26 CFR 301.6621-3 - Higher interest rate payable on large corporate underpayments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... resulting from a math error on Y's return. Y did not request an abatement of the assessment pursuant to...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...

26 CFR 301.6621-3 - Higher interest rate payable on large corporate underpayments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... resulting from a math error on Y's return. Y did not request an abatement of the assessment pursuant to...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...

26 CFR 301.6621-3 - Higher interest rate payable on large corporate underpayments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... resulting from a math error on Y's return. Y did not request an abatement of the assessment pursuant to...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...

26 CFR 301.6621-3 - Higher interest rate payable on large corporate underpayments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... resulting from a math error on Y's return. Y did not request an abatement of the assessment pursuant to...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...,000 amount shown as due on the math error assessment notice (plus interest) on or before January 31...

Low Reynolds number numerical solutions of chaotic flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pulliam, Thomas H.

1989-01-01

Numerical computations of two-dimensional flow past an airfoil at low Mach number, large angle of attack, and low Reynolds number are reported which show a sequence of flow states leading from single-period vortex shedding to chaos via the period-doubling mechanism. Analysis of the flow in terms of phase diagrams, Poincare sections, and flowfield variables are used to substantiate these results. The critical Reynolds number for the period-doubling bifurcations is shown to be sensitive to mesh refinement and the influence of large amounts of numerical dissipation. In extreme cases, large amounts of added dissipation can delay or completely eliminate the chaotic response. The effect of artificial dissipation at these low Reynolds numbers is to produce a new effective Reynolds number for the computations.

Destruction of Navy Hazardous Wastes by Supercritical Water Oxidation

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-08-01

cleaning and derusting (nitrite and citric acid solutions), electroplating ( acids and metal bearing solutions), electronics and refrigeration... acid forming chemical species or that contain a large amount of dissolved solids present a challenge to current SCWO •-chnology. Approved for public...Waste streams that contain a large amount of mineral- acid forming chemical species or that contain a large amount of dissolved solids present a challenge

Empirical relationships between tree fall and landscape-level amounts of logging and fire

PubMed Central

Blanchard, Wade; Blair, David; McBurney, Lachlan; Stein, John; Banks, Sam C.

2018-01-01

Large old trees are critically important keystone structures in forest ecosystems globally. Populations of these trees are also in rapid decline in many forest ecosystems, making it important to quantify the factors that influence their dynamics at different spatial scales. Large old trees often occur in forest landscapes also subject to fire and logging. However, the effects on the risk of collapse of large old trees of the amount of logging and fire in the surrounding landscape are not well understood. Using an 18-year study in the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria, we quantify relationships between the probability of collapse of large old hollow-bearing trees at a site and the amount of logging and the amount of fire in the surrounding landscape. We found the probability of collapse increased with an increasing amount of logged forest in the surrounding landscape. It also increased with a greater amount of burned area in the surrounding landscape, particularly for trees in highly advanced stages of decay. The most likely explanation for elevated tree fall with an increasing amount of logged or burned areas in the surrounding landscape is change in wind movement patterns associated with cutblocks or burned areas. Previous studies show that large old hollow-bearing trees are already at high risk of collapse in our study area. New analyses presented here indicate that additional logging operations in the surrounding landscape will further elevate that risk. Current logging prescriptions require the protection of large old hollow-bearing trees on cutblocks. We suggest that efforts to reduce the probability of collapse of large old hollow-bearing trees on unlogged sites will demand careful landscape planning to limit the amount of timber harvesting in the surrounding landscape. PMID:29474487

Empirical relationships between tree fall and landscape-level amounts of logging and fire.

PubMed

Lindenmayer, David B; Blanchard, Wade; Blair, David; McBurney, Lachlan; Stein, John; Banks, Sam C

2018-01-01

Large old trees are critically important keystone structures in forest ecosystems globally. Populations of these trees are also in rapid decline in many forest ecosystems, making it important to quantify the factors that influence their dynamics at different spatial scales. Large old trees often occur in forest landscapes also subject to fire and logging. However, the effects on the risk of collapse of large old trees of the amount of logging and fire in the surrounding landscape are not well understood. Using an 18-year study in the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria, we quantify relationships between the probability of collapse of large old hollow-bearing trees at a site and the amount of logging and the amount of fire in the surrounding landscape. We found the probability of collapse increased with an increasing amount of logged forest in the surrounding landscape. It also increased with a greater amount of burned area in the surrounding landscape, particularly for trees in highly advanced stages of decay. The most likely explanation for elevated tree fall with an increasing amount of logged or burned areas in the surrounding landscape is change in wind movement patterns associated with cutblocks or burned areas. Previous studies show that large old hollow-bearing trees are already at high risk of collapse in our study area. New analyses presented here indicate that additional logging operations in the surrounding landscape will further elevate that risk. Current logging prescriptions require the protection of large old hollow-bearing trees on cutblocks. We suggest that efforts to reduce the probability of collapse of large old hollow-bearing trees on unlogged sites will demand careful landscape planning to limit the amount of timber harvesting in the surrounding landscape.

Applying Social Tagging to Manage Cognitive Load in a Web 2.0 Self-Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yueh-Min; Huang, Yong-Ming; Liu, Chien-Hung; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2013-01-01

Web-based self-learning (WBSL) has received a lot of attention in recent years due to the vast amount of varied materials available in the Web 2.0 environment. However, this large amount of material also has resulted in a serious problem of cognitive overload that degrades the efficacy of learning. In this study, an information graphics method is…

A Cerebellar-model Associative Memory as a Generalized Random-access Memory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kanerva, Pentti

1989-01-01

A versatile neural-net model is explained in terms familiar to computer scientists and engineers. It is called the sparse distributed memory, and it is a random-access memory for very long words (for patterns with thousands of bits). Its potential utility is the result of several factors: (1) a large pattern representing an object or a scene or a moment can encode a large amount of information about what it represents; (2) this information can serve as an address to the memory, and it can also serve as data; (3) the memory is noise tolerant--the information need not be exact; (4) the memory can be made arbitrarily large and hence an arbitrary amount of information can be stored in it; and (5) the architecture is inherently parallel, allowing large memories to be fast. Such memories can become important components of future computers.

Simulation of Liquid Level, Temperature and Pressure Inside a 2000 Liter Liquid Hydrogen Tank During Truck Transportation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeda, Minoru; Nara, Hiroyuki; Maekawa, Kazuma; Fujikawa, Shizuichi; Matsuno, Yu; Kuroda, Tsuneo; Kumakura, Hiroaki

Hydrogen is an ultimate energy source because only water is produced after the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. In the near future, a large amount of hydrogen, produced using sustainable/renewable energy, is expected to be consumed. Since liquid hydrogen (LH2) has the advantage of high storage efficiency, it is expected to be the ultimate medium for the worldwide storage and transportation of large amounts of hydrogen. To make a simulation model of the sloshing of LH2 inside a 2000 liter tank, simulation analyses of LH2 surface oscillation, temperature and pressure inside the tank during a truck transportation have been carried out using a multipurpose software ANSYS CFX. Numerical results are discussed in comparison with experimental results.

Antibody recognition of the glycoprotein g of viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) purified in large amounts from insect larvae

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background There are currently no purification methods capable of producing the large amounts of fish rhabdoviral glycoprotein G (gpG) required for diagnosis and immunisation purposes or for studying structure and molecular mechanisms of action of this molecule (ie. pH-dependent membrane fusion). As a result of the unavailability of large amounts of the gpG from viral haemorrhagic septicaemia rhabdovirus (VHSV), one of the most dangerous viruses affecting cultured salmonid species, research interests in this field are severely hampered. Previous purification methods to obtain recombinant gpG from VHSV in E. coli, yeast and baculovirus grown in insect cells have not produced soluble conformations or acceptable yields. The development of large-scale purification methods for gpGs will also further research into other fish rhabdoviruses, such as infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), spring carp viremia virus (SVCV), hirame rhabdovirus (HIRRV) and snakehead rhabdovirus (SHRV). Findings Here we designed a method to produce milligram amounts of soluble VHSV gpG. Only the transmembrane and carboxy terminal-deleted (amino acid 21 to 465) gpG was efficiently expressed in insect larvae. Recognition of G21-465 by ß-mercaptoethanol-dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (N-MAbs) and pH-dependent recognition by sera from VHSV-hyperimmunized or VHSV-infected rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was demonstrated. Conclusions Given that the purified G21-465 conserved some of its most important properties, this method might be suitable for the large-scale production of fish rhabdoviral gpGs for use in diagnosis, fusion and antigenicity studies. PMID:21693048

Antibody recognition of the glycoprotein g of viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) purified in large amounts from insect larvae.

PubMed

Encinas, Paloma; Gomez-Sebastian, Silvia; Nunez, Maria Carmen; Gomez-Casado, Eduardo; Escribano, Jose M; Estepa, Amparo; Coll, Julio

2011-06-21

There are currently no purification methods capable of producing the large amounts of fish rhabdoviral glycoprotein G (gpG) required for diagnosis and immunisation purposes or for studying structure and molecular mechanisms of action of this molecule (ie. pH-dependent membrane fusion). As a result of the unavailability of large amounts of the gpG from viral haemorrhagic septicaemia rhabdovirus (VHSV), one of the most dangerous viruses affecting cultured salmonid species, research interests in this field are severely hampered. Previous purification methods to obtain recombinant gpG from VHSV in E. coli, yeast and baculovirus grown in insect cells have not produced soluble conformations or acceptable yields. The development of large-scale purification methods for gpGs will also further research into other fish rhabdoviruses, such as infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), spring carp viremia virus (SVCV), hirame rhabdovirus (HIRRV) and snakehead rhabdovirus (SHRV). Here we designed a method to produce milligram amounts of soluble VHSV gpG. Only the transmembrane and carboxy terminal-deleted (amino acid 21 to 465) gpG was efficiently expressed in insect larvae. Recognition of G21-465 by ß-mercaptoethanol-dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (N-MAbs) and pH-dependent recognition by sera from VHSV-hyperimmunized or VHSV-infected rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was demonstrated. Given that the purified G21-465 conserved some of its most important properties, this method might be suitable for the large-scale production of fish rhabdoviral gpGs for use in diagnosis, fusion and antigenicity studies.

A simple biosynthetic pathway for large product generation from small substrate amounts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djordjevic, Marko; Djordjevic, Magdalena

2012-10-01

A recently emerging discipline of synthetic biology has the aim of constructing new biosynthetic pathways with useful biological functions. A major application of these pathways is generating a large amount of the desired product. However, toxicity due to the possible presence of toxic precursors is one of the main problems for such production. We consider here the problem of generating a large amount of product from a potentially toxic substrate. To address this, we propose a simple biosynthetic pathway, which can be induced in order to produce a large number of the product molecules, by keeping the substrate amount at low levels. Surprisingly, we show that the large product generation crucially depends on fast non-specific degradation of the substrate molecules. We derive an optimal induction strategy, which allows as much as three orders of magnitude increase in the product amount through biologically realistic parameter values. We point to a recently discovered bacterial immune system (CRISPR/Cas in E. coli) as a putative example of the pathway analysed here. We also argue that the scheme proposed here can be used not only as a stand-alone pathway, but also as a strategy to produce a large amount of the desired molecules with small perturbations of endogenous biosynthetic pathways.

Effect of copper chloride on the emissions of PCDD/Fs and PAHs from PVC combustion.

PubMed

Wang, Dongli; Xu, Xiaobai; Zheng, Minghui; Chiu, Chung H

2002-09-01

The influences of temperature, air flow and the amount of copper chloride upon the types and amount of the toxic emissions such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during combustion of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were investigated. The mechanism concerning the effect of temperature and copper chloride on the PCDD/Fs and PAHs formation was discussed. The results shown that without copper chloride, trace amounts of PCDD/Fs and large amounts of PAHs were found in the emissions from the pure PVC combustion under various combustion conditions. The addition of copper chloride enhanced PCDD/Fs formation, but it seems that the formation of PAHs decreased with increasing amount of copper chloride, and greater total amount of PAHs were produced at the higher temperature under our experimental conditions.

Support Vector Machines Trained with Evolutionary Algorithms Employing Kernel Adatron for Large Scale Classification of Protein Structures.

PubMed

Arana-Daniel, Nancy; Gallegos, Alberto A; López-Franco, Carlos; Alanís, Alma Y; Morales, Jacob; López-Franco, Adriana

2016-01-01

With the increasing power of computers, the amount of data that can be processed in small periods of time has grown exponentially, as has the importance of classifying large-scale data efficiently. Support vector machines have shown good results classifying large amounts of high-dimensional data, such as data generated by protein structure prediction, spam recognition, medical diagnosis, optical character recognition and text classification, etc. Most state of the art approaches for large-scale learning use traditional optimization methods, such as quadratic programming or gradient descent, which makes the use of evolutionary algorithms for training support vector machines an area to be explored. The present paper proposes an approach that is simple to implement based on evolutionary algorithms and Kernel-Adatron for solving large-scale classification problems, focusing on protein structure prediction. The functional properties of proteins depend upon their three-dimensional structures. Knowing the structures of proteins is crucial for biology and can lead to improvements in areas such as medicine, agriculture and biofuels.

Tracing the trajectory of skill learning with a very large sample of online game players.

PubMed

Stafford, Tom; Dewar, Michael

2014-02-01

In the present study, we analyzed data from a very large sample (N = 854,064) of players of an online game involving rapid perception, decision making, and motor responding. Use of game data allowed us to connect, for the first time, rich details of training history with measures of performance from participants engaged for a sustained amount of time in effortful practice. We showed that lawful relations exist between practice amount and subsequent performance, and between practice spacing and subsequent performance. Our methodology allowed an in situ confirmation of results long established in the experimental literature on skill acquisition. Additionally, we showed that greater initial variation in performance is linked to higher subsequent performance, a result we link to the exploration/exploitation trade-off from the computational framework of reinforcement learning. We discuss the benefits and opportunities of behavioral data sets with very large sample sizes and suggest that this approach could be particularly fecund for studies of skill acquisition.

Synthesis and excretion of glycerol teichoic acid during growth of two streptococcal species.

PubMed Central

Joseph, R; Shockman, G D

1975-01-01

Examination of both supernatant culture medium and cell pellets after exponential- and stationary-phase growth of Streptococcus mutans strain FA-1 and Streptococcus faecalis ATCC 9790 (S. faecium) showed the presence of [-3H]glycerol-labeled material that possessed several of the properties of glycerol teichoic acid. In the supernatant medium of S. mutans FA-1, an apparently large-molecular-size material, which eluted from agarose columns with the Kd value expected of a lipoteichoic acid, was observed. Large amounts of this material were present in supernatants during the stationary phase. In contrast, with S. faecalis only an apparently lower-molecular-weight form, with a Kd consistent with deacylated glycerol teichoic acid, was found in the growth medium. Both organisms had high-molecular-weight lipoteichoic acid in the cells along with the deacylated glycerol teichoic acid. The presence of relatively large amounts of glycerol teichoic acids in the medium was considered to be a result of excretion of these compounds rather than a result of cellular lysis. PMID:807523

Survival of Glycolaldehyde and Production of Sugar Compounds via Comet Impact Delivery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zellner, N.; McCaffrey, V.; Crake, C.; Butler, J.; Robbins, J.; Fodor, A.

2017-12-01

Impact experiments using glycolaldehyde (GLA), a two-carbon sugar precursor that has been detected in regions of the interstellar medium and on comets, have been conducted at the Experimental Impact Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Samples of GLA and GLA mixed with montmorillonite clays were subjected to the pressure conditions that are found during impact delivery of biomolecules by comets, asteroids, or meteors; pressures ranged from 4.5 GPa to 25 GPa. Results show that large amounts of GLA survived the impacts and moderate amounts of threose, erythrose, and glycolic acid were produced in these impacts. Total amounts are dependent on impact pressure. Ethylene glycol, a reduced variant of GLA that has also been detected in the interstellar medium and on comets, was also produced. The results of these experimental impacts provide evidence that large amounts of GLA, EG, and other biomolecules were available on habitable moons or planets, especially during the era of late heavy bombardment ( 4.2 to 3.7 billion years ago) when life may have been developing on Earth. The presence and availability of these biomolecules, under appropriate conditions, may be important for understanding the origin of life as we know it. Glycolaldehyde in particular, may be an important molecule in the production of ribose, the five-carbon sugar in RNA.

Optical smart packaging to reduce transmitted information.

PubMed

Cabezas, Luisa; Tebaldi, Myrian; Barrera, John Fredy; Bolognini, Néstor; Torroba, Roberto

2012-01-02

We demonstrate a smart image-packaging optical technique that uses what we believe is a new concept to save byte space when transmitting data. The technique supports a large set of images mapped into modulated speckle patterns. Then, they are multiplexed into a single package. This operation results in a substantial decreasing of the final amount of bytes of the package with respect to the amount resulting from the addition of the images without using the method. Besides, there are no requirements on the type of images to be processed. We present results that proof the potentiality of the technique.

Influences of large-scale convection and moisture source on monthly precipitation isotope ratios observed in Thailand, Southeast Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Zhongwang; Lee, Xuhui; Liu, Zhongfang; Seeboonruang, Uma; Koike, Masahiro; Yoshimura, Kei

2018-04-01

Many paleoclimatic records in Southeast Asia rely on rainfall isotope ratios as proxies for past hydroclimatic variability. However, the physical processes controlling modern rainfall isotopic behaviors in the region is poorly constrained. Here, we combined isotopic measurements at six sites across Thailand with an isotope-incorporated atmospheric circulation model (IsoGSM) and the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model to investigate the factors that govern the variability of precipitation isotope ratios in this region. Results show that rainfall isotope ratios are both correlated with local rainfall amount and regional outgoing longwave radiation, suggesting that rainfall isotope ratios in this region are controlled not only by local rain amount (amount effect) but also by large-scale convection. As a transition zone between the Indian monsoon and the western North Pacific monsoon, the spatial difference of observed precipitation isotope among different sites are associated with moisture source. These results highlight the importance of regional processes in determining rainfall isotope ratios in the tropics and provide constraints on the interpretation of paleo-precipitation isotope records in the context of regional climate dynamics.

Microphysical, Macrophysical and Radiative Signatures of Volcanic Aerosols in Trade Wind Cumulus Observed by the A-Train

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yuan, T.; Remer, L. A.; Yu, H.

2011-01-01

Increased aerosol concentrations can raise planetary albedo not only by reflecting sunlight and increasing cloud albedo, but also by changing cloud amount. However, detecting aerosol effect on cloud amount has been elusive to both observations and modeling due to potential buffering mechanisms and convolution of meteorology. Here through a natural experiment provided by long-tem1 degassing of a low-lying volcano and use of A-Train satellite observations, we show modifications of trade cumulus cloud fields including decreased droplet size, decreased precipitation efficiency and increased cloud amount are associated with volcanic aerosols. In addition we find significantly higher cloud tops for polluted clouds. We demonstrate that the observed microphysical and macrophysical changes cannot be explained by synoptic meteorology or the orographic effect of the Hawaiian Islands. The "total shortwave aerosol forcin", resulting from direct and indirect forcings including both cloud albedo and cloud amount. is almost an order of magnitude higher than aerosol direct forcing alone. Furthermore, the precipitation reduction associated with enhanced aerosol leads to large changes in the energetics of air-sea exchange and trade wind boundary layer. Our results represent the first observational evidence of large-scale increase of cloud amount due to aerosols in a trade cumulus regime, which can be used to constrain the representation of aerosol-cloud interactions in climate models. The findings also have implications for volcano-climate interactions and climate mitigation research.

Analyzing large scale genomic data on the cloud with Sparkhit

PubMed Central

Huang, Liren; Krüger, Jan

2018-01-01

Abstract Motivation The increasing amount of next-generation sequencing data poses a fundamental challenge on large scale genomic analytics. Existing tools use different distributed computational platforms to scale-out bioinformatics workloads. However, the scalability of these tools is not efficient. Moreover, they have heavy run time overheads when pre-processing large amounts of data. To address these limitations, we have developed Sparkhit: a distributed bioinformatics framework built on top of the Apache Spark platform. Results Sparkhit integrates a variety of analytical methods. It is implemented in the Spark extended MapReduce model. It runs 92–157 times faster than MetaSpark on metagenomic fragment recruitment and 18–32 times faster than Crossbow on data pre-processing. We analyzed 100 terabytes of data across four genomic projects in the cloud in 21 h, which includes the run times of cluster deployment and data downloading. Furthermore, our application on the entire Human Microbiome Project shotgun sequencing data was completed in 2 h, presenting an approach to easily associate large amounts of public datasets with reference data. Availability and implementation Sparkhit is freely available at: https://rhinempi.github.io/sparkhit/. Contact asczyrba@cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:29253074

Amounts and activity concentrations of radioactive wastes from the cleanup of large areas contaminated in nuclear accidents

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

Lehto, J.; Ikaeheimonen, T.K.; Salbu, B.

The fallout from a major nuclear accident at a nuclear plant may result in a wide-scale contamination of the environment. Cleanup of contaminated areas is of special importance if these areas are populated or cultivated. All cleanup measures generate high amounts of radioactive waste, which have to be treated and disposed of in a safe manner. Scenarios assessing the amounts and activity concentrations of radioactive wastes for various cleanup measures after severe nuclear accidents have been worked out for urban, forest and agricultural areas. These scenarios are based on contamination levels and ares of contaminated lands from a model accident,more » which simulates a worst case accident at a nuclear power plant. Amounts and activity concentrations of cleanup wastes are not only dependent on the contamination levels and areas of affected lands, but also on the type of deposition, wet or dry, on the time between the deposition and the cleanup work, on the season, at which the deposition took place, and finally on the level of cleanup work. In this study practically all types of cleanup wastes were considered, whether or not the corresponding cleanup measures are cost-effective or justified. All cleanup measures are shown to create large amounts of radioactive wastes, but the amounts, as well as the activity concentrations vary widely from case to case.« less

Frequency analyses for recent regional floods in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Melcher, Nick B.; Martinez, Patsy G.; ,

1996-01-01

During 1993-95, significant floods that resulted in record-high river stages, loss of life, and significant property damage occurred in the United States. The floods were caused by unique global weather patterns that produced large amounts of rain over large areas. Standard methods for flood-frequency analyses may not adequately consider the probability of recurrence of these global weather patterns.

Ion Heating During Local Helicity Injection Plasma Startup in the Pegasus ST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burke, M. G.; Barr, J. L.; Bongard, M. W.; Fonck, R. J.; Hinson, E. T.; Perry, J. M.; Reusch, J. A.

2015-11-01

Plasmas in the Pegasus ST are initiated either through standard, MHD stable, inductive current drive or non-solenoidal local helicity injection (LHI) current drive with strong reconnection activity, providing a rich environment to study ion dynamics. During LHI discharges, a large amount of impurity ion heating has been observed, with the passively measured impurity Ti as high as 800 eV compared to Ti ~ 60 eV and Te ~ 175 eV during standard inductive current drive discharges. In addition, non-thermal ion velocity distributions are observed and appear to be strongest near the helicity injectors. The ion heating is hypothesized to be a result of large-scale magnetic reconnection activity, as the amount of heating scales with increasing fluctuation amplitude of the dominant, edge localized, n =1 MHD mode. An approximate temporal scaling of the heating with the amplitude of higher frequency magnetic fluctuations has also been observed, with large amounts of power spectral density present at several impurity ion cyclotron frequencies. Recent experiments have focused on investigating the impurity ion heating scaling with the ion charge to mass ratio as well as the reconnecting field strength. The ion charge to mass ratio was modified by observing different impurity charge states in similar LHI plasmas while the reconnecting field strength was modified by changing the amount of injected edge current. Work supported by US DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER54375.

Determining national greenhouse gas emissions from waste-to-energy using the Balance Method.

PubMed

Schwarzböck, Therese; Rechberger, Helmut; Cencic, Oliver; Fellner, Johann

2016-03-01

Different directives of the European Union require operators of waste-to-energy (WTE) plants to report the amount of electricity that is produced from biomass in the waste feed, as well as the amount of fossil CO2 emissions generated by the combustion of fossil waste materials. This paper describes the application of the Balance Method for determining the overall amount of fossil and thus climate relevant CO2 emissions from waste incineration in Austria. The results of 10 Austrian WTE plants (annual waste throughput of around 2,300 kt) demonstrate large seasonal variations in the specific fossil CO2 emissions of the plants as well as large differences between the facilities (annual means range from 32±2 to 51±3 kg CO(2,foss)/GJ heating value). An overall amount of around 924 kt/yr of fossil CO2 for all 10 WTE plants is determined. In comparison biogenic (climate neutral) CO2 emissions amount to 1,187 kt/yr, which corresponds to 56% of the total CO2 emissions from waste incineration. The total energy input via waste feed to the 10 facilities is about 22,500 TJ/yr, of which around 48% can be assigned to biogenic and thus renewable sources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social modeling effects on young women's breakfast intake.

PubMed

Hermans, Roel C J; Herman, C Peter; Larsen, Junilla K; Engels, Rutger C M E

2010-12-01

Numerous studies have shown that the presence of others influences young women's food intake. They eat more when the other eats more, and eat less when the other eats less. However, most of these studies have focused on snack situations. The present study assesses the degree to which young women model the breakfast intake of a same-sex peer in a semi-naturalistic setting. The study took place in a laboratory setting at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, during the period January to April 2009. After completing three cover tasks, normal-weight participants (n=57) spent a 20-minute break with a peer who ate a large amount or a small amount of breakfast or no breakfast at all. The participants' total amount of energy consumed (in kilocalories) during the break was measured. An analysis of variance was used to examine whether young women modeled the breakfast intake of same-sex peers. Results indicate a main effect of breakfast condition, F(2,54)=8.44; P<0.01. Participants exposed to a peer eating nothing ate less than did participants exposed to a peer eating a small amount (d=0.85) or large amount of breakfast (d=1.23). Intake in the Small-Breakfast condition did not differ substantially from intake in the Large-Breakfast condition. The findings from the present study provide evidence that modeling effects of food intake are weaker in eating contexts in which scripts or routines guide an individual's eating behavior. Copyright © 2010 American Dietetic Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Parallel Nonrigid Registration Algorithm Based on B-Spline for Medical Images.

PubMed

Du, Xiaogang; Dang, Jianwu; Wang, Yangping; Wang, Song; Lei, Tao

2016-01-01

The nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline Free-Form Deformation (FFD) plays a key role and is widely applied in medical image processing due to the good flexibility and robustness. However, it requires a tremendous amount of computing time to obtain more accurate registration results especially for a large amount of medical image data. To address the issue, a parallel nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline is proposed in this paper. First, the Logarithm Squared Difference (LSD) is considered as the similarity metric in the B-spline registration algorithm to improve registration precision. After that, we create a parallel computing strategy and lookup tables (LUTs) to reduce the complexity of the B-spline registration algorithm. As a result, the computing time of three time-consuming steps including B-splines interpolation, LSD computation, and the analytic gradient computation of LSD, is efficiently reduced, for the B-spline registration algorithm employs the Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient (NCG) optimization method. Experimental results of registration quality and execution efficiency on the large amount of medical images show that our algorithm achieves a better registration accuracy in terms of the differences between the best deformation fields and ground truth and a speedup of 17 times over the single-threaded CPU implementation due to the powerful parallel computing ability of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

Laboratory Exercise to Evaluate Hay Preservatives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGraw, R. L.; And Others

1990-01-01

Presented is a laboratory exercise designed to demonstrate the effects of moisture on hay preservation products in a manner that does not require large amounts of equipment or instructor time. Materials, procedures, and probable results are discussed. (CW)

IMPROVED POLLUTANT MANAGEMENT IN URBAN STORMWATER BMPS

EPA Science Inventory

Increased urbanization has resulted in a larger percentage of impervious areas that produce large quantities of stormwater runoff and contribute significant amounts of debris and pollutants (e.g., litter, oils, heavy metals, sediments, nutrients, organic matter, and microorganism...

Fuzzy Document Clustering Approach using WordNet Lexical Categories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gharib, Tarek F.; Fouad, Mohammed M.; Aref, Mostafa M.

Text mining refers generally to the process of extracting interesting information and knowledge from unstructured text. This area is growing rapidly mainly because of the strong need for analysing the huge and large amount of textual data that reside on internal file systems and the Web. Text document clustering provides an effective navigation mechanism to organize this large amount of data by grouping their documents into a small number of meaningful classes. In this paper we proposed a fuzzy text document clustering approach using WordNet lexical categories and Fuzzy c-Means algorithm. Some experiments are performed to compare efficiency of the proposed approach with the recently reported approaches. Experimental results show that Fuzzy clustering leads to great performance results. Fuzzy c-means algorithm overcomes other classical clustering algorithms like k-means and bisecting k-means in both clustering quality and running time efficiency.

Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires.

PubMed

Larsson, Fredrik; Andersson, Petra; Blomqvist, Per; Mellander, Bengt-Erik

2017-08-30

Lithium-ion battery fires generate intense heat and considerable amounts of gas and smoke. Although the emission of toxic gases can be a larger threat than the heat, the knowledge of such emissions is limited. This paper presents quantitative measurements of heat release and fluoride gas emissions during battery fires for seven different types of commercial lithium-ion batteries. The results have been validated using two independent measurement techniques and show that large amounts of hydrogen fluoride (HF) may be generated, ranging between 20 and 200 mg/Wh of nominal battery energy capacity. In addition, 15-22 mg/Wh of another potentially toxic gas, phosphoryl fluoride (POF 3 ), was measured in some of the fire tests. Gas emissions when using water mist as extinguishing agent were also investigated. Fluoride gas emission can pose a serious toxic threat and the results are crucial findings for risk assessment and management, especially for large Li-ion battery packs.

Influence of the clearance on in-vitro tribology of large diameter metal-on-metal articulations pertaining to resurfacing hip implants.

PubMed

Rieker, Claude B; Schön, Rolf; Konrad, Reto; Liebentritt, Gernot; Gnepf, Patric; Shen, Ming; Roberts, Paul; Grigoris, Peter

2005-04-01

Large-diameter metal-on-metal articulations may provide an opportunity for wear reduction in total hip implants because earlier studies have shown that the formation of a fluid film that completely separates the bearing surfaces is theoretically possible. In such a lubrication mode and under ideal conditions, there is theoretically no amount of wear. Studies have suggested that the two primary parameters controlling the lubrication mode are the diameter and the clearance of the articulation. The goal of the present study was to experimentally investigate the influence of these two parameters on the wear behavior of large-diameter metal-on-metal articulations pertaining to resurfacing hip implants. The results of this in vitro investigation showed that longer running-in periods and higher amounts of running-in wear were associated with larger clearances.

Transient Stability of the US Western Interconnection with High Wind and Solar Generation

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

Clark, Kara; Miller, Nicholas W.; Shao, Miaolei

The addition of large amounts of wind and solar generation to bulk power systems that are traditionally subject to operating constraints set by transient limitations is the subject of considerable concern in the industry. The US Western Interconnection (WI) is expected to experience substantial additional growth in both wind and solar generation. These plants will, to some extent, displace large central station thermal generation, both coal and gas-fired, which have traditionally helped maintain stability. This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the transient stability of the WI with high penetrations of wind and solar generation. The mainmore » goals of this work were to (1) create a realistic, baseline model of the WI, (2) test selected transient stability events, (3) investigate the impact of large amounts of wind and solar generation, and (4) examine means to improve performance.« less

The origin, type and hydrocarbon generation potential of organic matter in a marine-continental transitional facies shale succession (Qaidam Basin, China).

PubMed

Wang, Guo-Cang; Sun, Min-Zhuo; Gao, Shu-Fang; Tang, Li

2018-04-26

This organic-rich shale was analyzed to determine the type, origin, maturity and depositional environment of the organic matter and to evaluate the hydrocarbon generation potential of the shale. This study is based on geochemical (total carbon content, Rock-Eval pyrolysis and the molecular composition of hydrocarbons) and whole-rock petrographic (maceral composition) analyses. The petrographic analyses show that the shale penetrated by the Chaiye 2 well contains large amounts of vitrinite and sapropelinite and that the organic matter within these rocks is type III and highly mature. The geochemical analyses show that these rocks are characterized by high total organic carbon contents and that the organic matter is derived from a mix of terrestrial and marine sources and highly mature. These geochemical characteristics are consistent with the results of the petrographic analyses. The large amounts of organic matter in the Carboniferous shale succession penetrated by the Chaiye 2 well may be due to good preservation under hypersaline lacustrine and anoxic marine conditions. Consequently, the studied shale possesses very good hydrocarbon generation potential because of the presence of large amounts of highly mature type III organic matter.

Signal and image processing algorithm performance in a virtual and elastic computing environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Kelly W.; Robertson, James

2013-05-01

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) supports the development of classification, detection, tracking, and localization algorithms using multiple sensing modalities including acoustic, seismic, E-field, magnetic field, PIR, and visual and IR imaging. Multimodal sensors collect large amounts of data in support of algorithm development. The resulting large amount of data, and their associated high-performance computing needs, increases and challenges existing computing infrastructures. Purchasing computer power as a commodity using a Cloud service offers low-cost, pay-as-you-go pricing models, scalability, and elasticity that may provide solutions to develop and optimize algorithms without having to procure additional hardware and resources. This paper provides a detailed look at using a commercial cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), to develop and deploy simple signal and image processing algorithms in a cloud and run the algorithms on a large set of data archived in the ARL Multimodal Signatures Database (MMSDB). Analytical results will provide performance comparisons with existing infrastructure. A discussion on using cloud computing with government data will discuss best security practices that exist within cloud services, such as AWS.

ERTS-1 data user investigation of wetlands ecology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, R. R. (Principal Investigator)

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery (enlarged to 1:250,000) is an excellent tool by which large area coastal marshland mapping may be undertaken. If states can sacrifice some accuracy (amount unknown at this time) in placing of boundary lines, the technique may be used to do the following: (1) estimate extent of man's impact on marshes by ditching and lagooning and accelerated successional trends; (2) place boundaries between wetland and upland and hence estimate amount of coastal marshland remaining in the state; (3) distinguish among relatively large zones of various plant species including high and low growth S. alterniflora, J. roemerianus, and S. cynosuroides; and (4) estimate marsh plant species productivity when ground based information is available.

44 CFR 10.8 - Determination of requirement for environmental review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... apply: (i) If an action will result in an extensive change in land use or the commitment of a large amount of land; (ii) If an action will result in a land use change which is incompatible with the... ecosystems, including endangered species; (vi) If an action will result in a major adverse impact upon air or...

44 CFR 10.8 - Determination of requirement for environmental review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... apply: (i) If an action will result in an extensive change in land use or the commitment of a large amount of land; (ii) If an action will result in a land use change which is incompatible with the... ecosystems, including endangered species; (vi) If an action will result in a major adverse impact upon air or...

44 CFR 10.8 - Determination of requirement for environmental review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... apply: (i) If an action will result in an extensive change in land use or the commitment of a large amount of land; (ii) If an action will result in a land use change which is incompatible with the... ecosystems, including endangered species; (vi) If an action will result in a major adverse impact upon air or...

44 CFR 10.8 - Determination of requirement for environmental review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... apply: (i) If an action will result in an extensive change in land use or the commitment of a large amount of land; (ii) If an action will result in a land use change which is incompatible with the... ecosystems, including endangered species; (vi) If an action will result in a major adverse impact upon air or...

44 CFR 10.8 - Determination of requirement for environmental review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... apply: (i) If an action will result in an extensive change in land use or the commitment of a large amount of land; (ii) If an action will result in a land use change which is incompatible with the... ecosystems, including endangered species; (vi) If an action will result in a major adverse impact upon air or...

How much information? East Asian and North American cultural products and information search performance.

PubMed

Wang, Huaitang; Masuda, Takahiko; Ito, Kenichi; Rashid, Marghalara

2012-12-01

Literature in cultural psychology suggests that compared with North Americans, East Asians prefer context-rich cultural products (e.g., paintings and photographs). The present article further examines the preferred amount of information in cultural products produced by East Asians and North Americans (Study 1: Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference posters; Study 2: government and university portal pages). The authors found that East Asians produced more information-rich products than did North Americans. Study 3 further examined people's information search speed when identifying target objects on mock webpages containing large amounts of information. The results indicated that East Asians were faster than North Americans in dealing with information on mock webpages with large amounts of information. Finally, the authors found that there were cultural differences as well as similarities in functional and aesthetic preferences regarding styles of information presentation. The interplay between cultural products and skills for accommodating to the cultural products is discussed.

Interannual kinetics (2010-2013) of large wood in a river corridor exposed to a 50-year flood event and fluvial ice dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boivin, Maxime; Buffin-Bélanger, Thomas; Piégay, Hervé

2017-02-01

Semi-alluvial rivers of the Gaspé Peninsula, Québec, are prone to produce and transport vast quantities of large wood (LW). The high rate of lateral erosion owing to high energy flows and noncohesive banks is the main process leading to the recruitment of large wood, which in turn initiates complex patterns of wood accumulation and reentrainment within the active channel. The delta of the Saint-Jean River (SJR) has accumulated large annual wood fluxes since 1960 that culminated in a wood raft of > 3-km in length in 2014. To document the kinetics of large wood on the main channel of SJR, four annual surveys were carried out from 2010 to 2013 to locate and describe > 1000 large wood jams (LWJ) and 2000 large wood individuals (LWI) along a 60-km river section. Airborne and ground photo/video images were used to estimate the wood volume introduced by lateral erosion and to identify local geomorphic conditions that control wood mobility and deposits. Video camera analysis allowed the examination of transport rates from three hydrometeorological events for specific river sections. Results indicate that the volume of LW recruited between 2010 and 2013 represents 57% of the total LW production over the 2004-2013 period. Volumes of wood deposited along the 60-km section were four times higher in 2013 than in 2010. Increases in wood amount occurred mainly in upper alluvial sections of the river, whereas decreases were observed in the semi-alluvial middle sections. Observations suggest that the 50-year flood event of 2010 produced large amounts of LW that were only partly exported out of the basin so that a significant amount was still available for subsequent floods. Large wood storage continued after this flood until a similar flood or an ice-breakup event could remobilise these LW accumulations into the river corridor. Ice-jam floods transport large amounts of wood during events with fairly low flow but do not contribute significantly to recruitment rates (ca. 10 to 30% early). It is fairly probable that the wood export peak observed in 2012 at the river mouth, where no flood occurred and which is similar to the 1-in 10-year flood of 2010, is mainly linked to such ice-break events that occurred in March 2012.

Stock flow diagram analysis on solid waste management in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zulkipli, Faridah; Nopiah, Zulkifli Mohd; Basri, Noor Ezlin Ahmad; Kie, Cheng Jack

2016-10-01

The effectiveness on solid waste management is a major importance to societies. Numerous generation of solid waste from our daily activities has risked for our communities. These due to rapid population grow and advance in economic development. Moreover, the complexity of solid waste management is inherently involved large scale, diverse and element of uncertainties that must assist stakeholders with deviating objectives. In this paper, we proposed a system dynamics simulation by developing a stock flow diagram to illustrate the solid waste generation process and waste recycle process. The analysis highlights the impact on increasing the number of population toward the amount of solid waste generated and the amount of recycled waste. The results show an increment in the number of population as well as the amount of recycled waste will decrease the amount of waste generated. It is positively represent the achievement of government aim to minimize the amount of waste to be disposed by year 2020.

Ostomy Surgery of the Bowel

MedlinePlus

... gum with moderation, as they may also cause gas. Constipation is often the result of an unbalanced diet or eating and drinking too little. After ostomy surgery, people should avoid large amounts of liquids with meals drink plenty of liquids between meals ...

Forest amount affects soybean productivity in Brazilian agricultural frontier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rattis, L.; Brando, P. M.; Marques, E. Q.; Queiroz, N.; Silverio, D. V.; Macedo, M.; Coe, M. T.

2017-12-01

Over the past three decades, large tracts of tropical forests have been converted to crop and pasturelands across southern Amazonia, largely to meet the increasing worldwide demand for protein. As the world's population continue to grow and consume more protein per capita, forest conversion to grow more crops could be a potential solution to meet such demand. However, widespread deforestation is expected to negatively affect crop productivity via multiple pathways (e.g., thermal regulation, rainfall, local moisture, pest control, among others). To quantify how deforestation affects crop productivity, we modeled the relationship between forest amount and enhanced vegetation index (EVI—a proxy for crop productivity) during the soybean planting season across southern Amazonia. Our hypothesis that forest amount causes increased crop productivity received strong support. We found that the maximum MODIS-based EVI in soybean fields increased as a function of forest amount across three spatial-scales, 0.5 km, 1 km, 2 km, 5 km, 10 km, 15 km and 20 km. However, the strength of this relationship varied across years and with precipitation, but only at the local scale (e.g., 500 meters and 1 km radius). Our results highlight the importance of considering forests to design sustainable landscapes.

The Gist of Juries: Testing a Model of Damage Award Decision Making

PubMed Central

Reyna, Valerie F.; Hans, Valerie P.; Corbin, Jonathan C.; Yeh, Ryan; Lin, Kelvin; Royer, Caisa

2017-01-01

Despite the importance of damage awards, juries are often at sea about the amounts that should be awarded, with widely differing awards for cases that seem comparable. We tested a new model of damage award decision making by systematically varying the size, context, and meaningfulness of numerical comparisons or anchors. As a result, we were able to elicit large differences in award amounts that replicated for 2 different cases. Although even arbitrary dollar amounts (unrelated to the cases) influenced the size of award judgments, the most consistent effects of numerical anchors were achieved when the amounts were meaningful in the sense that they conveyed the gist of numbers as small or large. Consistent with the model, the ordinal gist of the severity of plaintiff’s damages and defendant’s liability predicted damage awards, controlling for other factors such as motivation for the award-judgment task and perceived economic damages. Contrary to traditional dual-process approaches, numeracy and cognitive style (e.g., need for cognition and cognitive reflection) were not significant predictors of these numerical judgments, but they were associated with lower levels of variability once the gist of the judgments was taken into account. Implications for theory and policy are discussed. PMID:29075092

The effect of amount and tangibility of endowment and certainty of recipients on selfishness in a modified dictator game.

PubMed

Chang, Shao-Chuan; Lin, Li-Yun; Horng, Ruey-Yun; Wang, Yau-De

2014-06-01

Taiwanese college students (N = 101) participated in the study to examine the effects of the amount of an endowment, the tangibility of an endowment, and the certainty of the recipient on selfishness in a modified dictator game. Results showed that dictators were more selfish when allocating tangible (money) than less tangible (honor credits) endowments. Selfishness was higher when large amounts of money were involved. The certainty of the recipient was manipulated by whether the recipient was chosen and announced before or after the decision. Unexpectedly, participants were more self-interested in the certain-recipient condition than in the uncertain-recipient condition. In the honor condition, the amount of an endowment and the certainty of the recipient did not affect participants' allocations.

Expert Systems In Medical Studies - A New Twist

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slagle, James R.; Long, John M.; Wick, Michael R.; Matts, John P.; Leon, Arthur S.

1986-03-01

The use of experts to evaluate large amounts of trial data results in increasingly expensive and time consuming research. We are investigating the role expert systems can play in reducing the time and expense of research projects. Current methods in large clinical studies for evaluating data are often crude and superficial. We have developed, for a large clinical trial, an expert system for analysis of treadmill exercise ECG test results. In the cases we are studying, a patient is given a treadmill exercise ECG test once a year for five years. Pairs of these exercise tests are then evaluated by cardiologists to determine the condition of the patient's heart. The results of our system show great promise for the use of expert systems in reducing the time and expense of large clinical trials.

High-temperature beverages and Foods and Esophageal Cancer Risk -- A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Islami, Farhad; Boffetta, Paolo; Ren, JianSong; Pedoeim, Leah; Khatib, Dara; Kamangar, Farin

2009-01-01

Coffee, tea, and maté may cause esophageal cancer (EC) by causing thermal injury to the esophageal mucosa. If so, the risk of EC attributable to thermal injury could be large in populations in which these beverages are commonly consumed. In addition, these drinks may cause or prevent EC via their chemical constituents. Therefore, a large number of epidemiologic studies have investigated the association of an indicator of amount or temperature of use of these drinks or other hot foods and beverages with risk of EC. We conducted a systematic review of these studies, and report the results for amount and temperature of use separately. By searching PubMed and the ISI, we found 59 eligible studies. For coffee and tea, there was little evidence for an association between amount of use and EC risk; however, the majority of studies showed an increased risk of EC associated with higher drinking temperature which was statistically significant in most of them. For maté drinking, the number of studies was limited, but they consistently showed that EC risk increased with both amount consumed and temperature, and these two were independent risk factors. For other hot foods and drinks, over half of the studies showed statistically significant increased risks of EC associated with higher temperature of intake. Overall, the available results strongly suggest that high-temperature beverage drinking increases the risk of EC. Future studies will require standardized strategies that allow for combining data, and results should be reported by histological subtypes of EC. PMID:19415743

An Automated Data Analysis Tool for Livestock Market Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Galen S.; Raper, Kellie Curry

2011-01-01

This article describes an automated data analysis tool that allows Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service educators to disseminate results in a timely manner. Primary data collected at Oklahoma Quality Beef Network (OQBN) certified calf auctions across the state results in a large amount of data per sale site. Sale summaries for an individual sale…

The application of waste fly ash and construction-waste in cement filling material in goaf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, W. X.; Xiao, F. K.; Guan, X. H.; Cheng, Y.; Shi, X. P.; Liu, S. M.; Wang, W. W.

2018-01-01

As the process of urbanization accelerated, resulting in a large number of abandoned fly ash and construction waste, which have occupied the farmland and polluted the environment. In this paper, a large number of construction waste and abandoned fly ash are mixed into the filling material in goaf, the best formula of the filling material which containing a large amount of abandoned fly ash and construction waste is obtained, and the performance of the filling material is analyzed. The experimental results show that the cost of filling material is very low while the performance is very good, which have a good prospect in goaf.

How to leverage a bad inventory situation.

PubMed

Horsfall, G A

1998-11-01

Small manufacturing companies have a hard time taking advantage of the price breaks that result from large purchase orders. Besides the greater amount of money involved, purchasing large quantities of items demands additional space for storing the items. This article describes a company that created separate inventory management and finance company to provide inventory management services to itself and to market these services to other small companies in its area.

A model for prioritizing landfills for remediation and closure: A case study in Serbia.

PubMed

Ubavin, Dejan; Agarski, Boris; Maodus, Nikola; Stanisavljevic, Nemanja; Budak, Igor

2018-01-01

The existence of large numbers of landfills that do not fulfill sanitary prerequisites presents a serious hazard for the environment in lower income countries. One of the main hazards is landfill leachate that contains various pollutants and presents a threat to groundwater. Groundwater pollution from landfills depends on various mutually interconnected factors such as the waste type and amount, the amount of precipitation, the landfill location characteristics, and operational measures, among others. Considering these factors, lower income countries face a selection problem where landfills urgently requiring remediation and closure must be identified from among a large number of sites. The present paper proposes a model for prioritizing landfills for closure and remediation based on multicriteria decision making, in which the hazards of landfill groundwater pollution are evaluated. The parameters for the prioritization of landfills are the amount of waste disposed, the amount of precipitation, the vulnerability index, and the rate of increase of the amount of waste in the landfill. Verification was performed using a case study in Serbia where all municipal landfills were included and 128 landfills were selected for prioritization. The results of the evaluation of Serbian landfills, prioritizing sites for closure and remediation, are presented for the first time. Critical landfills are identified, and prioritization ranks for the selected landfills are provided. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:105-119. © 2017 SETAC. © 2017 SETAC.

Large Faraday effect of borate glasses with high Tb3+ content prepared by containerless processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Futoshi; Sato, Fumio; Oshita, Hiroyuki; Yao, Situ; Nakatsuka, Yuko; Tanaka, Katsuhisa

2018-02-01

Borate glasses containing a large amount of Tb3+ ions have been prepared by containerless processing. The content of Tb2O3 reached 60 mol%. The glass bearing the highest content of Tb3+ ions showed a large Faraday effect; the Verdet constant was 234 rad/T m. Annealing of the glasses in H2/N2 atmosphere resulted in a low optical absorption coefficient, leading to an extremely large magneto-optical figure of merit that was ∼1.7 times higher than that of Tb3Ga5O12 single crystal.

Experimental quantum computing without entanglement.

PubMed

Lanyon, B P; Barbieri, M; Almeida, M P; White, A G

2008-11-14

Deterministic quantum computation with one pure qubit (DQC1) is an efficient model of computation that uses highly mixed states. Unlike pure-state models, its power is not derived from the generation of a large amount of entanglement. Instead it has been proposed that other nonclassical correlations are responsible for the computational speedup, and that these can be captured by the quantum discord. In this Letter we implement DQC1 in an all-optical architecture, and experimentally observe the generated correlations. We find no entanglement, but large amounts of quantum discord-except in three cases where an efficient classical simulation is always possible. Our results show that even fully separable, highly mixed, states can contain intrinsically quantum mechanical correlations and that these could offer a valuable resource for quantum information technologies.

