quality and continuous improvement efforts. Their gains solidly support NASA's and this Nation's goal to remain a leader in space exploration and in world-wide market competition, and, when communicated to others through avenues such as this report, foster improvement efforts across government and industry. The principles in practice which led to these process refinements are important cultural elements to any organization's productivity and quality efforts. The categories in this report reflect NASA principles set forth in the 1980's and are more commonly known today as Total Quality Management (TQM): top management leadership and support; strategic planning; focus on the customer; employee training and recognition; employee empowerment and teamwork; measurement and analysis; and quality assurance.

Alaskan refiner raced against winter to relocate vacuum unit

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

Gdula, L.M.; Wentworth, J.A.

In late November 1994, San Antonio-based Tesoro Petroleum Corp. and Litwin Engineers and Constructors Inc. completed the relocation and refurbishment of a $25 million vacuum unit at Tesoro`s 72,000 b/d Kenai refinery. The addition of the vacuum distillation unit is a critical component in Tesoro`s market-driven strategy to enhance operating profits by maximizing production of higher-margin products such as gasoline and jet fuel. With its new vacuum distillation unit, Tesoro has reduced production of lower-value residual fuel oil while recovering more lighter, high-value material. The paper discusses the economic and strategic merits of purchasing and relocating an existing vacuum unit,more » the project schedule, new equipment, dismantling and transport, installation, tie-ins and start-up, products, operating changes, corrosion concerns, off gas, steam generation, design changes, environmental issues, reporting requirements, and accomplishments.« less

Adoption of safety eyewear among citrus harvesters in rural Florida.

PubMed

Monaghan, Paul F; Bryant, Carol A; McDermott, Robert J; Forst, Linda S; Luque, John S; Contreras, Ricardo B

2012-06-01

The community-based prevention marketing program planning framework was used to adapt an evidence-based intervention to address eye injuries among Florida's migrant citrus harvesters. Participant-observer techniques, other direct observations, and individual and focus group interviews provided data that guided refinement of a safety eyewear intervention. Workers were attracted to the eyewear's ability to minimize irritation, offer protection from trauma, and enable work without declines in productivity or comfort. Access to safety glasses equipped with worker-designed features reduced the perceived barriers of using them; deployment of trained peer-leaders helped promote adoption. Workers' use of safety glasses increased from less than 2% to between 28% and 37% in less than two full harvesting seasons. The combination of formative research and program implementation data provided insights for tailoring an existing evidence-based program for this occupational community and increase potential for future dissemination and worker protection.

How Biobanks Are Assessing and Measuring Their Financial Sustainability.

PubMed

Brown, Tony; Kelly, Devon D; Vercauteren, Suzanne M; Wilson, William H; Werner, Alexander

2017-02-01

As guest editors of this sustainability issue of Biopreservation and Biobanking focused on business planning, utilization, and marketing, we invited a number of experts from different sectors of the biobanking arena to provide their views on business planning issues. Each expert was asked to provide a brief background statement on their biobanks, to build a context to understand their answers to the sustainability questions. We hope that these insights and experiences can provide valuable considerations and ideas for other biobanks who wish to develop or refine their own business plans, measure their utilization rates, and work toward financial sustainability. In addition, after the expert input was gathered, the guest editors invited an additional expert to provide summary comments and observations on cost and operational optimization strategies. The broad experiences from all of the experts included and scope of the biobanks they represent should provide a level of relevant representation for all interested parties.

Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of By-product Hydrogen from Chlor-Alkali Plants

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

Lee, Dong-Yeon; Elgowainy, Amgad A.; Dai, Qiang

Current hydrogen production capacity in the U.S. is about 15.8 million tonne (or metric ton) per year (Brown 2016). Some of the hydrogen (2 million tonne) is combusted for its heating energy value, which makes total annual net production 13.8 million tonne (Table 1). If captive by-product hydrogen (3.3 million tonne) from catalytic reforming at oil refineries is excluded (Brown 2016; EIA 2008), approximately 11 million tonne is available from the conventional captive and merchant hydrogen market (DOE 2013). Captive hydrogen (owned by the refiner) is produced and consumed on site (e.g., process input at refineries), whereas merchant hydrogen ismore » produced and sold as a commodity to external consumers. Whether it is merchant or captive, most hydrogen produced in the U.S. is on-purpose (not by-product)— around 10 million tonne/year.« less

Improving the environmental and performance characteristics of vehicles by introducing the surfactant additive into gasoline.

PubMed

Magaril, Elena; Magaril, Romen

2016-09-01

The operation of modern vehicles requires the introduction of package of fuel additives to ensure the required level of operating characteristics, some of which cannot be achieved by current oil refining methods. The use of additives allows flexibility of impact on the properties of the fuel at minimal cost, increasing the efficiency and environmental safety of vehicles. Among the wide assortment of additives available on the world market, many are surfactants. It has been shown that the introduction of some surfactants into gasoline concurrently reduces losses from gasoline evaporation, improves the mixture formation during injection of gasoline into the engine and improves detergent and anticorrosive properties. The surfactant gasoline additive that provides significant improvement in the quality of gasoline used and environmental and operating characteristics of vehicles has been developed and thoroughly investigated. The results of studies confirming the efficiency of the gasoline additive application are herein presented.

Real-space refinement in PHENIX for cryo-EM and crystallography

DOE PAGES

Afonine, Pavel V.; Poon, Billy K.; Read, Randy J.; ...

2018-06-01

This work describes the implementation of real-space refinement in the phenix.real_space_refine program from the PHENIX suite. The use of a simplified refinement target function enables very fast calculation, which in turn makes it possible to identify optimal data-restraint weights as part of routine refinements with little runtime cost. Refinement of atomic models against low-resolution data benefits from the inclusion of as much additional information as is available. In addition to standard restraints on covalent geometry, phenix.real_space_refine makes use of extra information such as secondary-structure and rotamer-specific restraints, as well as restraints or constraints on internal molecular symmetry. The re-refinement ofmore » 385 cryo-EM-derived models available in the Protein Data Bank at resolutions of 6 Å or better shows significant improvement of the models and of the fit of these models to the target maps.« less

Real-space refinement in PHENIX for cryo-EM and crystallography

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

Afonine, Pavel V.; Poon, Billy K.; Read, Randy J.

This work describes the implementation of real-space refinement in the phenix.real_space_refine program from the PHENIX suite. The use of a simplified refinement target function enables very fast calculation, which in turn makes it possible to identify optimal data-restraint weights as part of routine refinements with little runtime cost. Refinement of atomic models against low-resolution data benefits from the inclusion of as much additional information as is available. In addition to standard restraints on covalent geometry, phenix.real_space_refine makes use of extra information such as secondary-structure and rotamer-specific restraints, as well as restraints or constraints on internal molecular symmetry. The re-refinement ofmore » 385 cryo-EM-derived models available in the Protein Data Bank at resolutions of 6 Å or better shows significant improvement of the models and of the fit of these models to the target maps.« less

40 CFR 80.550 - What is the definition of a motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small refiner under this subpart? 80.550 Section...) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Motor Vehicle Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel... vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small refiner under this subpart? (a) A motor...

40 CFR 80.550 - What is the definition of a motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small refiner under this subpart? 80.550 Section...) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Motor Vehicle Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel... vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or a NRLM diesel fuel small refiner under this subpart? (a) A motor...

40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...) Applications for motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner status must be submitted to EPA by December 31, 2001. (ii) Applications for NRLM diesel fuel small refiner status must be submitted to EPA by December 31, 2004. (2)(i) In the case of a refiner who acquires or reactivates a refinery that was shutdown or non...

Apparent consumption of refined sugar in Australia (1938-2011).

PubMed

McNeill, T J; Shrapnel, W S

2015-11-01

In Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics discontinued collection of apparent consumption data for refined sugars in 1998/1999. The objectives of this study were to update this data series to determine whether it is a reliable data series that reflects consumption of refined sugars, defined as sucrose in the forms of refined or raw sugar or liquified sugars manufactured for human consumption. The study used the same methodology as that used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to derive a refined sugars consumption estimate each year until the collection was discontinued. Sales by Australian refiners, refined sugars imports and the net balance of refined sugars contained in foods imported into, and exported from, Australia were used to calculate total refined sugars use for each year up to 2011. Per capita consumption figures were then derived. During the period 1938-2011, apparent consumption of refined sugars in Australia fell 13.1% from 48.3 to 42.0 kg per head (R(2)=0.74). Between the 1950s and the 1970s, apparent consumption was relatively stable at about 50 kg per person. In the shorter period 1970-2011, refined sugars consumption fell 16.5% from 50.3 to 42.0 kg per head, though greater variability was evident (R(2)=0.53). An alternative data set showed greater volatility with no trend up or down. The limited variability of the extended apparent consumption series and its consistency with recent national dietary survey data and sugar-sweetened beverage sales data indicate that it is a reliable data set that reflects declining intake of refined sugars in Australia.

Patterns of activity and use of time in rural Bangladesh: class, gender, and seasonal variations.

PubMed

Zaman, H

1995-04-01

Tarapur is a village in the district of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, covering an area of 821.05 acres. 342 households with a total population of 1981 were identified in the village by the 1985 census. The author investigated the use of time during 1984 and 1985 in busy, intermediate, and slack seasons among the village population to examine the variation in time use by gender and social class. Activity patterns were found to vary from one season to another, and also across social classes. The study highlights the need to refine some of the conceptual and methodological issues in the collection of data on women and work. The study also presents useful data on home-based production and market-oriented work. It could be useful to adopt an anthropological approach in order to understand the allocation of time by men and women from the perspective of household production and the local economy and culture. Study findings focus upon the following policy issues: the need for a better understanding and recognition of the significant role of women in field agriculture and postharvest processing, creation of further nontraditional employment and business opportunities for poor women in rural areas, and consciousness-raising and the challenge of cultural barriers affecting women. Rural women, especially those in need of employment and involved in market-oriented production, should be the target of mainstream development activities in future planning.

Targeting youth and concerned smokers: evidence from Canadian tobacco industry documents

PubMed Central

Pollay, R.

2000-01-01

OBJECTIVE—To provide an understanding of the targeting strategies of cigarette marketing, and the functions and importance of the advertising images chosen.
METHODS—Analysis of historical corporate documents produced by affiliates of British American Tobacco (BAT) and RJ Reynolds (RJR) in Canadian litigation challenging tobacco advertising regulation, the Tobacco Products Control Act (1987): Imperial Tobacco Limitee & RJR-Macdonald Inc c. Le Procurer General du Canada.
RESULTS—Careful and extensive research has been employed in all stages of the process of conceiving, developing, refining, and deploying cigarette advertising. Two segments commanding much management attention are "starters" and "concerned smokers". To recruit starters, brand images communicate independence, freedom and (sometimes) peer acceptance. These advertising images portray smokers as attractive and autonomous, accepted and admired, athletic and at home in nature. For "lighter" brands reassuring health concerned smokers, lest they quit, advertisements provide imagery conveying a sense of well being, harmony with nature, and a consumer's self image as intelligent.
CONCLUSIONS—The industry's steadfast assertions that its advertising influences only brand loyalty and switching in both its intent and effect is directly contradicted by their internal documents and proven false. So too is the justification of cigarette advertising as a medium creating better informed consumers, since visual imagery, not information, is the means of advertising influence.


Keywords: advertising; brand imagery; market research; youth targeting; "concerned" smokers; corporate documents PMID:10841849

Reaching Low-Income Mothers to Improve Family Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Food Hero Social Marketing Campaign—Research Steps, Development and Testing

PubMed Central

Tobey, Lauren N.; Koenig, Harold F.; Brown, Nicole A.; Manore, Melinda M.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to create/test a social marketing campaign to increase fruit/vegetable (FV) intake within Oregon Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligible families. Focus groups (n = 2) and pre/post campaign phone surveys (n = 2082) were conducted in intervention counties (IC) and one control county. Participants were female (86%–100%) with 1–2 children at home. Mean FV intake/without juice was 3.1 servings/day; >50% preferred the Internet for delivery of healthy eating information. Participants reported time/financial burdens, low household FV variety and desirability of frozen/canned FV, and acceptance of positive messages. A Food Hero (FH) campaign was created/delivered daily August–October 2009 to mothers through multiple channels (e.g., grocery stores, online, educators). Results showed that the IC had better FH name recall (12%) and interpretation of intended messages (60%) vs. control (3%, 23%, respectively). Compared to controls, the IC were less likely to report healthy food preparation as time consuming or a FV rich diet expensive, and it was easier to get their family to eat fruit. Results did not vary based on county/household characteristics. The FH campaign increased FH awareness and positive FV beliefs. A longer campaign with FV assessments will increase understanding of the target audience, and allow for campaign refinement. PMID:27649233

An analysis of pharmaceutical experience with decades of rat carcinogenicity testing: support for a proposal to modify current regulatory guidelines.

PubMed

Sistare, Frank D; Morton, Daniel; Alden, Carl; Christensen, Joel; Keller, Douglas; Jonghe, Sandra De; Storer, Richard D; Reddy, M Vijayaraj; Kraynak, Andrew; Trela, Bruce; Bienvenu, Jean-Guy; Bjurström, Sivert; Bosmans, Vanessa; Brewster, David; Colman, Karyn; Dominick, Mark; Evans, John; Hailey, James R; Kinter, Lewis; Liu, Matt; Mahrt, Charles; Marien, Dirk; Myer, James; Perry, Richard; Potenta, Daniel; Roth, Arthur; Sherratt, Philip; Singer, Thomas; Slim, Rabih; Soper, Keith; Fransson-Steen, Ronny; Stoltz, James; Turner, Oliver; Turnquist, Susan; van Heerden, Marjolein; Woicke, Jochen; DeGeorge, Joseph J

2011-06-01

Data collected from 182 marketed and nonmarketed pharmaceuticals demonstrate that there is little value gained in conducting a rat two-year carcinogenicity study for compounds that lack: (1) histopathologic risk factors for rat neoplasia in chronic toxicology studies, (2) evidence of hormonal perturbation, and (3) positive genetic toxicology results. Using a single positive result among these three criteria as a test for outcome in the two-year study, fifty-two of sixty-six rat tumorigens were correctly identified, yielding 79% test sensitivity. When all three criteria were negative, sixty-two of seventy-six pharmaceuticals (82%) were correctly predicted to be rat noncarcinogens. The fourteen rat false negatives had two-year study findings of questionable human relevance. Applying these criteria to eighty-six additional chemicals identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as likely human carcinogens and to drugs withdrawn from the market for carcinogenicity concerns confirmed their sensitivity for predicting rat carcinogenicity outcome. These analyses support a proposal to refine regulatory criteria for conducting a two-year rat study to be based on assessment of histopathologic findings from a rat six-month study, evidence of hormonal perturbation, genetic toxicology results, and the findings of a six-month transgenic mouse carcinogenicity study. This proposed decision paradigm has the potential to eliminate over 40% of rat two-year testing on new pharmaceuticals without compromise to patient safety.

Reaching Low-Income Mothers to Improve Family Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Food Hero Social Marketing Campaign-Research Steps, Development and Testing.

PubMed

Tobey, Lauren N; Koenig, Harold F; Brown, Nicole A; Manore, Melinda M

2016-09-13

The objective of this study was to create/test a social marketing campaign to increase fruit/vegetable (FV) intake within Oregon Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligible families. Focus groups (n = 2) and pre/post campaign phone surveys (n = 2082) were conducted in intervention counties (IC) and one control county. Participants were female (86%-100%) with 1-2 children at home. Mean FV intake/without juice was 3.1 servings/day; >50% preferred the Internet for delivery of healthy eating information. Participants reported time/financial burdens, low household FV variety and desirability of frozen/canned FV, and acceptance of positive messages. A Food Hero (FH) campaign was created/delivered daily August-October 2009 to mothers through multiple channels (e.g., grocery stores, online, educators). Results showed that the IC had better FH name recall (12%) and interpretation of intended messages (60%) vs. control (3%, 23%, respectively). Compared to controls, the IC were less likely to report healthy food preparation as time consuming or a FV rich diet expensive, and it was easier to get their family to eat fruit. Results did not vary based on county/household characteristics. The FH campaign increased FH awareness and positive FV beliefs. A longer campaign with FV assessments will increase understanding of the target audience, and allow for campaign refinement.

Characterization and Evaluation of Re-Refined Engine Lubricating Oil.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-12-01

performance of re-refineod and virgin oils and to Investigate the potential esubstantlal esquivalknced of re-refined and virgin lubricating oils. The...d 20. Abstract (continued) engine deposits derived from virgin and re-refined engine oils. (2) The effects of virgin and re-refined oils on engine...blowby composition and engine deposit generation were determined using a spark ignition engine and, 3) Virgin and re-refined basestock production

21 CFR 146.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... dextrose. (b) The term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from... means an aqueous solution of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids... flavorless, except for sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) Compliance means the...

21 CFR 145.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from hydrolyzed starch... of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids of which contain not... sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) The terms edible organic acid and edible organic...

21 CFR 146.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... dextrose. (b) The term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from... means an aqueous solution of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids... flavorless, except for sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) Compliance means the...

21 CFR 145.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from hydrolyzed starch... of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids of which contain not... sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) The terms edible organic acid and edible organic...

21 CFR 146.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... dextrose. (b) The term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from... means an aqueous solution of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids... flavorless, except for sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) Compliance means the...

21 CFR 146.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... dextrose. (b) The term dextrose means the hydrated or anhydrous, refined monosaccharide obtained from... means an aqueous solution of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose, the solids... flavorless, except for sweetness. (f) The term sugar means refined sucrose. (g) Compliance means the...

A Tale of Two Regions: Landscape Ecological Planning for Shale Gas Energy Futures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murtha, T., Jr.; Schroth, O.; Orland, B.; Goldberg, L.; Mazurczyk, T.

2015-12-01

As we increasingly embrace deep shale gas deposits to meet global energy demands new and dispersed local and regional policy and planning challenges emerge. Even in regions with long histories of energy extraction, such as coal, shale gas and the infrastructure needed to produce the gas and transport it to market offers uniquely complex transformations in land use and landcover not previously experienced. These transformations are fast paced, dispersed and can overwhelm local and regional planning and regulatory processes. Coupled to these transformations is a structural confounding factor. While extraction and testing are carried out locally, regulation and decision-making is multilayered, often influenced by national and international factors. Using a geodesign framework, this paper applies a set of geospatial landscape ecological planning tools in two shale gas settings. First, we describe and detail a series of ongoing studies and tools that we have developed for communities in the Marcellus Shale region of the eastern United States, specifically the northern tier of Pennsylvania. Second, we apply a subset of these tools to potential gas development areas of the Fylde region in Lancashire, United Kingdom. For the past five years we have tested, applied and refined a set of place based and data driven geospatial models for forecasting, envisioning, analyzing and evaluating shale gas activities in northern Pennsylvania. These models are continuously compared to important landscape ecological planning challenges and priorities in the region, e.g. visual and cultural resource preservation. Adapting and applying these tools to a different landscape allow us to not only isolate and define important regulatory and policy exigencies in each specific setting, but also to develop and refine these models for broader application. As we continue to explore increasingly complex energy solutions globally, we need an equally complex comparative set of landscape ecological planning tools to inform policy, design and regional planning. Adapting tools and techniques developed in Pennsylvania where shale gas extraction is ongoing to Lancashire, where industry is still in the exploratory phase offers a key opportunity to test and refine more generalizable models.