Efficient feature extraction from wide-area motion imagery by MapReduce in Hadoop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Erkang; Ma, Liya; Blaisse, Adam; Blasch, Erik; Sheaff, Carolyn; Chen, Genshe; Wu, Jie; Ling, Haibin

2014-06-01

Wide-Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) feature extraction is important for applications such as target tracking, traffic management and accident discovery. With the increasing amount of WAMI collections and feature extraction from the data, a scalable framework is needed to handle the large amount of information. Cloud computing is one of the approaches recently applied in large scale or big data. In this paper, MapReduce in Hadoop is investigated for large scale feature extraction tasks for WAMI. Specifically, a large dataset of WAMI images is divided into several splits. Each split has a small subset of WAMI images. The feature extractions of WAMI images in each split are distributed to slave nodes in the Hadoop system. Feature extraction of each image is performed individually in the assigned slave node. Finally, the feature extraction results are sent to the Hadoop File System (HDFS) to aggregate the feature information over the collected imagery. Experiments of feature extraction with and without MapReduce are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed Cloud-Enabled WAMI Exploitation (CAWE) approach.

A Parallel Nonrigid Registration Algorithm Based on B-Spline for Medical Images

PubMed Central

Wang, Yangping; Wang, Song

2016-01-01

The nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline Free-Form Deformation (FFD) plays a key role and is widely applied in medical image processing due to the good flexibility and robustness. However, it requires a tremendous amount of computing time to obtain more accurate registration results especially for a large amount of medical image data. To address the issue, a parallel nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline is proposed in this paper. First, the Logarithm Squared Difference (LSD) is considered as the similarity metric in the B-spline registration algorithm to improve registration precision. After that, we create a parallel computing strategy and lookup tables (LUTs) to reduce the complexity of the B-spline registration algorithm. As a result, the computing time of three time-consuming steps including B-splines interpolation, LSD computation, and the analytic gradient computation of LSD, is efficiently reduced, for the B-spline registration algorithm employs the Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient (NCG) optimization method. Experimental results of registration quality and execution efficiency on the large amount of medical images show that our algorithm achieves a better registration accuracy in terms of the differences between the best deformation fields and ground truth and a speedup of 17 times over the single-threaded CPU implementation due to the powerful parallel computing ability of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). PMID:28053653

Lignin Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels

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

Wyman, Charles E.; Ragauskas, Arthur J

2015-09-15

Here we report that today's and tomorrow's biofuels production facilities could benefit tremendously from increasing the value from the large amount of lignin that results from biofuels operations. Certainly, the scientific community, and biofuels industry has begun to recognize the challenges and opportunities associated with lignin.

Innovative techniques for maintenance, repair and reconstruction (MRR) of asphalt roadways : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-08-01

Highway networks in the United States have been suffering from poor operational and structural condition states for the past decades. The consequent congestion problems often result in major delays, safety issues, and large amounts of additional fuel...

A method for data handling numerical results in parallel OpenFOAM simulations

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

Anton, Alin; Muntean, Sebastian

Parallel computational fluid dynamics simulations produce vast amount of numerical result data. This paper introduces a method for reducing the size of the data by replaying the interprocessor traffic. The results are recovered only in certain regions of interest configured by the user. A known test case is used for several mesh partitioning scenarios using the OpenFOAM toolkit{sup ®}[1]. The space savings obtained with classic algorithms remain constant for more than 60 Gb of floating point data. Our method is most efficient on large simulation meshes and is much better suited for compressing large scale simulation results than the regular algorithms.

New regulations for radiation protection for work involving radioactive fallout emitted by the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi APP accident--disposal of contaminated soil and wastes.

PubMed

Yasui, Shojiro

2014-01-01

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Atomic Power Plant that accompanied the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, released a large amount of radioactive material. To rehabilitate the contaminated areas, the government of Japan decided to carry out decontamination work and manage the waste resulting from decontamination. In the summer of 2013, the Ministry of the Environment planned to begin a full-scale process for waste disposal of contaminated soil and wastes removed as part of the decontamination work. The existing regulations were not developed to address such a large amount of contaminated wastes. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), therefore, had to amend the existing regulations for waste disposal workers. The amendment of the general regulation targeted the areas where the existing exposure situation overlaps the planned exposure situation. The MHLW established the demarcation lines between the two regulations to be applied in each situation. The amendment was also intended to establish provisions for the operation of waste disposal facilities that handle large amounts of contaminated materials. Deliberation concerning the regulation was conducted when the facilities were under design; hence, necessary adjustments should be made as needed during the operation of the facilities.

Large Amounts of Reactivated Virus in Tears Precedes Recurrent Herpes Stromal Keratitis in Stressed Rabbits Latently Infected with Herpes Simplex Virus

PubMed Central

Perng, Guey-Chuen; Osorio, Nelson; Jiang, Xianzhi; Geertsema, Roger; Hsiang, Chinhui; Brown, Don; BenMohamed, Lbachir; Wechsler, Steven L.

2017-01-01

Aim Recurrent herpetic stromal keratitis (rHSK), due to an immune response to reactivation of herpes simplex virus (HSV-1), can cause corneal blindness. The development of therapeutic interventions such as drugs and vaccines to decrease rHSK have been hampered by the lack of a small and reliable animal model in which rHSK occurs at a high frequency during HSV-1 latency. The aim of this study is to develop a rabbit model of rHSK in which stress from elevated temperatures increases the frequency of HSV-1 reactivations and rHSK. Materials and methods Rabbits latently infected with HSV-1 were subjected to elevated temperatures and the frequency of viral reactivations and rHSK were determined. Results In an experiment in which rabbits latently infected with HSV-1 were subjected to ill-defined stress as a result of failure of the vivarium air conditioning system, reactivation of HSV-1 occurred at over twice the normal frequency. In addition, 60% of eyes developed severe rHSK compared to <1% of eyes normally. All episodes of rHSK were preceded four to five days prior by an unusually large amount of reactivated virus in the tears of that eye and whenever this unusually large amount of reactivated virus was detected in tears, rHSK always appeared 4–5 days later. In subsequent experiments using well defined heat stress the reactivation frequency was similarly increased, but no eyes developed rHSK. Conclusions The results reported here support the hypothesis that rHSK is associated not simply with elevated reactivation frequency, but rather with rare episodes of very high levels of reactivated virus in tears 4–5 days earlier. PMID:25859798

Distribution and biokinetic analysis of 210Pb and 210Po in poultry due to ingestion of dicalcium phosphate.

PubMed

Casacuberta, N; Traversa, F L; Masqué, P; Garcia-Orellana, J; Anguita, M; Gasa, J; Garcia-Tenorio, R

2010-09-15

Dicalcium phosphate (DCP) is used as a calcium supplement for food producing animals (i.e., cattle, poultry and pig). When DCP is produced via wet acid digestion of the phosphate rock and depending on the acid used in the industrial process, the final product can result in enhanced (210)Pb and (210)Po specific activities (approximately 2000 Bq.kg(-1)). Both (210)Pb and (210)Po are of great interest because their contribution to the dose received by ingestion is potentially large. The aims of this work are to examine the accumulation of (210)Pb and (210)Po in chicken tissues during the first 42 days of life and to build a suitable single-compartment biokinetic model to understand the behavior of both radionuclides within the entire animal using the experimental results. Three commercial corn-soybean-based diets containing different amounts and sources of DCP were fed to broilers during a period of 42 days. The results show that diets containing enhanced concentrations of (210)Pb and (210)Po lead to larger specific accumulation in broiler tissues compared to the blank diet. Radionuclides do not accumulate homogeneously within the animal body: (210)Pb follows the calcium pathways to some extent and accumulates largely in bones, while (210)Po accumulates to a large extent in liver and kidneys. However, the total amount of radionuclide accumulation in tissues is small compared to the amounts excreted in feces. The single-compartment non-linear biokinetic model proposed here for (210)Pb and (210)Po in the whole animal takes into account the size evolution and is self-consistent in that no fitting parameterization of intake and excretions rates is required. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Accelerator infrastructure in Europe: EuCARD 2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2011-10-01

The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the annual meeting of the EuCARD - European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development. The conference concerns building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution.

Use of tropical maize for bioethanol production

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Tropical maize is an alternative energy crop being considered as a feedstock for bioethanol production in the North Central and Midwest United States. Tropical maize is advantageous because it produces large amounts of soluble sugars in its stalks, creates a large amount of biomass, and requires lo...

Nonphotic phase shifting in female Syrian hamsters: interactions with the estrous cycle.

PubMed

Young Janik, L; Janik, Daniel

2003-08-01

Nonphotic phase shifting of circadian rhythms was examined in female Syrian hamsters. Animals were stimulated at zeitgeber time 4.5 by either placing them in a novel running wheel or by transferring them to a clean home cage. Placement in a clean home cage was more effective than novel wheel treatment in stimulating large (> 1.5 h) phase shifts. Peak phase shifts (ca. 3.5 h) and the percentage of females showing large phase shifts were comparable to those found in male hamsters stimulated with novel wheels. The amount of activity induced by nonphotic stimulation and the amount of phase shifting varied slightly with respect to the 4-day estrous cycle. Animals tended to run less and shift less on the day of estrus. Nonphotic stimulation on proestrus often resulted in a 1-day delay of the estrous cycle reflected in animals' postovulatory vaginal discharge and the expression of sexual receptivity (lordosis). This delay of the estrous cycle was associated with large phase advances and high activity. These results extend the generality of nonphotic phase shifting to females for the first time and raise the possibility that resetting of circadian rhythms can induce changes in the estrous cycle.

Geo-reCAPTCHA: Crowdsourcing large amounts of geographic information from earth observation data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hillen, Florian; Höfle, Bernhard

2015-08-01

The reCAPTCHA concept provides a large amount of valuable information for various applications. First, it provides security, e.g., for a form on a website, by means of a test that only a human could solve. Second, the effort of the user for this test is used to generate additional information, e.g., digitization of books or identification of house numbers. In this work, we present a concept for adapting the reCAPTCHA idea to create user-generated geographic information from earth observation data, and the requirements during the conception and implementation are depicted in detail. Furthermore, the essential parts of a Geo-reCAPTCHA system are described, and afterwards transferred, to a prototype implementation. An empirical user study is conducted to investigate the Geo-reCAPTCHA approach, assessing time and quality of the resulting geographic information. Our results show that a Geo-reCAPTCHA can be solved by the users of our study on building digitization in a short amount of time (19.2 s on average) with an overall average accuracy of the digitizations of 82.2%. In conclusion, Geo-reCAPTCHA has the potential to be a reasonable alternative to the typical reCAPTCHA, and to become a new data-rich channel of crowdsourced geographic information.

A Database as a Service for the Healthcare System to Store Physiological Signal Data.

PubMed

Chang, Hsien-Tsung; Lin, Tsai-Huei

2016-01-01

Wearable devices that measure physiological signals to help develop self-health management habits have become increasingly popular in recent years. These records are conducive for follow-up health and medical care. In this study, based on the characteristics of the observed physiological signal records- 1) a large number of users, 2) a large amount of data, 3) low information variability, 4) data privacy authorization, and 5) data access by designated users-we wish to resolve physiological signal record-relevant issues utilizing the advantages of the Database as a Service (DaaS) model. Storing a large amount of data using file patterns can reduce database load, allowing users to access data efficiently; the privacy control settings allow users to store data securely. The results of the experiment show that the proposed system has better database access performance than a traditional relational database, with a small difference in database volume, thus proving that the proposed system can improve data storage performance.

A Database as a Service for the Healthcare System to Store Physiological Signal Data

PubMed Central

Lin, Tsai-Huei

2016-01-01

Wearable devices that measure physiological signals to help develop self-health management habits have become increasingly popular in recent years. These records are conducive for follow-up health and medical care. In this study, based on the characteristics of the observed physiological signal records– 1) a large number of users, 2) a large amount of data, 3) low information variability, 4) data privacy authorization, and 5) data access by designated users—we wish to resolve physiological signal record-relevant issues utilizing the advantages of the Database as a Service (DaaS) model. Storing a large amount of data using file patterns can reduce database load, allowing users to access data efficiently; the privacy control settings allow users to store data securely. The results of the experiment show that the proposed system has better database access performance than a traditional relational database, with a small difference in database volume, thus proving that the proposed system can improve data storage performance. PMID:28033415

Thermal analysis and management of lithium-titanate batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giuliano, Michael R.; Advani, Suresh G.; Prasad, Ajay K.

2011-08-01

Battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles demand batteries that can store large amounts of energy in addition to accommodating large charge and discharge currents without compromising battery life. Lithium-titanate batteries have recently become an attractive option for this application. High current thresholds allow these cells to be charged quickly as well as supply the power needed to drive such vehicles. These large currents generate substantial amounts of waste heat due to loss mechanisms arising from the cell's internal chemistry and ohmic resistance. During normal vehicle operation, an active cooling system must be implemented to maintain a safe cell temperature and improve battery performance and life. This paper outlines a method to conduct thermal analysis of lithium-titanate cells under laboratory conditions. Thermochromic liquid crystals were implemented to instantaneously measure the entire surface temperature field of the cell. The resulting temperature measurements were used to evaluate the effectiveness of an active cooling system developed and tested in our laboratory for the thermal management of lithium-titanate cells.

Water demand-supply analysis in a large spatial area based on the processes of evapotranspiration and runoff

PubMed Central

Maruyama, Toshisuke

2007-01-01

To estimate the amount of evapotranspiration in a river basin, the “short period water balance method” was formulated. Then, by introducing the “complementary relationship method,” the amount of evapotranspiration was estimated seasonally, and with reasonable accuracy, for both small and large areas. Moreover, to accurately estimate river discharge in the low water season, the “weighted statistical unit hydrograph method” was proposed and a procedure for the calculation of the unit hydrograph was developed. Also, a new model, based on the “equivalent roughness method,” was successfully developed for the estimation of flood runoff from newly reclaimed farmlands. Based on the results of this research, a “composite reservoir model” was formulated to analyze the repeated use of irrigation water in large spatial areas. The application of this model to a number of watershed areas provided useful information with regard to the realities of water demand-supply systems in watersheds predominately dedicated to paddy fields, in Japan. PMID:24367144

Transient Stability and Frequency Response of the US Western Interconnection Under Conditions of High Wind and Solar Generation

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

Miller, Nicholas W.; Shao, Miaolei; Pajic, Slobodan

The addition of large amounts of wind and solar generation to bulk power systems that are traditionally subject to operating constraints set by transient stability and frequency response limitations is the subject of considerable concern in the industry. The US Western Interconnection (WI) is expected to experience substantial additional growth in both wind and solar generation. These plants will, to some extent, displace large central station thermal generation, both coal and gas-fired, which have traditionally helped maintain stability. This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the transient stability and frequency response of the WI with high penetrationsmore » of wind and solar generation. The main goals of this work were to (1) create a realistic, baseline model of the WI, (2) test selected transient stability and frequency events, (3) investigate the impact of large amounts of wind and solar generation, and (4) examine means to improve performance.« less

Transient Stability and Frequency Response of the Us Western Interconnection Under Conditions of High Wind and Solar Generation

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

Clark, Kara; Miller, Nicholas W.; Shao, Miaolei

Adding large amounts of wind and solar generation to bulk power systems that are traditionally subject to operating constraints set by transient stability and frequency response limitations is the subject of considerable concern in the industry. The US Western Interconnection (WI) is expected to experience substantial additional growth in both wind and solar generation. These plants will, to some extent, displace large central station thermal generation, both coal and gas-fired, which have traditionally helped maintain stability. Our paper reports the results of a study that investigated the transient stability and frequency response of the WI with high penetrations of windmore » and solar generation. Moreover, the main goals of this work were to (1) create a realistic, baseline model of the WI, (2) test selected transient stability and frequency events, (3) investigate the impact of large amounts of wind and solar generation, and (4) examine means to improve performance.« less

Evaluation of a Viscosity-Molecular Weight Relationship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathias, Lon J.

1983-01-01

Background information, procedures, and results are provided for a series of graduate/undergraduate polymer experiments. These include synthesis of poly(methylmethacrylate), viscosity experiment (indicating large effect even small amounts of a polymer may have on solution properties), and measurement of weight-average molecular weight by light…

Ethanol production using engineered mutant E. coli

DOEpatents

Ingram, Lonnie O.; Clark, David P.

1991-01-01

The subject invention concerns novel means and materials for producing ethanol as a fermentation product. Mutant E. coli are transformed with a gene coding for pyruvate decarboxylase activity. The resulting system is capable of producing relatively large amounts of ethanol from a variety of biomass sources.

Analyzing large-scale spiking neural data with HRLAnalysis™

PubMed Central

Thibeault, Corey M.; O'Brien, Michael J.; Srinivasa, Narayan

2014-01-01

The additional capabilities provided by high-performance neural simulation environments and modern computing hardware has allowed for the modeling of increasingly larger spiking neural networks. This is important for exploring more anatomically detailed networks but the corresponding accumulation in data can make analyzing the results of these simulations difficult. This is further compounded by the fact that many existing analysis packages were not developed with large spiking data sets in mind. Presented here is a software suite developed to not only process the increased amount of spike-train data in a reasonable amount of time, but also provide a user friendly Python interface. We describe the design considerations, implementation and features of the HRLAnalysis™ suite. In addition, performance benchmarks demonstrating the speedup of this design compared to a published Python implementation are also presented. The result is a high-performance analysis toolkit that is not only usable and readily extensible, but also straightforward to interface with existing Python modules. PMID:24634655

Semi-automatic recognition of marine debris on beaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Zhenpeng; Shi, Huahong; Mei, Xuefei; Dai, Zhijun; Li, Daoji

2016-05-01

An increasing amount of anthropogenic marine debris is pervading the earth’s environmental systems, resulting in an enormous threat to living organisms. Additionally, the large amount of marine debris around the world has been investigated mostly through tedious manual methods. Therefore, we propose the use of a new technique, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), for the semi-automatic recognition of marine debris on a beach because of its substantially more efficient role in comparison with other more laborious methods. Our results revealed that LIDAR should be used for the classification of marine debris into plastic, paper, cloth and metal. Additionally, we reconstructed a 3-dimensional model of different types of debris on a beach with a high validity of debris revivification using LIDAR-based individual separation. These findings demonstrate that the availability of this new technique enables detailed observations to be made of debris on a large beach that was previously not possible. It is strongly suggested that LIDAR could be implemented as an appropriate monitoring tool for marine debris by global researchers and governments.

Mining algorithm for association rules in big data based on Hadoop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Chunhua; Wang, Xiaojing; Zhang, Lijun; Qiao, Liying

2018-04-01

In order to solve the problem that the traditional association rules mining algorithm has been unable to meet the mining needs of large amount of data in the aspect of efficiency and scalability, take FP-Growth as an example, the algorithm is realized in the parallelization based on Hadoop framework and Map Reduce model. On the basis, it is improved using the transaction reduce method for further enhancement of the algorithm's mining efficiency. The experiment, which consists of verification of parallel mining results, comparison on efficiency between serials and parallel, variable relationship between mining time and node number and between mining time and data amount, is carried out in the mining results and efficiency by Hadoop clustering. Experiments show that the paralleled FP-Growth algorithm implemented is able to accurately mine frequent item sets, with a better performance and scalability. It can be better to meet the requirements of big data mining and efficiently mine frequent item sets and association rules from large dataset.

Effects of entanglement in an ideal optical amplifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franson, J. D.; Brewster, R. A.

2018-04-01

In an ideal linear amplifier, the output signal is linearly related to the input signal with an additive noise that is independent of the input. The decoherence of a quantum-mechanical state as a result of optical amplification is usually assumed to be due to the addition of quantum noise. Here we show that entanglement between the input signal and the amplifying medium can produce an exponentially-large amount of decoherence in an ideal optical amplifier even when the gain is arbitrarily close to unity and the added noise is negligible. These effects occur for macroscopic superposition states, where even a small amount of gain can leave a significant amount of which-path information in the environment. Our results show that the usual input/output relation of a linear amplifier does not provide a complete description of the output state when post-selection is used.

An analysis of antioxidants, organoleptics and hedonics with variations of boiling time in Jasmine tea and Jasmine root tea a study on Kaliprau, Pemalang

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arifan, Fahmi; Winarni, Sri; Handoyo, Gentur; Nurdiana, Asri; Nabila Rahma H, Afkar; Risdiyanti, Sri

2018-05-01

There are so many jasmine plantations without any preservation and post production in Kaliprau, Pemalang. The aims of this research are analyzing the amount of antioxidant and organoleptic-hedonic test. The measurement of antioxidant used in this research is using DPPH. The organoleptic and hedonic test on 25 respondents. Jasmines that been used on this research are the flower and the root part. Through the test, some results have been found from the jasmine tea’s sampling with the boiling time of 15 minutes and it contain antioxidant for about 55.0% and 74.84% for the jasmine root tea. Whereas for the boiling time of 30 minutes, it contained 54.00% of antioxidant for the jasmine tea and 84.00% of antioxidant in jasmine root tea. Jasmine tea and jasmine root tea contains flavonoids. Despite the large amount of antioxidant were found in jasmine tea and jasmine root tea (50-100%). There’s a decreasing of antioxidant amount found in the samples, along with the prolonged boiling time. 84% of tresponden like the scent, flavor, color and the texture of jasmine tea and jasmine root tea. These products are finally accepted by the people and have its large amount of antioxidant contain for the jasmine tea.

Exploratory tests of two strut fuel injectors for supersonic combustion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, G. Y.; Gooderum, P. B.

1974-01-01

Results of supersonic mixing and combustion tests performed with two simple strut injector configurations, one with parallel injectors and one with perpendicular injectors, are presented and analyzed. Good agreement is obtained between static pressure measured on the duct wall downstream of the strut injectors and distributions obtained from one-dimensional calculations. Measured duct heat load agrees with results of the one-dimensional calculations for moderate amounts of reaction, but is underestimated when large separated regions occur near the injection location. For the parallel injection strut, good agreement is obtained between the shape of the injected fuel distribution inferred from gas sample measurements at the duct exit and the distribution calculated with a multiple-jet mixing theory. The overall fraction of injected fuel reacted in the multiple-jet calculation closely matches the amount of fuel reaction necessary to match static pressure with the one-dimensional calculation. Gas sample measurements with the perpendicular injection strut also give results consistent with the amount of fuel reaction in the one-dimensional calculation.

Gene Expression Browser: Large-Scale and Cross-Experiment Microarray Data Management, Search & Visualization

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The amount of microarray gene expression data in public repositories has been increasing exponentially for the last couple of decades. High-throughput microarray data integration and analysis has become a critical step in exploring the large amount of expression data for biological discovery. Howeve...

Production of brown and black pigments by using flotation waste from copper slag.

PubMed

Ozel, Emel; Turan, Servet; Coruh, Semra; Ergun, Osman Nuri

2006-04-01

One of the major problems in copper-producing countries is the treatment of the large amount of copper slag or copper flotation waste generated from copper slag which contains significant amounts of heavy metals such as Cu, Zn, Pb and Co. Dumping or disposal of such large quantities of flotation waste from copper slag causes environmental and space problems. In this study, the treatment of flotation waste from copper slag by a thermal method and its use as an iron source in the production of inorganic brown and black pigments that are used in the ceramic industry were investigated. The pigments were produced by calcining different amounts of flotation waste and chromite, Cr2O3, ZnO and CoO mixtures. The pigments obtained were added to transparent ceramic glazes and porcelainized tile bodies. Their colours were defined by L*a*b* measurements with a spectrophotometer. The results showed that flotation waste from copper slag could be used as an iron source to produce brown and black pigments in both ceramic body and glazes.

Large discharge capacity from carbon electrodes in sulfuric acid with oxidant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inagaki, M.; Iwashita, N.

The discharge performance of the graphite intercalation compounds in sulfuric acid containing nitric acid (H 2SO 4-GICs) was studied by focusing on the effects of oxidant and carbon nanotexture. A large discharge capacity from H 2SO 4-GICs synthesized by using an excess amount of HNO 3, more than 150 times of the theoretical value (93 mAh/g carbon), was obtained depending on the amount of oxidant added, the discharge current, and the nanotexture of carbon electrode. The experimental results are explained in terms of competition between the de-intercalation of sulfuric acid due to galvanostatic reduction and the re-intercalation due to chemical oxidation by HN03 during discharging. However, a subsidiary reaction decreases the effective amount of HNO 3 on the discharge by a small current and also on the cycle of chemical charging and electrochemical discharging. The oxidant KMnO 4 gave only a little larger capacity for discharge than the theoretical one, because it was reduced to the manganese oxide precipitates during the oxidation of the carbon electrode.

The impact of air pollutants on rainwater chemistry during "urban-induced heavy rainfall" in downtown Tokyo, Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uchiyama, Ryunosuke; Okochi, Hiroshi; Katsumi, Naoya; Ogata, Hiroko

2017-06-01

In order to clarify the impact of air pollution on the formation of sudden and locally distributed heavy rain in urban areas (hereafter UHR = urban-induced heavy rain), we analyzed inorganic ions in rainwater samples collected on an event basis over 5 years from October 2012 to December 2016 in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Hourly rainfall amounts and wet deposition fluxes of acidic components (the sum of H+, NH4+, NO3-, and nonsea-salt SO42-) in UHR were 13.1 and 17.8 times larger than those in normal rainfall, respectively, indicating that large amount of air pollutants were scavenged and deposited by UHR with large amounts of rainfall. The level of air pollutants, such as NO2, SO2, and potential ozone, in the ambient air increased just before the formation of UHR and decreased sharply at the end of the UHR event. These results indicate that NO2, which was formed secondarily by oxidants, was further oxidized by HO radicals and formed HNO3 just before the formation of UHR, which was subsequently scavenged by UHR.

Enhancing the use of waste activated sludge as bio-fuel through selectively reducing its heavy metal content.

PubMed

Dewil, Raf; Baeyens, Jan; Appels, Lise

2007-06-18

Power plant or cement kiln co-incineration are important disposal routes for the large amounts of waste activated sludge (WAS) which are generated annually. The presence of significant amounts of heavy metals in the sludge however poses serious problems since they are partly emitted with the flue gases (and collected in the flue gas dedusting) and partly incorporated in the ashes of the incinerator: in both cases, the disposal or reuse of the fly ash and bottom ashes can be jeopardized since subsequent leaching in landfill disposal can occur, or their "pozzolanic" incorporation in cement cannot be applied. The present paper studies some physicochemical methods for reducing the heavy metal content of WAS. The used techniques include acid and alkaline thermal hydrolysis and Fenton's peroxidation. By degrading the extracellular polymeric substances, binding sites for a large amount of heavy metals, the latter are released into the sludge water. The behaviour of several heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Ni, Zn) was assessed in laboratory tests. Results of these show a significant reduction of most heavy metals.

Model for fluorescence quenching in light harvesting complex II in different aggregation states.

PubMed

Andreeva, Atanaska; Abarova, Silvia; Stoitchkova, Katerina; Busheva, Mira

2009-02-01

Low-temperature (77 K) steady-state fluorescence emission spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering were applied to the main chlorophyll a/b protein light harvesting complex of photosystem II (LHC II) in different aggregation states to elucidate the mechanism of fluorescence quenching within LHC II oligomers. Evidences presented that LHC II oligomers are heterogeneous and consist of large and small particles with different fluorescence yield. At intermediate detergent concentrations the mean size of the small particles is similar to that of trimers, while the size of large particles is comparable to that of aggregated trimers without added detergent. It is suggested that in small particles and trimers the emitter is monomeric chlorophyll, whereas in large aggregates there is also another emitter, which is a poorly fluorescing chlorophyll associate. A model, describing populations of antenna chlorophyll molecules in small and large aggregates in their ground and first singlet excited states, is considered. The model enables us to obtain the ratio of the singlet excited-state lifetimes in small and large particles, the relative amount of chlorophyll molecules in large particles, and the amount of quenchers as a function of the degree of aggregation. These dependencies reveal that the quenching of the chl a fluorescence upon aggregation is due to the formation of large aggregates and the increasing of the amount of chlorophyll molecules forming these aggregates. As a consequence, the amount of quenchers, located in large aggregates, is increased, and their singlet excited-state lifetimes steeply decrease.

TransAtlasDB: an integrated database connecting expression data, metadata and variants

PubMed Central

Adetunji, Modupeore O; Lamont, Susan J; Schmidt, Carl J

2018-01-01

Abstract High-throughput transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq) is the universally applied method for target-free transcript identification and gene expression quantification, generating huge amounts of data. The constraint of accessing such data and interpreting results can be a major impediment in postulating suitable hypothesis, thus an innovative storage solution that addresses these limitations, such as hard disk storage requirements, efficiency and reproducibility are paramount. By offering a uniform data storage and retrieval mechanism, various data can be compared and easily investigated. We present a sophisticated system, TransAtlasDB, which incorporates a hybrid architecture of both relational and NoSQL databases for fast and efficient data storage, processing and querying of large datasets from transcript expression analysis with corresponding metadata, as well as gene-associated variants (such as SNPs) and their predicted gene effects. TransAtlasDB provides the data model of accurate storage of the large amount of data derived from RNAseq analysis and also methods of interacting with the database, either via the command-line data management workflows, written in Perl, with useful functionalities that simplifies the complexity of data storage and possibly manipulation of the massive amounts of data generated from RNAseq analysis or through the web interface. The database application is currently modeled to handle analyses data from agricultural species, and will be expanded to include more species groups. Overall TransAtlasDB aims to serve as an accessible repository for the large complex results data files derived from RNAseq gene expression profiling and variant analysis. Database URL: https://modupeore.github.io/TransAtlasDB/ PMID:29688361

Identification of p53 unbound to T-antigen in human cells transformed by simian virus 40 T-antigen.

PubMed

O'Neill, F J; Hu, Y; Chen, T; Carney, H

1997-02-27

In several clones of SV40-transformed human cells, we investigated the relative amounts of large T-Antigen (T-Ag) and p53 proteins, both unbound and associated within complexes, with the goal of identifying changes associated with transformation and immortalization. Cells were transformed by wild type (wt) T-Ag, a functionally temperature sensitive T-Ag (tsA58) and other T-Ag variants. Western analysis showed that while most of the T-Ag was ultimately bound by p53, most of the p53 remained unbound to T-Ag. Unbound p53 remained in the supernatant after a T-Ag immunoprecipitation and p53 was present in two to fourfold excess of T-Ag. In one transformant there was five to tenfold more p53 than T-Ag. p53 was present in transformants in amounts at least 200-fold greater than in untransformed human cells. In wt and variant T-Ag transformants, including those generated with tsA58 T-Ag, large amounts of unbound p53 were present in both pre-crisis and immortal cells and when the cells were grown at permissive or non-permissive temperatures. We also found that in transformants produced by tsA58, an SV40/JCV chimeric T-Ag and other variants, T-Ag appeared to form a complex with p53 slowly perhaps because one or both proteins matured slowly. The presence in transformed human cells of large amounts of unbound p53 and in excess of T-Ag suggests that sequestration of p53 by T-Ag, resulting from complex formation, is required neither for morphological transformation nor immortalization of human cells. Rather, these results support the proposal that high levels of p53, the T-Ag/p53 complexes, or other biochemical event(s), lead to transformation and immortalization of human cells by T-Ag.

Next-to-leading order Balitsky-Kovchegov equation with resummation

DOE PAGES

Lappi, T.; Mantysaari, H.

2016-05-03

Here, we solve the Balitsky-Kovchegov evolution equation at next-to-leading order accuracy including a resummation of large single and double transverse momentum logarithms to all orders. We numerically determine an optimal value for the constant under the large transverse momentum logarithm that enables including a maximal amount of the full NLO result in the resummation. When this value is used, the contribution from the α 2 s terms without large logarithms is found to be small at large saturation scales and at small dipoles. Close to initial conditions relevant for phenomenological applications, these fixed-order corrections are shown to be numerically important.

Geoenvironmental impacts of using high carbon fly ash in structural fill applications : [research summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-03-01

Coal power plants generate approximately 50% of the electricity in the : United States. As a result, large amounts of coal combustion byproducts, : especially fly ash, are produced annually. Only 40% of the fly ash : (mainly C and F-type classificati...

Evaluating Multiethnic Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Jesus

The problem of identifying good ethnic studies materials is a result of the large amount of materials produced in the 1960s and of the currently renewed interest in ethnic studies. Four types of materials are available to elementary classroom teachers: ethnic information, single-ethnic approaches, minority or European-ethnic approaches, and…

Discrete event simulation of NASA's Remote Exploration and Experimentation Project (REE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunphy, J.; Rogstad, S.

2001-01-01

The Remote Exploration and Experimentation Project (REE) is a new initiative at JPL to be able to place a supercomputer on board a spacecraft and allow large amounts of data reduction and compression to be done before science results are returned to Earth.

Evaluating the Cassandra NoSQL Database Approach for Genomic Data Persistency.

PubMed

Aniceto, Rodrigo; Xavier, Rene; Guimarães, Valeria; Hondo, Fernanda; Holanda, Maristela; Walter, Maria Emilia; Lifschitz, Sérgio

2015-01-01

Rapid advances in high-throughput sequencing techniques have created interesting computational challenges in bioinformatics. One of them refers to management of massive amounts of data generated by automatic sequencers. We need to deal with the persistency of genomic data, particularly storing and analyzing these large-scale processed data. To find an alternative to the frequently considered relational database model becomes a compelling task. Other data models may be more effective when dealing with a very large amount of nonconventional data, especially for writing and retrieving operations. In this paper, we discuss the Cassandra NoSQL database approach for storing genomic data. We perform an analysis of persistency and I/O operations with real data, using the Cassandra database system. We also compare the results obtained with a classical relational database system and another NoSQL database approach, MongoDB.

Estimation and change tendency of rape straw resource in Leshan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guan, Qinlan; Gong, Mingfu

2018-04-01

Rape straw in Leshan area are rape stalks, including stems, leaves and pods after removing rapeseed. Leshan area is one of the main rape planting areas in Sichuan Province and rape planting area is large. Each year will produce a lot of rape straw. Based on the analysis of the trend of rapeseed planting area and rapeseed yield from 2008 to 2014, the change trend of rape straw resources in Leshan from 2008 to 2014 was analyzed and the decision-making reference was provided for resource utilization of rape straw. The results showed that the amount of rape straw resources in Leshan was very large, which was more than 100,000 tons per year, which was increasing year by year. By 2014, the amount of rape straw resources in Leshan was close to 200,000 tons.

Discovering Related Clinical Concepts Using Large Amounts of Clinical Notes

PubMed Central

Ganesan, Kavita; Lloyd, Shane; Sarkar, Vikren

2016-01-01

The ability to find highly related clinical concepts is essential for many applications such as for hypothesis generation, query expansion for medical literature search, search results filtering, ICD-10 code filtering and many other applications. While manually constructed medical terminologies such as SNOMED CT can surface certain related concepts, these terminologies are inadequate as they depend on expertise of several subject matter experts making the terminology curation process open to geographic and language bias. In addition, these terminologies also provide no quantifiable evidence on how related the concepts are. In this work, we explore an unsupervised graphical approach to mine related concepts by leveraging the volume within large amounts of clinical notes. Our evaluation shows that we are able to use a data driven approach to discovering highly related concepts for various search terms including medications, symptoms and diseases. PMID:27656096

Migration and Remittances: Evidence from a Poor Province in China*

PubMed Central

Liang, Zai; Li, Jiejin; Ma, Zhongdong

2014-01-01

This paper examines patterns of remittances among migrants from Guizhou province of China. Our research is motivated by three lines of theoretical arguments, namely the new economics of migration, a translocal perspective linking remittances and development, and the culture of remittances. Taking individual, household, and village-level characteristics into account, we estimated multilevel logistic models of the decision to remit and multilevel models of the amount of remittances. Our results show that migrant remittance behaviour is responsive to family needs as well as household economic position in the village.. Migrants who come from entrepreneurial households are more likely to remit a large amount than other types of households. We find some evidence of “culture of remittances” in these villages. Consistent with our expectations, migrants who are from villages with higher amount of average remittances are likely to remit a larger amount than otherwise. PMID:26146509

Using Visualization in Cockpit Decision Support Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aragon, Cecilia R.

2005-01-01

In order to safely operate their aircraft, pilots must make rapid decisions based on integrating and processing large amounts of heterogeneous information. Visual displays are often the most efficient method of presenting safety-critical data to pilots in real time. However, care must be taken to ensure the pilot is provided with the appropriate amount of information to make effective decisions and not become cognitively overloaded. The results of two usability studies of a prototype airflow hazard visualization cockpit decision support system are summarized. The studies demonstrate that such a system significantly improves the performance of helicopter pilots landing under turbulent conditions. Based on these results, design principles and implications for cockpit decision support systems using visualization are presented.

Determination of Acreage Thermal Protection Foam Loss From Ice and Foam Impacts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carney, Kelly S.; Lawrence, Charles

2015-01-01

A parametric study was conducted to establish Thermal Protection System (TPS) loss from foam and ice impact conditions similar to what might occur on the Space Launch System. This study was based upon the large amount of testing and analysis that was conducted with both ice and foam debris impacts on TPS acreage foam for the Space Shuttle Project External Tank. Test verified material models and modeling techniques that resulted from Space Shuttle related testing were utilized for this parametric study. Parameters varied include projectile mass, impact velocity and impact angle (5 degree and 10 degree impacts). The amount of TPS acreage foam loss as a result of the various impact conditions is presented.

Ambient-aware continuous care through semantic context dissemination.

PubMed

Ongenae, Femke; Famaey, Jeroen; Verstichel, Stijn; De Zutter, Saar; Latré, Steven; Ackaert, Ann; Verhoeve, Piet; De Turck, Filip

2014-12-04

The ultimate ambient-intelligent care room contains numerous sensors and devices to monitor the patient, sense and adjust the environment and support the staff. This sensor-based approach results in a large amount of data, which can be processed by current and future applications, e.g., task management and alerting systems. Today, nurses are responsible for coordinating all these applications and supplied information, which reduces the added value and slows down the adoption rate.The aim of the presented research is the design of a pervasive and scalable framework that is able to optimize continuous care processes by intelligently reasoning on the large amount of heterogeneous care data. The developed Ontology-based Care Platform (OCarePlatform) consists of modular components that perform a specific reasoning task. Consequently, they can easily be replicated and distributed. Complex reasoning is achieved by combining the results of different components. To ensure that the components only receive information, which is of interest to them at that time, they are able to dynamically generate and register filter rules with a Semantic Communication Bus (SCB). This SCB semantically filters all the heterogeneous care data according to the registered rules by using a continuous care ontology. The SCB can be distributed and a cache can be employed to ensure scalability. A prototype implementation is presented consisting of a new-generation nurse call system supported by a localization and a home automation component. The amount of data that is filtered and the performance of the SCB are evaluated by testing the prototype in a living lab. The delay introduced by processing the filter rules is negligible when 10 or fewer rules are registered. The OCarePlatform allows disseminating relevant care data for the different applications and additionally supports composing complex applications from a set of smaller independent components. This way, the platform significantly reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed by the nurses. The delay resulting from processing the filter rules is linear in the amount of rules. Distributed deployment of the SCB and using a cache allows further improvement of these performance results.

A Comparison of Gene Expression of Decorin and MMP13 in Hypertrophic Scars Treated With Calcium Channel Blocker, Steroid, and Interferon: A Human-Scar-Carrying Animal Model Study.

PubMed

Yang, Shih-Yi; Yang, Jui-Yung; Hsiao, Yen-Chang; Chuang, Shiow-Shuh

2017-01-01

The formation of hypertrophic scaring (HSc) is an abnormal wound-healing response. In a previous study, an animal model with human scar tissue implanted into nude mice (BALB/c) has been successfully established. The effects of verapamil as well as combination therapy with verapamil and kenacort have been studied and compared. To treat persistent hypertrophic scars, local injection of drugs composed of steroids, calcium channel blockers (CCBs), and interferon might be a good method. What is the best dose of the regimen and what are the mechanisms are also a worthwhile study. Scar specimens were harvested from patients with HSc or Keloid resulting from burn injury, and then implanted to BALB/c-nu nude mice for 4 weeks. Before implantation, the specimen was either injected with or without drugs such as steroids (kenacort), CCBs (verapamil), and interferons (INFα2b), respectively. After the removal of implants, quantitative gene expressions of decorin and collagenase (MMP13) were measured using a real-time polymerase chain reaction to detect their mRNAs. Two way-ANOVA and Post Hoc were used for statistical analysis using the software SPSS 15.0. All drug-treated groups increased the expressions of decorin and MMP13 in comparison with those in noninjected group (p < .001) in a dose-dependent manner. Comparing equal amounts of individual drugs, gene expression of decorin was increased with increasing injection amount, and the best result in low amount of injection (0.02 mL of each) was shown in the group injected with INFα2b followed by kenacort and verapamil. However, the results were changed while injection amount was up to 0.04 mL and the strongest decorin gene expression was found in kenacort injection. Regarding MMP-13 expression, low-amount injection (0.02 mL) of INFα2b has strongest gene expression followed by kenacort and verapamil, but in the large-amount regimes (0.04 mL), verapamil had strongest gene expression followed by INFα2b and kenacort. This study showed that the kenacort, verapamil, and INFα2b all inhibited HSc in a dose-dependent manner through the evidence of gene expression of decorin and MMP13. In comparison with the injections between small amounts of drugs, INFα2b potentiated the strongest decorin and MMP13 expression. On the contrary, among the large-amount injection regimes, kenacrot was more effective on decorin expression as verapamil to MMP13 expression. To decrease side effects from the drugs and produce promising results for the clinical practice, it is suggested to maintain the dose of INFα2b along with an increased dose of verapamil for HSc improvement.

Feasibility of bridge structural health monitoring using short term data acquisition system.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-01-01

Long-term testing of bridges can expensive and result in a large amount of data that is dicult to manage and : analyze. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a short-term data acquisition system that : used a minimal numb...

CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS VS. RETENTION PONDS BMPS: THE ROLE OF VEGETATION IN IMPROVED POLLUTANT MANAGEMENT FOR URBAN STORMWATER TREATMENT

EPA Science Inventory

Increased urbanization has resulted in a larger percentage of impervious areas that produce large quantities of stormwater runoff and contribute significant amounts of debris and pollutants (e.g., litter, oils, heavy metals, sediments, nutrients, organic matter, and microorganism...

Commercial Literacy Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

1997-01-01

Presents the first year's results of a continuing project to monitor the availability of software of relevance for literacy education purposes. Concludes there is an enormous amount of software available for use by teachers of reading and literacy--whereas drill-and-practice software is the largest category of software available, large numbers of…

Plasma polar lipid profiles of channel catfish with different growth rates

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Increased growth in channel catfish is an economically important trait and has been used as a criterion for the selection and development of brood fish. Selection of channel catfish toward increased growth usually results in the accumulation of large amounts of fats in their abdomen rather than incr...

The Problem with "Proficient"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, James

2018-01-01

New research sheds light on the claim that U.S. students' achievement lags behind that of students worldwide. This research reveals a paradox: While large amounts of U.S. students who take the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fail to meet its Proficient benchmarks in reading and math, when students' results on NAEP are…

New pathway of stratocumulus to cumulus transition via aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamaguchi, T.; Feingold, G.; Kazil, J.

2017-12-01

The stratocumulus to cumulus transition (SCT) is typically considered to be a slow, multi-day process, caused primarily by dry air entrainment associated with overshooting cumulus rising under stratocumulus, with minor influence of precipitation. In this presentation, we show rapid SCT induced by a strong precipitation-induced modulation with Lagrangian SCT large eddy simulations. A large eddy model is coupled with a two-moment bulk microphysics scheme that predicts aerosol and droplet number concentrations. Moderate aerosol concentrations (100-250 cm-3) produce little to no drizzle from the stratocumulus deck. Large amounts of rain eventually form and wash out stratocumulus and much of the aerosol, and a cumulus state appears for approximately 10 hours. Initiation of strong rain formation is identified in penetrative cumulus clouds which are much deeper than stratocumulus, and they are able to condense large amounts of water. We show that prediction of cloud droplet number is necessary for this fast SCT since it is a result of a positive feedback of collision-coalescence induced aerosol depletion enhancing drizzle formation. Simulations with fixed droplet concentrations that bracket the time varying aerosol/drop concentrations are therefore not representative of the role of drizzle in the SCT.

A MODIFIED METHOD OF OBTAINING LARGE AMOUNTS OF RICKETTSIA PROWAZEKI BY ROENTGEN IRRADIATION OF RATS

PubMed Central

Macchiavello, Atilio; Dresser, Richard

1935-01-01

The radiation method described by Zinsser and Castaneda for obtaining large amounts of Rickettsia has been carried out successfully with an ordinary radiographic machine. This allows the extension of the method to those communities which do not possess a high voltage Roentgen therapy unit as originally employed. PMID:19870416

Profiling of lipid and glycogen accumulations under different growth conditions in the sulfothermophilic red alga Galdieria sulphuraria.

PubMed

Sakurai, Toshihiro; Aoki, Motohide; Ju, Xiaohui; Ueda, Tatsuya; Nakamura, Yasunori; Fujiwara, Shoko; Umemura, Tomonari; Tsuzuki, Mikio; Minoda, Ayumi

2016-01-01

The unicellular red alga Galdieria sulphuraria grows efficiently and produces a large amount of biomass in acidic conditions at high temperatures. It has great potential to produce biofuels and other beneficial compounds without becoming contaminated with other organisms. In G. sulphuraria, biomass measurements and glycogen and lipid analyses demonstrated that the amounts and compositions of glycogen and lipids differed when cells were grown under autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic conditions. Maximum biomass production was obtained in the mixotrophic culture. High amounts of glycogen were obtained in the mixotrophic cultures, while the amounts of neutral lipids were similar between mixotrophic and heterotrophic cultures. The amounts of neutral lipids were highest in red algae, including thermophiles. Glycogen structure and fatty acids compositions largely depended on the growth conditions. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Influence of social norms and palatability on amount consumed and food choice.

PubMed

Pliner, Patricia; Mann, Nikki

2004-04-01

In two parallel studies, we examined the effect of social influence and palatability on amount consumed and on food choice. In Experiment 1, which looked at amount consumed, participants were provided with either palatable or unpalatable food; they were also given information about how much previous participants had eaten (large or small amounts) or were given no information. In the case of palatable food, participants ate more when led to believe that prior participants had eaten a great deal than when led to believe that prior participants had eaten small amounts or when provided with no information. This social-influence effect was not present when participants received unpalatable food. In Experiment 2, which looked at food choice, some participants learned that prior participants had chosen the palatable food, others learned that prior participants had chosen the unpalatable food, while still others received no information about prior participants' choices. The social-influence manipulation had no effect on participants' food choices; nearly all of them chose the palatable food. The results were discussed in the context of Churchfield's (1995) distinction between judgments about matters of fact and judgments about preferences. The results were also used to illustrate the importance of palatability as a determinant of eating behavior.

Monitoring diffuse volcanic degassing during volcanic unrests: the case of Campi Flegrei (Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardellini, Carlo; Chiodini, Giovanni; Avino, Rosario; Bagnato, Emanuela; Caliro, Stefano; Frondini, Francesco; Lelli, Matteo; Rosiello, Angelo

2017-04-01

Hydrothermal activity at Solfatara of Pozzuoli (Campi Flegrei caldera, Italy) results on a large area of hot soils, diffuse CO2 degassing and numerous fumaroles, releasing at the surface large amounts of gasses and thermal energy. Solfatara is one of the first sites of the world where the techniques for measuring and interpreting soil CO2 diffuse degassing were developed during 1990's and, more recently, it has become a sort of natural laboratory for testing new types of measurements of the CO2 fluxes from hydrothermal sites. The results of 30 diffuse CO2 flux surveys performed at Solfatara from 1998 to 2016 are presented and discussed. CO2 soil fluxes were measured over an area of about 1.2  1.2 km including the Solfatara crater and the hydrothermal site of Pisciarelli using the accumulation chamber technique. Each survey consisted in a number of CO2 flux measurements varying from 372 to 583 resulting in a total of 13158 measurements. This data set is one of the largest dataset ever made in the world on a single degassing volcanic-hydrothermal system. It is particularly relevant in the frame of volcanological sciences because it was acquired during a long period of unrest at Campi Flegrei caldera and because Solfatara release an amount of CO2 comparable to that released by medium-large volcanic plumes. Statistical and geostatistical elaborations of CO2 flux data allowed to characterise the sources of soil diffuse degassing, to define the extent of the area interested by the release of hydrothermal CO2 (Solfatara DDS) and to quantify the total amount of released CO2. During the last eighteen years relevant variations affected Solfatara degassing, and in particular the "background" CO2 emission , the extent of DDS and the total CO2 output, that may reflect variations in the subterraneous gas plume feeding the Solfatara and Pisciarelli emissions. In fact, the most relevant variations in Solfatara diffuse degassing well correlates with steam condensation and temperature increase affecting the Solfatara system resulting from repeated inputs of magmatic fluids into the hydrothermal systems as suggested by Chiodini et al., (2015; 2016; 2017) and show a long-term increase on the amount of released CO2 that accompanies the ongoing unrest of Campi Flegrei caldera.

Openwebglobe 2: Visualization of Complex 3D-GEODATA in the (mobile) Webbrowser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christen, M.

2016-06-01

Providing worldwide high resolution data for virtual globes consists of compute and storage intense tasks for processing data. Furthermore, rendering complex 3D-Geodata, such as 3D-City models with an extremely high polygon count and a vast amount of textures at interactive framerates is still a very challenging task, especially on mobile devices. This paper presents an approach for processing, caching and serving massive geospatial data in a cloud-based environment for large scale, out-of-core, highly scalable 3D scene rendering on a web based virtual globe. Cloud computing is used for processing large amounts of geospatial data and also for providing 2D and 3D map data to a large amount of (mobile) web clients. In this paper the approach for processing, rendering and caching very large datasets in the currently developed virtual globe "OpenWebGlobe 2" is shown, which displays 3D-Geodata on nearly every device.