The blind leading the blind: Mutual refinement of approximate theories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kedar, Smadar T.; Bresina, John L.; Dent, C. Lisa

1991-01-01

The mutual refinement theory, a method for refining world models in a reactive system, is described. The method detects failures, explains their causes, and repairs the approximate models which cause the failures. The approach focuses on using one approximate model to refine another.

48 CFR 208.7304 - Refined precious metals.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Refined precious metals... Government-Owned Precious Metals 208.7304 Refined precious metals. See PGI 208.7304 for a list of refined precious metals managed by DSCP. [71 FR 39005, July 11, 2006] ...

48 CFR 208.7304 - Refined precious metals.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Refined precious metals... Government-Owned Precious Metals 208.7304 Refined precious metals. See PGI 208.7304 for a list of refined precious metals managed by DSCP. [71 FR 39005, July 11, 2006] ...

40 CFR 421.50 - Applicability: Description of the primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory. 421.50 Section 421.50 Protection of Environment... POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Primary Electrolytic Copper Refining Subcategory § 421.50 Applicability: Description of the primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory. The provisions of this subpart apply to...

40 CFR 421.50 - Applicability: Description of the primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory. 421.50 Section 421.50 Protection of Environment... POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Primary Electrolytic Copper Refining Subcategory § 421.50 Applicability: Description of the primary electrolytic copper refining subcategory. The provisions of this subpart apply to...

Optimization of Refining Craft for Vegetable Insulating Oil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Zhu-Jun; Hu, Ting; Cheng, Lin; Tian, Kai; Wang, Xuan; Yang, Jun; Kong, Hai-Yang; Fang, Fu-Xin; Qian, Hang; Fu, Guang-Pan

2016-05-01

Vegetable insulating oil because of its environmental friendliness are considered as ideal material instead of mineral oil used for the insulation and the cooling of the transformer. The main steps of traditional refining process included alkali refining, bleaching and distillation. This kind of refining process used in small doses of insulating oil refining can get satisfactory effect, but can't be applied to the large capacity reaction kettle. This paper using rapeseed oil as crude oil, and the refining process has been optimized for large capacity reaction kettle. The optimized refining process increases the acid degumming process. The alkali compound adds the sodium silicate composition in the alkali refining process, and the ratio of each component is optimized. Add the amount of activated clay and activated carbon according to 10:1 proportion in the de-colorization process, which can effectively reduce the oil acid value and dielectric loss. Using vacuum pumping gas instead of distillation process can further reduce the acid value. Compared some part of the performance parameters of refined oil products with mineral insulating oil, the dielectric loss of vegetable insulating oil is still high and some measures are needed to take to further optimize in the future.

40 CFR 409.30 - Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... liquid cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.30 Section 409.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Liquid Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.30 Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining...

40 CFR 409.30 - Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... liquid cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.30 Section 409.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Liquid Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.30 Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining...

40 CFR 409.30 - Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... liquid cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.30 Section 409.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Liquid Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.30 Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining...

40 CFR 409.30 - Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... liquid cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.30 Section 409.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Liquid Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.30 Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining...

40 CFR 409.30 - Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... liquid cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.30 Section 409.30 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Liquid Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.30 Applicability; description of the liquid cane sugar refining...

7 CFR 1435.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... sugarcane processors. Cane sugar refiner means any person in the U.S. Customs Territory that refines raw... further refined or improved in quality and that is to be distributed for human consumption, either directly or in molasses-containing products. Edible syrups means syrups that are not to be further refined...

7 CFR 1435.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... sugarcane processors. Cane sugar refiner means any person in the U.S. Customs Territory that refines raw... further refined or improved in quality and that is to be distributed for human consumption, either directly or in molasses-containing products. Edible syrups means syrups that are not to be further refined...

7 CFR 1435.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... sugarcane processors. Cane sugar refiner means any person in the U.S. Customs Territory that refines raw... further refined or improved in quality and that is to be distributed for human consumption, either directly or in molasses-containing products. Edible syrups means syrups that are not to be further refined...

7 CFR 1435.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... sugarcane processors. Cane sugar refiner means any person in the U.S. Customs Territory that refines raw... further refined or improved in quality and that is to be distributed for human consumption, either directly or in molasses-containing products. Edible syrups means syrups that are not to be further refined...

Influence of Mg on Grain Refinement of Near Eutectic Al-Si Alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ravi, K. R.; Manivannan, S.; Phanikumar, G.; Murty, B. S.; Sundarraj, Suresh

2011-07-01

Although the grain-refinement practice is well established for wrought Al alloys, in the case of foundry alloys such as near eutectic Al-Si alloys, the underlying mechanisms and the use of grain refiners need better understanding. Conventional grain refiners such as Al-5Ti-1B are not effective in grain refining the Al-Si alloys due to the poisoning effect of Si. In this work, we report the results of a newly developed grain refiner, which can effectively grain refine as well as modify eutectic and primary Si in near eutectic Al-Si alloys. Among the material choices, the grain refining response with Al-1Ti-3B master alloy is found to be superior compared to the conventional Al-5Ti-1B master alloy. It was also found that magnesium additions of 0.2 wt pct along with the Al-1Ti-3B master alloy further enhance the near eutectic Al-Si alloy's grain refining efficiency, thus leading to improved bulk mechanical properties. We have found that magnesium essentially scavenges the oxygen present on the surface of nucleant particles, improves wettability, and reduces the agglomeration tendency of boride particles, thereby enhancing grain refining efficiency. It allows the nucleant particles to act as potent and active nucleation sites even at levels as low as 0.2 pct in the Al-1Ti-3B master alloy.

Dynamic particle refinement in SPH: application to free surface flow and non-cohesive soil simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes López, Yaidel; Roose, Dirk; Recarey Morfa, Carlos

2013-05-01

In this paper, we present a dynamic refinement algorithm for the smoothed particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. An SPH particle is refined by replacing it with smaller daughter particles, which positions are calculated by using a square pattern centered at the position of the refined particle. We determine both the optimal separation and the smoothing distance of the new particles such that the error produced by the refinement in the gradient of the kernel is small and possible numerical instabilities are reduced. We implemented the dynamic refinement procedure into two different models: one for free surface flows, and one for post-failure flow of non-cohesive soil. The results obtained for the test problems indicate that using the dynamic refinement procedure provides a good trade-off between the accuracy and the cost of the simulations.

Firing of pulverized solvent refined coal

DOEpatents

Derbidge, T. Craig; Mulholland, James A.; Foster, Edward P.

1986-01-01

An air-purged burner for the firing of pulverized solvent refined coal is constructed and operated such that the solvent refined coal can be fired without the coking thereof on the burner components. The air-purged burner is designed for the firing of pulverized solvent refined coal in a tangentially fired boiler.

40 CFR 80.1340 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... EPA with appropriate data to correct the record when the company submits its application for small... a small refiner? 80.1340 Section 80.1340 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner...

FDA perspective on specifications for biotechnology products--from IND to PLA.

PubMed

Murano, G

1997-01-01

Quality standards are obligatory throughout development, approval and post-marketing phases of biotechnology-derived products, thus assuring product identity, purity, and potency/strength. The process of developing and setting specifications should be based on sound science and should represent a logical progression of actions based on the use of experiential data spanning manufacturing process validation, consistency in production, and characterization of relevant product properties/attributes, by multiple analytical means. This interactive process occurs in phases, varying in rigour. It is best described as encompassing a framework which starts with the implementation of realistic/practical operational quality limits, progressing to the establishment/adoption of more stringent specifications. The historical database is generated from preclinical, toxicology and early clinical lots. This supports the clinical development programme which, as it progresses, allows for further assay method validation/refinement, adoption/addition due to relevant or newly recognized product attributes or rejection due to irrelevance. In the next phase, (licensing/approval) specifications are set through extended experience and validation of both the preparative and analytical processes, to include availability of suitable reference standards and extensive product characterization throughout its proposed dating period. Subsequent to product approval, the incremental database of test results serves as a natural continuum for further evolving/refining specifications. While there is considerable latitude in the kinds of testing modalities finally adopted to establish product quality on a routine basis, for both drugs and drug products, it is important that the selection takes into consideration relevant (significant) product characteristics that appropriately reflect on identity, purity and potency.

Finding the Perfect Match: Factors That Influence Family Medicine Residency Selection.

PubMed

Wright, Katherine M; Ryan, Elizabeth R; Gatta, John L; Anderson, Lauren; Clements, Deborah S

2016-04-01

Residency program selection is a significant experience for emerging physicians, yet there is limited information about how applicants narrow their list of potential programs. This study examines factors that influence residency program selection among medical students interested in family medicine at the time of application. Medical students with an expressed interest in family medicine were invited to participate in a 37-item, online survey. Students were asked to rate factors that may impact residency selection on a 6-point Likert scale in addition to three open-ended qualitative questions. Mean values were calculated for each survey item and were used to determine a rank order for selection criteria. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors that predict a strong interest in urban, suburban, and rural residency programs. Logistic regression was also used to identify factors that predict a strong interest in academic health center-based residencies, community-based residencies, and community-based residencies with an academic affiliation. A total of 705 medical students from 32 states across the country completed the survey. Location, work/life balance, and program structure (curriculum, schedule) were rated the most important factors for residency selection. Logistic regression analysis was used to refine our understanding of how each factor relates to specific types of residencies. These findings have implications for how to best advise students in selecting a residency, as well as marketing residencies to the right candidates. Refining the recruitment process will ensure a better fit between applicants and potential programs. Limited recruitment resources may be better utilized by focusing on targeted dissemination strategies.

Structural Determination and Occurrence in Ahiflower Oil of Stearidonic Acid Trans Fatty Acids.

PubMed

Delmonte, Pierluigi; Milani, Andrea; Bhangley, Shivani

2018-02-01

Several marine oils and seed oils on the market contain relevant quantities of stearidonic acid (18:4n-3, SDA). The formation of 18:4n-3 trans fatty acids (tFA) during the refining of these oils necessitates the development of a method for their quantification. In this study, 18:4n-3 was isolated from Ahiflower and isomerized to obtain its 16 geometric isomers. The geometric isomers of 18:4n-3 were isolated by silver ion HPLC (Ag + -HPLC) and characterized by partial reduction with hydrazine followed by gas chromatography analysis. The elution order of all 16 isomers was established using a 100 m × 0.25 mm 100% poly(biscyanopropyl siloxane) capillary column and at the elution temperature of 180 °C. The 4 mono-trans-18:4n-3 isomers produced during the refining of oils rich in 18:4n-3 were chromatographically resolved from each other, but c6,t9,c12,c15-18:4 coeluted with the tetra-cis isomer. These 2 fatty acids (FA) were resolved by reducing the separation temperature to 150 °C, but this change caused tetra-cis-18:4n-3 to coelute with t6,c9,c12,c15-18:4. Combining the results from 2 isothermal separations (180 and 150 °C) was necessary to quantify the 4 mono-trans 18:4n-3 FA in Ahiflower oil. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Refinement of boards' role required.

PubMed

Umbdenstock, R J

1987-01-01

The governing board's role in health care is not changing, but new competitive forces necessitate a refinement of the board's approach to fulfilling its role. In a free-standing, community, not-for-profit hospital, the board functions as though it were the "owner." Although it does not truly own the facility in the legal sense, the board does have legal, fiduciary, and financial responsibilities conferred on it by the state. In a religious-sponsored facility, the board fulfills these same obligations on behalf of the sponsoring institute, subject to the institute's reserved powers. In multi-institutional systems, the hospital board's power and authority depend on the role granted it by the system. Boards in all types of facilities are currently faced with the following challenges: Fulfilling their basic responsibilities, such as legal requirements, financial duties, and obligations for the quality of care. Encouraging management and the board itself to "think strategically" in attacking new competitive market forces while protecting the organization's traditional mission and values. Assessing recommended strategies in light of consequences if constituencies think the organization is abandoning its commitments. Boards can take several steps to match their mode of operation with the challenges of the new environment. Boards must rededicate themselves to the hospital's mission. Trustees must expand their understanding of health care trends and issues and their effect on the organization. Boards must evaluate and help strengthen management's performance, rather than acting as a "watchdog" in an adversarial position. Boards must think strategically, rather than focusing solely on operational details. Boards must evaluate the methods they use for conducting business.

Practical Advances in Petroleum Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Chang S.; Robinson, Paul R.

"This comprehensive book by Robinson and Hsu will certainly become the standard text book for the oil refining business...[A] must read for all who are associated with oil refining." - Dr. Walter Fritsch, Senior Vice President Refining, OMV "This book covers a very advanced horizon of petroleum processing technology. For all refiners facing regional and global environmental concerns, and for those who seek a more sophisticated understanding of the refining of petroleum resources, this book has been long in coming." - Mr. Naomasa Kondo, Cosmo Oil Company, Ltd.

Gary Refining Company emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy

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

Not Available

1986-09-01

On July 24, 1986 Gary Refining Company, Inc. announced that the Reorganization Plan for Gary Refining Company, Inc., Gary Refining Company, and Mesa Refining, Inc. has been approved by the United States bankruptcy Court (District of Colorado). The companies filed for protection from creditors on March 4, 1985 under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Payments to creditors are expected to begin upon start-up of the Gary Refining Company (GRC) refinery in Fruita, Colorado after delivery of shale oil from Union Oil's Parachute Creek plant. In the interim, GRC will continue to explore options for possible startup (onmore » a full scale or partial basis) prior to that time.« less

Effect of Grain Refining on Defect Formation in DC Cast Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Billet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadella, Ravi; Eskin, Dmitry; Katgerman, Laurens

In direct chill (DC) casting, the effect of grain refining on the prominent defects such as hot cracking and macrosegregation remains poorly understood, especially for multi-component commercial aluminum alloys. In this work, DC casting experiments were conducted on a 7075 alloy with and without grain refining at two casting speeds. The grain refiner was introduced either in the launder or in the furnace. The concentration profiles of Zn, Cu and Mg, measured along the billet diameter, showed that the increasing casting speed raises the segregation levels but grain refining does not seem to have a noticeable effect. However, hot cracking tendency is significantly reduced with grain refining and it is observed that crack is terminated with the introduction of grain refiner at a lower casting speed. These experimental results are correlated with microstructural observations such as grain size and morphology, and the occurrence of floating grains.

An adaptive embedded mesh procedure for leading-edge vortex flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powell, Kenneth G.; Beer, Michael A.; Law, Glenn W.

1989-01-01

A procedure for solving the conical Euler equations on an adaptively refined mesh is presented, along with a method for determining which cells to refine. The solution procedure is a central-difference cell-vertex scheme. The adaptation procedure is made up of a parameter on which the refinement decision is based, and a method for choosing a threshold value of the parameter. The refinement parameter is a measure of mesh-convergence, constructed by comparison of locally coarse- and fine-grid solutions. The threshold for the refinement parameter is based on the curvature of the curve relating the number of cells flagged for refinement to the value of the refinement threshold. Results for three test cases are presented. The test problem is that of a delta wing at angle of attack in a supersonic free-stream. The resulting vortices and shocks are captured efficiently by the adaptive code.

On macromolecular refinement at subatomic resolution withinteratomic scatterers

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

Afonine, Pavel V.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Adams, Paul D.

2007-11-09

A study of the accurate electron density distribution in molecular crystals at subatomic resolution, better than {approx} 1.0 {angstrom}, requires more detailed models than those based on independent spherical atoms. A tool conventionally used in small-molecule crystallography is the multipolar model. Even at upper resolution limits of 0.8-1.0 {angstrom}, the number of experimental data is insufficient for the full multipolar model refinement. As an alternative, a simpler model composed of conventional independent spherical atoms augmented by additional scatterers to model bonding effects has been proposed. Refinement of these mixed models for several benchmark datasets gave results comparable in quality withmore » results of multipolar refinement and superior of those for conventional models. Applications to several datasets of both small- and macro-molecules are shown. These refinements were performed using the general-purpose macromolecular refinement module phenix.refine of the PHENIX package.« less

On macromolecular refinement at subatomic resolution with interatomic scatterers

PubMed Central

Afonine, Pavel V.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Adams, Paul D.; Lunin, Vladimir Y.; Urzhumtsev, Alexandre

2007-01-01

A study of the accurate electron-density distribution in molecular crystals at subatomic resolution (better than ∼1.0 Å) requires more detailed models than those based on independent spherical atoms. A tool that is conventionally used in small-molecule crystallography is the multipolar model. Even at upper resolution limits of 0.8–1.0 Å, the number of experimental data is insufficient for full multipolar model refinement. As an alternative, a simpler model composed of conventional independent spherical atoms augmented by additional scatterers to model bonding effects has been proposed. Refinement of these mixed models for several benchmark data sets gave results that were comparable in quality with the results of multipolar refinement and superior to those for conventional models. Applications to several data sets of both small molecules and macromolecules are shown. These refinements were performed using the general-purpose macromolecular refinement module phenix.refine of the PHENIX package. PMID:18007035

On macromolecular refinement at subatomic resolution with interatomic scatterers.

PubMed

Afonine, Pavel V; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W; Adams, Paul D; Lunin, Vladimir Y; Urzhumtsev, Alexandre

2007-11-01

A study of the accurate electron-density distribution in molecular crystals at subatomic resolution (better than approximately 1.0 A) requires more detailed models than those based on independent spherical atoms. A tool that is conventionally used in small-molecule crystallography is the multipolar model. Even at upper resolution limits of 0.8-1.0 A, the number of experimental data is insufficient for full multipolar model refinement. As an alternative, a simpler model composed of conventional independent spherical atoms augmented by additional scatterers to model bonding effects has been proposed. Refinement of these mixed models for several benchmark data sets gave results that were comparable in quality with the results of multipolar refinement and superior to those for conventional models. Applications to several data sets of both small molecules and macromolecules are shown. These refinements were performed using the general-purpose macromolecular refinement module phenix.refine of the PHENIX package.