Deuterium Retention and Physical Sputtering of Low Activation Ferritic Steel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

T, Hino; K, Yamaguchi; Y, Yamauchi; Y, Hirohata; K, Tsuzuki; Y, Kusama

2005-04-01

Low activation materials have to be developed toward fusion demonstration reactors. Ferritic steel, vanadium alloy and SiC/SiC composite are candidate materials of the first wall, vacuum vessel and blanket components, respectively. Although changes of mechanical-thermal properties owing to neutron irradiation have been investigated so far, there is little data for the plasma material interactions, such as fuel hydrogen retention and erosion. In the present study, deuterium retention and physical sputtering of low activation ferritic steel, F82H, were investigated by using deuterium ion irradiation apparatus. After a ferritic steel sample was irradiated by 1.7 keV D+ ions, the weight loss was measured to obtain the physical sputtering yield. The sputtering yield was 0.04, comparable to that of stainless steel. In order to obtain the retained amount of deuterium, technique of thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) was employed to the irradiated sample. The retained deuterium desorbed at temperature ranging from 450 K to 700 K, in the forms of DHO, D2, D2O and hydrocarbons. Hence, the deuterium retained can be reduced by baking with a relatively low temperature. The fluence dependence of retained amount of deuterium was measured by changing the ion fluence. In the ferritic steel without mechanical polish, the retained amount was large even when the fluence was low. In such a case, a large amount of deuterium was trapped in the surface oxide layer containing O and C. When the fluence was large, the thickness of surface oxide layer was reduced by the ion sputtering, and then the retained amount in the oxide layer decreased. In the case of a high fluence, the retained amount of deuterium became comparable to that of ferritic steel with mechanical polish or SS 316L, and one order of magnitude smaller than that of graphite. When the ferritic steel is used, it is required to remove the surface oxide layer for reduction of fuel hydrogen retention. Ferritic steel sample was exposed to the environment of JFT-2M tokamak in JAERI and after that the deuterium retention was examined. The result was roughly the same as the case of deuterium ion irradiation experiment.

Improved method and composition for immobilization of waste in cement-based material

DOEpatents

Tallent, O.K.; Dodson, K.E.; McDaniel, E.W.

1987-10-01

A composition and method for fixation or immobilization of aqueous hazardous waste material in cement-based materials (grout) is disclosed. The amount of drainable water in the cured grout is reduced by the addition of an ionic aluminum compound to either the waste material or the mixture of waste material and dry-solid cement- based material. This reduction in drainable water in the cured grout obviates the need for large, expensive amounts of gelling clays in grout materials and also results in improved consistency and properties of these cement-based waste disposal materials.

Mouthwash overdose

MedlinePlus

... are: Chlorhexidine gluconate Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) Hydrogen peroxide Methyl salicylate ... amounts of alcohol (drunkenness). Swallowing large amounts of methyl salicylate and hydrogen peroxide may also cause serious stomach ...

Stroke volume variation as a guide for fluid resuscitation in patients undergoing large-volume liposuction.

PubMed

Jain, Anil Kumar; Khan, Asma M

2012-09-01

: The potential for fluid overload in large-volume liposuction is a source of serious concern. Fluid management in these patients is controversial and governed by various formulas that have been advanced by many authors. Basically, it is the ratio of what goes into the patient and what comes out. Central venous pressure has been used to monitor fluid therapy. Dynamic parameters, such as stroke volume and pulse pressure variation, are better predictors of volume responsiveness and are superior to static indicators, such as central venous pressure and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Stroke volume variation was used in this study to guide fluid resuscitation and compared with one guided by an intraoperative fluid ratio of 1.2 (i.e., Rohrich formula). : Stroke volume variation was used as a guide for intraoperative fluid administration in 15 patients subjected to large-volume liposuction. In another 15 patients, fluid resuscitation was guided by an intraoperative fluid ratio of 1.2. The amounts of intravenous fluid administered in the groups were compared. : The mean amount of fluid infused was 561 ± 181 ml in the stroke volume variation group and 2383 ± 1208 ml in the intraoperative fluid ratio group. The intraoperative fluid ratio when calculated for the stroke volume variation group was 0.936 ± 0.084. All patients maintained hemodynamic parameters (heart rate and systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure). Renal and metabolic indices remained within normal limits. : Stroke volume variation-guided fluid application could result in an appropriate amount of intravenous fluid use in patients undergoing large-volume liposuction. : Therapeutic, II.

Chemical Characterization of an Envelope B/D Sample from Hanford Tank 241-AZ-102

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

Hay, M.S.

2000-08-23

A sample from Hanford waste tank 241-AZ-102 was received at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) and chemically characterized. The sample containing supernate and a small amount of sludge solids was analyzed as-received. The filtered supernatant liquid, the total dried solids of the sample, and the washed insoluble solids obtained from filtration of the sample were analyzed. A mass balance calculation of the three fractions of the sample analyzed indicate the analytical results appear relatively self-consistent for major components of the sample. However, some inconsistency was observed between results were more than one method of determination was employed and formore » species present in low concentrations. The actinides isotopes, plutonium, americium, and curium, present analytical challenges due to the low concentration of these species and the potential for introduction of small amounts of contamination during sampling handling resulting in large uncertainties. A direct comparison to previous analyses of material from tank 241-AZ-102 showed good agreement with the filtered supernatant liquid. However, the comparison of solids data showed poor agreement. The poor agreement shown between the current results for the solids samples and previous analyses most likely results from the uncertainties associated with obtaining small solids samples from a large non-homogenized waste tank.« less

Effect of solvents extraction on total phenolics and antioxidant activity of extracts from flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.).

PubMed

Anwar, Farooq; Przybylski, Roman

2012-01-01

Plant origin food ingredients are the main source of very potent antioxidants. Tocopherols, the main oilseeds natural antioxidants are very potent and when implemented into cell membranes are able to scavenge large number of free radicals. Among plant antioxidants are mainly phenolics, large and diversified group of chemical compounds with different radical scavenging potential. Defatted flaxseed meals were extracted with pure alcohols and its mixture with water. Acquired extracts were analysed for the content of phenolics and flavonoids using colorimetric procedures. Antioxidative capacity was assessed by utilizing: DPPH stable free radicals; inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation and reducing power of components. Investigation was conducted on two different batches of flaxseed, assessing antioxidant capacity of compounds extracted with different polarity solvents and extracts were tested for antioxidant activity with different methods. The highest yield of extraction was achieved with 80% methanol but the extract did not contain the highest amount of phenolics and flavonoids. When 80% ethanol was used for extraction the highest amount of flavonoids was detected and also the best antioxidant capacity. The results clearly showed that utilization of polar solvent enable extraction of significant amounts of phenolics and flavonoids. Those components were the most potent antioxidants present in those extracts. Content of these compounds correlated well with results from applied methods for antioxidant assessment.

A replacement for islet equivalents with improved reliability and validity.

PubMed

Huang, Han-Hung; Ramachandran, Karthik; Stehno-Bittel, Lisa

2013-10-01

Islet equivalent (IE), the standard estimate of isolated islet volume, is an essential measure to determine the amount of transplanted islet tissue in the clinic and is used in research laboratories to normalize results, yet it is based on the false assumption that all islets are spherical. Here, we developed and tested a new easy-to-use method to quantify islet volume with greater accuracy. Isolated rat islets were dissociated into single cells, and the total cell number per islet was determined by using computer-assisted cytometry. Based on the cell number per islet, we created a regression model to convert islet diameter to cell number with a high R2 value (0.8) and good validity and reliability with the same model applicable to young and old rats and males or females. Conventional IE measurements overestimated the tissue volume of islets. To compare results obtained using IE or our new method, we compared Glut2 protein levels determined by Western Blot and proinsulin content via ELISA between small (diameter≤100 μm) and large (diameter≥200 μm) islets. When normalized by IE, large islets showed significantly lower Glut2 level and proinsulin content. However, when normalized by cell number, large and small islets had no difference in Glut2 levels, but large islets contained more proinsulin. In conclusion, normalizing islet volume by IE overestimated the tissue volume, which may lead to erroneous results. Normalizing by cell number is a more accurate method to quantify tissue amounts used in islet transplantation and research.

Evaluating the Cassandra NoSQL Database Approach for Genomic Data Persistency

PubMed Central

Aniceto, Rodrigo; Xavier, Rene; Guimarães, Valeria; Hondo, Fernanda; Holanda, Maristela; Walter, Maria Emilia; Lifschitz, Sérgio

2015-01-01

Rapid advances in high-throughput sequencing techniques have created interesting computational challenges in bioinformatics. One of them refers to management of massive amounts of data generated by automatic sequencers. We need to deal with the persistency of genomic data, particularly storing and analyzing these large-scale processed data. To find an alternative to the frequently considered relational database model becomes a compelling task. Other data models may be more effective when dealing with a very large amount of nonconventional data, especially for writing and retrieving operations. In this paper, we discuss the Cassandra NoSQL database approach for storing genomic data. We perform an analysis of persistency and I/O operations with real data, using the Cassandra database system. We also compare the results obtained with a classical relational database system and another NoSQL database approach, MongoDB. PMID:26558254

Logistics and quality control for DNA sampling in large multicenter studies.

PubMed

Nederhand, R J; Droog, S; Kluft, C; Simoons, M L; de Maat, M P M

2003-05-01

To study associations between genetic variation and disease, large bio-banks need to be created in multicenter studies. Therefore, we studied the effects of storage time and temperature on DNA quality and quantity in a simulation experiment with storage up to 28 days frozen, at 4 degrees C and at room temperature. In the simulation experiment, the conditions did not influence the amount or quality of DNA to an unsatisfactory level. However, the amount of extracted DNA was decreased in frozen samples and in samples that were stored for > 7 days at room temperature. In a sample of patients from 24 countries of the EUROPA trial obtained by mail with transport times up to 1 month DNA yield and quality were adequate. From these results we conclude that transport of non-frozen blood by ordinary mail is usable and practical for DNA isolation for polymerase chain reaction in clinical and epidemiological studies.

Errors in Measuring Water Potentials of Small Samples Resulting from Water Adsorption by Thermocouple Psychrometer Chambers 1

PubMed Central

Bennett, Jerry M.; Cortes, Peter M.

1985-01-01

The adsorption of water by thermocouple psychrometer assemblies is known to cause errors in the determination of water potential. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of sample size and psychrometer chamber volume on measured water potentials of leaf discs, leaf segments, and sodium chloride solutions. Reasonable agreement was found between soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) leaf water potentials measured on 5-millimeter radius leaf discs and large leaf segments. Results indicated that while errors due to adsorption may be significant when using small volumes of tissue, if sufficient tissue is used the errors are negligible. Because of the relationship between water potential and volume in plant tissue, the errors due to adsorption were larger with turgid tissue. Large psychrometers which were sealed into the sample chamber with latex tubing appeared to adsorb more water than those sealed with flexible plastic tubing. Estimates are provided of the amounts of water adsorbed by two different psychrometer assemblies and the amount of tissue sufficient for accurate measurements of leaf water potential with these assemblies. It is also demonstrated that water adsorption problems may have generated low water potential values which in prior studies have been attributed to large cut surface area to volume ratios. PMID:16664367

Errors in measuring water potentials of small samples resulting from water adsorption by thermocouple psychrometer chambers.

PubMed

Bennett, J M; Cortes, P M

1985-09-01

The adsorption of water by thermocouple psychrometer assemblies is known to cause errors in the determination of water potential. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of sample size and psychrometer chamber volume on measured water potentials of leaf discs, leaf segments, and sodium chloride solutions. Reasonable agreement was found between soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) leaf water potentials measured on 5-millimeter radius leaf discs and large leaf segments. Results indicated that while errors due to adsorption may be significant when using small volumes of tissue, if sufficient tissue is used the errors are negligible. Because of the relationship between water potential and volume in plant tissue, the errors due to adsorption were larger with turgid tissue. Large psychrometers which were sealed into the sample chamber with latex tubing appeared to adsorb more water than those sealed with flexible plastic tubing. Estimates are provided of the amounts of water adsorbed by two different psychrometer assemblies and the amount of tissue sufficient for accurate measurements of leaf water potential with these assemblies. It is also demonstrated that water adsorption problems may have generated low water potential values which in prior studies have been attributed to large cut surface area to volume ratios.

Requirement analysis to promote small-sized E-waste collection from consumers.

PubMed

Mishima, Kuniko; Nishimura, Hidekazu

2016-02-01

The collection and recycling of small-sized waste electrical and electronic equipment is an emerging problem, since these products contain certain amounts of critical metals and rare earths. Even if the amount is not large, having a few supply routes for such recycled resources could be a good strategy to be competitive in a world of finite resources. The small-sized e-waste sometimes contains personal information, therefore, consumers are often reluctant to put them into recycling bins. In order to promote the recycling of E-waste, collection of used products from the consumer becomes important. Effective methods involving incentives for consumers might be necessary. Without such methods, it will be difficult to achieve the critical amounts necessary for an efficient recycling system. This article focused on used mobile phones among information appliances as the first case study, since it contains relatively large amounts of valuable metals compared with other small-sized waste electrical and electronic equipment and there are a large number of products existing in the market. The article carried out surveys to determine what kind of recycled material collection services are preferred by consumers. The results clarify that incentive or reward money alone is not a driving force for recycling behaviour. The article discusses the types of effective services required to promote recycling behaviour. The article concludes that securing information, transferring data and providing proper information about resources and environment can be an effective tool to encourage a recycling behaviour strategy to promote recycling, plus the potential discount service on purchasing new products associated with the return of recycled mobile phones. © The Author(s) 2015.

An intelligent load shedding scheme using neural networks and neuro-fuzzy.

PubMed

Haidar, Ahmed M A; Mohamed, Azah; Al-Dabbagh, Majid; Hussain, Aini; Masoum, Mohammad

2009-12-01

Load shedding is some of the essential requirement for maintaining security of modern power systems, particularly in competitive energy markets. This paper proposes an intelligent scheme for fast and accurate load shedding using neural networks for predicting the possible loss of load at the early stage and neuro-fuzzy for determining the amount of load shed in order to avoid a cascading outage. A large scale electrical power system has been considered to validate the performance of the proposed technique in determining the amount of load shed. The proposed techniques can provide tools for improving the reliability and continuity of power supply. This was confirmed by the results obtained in this research of which sample results are given in this paper.

Viscoelastic love-type surface waves

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, Roger D.

2008-01-01

The general theoretical solution for Love-Type surface waves in viscoelastic media provides theoreticalexpressions for the physical characteristics of the waves in elastic as well as anelastic media with arbitraryamounts of intrinsic damping. The general solution yields dispersion and absorption-coefficient curves for the waves as a function of frequency and theamount of intrinsic damping for any chosen viscoelastic model.Numerical results valid for a variety of viscoelastic models provide quantitative estimates of the physicalcharacteristics of the waves pertinent to models of Earth materials ranging from small amounts of damping in the Earth’s crust to moderate and large amounts of damping in soft soils and water-saturated sediments. Numerical results, presented herein, are valid for a wide range of solids and applications.

Young children's video/computer game use: relations with school performance and behavior.

PubMed

Hastings, Erin C; Karas, Tamara L; Winsler, Adam; Way, Erin; Madigan, Amy; Tyler, Shannon

2009-10-01

This study examined the amount and content of children's video game playing in relation with behavioral and academic outcomes. Relationships among playing context, child gender, and parental monitoring were explored. Data were obtained through parent report of child's game play, behavior, and school performance. Results revealed that time spent playing games was related positively to aggression and negatively to school competence. Violent content was correlated positively and educational content negatively with attention problems. Educational games were related to good academic achievement. Results suggest violent games, and a large amount of game play, are related to troublesome behavioral and academic outcomes, but educational games may be related to positive outcomes. Neither gender nor parental monitoring emerged as significant moderators of these effects.

STAR FORMATION AND SUPERCLUSTER ENVIRONMENT OF 107 NEARBY GALAXY CLUSTERS

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

Cohen, Seth A.; Hickox, Ryan C.; Wegner, Gary A.

We analyze the relationship between star formation (SF), substructure, and supercluster environment in a sample of 107 nearby galaxy clusters using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Previous works have investigated the relationships between SF and cluster substructure, and cluster substructure and supercluster environment, but definitive conclusions relating all three of these variables has remained elusive. We find an inverse relationship between cluster SF fraction ( f {sub SF}) and supercluster environment density, calculated using the Galaxy luminosity density field at a smoothing length of 8 h {sup −1} Mpc (D8). The slope of f {sub SF} versus D8more » is −0.008 ± 0.002. The f {sub SF} of clusters located in low-density large-scale environments, 0.244 ± 0.011, is higher than for clusters located in high-density supercluster cores, 0.202 ± 0.014. We also divide superclusters, according to their morphology, into filament- and spider-type systems. The inverse relationship between cluster f {sub SF} and large-scale density is dominated by filament- rather than spider-type superclusters. In high-density cores of superclusters, we find a higher f {sub SF} in spider-type superclusters, 0.229 ± 0.016, than in filament-type superclusters, 0.166 ± 0.019. Using principal component analysis, we confirm these results and the direct correlation between cluster substructure and SF. These results indicate that cluster SF is affected by both the dynamical age of the cluster (younger systems exhibit higher amounts of SF); the large-scale density of the supercluster environment (high-density core regions exhibit lower amounts of SF); and supercluster morphology (spider-type superclusters exhibit higher amounts of SF at high densities).« less

Computationally efficient simulation of unsteady aerodynamics using POD on the fly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno-Ramos, Ruben; Vega, José M.; Varas, Fernando

2016-12-01

Modern industrial aircraft design requires a large amount of sufficiently accurate aerodynamic and aeroelastic simulations. Current computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solvers with aeroelastic capabilities, such as the NASA URANS unstructured solver FUN3D, require very large computational resources. Since a very large amount of simulation is necessary, the CFD cost is just unaffordable in an industrial production environment and must be significantly reduced. Thus, a more inexpensive, yet sufficiently precise solver is strongly needed. An opportunity to approach this goal could follow some recent results (Terragni and Vega 2014 SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. 13 330-65 Rapun et al 2015 Int. J. Numer. Meth. Eng. 104 844-68) on an adaptive reduced order model that combines ‘on the fly’ a standard numerical solver (to compute some representative snapshots), proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) (to extract modes from the snapshots), Galerkin projection (onto the set of POD modes), and several additional ingredients such as projecting the equations using a limited amount of points and fairly generic mode libraries. When applied to the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, the method produces acceleration factors (comparing with standard numerical solvers) of the order of 20 and 300 in one and two space dimensions, respectively. Unfortunately, the extension of the method to unsteady, compressible flows around deformable geometries requires new approaches to deal with deformable meshes, high-Reynolds numbers, and compressibility. A first step in this direction is presented considering the unsteady compressible, two-dimensional flow around an oscillating airfoil using a CFD solver in a rigidly moving mesh. POD on the Fly gives results whose accuracy is comparable to that of the CFD solver used to compute the snapshots.

Large Amounts of Reactivated Virus in Tears Precedes Recurrent Herpes Stromal Keratitis in Stressed Rabbits Latently Infected with Herpes Simplex Virus.

PubMed

Perng, Guey-Chuen; Osorio, Nelson; Jiang, Xianzhi; Geertsema, Roger; Hsiang, Chinhui; Brown, Don; BenMohamed, Lbachir; Wechsler, Steven L

2016-01-01

Recurrent herpetic stromal keratitis (rHSK), due to an immune response to reactivation of herpes simplex virus (HSV-1), can cause corneal blindness. The development of therapeutic interventions such as drugs and vaccines to decrease rHSK have been hampered by the lack of a small and reliable animal model in which rHSK occurs at a high frequency during HSV-1 latency. The aim of this study is to develop a rabbit model of rHSK in which stress from elevated temperatures increases the frequency of HSV-1 reactivations and rHSK. Rabbits latently infected with HSV-1 were subjected to elevated temperatures and the frequency of viral reactivations and rHSK were determined. In an experiment in which rabbits latently infected with HSV-1 were subjected to ill-defined stress as a result of failure of the vivarium air conditioning system, reactivation of HSV-1 occurred at over twice the normal frequency. In addition, 60% of eyes developed severe rHSK compared to <1% of eyes normally. All episodes of rHSK were preceded four to five days prior by an unusually large amount of reactivated virus in the tears of that eye and whenever this unusually large amount of reactivated virus was detected in tears, rHSK always appeared 4-5 days later. In subsequent experiments using well defined heat stress the reactivation frequency was similarly increased, but no eyes developed rHSK. The results reported here support the hypothesis that rHSK is associated not simply with elevated reactivation frequency, but rather with rare episodes of very high levels of reactivated virus in tears 4-5 days earlier.

The use of electrochemistry for the synthesis of 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone by a fusion protein containing P450c17.

PubMed

Estabrook, R W; Shet, M S; Faulkner, K; Fisher, C W

1996-11-01

A method has been developed for the commercial application of the unique oxygen chemistry catalyzed by various cytochrome P450s. This is illustrated here for the synthesis of hydroxylated steroids. This method requires the preparation of large amounts of enzymatically functional P450 proteins that can serve as catalysts and a technique for providing electrons at an economically acceptable cost. To generate large amounts of enzymatically active recombinant P450s we have engineered the cDNAs for various P450s, including bovine adrenal P450c17, by linking them to a modified cDNA for rat NADPH-P450 reductase and placing them in the plasmid pCWori+. Transformation of E. coli results in the high level expression of an enzymatically active protein that can be easily purified by affinity chromatography. Incubation of the purified enzyme with steroid in a reaction vessel containing a platinum electrode and a Ag/AgCl electrode couple poised at -650 mV, together with the electromotively active redox mediator, cobalt sepulchrate, results in the 17 alpha-hydroxylation of progesterone at rates as high as 25 nmoles of progesterone hydroxylated/min/nmole of P450. Thus, high concentrations of hydroxylated steroids can be produced with incubation conditions of hours duration without the use of costly NADPH. Similar experiments have been carried out for the generation of the 6 beta-hydroxylation product of testosterone (using a fusion protein containing human P450 3A4). It is apparent that this method is applicable to many other P450 catalyzed reactions for the synthesis of large amounts of hydroxylated steroid metabolites. The electrochemical system is also applicable to drug discovery studies for the characterization of drug metabolites.

Oil recovery by alkaline waterflooding

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

Cooke, C.E. Jr.; Williams, R.E.; Kolodzie, P.A.

1974-01-01

Flooding of oil containing organic acids with alkaline water under favorable conditions can result in recovery of around 50% of the residual oil left in a watered-out model. A high recovery efficiency results from the formation of a bank of viscous water-in-oil emulsion as surface active agents (soaps) are created by reactions of base in the water with the organic acids in the oil. The type and amount of organic acids in the oil, the pH and salt content of the water, and the amount of fines in the porous medium are the primary factors which determine the amount ofmore » additional oil recovered by this method. Interaction of alkaline water with reservoir rock largely determines the amount of chemical needed to flood a reservoir. Laboratory investigations using synthetic oils and crude oils show the importance of oil-water and liquid-solid interfacial properties to the results of an alkaline waterflood. A small field test demonstrated that emulsion banks can be formed in the reservoir and that chemical costs can be reasonable in selected reservoirs. Although studies have provided many qualitative guide lines for evaluating the feasibility of alkaline waterflooding, the economic attractiveness of the process must be considered on an individual reservoir.« less

Exploring Cloud Computing for Large-scale Scientific Applications

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

Lin, Guang; Han, Binh; Yin, Jian

This paper explores cloud computing for large-scale data-intensive scientific applications. Cloud computing is attractive because it provides hardware and software resources on-demand, which relieves the burden of acquiring and maintaining a huge amount of resources that may be used only once by a scientific application. However, unlike typical commercial applications that often just requires a moderate amount of ordinary resources, large-scale scientific applications often need to process enormous amount of data in the terabyte or even petabyte range and require special high performance hardware with low latency connections to complete computation in a reasonable amount of time. To address thesemore » challenges, we build an infrastructure that can dynamically select high performance computing hardware across institutions and dynamically adapt the computation to the selected resources to achieve high performance. We have also demonstrated the effectiveness of our infrastructure by building a system biology application and an uncertainty quantification application for carbon sequestration, which can efficiently utilize data and computation resources across several institutions.« less

Responses of arthropods to large-scale manipulations of dead wood in loblolly pine stands of the southeastern United States.

PubMed

Ulyshen, Michael D; Hanula, James L

2009-08-01

Large-scale experimental manipulations of dead wood are needed to better understand its importance to animal communities in managed forests. In this experiment, we compared the abundance, species richness, diversity, and composition of arthropods in 9.3-ha plots in which either (1) all coarse woody debris was removed, (2) a large number of logs were added, (3) a large number of snags were added, or (4) no coarse woody debris was added or removed. The target taxa were ground-dwelling arthropods, sampled by pitfall traps, and saproxylic beetles (i.e., dependent on dead wood), sampled by flight intercept traps and emergence traps. There were no differences in total ground-dwelling arthropod abundance, richness, diversity, or composition among treatments. Only the results for ground beetles (Carabidae), which were more species rich and diverse in log input plots, supported our prediction that ground-dwelling arthropods would benefit from additions of dead wood. There were also no differences in saproxylic beetle abundance, richness, diversity, or composition among treatments. The findings from this study are encouraging in that arthropods seem less sensitive than expected to manipulations of dead wood in managed pine forests of the southeastern United States. Based on our results, we cannot recommend inputting large amounts of dead wood for conservation purposes, given the expense of such measures. However, the persistence of saproxylic beetles requires that an adequate amount of dead wood is available in the landscape, and we recommend that dead wood be retained whenever possible in managed pine forests.

Identifying and quantifying urban recharge: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerner, David N.

2002-02-01

The sources of and pathways for groundwater recharge in urban areas are more numerous and complex than in rural environments. Buildings, roads, and other surface infrastructure combine with man-made drainage networks to change the pathways for precipitation. Some direct recharge is lost, but additional recharge can occur from storm drainage systems. Large amounts of water are imported into most cities for supply, distributed through underground pipes, and collected again in sewers or septic tanks. The leaks from these pipe networks often provide substantial recharge. Sources of recharge in urban areas are identified through piezometry, chemical signatures, and water balances. All three approaches have problems. Recharge is quantified either by individual components (direct recharge, water-mains leakage, septic tanks, etc.) or holistically. Working with individual components requires large amounts of data, much of which is uncertain and is likely to lead to large uncertainties in the final result. Recommended holistic approaches include the use of groundwater modelling and solute balances, where various types of data are integrated. Urban recharge remains an under-researched topic, with few high-quality case studies reported in the literature.

Hexamethyldisilazane Removal with Mesoporous Materials Prepared from Calcium Fluoride Sludge.

PubMed

Kao, Ching-Yang; Lin, Min-Fa; Nguyen, Nhat-Thien; Tsai, Hsiao-Hsin; Chang, Luh-Maan; Chen, Po-Han; Chang, Chang-Tang

2018-05-01

A large amount of calcium fluoride sludge is generated by the semiconductor industry every year. It also requires a high amount of fuel consumption using rotor concentrators and thermal oxidizers to treat VOCs. The mesoporous adsorbent prepared by calcium fluoride sludge was used for VOCs treatment. The semiconductor industry employs HMDS to promote the adhesion of photo-resistant material to oxide(s) due to the formation of silicon dioxide, which blocks porous adsorbents. The adsorption of HMDS (Hexamethyldisiloxane) was tested with mesoporous silica materials synthesized from calcium fluoride (CF-MCM). The resulting samples were characterized by XRD, XRF, FTIR, N2-adsorption-desorption techniques. The prepared samples possessed high specific surface area, large pore volume and large pore diameter. The crystal patterns of CF-MCM were similar with Mobil composite matter (MCM-41) from TEM image. The adsorption capacity of HMDS with CF-MCM was 40 and 80 mg g-1, respectively, under 100 and 500 ppm HMDS. The effects of operation parameters, such as contact time and mixture concentration, on the performance of CF-MCM were also discussed in this study.

Unit-Dose Bags For Formulating Intravenous Solutions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Finley, Mike; Kipp, Jim; Scharf, Mike; Packard, Jeff; Owens, Jim

1993-01-01

Smaller unit-dose flowthrough bags devised for use with large-volume parenteral (LVP) bags in preparing sterile intravenous solutions. Premeasured amount of solute stored in such unit-dose bag flushed by predetermined amount of water into LVP bag. Relatively small number of LVP bags used in conjunction with smaller unit-dose bags to formulate large number of LVP intravenous solutions in nonsterile environment.

Taking Energy to the Physics Classroom from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cid, Xabier; Cid, Ramon

2009-01-01

In 2008, the greatest experiment in history began. When in full operation, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will generate the greatest amount of information that has ever been produced in an experiment before. It will also reveal some of the most fundamental secrets of nature. Despite the enormous amount of information available on this…

Patchy reaction-diffusion and population abundance: the relative importance of habitat amount and arrangement

Treesearch

Curtis H. Flather; Michael Bevers

2002-01-01

A discrete reaction-diffusion model was used to estimate long-term equilibrium populations of a hypothetical species inhabiting patchy landscapes to examine the relative importance of habitat amount and arrangement in explaining population size. When examined over a broad range of habitat amounts and arrangements, population size was largely determined by a pure amount...

Beyond methane: Towards a theory for the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Higgins, John A.; Schrag, Daniel P.

2006-05-01

Extreme global warmth and an abrupt negative carbon isotope excursion during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) have been attributed to a massive release of methane hydrate from sediments on the continental slope [1]. However, the magnitude of the warming (5 to 6 °C [2],[3]) and rise in the depth of the CCD (> 2 km; [4]) indicate that the size of the carbon addition was larger than can be accounted for by the methane hydrate hypothesis. Additional carbon sources associated with methane hydrate release (e.g. pore-water venting and turbidite oxidation) are also insufficient. We find that the oxidation of at least 5000 Gt C of organic carbon is the most likely explanation for the observed geochemical and climatic changes during the PETM, for which there are several potential mechanisms. Production of thermogenic CH4 and CO2 during contact metamorphism associated with the intrusion of a large igneous province into organic rich sediments [5] is capable of supplying large amounts of carbon, but is inconsistent with the lack of extensive carbon loss in metamorphosed sediments, as well as the abrupt onset and termination of carbon release during the PETM. A global conflagration of Paleocene peatlands [6] highlights a large terrestrial carbon source, but massive carbon release by fire seems unlikely as it would require that all peatlands burn at once and then for only 10 to 30 ky. In addition, this hypothesis requires an order of magnitude increase in the amount of carbon stored in peat. The isolation of a large epicontinental seaway by tectonic uplift associated with volcanism or continental collision, followed by desiccation and bacterial respiration of the aerated organic matter is another potential mechanism for the rapid release of large amounts of CO2. In addition to the oxidation of the underlying marine sediments, the desiccation of a major epicontinental seaway would remove a large source of moisture for the continental interior, resulting in the desiccation and bacterial oxidation of adjacent terrestrial wetlands.

Resolving the tips of the tree of life: How much mitochondrialdata doe we need?

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

Bonett, Ronald M.; Macey, J. Robert; Boore, Jeffrey L.

2005-04-29

Mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequences are used extensively to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among recently diverged animals,and have constituted the most widely used markers for species- and generic-level relationships for the last decade or more. However, most studies to date have employed relatively small portions of the mt-genome. In contrast, complete mt-genomes primarily have been used to investigate deep divergences, including several studies of the amount of mt sequence necessary to recover ancient relationships. We sequenced and analyzed 24 complete mt-genomes from a group of salamander species exhibiting divergences typical of those in many species-level studies. We present the first comprehensive investigationmore » of the amount of mt sequence data necessary to consistently recover the mt-genome tree at this level, using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Both methods of phylogenetic analysis revealed extremely similar results. A surprising number of well supported, yet conflicting, relationships were found in trees based on fragments less than {approx}2000 nucleotides (nt), typical of the vast majority of the thousands of mt-based studies published to date. Large amounts of data (11,500+ nt) were necessary to consistently recover the whole mt-genome tree. Some relationships consistently were recovered with fragments of all sizes, but many nodes required the majority of the mt-genome to stabilize, particularly those associated with short internal branches. Although moderate amounts of data (2000-3000 nt) were adequate to recover mt-based relationships for which most nodes were congruent with the whole mt-genome tree, many thousands of nucleotides were necessary to resolve rapid bursts of evolution. Recent advances in genomics are making collection of large amounts of sequence data highly feasible, and our results provide the basis for comparative studies of other closely related groups to optimize mt sequence sampling and phylogenetic resolution at the ''tips'' of the Tree of Life.« less

Site Alteration Effects from Rocket Exhaust Impingement During a Simulated Viking Mars Landing. Part 2: Chemical and Biological Site Alteration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Husted, R. R.; Smith, I. D.; Fennessey, P. V.

1977-01-01

Chemical and biological alteration of a Mars landing site was investigated experimentally and analytically. The experimental testing was conducted using a specially designed multiple nozzle configuration consisting of 18 small bell nozzles. The chemical test results indicate that an engine using standard hydrazine fuel will contaminate the landing site with ammonia (50-500ppm), nitrogen (5-50ppm), aniline (0.01-0.5ppm), hydrogen cyanide (0.01-0.5ppm), and water. A purified fuel, with impurities (mostly aniline) reduced by a factor of 50-100, limits the amount of hydrogen cyanide and aniline to below detectable limits for the Viking science investigations and leaves the amounts of ammonia, nitrogen, and water in the soil unchanged. The large amounts of ammonia trapped in the soil will make interpretation of the organic analysis investigation results more difficult. The biological tests indicate that the combined effects of plume gases, surface heating, surface erosion, and gas composition resulting from the retrorockets will not interfere with the Viking biology investigation.

Coal-bed methane water: effects on soil properties and camelina productivity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Every year the production of coal-bed natural gas in the Powder River Basin results in the discharge of large amounts of coal-bed methane water (CBMW) in Wyoming; however, no sustainable disposal methods for CBMW are currently available. A greenhouse study was conducted to evaluate the potential to ...

A Study of Student Completion Strategies in a Likert-Type Course Evaluation Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gee, Nick

2017-01-01

This article investigates the motivations and strategies employed by respondents to a Likert-style course evaluation at a UK university. These attitude surveys, generating large amounts of quantitative data, are commonly used in quality assurance procedures across UK higher education institutions. Similar student survey results are now scrutinised…

Growth, ethanol production, and inulinase activity on various inulin substrates by mutant kluyveromyces marxianus strains NRRL Y-50798 and NRRL Y-50799

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Economically important plants contain large amounts of inulin. Disposal of waste resulting from their processing presents environmental issues. Finding microorganisms capable of converting inulin waste to biofuel and valuable co-products in a biorefinery at the processing site would have significant...

Evaluation of Training in Organisations: A Proposal for an Integrated Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pineda, Pilar

2010-01-01

Purpose: Training is a key strategy for human resources development and in achieving organisational objectives. Organisations and public authorities invest large amounts of resources in training, but rarely have the data to show the results of that investment. Only a few organisations evaluate training in depth due to the difficulty involved and…

Applications of KHZ-CW Lidar in Ecological Entomology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malmqvist, Elin; Brydegaard, Mikkel

2016-06-01

The benefits of kHz lidar in ecological entomology are explained. Results from kHz-measurements on insects, carried out with a CW-lidar system, employing the Scheimpflug principle to obtain range resolution, are presented. A method to extract insect events and analyze the large amount of lidar data is also described.

Semi-automatic recognition of marine debris on beaches

PubMed Central

Ge, Zhenpeng; Shi, Huahong; Mei, Xuefei; Dai, Zhijun; Li, Daoji

2016-01-01

An increasing amount of anthropogenic marine debris is pervading the earth’s environmental systems, resulting in an enormous threat to living organisms. Additionally, the large amount of marine debris around the world has been investigated mostly through tedious manual methods. Therefore, we propose the use of a new technique, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), for the semi-automatic recognition of marine debris on a beach because of its substantially more efficient role in comparison with other more laborious methods. Our results revealed that LIDAR should be used for the classification of marine debris into plastic, paper, cloth and metal. Additionally, we reconstructed a 3-dimensional model of different types of debris on a beach with a high validity of debris revivification using LIDAR-based individual separation. These findings demonstrate that the availability of this new technique enables detailed observations to be made of debris on a large beach that was previously not possible. It is strongly suggested that LIDAR could be implemented as an appropriate monitoring tool for marine debris by global researchers and governments. PMID:27156433

GCM simulations of volcanic aerosol forcing. I - Climate changes induced by steady-state perturbations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pollack, James B.; Rind, David; Lacis, Andrew; Hansen, James E.; Sato, Makiko; Ruedy, Reto

1993-01-01

The response of the climate system to a temporally and spatially constant amount of volcanic particles is simulated using a general circulation model (GCM). The optical depth of the aerosols is chosen so as to produce approximately the same amount of forcing as results from doubling the present CO2 content of the atmosphere and from the boundary conditions associated with the peak of the last ice age. The climate changes produced by long-term volcanic aerosol forcing are obtained by differencing this simulation and one made for the present climate with no volcanic aerosol forcing. The simulations indicate that a significant cooling of the troposphere and surface can occur at times of closely spaced multiple sulfur-rich volcanic explosions that span time scales of decades to centuries. The steady-state climate response to volcanic forcing includes a large expansion of sea ice, especially in the Southern Hemisphere; a resultant large increase in surface and planetary albedo at high latitudes; and sizable changes in the annually and zonally averaged air temperature.

Patterns of B-lymphocyte gene expression elicited by lipopolysaccharide mitogen.

PubMed Central

Janossy, G; Snajdr, J; Simak-Ellis, M

1976-01-01

When large proportions of B lymphocytes from the murine spleen are stimulated in vitro by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) B lymphoblasts with small amounts of intracellular immunoglobulin (Ig) and plasmablasts with large amounts of intracellular Ig concomitantly proliferate. It is likely that B lymphocytes are heterogeneous and LPS activates B cells to express their predetermined functional capacity since bromodeoxyuridine does not inhibit the initiation of Ig synthesis in plasmablasts, and Ig synthesis starts before these cells complete their first mitosis. The results suggest that LPS is a potent polyclonal activator (of a B-cell subset) but it is not a differentiation factor in the sense that it is unable to determine whether its target cell develops extensive endoplasmic reticulum or follows a different pathway. The results do not exclude that modulation of B cells' genetic programming might take place during T cell-dependent B-lymphocyte activation. The observed B-cell heterogeneity offers a possible explanation for the concomitant emergence of B memory cells and antibody producers during the early phase of immune responses in vivo. Images Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 7 Figure 8 PMID:1088414

Rigorous Proof of the Boltzmann-Gibbs Distribution of Money on Connected Graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanchier, Nicolas

2017-04-01

Models in econophysics, i.e., the emerging field of statistical physics that applies the main concepts of traditional physics to economics, typically consist of large systems of economic agents who are characterized by the amount of money they have. In the simplest model, at each time step, one agent gives one dollar to another agent, with both agents being chosen independently and uniformly at random from the system. Numerical simulations of this model suggest that, at least when the number of agents and the average amount of money per agent are large, the distribution of money converges to an exponential distribution reminiscent of the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution of energy in physics. The main objective of this paper is to give a rigorous proof of this result and show that the convergence to the exponential distribution holds more generally when the economic agents are located on the vertices of a connected graph and interact locally with their neighbors rather than globally with all the other agents. We also study a closely related model where, at each time step, agents buy with a probability proportional to the amount of money they have, and prove that in this case the limiting distribution of money is Poissonian.

Pattern Recognition for a Flight Dynamics Monte Carlo Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Restrepo, Carolina; Hurtado, John E.

2011-01-01

The design, analysis, and verification and validation of a spacecraft relies heavily on Monte Carlo simulations. Modern computational techniques are able to generate large amounts of Monte Carlo data but flight dynamics engineers lack the time and resources to analyze it all. The growing amounts of data combined with the diminished available time of engineers motivates the need to automate the analysis process. Pattern recognition algorithms are an innovative way of analyzing flight dynamics data efficiently. They can search large data sets for specific patterns and highlight critical variables so analysts can focus their analysis efforts. This work combines a few tractable pattern recognition algorithms with basic flight dynamics concepts to build a practical analysis tool for Monte Carlo simulations. Current results show that this tool can quickly and automatically identify individual design parameters, and most importantly, specific combinations of parameters that should be avoided in order to prevent specific system failures. The current version uses a kernel density estimation algorithm and a sequential feature selection algorithm combined with a k-nearest neighbor classifier to find and rank important design parameters. This provides an increased level of confidence in the analysis and saves a significant amount of time.

Modeling an exhumed basin: A method for estimating eroded overburden

USGS Publications Warehouse

Poelchau, H.S.

2001-01-01

The Alberta Deep Basin in western Canada has undergone a large amount of erosion following deep burial in the Eocene. Basin modeling and simulation of burial and temperature history require estimates of maximum overburden for each gridpoint in the basin model. Erosion can be estimated using shale compaction trends. For instance, the widely used Magara method attempts to establish a sonic log gradient for shales and uses the extrapolation to a theoretical uncompacted shale value as a first indication of overcompaction and estimation of the amount of erosion. Because such gradients are difficult to establish in many wells, an extension of this method was devised to help map erosion over a large area. Sonic A; values of one suitable shale formation are calibrated with maximum depth of burial estimates from sonic log extrapolation for several wells. This resulting regression equation then can be used to estimate and map maximum depth of burial or amount of erosion for all wells in which this formation has been logged. The example from the Alberta Deep Basin shows that the magnitude of erosion calculated by this method is conservative and comparable to independent estimates using vitrinite reflectance gradient methods. ?? 2001 International Association for Mathematical Geology.

Influence of dietary fiber on luminal environment and morphology in the small and large intestine of sows.

PubMed

Serena, A; Hedemann, M S; Bach Knudsen, K E

2008-09-01

In this study, the effect of feeding different types and amounts of dietary fiber (DF) on luminal environment and morphology in the small and large intestine of sows was studied. Three diets, a low-fiber diet (LF) and 2 high-fiber diets (high fiber 1, HF1, and high fiber 2, HF2) were used. Diet LF (DF, 17%; soluble DF 4.6%) was based on wheat and barley, whereas the 2 high-fiber diets (HF1: DF, 43%; soluble DF, 11.0%; and HF2: DF, 45%; soluble DF, 7.6%) were based on wheat and barley supplemented with different coproducts from the vegetable food and agroindustry (HF1 and HF2: sugar beet pulp, potato pulp, and pectin residue; HF2: brewers spent grain, seed residue, and pea hull). The diets were fed for a 4-wk period to 12 sows (4 receiving each diet). Thereafter, the sows were killed 4 h postfeeding, and digesta and tissue samples were collected from various parts of the small and large intestine. The carbohydrates in the LF diet were well digested in the small intestine, resulting in less digesta in all segments of the intestinal tract. The fermentation of nonstarch polysaccharides in the large intestine was affected by the chemical composition and physicochemical properties. The digesta from pigs fed the LF diet provided low levels of fermentable carbohydrates that were depleted in proximal colon, whereas for pigs fed the 2 high-DF diets, the digesta was depleted of fermentable carbohydrates at more distal locations of the colon. The consequence was an increased retention time, greater DM percentage, decreased amount of material, and a decreased tissue weight after feeding the LF diet compared with the HF diets. The concentration of short-chain fatty acids was consistent with the fermentability of carbohydrates in the large intestine, but there was no effect of the dietary composition on the molar short-chain fatty acid proportions. It was further shown that feeding the diet providing the greatest amount of fermentable carbohydrates (diet HF1, which was high in soluble DF) resulted in significant morphological changes in the colon compared with the LF diet.

Data Prospecting Framework - a new approach to explore "big data" in Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramachandran, R.; Rushing, J.; Lin, A.; Kuo, K.

2012-12-01

Due to advances in sensors, computation and storage, cost and effort required to produce large datasets have been significantly reduced. As a result, we are seeing a proliferation of large-scale data sets being assembled in almost every science field, especially in geosciences. Opportunities to exploit the "big data" are enormous as new hypotheses can be generated by combining and analyzing large amounts of data. However, such a data-driven approach to science discovery assumes that scientists can find and isolate relevant subsets from vast amounts of available data. Current Earth Science data systems only provide data discovery through simple metadata and keyword-based searches and are not designed to support data exploration capabilities based on the actual content. Consequently, scientists often find themselves downloading large volumes of data, struggling with large amounts of storage and learning new analysis technologies that will help them separate the wheat from the chaff. New mechanisms of data exploration are needed to help scientists discover the relevant subsets We present data prospecting, a new content-based data analysis paradigm to support data-intensive science. Data prospecting allows the researchers to explore big data in determining and isolating data subsets for further analysis. This is akin to geo-prospecting in which mineral sites of interest are determined over the landscape through screening methods. The resulting "data prospects" only provide an interaction with and feel for the data through first-look analytics; the researchers would still have to download the relevant datasets and analyze them deeply using their favorite analytical tools to determine if the datasets will yield new hypotheses. Data prospecting combines two traditional categories of data analysis, data exploration and data mining within the discovery step. Data exploration utilizes manual/interactive methods for data analysis such as standard statistical analysis and visualization, usually on small datasets. On the other hand, data mining utilizes automated algorithms to extract useful information. Humans guide these automated algorithms and specify algorithm parameters (training samples, clustering size, etc.). Data Prospecting combines these two approaches using high performance computing and the new techniques for efficient distributed file access.

Assessing the Provenance of regolith components in the South Pole-Aitken Basin: Results from LRO, M3, GRAIL, and Ejecta Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petro, N. E.; Cohen, B. A.; Jolliff, B. L.; Moriarty, D. P.

2016-12-01

Results from recent lunar missions are reshaping our view of the lunar surface, the evolution of the Moon, and the scale of processes that have affected the Moon. From orbital remote sensing data we can investigate surface mineralogy at the 100s m scale as well as corresponding high-resolution images to evaluate the exposures of various compositions. Coupled with geophysical data from the GRAIL mission, we can now assess the effects of large impacts (>200 km in diameter). These data are essential for assessing the composition of the interior of the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA), a key destination for future sample return (Jolliff et al., this conference). Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows that variations in surface roughness and morphology are broad and likely reflect both the ancient age of the basin floor, as well as younger volcanic and impact-related resurfacing events. Data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper also reveal compositional variations across the interior of the basin and reflect both ancient volcanic activity as well as surface exposures of deep-seated crustal (SPA substrate) materials. These datasets are critical for delineating variations in surface compositions, which indicate formation mechanisms (e.g., volcanic vs. impact-derived). We investigate the resurfacing history of SPA, focusing on integrating data from multiple instruments, as well as updated modeling into the origin of regolith components (in the form of ejecta from near and distant impact craters). Recent advances include determination of the inventory of large craters as well as improved estimates of the amount of ejecta from such craters. As with past estimates of basin ejecta distribution, the volume of ejecta introduced to SPA is relatively small and quickly becomes diluted within the regolith. In addition, the contribution of ejecta by smaller, local craters is shown to distribute a comparable amount of material within the basin. Much of the material distributed by these local craters is SPA substrate, with a small amount of re-melted material. In most locations within SPA, the amount of reworked SPA substrate by ballistic ejecta emplacement and mixing from impacts within the presumed transient cavity greatly exceeds the amount of material contributed by ballistic sedimentation from large craters outside of SPA.

Coupling a basin erosion and river sediment transport model into a large scale hydrological model: an application in the Amazon basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buarque, D. C.; Collischonn, W.; Paiva, R. C. D.

2012-04-01

This study presents the first application and preliminary results of the large scale hydrodynamic/hydrological model MGB-IPH with a new module to predict the spatial distribution of the basin erosion and river sediment transport in a daily time step. The MGB-IPH is a large-scale, distributed and process based hydrological model that uses a catchment based discretization and the Hydrological Response Units (HRU) approach. It uses physical based equations to simulate the hydrological processes, such as the Penman Monteith model for evapotranspiration, and uses the Muskingum Cunge approach and a full 1D hydrodynamic model for river routing; including backwater effects and seasonal flooding. The sediment module of the MGB-IPH model is divided into two components: 1) prediction of erosion over the basin and sediment yield to river network; 2) sediment transport along the river channels. Both MGB-IPH and the sediment module use GIS tools to display relevant maps and to extract parameters from SRTM DEM (a 15" resolution was adopted). Using the catchment discretization the sediment module applies the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation to predict soil loss from each HRU considering three sediment classes defined according to the soil texture: sand, silt and clay. The effects of topography on soil erosion are estimated by a two-dimensional slope length (LS) factor which using the contributing area approach and a local slope steepness (S), both estimated for each DEM pixel using GIS algorithms. The amount of sediment releasing to the catchment river reach in each day is calculated using a linear reservoir. Once the sediment reaches the river they are transported into the river channel using an advection equation for silt and clay and a sediment continuity equation for sand. A sediment balance based on the Yang sediment transport capacity, allowing to compute the amount of erosion and deposition along the rivers, is performed for sand particles as bed load, whilst no erosion or deposition is allowed for silt and clay. The model was first applied on the Madeira River basin, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River (~1.4*106 km2) accounting for 35% of the suspended sediment amount annually transported for the Amazon river to the ocean. Model results agree with observed data, mainly for monthly and annual time scales. The spatial distribution of soil erosion within the basin showed a large amount of sediment being delivered from the Andean regions of Bolivia and Peru. Spatial distribution of mean annual sediment along the river showed that Madre de Dios, Mamoré and Beni rivers transport the major amount of sediment. Simulated daily suspended solid discharge agree with observed data. The model is able to provide temporaly and spatialy distributed estimates of soil loss source over the basin, locations with tendency for erosion or deposition along the rivers, and to reproduce long term sediment yield at several locations. Despite model results are encouraging, further effort is needed to validate the model considering the scarcity of data at large scale.