Deformable complex network for refining low-resolution X-ray structures

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

Zhang, Chong; Wang, Qinghua; Ma, Jianpeng, E-mail: jpma@bcm.edu

2015-10-27

A new refinement algorithm called the deformable complex network that combines a novel angular network-based restraint with a deformable elastic network model in the target function has been developed to aid in structural refinement in macromolecular X-ray crystallography. In macromolecular X-ray crystallography, building more accurate atomic models based on lower resolution experimental diffraction data remains a great challenge. Previous studies have used a deformable elastic network (DEN) model to aid in low-resolution structural refinement. In this study, the development of a new refinement algorithm called the deformable complex network (DCN) is reported that combines a novel angular network-based restraint withmore » the DEN model in the target function. Testing of DCN on a wide range of low-resolution structures demonstrated that it constantly leads to significantly improved structural models as judged by multiple refinement criteria, thus representing a new effective refinement tool for low-resolution structural determination.« less

19 CFR 19.18 - Smelting and refining; allowance for wastage; withdrawal for consumption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Smelting and refining; allowance for wastage... OF MERCHANDISE THEREIN Smelting and Refining Warehouses § 19.18 Smelting and refining; allowance for... liquidation of the entry for losses on copper, lead, and zinc content of metal-bearing materials, pursuant to...

19 CFR 19.18 - Smelting and refining; allowance for wastage; withdrawal for consumption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Smelting and refining; allowance for wastage... OF MERCHANDISE THEREIN Smelting and Refining Warehouses § 19.18 Smelting and refining; allowance for... liquidation of the entry for losses on copper, lead, and zinc content of metal-bearing materials, pursuant to...

77 FR 52021 - Proposed CERCLA Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent for the Mercury Refining...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-28

... and Order on Consent for the Mercury Refining Superfund Site, Towns of Guilderland and Colonie, Albany... Management of Michigan, Inc. (hereafter ``Settling Parties'') pertaining to the Mercury Refining Superfund... Superfund Mercury Refining Superfund Site Special Account, which combined total $79,028.49. Each Settling...

76 FR 61472 - Revised Fiscal Year 2011 Tariff-Rate Quota Allocations for Refined Sugar

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-04

... Allocations for Refined Sugar AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative. ACTION: Notice... (TRQ) for imported refined sugar for entry through November 30, 2011. DATES: Effective Date: October 4... States maintains a tariff-rate quota for imports of refined sugar. Section 404(d)(3) of the Uruguay Round...

7 CFR 1530.104 - Application for a license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... of any co-packer(s); (4) In the case of a refined sugar product, the polarity of the product and the formula proposed by the refiner for calculating the refined sugar in the product; (5) In the case of a...

Principles of minimum cost refining for optimum linerboard strength

Treesearch

Thomas J. Urbanik; Jong Myoung Won

2006-01-01

The mechanical properties of paper at a single basis weight and a single targeted refining freeness level have traditionally been used to compare papers. Understanding the economics of corrugated fiberboard requires a more global characterization of the variation of mechanical properties and refining energy consumption with freeness. The cost of refining energy to...

7 CFR 1530.104 - Application for a license.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... of any co-packer(s); (4) In the case of a refined sugar product, the polarity of the product and the formula proposed by the refiner for calculating the refined sugar in the product; (5) In the case of a...

40 CFR 80.1340 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... for small refiner status must be sent to: Attn: MSAT2 Benzene, Mail Stop 6406J, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. For commercial delivery: MSAT2 Benzene...

40 CFR 80.1340 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... for small refiner status must be sent to: Attn: MSAT2 Benzene, Mail Stop 6406J, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. For commercial delivery: MSAT2 Benzene...

40 CFR 80.1340 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... for small refiner status must be sent to: Attn: MSAT2 Benzene, Mail Stop 6406J, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. For commercial delivery: MSAT2 Benzene...

30 CFR 208.4 - Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners. 208.4... MANAGEMENT SALE OF FEDERAL ROYALTY OIL General Provisions § 208.4 Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners. (a... and defense. The Secretary will review these items and will determine whether eligible refiners have...

GalaxyRefineComplex: Refinement of protein-protein complex model structures driven by interface repacking.

PubMed

Heo, Lim; Lee, Hasup; Seok, Chaok

2016-08-18

Protein-protein docking methods have been widely used to gain an atomic-level understanding of protein interactions. However, docking methods that employ low-resolution energy functions are popular because of computational efficiency. Low-resolution docking tends to generate protein complex structures that are not fully optimized. GalaxyRefineComplex takes such low-resolution docking structures and refines them to improve model accuracy in terms of both interface contact and inter-protein orientation. This refinement method allows flexibility at the protein interface and in the overall docking structure to capture conformational changes that occur upon binding. Symmetric refinement is also provided for symmetric homo-complexes. This method was validated by refining models produced by available docking programs, including ZDOCK and M-ZDOCK, and was successfully applied to CAPRI targets in a blind fashion. An example of using the refinement method with an existing docking method for ligand binding mode prediction of a drug target is also presented. A web server that implements the method is freely available at http://galaxy.seoklab.org/refinecomplex.

Strengthening and Improving Yield Asymmetry of Magnesium Alloys by Second Phase Particle Refinement Under the Guidance of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering

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

Li, Dongsheng; Lavender, Curt

2015-05-08

Improving yield strength and asymmetry is critical to expand applications of magnesium alloys in industry for higher fuel efficiency and lower CO 2 production. Grain refinement is an efficient method for strengthening low symmetry magnesium alloys, achievable by precipitate refinement. This study provides guidance on how precipitate engineering will improve mechanical properties through grain refinement. Precipitate refinement for improving yield strengths and asymmetry is simulated quantitatively by coupling a stochastic second phase grain refinement model and a modified polycrystalline crystal viscoplasticity φ-model. Using the stochastic second phase grain refinement model, grain size is quantitatively determined from the precipitate size andmore » volume fraction. Yield strengths, yield asymmetry, and deformation behavior are calculated from the modified φ-model. If the precipitate shape and size remain constant, grain size decreases with increasing precipitate volume fraction. If the precipitate volume fraction is kept constant, grain size decreases with decreasing precipitate size during precipitate refinement. Yield strengths increase and asymmetry approves to one with decreasing grain size, contributed by increasing precipitate volume fraction or decreasing precipitate size.« less

The Influence of Grain Refiners on the Efficiency of Ceramic Foam Filters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Towsey, Nicholas; Schneider, Wolfgang; Krug, Hans-Peter; Hardman, Angela; Keegan, Neil J.

An extensive program of work has been carried out to evaluate the efficiency of ceramic foam filters under carefully controlled conditions. Work reported at previous TMS meetings showed that in the absence of grain refiners, ceramic foam filters have the capacity for high filtration efficiency and consistent, reliable performance. The current phase of the investigation focuses on the impact grain refiner additions have on filter performance. The high filtration efficiencies obtained using 50 or 80ppi CFF's in the absence of grain refiners diminish when Al-3%Ti-1%B grain refiners are added. This, together with the impact of incoming inclusion loading on filter performance and the level of grain refiner addition are considered in detail. The new generation Al-3%Ti-0.15%C grain refiner has also been included. At typical addition levels (1kg/tonne) the effect on filter efficiency is similar to that for TiB2based grain refiners. The work was again conducted on a production scale using AA1050 alloy. Metal quality was determined using LiMCA and PoDFA. Spent filters were also analysed.

REFMAC5 for the refinement of macromolecular crystal structures

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

Murshudov, Garib N., E-mail: garib@ysbl.york.ac.uk; Skubák, Pavol; Lebedev, Andrey A.

The general principles behind the macromolecular crystal structure refinement program REFMAC5 are described. This paper describes various components of the macromolecular crystallographic refinement program REFMAC5, which is distributed as part of the CCP4 suite. REFMAC5 utilizes different likelihood functions depending on the diffraction data employed (amplitudes or intensities), the presence of twinning and the availability of SAD/SIRAS experimental diffraction data. To ensure chemical and structural integrity of the refined model, REFMAC5 offers several classes of restraints and choices of model parameterization. Reliable models at resolutions at least as low as 4 Å can be achieved thanks to low-resolution refinement toolsmore » such as secondary-structure restraints, restraints to known homologous structures, automatic global and local NCS restraints, ‘jelly-body’ restraints and the use of novel long-range restraints on atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence. REFMAC5 additionally offers TLS parameterization and, when high-resolution data are available, fast refinement of anisotropic ADPs. Refinement in the presence of twinning is performed in a fully automated fashion. REFMAC5 is a flexible and highly optimized refinement package that is ideally suited for refinement across the entire resolution spectrum encountered in macromolecular crystallography.« less

Separation of Lead from Crude Antimony by Pyro-Refining Process with NaPO3 Addition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Longgang; Hu, Yuejie; Xia, Zhimei; Chen, Yongming

2016-06-01

The main purpose of this study was to separate lead from crude antimony through an oxidation pyro-refining process and by using sodium metaphosphate as a lead elimination reagent. The process parameters that will affect the refining results were optimized experimentally under controlled conditions, such as the sodium metaphosphate charging dosage, the refining temperature and duration, and the air flow rate, to determine their effect on the lead content in refined antimony and the lead removal rate. A minimum lead content of 0.0522 wt.% and a 98.6% lead removal rate were obtained under the following optimal conditions: W_{{{NaPO}_{{3}} }} = 15% W Sb (where W represents weight), a refining temperature of 800°C, a refining time of 30 min, and an air flow rate of 3 L/min. X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microscopy showed that high-purity antimony was obtained. The smelting operation is free from smoke or ammonia pollution when using monobasic sodium phosphate or ammonium dihydrogen phosphate as the lead elimination reagent. However, this refining process can also remove a certain amount of sulfur, cobalt, and silicon simultaneously, and smelting results also suggest that sodium metaphosphate can be used as a potential lead elimination reagent for bismuth and copper refining.

i3Drefine software for protein 3D structure refinement and its assessment in CASP10.

PubMed

Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Cheng, Jianlin

2013-01-01

Protein structure refinement refers to the process of improving the qualities of protein structures during structure modeling processes to bring them closer to their native states. Structure refinement has been drawing increasing attention in the community-wide Critical Assessment of techniques for Protein Structure prediction (CASP) experiments since its addition in 8(th) CASP experiment. During the 9(th) and recently concluded 10(th) CASP experiments, a consistent growth in number of refinement targets and participating groups has been witnessed. Yet, protein structure refinement still remains a largely unsolved problem with majority of participating groups in CASP refinement category failed to consistently improve the quality of structures issued for refinement. In order to alleviate this need, we developed a completely automated and computationally efficient protein 3D structure refinement method, i3Drefine, based on an iterative and highly convergent energy minimization algorithm with a powerful all-atom composite physics and knowledge-based force fields and hydrogen bonding (HB) network optimization technique. In the recent community-wide blind experiment, CASP10, i3Drefine (as 'MULTICOM-CONSTRUCT') was ranked as the best method in the server section as per the official assessment of CASP10 experiment. Here we provide the community with free access to i3Drefine software and systematically analyse the performance of i3Drefine in strict blind mode on the refinement targets issued in CASP10 refinement category and compare with other state-of-the-art refinement methods participating in CASP10. Our analysis demonstrates that i3Drefine is only fully-automated server participating in CASP10 exhibiting consistent improvement over the initial structures in both global and local structural quality metrics. Executable version of i3Drefine is freely available at http://protein.rnet.missouri.edu/i3drefine/.

Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Microelectronic Device Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cwik, Tom; Lou, John; Norton, Charles

1999-01-01

Finite element and finite volume methods are used in a variety of design simulations when it is necessary to compute fields throughout regions that contain varying materials or geometry. Convergence of the simulation can be assessed by uniformly increasing the mesh density until an observable quantity stabilizes. Depending on the electrical size of the problem, uniform refinement of the mesh may be computationally infeasible due to memory limitations. Similarly, depending on the geometric complexity of the object being modeled, uniform refinement can be inefficient since regions that do not need refinement add to the computational expense. In either case, convergence to the correct (measured) solution is not guaranteed. Adaptive mesh refinement methods attempt to selectively refine the region of the mesh that is estimated to contain proportionally higher solution errors. The refinement may be obtained by decreasing the element size (h-refinement), by increasing the order of the element (p-refinement) or by a combination of the two (h-p refinement). A successful adaptive strategy refines the mesh to produce an accurate solution measured against the correct fields without undue computational expense. This is accomplished by the use of a) reliable a posteriori error estimates, b) hierarchal elements, and c) automatic adaptive mesh generation. Adaptive methods are also useful when problems with multi-scale field variations are encountered. These occur in active electronic devices that have thin doped layers and also when mixed physics is used in the calculation. The mesh needs to be fine at and near the thin layer to capture rapid field or charge variations, but can coarsen away from these layers where field variations smoothen and charge densities are uniform. This poster will present an adaptive mesh refinement package that runs on parallel computers and is applied to specific microelectronic device simulations. Passive sensors that operate in the infrared portion of the spectrum as well as active device simulations that model charge transport and Maxwell's equations will be presented.

40 CFR 80.1339 - Who is not eligible for the provisions for small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... eligible for the hardship provisions for small refiners: (a) A refiner with one or more refineries built... employees or crude capacity is due to operational changes at the refinery or a company sale or... refinery processing units. (e)(1) A small refiner approved under § 80.1340 that subsequently ceases...

Refinement Types ML

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-03-16

105 2.10 Decidability ........ ................................ 116 3 Declaring Refinements of Recursive Data Types 165 3.1...However, when we introduce polymorphic constructors in Chapter 5, tuples will become a polymorphic data type very similar to other polymorphic data types...terminate. 0 Chapter 3 Declaring Refinements of Recursive Data Types 3.1 Introduction The previous chapter defined refinement type inference in terms of

76 FR 61074 - USDA Increases the Fiscal Year 2011 Tariff-Rate Quota for Refined Sugar

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-03

... Quota for Refined Sugar AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, USDA. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Secretary of Agriculture today announced an increase in the fiscal year (FY) 2011 refined sugar tariff-rate quota (TRQ) of... INFORMATION: A quantity of 22,000 MTRV for sugars, syrups, and molasses (collectively referred to as refined...

40 CFR 80.554 - What compliance options are available to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners? 80.554 Section 80.554 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship Provisions § 80.554 What compliance options are available to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners? (a) Option 1: A...

40 CFR 80.554 - What compliance options are available to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners? 80.554 Section 80.554 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA Marine Fuel Small Refiner Hardship Provisions § 80.554 What compliance options are available to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners? (a) Option 1: A...

76 FR 80333 - Seamless Refined Copper Pipe and Tube From Mexico: Extension of Time Limits for the Preliminary...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-23

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration [A-428-840] Seamless Refined Copper Pipe... antidumping duty order on seamless refined copper pipe and tube from Mexico, covering the period November 22, 2010, to April 30, 2011. See Seamless Refined Copper Pipe and Tube From Mexico: Notice of Initiation of...

Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI): Refinement and Validation of a Survey Measure

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-01

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (CEAI): REFINEMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SURVEY MEASURE...States Government. AFIT/GIR/ENV/07-M7 CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (CEAI): REFINEMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SURVEY MEASURE...UNLIMITED AFIT/GIR/ENV/07-M7 CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (CEAI): REFINEMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SURVEY MEASURE Michael

76 FR 50285 - Fiscal Year 2012 Tariff-Rate Quota Allocations for Raw Cane Sugar, Refined and Specialty Sugar...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-12

... for Raw Cane Sugar, Refined and Specialty Sugar and Sugar-Containing Products AGENCY: Office of the... quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar and sugar...), the United States maintains tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for imports of raw cane sugar and refined sugar...

Solidification Based Grain Refinement in Steels

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-24

pearlite (See Figure 1). No evidence of the as-cast austenite dendrite structure was observed. The gating system for this sample resides at the thermal...possible nucleating compounds. 3) Extend grain refinement theory and solidification knowledge through experimental data. 4) Determine structure ...refine the structure of a casting through heat treatment. The energy required for grain refining via thermomechanical processes or heat treatment

40 CFR 80.1165 - What are the additional requirements under this subpart for a foreign small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... audits may be by EPA employees or contractors to EPA. (iv) Any documents requested that are related to... interviewing employees. (vii) Any employee of the foreign refiner must be made available for interview by the... service on this agent constitutes service on the foreign refiner or any employee of the foreign refiner...

40 CFR 80.1165 - What are the additional requirements under this subpart for a foreign small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... audits may be by EPA employees or contractors to EPA. (iv) Any documents requested that are related to... interviewing employees. (vii) Any employee of the foreign refiner must be made available for interview by the... service on this agent constitutes service on the foreign refiner or any employee of the foreign refiner...

Coloured Petri Net Refinement Specification and Correctness Proof with Coq

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choppy, Christine; Mayero, Micaela; Petrucci, Laure

2009-01-01

In this work, we address the formalisation of symmetric nets, a subclass of coloured Petri nets, refinement in COQ. We first provide a formalisation of the net models, and of their type refinement in COQ. Then the COQ proof assistant is used to prove the refinement correctness lemma. An example adapted from a protocol example illustrates our work.

Improved cryoEM-Guided Iterative Molecular Dynamics–Rosetta Protein Structure Refinement Protocol for High Precision Protein Structure Prediction

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Many excellent methods exist that incorporate cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) data to constrain computational protein structure prediction and refinement. Previously, it was shown that iteration of two such orthogonal sampling and scoring methods – Rosetta and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations – facilitated exploration of conformational space in principle. Here, we go beyond a proof-of-concept study and address significant remaining limitations of the iterative MD–Rosetta protein structure refinement protocol. Specifically, all parts of the iterative refinement protocol are now guided by medium-resolution cryoEM density maps, and previous knowledge about the native structure of the protein is no longer necessary. Models are identified solely based on score or simulation time. All four benchmark proteins showed substantial improvement through three rounds of the iterative refinement protocol. The best-scoring final models of two proteins had sub-Ångstrom RMSD to the native structure over residues in secondary structure elements. Molecular dynamics was most efficient in refining secondary structure elements and was thus highly complementary to the Rosetta refinement which is most powerful in refining side chains and loop regions. PMID:25883538

Structure refinement of membrane proteins via molecular dynamics simulations.

PubMed

Dutagaci, Bercem; Heo, Lim; Feig, Michael

2018-07-01

A refinement protocol based on physics-based techniques established for water soluble proteins is tested for membrane protein structures. Initial structures were generated by homology modeling and sampled via molecular dynamics simulations in explicit lipid bilayer and aqueous solvent systems. Snapshots from the simulations were selected based on scoring with either knowledge-based or implicit membrane-based scoring functions and averaged to obtain refined models. The protocol resulted in consistent and significant refinement of the membrane protein structures similar to the performance of refinement methods for soluble proteins. Refinement success was similar between sampling in the presence of lipid bilayers and aqueous solvent but the presence of lipid bilayers may benefit the improvement of lipid-facing residues. Scoring with knowledge-based functions (DFIRE and RWplus) was found to be as good as scoring using implicit membrane-based scoring functions suggesting that differences in internal packing is more important than orientations relative to the membrane during the refinement of membrane protein homology models. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Comparison of the Behaviour of AlTiB and AlTiC Grain Refiners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, W.; Kearns, M. A.; McGarry, M. J.; Whitehead, A. J.

AlTiC master alloys present a new alternative to AlTiB grain refiners which have enjoyed pre-eminence in cast houses for several decades. Recent investigations have shown that, under defined casting conditions, AlTiC is a more efficient grain refiner than AlTiB, is less prone to agglomeration and is more resistant to poisoning by Zr, Cr. Moreover it is observed that there are differences in the mechanism of grain refinement for the different alloys. This paper describes the influence of melt temperature and addition rate on the performance of both types of grain refiner in DC casting tests on different wrought alloys. Furthermore the effects of combined additions of the grain refiners and the recycling behaviour of the treated alloys are presented. Results are compared with laboratory test data. Finally, mechanisms of grain refinement are discussed which are consistent with the observed differences in behaviour with AlTiC and AlTiB.

Investigation on temporal evolution of the grain refinement in copper under high strain rate loading via in-situ synchrotron measurement and predictive modeling

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

Shah, Pooja Nitin; Shin, Yung C.; Sun, Tao

Synchrotron X-rays are integrated with a modified Kolsky tension bar to conduct in situ tracking of the grain refinement mechanism operating during the dynamic deformation of metals. Copper with an initial average grain size of 36 μm is refined to 6.3 μm when loaded at a constant high strain rate of 1200 s -1. The synchrotron measurements revealed the temporal evolution of the grain refinement mechanism in terms of the initiation and rate of refinement throughout the loading test. A multiscale coupled probabilistic cellular automata based recrystallization model has been developed to predict the microstructural evolution occurring during dynamic deformationmore » processes. The model accurately predicts the initiation of the grain refinement mechanism with a predicted final average grain size of 2.4 μm. As a result, the model also accurately predicts the temporal evolution in terms of the initiation and extent of refinement when compared with the experimental results.« less

Investigation on temporal evolution of the grain refinement in copper under high strain rate loading via in-situ synchrotron measurement and predictive modeling

DOE PAGES

Shah, Pooja Nitin; Shin, Yung C.; Sun, Tao

2017-10-03

Synchrotron X-rays are integrated with a modified Kolsky tension bar to conduct in situ tracking of the grain refinement mechanism operating during the dynamic deformation of metals. Copper with an initial average grain size of 36 μm is refined to 6.3 μm when loaded at a constant high strain rate of 1200 s -1. The synchrotron measurements revealed the temporal evolution of the grain refinement mechanism in terms of the initiation and rate of refinement throughout the loading test. A multiscale coupled probabilistic cellular automata based recrystallization model has been developed to predict the microstructural evolution occurring during dynamic deformationmore » processes. The model accurately predicts the initiation of the grain refinement mechanism with a predicted final average grain size of 2.4 μm. As a result, the model also accurately predicts the temporal evolution in terms of the initiation and extent of refinement when compared with the experimental results.« less

Post-treatment mechanical refining as a method to improve overall sugar recovery of steam pretreated hybrid poplar.

PubMed

Dou, Chang; Ewanick, Shannon; Bura, Renata; Gustafson, Rick

2016-05-01

This study investigates the effect of mechanical refining to improve the sugar yield from biomass processed under a wide range of steam pretreatment conditions. Hybrid poplar chips were steam pretreated using six different conditions with or without SO2. The resulting water insoluble fractions were subjected to mechanical refining. After refining, poplar pretreated at 205°C for 10min without SO2 obtained a 32% improvement in enzymatic hydrolysis and achieved similar overall monomeric sugar recovery (539kg/tonne) to samples pretreated with SO2. Refining did not improve hydrolyzability of samples pretreated at more severe conditions, nor did it improve the overall sugar recovery. By maximizing overall sugar recovery, refining could partially decouple the pretreatment from other unit operations, and enable the use of low temperature, non-sulfur pretreatment conditions. The study demonstrates the possibility of using post-treatment refining to accommodate potential pretreatment process upsets without sacrificing sugar yields. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Refined geometric transition and qq-characters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kimura, Taro; Mori, Hironori; Sugimoto, Yuji

2018-01-01

We show the refinement of the prescription for the geometric transition in the refined topological string theory and, as its application, discuss a possibility to describe qq-characters from the string theory point of view. Though the suggested way to operate the refined geometric transition has passed through several checks, it is additionally found in this paper that the presence of the preferred direction brings a nontrivial effect. We provide the modified formula involving this point. We then apply our prescription of the refined geometric transition to proposing the stringy description of doubly quantized Seiberg-Witten curves called qq-characters in certain cases.

Properties of Base Stocks Obtained from Used Engine Oils by Acid/Clay Re-refining (Proprietes des Stocks de Base Obtenus par Regeneration des Huiles a Moteur Usees par le Procede de Traitement a l’Acide et a la Terre),

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-09-01

Research Conseil national Council Canada de recherches Canada LEY EL < PROPERTIES OF BASE STOCKS OBTAINED FROM USED ENGINE OILS BY ACID /CLAY RE-REFINING DTIC...MECHANICAL ENGINEERING REPORT Canad NC MP75 NRC NO. 18719 PROPERTIES OF BASE STOCKS OBTAINED FROM USED ENGINE OILS BY ACID /CLAY RE-REFINING (PROPRIETES...refined Base Stock ..................................... 10 3 Physical Test Data of Acid /Clay Process - Re-refined Base Stock Oils ............ 11 4

Unstructured Euler flow solutions using hexahedral cell refinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Melton, John E.; Cappuccio, Gelsomina; Thomas, Scott D.

1991-01-01

An attempt is made to extend grid refinement into three dimensions by using unstructured hexahedral grids. The flow solver is developed using the TIGER (topologically Independent Grid, Euler Refinement) as the starting point. The program uses an unstructured hexahedral mesh and a modified version of the Jameson four-stage, finite-volume Runge-Kutta algorithm for integration of the Euler equations. The unstructured mesh allows for local refinement appropriate for each freestream condition, thereby concentrating mesh cells in the regions of greatest interest. This increases the computational efficiency because the refinement is not required to extend throughout the entire flow field.

Anicteric hepatoxicity: a potential health risk of occupational exposures in Nigerian petroleum oil refining and distribution industry.

PubMed

Ezejiofor, Tobias I Ndubuisi; Ezejiofor, Anthonet N; Orisakwe, Orish E; Nwigwe, Hariet C; Osuala, Ferdinand Ou; Iwuala, Moses Oe

2014-01-22

Literature abounds linking one's job to certain unpalatable health outcomes. Since exposures to hazardous conditions in industrial environments often results in sundry health effects among workers, we embarked on this study to investigate the hepatic health effects of occupational activities in the petroleum refining and distribution industry. Biochemical markers of liver functions were assayed in plasma, using Reflotron dry chemistry spectrophotometric system. The study was conducted on randomly selected workers of Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and Pipelines and Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) both in Alesa-Eleme near Port Harcourt, Nigeria, as well as non-oil work civil servants serving as control subjects. Results showed that, bilirubin ranged 0.3-1.6 mg/dl with a mean of 0.66±0.20mg/dl among the oil workers as against 0.5-1.00mg/dl with a mean of 0.58±0.13mg/dl in non-oil workers, Alkaline phosphatase ranged 50.00-296.00u/l (mean: 126.21±39.49u/l) in oil workers as against 40.20-111u/l (mean: 66.83±18.54u/l) for non-oil workers, Aspartic transaminases (AST) ranged 5.80-140.20u/l (mean: 21.81±11.49u/l) in oil workers against 18.00-44.00u/l (mean: 26.89±6.99u/l) for non-oil workers, while Alanine transaminases (ALT) ranged 4.90-86.00u/l (mean: 22.14±11.28u/l) in oil workers as against 10.00-86.60u/l (mean: 22.30±10.22u/l) for the non-oil workers. A close study of the results revealed that although the mean values for all the studied parameters were still within the parametric reference ranges, however, relative to the referents, there were significant increases (P<0.05) in plasma bilirubin (though anicteric) and alkaline phosphatase that was not matched with a corresponding increase in the plasma transaminases, suggesting a possibility that toxic anicteric hepatoxicity is part of the potential health effects of sundry exposures in the Nigeria petroleum oil refining and distribution industry. Gender differentiation data showed that though the mean values for the parameters were higher in males than females, the increases were not significant in most cases (P>0.05), whereas data for age and exposure period classifications revealed that irrespective of the age of the worker, the effects are likely to start after the first five years, manifesting fully after the first decade of occupational exposures. Thus, an update of industrial/occupational health measures is necessary for a safer and healthier work environment.

Estimates of dietary exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) from light metal packaging using food consumption and packaging usage data: a refined deterministic approach and a fully probabilistic (FACET) approach.

PubMed

Oldring, P K T; Castle, L; O'Mahony, C; Dixon, J

2014-01-01

The FACET tool is a probabilistic model to estimate exposure to chemicals in foodstuffs, originating from flavours, additives and food contact materials. This paper demonstrates the use of the FACET tool to estimate exposure to BPA (bisphenol A) from light metal packaging. For exposure to migrants from food packaging, FACET uses industry-supplied data on the occurrence of substances in the packaging, their concentrations and construction of the packaging, which were combined with data from a market research organisation and food consumption data supplied by national database managers. To illustrate the principles, UK packaging data were used together with consumption data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) dietary survey for 19-64 year olds for a refined deterministic verification. The UK data were chosen mainly because the consumption surveys are detailed, data for UK packaging at a detailed level were available and, arguably, the UK population is composed of high consumers of packaged foodstuffs. Exposures were run for each food category that could give rise to BPA from light metal packaging. Consumer loyalty to a particular type of packaging, commonly referred to as packaging loyalty, was set. The BPA extraction levels used for the 15 types of coating chemistries that could release BPA were in the range of 0.00005-0.012 mg dm(-2). The estimates of exposure to BPA using FACET for the total diet were 0.0098 (mean) and 0.0466 (97.5th percentile) mg/person/day, corresponding to 0.00013 (mean) and 0.00059 (97.5th percentile) mg kg(-1) body weight day(-1) for consumers of foods packed in light metal packaging. This is well below the current EFSA (and other recognised bodies) TDI of 0.05 mg kg(-1) body weight day(-1). These probabilistic estimates were compared with estimates using a refined deterministic approach drawing on the same input data. The results from FACET for the mean, 95th and 97.5th percentile exposures to BPA lay between the lowest and the highest estimates from the refined deterministic calculations. Since this should be the case, for a fully probabilistic compared with a deterministic approach, it is concluded that the FACET tool has been verified in this example. A recent EFSA draft opinion on exposure to BPA from different sources showed that canned foods were a major contributor and compared results from various models, including those from FACET. The results from FACET were overall conservative.

Anicteric hepatoxicity: a potential health risk of occupational exposures in Nigerian petroleum oil refining and distribution industry

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Literature abounds linking one’s job to certain unpalatable health outcomes. Since exposures to hazardous conditions in industrial environments often results in sundry health effects among workers, we embarked on this study to investigate the hepatic health effects of occupational activities in the petroleum refining and distribution industry. Method Biochemical markers of liver functions were assayed in plasma, using Reflotron dry chemistry spectrophotometric system. The study was conducted on randomly selected workers of Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and Pipelines and Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) both in Alesa-Eleme near Port Harcourt, Nigeria, as well as non-oil work civil servants serving as control subjects. Result and conclusion Results showed that, bilirubin ranged 0.3-1.6 mg/dl with a mean of 0.66±0.20mg/dl among the oil workers as against 0.5-1.00mg/dl with a mean of 0.58±0.13mg/dl in non-oil workers, Alkaline phosphatase ranged 50.00-296.00u/l (mean: 126.21±39.49u/l) in oil workers as against 40.20-111u/l (mean: 66.83±18.54u/l) for non-oil workers, Aspartic transaminases (AST) ranged 5.80-140.20u/l (mean: 21.81±11.49u/l) in oil workers against 18.00-44.00u/l (mean: 26.89±6.99u/l) for non-oil workers, while Alanine transaminases (ALT) ranged 4.90-86.00u/l (mean: 22.14±11.28u/l) in oil workers as against 10.00-86.60u/l (mean: 22.30±10.22u/l) for the non-oil workers. A close study of the results revealed that although the mean values for all the studied parameters were still within the parametric reference ranges, however, relative to the referents, there were significant increases (P<0.05) in plasma bilirubin (though anicteric) and alkaline phosphatase that was not matched with a corresponding increase in the plasma transaminases, suggesting a possibility that toxic anicteric hepatoxicity is part of the potential health effects of sundry exposures in the Nigeria petroleum oil refining and distribution industry. Gender differentiation data showed that though the mean values for the parameters were higher in males than females, the increases were not significant in most cases (P>0.05), whereas data for age and exposure period classifications revealed that irrespective of the age of the worker, the effects are likely to start after the first five years, manifesting fully after the first decade of occupational exposures. Thus, an update of industrial/occupational health measures is necessary for a safer and healthier work environment. PMID:24457023

Gross wood characteristics affecting properties of handsheets made from loblolly pine refiner groundwood

Treesearch

Charles W. McMillin

1968-01-01

Specific refining energy and gross wood properties accounted for as much as 90% of the total variation in strength of handsheets made from 96 pulps disk-refined from chips of varying characteristics. Burst, tear, and breaking length were increased by applying high specific refining energy and using fast-grown wood of high latewood content but of relatively low density...

75 FR 50796 - Fiscal Year 2011 Tariff-Rate Quota Allocations for Raw Cane Sugar, Refined and Specialty Sugar...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-17

... for Raw Cane Sugar, Refined and Specialty Sugar, and Sugar-Containing Products AGENCY: Office of the... quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar, and sugar... imports of raw cane sugar and refined sugar. Pursuant to Additional U.S. Note 8 to Chapter 17 of the HTS...

40 CFR 80.1338 - What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? 80.1338 Section 80.1338... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1338 What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? (a) A small...

40 CFR 80.1338 - What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? 80.1338 Section 80.1338... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1338 What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? (a) A small...

40 CFR 80.1338 - What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? 80.1338 Section 80.1338... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1338 What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? (a) A small...

40 CFR 80.1338 - What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? 80.1338 Section 80.1338... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1338 What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? (a) A small...

40 CFR 80.1338 - What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? 80.1338 Section 80.1338... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1338 What criteria must be met to qualify as a small refiner for the gasoline benzene requirements of this subpart? (a) A small...

Effects of varying refiner pressure on the machanical properties of loblolly pine fibres

Treesearch

Les Groom; Timothy Rials; Rebecca Snell

2000-01-01

Loblolly pine chips, separated into mature and juvenile portions, were refined at three pressures (4, 8, and 12 bar) in a single disc refiner at the BioComposites Centre. Fibres were dried in a flash drier to a moisture content of approximately 12 percent. The mechanical properties of single fibres from each refining pressure were determined using a tensile strength...

i3Drefine Software for Protein 3D Structure Refinement and Its Assessment in CASP10

PubMed Central

Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Cheng, Jianlin

2013-01-01

Protein structure refinement refers to the process of improving the qualities of protein structures during structure modeling processes to bring them closer to their native states. Structure refinement has been drawing increasing attention in the community-wide Critical Assessment of techniques for Protein Structure prediction (CASP) experiments since its addition in 8th CASP experiment. During the 9th and recently concluded 10th CASP experiments, a consistent growth in number of refinement targets and participating groups has been witnessed. Yet, protein structure refinement still remains a largely unsolved problem with majority of participating groups in CASP refinement category failed to consistently improve the quality of structures issued for refinement. In order to alleviate this need, we developed a completely automated and computationally efficient protein 3D structure refinement method, i3Drefine, based on an iterative and highly convergent energy minimization algorithm with a powerful all-atom composite physics and knowledge-based force fields and hydrogen bonding (HB) network optimization technique. In the recent community-wide blind experiment, CASP10, i3Drefine (as ‘MULTICOM-CONSTRUCT’) was ranked as the best method in the server section as per the official assessment of CASP10 experiment. Here we provide the community with free access to i3Drefine software and systematically analyse the performance of i3Drefine in strict blind mode on the refinement targets issued in CASP10 refinement category and compare with other state-of-the-art refinement methods participating in CASP10. Our analysis demonstrates that i3Drefine is only fully-automated server participating in CASP10 exhibiting consistent improvement over the initial structures in both global and local structural quality metrics. Executable version of i3Drefine is freely available at http://protein.rnet.missouri.edu/i3drefine/. PMID:23894517

Economic, social and resource management factors influencing groundwater trade: Evidence from Victoria, Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Bruce; Webb, John; Stott, Kerry; Cheng, Xiang; Wilkinson, Roger; Cossens, Brendan

2017-07-01

In Victoria, Australia, most groundwater resources are now fully allocated and opportunities for new groundwater development can only occur through trading of license entitlements. Groundwater usage has rarely exceeded 50% of the available licensed volume, even in the 2008/9 drought year, and 50 to 70% of individual license holders use less than 5% of their allocation each year. However, little groundwater trading is occurring at present. Interviews were conducted with groundwater license holders and water brokers to investigate why the Victorian groundwater trade market is underdeveloped. Responses show there is a complex mix of social, economic, institutional and technical reasons. Barriers to trade are influenced by the circumstances of each groundwater user, administrative process and resource management rules. Water brokers deal with few trades at low margins and noted unrealistic selling prices and administrative difficulties. Irrigators who have successfully traded identify that there are few participants in trading, technical appraisals are expensive and administrative requirements and fees are burdensome, especially when compared to surface water trading. Opportunities to facilitate trade include groundwater management plan refinement and improved information provision. Simplifying transaction processes and costs, demonstrating good resource stewardship and preventing third party impacts from trade could address some concerns raised by market participants. There are, however, numerous individual circumstances that inhibit groundwater trading, so it is unlikely that policy and process changes alone could increase usage rates without greater demand for groundwater or more favourable farming economic circumstances.

Fast-food menu offerings vary in dietary quality, but are consistently poor.