A new method of edge detection for object recognition

USGS Publications Warehouse

Maddox, Brian G.; Rhew, Benjamin

2004-01-01

Traditional edge detection systems function by returning every edge in an input image. This can result in a large amount of clutter and make certain vectorization algorithms less accurate. Accuracy problems can then have a large impact on automated object recognition systems that depend on edge information. A new method of directed edge detection can be used to limit the number of edges returned based on a particular feature. This results in a cleaner image that is easier for vectorization. Vectorized edges from this process could then feed an object recognition system where the edge data would also contain information as to what type of feature it bordered.

LinkWinds: An Approach to Visual Data Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jacobson, Allan S.

1992-01-01

The Linked Windows Interactive Data System (LinkWinds) is a prototype visual data exploration and analysis system resulting from a NASA/JPL program of research into graphical methods for rapidly accessing, displaying and analyzing large multivariate multidisciplinary datasets. It is an integrated multi-application execution environment allowing the dynamic interconnection of multiple windows containing visual displays and/or controls through a data-linking paradigm. This paradigm, which results in a system much like a graphical spreadsheet, is not only a powerful method for organizing large amounts of data for analysis, but provides a highly intuitive, easy to learn user interface on top of the traditional graphical user interface.

Purification of a water extract of Chinese sweet tea plant (Rubus suavissimus S. Lee) by alcohol precipitation

PubMed Central

Koh, Gar Yee; Chou, Guixin; Liu, Zhijun

2009-01-01

The aqueous extraction process of the leaves of Rubus suavissimus often brings in a large amount of non-active polysaccharides as part of the constituents. To purify this water extract for potential elevated bioactivity, alcohol precipitation (AP) consisting of gradient regimens was applied, and its resultants were examined through colorimetric and HPLC analyses. AP was effective in partitioning the aqueous crude extract into a soluble supernatant and an insoluble precipitant, and its effect varied significantly with alcohol regimens. Generally, the higher the alcohol concentration, the purer was the resultant extract. At its maximum, approximately 36% (w/w) of the crude extract, of which 23% was polysaccharides, was precipitated and removed, resulting in a purified extract consisting of over 20% bioactive marker compounds (gallic acid, ellagic acid, rutin, rubusoside, and steviol monoside). The removal of 11% polysaccharides from the crude water extract by using alcohol precipitation was complete at 70% alcohol regimen. Higher alcohol levels resulted in even purer extracts, possibly by removing some compounds of uncertain bioactivity. Alcohol precipitation is an effective way of removing polysaccharides from the water extract of sweet tea plant and could be used as an initial simple purification tool for many water plant extracts that contain large amounts of polysaccharides. PMID:19419169

Actual consumption amount of personal care products reflecting Japanese cosmetic habits.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Masahiko; Araki, Daisuke; Kanamori, Takeshi; Okiyama, Yasuko; Seto, Hirokazu; Uda, Masaki; Usami, Masahito; Yamamoto, Yutaka; Masunaga, Takuji; Sasa, Hitoshi

2017-01-01

Safety assessments of cosmetics are carried out by identifying possible harmful effects of substances in cosmetic products and assessing the exposure to products containing these substances. The present study provided data on the amounts of cosmetic products consumed in Japan to enhance and complement the existing data from Europe and the United States, i.e., the West. The outcomes of this study increase the accuracy of exposure assessments and enable more sophisticated risk assessment as a part of the safety assessment of cosmetic products. Actual amounts of products applied were calculated by determining the difference in the weight of products before and after use by approximately 300 subjects. The results of the study of skincare products revealed that in comparison with the West, large amounts of lotions and emulsions were applied, whereas lower amounts of cream and essence were applied in Japan. In the study of sunscreen products, actual measured values during outdoor leisure use were obtained, and these were lower than the values from the West. The study of the use of facial mask packs yielded data on typical Japanese sheet-type impregnated masks and revealed that high amounts were applied. Furthermore, data were obtained on cleansing foams, makeup removers and makeup products. The data from the present study enhance and complement existing information and will facilitate more sophisticated risk assessments. The present results should be extremely useful in safety assessments of newly developed cosmetic products and to regulatory authorities in Japan and around the world.

Old age and underlying interstitial abnormalities are risk factors for development of ARDS after pleurodesis using limited amount of large particle size talc.

PubMed

Shinno, Yuki; Kage, Hidenori; Chino, Haruka; Inaba, Atsushi; Arakawa, Sayaka; Noguchi, Satoshi; Amano, Yosuke; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro; Tanaka, Goh; Nagase, Takahide

2018-01-01

Talc pleurodesis is commonly performed to manage refractory pleural effusion or pneumothorax. It is considered as a safe procedure as long as a limited amount of large particle size talc is used. However, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a rare but serious complication after talc pleurodesis. We sought to determine the risk factors for the development of ARDS after pleurodesis using a limited amount of large particle size talc. We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent pleurodesis with talc or OK-432 at the University of Tokyo Hospital. Twenty-seven and 35 patients underwent chemical pleurodesis using large particle size talc (4 g or less) or OK-432, respectively. Four of 27 (15%) patients developed ARDS after talc pleurodesis. Patients who developed ARDS were significantly older than those who did not (median 80 vs 66 years, P = 0.02) and had a higher prevalence of underlying interstitial abnormalities on chest computed tomography (CT; 2/4 vs 1/23, P < 0.05). No patient developed ARDS after pleurodesis with OK-432. This is the first case series of ARDS after pleurodesis using a limited amount of large particle size talc. Older age and underlying interstitial abnormalities on chest CT seem to be risk factors for developing ARDS after talc pleurodesis. © 2017 Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.

9 CFR 381.412 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

9 CFR 381.412 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

9 CFR 317.312 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

9 CFR 317.312 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

9 CFR 381.412 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

9 CFR 317.312 - Reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... appropriate national food consumption surveys. (2) The Reference Amounts are calculated for an infant or child... are based on data set forth in appropriate national food consumption surveys. Such Reference Amounts... child under 4 years of age. (3) An appropriate national food consumption survey includes a large sample...

Bag For Formulating And Dispersing Intravenous Solution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kipp, Jim; Owens, Jim; Scharf, Mike; Finley, Mike; Dudar, Tom; Veillon, Joe; Ogle, Jim

1993-01-01

Large-volume parenteral (LVP) bag in which predetermined amount of sterile solution formulated by combining premeasured, prepackaged amount of sterile solute with predetermined amount of water. Bag designed to hold predetermined amount, typically 1 L, of sterile solution. Sterility of solution maintained during mixing by passing water into bag through sterilizing filter. System used in field or hospitals not having proper sterile facilities, and in field research.

Marine debris on beaches of Arraial do Cabo, RJ, Brazil: An important coastal tourist destination.

PubMed

Silva, Melanie Lopes da; Castro, Rebeca Oliveira; Sales, Alessandro Souza; Araújo, Fábio Vieira de

2018-05-01

Arraial do Cabo, RJ, Brazil, is known as the diving capital due to its clear waters and great biodiversity, a consequence of the upwelling phenomenon. This feature attracts tourists tripling their population during holidays, causing increase in the amount of debris on beaches and waters endangering marine biodiversity. To evaluate the amount of solid waste found on beaches in two different holiday period, eight people in each beach collected macrodebris (≥2 cm) in a transect covering an 20 m wide area, during 20 min, in winter/2015 and summer/2017. The materials were weighed, quantified and characterized. In the summer, when the number of tourists is greater, a larger total amount of waste in units were found. Plastic and cigarette butts were the most abundant. The results show that the city does not have adequate planning to receive a large amount of tourists, being vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental damages. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Iodine Bioavailability in Seaweed Using in Vitro Methods.

PubMed

Domínguez-González, M Raquel; Chiocchetti, Gabriela M; Herbello-Hermelo, Paloma; Vélez, Dinoraz; Devesa, Vicenta; Bermejo-Barrera, Pilar

2017-09-27

Due to the high levels of iodine present in seaweed, the ingestion of a large amount of this type of food can produce excessive intake of iodine. However, the food after ingestion undergoes different chemistry and physical processes that can modify the amount of iodine that reaches the systemic circulation (bioavailability). Studies on the bioavailability of iodine from food are scarce and indicate that the bioavailable amount is generally lower than ingested. Iodine in vitro bioavailability estimation from different commercialized seaweed has been studied using different in vitro approaches (solubility, dialyzability, and transport and uptake by intestinal cells). Results indicate that iodine is available after gastrointestinal digestion for absorption (bioaccessibility: 49-82%), kombu being the seaweed with the highest bioaccessibility. The incorporation of dialysis cell cultures to elucidate bioavailability modifies the estimation of the amount of iodine that may reach the systemic circulation (dialysis, 5-28%; cell culture, ≤3%). The paper discusses advantages and drawbacks of these methodologies for iodine bioavailability in seaweed.

Cone Penetration Testing, a new approach to quantify coastal-deltaic land subsidence by peat consolidation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koster, Kay; Erkens, Gilles; Zwanenburg, Cor

2016-04-01

It is undisputed that land subsidence threatens coastal-deltaic lowlands all over the world. Any loss of elevation (on top of sea level rise) increases flood risk in these lowlands, and differential subsidence may cause damage to infrastructure and constructions. Many of these settings embed substantial amounts of peat, which is, due to its mechanically weak organic composition, one of the main drivers of subsidence. Peat is very susceptible to volume reduction by loading and drainage induced consolidation, which dissipates pore water, resulting in a tighter packing of the organic components. Often, the current state of consolidation of peat embedded within coastal-deltaic subsidence hotspots (e.g. Venice lagoon, Mississippi delta, San Joaquin delta, Kalimantan peatlands), is somewhere between its initial (natural) and maximum compressed stage. Quantifying the current state regarding peat volume loss, is of utmost importance to predict potential (near) future subsidence when draining or loading an area. The processes of subsidence often afflict large areas (>103 km2), thus demanding large datasets to assess the current state of the subsurface. In contrast to data describing the vertical motions of the actual surface (geodesy, satellite imagery), subsurface information applicable for subsidence analysis are often lacking in subsiding deltas. This calls for new initiatives to bridge that gap. Here we introduce Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) to quantify the amount of volume loss peat layers embedded within the Holland coastal plain (the Netherlands) experienced. CPT measures soil mechanical strength, and hundreds of thousands of CPTs are conducted each year on all continents. We analyzed 28 coupled CPT-borehole observations, and found strong empirical relations between volume loss and increased peat mechanical strength. The peat lost between ~20 - 95% of its initial thickness by dissipation of excess pore water. An increase in 0.1 - 0.4 MPa of peat strength is accountable for 20 - 75 % of the volume loss, and 0.4 - 0.7 MPa for 75 - 95 % volume loss. This indicates that large amounts of volume by water dissipation has to be lost, before peat experiences a serious increase in strength, which subsequently continuous to increase with only small amount of volume loss. To demonstrate the robustness of our approach to the international field of land subsidence, we applied the obtained empirical relations to previously published CPT logs deriving from the peat-rich San Joaquin-Sacramento delta and the Kalimantan peatlands, and found volume losses that correspond with previously published results. Furthermore, we used the obtained results to predict maximum surface lowering for these areas by consolidation. In conclusion, these promising results and its worldwide popularity yielding large datasets, open the door for CPT as a generic method to contribute to quantifying the imminent threat of coastal-deltaic land subsidence.

A MapReduce approach to diminish imbalance parameters for big deoxyribonucleic acid dataset.

PubMed

Kamal, Sarwar; Ripon, Shamim Hasnat; Dey, Nilanjan; Ashour, Amira S; Santhi, V

2016-07-01

In the age of information superhighway, big data play a significant role in information processing, extractions, retrieving and management. In computational biology, the continuous challenge is to manage the biological data. Data mining techniques are sometimes imperfect for new space and time requirements. Thus, it is critical to process massive amounts of data to retrieve knowledge. The existing software and automated tools to handle big data sets are not sufficient. As a result, an expandable mining technique that enfolds the large storage and processing capability of distributed or parallel processing platforms is essential. In this analysis, a contemporary distributed clustering methodology for imbalance data reduction using k-nearest neighbor (K-NN) classification approach has been introduced. The pivotal objective of this work is to illustrate real training data sets with reduced amount of elements or instances. These reduced amounts of data sets will ensure faster data classification and standard storage management with less sensitivity. However, general data reduction methods cannot manage very big data sets. To minimize these difficulties, a MapReduce-oriented framework is designed using various clusters of automated contents, comprising multiple algorithmic approaches. To test the proposed approach, a real DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) dataset that consists of 90 million pairs has been used. The proposed model reduces the imbalance data sets from large-scale data sets without loss of its accuracy. The obtained results depict that MapReduce based K-NN classifier provided accurate results for big data of DNA. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Low-authority control synthesis for large space structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aubrun, J. N.; Margulies, G.

1982-01-01

The control of vibrations of large space structures by distributed sensors and actuators is studied. A procedure is developed for calculating the feedback loop gains required to achieve specified amounts of damping. For moderate damping (Low Authority Control) the procedure is purely algebraic, but it can be applied iteratively when larger amounts of damping are required and is generalized for arbitrary time invariant systems.

A divide-and-conquer algorithm for large-scale de novo transcriptome assembly through combining small assemblies from existing algorithms.

PubMed

Sze, Sing-Hoi; Parrott, Jonathan J; Tarone, Aaron M

2017-12-06

While the continued development of high-throughput sequencing has facilitated studies of entire transcriptomes in non-model organisms, the incorporation of an increasing amount of RNA-Seq libraries has made de novo transcriptome assembly difficult. Although algorithms that can assemble a large amount of RNA-Seq data are available, they are generally very memory-intensive and can only be used to construct small assemblies. We develop a divide-and-conquer strategy that allows these algorithms to be utilized, by subdividing a large RNA-Seq data set into small libraries. Each individual library is assembled independently by an existing algorithm, and a merging algorithm is developed to combine these assemblies by picking a subset of high quality transcripts to form a large transcriptome. When compared to existing algorithms that return a single assembly directly, this strategy achieves comparable or increased accuracy as memory-efficient algorithms that can be used to process a large amount of RNA-Seq data, and comparable or decreased accuracy as memory-intensive algorithms that can only be used to construct small assemblies. Our divide-and-conquer strategy allows memory-intensive de novo transcriptome assembly algorithms to be utilized to construct large assemblies.

COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF PAPAIN AND VITAMIN A ON CARTILAGE

PubMed Central

Thomas, Lewis; McCluskey, Robert T.; Potter, Jacobus L.; Weissmann, Gerald

1960-01-01

The administration of large amounts of vitamin A to rabbits has been shown to result in depletion of cartilage matrix. The normal basophilic, metachromatic, and Alcian blue staining properties of the matrix are lost, especially in articular and epiphyseal cartilage. The cartilage cells remain intact, but are reduced in size. These changes sometimes appeared as early as 48 hours after the initiation of daily injection of 1 million units of vitamin A, and were usually well established by 5 days. Some rabbits failed to show changes in cartilage, even after 5 daily injections. Increased amounts of material presumed to be chondroitin sulfate were present in the sera of vitamin A-treated rabbits, usually by 72 hours after the first injection. This was demonstrated by a turbidimetric procedure using hexamminecobaltic chloride. In rabbits given sulfur-35 (Na2S35O4) 5 days before the initiation of vitamin A treatment, it was shown that sulfur-35 was lost from articular and epiphyseal cartilage. This was associated with an increase in the non-dialyzable sulfur-35 in both serum and in the cobalt-precipitable material. These rabbits also excreted more sulfur-35 than rabbits not given vitamin A. There was a reduction in sulfur-35 activity in chondromucoprotein extracted from the ear cartilage of vitamin A-treated rabbits. The changes are interpreted as indicating that the administration of large amounts of vitamin A to rabbits results in removal of chondroitin sulfate from cartilage matrix. The administration of small amounts of crude papain causes histologic changes in cartilage that are remarkably similar to those seen in vitamin A-treated rabbits. The possibility is suggested that the changes in cartilage produced by administration of vitamin A to rabbits may be the result of activation of a proteolytic enzyme or enzymes, with properties similar to those of papain. PMID:13776507

The impact of a windshield in a tipping bucket rain gauge on the reduction of losses in precipitation measurements during snowfall events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buisan, Samuel T.; Collado, Jose Luis; Alastrue, Javier

2016-04-01

The amount of snow available controls the ecology and hydrological response of mountainous areas and cold regions and affects economic activities including winter tourism, hydropower generation, floods and water supply. An accurate measurement of snowfall accumulation amount is critical and source of error for a better evaluation and verification of numerical weather forecast, hydrological and climate models. It is well known that the undercatch of solid precipitation resulting from wind-induced updrafts at the gauge orifice is the main factor affecting the quality and accuracy of the amount of snowfall precipitation. This effect can be reduced by the use of different windshields. Overall, Tipping Bucket Rain Gauges (TPBRG) provide a large percentage of the precipitation amount measurements, in all climate regimes, estimated at about 80% of the total of observations by automatic instruments. In the frame of the WMO-SPICE project, we compared at the Formigal-Sarrios station (Spanish Pyrenees, 1800 m a.s.l.) the measured precipitation in two heated TPBRGs, one of them protected with a single alter windshield in order to reduce the wind bias. Results were contrasted with measured precipitation using the SPICE reference gauge (Pluvio2 OTT) in a Double Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR). Results reported that shielded reduces undercatch up to 40% when wind speed exceeds 6 m/s. The differences when compared with the reference gauge reached values higher than 70%. The inaccuracy of these measurements showed a significant impact in nowcasting operations and climatology in Spain, especially during some heavy snowfall episodes. Also, hydrological models showed a better agreement with the observed rivers flow when including the precipitation not accounted during these snowfall events. The conclusions of this experiment will be used to take decisions on the suitability of the installation of windshields in stations characterized by a large quantity of snowfalls during the winter season and which are mainly located in Northern Spain

A MBD-seq protocol for large-scale methylome-wide studies with (very) low amounts of DNA.

PubMed

Aberg, Karolina A; Chan, Robin F; Shabalin, Andrey A; Zhao, Min; Turecki, Gustavo; Staunstrup, Nicklas Heine; Starnawska, Anna; Mors, Ole; Xie, Lin Y; van den Oord, Edwin Jcg

2017-09-01

We recently showed that, after optimization, our methyl-CpG binding domain sequencing (MBD-seq) application approximates the methylome-wide coverage obtained with whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGB-seq), but at a cost that enables adequately powered large-scale association studies. A prior drawback of MBD-seq is the relatively large amount of genomic DNA (ideally >1 µg) required to obtain high-quality data. Biomaterials are typically expensive to collect, provide a finite amount of DNA, and may simply not yield sufficient starting material. The ability to use low amounts of DNA will increase the breadth and number of studies that can be conducted. Therefore, we further optimized the enrichment step. With this low starting material protocol, MBD-seq performed equally well, or better, than the protocol requiring ample starting material (>1 µg). Using only 15 ng of DNA as input, there is minimal loss in data quality, achieving 93% of the coverage of WGB-seq (with standard amounts of input DNA) at similar false/positive rates. Furthermore, across a large number of genomic features, the MBD-seq methylation profiles closely tracked those observed for WGB-seq with even slightly larger effect sizes. This suggests that MBD-seq provides similar information about the methylome and classifies methylation status somewhat more accurately. Performance decreases with <15 ng DNA as starting material but, even with as little as 5 ng, MBD-seq still achieves 90% of the coverage of WGB-seq with comparable genome-wide methylation profiles. Thus, the proposed protocol is an attractive option for adequately powered and cost-effective methylome-wide investigations using (very) low amounts of DNA.

Effects of single caging and cage size on behavior and stress level of domestic neutered cats housed in an animal shelter.

PubMed

Uetake, Katsuji; Goto, Akihiro; Koyama, Rumi; Kikuchi, Rieko; Tanaka, Toshio

2013-03-01

Cats need a minimum amount of space even in animal shelters. In this study the effects of single caging and cage size on the behavior and stress level of domestic cats were investigated. Six neutered cats (2-15 years old) that had been housed in a group for at least 7 months were moved to three kinds of single cages (small, medium and large) by rotation on a Latin square design. They experienced each cage size for 6 days. Cats could use vertical dimensions when housed in a group room and the large cage. Behavioral observation was conducted for 3 h in the evening, and stress levels were assessed by urine cortisol-to-creatinine ratios. The amounts (estimated proportions) of time spent in locomotion and social/solitary play were lower even in large cages than in group housing (both P < 0.05). Conversely, the amount of time spent resting tended to increase when housed singly (P = 0.104). The urine cortisol-to-creatinine ratios of singly housed cats tended to be higher than that of group-housed cats (P = 0.086). The results indicate that cats become less active when they are housed singly in cages regardless of the cage size. Cats seem to feel no undue stress even in small cages if the stay is short. © 2012 The Authors. Animal Science Journal © 2012 Japanese Society of Animal Science.

Sequential control of step-bunching during graphene growth on SiC (0001)

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

Bao, Jianfeng; Kusunoki, Michiko; Yasui, Osamu

2016-08-22

We have investigated the relation between the step-bunching and graphene growth phenomena on an SiC substrate. We found that only a minimum amount of step-bunching occurred during the graphene growth process with a high heating rate. On the other hand, a large amount of step-bunching occurred using a slow heating process. These results indicated that we can control the degree of step-bunching during graphene growth by controlling the heating rate. We also found that graphene coverage suppressed step bunching, which is an effective methodology not only in the graphene technology but also in the SiC-based power electronics.

Diet - liver disease

MedlinePlus

... of toxic waste products. Increasing your intake of carbohydrates to be in proportion with the amount of ... severe liver disease include: Eat large amounts of carbohydrate foods. Carbohydrates should be the major source of ...

Construction and Reconstruction Efforts in Nation Building: Planning for Everything in Afghanistan Except the Afghans

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-04-01

or earth bricks, rammed earth, and sometimes a cement binder. Adobe type construction has been around for thousands of years. It has many benefits...they were steel, they heated up like an oven and required large amounts of foam insulation which turned out to be highly flammable.15 The end result

Automated Methods to Extract Patient New Information from Clinical Notes in Electronic Health Record Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Rui

2013-01-01

The widespread adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) has resulted in rapid text proliferation within clinical care. Clinicians' use of copying and pasting functions in EHR systems further compounds this by creating a large amount of redundant clinical information in clinical documents. A mixture of redundant information (especially outdated…

Computer Literacy for Life Sciences: Helping the Digital-Era Biology Undergraduates Face Today's Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolinski, Tomasz G.

2010-01-01

Computer literacy plays a critical role in today's life sciences research. Without the ability to use computers to efficiently manipulate and analyze large amounts of data resulting from biological experiments and simulations, many of the pressing questions in the life sciences could not be answered. Today's undergraduates, despite the ubiquity of…

Landsat continuity: issues and opportunities for land cover monitoring

Treesearch

Michael A. Wulder; Joanne C. White; Samuel N. Goward; Jeffrey G. Masek; James R. Irons; Martin Herold; Warren B. Cohen; Thomas R. Loveland; Curtis E. Woodcock

2008-01-01

Initiated in 1972, the Landsat program has provided a continuous record of Earth observation for 35 years. The assemblage of Landsat spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, over a reasonably sized image extent, results in imagery that can be processed to represent land cover over large areas with an amount of spatial detail that is absolutely unique and...

Project Robot: A Software Simulation for Systems Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Ross D.; Wade, Jon P.

2017-01-01

The U.S. defense industry spends billions of dollars each year developing defense systems to keep the nation and allies secure. However, the failure rate of system development is notoriously high. Even when development efforts do succeed, they often do so with cost overruns and compromises in system performance. As a result, large amounts of money…

Allergens in School Settings: Results of Environmental Assessments in 3 City School Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abramson, Stuart L.; Turner-Henson, Anne; Anderson, Lise; Hemstreet, Mary P.; Bartholomew, L. Kay; Joseph, Christine L. M.; Tang, Shenghui; Tyrrell, Shellie; Clark, Noreen M.; Ownby, Dennis

2006-01-01

Environmental allergens are major triggers for pediatric asthma. While children's greatest exposure to indoor allergens is in the home, other public places where children spend a large amount of time, such as school and day care centers, may also be sources of significant allergen encounters. The purpose of this article is to describe schoolroom…

The microbial fermentation characteristics depend on both carbohydrate source and heat processing: a model experiment with ileo-cannulated pigs.

PubMed

Nielsen, Tina Skau; Jørgensen, Henry; Knudsen, Knud Erik Bach; Lærke, Helle Nygaard

2017-11-01

The effects of carbohydrate (CHO) source and processing (extrusion cooking) on large intestinal fermentation products were studied in ileo-cannulated pigs as a model for humans. Pigs were fed diets containing barley, pea or a mixture of potato starch:wheat bran (PSWB) either raw or extrusion cooked. Extrusion cooking reduced the amount of starch fermented in the large intestine by 52-96% depending on the CHO source and the total pool of butyrate in the distal small intestine + large intestine by on average 60% across diets. Overall, extrusion cooking caused a shift in the composition of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) produced towards more acetate and less propionate and butyrate. The CHO source and processing highly affected the fermentation characteristics and extrusion cooking generally reduced large intestinal fermentation and resulted in a less desirable composition of the fermentation products. The latter outcome is non-conducive to a healthy large intestinal environment and its resulting metabolic health.

Environmental contaminants and the management of bat populations in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clark, D.R.

1988-01-01

Food-chain residues of organochlorine pesticides probably have been involved in declines of some U.S. bat populations; examples include free-tailed bats at Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico, and the endangered gray bat at sites in Missouri and Alabama. If a long-lived contaminant has not been dispersed in large amounts over large areas, its impact may be controlled by administrative action that stops its use or other environmental discharge, or that results in physical isolation of localized contamination so that it no longer enters food chains

Assessing Atmospheric Water Injection from Oceanic Impacts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pierazzo, E.

2005-01-01

Collisions of asteroids and comets with the Earth s surface are rare events that punctuate the geologic record. Due to the vastness of Earth s oceans, oceanic impacts of asteroids or comets are expected to be about 4 times more frequent than land impacts. The resulting injections of oceanic water into the upper atmosphere can have important repercussions on Earth s climate and atmospheric circulation. However, the duration and overall effect of these large injections are still unconstrained. This work addresses atmospheric injections of large amounts of water in oceanic impacts.

Synthesis of rose-like boron nitride particles with a high specific surface area

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

Yu, Hongming; Huang, Xiaoxiao; Wen, Guangwu, E-mail: wgw@hitwh.edu.cn

2010-08-15

Novel rose-like BN nanostructures were synthesized on a large scale via a two-step procedure. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and nitrogen porosimetry. The results show that the obtained rose-like nanostructures are composed of a large amount of h-BN crystalline flakes and have a surface area of 90.31 m{sup 2}/g. A mechanism was proposed to explain the formation process of the rose-like BN nanostructures.

Young Children’s Video/Computer Game Use: Relations with School Performance and Behavior

PubMed Central

Hastings, Erin C.; Karas, Tamara L.; Winsler, Adam; Way, Erin; Madigan, Amy; Tyler, Shannon

2011-01-01

This study examined the amount and content of children’s video game playing in relation with behavioral and academic outcomes. Relationships among playing context, child gender, and parental monitoring were explored. Data were obtained through parent report of child’s game play, behavior, and school performance. Results revealed that time spent playing games was related positively to aggression and negatively to school competence. Violent content was correlated positively and educational content negatively with attention problems. Educational games were related to good academic achievement. Results suggest violent games, and a large amount of game play, are related to troublesome behavioral and academic outcomes, but educational games may be related to positive outcomes. Neither gender nor parental monitoring emerged as significant moderators of these effects. PMID:19742374

A thermal and chemical degradation approach to decipher pristane and phytane precursors in sedimentary organic matter

USGS Publications Warehouse

Koopmans, M.P.; Rijpstra, W.I.C.; Klapwijk, M.M.; De Leeuw, J. W.; Lewan, M.D.; Sinninghe, Damste J.S.

1999-01-01

A thermal and chemical degradation approach was followed to determine the precursors of pristane (Pr) and phytane (Ph) in samples from the Gessoso-solfifera, Ghareb and Green River Formations. Hydrous pyrolysis of these samples yields large amounts of Pr and Ph carbon skeletons, indicating that their precursors are predominantly sequestered in high-molecular-weight fractions. However, chemical degradation of the polar fraction and the kerogen of the unheated samples generally does not release large amounts of Pr and Ph. Additional information on the precursors of Pr and Ph is obtained from flash pyrolysis analyses of kerogens and residues after hydrous pyrolysis and after chemical degradation. Multiple precursors for Pr and Ph are recognised in these three samples. The main increase of the Pr/Ph ratio with increasing maturation temperature, which is associated with strongly increasing amounts of Pr and Ph, is probably due to the higher amount of precursors of Pr compared to Ph, and not to the different timing of generation of Pr and Ph.A thermal and chemical degradation approach was followed to determine the precursors of pristane (Pr) and phytane (Ph) in samples from the Gessoso-solfifera, Ghareb and Green River Formations. Hydrous pyrolysis of these samples yields large amounts of Pr and Ph carbon skeletons, indicating that their precursors are predominantly sequestered in high-molecular-weight fractions. However, chemical degradation of the polar fraction and the kerogen of the unheated samples generally does not release large amounts of Pr and Ph. Additional information on the precursors of Pr and Ph is obtained from flash pyrolysis analyses of kerogens and residues after hydrous pyrolysis and after chemical degradation. Multiple precursors for Pr and Ph are recognised in these three samples. The main increase of the Pr/Ph ratio with increasing maturation temperature, which is associated with strongly increasing amounts of Pr and Ph, is probably due to the higher amount of precursors of Pr compared to Ph, and not to the different timing of generation of Pr and Ph.

Spontaneous, generalized lipidosis in captive greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum).

PubMed

Gozalo, Alfonso S; Schwiebert, Rebecca S; Metzner, Walter; Lawson, Gregory W

2005-11-01

During a routine 6-month quarantine period, 3 of 34 greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) captured in mainland China and transported to the United States for use in echolocation studies were found dead with no prior history of illness. All animals were in good body condition at the time of death. At necropsy, a large amount of white fat was found within the subcutis, especially in the sacrolumbar region. The liver, kidneys, and heart were diffusely tan in color. Microscopic examination revealed that hepatocytes throughout the liver were filled with lipid, and in some areas, lipid granulomas were present. renal lesions included moderate amounts of lipid in the cortical tubular epithelium and large amounts of protein and lipid within Bowman's capsules in the glomeruli. In addition, one bat had large lipid vacuoles diffusely distributed throughout the myocardium. The exact pathologic mechanism inducing the hepatic, renal, and cardiac lipidosis is unknown. The horseshoe bats were captured during hibernation and immediately transported to the United States. It is possible that the large amount of fat stored coupled with changes in photoperiod, lack of exercise, and/or the stress of captivity might have contributed to altering the normal metabolic processes, leading to anorexia and consequently lipidosis in these animals.

Method for large-scale fabrication of atomic-scale structures on material surfaces using surface vacancies

DOEpatents

Lim, Chong Wee; Ohmori, Kenji; Petrov, Ivan Georgiev; Greene, Joseph E.

2004-07-13

A method for forming atomic-scale structures on a surface of a substrate on a large-scale includes creating a predetermined amount of surface vacancies on the surface of the substrate by removing an amount of atoms on the surface of the material corresponding to the predetermined amount of the surface vacancies. Once the surface vacancies have been created, atoms of a desired structure material are deposited on the surface of the substrate to enable the surface vacancies and the atoms of the structure material to interact. The interaction causes the atoms of the structure material to form the atomic-scale structures.

Fire as a tool in restoring and maintaining beetle diversity in boreal forests: preliminary results from a large-scale field experiment

Treesearch

E. Hyvarinen; H. Lappalainen; P. Martikainen; J. Kouki

2003-01-01

During the 1900s, the amount of dead and decaying wood has declined drastically in boreal forests in Finland because of intensive forest management. As a result, species requiring such resources have also declined or have even gone extinct. Recently it has been observed that in addition to old-growth forests, natural, early successional phases are also important for...

Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss in 2011

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-10-02

In mid-March 2011, NASA Aura spacecraft observed ozone in Earth stratosphere -- low ozone amounts are shown in purple and grey colors, large amounts of chlorine monoxide are shown in dark blue colors.

Axial high topography and partial melt in the crust and mantle beneath the western Galápagos Spreading Center

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blacic, Tanya M.; Ito, Garrett; Shah, Anjana K.; Canales, Juan Pablo; Lin, Jian

2008-01-01

The hot spot-influenced western Galápagos Spreading Center (GSC) has an axial topographic high that reaches heights of ∼700 m relative to seafloor depth ∼25 km from the axis. We investigate the cause of the unusual size of the axial high using a model that determines the flexural response to loads resulting from the thermal and magmatic structure of the lithosphere. The thermal structure simulated is appropriate for large amounts of cooling by hydrothermal circulation, which tends to minimize the amount of partial melt needed to explain the axial topography. Nonetheless, results reveal that the large axial high near 92°W requires that either the crust below the magma lens contains >35% partial melt or that 20% melt is present in the lower crust and at least 3% in the mantle within a narrow column (<∼10 km wide) extending to depths of 45–65 km. Because melt fractions >35% in the crust are considered unreasonable, it is likely that much of the axial high region of the GSC is underlain by a narrow region of partially molten mantle of widths approaching those imaged seismically beneath the East Pacific Rise. A narrow zone of mantle upwelling and melting, driven largely by melt buoyancy, is a plausible explanation.

Genomics Portals: integrative web-platform for mining genomics data

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background A large amount of experimental data generated by modern high-throughput technologies is available through various public repositories. Our knowledge about molecular interaction networks, functional biological pathways and transcriptional regulatory modules is rapidly expanding, and is being organized in lists of functionally related genes. Jointly, these two sources of information hold a tremendous potential for gaining new insights into functioning of living systems. Results Genomics Portals platform integrates access to an extensive knowledge base and a large database of human, mouse, and rat genomics data with basic analytical visualization tools. It provides the context for analyzing and interpreting new experimental data and the tool for effective mining of a large number of publicly available genomics datasets stored in the back-end databases. The uniqueness of this platform lies in the volume and the diversity of genomics data that can be accessed and analyzed (gene expression, ChIP-chip, ChIP-seq, epigenomics, computationally predicted binding sites, etc), and the integration with an extensive knowledge base that can be used in such analysis. Conclusion The integrated access to primary genomics data, functional knowledge and analytical tools makes Genomics Portals platform a unique tool for interpreting results of new genomics experiments and for mining the vast amount of data stored in the Genomics Portals backend databases. Genomics Portals can be accessed and used freely at http://GenomicsPortals.org. PMID:20070909

Variation of consumer contact with household products: a preliminary investigation.

PubMed

Weegels, M E; van Veen, M P

2001-06-01

Little information is available on product use by consumers, which severely hampers exposure estimation for consumer products. This article describes actual contact with several consumer products, specifically dishwashing detergents, cleaning products, and hair styling products. How and where products are handled, as well as the duration, frequency, and amount of use were studied by means of diaries, in-home observations, and measurements. This study addressed the question, "To what extent are frequency, duration, and amount of use associated?" Findings showed that there was a large intra- as well as interindividual variation in frequency, duration, and amount of use, with the interindividual variation being considerably larger. At the same time, results showed that, for a given activity, users tended to follow their own routine. Few relations were found among frequency, duration, and amount of use. It was concluded that among persons, frequency, duration, and amount of product act in practice as independent parameters. Diaries appear to be quite suitable for gaining insight into frequently used products. Observations of usage, recorded on video, were indispensable for obtaining particular information on product use. In addition, home visits enabled the collection of specific measurements. Although diaries and home visits are time-consuming, the combination provided insight into variation as well as relations among frequency, duration, and amount of use.

Male Kirtland's Warblers' patch-level response to landscape structure during periods of varying population size and habitat amounts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Donner, D.M.; Ribic, C.A.; Probst, J.R.

2009-01-01

Forest planners must evaluate how spatiotemporal changes in habitat amount and configuration across the landscape as a result of timber management will affect species' persistence. However, there are few long-term programs available for evaluation. We investigated the response of male Kirtland's Warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) to 26 years of changing patch and landscape structure during a large, 26-year forestry-habitat restoration program within the warbler's primary breeding range. We found that the average density of male Kirtland's Warblers was related to a different combination of patch and landscape attributes depending on the species' regional population level and habitat amounts on the landscape (early succession jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests; 15-42% habitat cover). Specifically, patch age and habitat regeneration type were important at low male population and total habitat amounts, while patch age and distance to an occupied patch were important at relatively high population and habitat amounts. Patch age and size were more important at increasing population levels and an intermediate amount of habitat. The importance of patch age to average male density during all periods reflects the temporal buildup and decline of male numbers as habitat suitability within the patch changed with succession. Habitat selection (i.e., preference for wildfire-regenerated habitat) and availability may explain the importance of habitat type and patch size during lower population and habitat levels. The relationship between male density and distance when there was the most habitat on the landscape and the male population was large and still increasing may be explained by the widening spatial dispersion of the increasing male population at the regional scale. Because creating or preserving habitat is not a random process, management efforts would benefit from more investigations of managed population responses to changes in spatial structure that occur through habitat gain rather than habitat loss to further our empirical understanding of general principles of the fragmentation process and habitat cover threshold effects within dynamic landscapes.

[Adsorption of heavy metals on the surface of birnessite relationship with its Mn average oxidation state and adsorption sites].

PubMed

Wang, Yan; Tan, Wen-Feng; Feng, Xiong-Han; Qiu, Guo-Hong; Liu, Fan

2011-10-01

Adsorption characteristics of mineral surface for heavy metal ions are largely determined by the type and amount of surface adsorption sites. However, the effects of substructure variance in manganese oxide on the adsorption sites and adsorption characteristics remain unclear. Adsorption experiments and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were combined to examine the adsorption characteristics of Pb2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ sequestration by birnessites with different Mn average oxidation state (AOS), and the Mn AOS dependent adsorption sites and adsorption characteristics. The results show that the maximum adsorption capacity of Pb2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ increased with increasing birnessite Mn AOS. The adsorption capacity followed the order of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Zn2+ > Cd2+. The observations suggest that there exist two sites on the surface of birnessite, i. e., high-binding-energy site (HBE site) and low-binding-energy site (LBE site). With the increase of Mn AOS for birnessites, the amount of HBE sites for heavy metal ions adsorption remarkably increased. On the other hand, variation in the amount of LBE sites was insignificant. The amount of LBE sites is much more than those of HBE sites on the surface of birnessite with low Mn AOS. Nevertheless, both amounts on the surface of birnessite with high Mn AOS are very close to each other. Therefore, the heavy metal ions adsorption capacity on birnessite is largely determined by the amount of HBE sites. On birnessite surface, adsorption of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Cd2+ mostly occurred at HBE sites. In comparison with Zn2+ and Cd2+, more Cu2+ adsorbed on the LBW sites. Pb2+ adsorption maybe occupy at both LBE sites and HBE sites simultaneously.

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data.

PubMed

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-10-29

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μ BalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible.

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data

PubMed Central

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-01-01

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μBalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible. PMID:27801874

Alpha Air Sample Counting Efficiency Versus Dust Loading: Evaluation of a Large Data Set

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

Hogue, M. G.; Gause-Lott, S. M.; Owensby, B. N.

Dust loading on air sample filters is known to cause a loss of efficiency for direct counting of alpha activity on the filters, but the amount of dust loading and the correction factor needed to account for attenuated alpha particles is difficult to assess. In this paper, correction factors are developed by statistical analysis of a large database of air sample results for a uranium and plutonium processing facility at the Savannah River Site. As is typically the case, dust-loading data is not directly available, but sample volume is found to be a reasonable proxy measure; the amount of dustmore » loading is inferred by a combination of the derived correction factors and a Monte Carlo model. The technique compares the distribution of activity ratios [beta/(beta + alpha)] by volume and applies a range of correction factors on the raw alpha count rate. The best-fit results with this method are compared with MCNP modeling of activity uniformly deposited in the dust and analytical laboratory results of digested filters. Finally, a linear fit is proposed to evenly-deposited alpha activity collected on filters with dust loading over a range of about 2 mg cm -2 to 1,000 mg cm -2.« less

Alpha Air Sample Counting Efficiency Versus Dust Loading: Evaluation of a Large Data Set

DOE PAGES

Hogue, M. G.; Gause-Lott, S. M.; Owensby, B. N.; ...

2018-03-03

Dust loading on air sample filters is known to cause a loss of efficiency for direct counting of alpha activity on the filters, but the amount of dust loading and the correction factor needed to account for attenuated alpha particles is difficult to assess. In this paper, correction factors are developed by statistical analysis of a large database of air sample results for a uranium and plutonium processing facility at the Savannah River Site. As is typically the case, dust-loading data is not directly available, but sample volume is found to be a reasonable proxy measure; the amount of dustmore » loading is inferred by a combination of the derived correction factors and a Monte Carlo model. The technique compares the distribution of activity ratios [beta/(beta + alpha)] by volume and applies a range of correction factors on the raw alpha count rate. The best-fit results with this method are compared with MCNP modeling of activity uniformly deposited in the dust and analytical laboratory results of digested filters. Finally, a linear fit is proposed to evenly-deposited alpha activity collected on filters with dust loading over a range of about 2 mg cm -2 to 1,000 mg cm -2.« less

The Effect of Spatial Smoothing on Representational Similarity in a Simple Motor Paradigm

PubMed Central

Hendriks, Michelle H. A.; Daniels, Nicky; Pegado, Felipe; Op de Beeck, Hans P.

2017-01-01

Multi-voxel pattern analyses (MVPA) are often performed on unsmoothed data, which is very different from the general practice of large smoothing extents in standard voxel-based analyses. In this report, we studied the effect of smoothing on MVPA results in a motor paradigm. Subjects pressed four buttons with two different fingers of the two hands in response to auditory commands. Overall, independent of the degree of smoothing, correlational MVPA showed distinctive patterns for the different hands in all studied regions of interest (motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and auditory cortices). With regard to the effect of smoothing, our findings suggest that results from correlational MVPA show a minor sensitivity to smoothing. Moderate amounts of smoothing (in this case, 1−4 times the voxel size) improved MVPA correlations, from a slight improvement to large improvements depending on the region involved. None of the regions showed signs of a detrimental effect of moderate levels of smoothing. Even higher amounts of smoothing sometimes had a positive effect, most clearly in low-level auditory cortex. We conclude that smoothing seems to have a minor positive effect on MVPA results, thus researchers should be mindful about the choices they make regarding the level of smoothing. PMID:28611726

Sound Levels in East Texas Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Aaron Lynn

A survey of sound levels was taken in several Texas schools to determine the amount of noise and sound present by size of class, type of activity, location of building, and the presence of air conditioning and large amounts of glass. The data indicate that class size and relative amounts of glass have no significant bearing on the production of…

What Determines the Amount Students Borrow? Revisiting the Crisis-Convenience Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart, Natala K.; Mustafa, Shoumi

2008-01-01

Recent studies have questioned the wisdom in blaming college costs for the escalation of student loans. It would appear that less affluent students borrow large amounts because inexpensive subsidized loans are available. This study attempted to verify the claim, estimating a model of the amount of loan received by students as a function of net…

MALL liposuction: the natural evolution of subdermal superficial liposuction.

PubMed

Gasperoni, C; Salgarello, M

1994-01-01

Subdermal superficial liposuction, first presented by the authors at the ISAPS Congress at Zurich in 1989, is performed with thin three-hole Mercedes cannulas (diameter ranges from 1.8 to 2 mm) to treat small and secondary adiposities and to allow better skin retraction. Suction of the subdermal layer of fat reduces the thickness and consistency of the superficial fat and enhances the possibility of skin retraction. In cases where there is a large adiposity of the abdomen, arms, or inner thighs, there is a conspicuous volume of fat whose weight tends to overstretch and to carry the overlying skin downward. In these cases we need to reduce the large fat volume to permit effective skin retraction. Therefore, we apply the principles of traditional liposuction with those of subdermal superficial liposuction to aspirate large amounts of fat from all the adipose layers. We call this technique Massive All Layer Liposuction (MALL). The amount of skin shrinkage after this "defatting" procedure is remarkable and the clinical results are very good. The MALL technique can be applied to other areas as well. In our experience this new liposuction technique has dramatically reduced the indications of abdominoplasties and dermolipectomies of inner thighs and arms.

Robust watermarking scheme for binary images using a slice-based large-cluster algorithm with a Hamming Code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Wen-Yuan; Liu, Chen-Chung

2006-01-01

The problems with binary watermarking schemes are that they have only a small amount of embeddable space and are not robust enough. We develop a slice-based large-cluster algorithm (SBLCA) to construct a robust watermarking scheme for binary images. In SBLCA, a small-amount cluster selection (SACS) strategy is used to search for a feasible slice in a large-cluster flappable-pixel decision (LCFPD) method, which is used to search for the best location for concealing a secret bit from a selected slice. This method has four major advantages over the others: (a) SBLCA has a simple and effective decision function to select appropriate concealment locations, (b) SBLCA utilizes a blind watermarking scheme without the original image in the watermark extracting process, (c) SBLCA uses slice-based shuffling capability to transfer the regular image into a hash state without remembering the state before shuffling, and finally, (d) SBLCA has enough embeddable space that every 64 pixels could accommodate a secret bit of the binary image. Furthermore, empirical results on test images reveal that our approach is a robust watermarking scheme for binary images.

A linear concatenation strategy to construct 5'-enriched amplified cDNA libraries using multiple displacement amplification.

PubMed

Gadkar, Vijay J; Filion, Martin

2013-06-01

In various experimental systems, limiting available amounts of RNA may prevent a researcher from performing large-scale analyses of gene transcripts. One way to circumvent this is to 'pre-amplify' the starting RNA/cDNA, so that sufficient amounts are available for any downstream analysis. In the present study, we report the development of a novel protocol for constructing amplified cDNA libraries using the Phi29 DNA polymerase based multiple displacement amplification (MDA) system. Using as little as 200 ng of total RNA, we developed a linear concatenation strategy to make the single-stranded cDNA template amenable for MDA. The concatenation, made possible by the template switching property of the reverse transcriptase enzyme, resulted in the amplified cDNA library with intact 5' ends. MDA generated micrograms of template, allowing large-scale polymerase chain reaction analyses or other large-scale downstream applications. As the amplified cDNA library contains intact 5' ends, it is also compatible with 5' RACE analyses of specific gene transcripts. Empirical validation of this protocol is demonstrated on a highly characterized (tomato) and an uncharacterized (corn gromwell) experimental system.

Morphology, composition, and mixing state of primary particles from combustion sources - crop residue, wood, and solid waste.

PubMed

Liu, Lei; Kong, Shaofei; Zhang, Yinxiao; Wang, Yuanyuan; Xu, Liang; Yan, Qin; Lingaswamy, A P; Shi, Zongbo; Lv, Senlin; Niu, Hongya; Shao, Longyi; Hu, Min; Zhang, Daizhou; Chen, Jianmin; Zhang, Xiaoye; Li, Weijun

2017-07-11

Morphology, composition, and mixing state of individual particles emitted from crop residue, wood, and solid waste combustion in a residential stove were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our study showed that particles from crop residue and apple wood combustion were mainly organic matter (OM) in smoldering phase, whereas soot-OM internally mixed with K in flaming phase. Wild grass combustion in flaming phase released some Cl-rich-OM/soot particles and cardboard combustion released OM and S-rich particles. Interestingly, particles from hardwood (pear wood and bamboo) and softwood (cypress and pine wood) combustion were mainly soot and OM in the flaming phase, respectively. The combustion of foam boxes, rubber tires, and plastic bottles/bags in the flaming phase released large amounts of soot internally mixed with a small amount of OM, whereas the combustion of printed circuit boards and copper-core cables emitted large amounts of OM with Br-rich inclusions. In addition, the printed circuit board combustion released toxic metals containing Pb, Zn, Sn, and Sb. The results are important to document properties of primary particles from combustion sources, which can be used to trace the sources of ambient particles and to know their potential impacts in human health and radiative forcing in the air.

The use of satellite data to determine the distribution of ozone in the troposphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fishman, Jack; Watson, Catherine E.; Brackett, Vincent G.; Fakhruzzaman, Khan; Veiga, Robert E.

1991-01-01

Measurements from two independent satellite data sets have been used to derive the climatology of the integrated amount of ozone in the troposphere. These data have led to the finding that large amounts of ozone pollution are generated by anthropogenic activity originating from both the industrialized regions of the Northern Hemisphere and from the southern tropical regions of Africa. To verify the existence of this ozone anomaly at low latitudes, an ozonesonde capability has been established at Ascension Island (8 deg S, 15 deg W) since July 1990. According to the satellite analyses, Ascension Island is located downwind of the primary source region of this ozone pollution, which likely results from the photochemical oxidation of emissions emanating from the widespread burning of savannas and other biomass. These in situ measurements confirm the existence of large amounts of ozone in the lower atmosphere. A summary of these ozonesonde data to date will be presented. In addition, we will present some ozone profile measurements from SAGE II which can be used to provide upper tropospheric ozone measurements directly in the tropical troposphere. A preliminary comparison between the satellite observations and the ozonesonde profiles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere will also be presented.

System simulation application for determining the size of daily raw material purchases at PT XY

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Napitupulu, H. L.

2018-02-01

Every manufacturing company needs to implement green production, including PT XY as a marine catchment processing industry in Sumatera Utara Province. The company is engaged in the processing of squid for export purposes. The company’s problem relates to the absence of a decision on the daily purchase amount of the squid. The purchase of daily raw materials in varying quantities has caused companies to face the problem of excess raw materials or otherwise the lack of raw materials. The low purchase of raw materials will result in reduced productivity, while large purchases will lead to increased cooling costs for storage of excess raw materials, as well as possible loss of damage raw material. Therefore it is necessary to determine the optimal amount of raw material purchases every day. This can be determined by applying simulation. Application of system simulations can provide the expected optimal amount of raw material purchases.

A Parallel Multiclassification Algorithm for Big Data Using an Extreme Learning Machine.

PubMed

Duan, Mingxing; Li, Kenli; Liao, Xiangke; Li, Keqin

2018-06-01

As data sets become larger and more complicated, an extreme learning machine (ELM) that runs in a traditional serial environment cannot realize its ability to be fast and effective. Although a parallel ELM (PELM) based on MapReduce to process large-scale data shows more efficient learning speed than identical ELM algorithms in a serial environment, some operations, such as intermediate results stored on disks and multiple copies for each task, are indispensable, and these operations create a large amount of extra overhead and degrade the learning speed and efficiency of the PELMs. In this paper, an efficient ELM based on the Spark framework (SELM), which includes three parallel subalgorithms, is proposed for big data classification. By partitioning the corresponding data sets reasonably, the hidden layer output matrix calculation algorithm, matrix decomposition algorithm, and matrix decomposition algorithm perform most of the computations locally. At the same time, they retain the intermediate results in distributed memory and cache the diagonal matrix as broadcast variables instead of several copies for each task to reduce a large amount of the costs, and these actions strengthen the learning ability of the SELM. Finally, we implement our SELM algorithm to classify large data sets. Extensive experiments have been conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. As shown, our SELM achieves an speedup on a cluster with ten nodes, and reaches a speedup with 15 nodes, an speedup with 20 nodes, a speedup with 25 nodes, a speedup with 30 nodes, and a speedup with 35 nodes.

Mechanistic Analysis of Mechano-Electrochemical Interaction in Silicon Electrodes with Surface Film

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

Verma, Ankit; Mukherjee, Partha P.

2017-11-17

High-capacity anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, such as silicon, are prone to large volume change during lithiation/delithiation which may cause particle cracking and disintegration, thereby resulting in severe capacity fade and reduction in cycle life. In this work, a stochastic analysis is presented in order to understand the mechano-electrochemical interaction in silicon active particles along with a surface film during cycling. Amorphous silicon particles exhibiting single-phase lithiation incur lower amount of cracking as compared to crystalline silicon particles exhibiting two-phase lithiation for the same degree of volumetric expansion. Rupture of the brittle surface film is observed for both amorphous andmore » crystalline silicon particles and is attributed to the large volumetric expansion of the silicon active particle with lithiation. The mechanical property of the surface film plays an important role in determining the amount of degradation in the particle/film assembly. A strategy to ameliorate particle cracking in silicon active particles is proposed.« less

Identification of inducible nitric oxide synthase in human macrophages surrounding loosened hip prostheses.

PubMed Central

Watkins, S. C.; Macaulay, W.; Turner, D.; Kang, R.; Rubash, H. E.; Evans, C. H.

1997-01-01

Exposure of rodent macrophages to certain cytokines and endotoxin results in the synthesis of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS or NOS-II) leading to the production of large amounts of nitric oxide (NO). Cultures of human macrophages, in contrast, do not produce iNOS after cytokine stimulation, and their ability to act as a physiological source of NO remains questionable. Here we have used immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization to demonstrate the presence of iNOS within human macrophages present in the interfacial membrane and pseudocapsule that surround failed prosthetic hip joints. Synovial tissue recovered from normal human joints did not express iNOS. Many of the iNOS-positive macrophages within the interfacial membrane had phagocytosed large amounts of polyethylene wear debris, suggesting a role for phagocytic stimuli in inducing iNOS in human macrophages. These findings additionally support a role for NO in modulating the localized bone resorption that accompanies the aseptic loosening of prosthetic joints. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 PMID:9094976

Development of device producing electrolyzed water for home care

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Umimoto, K.; Nagata, S.; Yanagida, J.

2013-06-01

When water containing ionic substances is electrolyzed, electrolyzed water with strong bactericidal ability due to the available chlorine(AC) is generated on the anode side. Slightly acidic to neutral electrolyzed water (pH 6.5 to 7.5) is physiological pH and is suitable for biological applications. For producing slightly acidic to neutral electrolyzed water simply, a vertical-type electrolytic tank with an asymmetric structure was made. As a result, a small amount of strongly alkaline water was generated in the upper cathodic small chamber, and a large amount of weakly acidic water generated in the lower anodic large chamber. The pH and AC concentration in solutin mixed with both electrolyzed water were 6.3 and 39.5 ppm, respectively, This solution was slightly acidic to neutral electrolyzed water and had strong bactericidal activity. This device is useful for producing slightly acidic to neutral electrolyzed water as a disinfectant to employ at home care, when considering economic and environmental factors, since it returns to ordinary water after use.

Impact of Tropospheric Aerosol Absorption on Ozone Retrieval from buv Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torres, O.; Bhartia, P. K.

1998-01-01

The impact of tropospheric aerosols on the retrieval of column ozone amounts using spaceborne measurements of backscattered ultraviolet radiation is examined. Using radiative transfer calculations, we show that uv-absorbing desert dust may introduce errors as large as 10% in ozone column amount, depending on the aerosol layer height and optical depth. Smaller errors are produced by carbonaceous aerosols that result from biomass burning. Though the error is produced by complex interactions between ozone absorption (both stratospheric and tropospheric), aerosol scattering, and aerosol absorption, a surprisingly simple correction procedure reduces the error to about 1%, for a variety of aerosols and for a wide range of aerosol loading. Comparison of the corrected TOMS data with operational data indicates that though the zonal mean total ozone derived from TOMS are not significantly affected by these errors, localized affects in the tropics can be large enough to seriously affect the studies of tropospheric ozone that are currently undergoing using the TOMS data.

Faster sequence homology searches by clustering subsequences.

PubMed

Suzuki, Shuji; Kakuta, Masanori; Ishida, Takashi; Akiyama, Yutaka

2015-04-15

Sequence homology searches are used in various fields. New sequencing technologies produce huge amounts of sequence data, which continuously increase the size of sequence databases. As a result, homology searches require large amounts of computational time, especially for metagenomic analysis. We developed a fast homology search method based on database subsequence clustering, and implemented it as GHOSTZ. This method clusters similar subsequences from a database to perform an efficient seed search and ungapped extension by reducing alignment candidates based on triangle inequality. The database subsequence clustering technique achieved an ∼2-fold increase in speed without a large decrease in search sensitivity. When we measured with metagenomic data, GHOSTZ is ∼2.2-2.8 times faster than RAPSearch and is ∼185-261 times faster than BLASTX. The source code is freely available for download at http://www.bi.cs.titech.ac.jp/ghostz/ akiyama@cs.titech.ac.jp Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Variable Stars in the Field of V729 Aql

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cagaš, P.

2017-04-01

Wide field instruments can be used to acquire light curves of tens or even hundreds of variable stars per night, which increases the probability of new discoveries of interesting variable stars and generally increases the efficiency of observations. At the same time, wide field instruments produce a large amount of data, which must be processed using advanced software. The traditional approach, typically used by amateur astronomers, requires an unacceptable amount of time needed to process each data set. New functionality, built into SIPS software package, can shorten the time needed to obtain light curves by several orders of magnitude. Also, newly introduced SILICUPS software is intended for post-processing of stored light curves. It can be used to visualize observations from many nights, to find variable star periods, evaluate types of variability, etc. This work provides an overview of tools used to process data from the large field of view around the variable star V729 Aql. and demonstrates the results.

Transition from global to local control of dayside reconnection from ionospheric-sourced mass loading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, B.; Brambles, O. J.; Cassak, P. A.; Ouellette, J. E.; Wiltberger, M.; Lotko, W.; Lyon, J. G.

2017-09-01

We have conducted a series of controlled numerical simulations to investigate the response of dayside reconnection to idealized, ionosphere-sourced mass loading processes to determine whether they affect the integrated dayside reconnection rate. Our simulation results show that the coupled solar wind-magnetosphere system may exhibit both local and global control behaviors depending on the amount of mass loading. With a small amount of mass loading, the changes in local reconnection rate affects magnetosheath properties only weakly and the geoeffective length in the upstream solar wind is essentially unchanged, resulting in the same integrated dayside reconnection rate. With a large amount of mass loading, however, the magnetosheath properties and the geoeffective length are significantly affected by slowing down the local reconnection rate, resulting in an increase of the magnetic pressure in the magnetosheath, with a significant reduction in the geoeffective length in the upstream solar wind and in the integrated dayside reconnection rate. In this controlled simulation setup, the behavior of dayside reconnection potential is determined by the role of the enhanced magnetic pressure in the magnetospheath due to magnetospheric mass loading. The reconnection potential starts to decrease significantly when the enhanced magnetic pressure alters the thickness of the magnetosheath.

Effects of gas flow on oxidation reaction in liquid induced by He/O{sub 2} plasma-jet irradiation

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

Nakajima, Atsushi; Uchida, Giichiro, E-mail: uchida@jwri.osaka-u.ac.jp; Takenaka, Kosuke

We present here analysis of oxidation reaction in liquid by a plasma-jet irradiation under various gas flow patterns such as laminar and turbulence flows. To estimate the total amount of oxidation reaction induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) in liquid, we employ a KI-starch solution system, where the absorbance of the KI-starch solution near 600 nm behaves linear to the total amount of oxidation reaction in liquid. The laminar flow with higher gas velocity induces an increase in the ROS distribution area on the liquid surface, which results in a large amount of oxidation reaction in liquid. However, a much fastermore » gas flow conversely results in a reduction in the total amount of oxidation reaction in liquid under the following two conditions: first condition is that the turbulence flow is triggered in a gas flow channel at a high Reynolds number of gas flow, which leads to a marked change of the spatial distribution of the ROS concentration in gas phase. Second condition is that the dimpled liquid surface is formed by strong gas flow, which prevents the ROS from being transported in radial direction along the liquid surface.« less

Rotor Smoothing and Vibration Monitoring Results for the US Army VMEP

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

individual component CI detection thresholds, and development of models for diagnostics, prognostics , and anomaly detection . Figure 16 VMEP Server...and prognostics are of current interest. Development of those systems requires large amounts of data (collection, monitoring , manipulation) to capture...development of automated systems and for continuous updating of algorithms to improve detection , classification, and prognostic performance. A test

Spatial and Multidimensional Visualization of Jeddah Health Resources: A Community Health Assessment of Jeddah City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jamalallail, Faisal Mohammed

2012-01-01

Jeddah public health resources are struggling to meet the demand of the large populations. The city is suffering from insufficient public health resources along with other health problem, like high rates of some disease, which resulted in an amount of dissatisfaction among some of the health facilities visitors. The absence of a comprehensive…

THE INDUCTION OF TUMORS IN THE RAT BY ASTATINE-211

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

Durbin, P.W.; Asling, C.W. et al

1958-09-01

Exposure of rats to sublethal amounts of At/sup 211/ results in the early appearance of large numbers of mammary tumors, many of them malignant, and in the production of an altered functional state simulating menopause. It is evident that the tumor induction is not yet tested for its association with radiation exposure separately from the endocrine disturbance. (auth)

Urbanization eases water crisis in China

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Liu, Shu-Guang; Ji, Chen

2012-01-01

Socioeconomic development in China has resulted in rapid urbanization, which includes a large amount of people making the transition from rural areas to cities. Many have speculated that this mass migration may have worsened the water crisis in many parts of the country. However, this study shows that the water crisis would be more severe if the rural-to-urban migration did not occur.

Emotional Intelligence: A Quantitative Study of the Relationship among Academic Success Factors and Emotional Intelligence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iannucci, Brian A.

2013-01-01

Researchers have found a correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and success in the workplace. As a result, many companies have invested a large amount of resources into EI testing during their hiring process. In the United States, corporations are spending over $33 billion on hiring, training, and development. In addition to the increase…

French Fries, Dialysis Tubing & Computer Models: Teaching Diffusion & Osmosis through Inquiry & Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedrichsen, Patricia Meis; Pallant, Amy

2007-01-01

Can eating large amounts of sugarless candy and gum lead to diarrhea? How does Milk of Magnesia work? How does penicillin kill bacteria? These are some of the questions that students answer in this series of lessons on diffusion and osmosis. To begin the unit, students predict the results of a demonstration involving the relationship between…

Improved quantitative and qualitative production of single-domain intrabodies mediated by the co-expression of Erv1p sulfhydryl oxidase.

PubMed

Veggiani, Gianluca; de Marco, Ario

2011-09-01

Camelidae single domain antibodies (VHHs) have structural and binding features that render them suitable alternatives to conventional IgG antibodies. VHHs are usually easier to produce as recombinant proteins than other antibody fragments. However, for some of the biotechnological applications for which they have been proposed, such as immunochromatography and assisted-crystallography, large amounts of purified antibodies are necessary, whereas some VHH-fusions with common tags such as GFP and SNAP are poorly expressed in the bacterial periplasm. Here we have shown that the co-expression of Erv1p sulfhydryl oxidase resulted in an astonishing yield increase of VHH-SNAP constructs expressed in the bacterial cytoplasm. The resulting recombinant antibodies were also more stable than the antibodies produced using the same plasmid, but in wild-type bacteria. Using this approach, it was possible to obtain tens of milligram of purified fusion antibodies using a basic flask fermentation protocol. Therefore, the described method represents a valid solution to produce inexpensively large amounts of single domain antibodies for in vitro applications and we expect it will be suitable for the production of other antibody fragments. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Platelet size and density affect shear-induced thrombus formation in tortuous arterioles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chesnutt, Jennifer K. W.; Han, Hai-Chao

2013-10-01

Thrombosis accounts for 80% of deaths in patients with diabetes mellitus. Diabetic patients demonstrate tortuous microvessels and larger than normal platelets. Large platelets are associated with increased platelet activation and thrombosis, but the physical effects of large platelets in the microscale processes of thrombus formation are not clear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the physical effects of mean platelet volume (MPV), mean platelet density (MPD) and vessel tortuosity on platelet activation and thrombus formation in tortuous arterioles. A computational model of the transport, shear-induced activation, collision, adhesion and aggregation of individual platelets was used to simulate platelet interactions and thrombus formation in tortuous arterioles. Our results showed that an increase in MPV resulted in a larger number of activated platelets, though MPD and level of tortuosity made little difference on platelet activation. Platelets with normal MPD yielded the lowest amount of mural thrombus. With platelets of normal MPD, the amount of mural thrombus decreased with increasing level of tortuosity but did not have a simple monotonic relationship with MPV. The physical mechanisms associated with MPV, MPD and arteriole tortuosity play important roles in platelet activation and thrombus formation.

Solar array flight experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Emerging satellite designs require increasing amounts of electrical power to operate spacecraft instruments and to provide environments suitable for human habitation. In the past, electrical power was generated by covering rigid honeycomb panels with solar cells. This technology results in unacceptable weight and volume penalties when large amounts of power are required. To fill the need for large-area, lightweight solar arrays, a fabrication technique in which solar cells are attached to a copper printed circuit laminated to a plastic sheet was developed. The result is a flexible solar array with one-tenth the stowed volume and one-third the weight of comparably sized rigid arrays. An automated welding process developed to attack the cells to the printed circuit guarantees repeatable welds that are more tolerant of severe environments than conventional soldered connections. To demonstrate the flight readiness of this technology, the Solar Array Flight Experiment (SAFE) was developed and flown on the space shuttle Discovery in September 1984. The tests showed the modes and frequencies of the array to be very close to preflight predictions. Structural damping, however, was higher than anticipated. Electrical performance of the active solar panel was also tested. The flight performance and postflight data evaluation are described.

Metallic contamination of food during preparation and storage: development of methods and some preliminary results.

PubMed

Samsahl, K; Wester, P O

1977-09-01

A chemical procedure for studying trace metals leached from metallic cooking utensils and preserving cans used in the preparation and storage of food has been developed. The method consists in the destruction of the major part of organic matter with HNO3-vapour followed by a complete mineralization of residues with small amounts of HNO3 in Teflon bombs at 150-160 degrees C under a pressure of 3-12 kg/cm2, depending on the amount and composition of the samples. Subsequently, an ion-exchange step removes major components and concentrates the trace elements in a dilute HNO3-solution, suitable for analysis. The ion-exchange separation, which is performed with an automatic ion-exchange separator, is practically free from blank level problems, e.g., typically a mean of less than 2 per cent of the sample levels of the elements being determined. Preliminary results show that large amounts of aluminium are released from vessels to the water during boiling at the same pH-range which exist for most drinking water in Sweden.

Intelligent inversion method for pre-stack seismic big data based on MapReduce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Xuesong; Zhu, Zhixin; Wu, Qinghua

2018-01-01

Seismic exploration is a method of oil exploration that uses seismic information; that is, according to the inversion of seismic information, the useful information of the reservoir parameters can be obtained to carry out exploration effectively. Pre-stack data are characterised by a large amount of data, abundant information, and so on, and according to its inversion, the abundant information of the reservoir parameters can be obtained. Owing to the large amount of pre-stack seismic data, existing single-machine environments have not been able to meet the computational needs of the huge amount of data; thus, the development of a method with a high efficiency and the speed to solve the inversion problem of pre-stack seismic data is urgently needed. The optimisation of the elastic parameters by using a genetic algorithm easily falls into a local optimum, which results in a non-obvious inversion effect, especially for the optimisation effect of the density. Therefore, an intelligent optimisation algorithm is proposed in this paper and used for the elastic parameter inversion of pre-stack seismic data. This algorithm improves the population initialisation strategy by using the Gardner formula and the genetic operation of the algorithm, and the improved algorithm obtains better inversion results when carrying out a model test with logging data. All of the elastic parameters obtained by inversion and the logging curve of theoretical model are fitted well, which effectively improves the inversion precision of the density. This algorithm was implemented with a MapReduce model to solve the seismic big data inversion problem. The experimental results show that the parallel model can effectively reduce the running time of the algorithm.

First results from the AMY detector at Tristan

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

Imlay, R.

1987-08-01

Bhabha scattering and multi-hadronic e/sup +/e/sup -/ annihilation events have been observed in the AMY detector at ..sqrt..s = 500 GeV at the TRISTAN e/sup +/e/sup -/ storage ring. Here the authors report the results of a preliminary analysis of the properties of these events. Of particular note is one event that contains a high energy, isolated gamma ray together with a large amount of missing momentum that penetrates the fiducial volume of the detector.

Mineralogy and arsenic mobility in arsenic-rich Brazilian soils and sediments

USGS Publications Warehouse

de Mello, J.W.V.; Roy, W.R.; Talbott, J.L.; Stucki, J.W.

2006-01-01

Background. Soils and sediments in certain mining regions of Brazil contain an unusually large amount of arsenic (As), which raises concerns that mining could promote increased As mobility, and thereby increase the risks of contaminating water supplies. Objectives. The purpose of t his study was to identify the most important factors governing As mobility in sediments and soils near three gold-mining sites in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods. Surface and sub-surface soil samples were collected at those sites and characterized by chemical and mineralogical analyses. Oxalate (Feo) and citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite (Fed) iron contents were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Arsenic mobilization was measured after incubating the samples in a 2.5 mM CaCl2 solution under anaerobic conditions for 1, 28, 56, 84, or 112 days. The solution concentrations of As, Fe, and Mn were then measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and AAS, respectively. Results and Discussion. Results indicated that As mobilization is largely independent of both the total As and the Feo/Fed ratio of the solid phase. Soluble As is roughly controlled by the Fe (hydr)oxide content of the soil, but a closer examination of the data revealed the importance of other highly weathered clay minerals and organic matter. Large amounts of organic matter and a low iron oxide content should favor As leaching from soils and sediments. Under reducing conditions, As is mobilized by the reductive dissolution of Fe and/or Mn oxides. However, released As may be readsorbed depending on the sorptive properties of the soil. Gibbsite is particularly effective in adsorbing or readsorbing As, as is the remaining unreduced fraction of the iron (hydr)oxides. Conclusion and Outlook. In general, low soluble As is rel ated to the presence of gibbsite, a large amount of iron oxides, and a lack of organic matter in the solid phase. This has environmental significance because gibbsite is thermodynamically more stable than Fe oxides under anaerobic conditions, such as those found in waterlogged soils and lake sediments. ?? 2006 ecomed publishers (Verlagsgruppe Hu??thig Jehle Rehm GmbH), D-86899 Landsberg and Tokyo.

Sources for Leads: Natural Products and Libraries.

PubMed

van Herwerden, Eric F; Süssmuth, Roderich D

2016-01-01

Natural products have traditionally been a major source of leads in the drug discovery process. However, the development of high-throughput screening led to an increased interest in synthetic methods that enabled the rapid construction of large libraries of molecules. This resulted in the termination or downscaling of many natural product research programs, but the chemical libraries did not necessarily produce a larger amount of drug leads. On one hand, this chapter explores the current state of natural product research within the drug discovery process. On the other hand it evaluates the efforts made to increase the amount of leads generated from chemical libraries and considers what role natural products could play here.

Growth of microorganisms in Martian-like shallow subsurface conditions: laboratory modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavlov, A. K.; Shelegedin, V. N.; Vdovina, M. A.; Pavlov, A. A.

2010-01-01

Low atmospheric pressures on Mars and the lack of substantial amounts of liquid water were suggested to be among the major limiting factors for the potential Martian biosphere. However, large amounts of ice were detected in the relatively shallow subsurface layers of Mars by the Odyssey Mission and when ice sublimates the water vapour can diffuse through the porous surface layer of the soil. Here we studied the possibility for the active growth of microorganisms in such a vapour diffusion layer. Our results showed the possibility of metabolism and the reproduction of non-extremophile terrestrial microorganisms (Vibrio sp.) under very low (0.01-0.1 mbar) atmospheric pressures in a Martian-like shallow subsurface regolith.

Optimization of additive compositions for anode in Ni-MH secondary battery using the response surface method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Dong-Cheol; Jang, In-Su; Jang, Min-Ho; Park, Choong-Nyeon; Park, Chan-Jin; Choi, Jeon

2009-06-01

We optimized the composition of additives for the anode in a Ni-MH battery using the response surface method (RSM) to improve the electrode discharge capacities. When the amount of additives was small, the discharge characteristics of the electrode were degraded by charge-discharge cycling due to the low binding strength among the alloy powders and the resultant separation of the powder from the electrode surface. In contrast, the addition of a large amount of the additives increased the electrical impedance of the electrode. Through a response optimization process, we found an optimum composition range of additives to exhibit the greatest discharge capacity of the electrode.

Immunoinformatics: an integrated scenario

PubMed Central

Tomar, Namrata; De, Rajat K

2010-01-01

Genome sequencing of humans and other organisms has led to the accumulation of huge amounts of data, which include immunologically relevant data. A large volume of clinical data has been deposited in several immunological databases and as a result immunoinformatics has emerged as an important field which acts as an intersection between experimental immunology and computational approaches. It not only helps in dealing with the huge amount of data but also plays a role in defining new hypotheses related to immune responses. This article reviews classical immunology, different databases and prediction tools. It also describes applications of immunoinformatics in designing in silico vaccination and immune system modelling. All these efforts save time and reduce cost. PMID:20722763

Supraventricular tachycardia induced by chocolate: is chocolate too sweet for the heart?

PubMed

Parasramka, Saurabh; Dufresne, Alix

2012-09-01

Conflicting studies have been published concerning the association between chocolate and cardiovascular diseases. Fewer articles have described the potential arrhythmogenic risk related to chocolate intake. We present a case of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in a woman after consumption of large quantity of chocolate. A 53-year-old woman with no significant medical history presented to us with complaints of palpitations and shortness of breath after consuming large amounts of chocolate. Electrocardiogram showed supraventricular tachycardia at 165 beats per minute, which was restored to sinus rhythm after adenosine bolus injection. Electrophysiology studies showed atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia, which was treated with radiofrequency ablation. Chocolate contains caffeine and theobromine, which are methylxanthines and are competitive antagonists of adenosine and can have arrhythmogenic potential. Our case very well describes an episode of tachycardia precipitated by large amount of chocolate consumption in a patient with underlying substrate. There are occasional case reports describing association between chocolate, caffeine, and arrhythmias. A large Danish study, however, did not find any association between amount of daily caffeine consumption and risk of arrhythmia.

Partitioning Tracer Test for Detection, Estimation, and Remediation Performance Assessment of Subsurface Nonaqueous Phase Liquids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Minquan; Delshad, Mojdeh; Dwarakanath, Varadarajan; McKinney, Daene C.; Pope, Gary A.; Sepehrnoori, Kamy; Tilburg, Charles E.; Jackson, Richard E.

1995-05-01

In this paper we present a partitioning interwell tracer test (PITT) technique for the detection, estimation, and remediation performance assessment of the subsurface contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique by examples of experimental and simulation results. The experimental results are from partitioning tracer experiments in columns packed with Ottawa sand. Both the method of moments and inverse modeling techniques for estimating NAPL saturation in the sand packs are demonstrated. In the simulation examples we use UTCHEM, a comprehensive three-dimensional, chemical flood compositional simulator developed at the University of Texas, to simulate a hypothetical two-dimensional aquifer with properties similar to the Borden site contaminated by tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and we show how partitioning interwell tracer tests can be used to estimate the amount of PCE contaminant before remedial action and as the remediation process proceeds. Tracer tests results from different stages of remediation are compared to determine the quantity of PCE removed and the amount remaining. Both the experimental (small-scale) and simulation (large-scale) results demonstrate that PITT can be used as an innovative and effective technique to detect and estimate the amount of residual NAPL and for remediation performance assessment in subsurface formations.

Partitioning tracer test for detection, estimation, and remediation performance assessment of subsurface nonaqueous phase liquids

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

Jin, M.; Delshad, M.; Dwarakanath, V.

1995-05-01

In this paper we present a partitioning interwell tracer test (PITT) technique for the detection, estimation, and remediation performance assessment of the subsurface contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique by examples of experimental and simulation results. The experimental results are from partitioning tracer experiments in columns packed with Ottawa sand. Both the method of moments and inverse modeling techniques for estimating NAPL saturation in the sand packs are demonstrated. In the simulation examples we use UTCHEM, a comprehensive three-dimensional, chemical flood compositional simulator developed at the University of Texas, to simulate a hypotheticalmore » two-dimensional aquifer with properties similar to the Borden site contaminated by tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and we show how partitioning interwell tracer tests can be used to estimate the amount of PCE contaminant before remedial action and as the remediation process proceeds. Tracer test results from different stages of remediation are compared to determine the quantity of PCE removed and the amount remaining. Both the experimental (small-scale) and simulation (large-scale) results demonstrate that PITT can be used as an innovative and effective technique to detect and estimate the amount of residual NAPL and for remediation performance assessment in subsurface formations. 43 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab.« less

The effects of snowpack grain size on satellite passive microwave observations from the Upper Colorado River Basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Josberger, E.G.; Gloersen, P.; Chang, A.; Rango, A.

1996-01-01

Understanding the passive microwave emissions of a snowpack, as observed by satellite sensors, requires knowledge of the snowpack properties: water equivalent, grain size, density, and stratigraphy. For the snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin, measurements of snow depth and water equivalent are routinely available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but extremely limited information is available for the other properties. To provide this information, a field program from 1984 to 1995 obtained profiles of snowpack grain size, density, and temperature near the time of maximum snow accumulation, at sites distributed across the basin. A synoptic basin-wide sampling program in 1985 showed that the snowpack exhibits consistent properties across large regions. Typically, the snowpack in the Wyoming region contains large amounts of depth hoar, with grain sizes up to 5 mm, while the snowpack in Colorado and Utah is dominated by rounded snow grains less than 2 mm in diameter. In the Wyoming region, large depth hoar crystals in shallow snowpacks yield the lowest emissivities or coldest brightness temperatures observed across the entire basin. Yearly differences in the average grain sizes result primarily from variations in the relative amount of depth hoar within the snowpack. The average grain size for the Colorado and Utah regions shows much less variation than do the grain sizes from the Wyoming region. Furthermore, the greatest amounts of depth hoar occur in the Wyoming region during 1987 and 1992, years with strong El Nin??o Southern Oscillation, but the Colorado and Utah regions do not show this behavior.

A Cost Benefit Analysis of Emerging LED Water Purification Systems in Expeditionary Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-23

the initial contingency response phase, ROWPUs are powered by large generators which require relatively large amounts of fossil fuels. The amount of...they attract and cling together forming a larger particle (Chem Treat, 2016). Flocculation is the addition of a polymer to water that clumps...smaller particles together to form larger particles. The idea for both methods is that larger particles will either settle out of or be removed from the

Differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells from dissociated monolayer and feeder-free cultured pluripotent stem cells.

PubMed

Yamashita, Tomoko; Miyamoto, Yuki; Bando, Yoshio; Ono, Takashi; Kobayashi, Sakurako; Doi, Ayano; Araki, Toshihiro; Kato, Yosuke; Shirakawa, Takayuki; Suzuki, Yutaka; Yamauchi, Junji; Yoshida, Shigetaka; Sato, Naoya

2017-01-01

Oligodendrocytes myelinate axons and form myelin sheaths in the central nervous system. The development of therapies for demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis and leukodystrophies, is a challenge because the pathogenic mechanisms of disease remain poorly understood. Primate pluripotent stem cell-derived oligodendrocytes are expected to help elucidate the molecular pathogenesis of these diseases. Oligodendrocytes have been successfully differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. However, it is challenging to prepare large amounts of oligodendrocytes over a short amount of time because of manipulation difficulties under conventional primate pluripotent stem cell culture methods. We developed a proprietary dissociated monolayer and feeder-free culture system to handle pluripotent stem cell cultures. Because the dissociated monolayer and feeder-free culture system improves the quality and growth of primate pluripotent stem cells, these cells could potentially be differentiated into any desired functional cells and consistently cultured in large-scale conditions. In the current study, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and mature oligodendrocytes were generated within three months from monkey embryonic stem cells. The embryonic stem cell-derived oligodendrocytes exhibited in vitro myelinogenic potency with rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. Additionally, the transplanted oligodendrocyte progenitor cells differentiated into myelin basic protein-positive mature oligodendrocytes in the mouse corpus callosum. This preparative method was used for human induced pluripotent stem cells, which were also successfully differentiated into oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and mature oligodendrocytes that were capable of myelinating rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. Moreover, it was possible to freeze, thaw, and successfully re-culture the differentiating cells. These results showed that embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells maintained in a dissociated monolayer and feeder-free culture system have the potential to generate oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and mature oligodendrocytes in vitro and in vivo. This culture method could be applied to prepare large amounts of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and mature oligodendrocytes in a relatively short amount of time.

Centroiding Experiment for Determining the Positions of Stars with High Precision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yano, T.; Araki, H.; Hanada, H.; Tazawa, S.; Gouda, N.; Kobayashi, Y.; Yamada, Y.; Niwa, Y.

2010-12-01

We have experimented with the determination of the positions of star images on a detector with high precision such as 10 microarcseconds, required by a space astrometry satellite, JASMINE. In order to accomplish such a precision, we take the following two procedures. (1) We determine the positions of star images on the detector with the precision of about 0.01 pixel for one measurement, using an algorithm for estimating them from photon weighted means of the star images. (2) We determine the positions of star images with the precision of about 0.0001-0.00001 pixel, which corresponds to that of 10 microarcseconds, using a large amount of data over 10000 measurements, that is, the error of the positions decreases according to the amount of data. Here, we note that the procedure 2 is not accomplished when the systematic error in our data is not excluded adequately even if we use a large amount of data. We first show the method to determine the positions of star images on the detector using photon weighted means of star images. This algorithm, used in this experiment, is very useful because it is easy to calculate the photon weighted mean from the data. This is very important in treating a large amount of data. Furthermore, we need not assume the shape of the point spread function in deriving the centroid of star images. Second, we show the results in the laboratory experiment for precision of determining the positions of star images. We obtain that the precision of estimation of positions of star images on the detector is under a variance of 0.01 pixel for one measurement (procedure 1). We also obtain that the precision of the positions of star images becomes a variance of about 0.0001 pixel using about 10000 measurements (procedure 2).

Mapping the distribution of ferric iron minerals on a vertical mine face using derivative analysis of hyperspectral imagery (430-970 nm)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Richard J.; Monteiro, Sildomar T.

2013-01-01

Hyperspectral imagery is used to map the distribution of iron and separate iron ore from shale (a waste product) on a vertical mine face in an open-pit mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Vertical mine faces have complex surface geometries which cause large spatial variations in the amount of incident and reflected light. Methods used to analyse imagery must minimise these effects whilst preserving any spectral variations between rock types and minerals. Derivative analysis of spectra to the 1st-, 2nd- and 4th-order is used to do this. To quantify the relative amounts and distribution of iron, the derivative spectrum is integrated across the visible and near infrared spectral range (430-970 nm) and over those wavelength regions containing individual peaks and troughs associated with specific iron absorption features. As a test of this methodology, results from laboratory spectra acquired from representative rock samples were compared with total amounts of iron minerals from X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Relationships between derivatives integrated over the visible near-infrared range and total amounts (% weight) of iron minerals were strongest for the 4th- and 2nd-derivative (R2 = 0.77 and 0.74, respectively) and weakest for the 1st-derivative (R2 = 0.56). Integrated values of individual peaks and troughs showed moderate to strong relationships in 2nd- (R2 = 0.68-0.78) and 4th-derivative (R2 = 0.49-0.78) spectra. The weakest relationships were found for peaks or troughs towards longer wavelengths. The same derivative methods were then applied to imagery to quantify relative amounts of iron minerals on a mine face. Before analyses, predictions were made about the relative abundances of iron in the different geological zones on the mine face, as mapped from field surveys. Integration of the whole spectral curve (430-970 nm) from the 2nd- and 4th-derivative gave results which were entirely consistent with predictions. Conversely, integration of the 1st-derivative gave results that did not fit with predictions nor distinguish between zones with very large and small amounts of iron oxide. Classified maps of ore and shale were created using a simple level-slice of the 1st-derivative reflectance at 702, 765 and 809 nm. Pixels classified as shale showed a similar distribution to kaolinite (an indicator of shales in the region), as mapped by the depth of the diagnostic kaolinite absorption feature at 2196 nm. Standard statistical measures of classification performance (accuracy, precision, recall and the Kappa coefficient of agreement) indicated that nearly all of the pixels were classified correctly using 1st-derivative reflectance at 765 and 809 nm. These results indicate that data from the VNIR (430-970 nm) can be used to quantify, without a priori knowledge, the total amount of iron minerals and to distinguish ore from shale on vertical mine faces.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the connection between metals, specific SFR and H I gas in galaxies: the Z-SSFR relation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lara-López, M. A.; Hopkins, A. M.; López-Sánchez, A. R.; Brough, S.; Colless, M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Driver, S.; Foster, C.; Liske, J.; Loveday, J.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Sharp, R. G.; Steele, O.; Taylor, E. N.

2013-06-01

We study the interplay between gas phase metallicity (Z), specific star formation rate (SSFR) and neutral hydrogen gas (H I) for galaxies of different stellar masses. Our study uses spectroscopic data from Galaxy and Mass Assembly and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) star-forming galaxies, as well as H I detection from the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) and Galex Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS) public catalogues. We present a model based on the Z-SSFR relation that shows that at a given stellar mass, depending on the amount of gas, galaxies will follow opposite behaviours. Low-mass galaxies with a large amount of gas will show high SSFR and low metallicities, while low-mass galaxies with small amounts of gas will show lower SSFR and high metallicities. In contrast, massive galaxies with a large amount of gas will show moderate SSFR and high metallicities, while massive galaxies with small amounts of gas will show low SSFR and low metallicities. Using ALFALFA and GASS counterparts, we find that the amount of gas is related to those drastic differences in Z and SSFR for galaxies of a similar stellar mass.

Analyses of infrequent (quasi-decadal) large groundwater recharge events in the northern Great Basin: Their importance for groundwater availability, use, and management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Masbruch, Melissa D.; Rumsey, Christine; Gangopadhyay, Subhrendu; Susong, David D.; Pruitt, Tom

2016-01-01

There has been a considerable amount of research linking climatic variability to hydrologic responses in the western United States. Although much effort has been spent to assess and predict changes in surface water resources, little has been done to understand how climatic events and changes affect groundwater resources. This study focuses on characterizing and quantifying the effects of large, multiyear, quasi-decadal groundwater recharge events in the northern Utah portion of the Great Basin for the period 1960–2013. Annual groundwater level data were analyzed with climatic data to characterize climatic conditions and frequency of these large recharge events. Using observed water-level changes and multivariate analysis, five large groundwater recharge events were identified with a frequency of about 11–13 years. These events were generally characterized as having above-average annual precipitation and snow water equivalent and below-average seasonal temperatures, especially during the spring (April through June). Existing groundwater flow models for several basins within the study area were used to quantify changes in groundwater storage from these events. Simulated groundwater storage increases per basin from a single recharge event ranged from about 115 to 205 Mm3. Extrapolating these amounts over the entire northern Great Basin indicates that a single large quasi-decadal recharge event could result in billions of cubic meters of groundwater storage. Understanding the role of these large quasi-decadal recharge events in replenishing aquifers and sustaining water supplies is crucial for long-term groundwater management.

Socioeconomic Status Moderates Genetic and Environmental Effects on the Amount of Alcohol Use

PubMed Central

Hamdi, Nayla R; Krueger, Robert F.; South, Susan C.

2015-01-01

Background Much is unknown about the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol use, including the means by which SES may influence risk for alcohol use. Methods Using a sample of 672 twin pairs (aged 25–74) derived from the MacArthur Foundation Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), the present study examined whether SES, measured by household income and educational attainment, moderates genetic and environmental influences on three indices of alcohol use: amount used, frequency of use, and problem use. Results We found significant moderation for amount of alcohol used. Specifically, genetic effects were greater in low-SES conditions, shared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that enhance the similarity of twins from the same families) tended to increase in high-SES conditions, and non-shared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that distinguish twins) tended to decrease with SES. This pattern of results was found for both income and education, and it largely replicated at a second wave of assessment spaced nine years after the first. There was virtually no evidence of moderation for either frequency of alcohol use or alcohol problems. Conclusions Our findings indicate that genetic and environmental influences on drinking amount vary as a function of the broader SES context, whereas the etiologies of other drinking phenomena are less affected by this context. Efforts to find the causes underlying the amount of alcohol used are likely to be more successful if such contextual information is taken into account. PMID:25778493

Emergence of social cooperation in threshold public goods games with collective risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jing; Fu, Feng; Wu, Te; Wang, Long

2009-07-01

In real situations, people are often faced with the option of voluntary contribution to achieve a collective goal, for example, building a dam or a fence, in order to avoid an unfavorable loss. Those who do not donate, however, can free ride on others’ sacrifices. As a result, cooperation is difficult to maintain, leading to an enduring collective-risk social dilemma. To address this issue, here we propose a simple yet effective theoretical model of threshold public goods game with collective risk and focus on the effect of risk on the emergence of social cooperation. To do this, we consider the population dynamics represented by replicator equation for two simplifying scenarios, respectively: one with fair sharers, who contribute the minimum average amount versus defectors and the other with altruists contributing more than average versus defectors. For both cases, we find that the dilemma is relieved in high-risk situations where cooperation is likely to persist and dominate defection in the population. Large initial endowment to individuals also encourages the risk-averse action, which means that, as compared to poor players (with small initial endowment), wealthy individuals (with large initial endowment) are more likely to cooperate in order to protect their private accounts. In addition, we show that small donation amount and small threshold (collective target) can encourage and sustain cooperation. Furthermore, for other parameters fixed, the impacts of group size act differently on the two scenarios because of distinct mechanisms: in the former case where the cost of cooperation depends on the group size, large size of group readily results in defection, while easily maintains cooperation in the latter case where the cost of cooperation is fixed irrespective of the group size. Our theoretical results of the replicator dynamics are in excellent agreement with the individual based simulation results.

Finite Element Analysis and Optimization of Flexure Bearing for Linear Motor Compressor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khot, Maruti; Gawali, Bajirao

Nowadays linear motor compressors are commonly used in miniature cryocoolers instead of rotary compressors because rotary compressors apply large radial forces to the piston, which provide no useful work, cause large amount of wear and usually require lubrication. Recent trends favour flexure supported configurations for long life. The present work aims at designing and geometrical optimization of flexure bearings using finite element analysis and the development of design charts for selection purposes. The work also covers the manufacturing of flexures using different materials and the validation of the experimental finite element analysis results.

Mantle plumes and continental tectonics.

PubMed

Hill, R I; Campbell, I H; Davies, G F; Griffiths, R W

1992-04-10

Mantle plumes and plate tectonics, the result of two distinct modes of convection within the Earth, operate largely independently. Although plumes are secondary in terms of heat transport, they have probably played an important role in continental geology. A new plume starts with a large spherical head that can cause uplift and flood basalt volcanism, and may be responsible for regional-scale metamorphism or crustal melting and varying amounts of crustal extension. Plume heads are followed by narrow tails that give rise to the familiar hot-spot tracks. The cumulative effect of processes associated with tail volcanism may also significantly affect continental crust.

Fractional labelmaps for computing accurate dose volume histograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sunderland, Kyle; Pinter, Csaba; Lasso, Andras; Fichtinger, Gabor

2017-03-01

PURPOSE: In radiation therapy treatment planning systems, structures are represented as parallel 2D contours. For treatment planning algorithms, structures must be converted into labelmap (i.e. 3D image denoting structure inside/outside) representations. This is often done by triangulated a surface from contours, which is converted into a binary labelmap. This surface to binary labelmap conversion can cause large errors in small structures. Binary labelmaps are often represented using one byte per voxel, meaning a large amount of memory is unused. Our goal is to develop a fractional labelmap representation containing non-binary values, allowing more information to be stored in the same amount of memory. METHODS: We implemented an algorithm in 3D Slicer, which converts surfaces to fractional labelmaps by creating 216 binary labelmaps, changing the labelmap origin on each iteration. The binary labelmap values are summed to create the fractional labelmap. In addition, an algorithm is implemented in the SlicerRT toolkit that calculates dose volume histograms (DVH) using fractional labelmaps. RESULTS: We found that with manually segmented RANDO head and neck structures, fractional labelmaps represented structure volume up to 19.07% (average 6.81%) more accurately than binary labelmaps, while occupying the same amount of memory. When compared to baseline DVH from treatment planning software, DVH from fractional labelmaps had agreement acceptance percent (1% ΔD, 1% ΔV) up to 57.46% higher (average 4.33%) than DVH from binary labelmaps. CONCLUSION: Fractional labelmaps promise to be an effective method for structure representation, allowing considerably more information to be stored in the same amount of memory.

Understanding the nature of atmospheric acid processing of mineral dusts in supplying bioavailable phosphorus to the oceans.

PubMed

Stockdale, Anthony; Krom, Michael D; Mortimer, Robert J G; Benning, Liane G; Carslaw, Kenneth S; Herbert, Ross J; Shi, Zongbo; Myriokefalitakis, Stelios; Kanakidou, Maria; Nenes, Athanasios

2016-12-20

Acidification of airborne dust particles can dramatically increase the amount of bioavailable phosphorus (P) deposited on the surface ocean. Experiments were conducted to simulate atmospheric processes and determine the dissolution behavior of P compounds in dust and dust precursor soils. Acid dissolution occurs rapidly (seconds to minutes) and is controlled by the amount of H + ions present. For H + < 10 -4 mol/g of dust, 1-10% of the total P is dissolved, largely as a result of dissolution of surface-bound forms. At H + > 10 -4 mol/g of dust, the amount of P (and calcium) released has a direct proportionality to the amount of H + consumed until all inorganic P minerals are exhausted and the final pH remains acidic. Once dissolved, P will stay in solution due to slow precipitation kinetics. Dissolution of apatite-P (Ap-P), the major mineral phase in dust (79-96%), occurs whether calcium carbonate (calcite) is present or not, although the increase in dissolved P is greater if calcite is absent or if the particles are externally mixed. The system was modeled adequately as a simple mixture of Ap-P and calcite. P dissolves readily by acid processes in the atmosphere in contrast to iron, which dissolves more slowly and is subject to reprecipitation at cloud water pH. We show that acidification can increase bioavailable P deposition over large areas of the globe, and may explain much of the previously observed patterns of variability in leachable P in oceanic areas where primary productivity is limited by this nutrient (e.g., Mediterranean).

Risks of Large Portfolios

PubMed Central

Fan, Jianqing; Liao, Yuan; Shi, Xiaofeng

2014-01-01

The risk of a large portfolio is often estimated by substituting a good estimator of the volatility matrix. However, the accuracy of such a risk estimator is largely unknown. We study factor-based risk estimators under a large amount of assets, and introduce a high-confidence level upper bound (H-CLUB) to assess the estimation. The H-CLUB is constructed using the confidence interval of risk estimators with either known or unknown factors. We derive the limiting distribution of the estimated risks in high dimensionality. We find that when the dimension is large, the factor-based risk estimators have the same asymptotic variance no matter whether the factors are known or not, which is slightly smaller than that of the sample covariance-based estimator. Numerically, H-CLUB outperforms the traditional crude bounds, and provides an insightful risk assessment. In addition, our simulated results quantify the relative error in the risk estimation, which is usually negligible using 3-month daily data. PMID:26195851

Seemingly unrelated intervention time series models for effectiveness evaluation of large scale environmental remediation.

PubMed

Ip, Ryan H L; Li, W K; Leung, Kenneth M Y

2013-09-15

Large scale environmental remediation projects applied to sea water always involve large amount of capital investments. Rigorous effectiveness evaluations of such projects are, therefore, necessary and essential for policy review and future planning. This study aims at investigating effectiveness of environmental remediation using three different Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) time series models with intervention effects, including Model (1) assuming no correlation within and across variables, Model (2) assuming no correlation across variable but allowing correlations within variable across different sites, and Model (3) allowing all possible correlations among variables (i.e., an unrestricted model). The results suggested that the unrestricted SUR model is the most reliable one, consistently having smallest variations of the estimated model parameters. We discussed our results with reference to marine water quality management in Hong Kong while bringing managerial issues into consideration. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interferon γ limits the effectiveness of melanoma peptide vaccines.

PubMed

Cho, Hyun-Il; Lee, Young-Ran; Celis, Esteban

2011-01-06

The development of effective therapeutic vaccines to generate tumor-reactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) continues to be a top research priority. However, in spite of some promising results, there are no clear examples of vaccines that eradicate established tumors. Most vaccines are ineffective because they generate low numbers of CTLs and because numerous immunosuppressive factors abound in tumor-bearing hosts. We designed a peptide vaccine that produces large numbers of tumor-reactive CTLs in a mouse model of melanoma. Surprisingly, CTL tumor recognition and antitumor effects decreased in the presence of interferon γ (IFNγ), a cytokine that can provide therapeutic benefit. Tumors exposed to IFNγ evade CTLs by inducing large amounts of noncognate major histocompatibility complex class I molecules, which limit T-cell activation and effector function. Our results demonstrate that peptide vaccines can eradicate large, established tumors in circumstances under which the inhibitory activities of IFNγ are curtailed.

Effect of noble gases on an atmospheric greenhouse /Titan/.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cess, R.; Owen, T.

1973-01-01

Several models for the atmosphere of Titan have been investigated, taking into account various combinations of neon and argon. The investigation shows that the addition of large amounts of Ne and/or Ar will substantially reduce the hydrogen abundance required for a given greenhouse effect. The fact that a large amount of neon should be present if the atmosphere is a relic of the solar nebula is an especially attractive feature of the models, because it is hard to justify appropriate abundances of other enhancing agents.

Microbial community structure and activity in a Colorado Rocky Mountain forest soil scarred by slash pile burning

Treesearch

Aida E. Jimenez Esquilin; Mary E. Stromberger; William J. Massman; John M. Frank; Wayne D. Shepperd

2007-01-01

Tree thinning and harvesting produces large amounts of slash material which are typically disposed of by burning, often resulting in severe soil heating. We measured soil chemical properties and microbial community structure and function over time to determine effects of slash pile burning in a ponderosa pine forest soil. Real time data were collected for soil...

Both topography and climate affected forest and woodland burn severity in two regions of the western US, 1984 to 2006

Treesearch

Gregory K. Dillon; Zachery A. Holden; Penelope Morgan; Michael A. Crimmins; Emily K. Heyerdahl; Charles H. Luce

2011-01-01

Fire is a keystone process in many ecosystems of western North America. Severe fires kill and consume large amounts of above- and belowground biomass and affect soils, resulting in long-lasting consequences for vegetation, aquatic ecosystem productivity and diversity, and other ecosystem properties. We analyzed the occurrence of, and trends in, satellite-derived burn...