PubMed

Kirkpatrick, Sharon I; Reedy, Jill; Kahle, Lisa L; Harris, Jennifer L; Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam; Krebs-Smith, Susan M

2014-04-01

To evaluate five popular fast-food chains' menus in relation to dietary guidance. Menus posted on chains' websites were coded using the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies and MyPyramid Equivalents Database to enable Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) scores to be assigned. Dollar or value and kids' menus and sets of items promoted as healthy or nutritious were also assessed. Five popular fast-food chains in the USA. Not applicable. Full menus scored lower than 50 out of 100 possible points on the HEI-2005. Scores for Total Fruit, Whole Grains and Sodium were particularly dismal. Compared with full menus, scores on dollar or value menus were 3 points higher on average, whereas kids' menus scored 10 points higher on average. Three chains marketed subsets of items as healthy or nutritious; these scored 17 points higher on average compared with the full menus. No menu or subset of menu items received a score higher than 72 out of 100 points. The poor quality of fast-food menus is a concern in light of increasing away-from-home eating, aggressive marketing to children and minorities, and the tendency for fast-food restaurants to be located in low-income and minority areas. The addition of fruits, vegetables and legumes; replacement of refined with whole grains; and reformulation of offerings high in sodium, solid fats and added sugars are potential strategies to improve fast-food offerings. The HEI may be a useful metric for ongoing monitoring of fast-food menus.

Target fuel quality standards performance

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

Hublin, M.; Renault, S.A.

Concerned by a large number of in-service incident due to insufficient quality of market fuels that happened in the 1980s in France and Europe, the two major French car manufacturers-PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault-decided to define new technical requirements for these fuels. By publishing the fuel charter in July 1989, a whole fuel quality monitoring system was established. Forthcoming fuel refiners and distributors were invited to produce and sell fuels of higher quality. Major French distributors joined the charter, and soon, an improvement on French market fuels was observed. Undoubtedly, the two oil crises, in 1973 and 1979, have boostedmore » technological progress of combustion engines, improving specific power, operating noise, exhaust emissions and fuel consumption. That technological progress was achieved by defining and carrying out research that contributed to a better understanding of combustion engines. Continuous and gradual evolution in the design of engines was achieved in areas such as: combustion, internal air motion, multi-valve technology, fuel injection, engine management systems, friction reduction and after-treatment devices. As long as national fuel specifications define fuel characteristics in a rough and insufficient way, there will be the need for quality fuel certification. Different countries, bearing different cultures, will probably produce slightly different variations, but will continue to exist and increase in number. Fuel quality is a key issue for the future to guarantee trouble-free and comfortable vehicle operation and also to maintain its original emissions characteristics.« less

Current Developments and Unusual Aspects in Gastrointestinal Surgical Stapling.

PubMed

Frattini, Francesco; Amico, Francesco; Rausei, Stefano; Boni, Luigi; Rovera, Francesca; Dionigi, Gianlorenzo

2015-11-01

Stapling devices are used in gastrointestinal, gynecologic, thoracic, and many other surgeries to resect organs, transect tissues, and anastomose different structures. These devices became widely accepted standard practice in many gastrointestinal operations, especially since the successful advent of minimally invasive surgery. Despite the relevant advantages related to the use of a surgical stapler, we must also consider that these instruments may be at risk of failure. When any component fails, the patient is at risk of operative morbidity. Gastrointestinal surgical stapling technique still needs refinement in order to increase its reliability. Staple line reinforcement has been widely used and seems to effectively reduce anastomotic complications. Literature provides us with examples of studies supporting both bleeding and leakage reduction after staple line reinforcement, but high-quality evidence is not available to date. Semi-absorbable and nonabsorbable materials have been the earliest available. The use of bioabsorbable staple line reinforcement materials has recently become more widespread, and these materials are more widely used these days. Powered staplers were made available to the market some time ago and represent a rather unheard of aspect of endosurgical stapling. Despite powered staples being supposedly convenient compared with manual ones only one relevant article was found when searching the U.S. National Library of Medicine for "powered stapler." New surgical stapling devices are constantly developed and introduced on the market. Results with such devices depend on the stapler features but also surely vary according to the surgeon experience.

OPEC is springing another trap. [Bring on refineries to control petroleum-product market

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

Cook, J.

1979-10-29

Self-appointed authorities assure the American people that there is no oil crisis: just greed on the part of the big oil companies. But the turmoil in the gold market and the continual sinking of the US dollar make mockery of such facile demagoguery. The truth is simple: The US insists on importing more oil than it can pay for with exports, and so the world is flooded with dollars; meanwhile Congress, afraid to face the truth, fails to do anything either to provide alternative sources of energy or to enforce cutbacks on the American people. Consultant George Henry M. Schuler,more » former diplomat and oil company executive, says we are blundering into yet another OPEC trap because we are discouraging the oil industry from expanding refinery capacity in the US. The problem is a combination of import policy and environmental restrictions, he says, in a study recently completed for the consulting firm of Conant and Associates Ltd., Washington, DC. The prospect is that within a few years we will be dependent on OPEC countries for refined products as well as for crude oil - and that dependency will have dire consequences for the US. Congress cannot create oil reserves in this country, but is has total control over creating refineries, through incentives, consultant Schuler says. The situation is leading us straight to war while a whole chorus of voices assures Americans that it's all the oil companies fault. (MCW)« less

Fuel cell commercialization — beyond the 'Notice of Market Opportunity for Fuel Cells' (NOMO)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serfass, J. A.; Glenn, D. R.

1992-01-01

The Notice of Market Opportunity for Fuel Cells (NOMO) was released in Oct. 1988 by the American Public Power Association. Its goal was to identify a manufacturer for commercializing a multi-megawatt fuel cell power plant with attractive cost and performance characteristics, supported by a realistic, yet aggressive commercialization plan, leading to mid-1990s application. Energy Research Corporation's program to commercialize its 2-MW internal-reforming carbonate fuel cell was selected. The program was refined in the development of the Principles and Framework for Commercializing Direct Fuel Cell Power Plants, which defines buyer responsibilities for promotion and coordination of information development, supplier responsibilities for meeting certain milestones and for sharing the results of success in a royalty agreement, and risk management features. Twenty-three electric and gas utilities in the US and Canada have joined the Fuel Cell Commercialization Group to support the buyers' obligations in this program. The City of Santa Clara, CA; Electric Power Research Institute; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Southern California Gas Company; Southern California Edison; National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; and Pacific Gas & Electric, have formed the Santa Clara Demonstration Group to build the first 2-MW power plant. The preliminary design for this demonstration is nearly complete. Integrated testing of a 20-kW stack with the complete balance-of-plant, has been successfully accomplished by Pacific Gas & Electric at its test facility in San Ramon, CA.

Having trouble with your strategy? Then map it.

PubMed

Kaplan, R S; Norton, D P

2000-01-01

If you were a military general on the march, you'd want your troops to have plenty of maps--detailed information about the mission they were on, the roads they would travel, the campaigns they would undertake, and the weapons at their disposal. The same holds true in business: a workforce needs clear and detailed information to execute a business strategy successfully. Until now, there haven't been many tools that can communicate both an organization's strategy and the processes and systems needed to implement that strategy. But authors Robert Kaplan and David Norton, cocreators of the balanced scorecard, have adapted that seminal tool to create strategy maps. Strategy maps let an organization describe and illustrate--in clear and general language--its objectives, initiatives, targets markets, performance measures, and the links between all the pieces of its strategy. Employees get a visual representation of how their jobs are tied to the company's overall goals, while managers get a clearer understanding of their strategies and a means to detect and correct any flaws in those plans. Using Mobil North American Marketing and Refining Company as an example, Kaplan and Norton walk through the creation of a strategy map and its four distinct regions--financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth--which correspond to the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard. The authors show step by step how the Mobil division used the map to transform itself from a centrally controlled manufacturer of commodity products to a decentralized, customer-driven organization.

Accurate macromolecular crystallographic refinement: incorporation of the linear scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics program DivCon into the PHENIX refinement package

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

Borbulevych, Oleg Y.; Plumley, Joshua A.; Martin, Roger I.

2014-05-01

Semiempirical quantum-chemical X-ray macromolecular refinement using the program DivCon integrated with PHENIX is described. Macromolecular crystallographic refinement relies on sometimes dubious stereochemical restraints and rudimentary energy functionals to ensure the correct geometry of the model of the macromolecule and any covalently bound ligand(s). The ligand stereochemical restraint file (CIF) requires a priori understanding of the ligand geometry within the active site, and creation of the CIF is often an error-prone process owing to the great variety of potential ligand chemistry and structure. Stereochemical restraints have been replaced with more robust functionals through the integration of the linear-scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics (SE-QM)more » program DivCon with the PHENIX X-ray refinement engine. The PHENIX/DivCon package has been thoroughly validated on a population of 50 protein–ligand Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures with a range of resolutions and chemistry. The PDB structures used for the validation were originally refined utilizing various refinement packages and were published within the past five years. PHENIX/DivCon does not utilize CIF(s), link restraints and other parameters for refinement and hence it does not make as many a priori assumptions about the model. Across the entire population, the method results in reasonable ligand geometries and low ligand strains, even when the original refinement exhibited difficulties, indicating that PHENIX/DivCon is applicable to both single-structure and high-throughput crystallography.« less

Empirical Analysis and Refinement of Expert System Knowledge Bases

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-08-31

refinement. Both a simulated case generation program, and a random rule basher were developed to enhance rule refinement experimentation. *Substantial...the second fiscal year 88 objective was fully met. Rule Refinement System Simulated Rule Basher Case Generator Stored Cases Expert System Knowledge...generated until the rule is satisfied. Cases may be randomly generated for a given rule or hypothesis. Rule Basher Given that one has a correct

An adaptive mesh-moving and refinement procedure for one-dimensional conservation laws

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biswas, Rupak; Flaherty, Joseph E.; Arney, David C.

1993-01-01

We examine the performance of an adaptive mesh-moving and /or local mesh refinement procedure for the finite difference solution of one-dimensional hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. Adaptive motion of a base mesh is designed to isolate spatially distinct phenomena, and recursive local refinement of the time step and cells of the stationary or moving base mesh is performed in regions where a refinement indicator exceeds a prescribed tolerance. These adaptive procedures are incorporated into a computer code that includes a MacCormack finite difference scheme wih Davis' artificial viscosity model and a discretization error estimate based on Richardson's extrapolation. Experiments are conducted on three problems in order to qualify the advantages of adaptive techniques relative to uniform mesh computations and the relative benefits of mesh moving and refinement. Key results indicate that local mesh refinement, with and without mesh moving, can provide reliable solutions at much lower computational cost than possible on uniform meshes; that mesh motion can be used to improve the results of uniform mesh solutions for a modest computational effort; that the cost of managing the tree data structure associated with refinement is small; and that a combination of mesh motion and refinement reliably produces solutions for the least cost per unit accuracy.

Assessing food allergy risks from residual peanut protein in highly refined vegetable oil.

PubMed

Blom, W Marty; Kruizinga, Astrid G; Rubingh, Carina M; Remington, Ben C; Crevel, René W R; Houben, Geert F

2017-08-01

Refined vegetable oils including refined peanut oil are widely used in foods. Due to shared production processes, refined non-peanut vegetable oils can contain residual peanut proteins. We estimated the predicted number of allergic reactions to residual peanut proteins using probabilistic risk assessment applied to several scenarios involving food products made with vegetable oils. Variables considered were: a) the estimated production scale of refined peanut oil, b) estimated cross-contact between refined vegetable oils during production, c) the proportion of fat in representative food products and d) the peanut protein concentration in refined peanut oil. For all products examined the predicted risk of objective allergic reactions in peanut-allergic users of the food products was extremely low. The number of predicted reactions ranged depending on the model from a high of 3 per 1000 eating occasions (Weibull) to no reactions (LogNormal). Significantly, all reactions were predicted for allergen intakes well below the amounts reported for the most sensitive individual described in the clinical literature. We conclude that the health risk from cross-contact between vegetable oils and refined peanut oil is negligible. None of the food products would warrant precautionary labelling for peanut according to the VITAL ® programme of the Allergen Bureau. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adaptive mesh refinement and load balancing based on multi-level block-structured Cartesian mesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Misaka, Takashi; Sasaki, Daisuke; Obayashi, Shigeru

2017-11-01

We developed a framework for a distributed-memory parallel computer that enables dynamic data management for adaptive mesh refinement and load balancing. We employed simple data structure of the building cube method (BCM) where a computational domain is divided into multi-level cubic domains and each cube has the same number of grid points inside, realising a multi-level block-structured Cartesian mesh. Solution adaptive mesh refinement, which works efficiently with the help of the dynamic load balancing, was implemented by dividing cubes based on mesh refinement criteria. The framework was investigated with the Laplace equation in terms of adaptive mesh refinement, load balancing and the parallel efficiency. It was then applied to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations to simulate a turbulent flow around a sphere. We considered wall-adaptive cube refinement where a non-dimensional wall distance y+ near the sphere is used for a criterion of mesh refinement. The result showed the load imbalance due to y+ adaptive mesh refinement was corrected by the present approach. To utilise the BCM framework more effectively, we also tested a cube-wise algorithm switching where an explicit and implicit time integration schemes are switched depending on the local Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition in each cube.

Preliminary Results From NASA's Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howell, Joe T.; Mankins, John C.

2000-01-01

Large solar power satellite (SPS) systems that might provide base load power into terrestrial markets were examined extensively in the 1970s by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Following a hiatus of about 15 years, the subject of space solar power (SSP) was reexamined by NASA from 1995-1997 in the "fresh look" study, and during 1998 in an SSP "concept definition study". As a result of these efforts, during 1999-2000, NASA has been conducting the SSP Exploratory Research and Technology (SERT) program. The goal of the SERT activity has been to conduct preliminary strategic technology research and development to enable large, multi-megawatt SSP systems and wireless power transmission (WPT) for government missions and commercial markets (in-space and terrestrial). In pursuing that goal, the SERT: (1) refined and modeled systems approaches for the utilization of SSP concepts and technologies, ranging from the near-term (e.g., for space science, exploration and commercial space applications) to the far-term (e.g., SSP for terrestrial markets), including systems concepts, architectures, technology, infrastructure (e.g. transportation), and economics; (2) conducted technology research, development and demonstration activities to produce "proof-of-concept" validation of critical SSP elements for both nearer and farther-term applications; and (3) engendered the beginnings of partnerships (nationally and internationally) that could be expanded, as appropriate, to pursue later SSP technology and applications. Through these efforts, the SERT should allow better informed future decisions regarding further SSP and related technology research and development investments by both NASA and prospective partners, and guide further definition of technology roadmaps - including performance objectives, resources and schedules, as well as "multi-purpose" applications (e.g., commerce, science, and government). This paper presents preliminary results from the SERT effort at a summary level, including the study approach, SPS concepts, applications findings, and concludes with a revised assessment of the prospects for solar power satellites using SSP technologies and systems.

When product diversification influences life cycle impact assessment: A case study of canned anchovy.

PubMed

Laso, Jara; Margallo, María; Fullana, Pére; Bala, Alba; Gazulla, Cristina; Irabien, Ángel; Aldaco, Rubén

2017-03-01

The anchovy canning industry is one of the most important economic resources of the Cantabria region in Spain. However, environmental, economic and social problems over the past years have forced companies to apply marketing strategies, develop product diversification, create new products and introduce them in new "green markets". Launching Cantabrian canned anchovies into more sustainable markets requires measuring the environmental performance using Product Category Rules (PCRs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EPDs and PCRS include the environmental profile of a range of similar products, such as all of the available canned anchovy products. The great variety of anchovy canned products depends on three process variables: the origin of the anchovy (Cantabria, Argentina and Chile or Peru), the type of oil (refined olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil) and the packaging (aluminum, tinplate, glass and plastic). This work aims to assess the environmental impact from cradle to grave of canned anchovies in oil using the life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). Moreover, the paper evaluates the influence of the above-mentioned three product variables in the LCA results. The results show that out of all of the alternatives, Chilean and Peruvian anchovies have the highest environmental burdens due to the transportation by ship. The production of anchovies in sunflower oil is a less environmentally friendly oil process due to the low yield per hectare of sunflower cultivation. Finally, the use of aluminum as the packaging material has the largest environmental impact out of almost all of the impact categories. Moreover, because the LCA results can be significantly affected by the allocation procedure, a sensitivity analysis comparing system expansion, mass and economic allocation is performed. In this case, the system expansion approach presents the highest environmental impacts followed by the mass allocation. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Refined Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercer, Peter R.

2007-01-01

The author presents a refinement of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. He shows his computations in which refinements of the triangle inequality and its reverse inequality are obtained for nonzero x and y in a normed linear space.

On macromolecular refinement at subatomic resolution with interatomic scatterers

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

Afonine, Pavel V., E-mail: pafonine@lbl.gov; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Adams, Paul D.

2007-11-01

Modelling deformation electron density using interatomic scatters is simpler than multipolar methods, produces comparable results at subatomic resolution and can easily be applied to macromolecules. A study of the accurate electron-density distribution in molecular crystals at subatomic resolution (better than ∼1.0 Å) requires more detailed models than those based on independent spherical atoms. A tool that is conventionally used in small-molecule crystallography is the multipolar model. Even at upper resolution limits of 0.8–1.0 Å, the number of experimental data is insufficient for full multipolar model refinement. As an alternative, a simpler model composed of conventional independent spherical atoms augmented bymore » additional scatterers to model bonding effects has been proposed. Refinement of these mixed models for several benchmark data sets gave results that were comparable in quality with the results of multipolar refinement and superior to those for conventional models. Applications to several data sets of both small molecules and macromolecules are shown. These refinements were performed using the general-purpose macromolecular refinement module phenix.refine of the PHENIX package.« less

Improving the accuracy of macromolecular structure refinement at 7 Å resolution.

PubMed

Brunger, Axel T; Adams, Paul D; Fromme, Petra; Fromme, Raimund; Levitt, Michael; Schröder, Gunnar F

2012-06-06

In X-ray crystallography, molecular replacement and subsequent refinement is challenging at low resolution. We compared refinement methods using synchrotron diffraction data of photosystem I at 7.4 Å resolution, starting from different initial models with increasing deviations from the known high-resolution structure. Standard refinement spoiled the initial models, moving them further away from the true structure and leading to high R(free)-values. In contrast, DEN refinement improved even the most distant starting model as judged by R(free), atomic root-mean-square differences to the true structure, significance of features not included in the initial model, and connectivity of electron density. The best protocol was DEN refinement with initial segmented rigid-body refinement. For the most distant initial model, the fraction of atoms within 2 Å of the true structure improved from 24% to 60%. We also found a significant correlation between R(free) values and the accuracy of the model, suggesting that R(free) is useful even at low resolution. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimization of palm oil physical refining process for reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) ester formation.

PubMed

Zulkurnain, Musfirah; Lai, Oi Ming; Tan, Soo Choon; Abdul Latip, Razam; Tan, Chin Ping

2013-04-03

The reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) ester formation in refined palm oil was achieved by incorporation of additional processing steps in the physical refining process to remove chloroester precursors prior to the deodorization step. The modified refining process was optimized for the least 3-MCPD ester formation and acceptable refined palm oil quality using response surface methodology (RSM) with five processing parameters: water dosage, phosphoric acid dosage, degumming temperature, activated clay dosage, and deodorization temperature. The removal of chloroester precursors was largely accomplished by increasing the water dosage, while the reduction of 3-MCPD esters was a compromise in oxidative stability and color of the refined palm oil because some factors such as acid dosage, degumming temperature, and deodorization temperature showed contradictory effects. The optimization resulted in 87.2% reduction of 3-MCPD esters from 2.9 mg/kg in the conventional refining process to 0.4 mg/kg, with color and oil stability index values of 2.4 R and 14.3 h, respectively.