Aboveground tree growth varies with belowground carbon allocation in a tropical rainforest environment

Treesearch

J.W. Raich; D.A. Clark; L. Schwendenmann; Tana Wood

2014-01-01

Young secondary forests and plantations in the moist tropics often have rapid rates of biomass accumulation and thus sequester large amounts of carbon. Here, we compare results from mature forest and nearby 15–20 year old tree plantations in lowland Costa Rica to evaluate differences in allocation of carbon to aboveground production and root systems. We found that the...

Frequency-Modulated Microwave Photonic Links with Direct Detection: Review and Theory

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-15

create large amounts of signal distortion. Alternatives to MZIs have been pro- posed, including Fabry - Perot interferometers, ber Bragg gratings (FBGs...multiplexed, analog signals for applications in cable television distribution. Experimental results for a Fabry - Perot discriminated, FM subcarrier...multiplexed system were presented by [17]. An array of optical frequency modulated DFB lasers and a Fabry - Perot discriminator were used to transmit and

Inactivation of low pathogenicity notifiable avian influenza virus and lentogenic Newcastle disease virus following pasteurization in liquid egg products

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sixty seven million cases of shell eggs produced per year in the U.S. are processed as liquid egg product. The U.S. also exports a large amount of egg products. Although the U.S. is normally free of avian influenza, concern about contamination of egg product with these viruses has in the past result...

Capacitors for Aircraft High Power

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-04-01

Methanol ext rM hton:1 2 . 343 I .2 Z vacuum driedl 1 6034 31 -11 3 5910 30 -17 54 6159 31 A .4 1431 -26:1K raft 1 Vacuum dried at 105 0C � 36 0...was employed, so that each design was the result of the previous work and problems. A very large amount of data was taken during the test effort, anl

Atmospheric deposition of mercury in central Poland: Sources and seasonal trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siudek, Patrycja; Kurzyca, Iwona; Siepak, Jerzy

2016-03-01

Atmospheric deposition of total mercury was studied at two sites in central Poland, between April 2013 and October 2014. Hg in rainwater (bulk deposition) was analyzed in relation to meteorological parameters and major ions (H+, NO3-, Cl-, SO42 -) in order to investigate seasonal variation, identify sources and determine factors affecting atmospheric Hg chemistry and deposition. Total mercury concentrations varied between 1.24 and 22.1 ng L- 1 at the urban sampling site (Poznań) and between 0.57 and 18.3 ng L- 1 in the woodland protected area (Jeziory), with quite similar mean values of 6.96 and 6.37 ng L- 1, respectively. Mercury in precipitation exhibited lower spatial variability within the study domain (urban/forest transect) than the concentrations determined during other similar observations, reflecting the predominant influence of the same local sources. In our study, a significant seasonal pattern of Hg deposition was observed at both sampling sites, with higher and more variable concentrations of Hg reported for the urban area. In particular, deposition values of Hg were higher in the samples attributed to relatively large precipitation amounts in the summer and in those collected during the winter season (the result of higher contributions from combustion sources, i.e. intensive combustion of fossil fuels in residential and commercial boilers, individual power/heat-generating plants). In addition, a significant relationship between Hg concentration and precipitation amount was found while considering different types of wintertime samples (i.e. rain, snow and mixed precipitation). The analysis of backward trajectories showed that air masses arriving from polluted regions of western Europe and southern Poland largely affected the amount of Hg in rainwater. A seasonal variation in Hg deposition fluxes was also observed, with the maximum value of Hg in spring and minimum in winter. Our results indicated that rainwater Hg and, consequently, the wet deposition flux of Hg are related to seasonal differences in precipitation (type, intensity, amount) and the emission source.

Smart nanogels at the air/water interface: structural studies by neutron reflectivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zielińska, Katarzyna; Sun, Huihui; Campbell, Richard A.; Zarbakhsh, Ali; Resmini, Marina

2016-02-01

The development of effective transdermal drug delivery systems based on nanosized polymers requires a better understanding of the behaviour of such nanomaterials at interfaces. N-Isopropylacrylamide-based nanogels synthesized with different percentages of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as cross-linker, ranging from 10 to 30%, were characterized at physiological temperature at the air/water interface, using neutron reflectivity (NR), with isotopic contrast variation, and surface tension measurements; this allowed us to resolve the adsorbed amount and the volume fraction of nanogels at the interface. A large conformational change for the nanogels results in strong deformations at the interface. As the percentage of cross-linker incorporated in the nanogels becomes higher, more rigid matrices are obtained, although less deformed, and the amount of adsorbed nanogels is increased. The data provide the first experimental evidence of structural changes of nanogels as a function of the degree of cross-linking at the air/water interface.The development of effective transdermal drug delivery systems based on nanosized polymers requires a better understanding of the behaviour of such nanomaterials at interfaces. N-Isopropylacrylamide-based nanogels synthesized with different percentages of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as cross-linker, ranging from 10 to 30%, were characterized at physiological temperature at the air/water interface, using neutron reflectivity (NR), with isotopic contrast variation, and surface tension measurements; this allowed us to resolve the adsorbed amount and the volume fraction of nanogels at the interface. A large conformational change for the nanogels results in strong deformations at the interface. As the percentage of cross-linker incorporated in the nanogels becomes higher, more rigid matrices are obtained, although less deformed, and the amount of adsorbed nanogels is increased. The data provide the first experimental evidence of structural changes of nanogels as a function of the degree of cross-linking at the air/water interface. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr07538f

POM Pulses: Characterizing the Physical and Chemical Properties of Particulate Organic Matter (POM) Mobilized by Large Storm Events and its Influence on Receiving Fluvial Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, E. R.; Rowland, R. D.; Protokowicz, J.; Inamdar, S. P.; Kan, J.; Vargas, R.

2016-12-01

Extreme storm events have tremendous erosive energy which is capable of mobilizing vast amounts of material from watershed sources into fluvial systems. This complex mixture of sediment and particulate organic matter (POM) is a nutrient source, and has the potential to impact downstream water quality. The impact of POM on receiving aquatic systems can vary not only by the total amount exported but also by the various sources involved and the particle sizes of POM. This study examines the composition of POM in potential sources and within-event POM by: (1) determining the amount and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) that can be leached from coarse, medium and fine particle classes; (2) assessing the C and N content and isotopic character of within-event POM; and (3) coupling physical and chemical properties to evaluate storm event POM influence on stream water. Storm event POM samples and source sediments were collected from a forested headwater catchment (second order stream) in the Piedmont region of Maryland. Samples were sieved into three particle classes - coarse (2mm-1mm), medium (1mm-250µm) and fine (<250µm). Extractions were performed for three particle class sizes and the resulting fluorescent organic matter was analyzed. Carbon (C) and Nitrogen (N) amount, C:N ratio, and isotopic analysis of 13C and 15N were performed on solid state event and source material. Future work will include examination of microbial communities associated with POM particle size classes. Physical size class separation of within-event POM exhibited differences in C:N ratios, δ15N composition, and extracted DOM lability. Smaller size classes exhibited lower C:N ratios, more enriched δ15N and more recalcitrant properties in leached DOM. Source material had varying C:N ratios and contributions to leached DOM. These results indicate that both source and size class strongly influence the POM contribution to fluvial systems during large storm events.

Response of lead-acid batteries to chopper-controlled discharge: Preliminary results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cataldo, R. L.

1978-01-01

The preliminary results of simulated electric vehicle, chopper, speed controller discharge of a battery show energy output losses up to 25 percent compared to constant current discharges at the same average discharge current of 100 amperes. These energy losses are manifested as temperature rises during discharge, amounting to a two-fold increase for a 400-ampere pulse compared to the constant current case. Because of the potentially large energy inefficiency, the results suggest that electric vehicle battery/speed controller interaction must be carefully considered in vehicle design.

The temperature of primary melts and mantle sources of komatiites, OIBs, MORBs and LIPs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobolev, Alexander

2015-04-01

There is general agreement that the convecting mantle, although mostly peridotitic in composition, is compositionally and thermally heterogeneous on different spatial scales. The amount, sizes, temperatures and compositions of these heterogeneities significantly affect mantle dynamics because they may diverge greatly from dominant peridotites in their density and fusibility. Differences in potential temperature and composition of mantle domains affect magma production and cannot be easily distinguished from each other. This has led to radically different interpretations of the melting anomalies that produce ocean-island basalts, large igneous provinces and komatiites: most scientists believe that they originate as hot, deep-sourced mantle plumes; but a small though influential group (e.g. Anderson 2005, Foulger, 2010) propose that they derive from high proportions of easily fusible recycled or delaminated crust, or in the case of komatiites contain large amount of H2O (e.g. Grove & Parman, 2004). The way to resolve this ambiguity is an independent estimation of temperature and composition of mantle sources of various types of magma. In this paper I report application of newly developed olivine-spinel-melt geothermometers based on partition of Al, Cr, Sc and Y for different primitive lavas from mid-ocean ridges, ocean-island basalts, large igneous provinces and komatiites. The results suggest significant variations of crystallization temperature for the same Fo of high magnesium olivines of different types of mantle-derived magmas: from the lowest (down to 1220 degree C) for MORB to the highest (up to over 1500 degree C) for komatiites and Siberian meimechites. These results match predictions from Fe-Mg olivine-melt equilibrium and confirm the relatively low temperature of the mantle source of MORB and higher temperatures in the mantle plumes that produce the OIB of Iceland, Hawaii, Gorgona, Archean komatiites and several LIPs (e.g Siberian and NAMP). The established liquidus temperatures and compositions of primary melts allow estimating potential temperatures and compositions of their mantle sources. The results strongly confirm mantle plume theory and presence of variable amounts of recycled crustal material in the mantle sources. This study has been founded by Russian Science Foundation grant 14-17-00491.

Cold Trap Dismantling and Sodium Removal at a Fast Breeder Reactor - 12327

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

Graf, A.; Petrick, H.; Stutz, U.

2012-07-01

The first German prototype Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor (KNK) is currently being dismantled after being the only operating Fast Breeder-type reactor in Germany. As this reactor type used sodium as a coolant in its primary and secondary circuit, seven cold traps containing various amounts of partially activated sodium needed to be disposed of as part of the dismantling. The resulting combined difficulties of radioactive contamination and high chemical reactivity were handled by treating the cold traps differently depending on their size and the amount of sodium contained inside. Six small cold traps were processed onsite by cutting them up intomore » small parts using a band saw under a protective atmosphere. The sodium was then converted to sodium hydroxide by using water. The remaining large cold trap could not be handled in the same way due to its dimensions (2.9 m x 1.1 m) and the declared amount of sodium inside (1,700 kg). It was therefore manually dismantled inside a large box filled with a protective atmosphere, while the resulting pieces were packaged for later burning in a special facility. The experiences gained by KNK during this process may be advantageous for future dismantling projects in similar sodium-cooled reactors worldwide. The dismantling of a prototype fast breeder reactor provides the challenge not only to dismantle radioactive materials but also to handle sodium-contaminated or sodium-containing components. The treatment of sodium requires additional equipment and installations to ensure a safe handling. Since it is not permitted to bring sodium into a repository, all sodium has to be neutralized either through a controlled reaction with water or by incinerating. The resulting components can be disposed of as normal radioactive waste with no further conditions. The handling of sodium needs skilled and experienced workers to minimize the inherent risks. And the example of the disposal of the large KNK cold trap shows the interaction with others and also foreign decommissioning projects can provide solutions with were unknown before. (authors)« less

The Angular Momentum of Baryons and Dark Matter Halos Revisited

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kimm, Taysun; Devriendt, Julien; Slyz, Adrianne; Pichon, Christophe; Kassin, Susan A.; Dubois, Yohan

2011-01-01

Recent theoretical studies have shown that galaxies at high redshift are fed by cold, dense gas filaments, suggesting angular momentum transport by gas differs from that by dark matter. Revisiting this issue using high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamics simulations with adaptive-mesh refinement (AMR), we find that at the time of accretion, gas and dark matter do carry a similar amount of specific angular momentum, but that it is systematically higher than that of the dark matter halo as a whole. At high redshift, freshly accreted gas rapidly streams into the central region of the halo, directly depositing this large amount of angular momentum within a sphere of radius r = 0.1R(sub vir). In contrast, dark matter particles pass through the central region unscathed, and a fraction of them ends up populating the outer regions of the halo (r/R(sub vir) > 0.1), redistributing angular momentum in the process. As a result, large-scale motions of the cosmic web have to be considered as the origin of gas angular momentum rather than its virialised dark matter halo host. This generic result holds for halos of all masses at all redshifts, as radiative cooling ensures that a significant fraction of baryons remain trapped at the centre of the halos. Despite this injection of angular momentum enriched gas, we predict an amount for stellar discs which is in fair agreement with observations at z=0. This arises because the total specific angular momentum of the baryons (gas and stars) remains close to that of dark matter halos. Indeed, our simulations indicate that any differential loss of angular momentum amplitude between the two components is minor even though dark matter halos continuously lose between half and two-thirds of their specific angular momentum modulus as they evolve. In light of our results, a substantial revision of the standard theory of disc formation seems to be required. We propose a new scenario where gas efficiently carries the angular momentum generated by large-scale structure motions deep inside dark matter halos, redistributing it only in the vicinity of the disc.

The relative influence of habitat amount and configuration on genetic structure across multiple spatial scales

PubMed Central

Millette, Katie L; Keyghobadi, Nusha

2015-01-01

Despite strong interest in understanding how habitat spatial structure shapes the genetics of populations, the relative importance of habitat amount and configuration for patterns of genetic differentiation remains largely unexplored in empirical systems. In this study, we evaluate the relative influence of, and interactions among, the amount of habitat and aspects of its spatial configuration on genetic differentiation in the pitcher plant midge, Metriocnemus knabi. Larvae of this species are found exclusively within the water-filled leaves of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in a system that is naturally patchy at multiple spatial scales (i.e., leaf, plant, cluster, peatland). Using generalized linear mixed models and multimodel inference, we estimated effects of the amount of habitat, patch size, interpatch distance, and patch isolation, measured at different spatial scales, on genetic differentiation (FST) among larval samples from leaves within plants, plants within clusters, and clusters within peatlands. Among leaves and plants, genetic differentiation appears to be driven by female oviposition behaviors and is influenced by habitat isolation at a broad (peatland) scale. Among clusters, gene flow is spatially restricted and aspects of both the amount of habitat and configuration at the focal scale are important, as is their interaction. Our results suggest that both habitat amount and configuration can be important determinants of genetic structure and that their relative influence is scale dependent. PMID:25628865

The relative influence of habitat amount and configuration on genetic structure across multiple spatial scales.

PubMed

Millette, Katie L; Keyghobadi, Nusha

2015-01-01

Despite strong interest in understanding how habitat spatial structure shapes the genetics of populations, the relative importance of habitat amount and configuration for patterns of genetic differentiation remains largely unexplored in empirical systems. In this study, we evaluate the relative influence of, and interactions among, the amount of habitat and aspects of its spatial configuration on genetic differentiation in the pitcher plant midge, Metriocnemus knabi. Larvae of this species are found exclusively within the water-filled leaves of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in a system that is naturally patchy at multiple spatial scales (i.e., leaf, plant, cluster, peatland). Using generalized linear mixed models and multimodel inference, we estimated effects of the amount of habitat, patch size, interpatch distance, and patch isolation, measured at different spatial scales, on genetic differentiation (F ST) among larval samples from leaves within plants, plants within clusters, and clusters within peatlands. Among leaves and plants, genetic differentiation appears to be driven by female oviposition behaviors and is influenced by habitat isolation at a broad (peatland) scale. Among clusters, gene flow is spatially restricted and aspects of both the amount of habitat and configuration at the focal scale are important, as is their interaction. Our results suggest that both habitat amount and configuration can be important determinants of genetic structure and that their relative influence is scale dependent.

An Earth-System Approach to Understanding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robeck, Edward

2011-01-01

The Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, 2010, and the subsequent release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico created an ecological disaster of immense proportions. The estimates of the amounts of oil, whether for the amount released per day or the total amount of oil disgorged from the well, call on numbers so large they defy the capacity of most…

Biogeochemical impacts of submerging forests through large dams in the Rio Negro, Uruguay

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

Campo, J.; Sancholuz, K.

1998-09-01

The Bonete, Baygorria and Palmar dams of the Rio Negro successively submerged complex floodplain forests. The forest area submerged was greater than 280 km{sup 2} and resulted in large inputs of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to the reservoirs. After 46 years wood released 40, 34 and 71% of their original contents of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. During the same period the total amount of nutrients released by wood in comparison to leaves and litter is slightly less for nitrogen, almost double for phosphorus and more than three times for carbon. These results suggest that wood decomposition in water maymore » have a role in the trophic state of reservoirs.« less

Are Social Networking Sites Making Health Behavior Change Interventions More Effective? A Meta-Analytic Review.

PubMed

Yang, Qinghua

2017-03-01

The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) has drawn scholarly attention in recent years, and a large amount of efforts have been made in applying SNSs to health behavior change interventions. However, these interventions showed mixed results, with a large variance of effect sizes in Cohen's d ranging from -1.17 to 1.28. To provide a better understanding of SNS-based interventions' effectiveness, a meta-analysis of 21 studies examining the effects of health interventions using SNS was conducted. Results indicated that health behavior change interventions using SNS are effective in general, but the effects were moderated by health topic, methodological features, and participant features. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Interaction of SO2 and CO with the Ti2O3(101¯2) surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Kevin E.; Henrich, Victor E.

1985-10-01

The interaction of sulfur dioxide with the nearly perfect (101¯2) surface of the corundum transition-metal oxide Ti2O3 has been studied using ultraviolet and x-ray photoemission spectroscopies and low-energy electron diffraction. The reaction of SO2 with Ti2O3 is found to be extremely vigorous, with SO2 adsorbing dissociatively and catalyzing the complete oxidation of the surface to TiO2 and TiS2. This result is significant since exposure to large amounts of O2 does not result in the production of large amounts of TiO2 at the Ti2O3 surface. Dissociative adsorption of SO2 continues for exposures up to at least 104 L (1 L=10-6Torr sec). The reaction is accompanied by large scale surface disorder and by an increase in the work function of 1.32 eV. In contrast, CO adsorbs molecularly for exposures >=105 L, with an extramolecular relaxation-polarization shift of 3.0 eV. For CO exposures <=104 L, the chemisorption mechanism is tentatively identified as dissociative adsorption at defect sites. Inclusive of this study, the interaction of four oxygen-containing molecules (SO2, CO, H2O, and O2) with Ti2O3(101¯2) surfaces has been studied, and their behavior is compared and trends isolated with a view to understanding the oxidation of Ti2O3.

Research on photodiode detector-based spatial transient light detection and processing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Meiying; Wang, Hu; Liu, Yang; Zhao, Hui; Nan, Meng

2016-10-01

In order to realize real-time signal identification and processing of spatial transient light, the features and the energy of the captured target light signal are first described and quantitatively calculated. Considering that the transient light signal has random occurrence, a short duration and an evident beginning and ending, a photodiode detector based spatial transient light detection and processing system is proposed and designed in this paper. This system has a large field of view and is used to realize non-imaging energy detection of random, transient and weak point target under complex background of spatial environment. Weak signal extraction under strong background is difficult. In this paper, considering that the background signal changes slowly and the target signal changes quickly, filter is adopted for signal's background subtraction. A variable speed sampling is realized by the way of sampling data points with a gradually increased interval. The two dilemmas that real-time processing of large amount of data and power consumption required by the large amount of data needed to be stored are solved. The test results with self-made simulative signal demonstrate the effectiveness of the design scheme. The practical system could be operated reliably. The detection and processing of the target signal under the strong sunlight background was realized. The results indicate that the system can realize real-time detection of target signal's characteristic waveform and monitor the system working parameters. The prototype design could be used in a variety of engineering applications.

Modelling dispersal of radioactive contaminants in Arctic waters as a result of potential recovery operations on the dumped submarine K-27.

PubMed

Karcher, M; Hosseini, A; Schnur, R; Kauker, F; Brown, J E; Dowdall, M; Strand, P

2017-03-15

Of the wide variety of dumped objects containing radioactive materials in the Arctic seas, the submarine K-27 constitutes a major risk due to the large amount of highly enriched uranium onboard and its location in shallow waters. As the matter of potential operations involving raising of the submarine have entered the public arena, a priori assessment of the contamination in the Arctic marine environment that could result after a possible accident during such operations is a matter of some interest. The dispersion of contaminants within the Arctic has been assessed using a large scale hydrodynamic model for a series of plausible accident scenarios and locations under different oceanographic regimes. Results indicate that, depending primarily on the nature of a release (i.e. instantaneous or continuous), large areas of the Arctic marine environment will exhibit contamination to varying degrees. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Accelerator science and technology in Europe: EuCARD 2012

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2012-05-01

Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the third annual meeting of the EuCARD - European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development. The conference concerns building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution.

Diethyl citrate and sodium citrate reduce the cytotoxic effects of nanosized hydroxyapatite crystals on mouse vascular smooth muscle cells

PubMed Central

Zhang, Chong-Yu; Sun, Xin-Yuan; Ouyang, Jian-Ming; Gui, Bao-Song

2017-01-01

Objective This study aimed to investigate the damage mechanism of nanosized hydroxyapatite (nano-HAp) on mouse aortic smooth muscle cells (MOVASs) and the injury-inhibiting effects of diethyl citrate (Et2Cit) and sodium citrate (Na3Cit) to develop new drugs that can simultaneously induce anticoagulation and inhibit vascular calcification. Methods The change in cell viability was evaluated using a cell proliferation assay kit, and the amount of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released was measured using an LDH kit. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial damage were detected by DCFH-DA staining and JC-1 staining. Cell apoptosis and necrosis were detected by Annexin V staining. Intracellular calcium concentration and lysosomal integrity were measured using Fluo-4/AM and acridine orange, respectively. Results Nano-HAp decreased cell viability and damaged the cell membrane, resulting in the release of a large amount of LDH. Nano-HAp entered the cells and damaged the mitochondria, and then induced cell apoptosis by producing a large amount of ROS. In addition, nano-HAp increased the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, leading to lysosomal rupture and cell necrosis. On addition of the anticoagulant Et2Cit or Na3Cit, cell viability and mitochondrial membrane potential increased, whereas the amount of LDH released, ROS, and apoptosis rate decreased. Et2 Cit and Na3Cit could also chelate with Ca+ to inhibit the intracellular Ca2+ elevations induced by nano-HAp, prevent lysosomal rupture, and reduce cell necrosis. High concentrations of Et2Cit and Na3Cit exhibited strong inhibitory effects. The inhibitory capacity of Na3Cit was stronger than that of Et2Cit at similar concentrations. Conclusion Both Et2Cit and Na3Cit significantly reduced the cytotoxicity of nano-HAp on MOVASs and inhibited the apoptosis and necrosis induced by nano-HAp crystals. The chelating function of citrate resulted in both anticoagulation and binding to HAp. Et2Cit and Na3Cit may play a role as anticoagulants in reducing injury to the vascular wall caused by nano-HAp. PMID:29238189

The Coriolis Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lissaman, P. B. S.

1979-01-01

Detailed are the history, development, and future objectives of the Coriolis program, a project designed to place large turbine units in the Florida Current that would generate large amounts of electric power. (BT)

Cutting Edge: Protection by Antiviral Memory CD8 T Cells Requires Rapidly Produced Antigen in Large Amounts.

PubMed

Remakus, Sanda; Ma, Xueying; Tang, Lingjuan; Xu, Ren-Huan; Knudson, Cory; Melo-Silva, Carolina R; Rubio, Daniel; Kuo, Yin-Ming; Andrews, Andrew; Sigal, Luis J

2018-05-15

Numerous attempts to produce antiviral vaccines by harnessing memory CD8 T cells have failed. A barrier to progress is that we do not know what makes an Ag a viable target of protective CD8 T cell memory. We found that in mice susceptible to lethal mousepox (the mouse homolog of human smallpox), a dendritic cell vaccine that induced memory CD8 T cells fully protected mice when the infecting virus produced Ag in large quantities and with rapid kinetics. Protection did not occur when the Ag was produced in low amounts, even with rapid kinetics, and protection was only partial when the Ag was produced in large quantities but with slow kinetics. Hence, the amount and timing of Ag expression appear to be key determinants of memory CD8 T cell antiviral protective immunity. These findings may have important implications for vaccine design. Copyright © 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

Profiling Oman education data using data mining approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alawi, Sultan Juma Sultan; Shaharanee, Izwan Nizal Mohd; Jamil, Jastini Mohd

2017-10-01

Nowadays, with a large amount of data generated by many application services in different learning fields has led to the new challenges in education field. Education portal is an important system that leads to a better development of education field. This research paper presents an innovative data mining techniques to understand and summarizes the information of Oman's education data generated from the Ministry of Education Oman "Educational Portal". This research embarks into performing student profiling of the Oman student database. This study utilized the k-means clustering technique to determine the students' profiles. An amount of 42484-student records from Sultanate of Oman has been extracted for this study. The findings of this study show the practicality of clustering technique to investigating student's profiles. Allowing for a better understanding of student's behavior and their academic performance. Oman Education Portal contain a large amounts of user activity and interaction data. Analyses of this large data can be meaningful for educator to improve the student performance level and recognize students who needed additional attention.

Information Management System Supporting a Multiple Property Survey Program with Legacy Radioactive Contamination.

PubMed

Stager, Ron; Chambers, Douglas; Wiatzka, Gerd; Dupre, Monica; Callough, Micah; Benson, John; Santiago, Erwin; van Veen, Walter

2017-04-01

The Port Hope Area Initiative is a project mandated and funded by the Government of Canada to remediate properties with legacy low-level radioactive waste contamination in the Town of Port Hope, Ontario. The management and use of large amounts of data from surveys of some 4800 properties is a significant task critical to the success of the project. A large amount of information is generated through the surveys, including scheduling individual field visits to the properties, capture of field data laboratory sample tracking, QA/QC, property report generation and project management reporting. Web-mapping tools were used to track and display temporal progress of various tasks and facilitated consideration of spatial associations of contamination levels. The IM system facilitated the management and integrity of the large amounts of information collected, evaluation of spatial associations, automated report reproduction and consistent application and traceable execution for this project.x. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Conflict Misleads Large Carnivore Management and Conservation: Brown Bears and Wolves in Spain.

PubMed

Fernández-Gil, Alberto; Naves, Javier; Ordiz, Andrés; Quevedo, Mario; Revilla, Eloy; Delibes, Miguel

2016-01-01

Large carnivores inhabiting human-dominated landscapes often interact with people and their properties, leading to conflict scenarios that can mislead carnivore management and, ultimately, jeopardize conservation. In northwest Spain, brown bears Ursus arctos are strictly protected, whereas sympatric wolves Canis lupus are subject to lethal control. We explored ecological, economic and societal components of conflict scenarios involving large carnivores and damages to human properties. We analyzed the relation between complaints of depredations by bears and wolves on beehives and livestock, respectively, and bear and wolf abundance, livestock heads, number of culled wolves, amount of paid compensations, and media coverage. We also evaluated the efficiency of wolf culling to reduce depredations on livestock. Bear damages to beehives correlated positively to the number of female bears with cubs of the year. Complaints of wolf predation on livestock were unrelated to livestock numbers; instead, they correlated positively to the number of wild ungulates harvested during the previous season, the number of wolf packs, and to wolves culled during the previous season. Compensations for wolf complaints were fivefold higher than for bears, but media coverage of wolf damages was thirtyfold higher. Media coverage of wolf damages was unrelated to the actual costs of wolf damages, but the amount of news correlated positively to wolf culling. However, wolf culling was followed by an increase in compensated damages. Our results show that culling of the wolf population failed in its goal of reducing damages, and suggest that management decisions are at least partly mediated by press coverage. We suggest that our results provide insight to similar scenarios, where several species of large carnivores share the landscape with humans, and management may be reactive to perceived conflicts.

Conflict Misleads Large Carnivore Management and Conservation: Brown Bears and Wolves in Spain

PubMed Central

Fernández-Gil, Alberto; Naves, Javier; Ordiz, Andrés; Quevedo, Mario; Revilla, Eloy; Delibes, Miguel

2016-01-01

Large carnivores inhabiting human-dominated landscapes often interact with people and their properties, leading to conflict scenarios that can mislead carnivore management and, ultimately, jeopardize conservation. In northwest Spain, brown bears Ursus arctos are strictly protected, whereas sympatric wolves Canis lupus are subject to lethal control. We explored ecological, economic and societal components of conflict scenarios involving large carnivores and damages to human properties. We analyzed the relation between complaints of depredations by bears and wolves on beehives and livestock, respectively, and bear and wolf abundance, livestock heads, number of culled wolves, amount of paid compensations, and media coverage. We also evaluated the efficiency of wolf culling to reduce depredations on livestock. Bear damages to beehives correlated positively to the number of female bears with cubs of the year. Complaints of wolf predation on livestock were unrelated to livestock numbers; instead, they correlated positively to the number of wild ungulates harvested during the previous season, the number of wolf packs, and to wolves culled during the previous season. Compensations for wolf complaints were fivefold higher than for bears, but media coverage of wolf damages was thirtyfold higher. Media coverage of wolf damages was unrelated to the actual costs of wolf damages, but the amount of news correlated positively to wolf culling. However, wolf culling was followed by an increase in compensated damages. Our results show that culling of the wolf population failed in its goal of reducing damages, and suggest that management decisions are at least partly mediated by press coverage. We suggest that our results provide insight to similar scenarios, where several species of large carnivores share the landscape with humans, and management may be reactive to perceived conflicts. PMID:26974962

Prevention of clogging in a biological trickle-bed reactor removing toluene from contaminated air.

PubMed

Weber, F J; Hartmans, S

1996-04-05

Removal of organic compounds like toluene from waste gases with a trickle-bed reactor can result in clogging of the reactor due to the formation of an excessive amount of biomass. We therefore limited the amount of nutrients available for growth, to prevent clogging of the reactor. As a consequence of this nutrient limitation a lower removal rate was observed. However, when a fungal culture was used to inoculate the reactor, the toluene removal rate under nutrient limiting conditions was higher. Over a period of 375 days, an average removal rate of 27 g C/(m(3) h) was obtained with the reactor inoculated with the fungal culture. From the carbon balance over the reactor and the nitrogen availability it was concluded that, under these nutrient-limited conditions, large amounts of carbohydrates are probably formed. We also studied the application of a NaOH wash to remove excess biomass, as a method to prevent clogging. Under these conditions an average toluene removal rate of 35 g C/(m(3) h) was obtained. After about 50 days there was no net increase in the biomass content of the reactor. The amount of biomass which was formed in the reactor equaled the amount removed by the NaOH wash.

Effects of Weather, Time, and Pollution Level on the Amount of Particulate Matter Deposited on Leaves of Ligustrum lucidum

PubMed Central

Wang, Huixia; Shi, Hui; Wang, Yanhui

2015-01-01

This paper investigated the spatial and temporal variations in the amounts of PM accumulated on leaves of Ligustrum lucidum, a common evergreen tree species in North China. The effects of rainfall and wind on the amounts of PM deposited on foliage were also determined. The amounts of PM (g·m−2) retained by leaves of L. lucidum differed significantly among the sites (from 0.96 to 5.56) and over time (from 2.51 to 4.48). The largest amounts of PM on foliage of L. lucidum were observed on plants growing at the most polluted site. During the year, the highest and lowest accumulation of PM occurred in November and August, respectively. A considerable proportion of the accumulated PM on leaves was removed by rainfall events (28–48% of PM) and strong winds (27–36% of PM), and more precipitation or higher maximum wind speed could remove more PM from leaves. Rainfall removed mainly large and coarse particles, while fine particles adhered more strongly to the foliage. These results suggested that the effects of local weather conditions (e.g., rainfall, strong wind), different seasons, and pollution levels should be considered in evaluating total PM accumulation on leaves. PMID:25685849

Effects of weather, time, and pollution level on the amount of particulate matter deposited on leaves of Ligustrum lucidum.

PubMed

Wang, Huixia; Shi, Hui; Wang, Yanhui

2015-01-01

This paper investigated the spatial and temporal variations in the amounts of PM accumulated on leaves of Ligustrum lucidum, a common evergreen tree species in North China. The effects of rainfall and wind on the amounts of PM deposited on foliage were also determined. The amounts of PM (g · m(-2)) retained by leaves of L. lucidum differed significantly among the sites (from 0.96 to 5.56) and over time (from 2.51 to 4.48). The largest amounts of PM on foliage of L. lucidum were observed on plants growing at the most polluted site. During the year, the highest and lowest accumulation of PM occurred in November and August, respectively. A considerable proportion of the accumulated PM on leaves was removed by rainfall events (28-48% of PM) and strong winds (27-36% of PM), and more precipitation or higher maximum wind speed could remove more PM from leaves. Rainfall removed mainly large and coarse particles, while fine particles adhered more strongly to the foliage. These results suggested that the effects of local weather conditions (e.g., rainfall, strong wind), different seasons, and pollution levels should be considered in evaluating total PM accumulation on leaves.

Surface-induced dissociation of methanol cations: A non-ergodic process

DOE PAGES

Shukla, Anil K.

2017-09-01

Here, dissociation of methanol molecular cations, CH 3OH +, to CH 2OH + on collision with a self-assembled monolayer surface of fluorinated alkyl thiol on gold 111 crystal has been studied at 12.5 eV collision energy. Two energetically and spatially distinct processes contribute to the dissociation process: one involving loss of very large amount of energy approaching the initial kinetic energy of the primary ions with scattering of fragment ions over a broad angular range between surface normal and surface parallel while the second process results from small amount of energy loss with fragment ions scattered over a narrow angularmore » range close to the surface parallel. There is a third process with relatively small contribution to total dissociation whose characteristics are very similar to the low energy loss process. Finally, these results demonstrate that surface-induced dissociation of methanol cations via hydrogen loss is non-ergodic.« less

Surface-induced dissociation of methanol cations: A non-ergodic process

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

Shukla, Anil K.

Here, dissociation of methanol molecular cations, CH 3OH +, to CH 2OH + on collision with a self-assembled monolayer surface of fluorinated alkyl thiol on gold 111 crystal has been studied at 12.5 eV collision energy. Two energetically and spatially distinct processes contribute to the dissociation process: one involving loss of very large amount of energy approaching the initial kinetic energy of the primary ions with scattering of fragment ions over a broad angular range between surface normal and surface parallel while the second process results from small amount of energy loss with fragment ions scattered over a narrow angularmore » range close to the surface parallel. There is a third process with relatively small contribution to total dissociation whose characteristics are very similar to the low energy loss process. Finally, these results demonstrate that surface-induced dissociation of methanol cations via hydrogen loss is non-ergodic.« less

Effect of Expansion of Fertilization Width on Nitrogen Recovery Rate in Tea Plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nonaka, Kunihiko; Hirono, Yuhei; Watanabe, Iriki

In cultivation of tea plants, large amounts of nitrogen, compared to amounts used for other crops, have been used for fertilization, resulting in degradation of the soil environment between hedges and an increase in concentrations of nitrate nitrogen in surrounding water systems. To reduce the environmental load, new methods of fertilizer application are needed. This report deals with the effect of expansion of fertilization width on nitrogen recovery rate in tea plants. In the test field, 15 N-labeled ammonium sulfate had been applied over custom fertilization by between-hedges fertilization (fertilization width of 15cm) and wide fertilization (fertilization width of 40cm), nitrogen recovery rates were compared. Expansion of fertilization width resulted in an approximately 30% increase in nitrogen recovery rate compared to that in the case of fertilization between hedges. Increases in nitrogen recovery rates were observed with fallapplied fertilization, spring-applied fertilization, pop-up fertilizer application, and summerapplied fertilization.

[Silicosis: computed tomography findings].

PubMed

González Vázquez, M; Trinidad López, C; Castellón Plaza, D; Calatayud Moscoso Del Prado, J; Tardáguila Montero, F

2013-01-01

Silicosis is an occupational lung disease, which is caused by the inhalation of silica and affects a wide range of jobs. There are many clinical forms of silicosis: acute silicosis, results from exposure to very large amounts of silica dust over a period of less than 2 years. Simple chronic silicosis, the most common type that we see today, results from exposure to low amounts of silica between 2 and 10 years. Chronic silicosis complicated, with silicotic conglomerates. In many cases the diagnosis of silicosis is made according to epidemiological and radiological data, without a histological confirmation. It is important to know the various radiological manifestations of silicosis to differentiate it from other lung diseases and to recognize their complications. The objective of this work is to describe typical and atypical radiological findings of silicosis and their complications in helical and high resolution (HRCT) thorax CT. Copyright © 2011 SERAM. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Data Compression Algorithm Architecture for Large Depth-of-Field Particle Image Velocimeters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bos, Brent; Memarsadeghi, Nargess; Kizhner, Semion; Antonille, Scott

2013-01-01

A large depth-of-field particle image velocimeter (PIV) is designed to characterize dynamic dust environments on planetary surfaces. This instrument detects lofted dust particles, and senses the number of particles per unit volume, measuring their sizes, velocities (both speed and direction), and shape factors when the particles are large. To measure these particle characteristics in-flight, the instrument gathers two-dimensional image data at a high frame rate, typically >4,000 Hz, generating large amounts of data for every second of operation, approximately 6 GB/s. To characterize a planetary dust environment that is dynamic, the instrument would have to operate for at least several minutes during an observation period, easily producing more than a terabyte of data per observation. Given current technology, this amount of data would be very difficult to store onboard a spacecraft, and downlink to Earth. Since 2007, innovators have been developing an autonomous image analysis algorithm architecture for the PIV instrument to greatly reduce the amount of data that it has to store and downlink. The algorithm analyzes PIV images and automatically reduces the image information down to only the particle measurement data that is of interest, reducing the amount of data that is handled by more than 10(exp 3). The state of development for this innovation is now fairly mature, with a functional algorithm architecture, along with several key pieces of algorithm logic, that has been proven through field test data acquired with a proof-of-concept PIV instrument.

The global technical potential of bio-energy in 2050 considering sustainability constraints

PubMed Central

Haberl, Helmut; Beringer, Tim; Bhattacharya, Sribas C; Erb, Karl-Heinz; Hoogwijk, Monique

2010-01-01

Bio-energy, that is, energy produced from organic non-fossil material of biological origin, is promoted as a substitute for non-renewable (e.g., fossil) energy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dependency on energy imports. At present, global bio-energy use amounts to approximately 50 EJ/yr, about 10% of humanity's primary energy supply. We here review recent literature on the amount of bio-energy that could be supplied globally in 2050, given current expectations on technology, food demand and environmental targets (‘technical potential’). Recent studies span a large range of global bio-energy potentials from ≈30 to over 1000 EJ/yr. In our opinion, the high end of the range is implausible because of (1) overestimation of the area available for bio-energy crops due to insufficient consideration of constraints (e.g., area for food, feed or nature conservation) and (2) too high yield expectations resulting from extrapolation of plot-based studies to large, less productive areas. According to this review, the global technical primary bio-energy potential in 2050 is in the range of 160–270 EJ/yr if sustainability criteria are considered. The potential of bio-energy crops is at the lower end of previously published ranges, while residues from food production and forestry could provide significant amounts of energy based on an integrated optimization (‘cascade utilization’) of biomass flows. PMID:24069093

The influece of forest gaps on some properties of humus in a managed beech forest, northern Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vajari, K. A.

2015-10-01

The present research focuses on the effect of eight-year-old artificially created gaps on some properties of humus in managed beech-dominated stand in Hyrcanian forest of northern Iran. In this study, six-teen gaps were sampled in site and were classified into four classes (small, medium, large, and very large) with four replications for each. Humus sampling was carried out at the centre and at the cardinal points within each gap as well as in the adjacent closed stand, separately, as composite samples. The variables of organic carbon, P, K, pH, and total N were measured for each sample. It was found that the gap size had significant effect only on total N (%) and organic carbon (%) in beech stand. The amount of potassium clearly differed among three positions in beech forest. The adjacent stand had higher significantly potassium than center and edge of gaps. Different amount of potassium was detected in gap center and gap edge. Comparison of humus properties between gaps and its adjacent stand pointed to the higher amount of potassium in adjacent stand than that in gaps but there was no difference between them regarding other humus properties. According to the results, it can be concluded that there is relatively similar condition among gaps and closed adjacent stands in terms of humus properties eight years after logging in the beech stand.

Proxy system modeling of tree-ring isotope chronologies over the Common Era

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anchukaitis, K. J.; LeGrande, A. N.

2017-12-01

The Asian monsoon can be characterized in terms of both precipitation variability and atmospheric circulation across a range of spatial and temporal scales. While multicentury time series of tree-ring widths at hundreds of sites across Asia provide estimates of past rainfall, the oxygen isotope ratios of annual rings may reveal broader regional hydroclimate and atmosphere-ocean dynamics. Tree-ring oxygen isotope chronologies from Monsoon Asia have been interpreted to reflect a local 'amount effect', relative humidity, source water and seasonality, and winter snowfall. Here, we use an isotope-enabled general circulation model simulation from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) Model E and a proxy system model of the oxygen isotope composition of tree-ring cellulose to interpret the large-scale and local climate controls on δ 18O chronologies. Broad-scale dominant signals are associated with a suite of covarying hydroclimate variables including growing season rainfall amounts, relative humidity, and vapor pressure deficit. Temperature and source water influences are region-dependent, as are the simulated tree-ring isotope signals associated with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and large-scale indices of the Asian monsoon circulation. At some locations, including southern coastal Viet Nam, local precipitation isotope ratios and the resulting simulated δ 18O tree-ring chronologies reflect upstream rainfall amounts and atmospheric circulation associated with monsoon strength and wind anomalies.

Cloud radiative effects and changes simulated by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Sun-Hee; Kim, Ok-Yeon; Kim, Dongmin; Lee, Myong-In

2017-07-01

Using 32 CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) models, this study examines the veracity in the simulation of cloud amount and their radiative effects (CREs) in the historical run driven by observed external radiative forcing for 1850-2005, and their future changes in the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) 4.5 scenario runs for 2006-2100. Validation metrics for the historical run are designed to examine the accuracy in the representation of spatial patterns for climatological mean, and annual and interannual variations of clouds and CREs. The models show large spread in the simulation of cloud amounts, specifically in the low cloud amount. The observed relationship between cloud amount and the controlling large-scale environment are also reproduced diversely by various models. Based on the validation metrics, four models—ACCESS1.0, ACCESS1.3, HadGEM2-CC, and HadGEM2-ES—are selected as best models, and the average of the four models performs more skillfully than the multimodel ensemble average. All models project global-mean SST warming at the increase of the greenhouse gases, but the magnitude varies across the simulations between 1 and 2 K, which is largely attributable to the difference in the change of cloud amount and distribution. The models that simulate more SST warming show a greater increase in the net CRE due to reduced low cloud and increased incoming shortwave radiation, particularly over the regions of marine boundary layer in the subtropics. Selected best-performing models project a significant reduction in global-mean cloud amount of about -0.99% K-1 and net radiative warming of 0.46 W m-2 K-1, suggesting a role of positive feedback to global warming.

Coal mine bumps as related to geologic features in the northern part of the Sunnyside District, Carbon County, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Osterwald, Frank W.; Dunrud, C. Richard; Collins, Donley S.

1993-01-01

Coal mine bumps, which are violent, spontaneous, and often catastrophic disruptions of coal and rock, were common in the Sunnyside coal mining district, Utah, before the introduction of protective-engineering methods, modern room-and-pillar retreat mining with continuous mining machines, and particularly modern longwall mining. The coal at Sunnyside, when stressed during mining, fails continuously with many popping, snapping, and banging noises. Although most of the bumps are beneficial because they make mining easier, many of the large ones are dangerous and in the past caused injuries and fatalities, particularly with room- and-pillar mining methods used in the early mining operations. Geologic mapping of underground mine openings revealed many types of deformational features, some pre-mine and some post-mine in age. Stresses resulting from mining are concentrated near the mine openings; if openings are driven at large angles to small pre-mine deformational features, particularly shatter zones in coal, abnormal stress buildups may occur and violent bumps may result. Other geologic features, such as ripple marks, oriented sand grains, intertongued rock contacts, trace fossils, and load casts, also influence the occurrence of bumps by impeding slip of coal and rocks along bedding planes. The stress field in the coal also varies markedly because of the rough ridge and canyon topography. These features may allow excessively large stress components to accumulate. At many places, the stresses that contribute to deformation and failures of mine openings are oriented horizontally. The stratigraphy of the rocks immediately above and below the mined coal bed strongly influences the deformation of the mine openings in response to stress accumulations. Triaxial compressive testing of coal from the Sunnyside No.1 and No.3 Mines indicates that the strength of the coal increases several times as the confining (lateral) stress is increased. Strengths of cores cut from single large blocks of coal vary widely. Although the strengths of coal cores increase slowly at high levels of confining stress, the coal in Sunnyside No. 1 Mine is slightly stronger in laboratory tests than coal in Sunnyside No.3 Mine. The coal in No.1 Mine probably can store larger amounts of stress than coal in the No.3 Mine, which may account for the apparently greater number of violent bumps in No.1 Mine. The strength of coal, and its ability to store stress before failure, may correlate in part with chemical composition, particularly with the amounts of benzene ring compounds in vitrain; coal with relatively large amounts of benzene ring compounds is stronger than coal with lesser amounts of these compounds. Alternatively, the chemical composition of coal may affect its response to stress. Increasing contents of kaolinite in coal appear to reduce its compressive strength at low confining stresses, resulting in easy failures of pillars and ribs in mine openings. Applications of the geologic factors outlined in this report, carefully coupled with advanced modern engineering methods, have markedly reduced the hazards from coal mine bumps and related failures of mine openings at Sunnyside. Similar studies probably could aid in reducing bump-related hazards in other coal mining areas.

Sodium metasomatism along the Melones fault zone, Sierra Nevada foothills, California, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Albino, G.V.

1995-01-01

Albitite, locally aegirine- and riebeckite-bearing, formed as a result of sodium metasomatism of felsic dykes and argillites along the Melones Fault Zone near Jamestown, California. Pyrite, magnetite, hematite and titanite are common in small amounts in altered dykes. The dykes were originally plagioclase-hornblende porphyritic, and had major and trace element abundances typical of calc-alkaline rocks, whereas they now have Na2O contents as high as 11.40%. Mass balance calculations indicate that alteration involved addition of large amounts of sodium, and the removal of SiO2 and K2O. Textural preservation, combined with volume factors calculated from specific gravity and whole rock analytical data, indicate that Na-metasomatism was essentially isovolumetric. -from Author

Aptamer functionalized magnetic nanoparticles for effective extraction of ultratrace amounts of aflatoxin M1 prior its determination by HPLC.

PubMed

Khodadadi, Mohammad; Malekpour, Akbar; Mehrgardi, Masoud A

2018-06-09

Aptamers, due to the inherently high selectivity towards target analytes, are promising candidate for surface modification of the nanoparticles. Therefore, aptamer-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (AMNPs) was prepared and used to develop a magnetic solid-phase extraction procedure for clean-up of milk and dairy products samples before measuring the aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contents by the high-performance liquid chromatography. The prepared sorbent was characterized by different instrumental methods such as FT-IR, FESEM, TEM, EDX and AGFM. The AMNPs was used in extraction and pre-concentration of ultratrace amounts AFM1 from local milk samples. The amount of sorbent, elution volume, extraction time, and salt addition were optimized. Based on the results, calibration plot is linear over the 0.3 to 1 ng·L -1 and 5 to 50 ng·L -1 AFM1 concentration ranges. The limits of detection of the developed method were obtained 0.2 ng·L -1 which is the smallest value that has been reported up to now. The results show that this new superior sorbent has a large potential to simplify the complex matrix of the samples and can used for detection, preconcentration and accurate determination of ultratrace amounts of the AFM1 from milk and dairy products. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When Less is More: Like Humans, Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Misperceive Food Amounts Based on Plate Size

PubMed Central

Parrish, Audrey E.; Beran, Michael J.

2013-01-01

We investigated whether chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) misperceived food portion sizes depending upon the context in which they were presented, something that often affects how much humans serve themselves and subsequently consume. Chimpanzees judged same-sized and smaller food portions to be larger in amount when presented on a small plate compared to an equal or larger food portion presented on a large plate, and did so despite clearly being able to tell the difference in portions when plate size was identical. These results are consistent with data from the human literature in which people misperceive food portion sizes as a function of plate size. This misperception is attributed to the Delboeuf illusion which occurs when the size of a central item is misperceived on the basis of its surrounding context. These results demonstrate a cross-species shared visual misperception of portion size that affects choice behavior, here in a nonhuman species for which there is little experience with tests that involve choosing between food amounts on dinnerware. The biases resulting in this form of misperception of food portions appear to have a deep-rooted evolutionary history which we share with, at minimum, our closest living nonhuman relative, the chimpanzee. PMID:23949698

A multi-landing pad DNA integration platform for mammalian cell engineering

PubMed Central

Gaidukov, Leonid; Wroblewska, Liliana; Teague, Brian; Nelson, Tom; Zhang, Xin; Liu, Yan; Jagtap, Kalpana; Mamo, Selamawit; Tseng, Wen Allen; Lowe, Alexis; Das, Jishnu; Bandara, Kalpanie; Baijuraj, Swetha; Summers, Nevin M; Zhang, Lin; Weiss, Ron

2018-01-01

Abstract Engineering mammalian cell lines that stably express many transgenes requires the precise insertion of large amounts of heterologous DNA into well-characterized genomic loci, but current methods are limited. To facilitate reliable large-scale engineering of CHO cells, we identified 21 novel genomic sites that supported stable long-term expression of transgenes, and then constructed cell lines containing one, two or three ‘landing pad’ recombination sites at selected loci. By using a highly efficient BxB1 recombinase along with different selection markers at each site, we directed recombinase-mediated insertion of heterologous DNA to selected sites, including targeting all three with a single transfection. We used this method to controllably integrate up to nine copies of a monoclonal antibody, representing about 100 kb of heterologous DNA in 21 transcriptional units. Because the integration was targeted to pre-validated loci, recombinant protein expression remained stable for weeks and additional copies of the antibody cassette in the integrated payload resulted in a linear increase in antibody expression. Overall, this multi-copy site-specific integration platform allows for controllable and reproducible insertion of large amounts of DNA into stable genomic sites, which has broad applications for mammalian synthetic biology, recombinant protein production and biomanufacturing. PMID:29617873

Novel Bioreactor Platform for Scalable Cardiomyogenic Differentiation from Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Embryoid Bodies.

PubMed

Rungarunlert, Sasitorn; Ferreira, Joao N; Dinnyes, Andras

2016-01-01

Generation of cardiomyocytes from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) is a common and valuable approach to produce large amount of cells for various applications, including assays and models for drug development, cell-based therapies, and tissue engineering. All these applications would benefit from a reliable bioreactor-based methodology to consistently generate homogenous PSC-derived embryoid bodies (EBs) at a large scale, which can further undergo cardiomyogenic differentiation. The goal of this chapter is to describe a scalable method to consistently generate large amount of homogeneous and synchronized EBs from PSCs. This method utilizes a slow-turning lateral vessel bioreactor to direct the EB formation and their subsequent cardiomyogenic lineage differentiation.

Hydrocyclone/Filter for Concentrating Biomarkers from Soil

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ponce, Adrian; Obenhuber, Donald

2008-01-01

The hydrocyclone-filtration extractor (HFE), now undergoing development, is a simple, robust apparatus for processing large amounts of soil to extract trace amounts of microorganisms, soluble organic compounds, and other biomarkers from soil and to concentrate the extracts in amounts sufficient to enable such traditional assays as cell culturing, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, and isotope analysis. Originally intended for incorporation into a suite of instruments for detecting signs of life on Mars, the HFE could also be used on Earth for similar purposes, including detecting trace amounts of biomarkers or chemical wastes in soils.

Retrofitting the suburbs to increase walking: evidence from a land-use-travel study.

PubMed

Boarnet, Marlon G; Joh, Kenneth; Siembab, Walter; Fulton, William; Nguyen, Mai Thi

2011-01-01

This paper reports results from a detailed travel diary survey of 2125 residents in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County - a mature, auto-oriented suburban region. Study areas were divided into four centres, typical of compact development or smart growth, and four linear, auto-oriented corridors. Results show substantial variation in the amount of walking across study areas. Trips are shorter and more likely to be via walking in centres. A key to the centres' increased walking travel is the concentration of local shopping and service destinations in a commercial core. Yet the amount of business concentration that is associated with highly pedestrian-oriented neighbourhoods is from three to four times as large as what can be supported by the local resident base, suggesting that pedestrian-oriented neighbourhoods necessarily import shopping trips, and hence driving trips, from larger surrounding catchment areas. The results suggest both land use and mobility strategies that can be appropriate for suburban regions.

High fragility of the soil organic C pools in mangrove forests.

PubMed

Otero, X L; Méndez, A; Nóbrega, G N; Ferreira, T O; Santiso-Taboada, M J; Meléndez, W; Macías, F

2017-06-15

Mangrove forests play an important role in biogeochemical cycle of C, storing large amounts of organic carbon. However, these functions can be controlled by the high spatial heterogeneity of these intertidal environments. In this study were performed an intensive sampling characterizing mangrove soils under different type of vegetation (Rhizophora/Avicennia/dead mangrove) in the Venezuelan coast. The soils were anoxic, with a pH~7; however other soil parameters varied widely (e.g., clay, organic carbon). Dead mangrove area showed a significant lower amounts of total organic carbon (TOC) (6.8±2.2%), in comparison to the well-preserved mangrove of Avicennia or Rhizophora (TOC=17-20%). Our results indicate that 56% of the TOC was lost within a period of 10years and we estimate that 11,219kgm -2 of CO 2 was emitted as a result of the mangrove death. These results represent an average emission rate of 11.2±19.17tCO 2 ha -1 y -1 . Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bubble accumulation and its role in the evolution of magma reservoirs in the upper crust.

PubMed

Parmigiani, A; Faroughi, S; Huber, C; Bachmann, O; Su, Y

2016-04-28

Volcanic eruptions transfer huge amounts of gas to the atmosphere. In particular, the sulfur released during large silicic explosive eruptions can induce global cooling. A fundamental goal in volcanology, therefore, is to assess the potential for eruption of the large volumes of crystal-poor, silicic magma that are stored at shallow depths in the crust, and to obtain theoretical bounds for the amount of volatiles that can be released during these eruptions. It is puzzling that highly evolved, crystal-poor silicic magmas are more likely to generate volcanic rocks than plutonic rocks. This observation suggests that such magmas are more prone to erupting than are their crystal-rich counterparts. Moreover, well studied examples of largely crystal-poor eruptions (for example, Katmai, Taupo and Minoan) often exhibit a release of sulfur that is 10 to 20 times higher than the amount of sulfur estimated to be stored in the melt. Here we argue that these two observations rest on how the magmatic volatile phase (MVP) behaves as it rises buoyantly in zoned magma reservoirs. By investigating the fluid dynamics that controls the transport of the MVP in crystal-rich and crystal-poor magmas, we show how the interplay between capillary stresses and the viscosity contrast between the MVP and the host melt results in a counterintuitive dynamics, whereby the MVP tends to migrate efficiently in crystal-rich parts of a magma reservoir and accumulate in crystal-poor regions. The accumulation of low-density bubbles of MVP in crystal-poor magmas has implications for the eruptive potential of such magmas, and is the likely source of the excess sulfur released during explosive eruptions.

An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption

PubMed Central

Oonincx, Dennis G. A. B.; van Itterbeeck, Joost; Heetkamp, Marcel J. W.; van den Brand, Henry; van Loon, Joop J. A.; van Huis, Arnold

2010-01-01

Background Greenhouse gas (GHG) production, as a cause of climate change, is considered as one of the biggest problems society is currently facing. The livestock sector is one of the large contributors of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Also, large amounts of ammonia (NH3), leading to soil nitrification and acidification, are produced by livestock. Therefore other sources of animal protein, like edible insects, are currently being considered. Methodology/Principal Findings An experiment was conducted to quantify production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and average daily gain (ADG) as a measure of feed conversion efficiency, and to quantify the production of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) as well as NH3 by five insect species of which the first three are considered edible: Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domesticus, Locusta migratoria, Pachnoda marginata, and Blaptica dubia. Large differences were found among the species regarding their production of CO2 and GHGs. The insects in this study had a higher relative growth rate and emitted comparable or lower amounts of GHG than described in literature for pigs and much lower amounts of GHG than cattle. The same was true for CO2 production per kg of metabolic weight and per kg of mass gain. Furthermore, also the production of NH3 by insects was lower than for conventional livestock. Conclusions/Significance This study therefore indicates that insects could serve as a more environmentally friendly alternative for the production of animal protein with respect to GHG and NH3 emissions. The results of this study can be used as basic information to compare the production of insects with conventional livestock by means of a life cycle analysis. PMID:21206900

Branching habit and the allocation of reproductive resources in conifers

PubMed Central

Leslie, Andrew B.

2012-01-01

Background and Aims Correlated relationships between branch thickness, branch density, and twig and leaf size have been used extensively to study the evolution of plant canopy architecture, but fewer studies have explored the impact of these relationships on the allocation of reproductive resources. This study quantifies pollen cone production in conifers, which have similar basic reproductive biology but vary dramatically in branching habit, in order to test how differences in branch diameter influence pollen cone size and the density with which they are deployed in the canopy. Methods Measurements of canopy branch density, the number of cones per branch and cone size were used to estimate the amount of pollen cone tissues produced by 16 species in three major conifer clades. The number of pollen grains produced was also estimated using direct counts from individual pollen cones. Key Results The total amount of pollen cone tissues in the conifer canopy varied little among species and clades, although vegetative traits such as branch thickness, branch density and pollen cone size varied over several orders of magnitude. However, branching habit controls the way these tissues are deployed: taxa with small branches produce small pollen cones at a high density, while taxa with large branches produce large cones relatively sparsely. Conclusions Conifers appear to invest similar amounts of energy in pollen production independent of branching habit. However, similar associations between branch thickness, branch density and pollen cone size are seen across conifers, including members of living and extinct groups not directly studied here. This suggests that reproductive features relating to pollen cone size are in large part a function of the evolution of vegetative morphology and branching habit. PMID:22782240

Saving Salmon Through Advances in Fluvial Remote Sensing: Applying the Optimal Band Ratio Analysis (OBRA) for Bathymetric Mapping of Over 250 km of River Channel and Habitat Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richardson, R.; Legleiter, C. J.; Harrison, L.

2015-12-01

Salmonids are threatened with extinction across the world from the fragmentation of riverine ecosystems from dams and diversions. In California, efforts to expand the range of spawnable habitat for native salmon by transporting fish around reservoirs is a potentially species saving idea. But, strong scientific evidence of the amount of high quality habitat is required to make these difficult management decisions. Remote sensing has long been used in fluvial settings to identify physical parameters that drive the quality of aquatic habitat; however, the true strength of remote sensing to cover large spatial extents has not been applied with the resolution that is relevant to salmonids. This project utilizes hyperspectral data of over 250 km of the Tuolumne and Merced Rivers to extract depth and bed slope from the wetted channel and NIR LiDAR for the surrounding topography. The Optimal Band Ratio Analysis (OBRA) has proven as an effective tool to create bathymetric maps of river channels in ideal settings with clear water, high amounts of bottom reflectance, and less than 3 meters deep over short distances. Results from this study show that OBRA can be applied over larger riverscapes at high resolutions (0.5 m). The depth and bed slope estimations are used to classify habitat units that are crucial to quantifying the quality and amount of habitat in these river that once produced large populations of native salmonids. As more managers look to expand habitat for these threatened species the tools developed here will be cost effective over the large extents that salmon migrate to spawn.

An exploration on greenhouse gas and ammonia production by insect species suitable for animal or human consumption.

PubMed

Oonincx, Dennis G A B; van Itterbeeck, Joost; Heetkamp, Marcel J W; van den Brand, Henry; van Loon, Joop J A; van Huis, Arnold

2010-12-29

Greenhouse gas (GHG) production, as a cause of climate change, is considered as one of the biggest problems society is currently facing. The livestock sector is one of the large contributors of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Also, large amounts of ammonia (NH(3)), leading to soil nitrification and acidification, are produced by livestock. Therefore other sources of animal protein, like edible insects, are currently being considered. An experiment was conducted to quantify production of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and average daily gain (ADG) as a measure of feed conversion efficiency, and to quantify the production of the greenhouse gases methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) as well as NH₃ by five insect species of which the first three are considered edible: Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domesticus, Locusta migratoria, Pachnoda marginata, and Blaptica dubia. Large differences were found among the species regarding their production of CO₂ and GHGs. The insects in this study had a higher relative growth rate and emitted comparable or lower amounts of GHG than described in literature for pigs and much lower amounts of GHG than cattle. The same was true for CO₂ production per kg of metabolic weight and per kg of mass gain. Furthermore, also the production of NH₃ by insects was lower than for conventional livestock. This study therefore indicates that insects could serve as a more environmentally friendly alternative for the production of animal protein with respect to GHG and NH₃ emissions. The results of this study can be used as basic information to compare the production of insects with conventional livestock by means of a life cycle analysis.

Environmental status of livestock and poultry sectors in China under current transformation stage.

PubMed

Qian, Yi; Song, Kaihui; Hu, Tao; Ying, Tianyu

2018-05-01

Intensive animal husbandry had aroused great environmental concerns in many developed countries. However, some developing countries are still undergoing the environmental pollution from livestock and poultry sectors. Driven by the large demand, China has experienced a remarkable increase in dairy and meat production, especially in the transformation stage from conventional household breeding to large-scale industrial breeding. At the same time, a large amount of manure from the livestock and poultry sector is released into waterbodies and soil, causing eutrophication and soil degradation. This condition will be reinforced in the large-scale cultivation where the amount of manure exceeds the soil nutrient capacity, if not treated or utilized properly. Our research aims to analyze whether the transformation of raising scale would be beneficial to the environment as well as present the latest status of livestock and poultry sectors in China. The estimation of the pollutants generated and discharged from livestock and poultry sector in China will facilitate the legislation of manure management. This paper analyzes the pollutants generated from the manure of the five principal commercial animals in different farming practices. The results show that the fattening pigs contribute almost half of the pollutants released from manure. Moreover, the beef cattle exert the largest environmental impact for unitary production, about 2-3 times of pork and 5-20 times of chicken. The animals raised with large-scale feedlots practice generate fewer pollutants than those raised in households. The shift towards industrial production of livestock and poultry is easier to manage from the environmental perspective, but adequate large-scale cultivation is encouraged. Regulation control, manure treatment and financial subsidies for the manure treatment and utilization are recommended to achieve the ecological agriculture in China. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Infrequent (Quasi-Decadal) Large Groundwater Recharge Events: A Case Study for Northern Utah, United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masbruch, M.; Rumsey, C.; Gangopadhyay, S.; Susong, D.; Pruitt, T.

2015-12-01

There has been a considerable amount of research linking climatic variability to hydrologic responses in arid and semi-arid regions such as the western United States. Although much effort has been spent to assess and predict changes in surface-water resources, little has been done to understand how climatic events and changes affect groundwater resources. This study focuses on quantifying the effects of large quasi-decadal groundwater recharge events on groundwater in the northern Utah portion of the Great Basin for the period 1960 to 2013. Groundwater-level monitoring data were analyzed with climatic data to characterize climatic conditions and frequency of these large recharge events. Using observed water-level changes and multivariate analysis, five large groundwater recharge events were identified within the study area and period, with a frequency of about 11 to 13 years. These events were generally characterized as having above-average annual precipitation and snow water equivalent and below-average seasonal temperatures, especially during the spring (April through June). Existing groundwater flow models for several basins within the study area were used to quantify changes in groundwater storage from these events. Simulated groundwater storage increases per basin from a single event ranged from about 115 Mm3 (93,000 acre-feet) to 205 Mm3 (166,000 acre-ft). Extrapolating these amounts over the entire northern Great Basin indicates that even a single large quasi-decadal recharge event could result in billions of cubic meters (millions of acre-feet) of groundwater recharge. Understanding the role of these large quasi-decadal recharge events in replenishing aquifers and sustaining water supplies is crucial for making informed water management decisions.

Source-Receptor Relationship Analysis of the Atmospheric Deposition of PAHs Subject to Long-Range Transport in Northeast Asia.

PubMed

Inomata, Yayoi; Kajino, Mizuo; Sato, Keiichi; Kurokawa, Junichi; Tang, Ning; Ohara, Toshimasa; Hayakawa, Kazuichi; Ueda, Hiromasa

2017-07-18

The source-receptor relationship analysis of PAH deposition in Northeast Asia was investigated using an Eulerian regional-scale aerosol chemical transport model. Dry deposition (DD) of PAH was controlled by wind flow patterns, whereas wet deposition (WD) depended on precipitation in addition to wind flow patterns. The contribution of WD was approximately 50-90% of the total deposition, except during winter in Northern China (NCHN) and Eastern Russia (ERUS) because of the low amount of precipitation. The amount of PAH deposition showed clear seasonal variation and was high in winter and low in summer in downwind (South Korea, Japan) and oceanic-receptor regions. In the downwind region, the contributions from NCHN (WD 28-52%; DD 54-55%) and Central China (CCHN) (WD 43-65%; DD 33-38%) were large in winter, whereas self-contributions (WD 20-51%; DD 79-81%) were relatively high in summer. In the oceanic-receptor region, the deposition amount decreased with distance from the Asian continent. The amount of DD was strongly influenced by emissions from neighboring domains. The contributions of WD from NCHN (16-20%) and CCHN (28-35%) were large. The large contributions from China in summer to the downwind region were linked to vertical transport of PAHs over the Asian continent associated with convection.

Highly Sensitive GMO Detection Using Real-Time PCR with a Large Amount of DNA Template: Single-Laboratory Validation.

PubMed

Mano, Junichi; Hatano, Shuko; Nagatomi, Yasuaki; Futo, Satoshi; Takabatake, Reona; Kitta, Kazumi

2018-03-01

Current genetically modified organism (GMO) detection methods allow for sensitive detection. However, a further increase in sensitivity will enable more efficient testing for large grain samples and reliable testing for processed foods. In this study, we investigated real-time PCR-based GMO detection methods using a large amount of DNA template. We selected target sequences that are commonly introduced into many kinds of GM crops, i.e., 35S promoter and nopaline synthase (NOS) terminator. This makes the newly developed method applicable to a wide range of GMOs, including some unauthorized ones. The estimated LOD of the new method was 0.005% of GM maize events; to the best of our knowledge, this method is the most sensitive among the GM maize detection methods for which the LOD was evaluated in terms of GMO content. A 10-fold increase in the DNA amount as compared with the amount used under common testing conditions gave an approximately 10-fold reduction in the LOD without PCR inhibition. Our method is applicable to various analytical samples, including processed foods. The use of other primers and fluorescence probes would permit highly sensitive detection of various recombinant DNA sequences besides the 35S promoter and NOS terminator.

Dynamic travel information personalized and delivered to your cell phone : addendum.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-03-01

Real-time travel information must reach a significant amount of travelers to create a large amount of travel behavior change. For this project, since the TRAC-IT mobile phone application is used to monitor user context in terms of location, the mobil...

New insights into liquid chromatography for more eco-friendly analysis of pharmaceuticals.

PubMed

Shaaban, Heba

2016-10-01

Greening the analytical methods used for analysis of pharmaceuticals has been receiving great interest aimed at eliminating or minimizing the amount of organic solvents consumed daily worldwide without loss in chromatographic performance. Traditional analytical LC techniques employed in pharmaceutical analysis consume tremendous amounts of hazardous solvents and consequently generate large amounts of waste. The monetary and ecological impact of using large amounts of solvents and waste disposal motivated the analytical community to search for alternatives to replace polluting analytical methodologies with clean ones. In this context, implementing the principles of green analytical chemistry (GAC) in analytical laboratories is highly desired. This review gives a comprehensive overview on different green LC pathways for implementing GAC principles in analytical laboratories and focuses on evaluating the greenness of LC analytical procedures. This review presents green LC approaches for eco-friendly analysis of pharmaceuticals in industrial, biological, and environmental matrices. Graphical Abstract Green pathways of liquid chromatography for more eco-friendly analysis of pharmaceuticals.

Does Morphological Adjustment During Tsunami Inundation Increase Levels of Hazard?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tehranirad, B.; Kirby, J. T., Jr.; Shi, F.; Grilli, S. T.

2016-12-01

Previous inundation mapping results for the US East Coast have shown that barrier islands would be among the most impacted areas during a possible tsunami. Many of these barriers are home to large population centers such as Atlantic City, NJ and Ocean City, MD. A tsunami can significantly change coastal morphology. Post-tsunami surveys have shown that large amounts of sediment can be moved in bays and estuaries by tsunami action, especially over coastal dunes. During tsunami inundation, large amounts of sediment have been eroded from sandy coasts and deposited further onshore. In some cases, sand dunes have been completely eroded by a tsunami, with the eroded sediment being deposited either onshore behind the dunes, or offshore during the rundown process. Given the potential for tsunamis to change coastal morphology, it is necessary to consider whether barrier island morphology change during inundation, if accounted for, would increase the assessment of tsunami hazard identified in the development of inundation and evacuation maps. In this presentation, we will show the results of our recent study on the morphological response of barrier islands during possible tsunamis that threaten the US East Coast. For this purpose, we have coupled the Boussinesq model FUNWAVE-TVD with a depth-averaged advection-diffusion sediment transport model and a morphology module to capture bed evolution under tsunami conditions. The model is verified in comparison to laboratory observations and to observed erosion/deposition patterns in Crescent City, CA harbor during the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami. We then use the model to study the effect of morphology change on predicted inundation limits for two barrier islands: the undeveloped Assateague Island, and the developed Ocean City, MD, using the tsunami sources utilized in previous hazard analysis. Our results suggest that significant bathymetric changes could be expected on a barrier island during tsunami inundation, leading to large increases in inundation areas for some of the events, particularly for smaller events where inundation without progressive dune breaching is minor.

Reanalysis of 24 Nearby Open Clusters using Gaia data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yen, Steffi X.; Reffert, Sabine; Röser, Siegfried; Schilbach, Elena; Kharchenko, Nina V.; Piskunov, Anatoly E.

2018-04-01

We have developed a fully automated cluster characterization pipeline, which simultaneously determines cluster membership and fits the fundamental cluster parameters: distance, reddening, and age. We present results for 24 established clusters and compare them to literature values. Given the large amount of stellar data for clusters available from Gaia DR2 in 2018, this pipeline will be beneficial to analyzing the parameters of open clusters in our Galaxy.

Missile Aerodynamics (Aerodynamique des Missiles)

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-11-01

Magnus effect. effects on a spinning finned cylindrical body. Despite the large As noted above, the source, magnitude and even the direction amount of...axis, and to circular- cylindrical bodies in combination with determine directly the pressures acting on the body. triangular, rectangular, or...pressure drop in smooth cylindrical codes, as well as for testing and checking CFD-based tubes", NACA ARR L4C16, 1944. results. 6. Nielsen, J. N. and

Fiber Ring Interferometer Noise Study.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-01-31

data was obtained by a frame-by-frame analysis of the oscilloscope tracing " movies " obtained by changing the twist angle in 50 increments, from about...North Quincy Street Arlington, Virginia 22217 . Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited LC (..; TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION 1...sequence of photographs of the oscilloscope, each corres- ponding to a different twist angle. The resultant " movie " presents a large amount of data in a

Observed antiprotons and energy dependent confinement of cosmic rays: A conflict?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephens, S. A.

1985-01-01

In the frame work of energy dependent confinement for cosmic rays, the energy spectrum inside the source is flatter than that observed. Antiproton observation suggests large amount of matter is being traversed by cosmic rays in some sources. As a result, secondary particles are produced in abundance. Their spectra was calculated and it is shown that the energy dependent confinement model is in conflict with some observations.

The effect of mechanical fuel reduction treatments in the wildland-urban interface on the amount and distribution of bark beetle-caused tree mortality

Treesearch

Christopher J. Fettig; Joel D. McMillin; John A. Anhold; Shakeeb M. Hamud; Robert R. Borys; Steven J. Seybold

2007-01-01

Selective logging, fire suppression, forest succession, and climatic changes have resulted in high fire hazards over large areas of the western USA. Federal and state hazardous fuel reduction programs have increased accordingly to reduce the risk, extent and severity of these events, particularly in the wildland urban interface. In this study, we examined the effect of...

An Exploratory Study of the United States Naval Academy Engineering Curriculum

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

research was conducted in an entirely quantitative fashion. There is a large amount of qualitative data that was not analyzed. These data are from the... qualitative assessment of the Naval Academy’s engineering program, and would be an excellent opportunity for future research . Overall, the results of...California: Sage Publications. Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. California: Sage Publications. 89

Measurement of HO2 and other trace gases in the stratosphere using a high resolution far-infrared spectrometer at 28 KM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Traub, Wesley A.; Chance, Kelly V.

1988-01-01

The major events and results to date of the ongoing program of measuring stratospheric composition by the technique of far-infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy from a balloon-borne platform are reviewed. The highlights of this period were the two balloon flight campaigns which were performed at Palestine, Texas, both of which produced large amounts of scientifically useful data.

Transparency of an instantaneously created electron-positron-photon plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bégué, D.; Vereshchagin, G. V.

2014-03-01

The problem of the expansion of a relativistic plasma generated when a large amount of energy is released in a small volume has been considered by many authors. We use the analytical solution of Bisnovatyi-Kogan and Murzina for the spherically symmetric relativistic expansion. The light curves and the spectra from transparency of an electron-positron-photon plasma are obtained. We compare our results with the work of Goodman.

Distributed Matrix Completion: Application to Cooperative Positioning in Noisy Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-11

positioning, and a gossip version of low-rank approximation were developed. A convex relaxation for positioning in the presence of noise was shown to...of a large data matrix through gossip algorithms. A new algorithm is proposed that amounts to iteratively multiplying a vector by independent random...sparsification of the original matrix and averaging the resulting normalized vectors. This can be viewed as a generalization of gossip algorithms for

CONDIF - A modified central-difference scheme for convective flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Runchal, Akshai K.

1987-01-01

The paper presents a method, called CONDIF, which modifies the CDS (central-difference scheme) by introducing a controlled amount of numerical diffusion based on the local gradients. The numerical diffusion can be adjusted to be negligibly low for most problems. CONDIF results are significantly more accurate than those obtained from the hybrid scheme when the Peclet number is very high and the flow is at large angles to the grid.

Ruby lidar observations and trajectory analysis of stratospheric aerosols injected by the volcanic eruptions of El Chichon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uchino, O.; Tabata, T.; Akita, I.; Okada, Y.; Naito, K.

1985-01-01

Large amounts of aerosol particles and gases were injected into the lower stratosphere by the violet volcanic eruptions of El Chichon on March 28, and April 3 and 4, 1982. Observational results obtained by a ruby lidar at Tsukuba (36.1 deg N, 140.1 deg E) are shown, and some points of latitude dispersion processes of aerosols are discussed.

A tool for optimization of the production and user analysis on the Grid, C. Grigoras for the ALICE Collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grigoras, Costin; Carminati, Federico; Vladimirovna Datskova, Olga; Schreiner, Steffen; Lee, Sehoon; Zhu, Jianlin; Gheata, Mihaela; Gheata, Andrei; Saiz, Pablo; Betev, Latchezar; Furano, Fabrizio; Mendez Lorenzo, Patricia; Grigoras, Alina Gabriela; Bagnasco, Stefano; Peters, Andreas Joachim; Saiz Santos, Maria Dolores

2011-12-01

With the LHC and ALICE entering a full operation and production modes, the amount of Simulation and RAW data processing and end user analysis computational tasks are increasing. The efficient management of all these tasks, all of which have large differences in lifecycle, amounts of processed data and methods to analyze the end result, required the development and deployment of new tools in addition to the already existing Grid infrastructure. To facilitate the management of the large scale simulation and raw data reconstruction tasks, ALICE has developed a production framework called a Lightweight Production Manager (LPM). The LPM is automatically submitting jobs to the Grid based on triggers and conditions, for example after a physics run completion. It follows the evolution of the job and publishes the results on the web for worldwide access by the ALICE physicists. This framework is tightly integrated with the ALICE Grid framework AliEn. In addition to the publication of the job status, LPM is also allowing a fully authenticated interface to the AliEn Grid catalogue, to browse and download files, and in the near future will provide simple types of data analysis through ROOT plugins. The framework is also being extended to allow management of end user jobs.

View the label before you view the movie: A field experiment into the impact of Portion size and Guideline Daily Amounts labelling on soft drinks in cinemas

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Large soft drink sizes increase consumption, and thereby contribute to obesity. Portion size labelling may help consumers to select more appropriate food portions. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of portion size and caloric Guidelines for Daily Amounts (GDA) labelling on consumers' portion size choices and consumption of regular soft drinks. Methods A field experiment that took place on two subsequent evenings in a Dutch cinema. Participants (n = 101) were asked to select one of five different portion sizes of a soft drink. Consumers were provided with either portion size and caloric GDA labelling (experimental condition) or with millilitre information (control condition). Results Labelling neither stimulated participants to choose small portion sizes (OR = .75, p = .61, CI: .25 - 2.25), nor did labelling dissuade participants to choose large portion sizes (OR = .51, p = .36, CI: .12 - 2.15). Conclusions Portion size and caloric GDA labelling were found to have no effect on soft drink intake. Further research among a larger group of participants combined with pricing strategies is required. The results of this study are relevant for the current public health debate on food labelling. PMID:21645373

Kinetics of methane hydrate replacement with carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas mixture using in situ NMR spectroscopy.

PubMed

Cha, Minjun; Shin, Kyuchul; Lee, Huen; Moudrakovski, Igor L; Ripmeester, John A; Seo, Yutaek

2015-02-03

In this study, the kinetics of methane replacement with carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas in methane gas hydrate prepared in porous silica gel matrices has been studied by in situ (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy. The replacement process was monitored by in situ (1)H NMR spectra, where about 42 mol % of the methane in the hydrate cages was replaced in 65 h. Large amounts of free water were not observed during the replacement process, indicating a spontaneous replacement reaction upon exposing methane hydrate to carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas mixture. From in situ (13)C NMR spectra, we confirmed that the replacement ratio was slightly higher in small cages, but due to the composition of structure I hydrate, the amount of methane evolved from the large cages was larger than that of the small cages. Compositional analysis of vapor and hydrate phases was also carried out after the replacement reaction ceased. Notably, the composition changes in hydrate phases after the replacement reaction would be affected by the difference in the chemical potential between the vapor phase and hydrate surface rather than a pore size effect. These results suggest that the replacement technique provides methane recovery as well as stabilization of the resulting carbon dioxide hydrate phase without melting.

Sulfur Dioxide and the Production of Sulfuric Acid on Present-Day and Early Mars: Implications for the Lack of Detected Carbonates on the Surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levine, Joel S.; Summers, Michael E.

2008-01-01

In the early history of Mars, volcanic activity associated with the formation of the Tharsis ridge produced a very large amount of atmospheric SO2--on the order of a bar of atmospheric SO2. In the present-day atmosphere of Mars, the lifetime of SO2 is relatively short with a lifetime of less than a day. The short lifetime of SO2 in the present Mars atmosphere makes the production of significant levels of H2SO4 very difficult since the SO2 may be destroyed by various chemical and photochemical processes before the SO2 can be converted to H2SO4. However, photochemical calculations performed and described here, indicate that enhanced atmospheric levels of CO2 in the early atmosphere of Mars resulted in a significantly enhanced atmospheric lifetime for SO2 up to several years. With a significantly enhanced atmospheric lifetime, SO2 could readily form large amounts of H2SO4, which precipitated out of the atmosphere in the form of droplets. The precipitated H2SO4 then reacted with potential surface carbonates, destroying the carbonates and resulting in the abundant and widespread distribution of sulfates on the surface of Mars as detected by recent Mars missions.

Bulk Thermoelectric Materials Reinforced with SiC Whiskers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akao, Takahiro; Fujiwara, Yuya; Tarui, Yuki; Onda, Tetsuhiko; Chen, Zhong-Chun

2014-06-01

SiC whiskers have been incorporated into Zn4Sb3 compound as reinforcements to overcome its extremely brittle nature. The bulk samples were prepared by either hot-extrusion or hot-pressing techniques. The obtained products containing 1 vol.% to 5 vol.% SiC whiskers were confirmed to exhibit sound appearance, high density, and fine-grained microstructure. Mechanical properties such as the hardness and fracture resistance were improved by the addition of SiC whiskers, as a result of dispersion strengthening and microstructural refinement induced by a pinning effect. Furthermore, crack deflection and/or bridging/pullout mechanisms are invoked by the whiskers. Regarding the thermoelectric properties, the Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity values comparable to those of the pure compound are retained over the entire range of added whisker amount. However, the thermal conductivity becomes large with increasing amount of SiC whiskers because of the much higher conductivity of SiC relative to the Zn4Sb3 matrix. This results in a remarkable degradation of the dimensionless figure of merit in the samples with addition of SiC whiskers. Therefore, the optimum amount of SiC whiskers in the Zn4Sb3 matrix should be determined by balancing the mechanical properties and thermoelectric performance.

Kazakhstan In situ BioTransformation of Mercury ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Our final international work on the biological decontamination of the mercury contamination of soils in the Northern outskirts of Pavlodar as a result of activity at the former PO “Khimprom” chemical plant is reported here. The plant produced chlorine and alkali from the 1970s into the 1990s using the electrolytic amalgam method entailing the use of massive amounts of mercury. Ground water became contaminated with Hg resulting in a plume 470 m wide, 1.9 km long, estimated to contain 2 million cubic meters of water. This plume could reach the River Irtysh, a source of drinking water for large cities in Kazakhstan and Russia. Significant amounts of mercuric compounds are deposited in the sediments of Lake Balkyldak, 1.5 km north of the factory. This lake occasionally received wastewater from the factory. Phase I of the PO “Kimprom” clean-up that isolated the major sources of mercury at the site was completed in 2004. However, significant amounts of mercury remain underground including groundwater contaminated with Hg in the form of HgCl2 with little to no elemental or methyl mercury (MeHg). Develop biotechnology strategies to mitigate mercury contamination in groundwater

Bounds on strain in large Tertiary shear zones of SE Asia from boudinage restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lacassin, R.; Leloup, P. H.; Tapponnier, P.

1993-06-01

We have used surface-balanced restoration of stretched, boudinaged layers to estimate minimum amounts of finite strain in the mylonitic gneisses of the Oligo-Miocene Red River-Ailao Shan shear zone (Yunnan, China) and of the Wang Chao shear zone (Thailand). The layer-parallel extension values thus obtained range between 250 and 870%. We discuss how to use such extension values to place bounds on amounts of finite shear strain in these large crustal shear zones. Assuming simple shear, these values imply minimum total and late shear strains of, respectively, 33 ± 6 and 7 ± 3 at several sites along the Red River-Ailao Shan shear zone. For the Wang Chao shear zone a minimum shear strain of 7 ± 4 is deduced. Assuming homogeneous shear would imply that minimum strike-slip displacements along these two left-lateral shear zones, which have been interpreted to result from the India-Asia collision, have been of the order of 330 ± 60 km (Red River-Ailao Shan) and 35 ± 20 km (Wang Chao).

SSBD: a database of quantitative data of spatiotemporal dynamics of biological phenomena

PubMed Central

Tohsato, Yukako; Ho, Kenneth H. L.; Kyoda, Koji; Onami, Shuichi

2016-01-01

Motivation: Rapid advances in live-cell imaging analysis and mathematical modeling have produced a large amount of quantitative data on spatiotemporal dynamics of biological objects ranging from molecules to organisms. There is now a crucial need to bring these large amounts of quantitative biological dynamics data together centrally in a coherent and systematic manner. This will facilitate the reuse of this data for further analysis. Results: We have developed the Systems Science of Biological Dynamics database (SSBD) to store and share quantitative biological dynamics data. SSBD currently provides 311 sets of quantitative data for single molecules, nuclei and whole organisms in a wide variety of model organisms from Escherichia coli to Mus musculus. The data are provided in Biological Dynamics Markup Language format and also through a REST API. In addition, SSBD provides 188 sets of time-lapse microscopy images from which the quantitative data were obtained and software tools for data visualization and analysis. Availability and Implementation: SSBD is accessible at http://ssbd.qbic.riken.jp. Contact: sonami@riken.jp PMID:27412095

Semantic orchestration of image processing services for environmental analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranisavljević, Élisabeth; Devin, Florent; Laffly, Dominique; Le Nir, Yannick

2013-09-01

In order to analyze environmental dynamics, a major process is the classification of the different phenomena of the site (e.g. ice and snow for a glacier). When using in situ pictures, this classification requires data pre-processing. Not all the pictures need the same sequence of processes depending on the disturbances. Until now, these sequences have been done manually, which restricts the processing of large amount of data. In this paper, we present how to realize a semantic orchestration to automate the sequencing for the analysis. It combines two advantages: solving the problem of the amount of processing, and diversifying the possibilities in the data processing. We define a BPEL description to express the sequences. This BPEL uses some web services to run the data processing. Each web service is semantically annotated using an ontology of image processing. The dynamic modification of the BPEL is done using SPARQL queries on these annotated web services. The results obtained by a prototype implementing this method validate the construction of the different workflows that can be applied to a large number of pictures.

High Reynolds Number Investigation of a Flush-Mounted, S-Duct Inlet With Large Amounts of Boundary Layer Ingestion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berrier, Bobby L.; Carter, Melissa B.; Allan, Brian G.

2005-01-01

An experimental investigation of a flush-mounted, S-duct inlet with large amounts of boundary layer ingestion has been conducted at Reynolds numbers up to full scale. The study was conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center 0.3-Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel. In addition, a supplemental computational study on one of the inlet configurations was conducted using the Navier-Stokes flow solver, OVERFLOW. Tests were conducted at Mach numbers from 0.25 to 0.83, Reynolds numbers (based on aerodynamic interface plane diameter) from 5.1 million to 13.9 million (full-scale value), and inlet mass-flow ratios from 0.29 to 1.22, depending on Mach number. Results of the study indicated that increasing Mach number, increasing boundary layer thickness (relative to inlet height) or ingesting a boundary layer with a distorted profile decreased inlet performance. At Mach numbers above 0.4, increasing inlet airflow increased inlet pressure recovery but also increased distortion. Finally, inlet distortion was found to be relatively insensitive to Reynolds number, but pressure recovery increased slightly with increasing Reynolds number.

Preparation of a novel hyperbranched carbosilane-silica hybrid coating for trace amount detection by solid phase microextraction/gas chromatography.

PubMed

Chen, Guowen; Li, Wenjie; Zhang, Chen; Zhou, Chuanjian; Feng, Shengyu

2012-09-21

Phenyl-ended hyperbranched carbosilane (HBC) is synthesized and immobilized onto the inner wall of a fused silica capillary column using a sol-gel process. The hybrid coating layer formed is used as a stationary phase for gas chromatography (GC) and as an adsorption medium for solid phase microextraction (SPME). Trifluoroacetic acid, as a catalyst in this process, helps produce a homogeneous hybrid coating layer. This result is beneficial for better column chromatographic performances, such as high efficiency and high resolution. Extraction tests using the novel hybrid layer show an extraordinarily large adsorption capacity and specific adsorption behavior for aromatic compounds. A 1 ppm trace level detectability is obtained with the SPME/GC work model when both of the stationary phase and adsorption layer bear a hyperbranched structure. A large amount of phenyl groups and a low viscosity of hyperbranched polymers contribute to these valuable properties, which are important to environment and safety control, wherein detection sensitivity and special adsorption behavior are usually required. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Program Analyzes Radar Altimeter Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vandemark, Doug; Hancock, David; Tran, Ngan

2004-01-01

A computer program has been written to perform several analyses of radar altimeter data. The program was designed to improve on previous methods of analysis of altimeter engineering data by (1) facilitating and accelerating the analysis of large amounts of data in a more direct manner and (2) improving the ability to estimate performance of radar-altimeter instrumentation and provide data corrections. The data in question are openly available to the international scientific community and can be downloaded from anonymous file-transfer- protocol (FTP) locations that are accessible via links from altimetry Web sites. The software estimates noise in range measurements, estimates corrections for electromagnetic bias, and performs statistical analyses on various parameters for comparison of different altimeters. Whereas prior techniques used to perform similar analyses of altimeter range noise require comparison of data from repetitions of satellite ground tracks, the present software uses a high-pass filtering technique to obtain similar results from single satellite passes. Elimination of the requirement for repeat-track analysis facilitates the analysis of large amounts of satellite data to assess subtle variations in range noise.

Regional patterns of pesticide concentrations in surface waters of New York in 1997

USGS Publications Warehouse

Phillips, P.J.; Eckhardt, D.A.; Freehafer, D.A.; Wall, G.R.; Ingleston, H.H.

2002-01-01

The predominant mixtures of pesticides found in New York surface waters consist of five principal components. First, herbicides commonly used on corn (atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor, cyanazine) and a herbicide degradate (deethylatrazine) were positively correlated to a corn-herbicide component, and watersheds with the highest corn-herbicide component scores were those in which large amounts of row crops are grown. Second, two insecticides (diazinon and carbaryl) and one herbicide (prometon) widely used in urban and residential settings were positively correlated to an urban/residential component. Watersheds with the highest urban/residential component scores were those with large amounts of urban and residential land use. A third component was related to two herbicides (EPTC and cyanazine) used on dry beans and corn, the fourth to an herbicide (simazine) and an insecticide (carbaryl) commonly used in orchards and vineyards, and the fifth to an herbicide (DCPA). Results of this study indicate that this approach can be used to: (1) identify common mixtures of pesticides in surface waters, (2) relate these mixtures to land use and pesticide applications, and (3) indicate regions where these mixtures of pesticides are commonly found.

Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model

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

Zhu, Jiang; Liu, Zhengyu; Brady, Esther C.

Variations in terrestrial oxygen-isotope reconstructions from ice cores and speleothems have been primarily attributed to climatic changes of surface air temperature, precipitation amount, or atmospheric circulation. In this work, we demonstrate with the fully coupled isotope-enabled Community Earth System Model an additional process contributing to the oxygen-isotope variations during glacial meltwater events. This process, termed “the direct meltwater effect,” involves propagating large amounts of isotopically depleted meltwater throughout the hydrological cycle and is independent of climatic changes. We find that the direct meltwater effect can make up 15–35% of the δ 18O signals in precipitation over Greenland and eastern Brazilmore » for large freshwater forcings (0.25–0.50 sverdrup (10 6 m 3/s)). Model simulations further demonstrate that the direct meltwater effect increases with the magnitude and duration of the freshwater forcing and is sensitive to both the location and shape of the meltwater. These new modeling results have important implications for past climate interpretations of δ 18O.« less

STEPP--Search Tool for Exploration of Petri net Paths: a new tool for Petri net-based path analysis in biochemical networks.

PubMed

Koch, Ina; Schueler, Markus; Heiner, Monika

2005-01-01

To understand biochemical processes caused by, e. g., mutations or deletions in the genome, the knowledge of possible alternative paths between two arbitrary chemical compounds is of increasing interest for biotechnology, pharmacology, medicine, and drug design. With the steadily increasing amount of data from high-throughput experiments new biochemical networks can be constructed and existing ones can be extended, which results in many large metabolic, signal transduction, and gene regulatory networks. The search for alternative paths within these complex and large networks can provide a huge amount of solutions, which can not be handled manually. Moreover, not all of the alternative paths are generally of interest. Therefore, we have developed and implemented a method, which allows us to define constraints to reduce the set of all structurally possible paths to the truly interesting path set. The paper describes the search algorithm and the constraints definition language. We give examples for path searches using this dedicated special language for a Petri net model of the sucrose-to-starch breakdown in the potato tuber.

STEPP - Search Tool for Exploration of Petri net Paths: A New Tool for Petri Net-Based Path Analysis in Biochemical Networks.

PubMed

Koch, Ina; Schüler, Markus; Heiner, Monika

2011-01-01

To understand biochemical processes caused by, e.g., mutations or deletions in the genome, the knowledge of possible alternative paths between two arbitrary chemical compounds is of increasing interest for biotechnology, pharmacology, medicine, and drug design. With the steadily increasing amount of data from high-throughput experiments new biochemical networks can be constructed and existing ones can be extended, which results in many large metabolic, signal transduction, and gene regulatory networks. The search for alternative paths within these complex and large networks can provide a huge amount of solutions, which can not be handled manually. Moreover, not all of the alternative paths are generally of interest. Therefore, we have developed and implemented a method, which allows us to define constraints to reduce the set of all structurally possible paths to the truly interesting path set. The paper describes the search algorithm and the constraints definition language. We give examples for path searches using this dedicated special language for a Petri net model of the sucrose-to-starch breakdown in the potato tuber. http://sanaga.tfh-berlin.de/~stepp/

Structure, thermodynamic and electronic properties of carbon-nitrogen cubanes and protonated polynitrogen cations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaban, Vitaly V.; Andreeva, Nadezhda A.

2017-12-01

Energy generation and storage are at the center of modern civilization. Energetic materials constitute quite a large class of compounds with a high amount of stored chemical energy that can be released. We hereby use a combination of quantum chemistry methods to investigate feasibility and properties of carbon-nitrogen cubanes and multi-charged polynitrogen cations in the context of their synthesis and application as unprecedented energetic materials. We show that the stored energy increases gradually with the nitrogen content increase. Nitrogen-poor cubanes retain their stabilities in vacuum, even at elevated temperatures. Such molecules will be probably synthesized at some point. In turn, polynitrogen cations are highly unstable, except N8H+, despite they are isoelectronic to all-carbon cubane. Kinetic stability of the cation decays drastically as its total charge increases. High-level thermodynamic calculations revealed that large amounts of energy are liberated upon decompositions of polynitrogen cations, which produce molecular nitrogen, acetylene, and protons. The present results bring a substantial insights to the design of novel high-energy compounds.

Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model

DOE PAGES

Zhu, Jiang; Liu, Zhengyu; Brady, Esther C.; ...

2017-12-28

Variations in terrestrial oxygen-isotope reconstructions from ice cores and speleothems have been primarily attributed to climatic changes of surface air temperature, precipitation amount, or atmospheric circulation. In this work, we demonstrate with the fully coupled isotope-enabled Community Earth System Model an additional process contributing to the oxygen-isotope variations during glacial meltwater events. This process, termed “the direct meltwater effect,” involves propagating large amounts of isotopically depleted meltwater throughout the hydrological cycle and is independent of climatic changes. We find that the direct meltwater effect can make up 15–35% of the δ 18O signals in precipitation over Greenland and eastern Brazilmore » for large freshwater forcings (0.25–0.50 sverdrup (10 6 m 3/s)). Model simulations further demonstrate that the direct meltwater effect increases with the magnitude and duration of the freshwater forcing and is sensitive to both the location and shape of the meltwater. These new modeling results have important implications for past climate interpretations of δ 18O.« less

A new multiple air beam approach for in-process form error optical measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Y.; Li, R.

2018-07-01

In-process measurement can provide feedback for the control of workpiece precision in terms of size, roughness and, in particular, mid-spatial frequency form error. Optical measurement methods are of the non-contact type and possess high precision, as required for in-process form error measurement. In precision machining, coolant is commonly used to reduce heat generation and thermal deformation on the workpiece surface. However, the use of coolant will induce an opaque coolant barrier if optical measurement methods are used. In this paper, a new multiple air beam approach is proposed. The new approach permits the displacement of coolant from any direction and with a large thickness, i.e. with a large amount of coolant. The model, the working principle, and the key features of the new approach are presented. Based on the proposed new approach, a new in-process form error optical measurement system is developed. The coolant removal capability and the performance of this new multiple air beam approach are assessed. The experimental results show that the workpiece surface y(x, z) can be measured successfully with standard deviation up to 0.3011 µm even under a large amount of coolant, such that the coolant thickness is 15 mm. This means a relative uncertainty of 2σ up to 4.35% and the workpiece surface is deeply immersed in the opaque coolant. The results also show that, in terms of coolant removal capability, air supply and air velocity, the proposed new approach improves by, respectively, 3.3, 1.3 and 5.3 times on the previous single air beam approach. The results demonstrate the significant improvements brought by the new multiple air beam method together with the developed measurement system.

Seeding Experiment of Liquid Carbon Dioxide for Enhancing Winter-time Precipitation in Saga Prefecture,Northern Kyushu,Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wakimizu, K.; Nishiyama, K.; Tomine, K.; Maki, T.; Suzuki, Y.; Morita, O.

2012-12-01

Many droughts (shortage of water) have broken out by extreme small amount rainfall in recent Japan. So far,in order to prevent these droughts,artificial rainfall methods with 'AgI' or 'dry ice' have been widely used in Japan. However,these methods have many problems,which a large amount of overcooling liquid in the cumulus cloud was not able to be converted into precipitation efficiently. So as to solve these problems,new artificial rainfall method using liquid carbon dioxide (LC) was proposed by Fukuta (1996). This new method consists of the generation of ice particles by homogeneous nucleation using LC and the subsequent more effective growth for ice particles without competition process. And, this method is called 'Low-Level Penetration Seeding of Homogeneous Ice Nucleant (LOLEPSHIN)' ; this induces a 'Roll-up Expansion of Twin Horizontal Ice-crystal Thermals (RETHIT)' and a subsequent 'Falling growth-Induced Lateral Air Spreading (FILAS)'. This LC method was applied to thin super-cooled cumulus clouds in Saga prefecture, Northern Kyushu, Japan on February 4,2006. The seeding airplane took off the Atugi Airport in Kanagawa Prefecture toward the Iki Island around 0830JST. Many cloud bands were cofirmed in the flight going to the experimental area and the cloud base temperature was approximately -9C (1200m). Scince some young developing thin cumuli were found over the Iki Island, LC seeding to these clouds was carried out two times from 0841JST until 0919JST penetrating the -9C (1200m) altitude. The first precipitation seeding ebded in failure. The second penetration seeding was done for 115 seconds around 0917JST. This penetration led to success of developing one artificial echo (Echo I) in the leeward side of the Iki Island. Eco I moved from NNW to SSW. The maximum area of Echo I were 48km2 (at 1033JST) and first comfirmed by the Kyushu University radar (KU radar) at 1006JST (46 min. after LC seeding) around Mt.Sefuri in Saga Prefecture. It can be inferred that ice perticles formed by LC seeding grew to the precipitable size and resultant snowfall was detected by radar in approximately 120 min. after seeding operation. In this study, based on these observed facts, optimum design for enhancing winter-time water resources by LC seeding method was suggested. Successive low-level horizontal penetrations of operational aircraft with seeding LC into many moving super-cooled cumuli towards the Japan Islands will lead to the spreading of cloud volume and subsequent coversion of large amount of iv active cloud volume into newly exploited artificial precipitation. As a result, these experiments succeeded, and the total amount of estimated radar precipitation of the be able to secure a large amount of water resource from these experiment results.