The National Practice Benchmark for Oncology: 2015 Report for 2014 Data

PubMed Central

Balch, Carla; Ogle, John D.

2016-01-01

The National Practice Benchmark (NPB) is a unique tool used to measure oncology practices against others across the country in a meaningful way despite variations in practice demographics, size, and setting. In today’s challenging economic environment, each practice positions service offerings and competitive advantages to attract patients. Although the data in the NPB report are primarily reported by community oncology practices, the business structure and arrangements with regional health care systems are also reflected in the benchmark report. The ability to produce detailed metrics is an accomplishment of excellence in business and clinical management. With these metrics, a practice should be able to measure and analyze its current business practices and make appropriate changes, if necessary. In this report, we build on the foundation initially established by Oncology Metrics (acquired by Flatiron Health in 2014) over years of data collection and refine definitions to deliver the NPB, which is uniquely meaningful in the oncology market. PMID:27006357

The Role of System Thinking Development and Experiential Learning on Enterprise Transformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez, Gabriel

The recent economic downturn has had global repercussions in all businesses alike. Competition is fierce and a survival of the fittest model is always present; fast delivery times and innovative designs ultimately translate into the enterprises' bottom line. In such market conditions, enterprises have to find ways to develop and train their workforce in a manner that enhances the innovative capabilities of the enterprise. Additionally, if companies are to stay competitive, they have to ensure critical skills in their workforce are transferred from generation to generation. This study builds on recent research on system-thinking development via experiential learning methodologies. First, a conceptual framework model was developed. This conceptual model captures a methodology to construct a system-thinking apprenticeship program suitable for system engineers. Secondly, a survey of system engineering professionals was conducted in order to assess and refine the proposed conceptual model. This dissertation captures the findings of the conceptual model and the implications of the study for enterprises and for system engineering organizations.

Automatic Welding System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1982-01-01

Robotic welding has been of interest to industrial firms because it offers higher productivity at lower cost than manual welding. There are some systems with automated arc guidance available, but they have disadvantages, such as limitations on types of materials or types of seams that can be welded; susceptibility to stray electrical signals; restricted field of view; or tendency to contaminate the weld seam. Wanting to overcome these disadvantages, Marshall Space Flight Center, aided by Hayes International Corporation, developed system that uses closed-circuit TV signals for automatic guidance of the welding torch. NASA granted license to Combined Technologies, Inc. for commercial application of the technology. They developed a refined and improved arc guidance system. CTI in turn, licensed the Merrick Corporation, also of Nashville, for marketing and manufacturing of the new system, called the CT2 Optical Trucker. CT2 is a non-contracting system that offers adaptability to broader range of welding jobs and provides greater reliability in high speed operation. It is extremely accurate and can travel at high speed of up to 150 inches per minute.

Design and application of a small size SAFT imaging system for concrete structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Zhixue; Shi, Lihua; Shao, Zhe; Cai, Jian

2011-07-01

A method of ultrasonic imaging detection is presented for quick non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete structures using synthesized aperture focusing technology (SAFT). A low cost ultrasonic sensor array consisting of 12 market available low frequency ultrasonic transducers is designed and manufactured. A channel compensation method is proposed to improve the consistency of different transducers. The controlling devices for array scan as well as the virtual instrument for SAFT imaging are designed. In the coarse scan mode with the scan step of 50 mm, the system can quickly give an image display of a cross section of 600 mm (L) × 300 mm (D) by one measurement. In the refined scan model, the system can reduce the scan step and give an image display of the same cross section by moving the sensor array several times. Experiments on staircase specimen, concrete slab with embedded target, and building floor with underground pipe line all verify the efficiency of the proposed method.

From "Where" to "What": Distributed Representations of Brand Associations in the Human Brain.

PubMed

Chen, Yu-Ping; Nelson, Leif D; Hsu, Ming

2015-08-01

Considerable attention has been given to the notion that there exists a set of human-like characteristics associated with brands, referred to as brand personality. Here we combine newly available machine learning techniques with functional neuroimaging data to characterize the set of processes that give rise to these associations. We show that brand personality traits can be captured by the weighted activity across a widely distributed set of brain regions previously implicated in reasoning, imagery, and affective processing. That is, as opposed to being constructed via reflective processes, brand personality traits appear to exist a priori inside the minds of consumers, such that we were able to predict what brand a person is thinking about based solely on the relationship between brand personality associations and brain activity. These findings represent an important advance in the application of neuroscientific methods to consumer research, moving from work focused on cataloguing brain regions associated with marketing stimuli to testing and refining mental constructs central to theories of consumer behavior.

Fleet Evaluation and Factory Installation of Aerodynamic Heavy Duty Truck Trailers

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

Beck, Jason; Salari, Kambiz; Ortega, Jason

2013-09-30

The purpose of DE-EE0001552 was to develop and deploy a combination of trailer aerodynamic devices and low rolling resistance tires that reduce fuel consumption of a class 8 heavy duty tractor-trailer combination vehicle by 15%. There were 3 phases of the project: Phase 1 – Perform SAE Typed 2 track tests with multiple device combinations. Phase 2 – Conduct a fleet evaluation with selected device combination. Phase 3 – Develop the devices required to manufacture the aerodynamic trailer. All 3 phases have been completed. There is an abundance of available trailer devices on the market, and fleets and owner operatorsmore » have awareness of them and are purchasing them. The products developed in conjunction with this project are at least in their second round of refinement. The fleet test undertaken showed an improvement of 5.5 – 7.8% fuel economy with the devices (This does not include tire contribution).« less

Design and Operation of Cryogenic Distillation Research Column for Ultra-Low Background Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiller, Christopher; Alanson Chiller, Angela; Jasinski, Benjamin; Snyder, Nathan; Mei, Dongming

2013-04-01

Motivated by isotopically enriched germanium (76Ge and 73Ge) for monocrystalline crystal growth for neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter experiments, a cryogenic distillation research column was developed. Without market availability of distillation columns in the temperature range of interest with capabilities necessary for our purposes, we designed, fabricated, tested, refined and operated a two-meter research column for purifying and separating gases in the temperature range from 100-200K. Due to interest in defining stratification, purity and throughput optimization, capillary lines were integrated at four equidistant points along the length of the column such that real-time residual gas analysis could guide the investigation. Interior gas column temperatures were monitored and controlled within 0.1oK accuracy at the top and bottom. Pressures were monitored at the top of the column to four significant figures. Subsequent impurities were measured at partial pressures below 2E-8torr. We report the performance of the column in this paper.

A history of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) in self-monitoring of diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Olczuk, David; Priefer, Ronny

Self-monitoring of glucose for individuals afflicted with diabetes mellitus has allowed patients to take control of their disease and thus directly affect the outcomes related to it. It has been almost a century since the first test to monitor one's sugar was developed; that being a urine test. The most well-known and prominent medical device for monitor blood glucose for individuals with diabetes are the finger-prick devices. This itself is an approximately 50year old technology. More recently has been the introduction of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) which entered the market place in the last year of the 20th century. As this technology has been further refined and improved, limitations associated with it have decreased. The scope of this review is to present a brief history of CGMs, both with the development of these medical devices and the challenges/limitations that they have shown. Copyright © 2017 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Economic aspects of rural sanitation in the United States of America*

PubMed Central

Hollis, Mark D.

1954-01-01

Although health conditions in the rural areas of the USA are comparatively good, they are inferior to those in the urban areas. An important reason for this inferiority is the fact that rural sanitation is less a social responsibility than an individual responsibility, which many rural families cannot finance. The rural culture imposes many handicaps on the rural family's health and wealth. Such handicaps may be moderated by sanitation and related social and economic measures, if the measures selected are appropriate to the local needs and resources, which may vary greatly. Although sanitation needs are common to all rural areas, the refinement and complexity of sanitation facilities and services cannot be uniform. Allowing for variable circumstances, however, the basic elements of rural sanitation in the USA can be realized within a generation. The probable net gains in farm productivity would seem to warrant support for a rural sanitation programme on economic grounds alone, if an economic market may be assumed for the increase in agricultural production. PMID:13160756

Estimates of electricity requirements for the recovery of mineral commodities, with examples applied to sub-Saharan Africa

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bleiwas, Donald I.

2011-01-01

To produce materials from mine to market it is necessary to overcome obstacles that include the force of gravity, the strength of molecular bonds, and technological inefficiencies. These challenges are met by the application of energy to accomplish the work that includes the direct use of electricity, fossil fuel, and manual labor. The tables and analyses presented in this study contain estimates of electricity consumption for the mining and processing of ores, concentrates, intermediate products, and industrial and refined metallic commodities on a kilowatt-hour per unit basis, primarily the metric ton or troy ounce. Data contained in tables pertaining to specific currently operating facilities are static, as the amount of electricity consumed to process or produce a unit of material changes over time for a great number of reasons. Estimates were developed from diverse sources that included feasibility studies, company-produced annual and sustainability reports, conference proceedings, discussions with government and industry experts, journal articles, reference texts, and studies by nongovernmental organizations.

The agriburb: recalling the suburban side of Ontario, California's agricultural colonization.

PubMed

Sandul, Paul J P

2010-01-01

This essay spotlights the development of Ontario, California, in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates that many agricultural communities in California, particularly so-called agricultural colonies, represent a unique rural suburban type labeled here as "agriburbs." Agriburbs, such as Ontario, were communities consciously planned, developed, and promoted based on the drive for profit in emerging agricultural markets. Advertised as the perfect mix of rural and urban, they promised a superior middle-class lifestyle. On the one hand, agriburbs evoked the myths of agrarian security and virtue, a life on a farm in an environment that was good for both soil and soul. On the other hand, agriburbs were ideally urbane but not urban because of their many amenities that represented cultural symbols of modernity, refinement, and progress. An understanding of California's agriburbs deepens an appreciation for both the growth and development of California at the turn of the twentieth century and the diversity of suburban types across the American landscape.

InGaN High-Temperature Photovoltaic Cells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Starikov, David

2015-01-01

This Phase II project developed Indium-Gallium-Nitride (InGaN) photovoltaic cells for high-temperature and high-radiation environments. The project included theoretical and experimental refinement of device structures produced in Phase I as well as modeling and optimization of solar cell device processing. The devices have been tested under concentrated air mass zero (AM0) sunlight, at temperatures from 100 degC to 250 degC, and after exposure to ionizing radiation. The results are expected to further verify that InGaN can be used for high-temperature and high-radiation solar cells. The large commercial solar cell market could benefit from the hybridization of InGaN materials to existing solar cell technology, which would significantly increase cell efficiency without relying on highly toxic compounds. In addition, further development of this technology to even lower bandgap materials for space applications would extend lifetimes of satellite solar cell arrays due to increased radiation hardness. This could be of importance to the Departmentof Defense (DoD) and commercial satellite manufacturers.

From “Where” to “What”: Distributed Representations of Brand Associations in the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Chen, Yu-Ping; Nelson, Leif D.; Hsu, Ming

2015-01-01

Considerable attention has been given to the notion that there exists a set of human-like characteristics associated with brands, referred to as brand personality. Here we combine newly available machine learning techniques with functional neuroimaging data to characterize the set of processes that give rise to these associations. We show that brand personality traits can be captured by the weighted activity across a widely distributed set of brain regions previously implicated in reasoning, imagery, and affective processing. That is, as opposed to being constructed via reflective processes, brand personality traits appear to exist a priori inside the minds of consumers, such that we were able to predict what brand a person is thinking about based solely on the relationship between brand personality associations and brain activity. These findings represent an important advance in the application of neuroscientific methods to consumer research, moving from work focused on cataloguing brain regions associated with marketing stimuli to testing and refining mental constructs central to theories of consumer behavior. PMID:27065490

Conceptual design of the 7 megawatt Mod-5B wind turbine generator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Douglas, R. R.

1982-01-01

Similar to MOD-2, the MOD-5B wind turbine generator system is designed for the sole purpose of providing electrical power for distribution by a major utility network. The objectives of the MOD-2 and MOD-5B programs are essentially identical with one important exception; the cost-of-electricity (COE) target is reduced from 4 cent/Kwhr on MOD-2 to 3 cent/Kwhr on MOD-5B, based on mid 1977 dollars and large quantity production. The MOD-5B concept studies and eventual concept selection confirmed that the program COE targets could not only be achieved but substantially bettered. Starting from the established MOD-2 technology as a base, this achievement resulted from a combination of concept changes, size changes, and design refinements. The result of this effort is a wind turbine system that can compete with conventional power generation over significant geographical areas, increasing commercial market potential by an order of magnitude.

The feasibility of effluent trading in the oil and gas industry

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

Veil, J.A.

1997-09-01

In January 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a policy statement endorsing wastewater effluent trading in watersheds, hoping to promote additional interest in the subject. The policy describes five types of effluent trades - point source/point source, point source/nonpoint source, pretreatment, intraplant, and nonpoint source/nonpoint source. This paper evaluates the feasibility of effluent trading for facilities in the oil and gas industry. The evaluation leads to the conclusion that potential for effluent trading is very low in the exploration and production and distribution and marketing sectors; trading potential is moderate for the refining sector except for intraplant trades,more » for which the potential is high. Good potential also exists for other types of water-related trades that do not directly involve effluents (e.g., wetlands mitigation banking). The potential for effluent trading in the energy industries and in other sectors would be enhanced if Congress amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) to formally authorize such trading.« less

Max Tech Efficiency Electric HPWH with low-GWP Halogenated Refrigerant

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

Nawaz, Kashif; Shen, Bo; Elatar, Ahmed F.

A scoping-level analysis was conducted to determine the maximum performance of an electric heat pump water heater (HPWH) with low GWP refrigerants (hydroflouroolefins (HFO), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), and blends). A baseline heat pump water heater (GE GeoSpring) deploying R-134a was analyzed first using the DOE/ORNL Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM) modeling tool. The model was calibrated using experimental data to match the water temperature stratification in tank, first hour rating, energy factor and coefficient of performance. A CFD modeling tool was used to further refine the HPDM tank model. After calibration, the model was used to simulate the performance of alternativemore » refrigerants. The parametric analysis concluded that by appropriate selection of equipment size and condenser tube wrap configuration the overall performance of emerging low GWP refrigerants for HPWH application not only exceed the Energy Star Energy Factor criteria i.e. 2.20, but is also comparable to some of the most efficient products in the market.« less

The effect of oxyalkylation and application of polymer dispersions on the thermoformability and extensibility of paper.

PubMed

Kouko, Jarmo; Setälä, Harri; Tanaka, Atsushi; Khakalo, Alexey; Ropponen, Jarmo; Retulainen, Elias

2018-04-15

Wood fiber-based packaging materials, as renewable materials, have growing market potential due to their sustainability. A new breakthrough in cellulose-based packaging requires some improvement in the mechanical properties of paper. Bleached softwood kraft pulp was mechanically treated, in two stages, using high- and low-consistency refining, sequentially. Chemical treatment of pulp using the oxyalkylation method was applied to modify a portion of fiber material, especially the fiber surface, and its compatibility with polymer dispersions including one carbohydrate polymer. The results showed that the compatibility of the cellulosic fibers with some polymers could be improved with oxyalkylation. By adjusting mechanical and chemical treatments, and the thermoforming conditions, the formability of paper was improved, but simultaneously the strength and stiffness decreased. The results suggest that the formability of the paper is not a direct function of the extensibility of the applied polymer, but also depends on the fiber network structure and surface energy. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

K-Means Subject Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-Means U.S. Army TRADOC Analysis Center-Monterey 700 Dyer Road...January 2017 K-means Subject Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-Means Theodore T. Allen, Ph.D. Zhenhuan...Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-means 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W9124N-15-P-0022 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c

CERA; Refiners can cope with CAA requirements

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

Not Available

1992-02-17

This paper reports on a study conducted for the Department of Energy which predicts initial reformulated gasoline requirements in 1995 won't pose significant technical problems for U.S. refiners. But nearly all refiners will have to make added investments. Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) prepared the study for DOE on critical issues affecting refiners and U.S. product supplies in the 1990s, particularly the effects of the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments.

A grid-enabled web service for low-resolution crystal structure refinement.

PubMed

O'Donovan, Daniel J; Stokes-Rees, Ian; Nam, Yunsun; Blacklow, Stephen C; Schröder, Gunnar F; Brunger, Axel T; Sliz, Piotr

2012-03-01

Deformable elastic network (DEN) restraints have proved to be a powerful tool for refining structures from low-resolution X-ray crystallographic data sets. Unfortunately, optimal refinement using DEN restraints requires extensive calculations and is often hindered by a lack of access to sufficient computational resources. The DEN web service presented here intends to provide structural biologists with access to resources for running computationally intensive DEN refinements in parallel on the Open Science Grid, the US cyberinfrastructure. Access to the grid is provided through a simple and intuitive web interface integrated into the SBGrid Science Portal. Using this portal, refinements combined with full parameter optimization that would take many thousands of hours on standard computational resources can now be completed in several hours. An example of the successful application of DEN restraints to the human Notch1 transcriptional complex using the grid resource, and summaries of all submitted refinements, are presented as justification.

Production of a refined biooil derived by fast pyrolysis of chicken manure with chemical and physical characteristics close to those of fossil fuels.

PubMed

Monreal, Carlos M; Schnitzer, Morris

2011-01-01

The chemical and physical properties of raw biooils prevent their direct use in combustion engines. We processed raw pyrolytic biooil derived from chicken manure to yield a colorless refined biooil with diesel qualities. Chemical characterization of the refined biooil involved elemental and several spectroscopic analyses. The physical measurements employed were viscosity, density and heat of combustion. The elemental composition (% wt/wt) of the refined biooil was 82.7 % C, 15.3 % H, 0.2 % N and 1.8 % O, no S. Its viscosity was 0.006 Pa.s and a heat of combustion of 43 MJ kg(-1). The refined biooil fraction contains n-alkanes, ranging from n-C(14) to n-C(27), alkenes varying from C(10:1) to C(22:1), and long-chain alcohols. The refined biooil makes a good diesel fuel due to its chemical and physical properties.

Magnesium Recycling of Partially Oxidized, Mixed Magnesium-Aluminum Scrap through Combined Refining and Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis Processes

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

Xiaofei Guan; Peter A. Zink; Uday B. Pal

2012-01-01

Pure magnesium (Mg) is recycled from 19g of partially oxidized 50.5wt.% Mg-Aluminum (Al) alloy. During the refining process, potentiodynamic scans (PDS) were performed to determine the electrorefining potential for magnesium. The PDS show that the electrorefining potential increases over time as the magnesium content inside the Mg-Al scrap decreases. Up to 100% percent of magnesium is refined from the Mg-Al scrap by a novel refining process of dissolving magnesium and its oxide into a flux followed by vapor phase removal of dissolved magnesium and subsequently condensing the magnesium vapor. The solid oxide membrane (SOM) electrolysis process is employed in themore » refining system to enable additional recycling of magnesium from magnesium oxide (MgO) in the partially oxidized Mg-Al scrap. The combination of the refining and SOM processes yields 7.4g of pure magnesium.« less

Optimizing Biorefinery Design and Operations via Linear Programming Models

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

Talmadge, Michael; Batan, Liaw; Lamers, Patrick

The ability to assess and optimize economics of biomass resource utilization for the production of fuels, chemicals and power is essential for the ultimate success of a bioenergy industry. The team of authors, consisting of members from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), has developed simple biorefinery linear programming (LP) models to enable the optimization of theoretical or existing biorefineries. The goal of this analysis is to demonstrate how such models can benefit the developing biorefining industry. It focuses on a theoretical multi-pathway, thermochemical biorefinery configuration and demonstrates how the biorefinery can use LPmore » models for operations planning and optimization in comparable ways to the petroleum refining industry. Using LP modeling tools developed under U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office (DOE-BETO) funded efforts, the authors investigate optimization challenges for the theoretical biorefineries such as (1) optimal feedstock slate based on available biomass and prices, (2) breakeven price analysis for available feedstocks, (3) impact analysis for changes in feedstock costs and product prices, (4) optimal biorefinery operations during unit shutdowns / turnarounds, and (5) incentives for increased processing capacity. These biorefinery examples are comparable to crude oil purchasing and operational optimization studies that petroleum refiners perform routinely using LPs and other optimization models. It is important to note that the analyses presented in this article are strictly theoretical and they are not based on current energy market prices. The pricing structure assigned for this demonstrative analysis is consistent with $4 per gallon gasoline, which clearly assumes an economic environment that would favor the construction and operation of biorefineries. The analysis approach and examples provide valuable insights into the usefulness of analysis tools for maximizing the potential benefits of biomass utilization for production of fuels, chemicals and power.« less

Aquatic risk assessment of pesticides in Latin America.

PubMed

Carriquiriborde, Pedro; Mirabella, Paula; Waichman, Andrea; Solomon, Keith; Van den Brink, Paul J; Maund, Steve

2014-10-01

Latin America is anticipated to be a major growth market for agriculture and production is increasing with use of technologies such as pesticides. Reports of contamination of aquatic ecosystems by pesticides in Latin America have raised concerns about potential for adverse ecological effects. In the registration process of pesticides, all countries require significant data packages on aquatic toxicology and environmental fate. However, there are usually no specific requirements to conduct an aquatic risk assessment. To address this issue, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry organized a workshop that brought together scientists from academia, government, and industry to review and elaborate on aquatic risk assessment frameworks that can be implemented into regulation of pesticides in Latin America. The workshop concluded that the international framework for risk assessments (protection goals, effects, and exposure assessments, risk characterization, and risk mitigation) is broadly applicable in Latin America but needs further refinement for the use in the region. Some of the challenges associated with these refinements are discussed in the article. It was recognized that there is potential for data sharing both within and outside of the region where conditions are similar. However, there is a need for research to compare local species and environmental conditions to those in other jurisdictions to be able to evaluate the applicability of data used in other countries. Development should also focus on human resources as there is a need to build local capacity and capability, and scientific collaboration and exchange between stakeholders in industry, government, and academia is also important. The meeting also emphasized that, although establishing a regionally relevant risk assessment framework is important, this also needs to be accompanied by enforcement of developed regulations and good management practices to help protect aquatic habitats. Education, training, and communication efforts are needed to achieve this. © 2014 SETAC.

40 CFR 80.330 - What are the sampling and testing requirements for refiners and importers?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... an exemption under this section, upon notification from EPA, the refiner's exemption will be void ab initio. (b) Sampling methods. For purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, refiners and importers shall...

40 CFR 80.1339 - Who is not eligible for the provisions for small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... section, the refiner may not generate gasoline benzene credits under § 80.1275(b)(3) for any of its...

40 CFR 80.1339 - Who is not eligible for the provisions for small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... section, the refiner may not generate gasoline benzene credits under § 80.1275(b)(3) for any of its...

40 CFR 80.1339 - Who is not eligible for the provisions for small refiners?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Benzene Small Refiner... section, the refiner may not generate gasoline benzene credits under § 80.1275(b)(3) for any of its...

40 CFR 80.330 - What are the sampling and testing requirements for refiners and importers?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... an exemption under this section, upon notification from EPA, the refiner's exemption will be void ab initio. (b) Sampling methods. For purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, refiners and importers shall...

40 CFR 80.330 - What are the sampling and testing requirements for refiners and importers?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... an exemption under this section, upon notification from EPA, the refiner's exemption will be void ab initio. (b) Sampling methods. For purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, refiners and importers shall...

40 CFR 80.330 - What are the sampling and testing requirements for refiners and importers?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... an exemption under this section, upon notification from EPA, the refiner's exemption will be void ab initio. (b) Sampling methods. For purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, refiners and importers shall...

40 CFR 80.330 - What are the sampling and testing requirements for refiners and importers?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... an exemption under this section, upon notification from EPA, the refiner's exemption will be void ab initio. (b) Sampling methods. For purposes of paragraph (a) of this section, refiners and importers shall...

Finite element mesh refinement criteria for stress analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kittur, Madan G.; Huston, Ronald L.

1990-01-01

This paper discusses procedures for finite-element mesh selection and refinement. The objective is to improve accuracy. The procedures are based on (1) the minimization of the stiffness matrix race (optimizing node location); (2) the use of h-version refinement (rezoning, element size reduction, and increasing the number of elements); and (3) the use of p-version refinement (increasing the order of polynomial approximation of the elements). A step-by-step procedure of mesh selection, improvement, and refinement is presented. The criteria for 'goodness' of a mesh are based on strain energy, displacement, and stress values at selected critical points of a structure. An analysis of an aircraft lug problem is presented as an example.

Process for solvent refining of coal using a denitrogenated and dephenolated solvent

DOEpatents

Garg, Diwakar; Givens, Edwin N.; Schweighardt, Frank K.

1984-01-01

A process is disclosed for the solvent refining of non-anthracitic coal at elevated temperatures and pressure in a hydrogen atmosphere using a hydrocarbon solvent which before being recycled in the solvent refining process is subjected to chemical treatment to extract substantially all nitrogenous and phenolic constituents from the solvent so as to improve the conversion of coal and the production of oil in the solvent refining process. The solvent refining process can be either thermal or catalytic. The extraction of nitrogenous compounds can be performed by acid contact such as hydrogen chloride or fluoride treatment, while phenolic extraction can be performed by caustic contact or contact with a mixture of silica and alumina.

ADAPTIVE TETRAHEDRAL GRID REFINEMENT AND COARSENING IN MESSAGE-PASSING ENVIRONMENTS

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

Hallberg, J.; Stagg, A.

2000-10-01

A grid refinement and coarsening scheme has been developed for tetrahedral and triangular grid-based calculations in message-passing environments. The element adaption scheme is based on an edge bisection of elements marked for refinement by an appropriate error indicator. Hash-table/linked-list data structures are used to store nodal and element formation. The grid along inter-processor boundaries is refined and coarsened consistently with the update of these data structures via MPI calls. The parallel adaption scheme has been applied to the solution of a transient, three-dimensional, nonlinear, groundwater flow problem. Timings indicate efficiency of the grid refinement process relative to the flow solvermore » calculations.« less

An object-oriented approach for parallel self adaptive mesh refinement on block structured grids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lemke, Max; Witsch, Kristian; Quinlan, Daniel

1993-01-01

Self-adaptive mesh refinement dynamically matches the computational demands of a solver for partial differential equations to the activity in the application's domain. In this paper we present two C++ class libraries, P++ and AMR++, which significantly simplify the development of sophisticated adaptive mesh refinement codes on (massively) parallel distributed memory architectures. The development is based on our previous research in this area. The C++ class libraries provide abstractions to separate the issues of developing parallel adaptive mesh refinement applications into those of parallelism, abstracted by P++, and adaptive mesh refinement, abstracted by AMR++. P++ is a parallel array class library to permit efficient development of architecture independent codes for structured grid applications, and AMR++ provides support for self-adaptive mesh refinement on block-structured grids of rectangular non-overlapping blocks. Using these libraries, the application programmers' work is greatly simplified to primarily specifying the serial single grid application and obtaining the parallel and self-adaptive mesh refinement code with minimal effort. Initial results for simple singular perturbation problems solved by self-adaptive multilevel techniques (FAC, AFAC), being implemented on the basis of prototypes of the P++/AMR++ environment, are presented. Singular perturbation problems frequently arise in large applications, e.g. in the area of computational fluid dynamics. They usually have solutions with layers which require adaptive mesh refinement and fast basic solvers in order to be resolved efficiently.

Re-refinement from deposited X-ray data can deliver improved models for most PDB entries

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

Joosten, Robbie P.; Womack, Thomas; Vriend, Gert, E-mail: vriend@cmbi.ru.nl

2009-02-01

An evaluation of validation and real-space intervention possibilities for improving existing automated (re-)refinement methods. The deposition of X-ray data along with the customary structural models defining PDB entries makes it possible to apply large-scale re-refinement protocols to these entries, thus giving users the benefit of improvements in X-ray methods that have occurred since the structure was deposited. Automated gradient refinement is an effective method to achieve this goal, but real-space intervention is most often required in order to adequately address problems detected by structure-validation software. In order to improve the existing protocol, automated re-refinement was combined with structure validation andmore » difference-density peak analysis to produce a catalogue of problems in PDB entries that are amenable to automatic correction. It is shown that re-refinement can be effective in producing improvements, which are often associated with the systematic use of the TLS parameterization of B factors, even for relatively new and high-resolution PDB entries, while the accompanying manual or semi-manual map analysis and fitting steps show good prospects for eventual automation. It is proposed that the potential for simultaneous improvements in methods and in re-refinement results be further encouraged by broadening the scope of depositions to include refinement metadata and ultimately primary rather than reduced X-ray data.« less

Accurate macromolecular crystallographic refinement: incorporation of the linear scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics program DivCon into the PHENIX refinement package.

PubMed

Borbulevych, Oleg Y; Plumley, Joshua A; Martin, Roger I; Merz, Kenneth M; Westerhoff, Lance M

2014-05-01

Macromolecular crystallographic refinement relies on sometimes dubious stereochemical restraints and rudimentary energy functionals to ensure the correct geometry of the model of the macromolecule and any covalently bound ligand(s). The ligand stereochemical restraint file (CIF) requires a priori understanding of the ligand geometry within the active site, and creation of the CIF is often an error-prone process owing to the great variety of potential ligand chemistry and structure. Stereochemical restraints have been replaced with more robust functionals through the integration of the linear-scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics (SE-QM) program DivCon with the PHENIX X-ray refinement engine. The PHENIX/DivCon package has been thoroughly validated on a population of 50 protein-ligand Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures with a range of resolutions and chemistry. The PDB structures used for the validation were originally refined utilizing various refinement packages and were published within the past five years. PHENIX/DivCon does not utilize CIF(s), link restraints and other parameters for refinement and hence it does not make as many a priori assumptions about the model. Across the entire population, the method results in reasonable ligand geometries and low ligand strains, even when the original refinement exhibited difficulties, indicating that PHENIX/DivCon is applicable to both single-structure and high-throughput crystallography.

40 CFR 80.1342 - What compliance options are available to small refiners under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1342 What compliance options are available to small refiners under... this section must comply with the applicable benzene standards at § 80.1230 beginning with the first...

40 CFR 80.1342 - What compliance options are available to small refiners under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1342 What compliance options are available to small refiners under... this section must comply with the applicable benzene standards at § 80.1230 beginning with the first...

40 CFR 80.1342 - What compliance options are available to small refiners under this subpart?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Benzene Small Refiner Provisions § 80.1342 What compliance options are available to small refiners under... this section must comply with the applicable benzene standards at § 80.1230 beginning with the first...

Application of DEN refinement and automated model building to a difficult case of molecular-replacement phasing: the structure of a putative succinyl-diaminopimelate desuccinylase from Corynebacterium glutamicum.

PubMed

Brunger, Axel T; Das, Debanu; Deacon, Ashley M; Grant, Joanna; Terwilliger, Thomas C; Read, Randy J; Adams, Paul D; Levitt, Michael; Schröder, Gunnar F

2012-04-01

Phasing by molecular replacement remains difficult for targets that are far from the search model or in situations where the crystal diffracts only weakly or to low resolution. Here, the process of determining and refining the structure of Cgl1109, a putative succinyl-diaminopimelate desuccinylase from Corynebacterium glutamicum, at ∼3 Å resolution is described using a combination of homology modeling with MODELLER, molecular-replacement phasing with Phaser, deformable elastic network (DEN) refinement and automated model building using AutoBuild in a semi-automated fashion, followed by final refinement cycles with phenix.refine and Coot. This difficult molecular-replacement case illustrates the power of including DEN restraints derived from a starting model to guide the movements of the model during refinement. The resulting improved model phases provide better starting points for automated model building and produce more significant difference peaks in anomalous difference Fourier maps to locate anomalous scatterers than does standard refinement. This example also illustrates a current limitation of automated procedures that require manual adjustment of local sequence misalignments between the homology model and the target sequence.

Application of DEN refinement and automated model building to a difficult case of molecular-replacement phasing: the structure of a putative succinyl-diaminopimelate desuccinylase from Corynebacterium glutamicum

PubMed Central

Brunger, Axel T.; Das, Debanu; Deacon, Ashley M.; Grant, Joanna; Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Read, Randy J.; Adams, Paul D.; Levitt, Michael; Schröder, Gunnar F.

2012-01-01

Phasing by molecular replacement remains difficult for targets that are far from the search model or in situations where the crystal diffracts only weakly or to low resolution. Here, the process of determining and refining the structure of Cgl1109, a putative succinyl-diaminopimelate desuccinylase from Corynebacterium glutamicum, at ∼3 Å resolution is described using a combination of homology modeling with MODELLER, molecular-replacement phasing with Phaser, deformable elastic network (DEN) refinement and automated model building using AutoBuild in a semi-automated fashion, followed by final refinement cycles with phenix.refine and Coot. This difficult molecular-replacement case illustrates the power of including DEN restraints derived from a starting model to guide the movements of the model during refinement. The resulting improved model phases provide better starting points for automated model building and produce more significant difference peaks in anomalous difference Fourier maps to locate anomalous scatterers than does standard refinement. This example also illustrates a current limitation of automated procedures that require manual adjustment of local sequence misalignments between the homology model and the target sequence. PMID:22505259

40 CFR 80.235 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... commercial delivery: U.S. EPA, Attn: Sulfur Program (6406J), 501 3rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. (c.... The information submitted must show that the refiner employed an average of no more than 1500 people...

7 CFR 1530.100 - General statement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... the Refined Sugar Re-Export Program, the Sugar Containing Products Re-Export Program, and the Polyhydric Alcohol Program. Under these provisions, refiners may enter raw sugar unrestricted by the...

7 CFR 1530.100 - General statement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... the Refined Sugar Re-Export Program, the Sugar Containing Products Re-Export Program, and the Polyhydric Alcohol Program. Under these provisions, refiners may enter raw sugar unrestricted by the...

7 CFR 1530.100 - General statement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... the Refined Sugar Re-Export Program, the Sugar Containing Products Re-Export Program, and the Polyhydric Alcohol Program. Under these provisions, refiners may enter raw sugar unrestricted by the...

7 CFR 1530.100 - General statement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... OF AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM... the Refined Sugar Re-Export Program, the Sugar Containing Products Re-Export Program, and the Polyhydric Alcohol Program. Under these provisions, refiners may enter raw sugar unrestricted by the...

7 CFR 3201.28 - Stationary equipment hydraulic fluids.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... cases, overlap with the EPA-designated recovered content product: Re-refined lubricating oils. USDA is... in determining whether or not a qualifying biobased product overlaps with EPA-designated re-refined... U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated re-refined lubricating oils containing recovered...

7 CFR 3201.28 - Stationary equipment hydraulic fluids.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... cases, overlap with the EPA-designated recovered content product: Re-refined lubricating oils. USDA is... in determining whether or not a qualifying biobased product overlaps with EPA-designated re-refined... U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated re-refined lubricating oils containing recovered...

7 CFR 3201.28 - Stationary equipment hydraulic fluids.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... cases, overlap with the EPA-designated recovered content product: Re-refined lubricating oils. USDA is... in determining whether or not a qualifying biobased product overlaps with EPA-designated re-refined... U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated re-refined lubricating oils containing recovered...

Increasing the Cryogenic Toughness of Steels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rush, H. F.

1986-01-01

Grain-refining heat treatments increase toughness without substantial strength loss. Five alloys selected for study, all at or near technological limit. Results showed clearly grain sizes of these alloys refined by such heat treatments and grain refinement results in large improvement in toughness without substantial loss in strength. Best improvements seen in HP-9-4-20 Steel, at low-strength end of technological limit, and in Maraging 200, at high-strength end. These alloys, in grain refined condition, considered for model applications in high-Reynolds-number cryogenic wind tunnels.

Initiating technical refinements in high-level golfers: Evidence for contradictory procedures.

PubMed

Carson, Howie J; Collins, Dave; Richards, Jim

2016-01-01

When developing motor skills there are several outcomes available to an athlete depending on their skill status and needs. Whereas the skill acquisition and performance literature is abundant, an under-researched outcome relates to the refinement of already acquired and well-established skills. Contrary to current recommendations for athletes to employ an external focus of attention and a representative practice design,  Carson and  Collins' (2011) [Refining and regaining skills in fixation/diversification stage performers: The Five-A Model. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 146-167. doi: 10.1080/1750984x.2011.613682 ] Five-A Model requires an initial narrowed internal focus on the technical aspect needing refinement: the implication being that environments which limit external sources of information would be beneficial to achieving this task. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to (1) provide a literature-based explanation for why techniques counter to current recommendations may be (temporarily) appropriate within the skill refinement process and (2) provide empirical evidence for such efficacy. Kinematic data and self-perception reports are provided from high-level golfers attempting to consciously initiate technical refinements while executing shots onto a driving range and into a close proximity net (i.e. with limited knowledge of results). It was hypothesised that greater control over intended refinements would occur when environmental stimuli were reduced in the most unrepresentative practice condition (i.e. hitting into a net). Results confirmed this, as evidenced by reduced intra-individual movement variability for all participants' individual refinements, despite little or no difference in mental effort reported. This research offers coaches guidance when working with performers who may find conscious recall difficult during the skill refinement process.

Comparison of oil refining and biodiesel production process between screw press and n-hexane techniques from beauty leaf feedstock

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhuiya, M. M. K.; Rasul, M. G.; Khan, M. M. K.; Ashwath, N.

2016-07-01

The Beauty Leaf Tree (Callophylum inophyllum) is regarded as an alternative source of energy to produce 2nd generation biodiesel due to its potentiality as well as high oil yield content in the seed kernels. The treating process is indispensable during the biodiesel production process because it can augment the yield as well as quality of the product. Oil extracted from both mechanical screw press and solvent extraction using n-hexane was refined. Five replications each of 25 gm of crude oil for screw press and five replications each of 25 gm of crude oil for n-hexane were selected for refining as well as biodiesel conversion processes. The oil refining processes consists of degumming, neutralization as well as dewaxing. The degumming, neutralization and dewaxing processes were performed to remove all the gums (phosphorous-based compounds), free fatty acids, and waxes from the fresh crude oil before the biodiesel conversion process carried out, respectively. The results indicated that up to 73% and 81% of mass conversion efficiency of the refined oil in the screw press and n-hexane refining processes were obtained, respectively. It was also found that up to 88% and 90% of biodiesel were yielded in terms of mass conversion efficiency in the transesterification process for the screw press and n-hexane techniques, respectively. While the entire processes (refining and transesterification) were considered, the conversion of beauty leaf tree (BLT) refined oil into biodiesel was yielded up to 65% and 73% of mass conversion efficiency for the screw press and n-hexane techniques, respectively. Physico-chemical properties of crude and refined oil, and biodiesel were characterized according to the ASTM standards. Overall, BLT has the potential to contribute as an alternative energy source because of high mass conversion efficiency.

[Effects of refined konjac meal on lipid metabolism and blood viscosity of rats fed by high fat forage].

PubMed

Wang, Zhongxia; Yang, Lili; Liu, Hong; Tan, Xiutao

2002-04-01

Male SD rats are fed by high fat diet supplemented with refined konjac meal for 6 weeks and the effect of refined konjac meal on the serum lipid peroxides (LPO) and blood viscosity are observed. The results showed that the refined konjac meal can obviously decrease serum cholesterol, triglyceride and serum LPO of rats in comparison with those of rats fed only by high fat forage, and can elevate, at the same time, the high density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol/triglyceride value. It is also shown that the refined konjac meal can decrease the blood viscosity, but has no effect on forage intake and weight gain of rats.

Magnesium Recycling of Partially Oxidized, Mixed Magnesium-Aluminum Scrap Through Combined Refining and Solid Oxide Membrane (SOM) Electrolysis Processes

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

Guan, Xiaofei; Zink, Peter; Pal, Uday

2012-03-11

Pure magnesium (Mg) is recycled from 19g of partially oxidized 50.5wt.%Mg-Aluminum (Al) alloy. During the refining process, potentiodynamic scans (PDS) were performed to determine the electrorefining potential for magnesium. The PDS show that the electrorefining potential increases over time as the Mg content inside the Mg-Al scrap decreases. Up to 100% percent of magnesium is refined from the Mg-Al scrap by a novel refining process of dissolving magnesium and its oxide into a flux followed by vapor phase removal of dissolved magnesium and subsequently condensing the magnesium vapors in a separate condenser. The solid oxide membrane (SOM) electrolysis process ismore » employed in the refining system to enable additional recycling of magnesium from magnesium oxide (MgO) in the partially oxidized Mg-Al scrap. The combination of the refining and SOM processes yields 7.4g of pure magnesium; could not collect and weigh all of the magnesium recovered.« less

Reintroducing electrostatics into macromolecular crystallographic refinement: application to neutron crystallography and DNA hydration.

PubMed

Fenn, Timothy D; Schnieders, Michael J; Mustyakimov, Marat; Wu, Chuanjie; Langan, Paul; Pande, Vijay S; Brunger, Axel T

2011-04-13

Most current crystallographic structure refinements augment the diffraction data with a priori information consisting of bond, angle, dihedral, planarity restraints, and atomic repulsion based on the Pauli exclusion principle. Yet, electrostatics and van der Waals attraction are physical forces that provide additional a priori information. Here, we assess the inclusion of electrostatics for the force field used for all-atom (including hydrogen) joint neutron/X-ray refinement. Two DNA and a protein crystal structure were refined against joint neutron/X-ray diffraction data sets using force fields without electrostatics or with electrostatics. Hydrogen-bond orientation/geometry favors the inclusion of electrostatics. Refinement of Z-DNA with electrostatics leads to a hypothesis for the entropic stabilization of Z-DNA that may partly explain the thermodynamics of converting the B form of DNA to its Z form. Thus, inclusion of electrostatics assists joint neutron/X-ray refinements, especially for placing and orienting hydrogen atoms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reintroducing Electrostatics into Macromolecular Crystallographic Refinement: Application to Neutron Crystallography and DNA Hydration

PubMed Central

Fenn, Timothy D.; Schnieders, Michael J.; Mustyakimov, Marat; Wu, Chuanjie; Langan, Paul; Pande, Vijay S.; Brunger, Axel T.

2011-01-01

Summary Most current crystallographic structure refinements augment the diffraction data with a priori information consisting of bond, angle, dihedral, planarity restraints and atomic repulsion based on the Pauli exclusion principle. Yet, electrostatics and van der Waals attraction are physical forces that provide additional a priori information. Here we assess the inclusion of electrostatics for the force field used for all-atom (including hydrogen) joint neutron/X-ray refinement. Two DNA and a protein crystal structure were refined against joint neutron/X-ray diffraction data sets using force fields without electrostatics or with electrostatics. Hydrogen bond orientation/geometry favors the inclusion of electrostatics. Refinement of Z-DNA with electrostatics leads to a hypothesis for the entropic stabilization of Z-DNA that may partly explain the thermodynamics of converting the B form of DNA to its Z form. Thus, inclusion of electrostatics assists joint neutron/X-ray refinements, especially for placing and orienting hydrogen atoms. PMID:21481775

Refined sugar intake in Australian children.

PubMed

Somerset, Shawn M

2003-12-01

To estimate the intake of refined sugar in Australian children and adolescents, aged 2-18 years. Foods contributing to total sugar intake were identified using data from the National Nutrition Survey 1995 (NNS95), the most recent national dietary survey of the Australian population. The top 100 foods represented means of 85% (range 79-91%) and 82% (range 78-85%) of total sugar intake for boys and girls, respectively. Using published Australian food composition data (NUTTAB95), the proportion of total sugar being refined sugar was estimated for each food. Where published food composition data were not available, calculations from ingredients and manufacturer's information were used. The NNS95 assessed the dietary intake of a random sample of the Australian population, aged 2-18 years (n=3007). Mean daily intakes of refined sugar ranged from 26.9 to 78.3 g for 2-18-year-old girls, representing 6.6-14.8% of total energy intake. Corresponding figures for boys were 27.0 to 81.6 g and 8.0-14.0%, respectively. Of the 10 highest sources of refined sugar for each age group, sweetened beverages, especially cola-type beverages, were the most prominent. Refined sugar is an important contributor to dietary energy in Australian children. Sweetened beverages such as soft drinks and cordials were substantial sources of refined sugar and represent a potential target for campaigns to reduce refined sugar intake. Better access to information on the amounts of sugar added to processed food is essential for appropriate monitoring of this important energy source.

Structure Refinement of Protein Low Resolution Models Using the GNEIMO Constrained Dynamics Method

PubMed Central

Park, In-Hee; Gangupomu, Vamshi; Wagner, Jeffrey; Jain, Abhinandan; Vaidehi, Nagara-jan

2012-01-01

The challenge in protein structure prediction using homology modeling is the lack of reliable methods to refine the low resolution homology models. Unconstrained all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) does not serve well for structure refinement due to its limited conformational search. We have developed and tested the constrained MD method, based on the Generalized Newton-Euler Inverse Mass Operator (GNEIMO) algorithm for protein structure refinement. In this method, the high-frequency degrees of freedom are replaced with hard holonomic constraints and a protein is modeled as a collection of rigid body clusters connected by flexible torsional hinges. This allows larger integration time steps and enhances the conformational search space. In this work, we have demonstrated the use of a constraint free GNEIMO method for protein structure refinement that starts from low-resolution decoy sets derived from homology methods. In the eight proteins with three decoys for each, we observed an improvement of ~2 Å in the RMSD to the known experimental structures of these proteins. The GNEIMO method also showed enrichment in the population density of native-like conformations. In addition, we demonstrated structural refinement using a “Freeze and Thaw” clustering scheme with the GNEIMO framework as a viable tool for enhancing localized conformational search. We have derived a robust protocol based on the GNEIMO replica exchange method for protein structure refinement that can be readily extended to other proteins and possibly applicable for high throughput protein structure refinement. PMID:22260550

40 CFR 63.1542 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... and is indirectly heated from below and contains molten lead for the purpose of drossing, refining, or... smelter that is associated with lead smelting or refining but is not the primary exhaust stream and is not... lead smelter in which drossing or refining operations occur, or casting operations occur. Shutdown...

40 CFR 63.1542 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... and is indirectly heated from below and contains molten lead for the purpose of drossing, refining, or... smelter that is associated with lead smelting or refining but is not the primary exhaust stream and is not... lead smelter in which drossing or refining operations occur, or casting operations occur. Shutdown...

Processing α-mercuric iodide by zone refining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burger, A.; Morgan, S. H.; Henderson, D. O.; Biao, Y.; Zhang, K.; Silberman, E.; Nason, D.; van den Berg, L.; Ortale-Baccash, C.; Cross, E.

1993-03-01

An investigation is being conducted on zone refining α-mercuric iodide. Analytical studies using differential scanning calorimetry and anion chromatography indicate that impurities are accumulated mainly at the end where zone travel terminates. Early results indicate that single crystals can be readily grown from zone-refined material.

75 FR 18015 - Credit for Renewable Electricity Production, Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-08

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Internal Revenue Service Credit for Renewable Electricity Production, Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production, and Publication of Inflation Adjustment Factors and... FR 16576 determining the availability of the credit for renewable electricity production, refined...

7 CFR 1530.109 - Reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, AND THE... transaction; (2) The date of the entry, transfer (only a refiner shall report transfers to the Licensing... license number; (5) The country of origin (entry of raw sugar) or final destination (refined exports...

7 CFR 1530.109 - Reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, AND THE... transaction; (2) The date of the entry, transfer (only a refiner shall report transfers to the Licensing... license number; (5) The country of origin (entry of raw sugar) or final destination (refined exports...

7 CFR 1530.109 - Reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, AND THE... transaction; (2) The date of the entry, transfer (only a refiner shall report transfers to the Licensing... license number; (5) The country of origin (entry of raw sugar) or final destination (refined exports...

7 CFR 1530.109 - Reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, AND THE... transaction; (2) The date of the entry, transfer (only a refiner shall report transfers to the Licensing... license number; (5) The country of origin (entry of raw sugar) or final destination (refined exports...

7 CFR 1530.109 - Reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AGRICULTURE THE REFINED SUGAR RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, THE SUGAR CONTAINING PRODUCTS RE-EXPORT PROGRAM, AND THE... transaction; (2) The date of the entry, transfer (only a refiner shall report transfers to the Licensing... license number; (5) The country of origin (entry of raw sugar) or final destination (refined exports...

40 CFR 409.20 - Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.20 Section 409.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Crystalline Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.20 Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar...

40 CFR 409.20 - Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.20 Section 409.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Crystalline Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.20 Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar...

40 CFR 409.20 - Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.20 Section 409.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Crystalline Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.20 Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar...

40 CFR 409.20 - Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.20 Section 409.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Crystalline Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.20 Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar...

40 CFR 409.20 - Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... crystalline cane sugar refining subcategory. 409.20 Section 409.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS SUGAR PROCESSING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY Crystalline Cane Sugar Refining Subcategory § 409.20 Applicability; description of the crystalline cane sugar...

40 CFR 80.92 - Baseline auditor requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... total of more than 10 percent of its net worth with the refiner or importer; nor (iii) Receive... determination. It shall have personnel familiar with petroleum refining processes, including associated... worked at least five (5) years in either refinery operations or as a consultant for the refining industry...

40 CFR 80.92 - Baseline auditor requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... total of more than 10 percent of its net worth with the refiner or importer; nor (iii) Receive... determination. It shall have personnel familiar with petroleum refining processes, including associated... worked at least five (5) years in either refinery operations or as a consultant for the refining industry...

40 CFR 80.92 - Baseline auditor requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... total of more than 10 percent of its net worth with the refiner or importer; nor (iii) Receive... determination. It shall have personnel familiar with petroleum refining processes, including associated... worked at least five (5) years in either refinery operations or as a consultant for the refining industry...

Testing MODFLOW-LGR for simulating flow around buried Quaternary valleys - synthetic test cases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilhelmsen, T. N.; Christensen, S.

2009-12-01

In this study the Local Grid Refinement (LGR) method developed for MODFLOW-2005 (Mehl and Hill, 2005) is utilized to describe groundwater flow in areas containing buried Quaternary valley structures. The tests are conducted as comparative analysis between simulations run with a globally refined model, a locally refined model, and a globally coarse model, respectively. The models vary from simple one layer models to more complex ones with up to 25 model layers. The comparisons of accuracy are conducted within the locally refined area and focus on water budgets, simulated heads, and simulated particle traces. Simulations made with the globally refined model are used as reference (regarded as “true” values). As expected, for all test cases the application of local grid refinement resulted in more accurate results than when using the globally coarse model. A significant advantage of utilizing MODFLOW-LGR was that it allows increased numbers of model layers to better resolve complex geology within local areas. This resulted in more accurate simulations than when using either a globally coarse model grid or a locally refined model with lower geological resolution. Improved accuracy in the latter case could not be expected beforehand because difference in geological resolution between the coarse parent model and the refined child model contradicts the assumptions of the Darcy weighted interpolation used in MODFLOW-LGR. With respect to model runtimes, it was sometimes found that the runtime for the locally refined model is much longer than for the globally refined model. This was the case even when the closure criteria were relaxed compared to the globally refined model. These results are contradictory to those presented by Mehl and Hill (2005). Furthermore, in the complex cases it took some testing (model runs) to identify the closure criteria and the damping factor that secured convergence, accurate solutions, and reasonable runtimes. For our cases this is judged to be a serious disadvantage of applying MODFLOW-LGR. Another disadvantage in the studied cases was that the MODFLOW-LGR results proved to be somewhat dependent on the correction method used at the parent-child model interface. This indicates that when applying MODFLOW-LGR there is a need for thorough and case-specific considerations regarding choice of correction method. References: Mehl, S. and M. C. Hill (2005). "MODFLOW-2005, THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MODULAR GROUND-WATER MODEL - DOCUMENTATION OF SHARED NODE LOCAL GRID REFINEMENT (LGR) AND THE BOUNDARY FLOW AND HEAD (BFH) PACKAGE " U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods 6-A12

Global critical materials markets: An agent-based modeling approach

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

Riddle, Matthew; Macal, Charles M.; Conzelmann, Guenter

As part of efforts to position the United States as a leader in clean energy technology production, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued two Critical Materials Strategy reports, which assessed 16 materials on the basis of their importance to clean energy development and their supply risk ( U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 2010 and DOE, 2011). To understand the implications for clean energy of disruptions in supplies of critical materials, it is important to understand supply chain dynamics from mining to final product production. As a case study of critical material supply chains, we focus on the supplymore » of two rare earth metals, neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy), for permanent magnets used in wind turbines, electric vehicles and other applications. We introduce GCMat, a dynamic agent-based model that includes interacting agents at five supply chain stages consisting of mining, metal refining, magnet production, final product production and demand. Agents throughout the supply chain make pricing, production and inventory management decisions. Deposit developers choose which deposits to develop based on market conditions and detailed data on 57 rare earth deposits. Wind turbine and electric vehicle producers choose from a set of possible production technologies that require different amounts of rare earths. We ran the model under a baseline scenario and four alternative scenarios with different demand and production technology inputs. Model results from 2010 to 2013 fit well with historical data. Projections through 2025 show a number of possible future price, demand, and supply trajectories. For each scenario, we highlight reasons for turning points under market conditions, for differences between Nd and Dy markets, and for differences between scenarios. Because GCMat can model causal dynamics and provide fine-grain representation of agents and their decisions, it provides explanations for turning points under market conditions that are not otherwise available from other modeling approaches. Our baseline projections show very different behaviors for Nd and Dy prices. Nd prices continue to drop and remain low even at the end of our simulation period as new capacity comes online and leads to a market in which production capacity outpaces demand. Dy price movements, on the other hand, change directions several times with several key turning points related to inventory behaviors of particular agents in the supply chain and asymmetric supply and demand trends. Scenario analyses show the impact of stronger demand growth for rare earths, and in particular finds that Nd price impacts are significantly delayed as compared to Dy. This is explained by the substantial excess production capacity for Nd in the early simulation years that keeps prices down. Scenarios that explore the impact of reducing the Dy content of magnets show the intricate interdependencies of these two markets as price trends for both rare earths reverse directions – reducing the Dy content of magnets reduces Dy demand, which drives down Dy prices and translates into lower magnet prices. This in turn raises the demand for magnets and therefore the demand for Nd and eventually drives up the Nd price.« less

75 FR 15725 - Termination of Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) Eligible Refiner Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-30

... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Minerals Management Service [Docket No. MMS-2009-MRM-0014] Termination of Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) Eligible Refiner Program AGENCY: Minerals Management Service, Interior. ACTION: Advance notice for the termination of the RIK Eligible Refiner Program. SUMMARY: On behalf of the...

40 CFR 80.1652 - Reporting requirements for gasoline refiners, gasoline importers, oxygenate producers, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 17 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Reporting requirements for gasoline refiners, gasoline importers, oxygenate producers, and oxygenate importers. 80.1652 Section 80.1652... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Sulfur § 80.1652 Reporting requirements for gasoline refiners...

40 CFR 80.340 - What standards and requirements apply to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? 80... (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Sulfur Sampling, Testing and Retention... gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? (a) Any refiner who produces...

40 CFR 80.340 - What standards and requirements apply to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? 80... (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Sulfur Sampling, Testing and Retention... gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? (a) Any refiner who produces...

40 CFR 80.340 - What standards and requirements apply to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... to refiners producing gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? 80... (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Gasoline Sulfur Sampling, Testing and Retention... gasoline by blending blendstocks into previously certified gasoline (PCG)? (a) Any refiner who produces...