Oxidation and formation of deposit precursors in hydrocarbon fuels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mayo, F. R.; Lan, B.; Cotts, D. B.; Buttrill, S. E., Jr.; St.john, G. A.

1983-01-01

The oxidation of two jet turbine fuels and some pure hydrocarbons was studied at 130 C with and without the presence of small amounts of N-methyl pyrrole (NMP) or indene. Tendency to form solid-deposit precursors was studied by measuring soluble gum formation as well as dimer and trimer formation using field ionization mass spectrometry. Pure n-dodecane oxidized fastest and gave the smallest amount of procursors. An unstable fuel oil oxidized much slower but formed large amounts of precursors. Stable Jet A fuel oxidized slowest and gave little precursors. Indene either retarded or accelerated the oxidation of n-dodecane, depending on its concentration, but always caused more gum formation. The NMP greatly retarded n-dodecane oxidation but accelerated Jet A oxidation and greatly increased the latter's gum formation. In general, the additive reacted faster and formed most of the gum. Results are interpreted in terms of classical cooxidation theory. The effect of oxygen pressure on gum formation is also reported.

Occurrence and fate of ACE-inhibitor peptides in cheeses and in their digestates following in vitro static gastrointestinal digestion.

PubMed

Stuknytė, Milda; Cattaneo, Stefano; Masotti, Fabio; De Noni, Ivano

2015-02-01

The occurrence of the casein-derived angiotensin converting enzyme-inhibitor (ACE-I) peptides VPP, IPP, RYLGY, RYLG, AYFYPEL, AYFYPE, LHLPLP and HLPLP were investigated in 12 different cheese samples by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography/High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry. The total amount of ACE-I peptides was in the range 0.87-331mgkg(-1). VPP and IPP largely prevailed in almost all cheeses. Following in vitro static gastrointestinal digestion of Cheddar, Gorgonzola, Maasdam and Grana Padano cheeses, type and amount of ACE-I peptides changed, and only VPP, IPP, HLPLP and LHLPLP were detected in the intestinal digestates. The results evidenced that the degree of proteolysis itself cannot be regarded as a promoting or hindering factor for ACE-I peptide release during cheese digestion. Moreover, the data indicated that the ACE-I potential of cheeses cannot be inferred based on the type and amount of ACE-I peptides present in undigested samples. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Metalloporphyrin-based porous polymers prepared via click chemistry for size-selective adsorption of protein.

PubMed

Zhu, Dailian; Qin, Cunqi; Ao, Shanshi; Su, Qiuping; Sun, Xiying; Jiang, Tengfei; Pei, Kemei; Ni, Huagang; Ye, Peng

2018-08-01

Zinc porphyrin-based porous polymers (PPs-Zn) with different pore sizes were prepared by controlling the reaction condition of click chemistry, and the protein adsorption in PPs-Zn and the catalytic activity of immobilized enzyme were investigated. PPs-Zn-1 with 18 nm and PPS-Zn-2 with 90 nm of pore size were characterized by FTIR, NMR and nitrogen absorption experiments. The amount of adsorbed protein in PPs-Zn-1 was more than that in PPs-Zn-2 for small size proteins, such as lysozyme, lipase and bovine serum albumin (BSA). And for large size proteins including myosin and human fibrinogen (HFg), the amount of adsorbed protein in PPs-Zn-1 was less than that in PPs-Zn-2. The result indicates that the protein adsorption is size-selective in PPs-Zn. Both the protein size and the pore size have a significant effect on the amount of adsorbed protein in the PPs-Zn. Lipase and lysozyme immobilized in PPs-Zn exhibited excellent reuse stability.

Design and experimental realization of an optimal scheme for teleportation of an n-qubit quantum state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sisodia, Mitali; Shukla, Abhishek; Thapliyal, Kishore; Pathak, Anirban

2017-12-01

An explicit scheme (quantum circuit) is designed for the teleportation of an n-qubit quantum state. It is established that the proposed scheme requires an optimal amount of quantum resources, whereas larger amount of quantum resources have been used in a large number of recently reported teleportation schemes for the quantum states which can be viewed as special cases of the general n-qubit state considered here. A trade-off between our knowledge about the quantum state to be teleported and the amount of quantum resources required for the same is observed. A proof-of-principle experimental realization of the proposed scheme (for a 2-qubit state) is also performed using 5-qubit superconductivity-based IBM quantum computer. The experimental results show that the state has been teleported with high fidelity. Relevance of the proposed teleportation scheme has also been discussed in the context of controlled, bidirectional, and bidirectional controlled state teleportation.

Effects of water soaking and/or sodium polystyrene sulfonate addition on potassium content of foods.

PubMed

Picq, Christian; Asplanato, Marion; Bernillon, Noémie; Fabre, Claudie; Roubeix, Mathilde; Ricort, Jean-Marc

2014-09-01

In this study, we determined, by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, the potassium amount leached by soaking or boiling foods identified by children suffering from chronic renal failure as "pleasure food" and that they cannot eat because of their low-potassium diet, and evaluated whether addition of sodium polystyrene sulfonate resin (i.e. Kayexalate®) during soaking or boiling modulated potassium loss. A significant amount of potassium content was removed by soaking (16% for chocolate and potato, 26% for apple, 37% for tomato and 41% for banana) or boiling in a large amount of water (73% for potato). Although Kayexalate® efficiently dose-dependently removed potassium from drinks (by 48% to 73%), resin addition during soaking or boiling did not eliminate more potassium from solid foods. Our results therefore provide useful information for dietitians who elaborate menus for people on potassium-restricted diets and would give an interesting alternative to the systematic elimination of all potassium-rich foods from their diet.

Determination of solid mass fraction in partially frozen hydrocarbon fuels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cotterell, E. M.; Mossadegh, R.; Bruce, A. J.; Moynihan, C. T.

1986-01-01

Filtration procedures alone are insufficient to determine the amounts of crystalline solid in a partially frozen hydrocarbon distillate fraction. This is due to the nature of the solidification process by which a large amount of liquid becomes entrapped within an interconnected crystalline structure. A technique has been developed to supplement filtration methods with an independent determination of the amount of liquid in the precipitate thereby revealing the actual value of mass percent crystalline solid, %S. A non-crystallizing dye is injected into the fuel and used as a tracer during the filtration. The relative concentrations of the dye in the filtrate and precipitate fractions is subsequently detected by a spectrophotometric comparison. The filtration apparatus was assembled so that the temperature of the sample is recorded immediately above the filter. Also, a second method of calculation has been established which allows significant reduction in test time while retaining acceptable accuracy of results. Data have been obtained for eight different kerosene range hydrocarbon fuels.

Nonparametric Density Estimation Based on Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network for Large Noisy Data.

PubMed

Nakamura, Yoshihiro; Hasegawa, Osamu

2017-01-01

With the ongoing development and expansion of communication networks and sensors, massive amounts of data are continuously generated in real time from real environments. Beforehand, prediction of a distribution underlying such data is difficult; furthermore, the data include substantial amounts of noise. These factors make it difficult to estimate probability densities. To handle these issues and massive amounts of data, we propose a nonparametric density estimator that rapidly learns data online and has high robustness. Our approach is an extension of both kernel density estimation (KDE) and a self-organizing incremental neural network (SOINN); therefore, we call our approach KDESOINN. An SOINN provides a clustering method that learns about the given data as networks of prototype of data; more specifically, an SOINN can learn the distribution underlying the given data. Using this information, KDESOINN estimates the probability density function. The results of our experiments show that KDESOINN outperforms or achieves performance comparable to the current state-of-the-art approaches in terms of robustness, learning time, and accuracy.

Verification Study of Buoyancy-Driven Turbulent Nuclear Combustion

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

None

2010-01-01

Buoyancy-driven turbulent nuclear combustion determines the rate of nuclear burning during the deflagration phase (i.e., the ordinary nuclear flame phase) of Type 1a supernovae, and hence the amount of nuclear energy released during this phase. It therefore determines the amount the white dwarf star expands prior to initiation of a detonation wave, and so the amount of radioactive nickel and thus the peak luminosity of the explosion. However, this key physical process is not fully understood. To better understand this process, the Flash Center has conducted an extensive series of large-scale 3D simulations of buoyancy-driven turbulent nuclear combustion for threemore » different physical situations. This movie shows the results for some of these simulations. Credits: Science: Ray Bair, Katherine Riley, Argonne National Laboratory; Anshu Dubey, Don Lamb, Dongwook Lee, University of Chicago; Robert Fisher, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and Dean Townsley, University of Alabama Visualization: Jonathan Gallagher, University of Chicago; Randy Hudson, John Norris and Michael E. Papka, Argonne National Laboratory/University of Chicago« less

Pitch sensation involves stochastic resonance

PubMed Central

Martignoli, Stefan; Gomez, Florian; Stoop, Ruedi

2013-01-01

Pitch is a complex hearing phenomenon that results from elicited and self-generated cochlear vibrations. Read-off vibrational information is relayed higher up the auditory pathway, where it is then condensed into pitch sensation. How this can adequately be described in terms of physics has largely remained an open question. We have developed a peripheral hearing system (in hardware and software) that reproduces with great accuracy all salient pitch features known from biophysical and psychoacoustic experiments. At the level of the auditory nerve, the system exploits stochastic resonance to achieve this performance, which may explain the large amount of noise observed in the working auditory nerve. PMID:24045830

Information retrieval from holographic interferograms: Fundamentals and problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vest, Charles M.

1987-01-01

Holographic interferograms can contain large amounts of information about flow and temperature fields. Their information content can be very high because they can be viewed from many different directions. This multidirectionality, and fringe localization add to the information contained in the fringe pattern if diffuse illumination is used. Additional information, and increased accuracy can be obtained through the use of dual reference wave holography to add reference fringes or to effect discrete phase shift or hetrodyne interferometry. Automated analysis of fringes is possible if interferograms are of simple structure and good quality. However, in practice a large number of practical problems can arise, so that a difficult image processing task results.

Summary of results of January climate simulations with the GISS coarse-mesh model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spar, J.; Cohen, C.; Wu, P.

1981-01-01

The large scale climates generated by extended runs of the model are relatively independent of the initial atmospheric conditions, if the first few months of each simulation are discarded. The perpetual January simulations with a specified SST field produced excessive snow accumulation over the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Mass exchanges between the cold (warm) continents and the warm (cold) adjacent oceans produced significant surface pressure changes over the oceans as well as over the land. The effect of terrain and terrain elevation on the amount of precipitation was examined. The evaporation of continental moisture was calculated to cause large increases in precipitation over the continents.

Biospheric effects of a large extraterrestrial impact: Case study of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary crater

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pope, Kevin O.

1994-01-01

The Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan, Mexico, is the primary candidate for the impact that caused mass extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. The target rocks at Chicxulub contain 750 to 1500 m of anhydrite (CaSO4), which was vaporized upon impact, creating a large sulfuric acid aerosol cloud. In this study we apply a hydrocode model of asteroid impact to calculate the amount of sulfuric acid produced. We then apply a radiative transfer model to determine the atmospheric effects. Results include 6 to 9 month period of darkness followed by 12 to 26 years of cooling.

Large-scale volcanism associated with coronae on Venus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roberts, K. Magee; Head, James W.

1993-01-01

The formation and evolution of coronae on Venus are thought to be the result of mantle upwellings against the crust and lithosphere and subsequent gravitational relaxation. A variety of other features on Venus have been linked to processes associated with mantle upwelling, including shield volcanoes on large regional rises such as Beta, Atla and Western Eistla Regiones and extensive flow fields such as Mylitta and Kaiwan Fluctus near the Lada Terra/Lavinia Planitia boundary. Of these features, coronae appear to possess the smallest amounts of associated volcanism, although volcanism associated with coronae has only been qualitatively examined. An initial survey of coronae based on recent Magellan data indicated that only 9 percent of all coronae are associated with substantial amounts of volcanism, including interior calderas or edifices greater than 50 km in diameter and extensive, exterior radial flow fields. Sixty-eight percent of all coronae were found to have lesser amounts of volcanism, including interior flooding and associated volcanic domes and small shields; the remaining coronae were considered deficient in associated volcanism. It is possible that coronae are related to mantle plumes or diapirs that are lower in volume or in partial melt than those associated with the large shields or flow fields. Regional tectonics or variations in local crustal and thermal structure may also be significant in determining the amount of volcanism produced from an upwelling. It is also possible that flow fields associated with some coronae are sheet-like in nature and may not be readily identified. If coronae are associated with volcanic flow fields, then they may be a significant contributor to plains formation on Venus, as they number over 300 and are widely distributed across the planet. As a continuation of our analysis of large-scale volcanism on Venus, we have reexamined the known population of coronae and assessed quantitatively the scale of volcanism associated with them. In particular, we have examined the percentage of coronae associated with volcanic flow fields (i.e., a collection of digitate or sheet-like lava flows extending from the corona interior or annulus); the range in scale of these flow fields; the variations in diameter, structure and stratigraphy of coronae with flow fields; and the global distribution of coronae associated with flow fields.

Diet and Co-ecology of Pleistocene Short-Faced Bears and Brown Bears in Eastern Beringia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matheus, Paul E.

1995-11-01

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of fossil bone collagen reveals that Pleistocene short-faced bears ( Arctodus simus) of Beringia were highly carnivorous, while contemporaneous brown bears ( Ursus arctos) had highly variable diets that included varying amounts of terrestrial vegetation, salmon, and small amounts of terrestrial meat. A reconsideration of the short-faced bear's highly derived morphology indicates that they foraged as scavengers of widely dispersed large mammal carcasses and were simultaneously designed both for highly efficient locomotion and for intimidating other large carnivores. This allowed Arctodus to forage economically over a large home range and seek out, procure, and defend carcasses from other large carnivores. The isotope data and this reconstruction of Arctodus' foraging behavior refute the hypothesis that competition from brown bears was a significant factor in the extinction of short-faced bears.

The Development and Microstructure Analysis of High Strength Steel Plate NVE36 for Large Heat Input Welding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Zhang; Liangfa, Xie; Ming, Wei; Jianli, Li

In the shipbuilding industry, the welding efficiency of the ship plate not only has a great effect on the construction cost of the ship, but also affects the construction speed and determines the delivery cycle. The steel plate used for large heat input welding was developed sufficiently. In this paper, the composition of the steel with a small amount of Nb, Ti and large amount of Mn had been designed in micro-alloyed route. The content of C and the carbon equivalent were also designed to a low level. The technology of oxide metallurgy was used during the smelting process of the steel. The rolling technology of TMCP was controlled at a low rolling temperature and ultra-fast cooling technology was used, for the purpose of controlling the transformation of the microstructure. The microstructure of the steel plate was controlled to be the mixed microstructure of low carbon bainite and ferrite. Large amount of oxide particles dispersed in the microstructure of steel, which had a positive effects on the mechanical property and welding performance of the steel. The mechanical property of the steel plate was excellent and the value of longitudinal Akv at -60 °C is more than 200 J. The toughness of WM and HAZ were excellent after the steel plate was welded with a large heat input of 100-250 kJ/cm. The steel plate processed by mentioned above can meet the requirement of large heat input welding.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act: Data Evaluation Regarding Payments to Ophthalmologists

PubMed Central

Chang, Jonathan S.

2014-01-01

Objective/Purpose To review data for ophthalmologists published online from the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Design Retrospective data review using a publicly available electronic database Methods: Main Outcome Measures A database was downloaded from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Website under Identified General Payments to Physicians and a primary specialty of ophthalmology. Basic statistical analysis was performed including mean, median and range of payments for both single payments and per provider. Data were also summarized by category of payment, geographic region and compared with other surgical subspecialties. Results From August 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013, a total of 55,996 individual payments were reported to 9,855 ophthalmologists for a total of $10,926,447. The mean amount received in a single payment was $195.13 (range $0.04–$193,073). The mean amount received per physician ID was $1,108 (range $1–$397,849) and median amount $112.01. Consulting fees made up the largest percentage of fees. There was not a large difference in payments received by region. The mean payments for the subspecialties of dermatology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery and urology ranged from $954–$6,980, and median payments in each field by provider identifier ranged from $88–$173. Conclusions A large amount of data was released by CMS for the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. In ophthalmology, mean and median payments per physician did not vary greatly from other surgical subspecialties. Most single payments were under $100, and most physicians received less than $500 in total payments. Payments for consulting made up the largest category of spending. How this affects patient perception, patient care and medical costs warrants further study. PMID:25578254

Understanding the nature of atmospheric acid processing of mineral dusts in supplying bioavailable phosphorus to the oceans

PubMed Central

Krom, Michael D.; Mortimer, Robert J. G.; Benning, Liane G.; Herbert, Ross J.; Shi, Zongbo; Kanakidou, Maria; Nenes, Athanasios

2016-01-01

Acidification of airborne dust particles can dramatically increase the amount of bioavailable phosphorus (P) deposited on the surface ocean. Experiments were conducted to simulate atmospheric processes and determine the dissolution behavior of P compounds in dust and dust precursor soils. Acid dissolution occurs rapidly (seconds to minutes) and is controlled by the amount of H+ ions present. For H+ < 10−4 mol/g of dust, 1–10% of the total P is dissolved, largely as a result of dissolution of surface-bound forms. At H+ > 10−4 mol/g of dust, the amount of P (and calcium) released has a direct proportionality to the amount of H+ consumed until all inorganic P minerals are exhausted and the final pH remains acidic. Once dissolved, P will stay in solution due to slow precipitation kinetics. Dissolution of apatite-P (Ap-P), the major mineral phase in dust (79–96%), occurs whether calcium carbonate (calcite) is present or not, although the increase in dissolved P is greater if calcite is absent or if the particles are externally mixed. The system was modeled adequately as a simple mixture of Ap-P and calcite. P dissolves readily by acid processes in the atmosphere in contrast to iron, which dissolves more slowly and is subject to reprecipitation at cloud water pH. We show that acidification can increase bioavailable P deposition over large areas of the globe, and may explain much of the previously observed patterns of variability in leachable P in oceanic areas where primary productivity is limited by this nutrient (e.g., Mediterranean). PMID:27930294

Lunar Surface Systems Wet-Bath Design Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Shelby; Szabo, Rich; Howard, Robert

2010-01-01

The goal of the current evaluation was to examine five different wet-bath architectural design concepts. The primary means of testing the concepts required participants to physically act-out a number of functional tasks (e.g., shaving, showering, changing clothes, maintenance) in order to give judgments on the affordance of the volume as based on the design concepts. Each of the concepts was designed in such a way that certain features were exploited - for example, a concept may have a large amount of internal stowage, but minimum amount of usable space to perform tasks. The results showed that the most preferred concept was one in which stowage and usable space were balanced. This concept allowed for a moderate amount of stowage with some suggested redesign, but would not preclude additional personal items such as clothing. This concept also allowed for a greater distance to be achieved between the toilet and the sink with minimum redesign, which was desirable. Therefore, the all-in-one (i.e., toilet, sink, and shower all occupying a single volume) wet-bath concept seemed to be a viable solution in which there is a minimal amount of overall volume available with certain lunar habitat configurations.

Rare behavior of growth processes via umbrella sampling of trajectories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klymko, Katherine; Geissler, Phillip L.; Garrahan, Juan P.; Whitelam, Stephen

2018-03-01

We compute probability distributions of trajectory observables for reversible and irreversible growth processes. These results reveal a correspondence between reversible and irreversible processes, at particular points in parameter space, in terms of their typical and atypical trajectories. Thus key features of growth processes can be insensitive to the precise form of the rate constants used to generate them, recalling the insensitivity to microscopic details of certain equilibrium behavior. We obtained these results using a sampling method, inspired by the "s -ensemble" large-deviation formalism, that amounts to umbrella sampling in trajectory space. The method is a simple variant of existing approaches, and applies to ensembles of trajectories controlled by the total number of events. It can be used to determine large-deviation rate functions for trajectory observables in or out of equilibrium.

Trends in hospital efficiency among metropolitan markets.

PubMed

Wang, B B; Ozcan, Y A; Wan, T T; Harrison, J

1999-04-01

This study evaluates trends in efficiency among American hospital markets. A total of 6010 hospitals were identified for use in the analysis from the American Hospital Association's Annual Surveys for 1989 and 1993. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), a longitudinal study of hospital efficiency was conducted on all 314 metropolitan markets in the United States. Results suggest that large hospital markets generally demonstrated higher inefficiency. The major inefficiencies exist in the availability of hospital services, the number of operating beds, the utilization of hospital staffing and operating expenses. Consequently, the large hospital market had a significant excess of health manpower that resulted in inefficiency that amounted to approximately $23 billion. From a policy perspective, this study has shed some light on the need to establish more specific policies to address inefficiency in the health care industry.

X-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectroscopies characterization of iron nanoclusters prepared by the gas aggregation technique.

PubMed

Sánchez-Marcos, J; Laguna-Marco, M A; Martínez-Morillas, R; Céspedes, E; Menéndez, N; Jiménez-Villacorta, F; Prieto, C

2012-11-01

Partially oxidized iron nanoclusters have been prepared by the gas-phase aggregation technique with typical sizes of 2-3 nm. This preparation technique has been reported to obtain clusters with interesting magnetic properties such as very large exchange bias. In this paper, a sample composition study carried out by Mössbauer and X-ray absorption spectroscopies is reported. The information reached by these techniques, which is based on the iron short range order, results to be an ideal way to have a characterization of the whole sample since the obtained data are an average over a very large amount of the clusters. In addition, our results indicate the presence of ferrihydrite, which is a compound typically ignored when studying this type of systems.

North American nonmarine climates and vegetation during the Late Cretaceous

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wolfe, J.A.; Upchurch, G.R.

1987-01-01

Analyses of physiognomy of Late Cretaceous leaf assemblages and of structural adaptations of Late Cretaceous dicotyledonous woods indicate that megathermal vegetation was an open-canopy, broad-leaved evergreen woodland that existed under low to moderate amounts of rainfall evenly distributed through the year, with a moderate increase at about 40-45??N. Many dicotyledons were probably large, massive trees, but the tallest trees were evergreen conifers. Megathermal climate extended up to paleolatitude 45-50??N. Mesothermal vegetation was at least partially an open, broad-leaved evergreen woodland (perhaps a mosaic of woodland and forest), but the evapotranspirational stress was less than in megathermal climate. Some dicotyledons were large trees, but most were shrubs or small trees; evergreen conifers were the major tree element. Some mild seasonality is evidenced in mesothermal woods; precipitational levels probably varied markedly from year to year. Northward of approximately paleolatitude 65??N, evergreen vegetation was replaced by predominantly deciduous vegetation. This replacement is presumably related primarily to seasonality of light. The southern part of the deciduous vegetation probably existed under mesothermal climate. Comparisons to leaf and wood assemblages from other continents are generally consistent with the vegetational-climatic patterns suggested from North American data. Limited data from equatorial regions suggest low rainfall. Late Cretaceous climates, except probably those of the Cenomanian, had only moderate change through time. Temperatures generally appear to have warmed into the Santonian, cooled slightly into the Campanian and more markedly into the Maastrichtian, and then returned to Santonian values by the late Maastrichtian. The early Eocene was probably warmer than any period of the Late Cretaceous. Latitudinal temperature gradients were lower than at present. For the Campanian and Maastrichtian, a gradient of about 0.3??C/1?? latitude is inferred. Equability was high: a mean annual range of temperature of about 8??C is inferred for paleolatitude 51-56??N during the Campanian. Most Late Cretaceous plants evolved in a climate characterized by absence of freezing and low to moderate amounts of precipitation. A brief, low-temperature excursion and a major, long-lasting increase in precipitation occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. In megathermal climates, these events selected for plants that could exist in rainforest environments. In mesothermal climates, deciduousness and contamitant structural adaptations were selected. The events at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary had a major and long-lasting impact on the evolution of land plants and their ecosystems. Low precipitation at low to middle Late Cretaceous latitudes is suggested to be the result of high levels of atmospheric CO2, which, in turn, are probably related to inability of warm, saline oceans to store large amounts of carbon. Conditions appear to have rapidly changed at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, when oceanic circulation and stratification may have been fundamentally altered. After the boundary, the oceans were apparently able to store much greater amounts of carbon, and the oceans withdrew large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. In turn, more precipitation fell at low to middle latitudes; the resulting high-biomass vegetation formed a second major carbon reservoir to keep atmospheric CO2 low relative to the Late Cretaceous. Changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation probably resulted from some factor external to the ocean-atmosphere system. ?? 1987.

Improving transmission efficiency of large sequence alignment/map (SAM) files.

PubMed

Sakib, Muhammad Nazmus; Tang, Jijun; Zheng, W Jim; Huang, Chin-Tser

2011-01-01

Research in bioinformatics primarily involves collection and analysis of a large volume of genomic data. Naturally, it demands efficient storage and transfer of this huge amount of data. In recent years, some research has been done to find efficient compression algorithms to reduce the size of various sequencing data. One way to improve the transmission time of large files is to apply a maximum lossless compression on them. In this paper, we present SAMZIP, a specialized encoding scheme, for sequence alignment data in SAM (Sequence Alignment/Map) format, which improves the compression ratio of existing compression tools available. In order to achieve this, we exploit the prior knowledge of the file format and specifications. Our experimental results show that our encoding scheme improves compression ratio, thereby reducing overall transmission time significantly.

Partitioning and interfacial tracers for differentiating NAPL entrapment configuration: column-scale investigation.

PubMed

Dai, D; Barranco, F T; Illangasekare, T H

2001-12-15

Research on the use of partitioning and interfacial tracers has led to the development of techniques for estimating subsurface NAPL amount and NAPL-water interfacial area. Although these techniques have been utilized with some success at field sites, current application is limited largely to NAPL at residual saturation, such as for the case of post-remediation settings where mobile NAPL has been removed through product recovery. The goal of this study was to fundamentally evaluate partitioning and interfacial tracer behavior in controlled column-scale test cells for a range of entrapment configurations varying in NAPL saturation, with the results serving as a determinant of technique efficacy (and design protocol) for use with complexly distributed NAPLs, possibly at high saturation, in heterogeneous aquifers. Representative end members of the range of entrapment configurations observed under conditions of natural heterogeneity (an occurrence with residual NAPL saturation [discontinuous blobs] and an occurrence with high NAPL saturation [continuous free-phase LNAPL lens]) were evaluated. Study results indicated accurate prediction (using measured tracer retardation and equilibrium-based computational techniques) of NAPL amount and NAPL-water interfacial area for the case of residual NAPL saturation. For the high-saturation LNAPL lens, results indicated that NAPL-water interfacial area, but not NAPL amount (underpredicted by 35%), can be reasonably determined using conventional computation techniques. Underprediction of NAPL amount lead to an erroneous prediction of NAPL distribution, as indicated by the NAPL morphology index. In light of these results, careful consideration should be given to technique design and critical assumptions before applying equilibrium-based partitioning tracer methodology to settings where NAPLs are complexly entrapped, such as in naturally heterogeneous subsurface formations.

Design and test of a natural laminar flow/large Reynolds number airfoil with a high design cruise lift coefficient

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolesar, C. E.

1987-01-01

Research activity on an airfoil designed for a large airplane capable of very long endurance times at a low Mach number of 0.22 is examined. Airplane mission objectives and design optimization resulted in requirements for a very high design lift coefficient and a large amount of laminar flow at high Reynolds number to increase the lift/drag ratio and reduce the loiter lift coefficient. Natural laminar flow was selected instead of distributed mechanical suction for the measurement technique. A design lift coefficient of 1.5 was identified as the highest which could be achieved with a large extent of laminar flow. A single element airfoil was designed using an inverse boundary layer solution and inverse airfoil design computer codes to create an airfoil section that would achieve performance goals. The design process and results, including airfoil shape, pressure distributions, and aerodynamic characteristics are presented. A two dimensional wind tunnel model was constructed and tested in a NASA Low Turbulence Pressure Tunnel which enabled testing at full scale design Reynolds number. A comparison is made between theoretical and measured results to establish accuracy and quality of the airfoil design technique.

SLIDE - a web-based tool for interactive visualization of large-scale -omics data.

PubMed

Ghosh, Soumita; Datta, Abhik; Tan, Kaisen; Choi, Hyungwon

2018-06-28

Data visualization is often regarded as a post hoc step for verifying statistically significant results in the analysis of high-throughput data sets. This common practice leaves a large amount of raw data behind, from which more information can be extracted. However, existing solutions do not provide capabilities to explore large-scale raw datasets using biologically sensible queries, nor do they allow user interaction based real-time customization of graphics. To address these drawbacks, we have designed an open-source, web-based tool called Systems-Level Interactive Data Exploration, or SLIDE to visualize large-scale -omics data interactively. SLIDE's interface makes it easier for scientists to explore quantitative expression data in multiple resolutions in a single screen. SLIDE is publicly available under BSD license both as an online version as well as a stand-alone version at https://github.com/soumitag/SLIDE. Supplementary Information are available at Bioinformatics online.

The influence of large-scale wind power on global climate.

PubMed

Keith, David W; Decarolis, Joseph F; Denkenberger, David C; Lenschow, Donald H; Malyshev, Sergey L; Pacala, Stephen; Rasch, Philip J

2004-11-16

Large-scale use of wind power can alter local and global climate by extracting kinetic energy and altering turbulent transport in the atmospheric boundary layer. We report climate-model simulations that address the possible climatic impacts of wind power at regional to global scales by using two general circulation models and several parameterizations of the interaction of wind turbines with the boundary layer. We find that very large amounts of wind power can produce nonnegligible climatic change at continental scales. Although large-scale effects are observed, wind power has a negligible effect on global-mean surface temperature, and it would deliver enormous global benefits by reducing emissions of CO(2) and air pollutants. Our results may enable a comparison between the climate impacts due to wind power and the reduction in climatic impacts achieved by the substitution of wind for fossil fuels.

Non-overlap subaperture interferometric testing for large optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Xin; Yu, Yingjie; Zeng, Wenhan; Qi, Te; Chen, Mingyi; Jiang, Xiangqian

2017-08-01

It has been shown that the number of subapertures and the amount of overlap has a significant influence on the stitching accuracy. In this paper, a non-overlap subaperture interferometric testing method (NOSAI) is proposed to inspect large optical components. This method would greatly reduce the number of subapertures and the influence of environmental interference while maintaining the accuracy of reconstruction. A general subaperture distribution pattern of NOSAI is also proposed for the large rectangle surface. The square Zernike polynomial is employed to fit such wavefront. The effect of the minimum fitting terms on the accuracy of NOSAI and the sensitivities of NOSAI to subaperture's alignment error, power systematic error, and random noise are discussed. Experimental results validate the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed NOSAI in comparison with wavefront obtained by a large aperture interferometer and stitching surface by multi-aperture overlap-scanning technique (MAOST).

Enhanced sulfidation xanthate flotation of malachite using ammonium ions as activator.

PubMed

Wu, Dandan; Ma, Wenhui; Mao, Yingbo; Deng, Jiushuai; Wen, Shuming

2017-05-18

In this study, ammonium ion was used to enhance the sulfidation flotation of malachite. The effect of ammonium ion on the sulfidation flotation of malachite was investigated using microflotation test, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis, zeta potential measurements, and scanning electron microscope analysis (SEM). The results of microflotation test show that the addition of sodium sulfide and ammonium sulfate resulted in better sulfidation than the addition of sodium sulfide alone. The results of ICP analysis indicate that the dissolution of enhanced sulfurized malachite surface is significantly decreased. Zeta potential measurements indicate that a smaller isoelectric point value and a large number of copper-sulfide films formed on the malachite surface by enhancing sulfidation resulted in a large amount of sodium butyl xanthate absorbed onto the enhanced sulfurized malachite surface. EDS semi-quantitative analysis and XPS analysis show that malachite was easily sulfurized by sodium sulfide with ammonium ion. These results show that the addition of ammonium ion plays a significant role in the sulfidation of malachite and results in improved flotation performance.

Different Amounts of DNA in Newborn Cells of Escherichia coli Preclude a Role for the Chromosome in Size Control According to the "Adder" Model.

PubMed

Huls, Peter G; Vischer, Norbert O E; Woldringh, Conrad L

2018-01-01

According to the recently-revived adder model for cell size control, newborn cells of Escherichia coli will grow and divide after having added a constant size or length, ΔL , irrespective of their size at birth. Assuming exponential elongation, this implies that large newborns will divide earlier than small ones. The molecular basis for the constant size increment is still unknown. As DNA replication and cell growth are coordinated, the constant ΔL could be based on duplication of an equal amount of DNA, ΔG , present in newborn cells. To test this idea, we measured amounts of DNA and lengths of nucleoids in DAPI-stained cells growing in batch culture at slow and fast rates. Deeply-constricted cells were divided in two subpopulations of longer and shorter lengths than average; these were considered to represent large and small prospective daughter cells, respectively. While at slow growth, large and small prospective daughter cells contained similar amounts of DNA, fast growing cells with multiforked replicating chromosomes, showed a significantly higher amount of DNA (20%) in the larger cells. This observation precludes the hypothesis that Δ L is based on the synthesis of a constant ΔG . Growth curves were constructed for siblings generated by asymmetric division and growing according to the adder model. Under the assumption that all cells at the same growth rate exhibit the same time between initiation of DNA replication and cell division (i.e., constant C+D -period), the constructions predict that initiation occurs at different sizes ( Li ) and that, at fast growth, large newborn cells transiently contain more DNA than small newborns, in accordance with the observations. Because the state of segregation, measured as the distance between separated nucleoids, was found to be more advanced in larger deeply-constricted cells, we propose that in larger newborns nucleoid separation occurs faster and at a shorter length, allowing them to divide earlier. We propose a composite model in which both differential initiation and segregation leads to an adder-like behavior of large and small newborn cells.

Volcanic Aerosol Radiative Properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lacis, Andrew

2015-01-01

Large sporadic volcanic eruptions inject large amounts of sulfur bearing gases into the stratosphere which then get photochemically converted to sulfuric acid aerosol droplets that exert a radiative cooling effect on the global climate system lasting for several years.

Solute-Filled Syringe For Formulating Intravenous Solution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Owens, Jim; Bindokas, AL; Dudar, Tom; Finley, Mike; Scharf, Mike

1993-01-01

Prefilled syringe contains premeasured amount of solute in powder or concentrate form used to deliver solute to sterile interior of large-volume parenteral (LVP) bag. Predetermined amount of sterile water also added to LVP bag through sterilizing filter, and mixed with contents of syringe, yielding sterile intravenous solution of specified concentration.

An Alkalophilic Bacillus sp. Produces 2-Phenylethylamine

PubMed Central

Hamasaki, Nobuko; Shirai, Shinji; Niitsu, Masaru; Kakinuma, Katsumi; Oshima, Tairo

1993-01-01

A large amount of 2-phenylethylamine was produced in cells of alkalophilic Bacillus sp. strain YN-2000. This amine is secreted in the medium during the cell growth. The amounts of 2-phenylethylamine in both cells and medium change upon changing the pH of the medium. PMID:16349025

The Physiological Suppressing Factors of Dry Forage Intake and the Cause of Water Intake Following Dry Forage Feeding in Goats — A Review

PubMed Central

Sunagawa, Katsunori; Nagamine, Itsuki

2016-01-01

The goats raised in the barn are usually fed on fresh grass. As dry forage can be stored for long periods in large amounts, dry forage feeding makes it possible to feed large numbers of goats in barns. This review explains the physiological factors involved in suppressing dry forage intake and the cause of drinking following dry forage feeding. Ruminants consume an enormous amount of dry forage in a short time. Eating rates of dry forage rapidly decreased in the first 40 min of feeding and subsequently declined gradually to low states in the remaining time of the feeding period. Saliva in large-type goats is secreted in large volume during the first hour after the commencement of dry forage feeding. It was elucidated that the marked suppression of dry forage intake during the first hour was caused by a feeding-induced hypovolemia and the loss of NaHCO3 due to excessive salivation during the initial stages of dry forage feeding. On the other hand, it was indicated that the marked decrease in feed intake observed in the second hour of the 2 h feeding period was related to ruminal distension caused by the feed consumed and the copious amount of saliva secreted during dry forage feeding. In addition, results indicate that the marked decreases in dry forage intake after 40 min of feeding are caused by increases in plasma osmolality and subsequent thirst sensations produced by dry forage feeding. After 40 min of the 2 h dry forage feeding period, the feed salt content is absorbed into the rumen and plasma osmolality increases. The combined effects of ruminal distension and increased plasma osmolality accounted for 77.6% of the suppression of dry forage intake 40 min after the start of dry forage feeding. The results indicate that ruminal distension and increased plasma osmolality are the main physiological factors in suppression of dry forage intake in large-type goats. There was very little drinking behavior observed during the first hour of the 2 h feeding period most water consumption occurring in the second hour. The cause of this thirst sensation during the second hour of dry forage feeding period was not hypovolemia brought about by excessive salivation, but rather increases in plasma osmolality due to the ruminal absorption of salt from the consumed feed. This suggests the water intake following dry forage feeding is determined by the level of salt content in the feed. PMID:26732440

Comparison of predicted and experimental performance of large-bore roller bearing operating to 3.0 million DN

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coe, H. H.; Huller, F. T.

1980-01-01

Bearing inner and outer race temperatures and the amount of heat transferred to the lubricant were calculated by using the computer program CYBEAN. The results obtained were compared with previously reported experimental data for a 118 mm bore roller bearing that operated at shaft speeds to 25,500 rpm, radial loads to 8,900 N (2000 lb), and total lubricant flow rates to 0.0102 cu m/min (2.7 gal/min). The calculated results compared well with the experimental data.

Indirect Measurement of Energy Density of Soft PZT Ceramic Utilizing Mechanical Stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Unruan, Muangjai; Unruan, Sujitra; Inkong, Yutthapong; Yimnirun, Rattikorn

2017-11-01

This paper reports on an indirect measurement of energy density of soft PZT ceramic utilizing mechanical stress. The method works analogous to the Olsen cycle and allows for a large amount of electro-mechanical energy conversion. A maximum energy density of 350 kJ/m3/cycle was found under 0-312 MPa and 1-20 kV/cm of applied mechanical stress and electric field, respectively. The obtained result is substantially higher than the results reported in previous studies of PZT materials utilizing a direct piezoelectric effect.

Land use and pollution patterns on the Great Lakes. [eastern wisconsin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haugen, R. K. (Principal Investigator); Mckim, H. L.; Marlar, T. L.

1975-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. The final mapping of the large watersheds of the Manitowoc and the Oconto was done using the 25% sampling approach. Comparisons were made with earlier strip mapping efforts of the Oconto and Manitowoc watersheds. Regional differences were noted. Strip mapping of the Oconto resulted in overestimation of the amount of agricultural land compared to the random sampling method. For the Manitowoc, the strip mapping approach produced a slight underestimate of agricultural land, and an overestimate of the forest category.

An analytical benchmark and a Mathematica program for MD codes: Testing LAMMPS on the 2nd generation Brenner potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Favata, Antonino; Micheletti, Andrea; Ryu, Seunghwa; Pugno, Nicola M.

2016-10-01

An analytical benchmark and a simple consistent Mathematica program are proposed for graphene and carbon nanotubes, that may serve to test any molecular dynamics code implemented with REBO potentials. By exploiting the benchmark, we checked results produced by LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) when adopting the second generation Brenner potential, we made evident that this code in its current implementation produces results which are offset from those of the benchmark by a significant amount, and provide evidence of the reason.

Response of lead-acid batteries to chopper-controlled discharge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cataldo, R. L.

1978-01-01

The preliminary results of simulated electric vehicle, chopper, speed controller discharge of a battery show energy output losses at up to 25 percent compared to constant current discharges at the same average discharge current of 100 A. These energy losses are manifested as temperature rises during discharge, amounting to a two-fold increase for a 400-A pulse compared to the constant current case. Because of the potentially large energy inefficiency, the results suggest that electric vehicle battery/speed controller interaction must be carefully considered in vehicle design.

Comparison of Antioxidant Constituents of Agriophyllum squarrosum Seed with Conventional Crop Seeds.

PubMed

Xu, Hai-Yan; Zheng, Hua-Chuan; Zhang, Hui-Wen; Zhang, Jin-Yu; Ma, Chao-Mei

2018-06-05

Twelve chemical constituents were identified from the Agriophyllum squarrosum seed (ASS). ASS contained large amounts of flavonoids, which were more concentrated in the seed coat. ASS-coat (1 g) contained 335.7 μg flavonoids of rutin equivalent, which was similar to the flavonoid content in soybean (351.2 μg/g), and greater than that in millet, wheat, rice, peanut, and corn. By LC-MS analysis, the major constituents in ASS were 3-O-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D- glucopyranosyl]-7- O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-quercetin (1), rutin (4), quercetin-3-O-β-D- apiosyl(1→2)-[α-L-rhamnosyl(l→6)]-β-D-glucoside (2), isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside (5), and allantoin (3), compared with isoflavonoids-genistin (16), daidzin (14), and glycitin (18) in soybean. Among constituents in ASS, compounds 1, 2, 4, protocatechuic acid (8), isoquercitrin (11), and luteolin-6-C-glucoside (12) potently scavenged DPPH radicals and intracellular ROS; strongly protected against peroxyl radical-induced DNA scission; and upregulated Nrf2, phosphorylated p38, phosphorylated JNK, and Bcl-2 in HepG2 cells. These results indicate that ASS is rich in antioxidant constituents that can enrich the varieties of food flavonoids, with significant beneficial implications for those who suffer from oxidative stress-related conditions. This study found that A. squarrosum seed contains large amounts of antioxidative flavonoids and compared its chemical constituents with those of conventional foods. These results should increase the interest in planting the sand-fixing A. squarrosum on a large scale, thus preventing desertification and providing valuable foods. © 2018 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Gigwa-Genotype investigator for genome-wide analyses.

PubMed

Sempéré, Guilhem; Philippe, Florian; Dereeper, Alexis; Ruiz, Manuel; Sarah, Gautier; Larmande, Pierre

2016-06-06

Exploring the structure of genomes and analyzing their evolution is essential to understanding the ecological adaptation of organisms. However, with the large amounts of data being produced by next-generation sequencing, computational challenges arise in terms of storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization. This is particularly true with regards to studies of genomic variation, which are currently lacking scalable and user-friendly data exploration solutions. Here we present Gigwa, a web-based tool that provides an easy and intuitive way to explore large amounts of genotyping data by filtering it not only on the basis of variant features, including functional annotations, but also on genotype patterns. The data storage relies on MongoDB, which offers good scalability properties. Gigwa can handle multiple databases and may be deployed in either single- or multi-user mode. In addition, it provides a wide range of popular export formats. The Gigwa application is suitable for managing large amounts of genomic variation data. Its user-friendly web interface makes such processing widely accessible. It can either be simply deployed on a workstation or be used to provide a shared data portal for a given community of researchers.

Aviation Fueling: A Cleaner, Greener Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

fuel has been growing at about 4% per year despite a 1% per year improvement in airplane fuel efficiencies. The resulting high-altitude cloud...of, source of, use of, and funding of energy. A reduced dependence on coal, gas, and nuclear energies will cost more. By giving serious consideration...out that we are “just one crop short of disaster ,” with food production also consuming and dependent upon large amounts of freshwater (see Table 2 and

An Investigation of Particulate Behavior in Solid Rocket Motors

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-06-01

that in the latter only a relatively few Al203 particles (of circular cross-section) are present. The other residue appears to be from the inhibitor ...cast in the propellant (Figure 16). The presence of large amounts of inhibitor residue obviously affected the scattered-light intensity profile and the...calculations. Therefore, the quantity of inhibitor used in future experi- ments should be minimized. D. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS The volume-surface mean

Faster growth in warmer winters for large trees in a Mediterranean-climate ecosystem

Treesearch

Seth W. Bigelow; Michael J. Papaik; Caroline Caum; Malcolm P. North

2014-01-01

Large trees (>76 cm breast-height diameter) are vital components of Sierra Nevada/Cascades mixed-conifer ecosystems because of their fire resistance, ability to sequester large amounts of carbon, and role as preferred habitat for sensitive species such as the California spotted owl. To investigate the likely performance of large trees in a rapidly changing...

Consolidated View on Space Software Engineering Problems - An Empirical Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, N.; Vieira, M.; Ricci, D.; Cotroneo, D.

2015-09-01

Independent software verification and validation (ISVV) has been a key process for engineering quality assessment for decades, and is considered in several international standards. The “European Space Agency (ESA) ISVV Guide” is used for the European Space market to drive the ISVV tasks and plans, and to select applicable tasks and techniques. Software artefacts have room for improvement due to the amount if issues found during ISVV tasks. This article presents the analysis of the results of a large set of ISVV issues originated from three different ESA missions-amounting to more than 1000 issues. The study presents the main types, triggers and impacts related to the ISVV issues found and sets the path for a global software engineering improvement based on the most common deficiencies identified for space projects.

The endangered Iris atropurpurea (Iridaceae) in Israel: honey-bees, night-sheltering male bees and female solitary bees as pollinators

PubMed Central

Watts, Stella; Sapir, Yuval; Segal, Bosmat; Dafni, Amots

2013-01-01

Background and Aims The coastal plain of Israel hosts the last few remaining populations of the endemic Iris atropurpurea (Iridaceae), a Red List species of high conservation priority. The flowers offer no nectar reward. Here the role of night-sheltering male solitary bees, honey-bees and female solitary bees as pollinators of I. atropurpurea is documented. Methods Breeding system, floral longevity, stigma receptivity, visitation rates, pollen loads, pollen deposition and removal and fruit- and seed-set were investigated. Key Results The main wild pollinators of this plant are male eucerine bees, and to a lesser extent, but with the potential to transfer pollen, female solitary bees. Honey-bees were found to be frequent diurnal visitors; they removed large quantities of pollen and were as effective as male sheltering bees at pollinating this species. The low density of pollen carried by male solitary bees was attributed to grooming activities, pollen displacement when bees aggregated together in flowers and pollen depletion by honey-bees. In the population free of honey-bee hives, male bees carried significantly more pollen grains on their bodies. Results from pollen analysis and pollen deposited on stigmas suggest that inadequate pollination may be an important factor limiting fruit-set. In the presence of honey-bees, eucerine bees were low removal–low deposition pollinators, whereas honey-bees were high removal–low deposition pollinators, because they removed large amounts into corbiculae and deposited relatively little onto receptive stigmas. Conclusions Even though overall, both bee taxa were equally effective pollinators, we suggest that honey-bees have the potential to reduce the amount of pollen available for plant reproduction, and to reduce the amount of resources available to solitary bee communities. The results of this study have potential implications for the conservation of this highly endangered plant species if hives are permitted inside reserves, where the bulk of Oncocyclus iris species are protected. PMID:23275630

Changes in cell wall architecture of wheat coleoptiles grown under continuous hypergravity conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wakabayashi, K.; Soga, K.; Kamisaka, S.; Hoson, T.

Modifications of cell wall structure of wheat coleoptiles in response to continuous hypergravity (300 g) treatment were investigated. Length of coleoptiles exposed to hypergravity for 2-4 days from germination stage was 60-70% of that of 1 g control. The net amounts of cell wall polysaccharides, such as hemicellulose and cellulose, of hypergravity-treated coleoptiles increased as much as those of 1 g control coleoptiles during the incubation period. As a result, the levels of cell wall polysaccharides per unit length of coleoptile, which mean the thickness of cell walls, largely increased under hypergravity conditions. Particularly, the amounts of hemicellulosic polymers with middle molecular mass (0.2-1 MDa) largely increased from day 2 to 3 under hypergravity conditions. The major sugar components of the hemicellulose fraction are arabinose, xylose and glucose. The ratios of arabinose and xylose to glucose were higher in hypergravity-treated coleoptiles than in control coleoptiles. The fractionation of hemicellulosic polymers into the neutral and acidic polymers by the anion-exchange column showed that the levels of acidic polymers (mainly composed of arabinoxylans) in cell walls of hypergravity-treated coleoptiles were higher than those of control coleoptiles. In addition to wall polysaccharides, the amounts of cell wall-bound phenolics, such as ferulic acid and diferulic acid, substantially increased during the incubation period both in 1 g control and hypergravity-treated coleoptiles. Especially, the levels of diferulic acid which cross-links hemicellulosic polymers were higher in hypergravity-treated coleoptiles than in control coleoptiles during the incubation period. These results suggest that hypergravity stimuli from the germination stage bias the type of synthesized hemicellulosic polysaccharides, although they do not restrict the net synthesis of cell wall constituents in wheat coleoptiles. The stimulation of the synthesis of arabinoxylans and of the formation of DFA, and also the resultant cell wall thickening may contribute to plant resistance to gravity stimuli.

Relating mesocarnivore relative abundance to anthropogenic land-use with a hierarchical spatial count model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Crimmins, Shawn M.; Walleser, Liza R.; Hertel, Dan R.; McKann, Patrick C.; Rohweder, Jason J.; Thogmartin, Wayne E.

2016-01-01

There is growing need to develop models of spatial patterns in animal abundance, yet comparatively few examples of such models exist. This is especially true in situations where the abundance of one species may inhibit that of another, such as the intensively-farmed landscape of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the central United States, where waterfowl production is largely constrained by mesocarnivore nest predation. We used a hierarchical Bayesian approach to relate the distribution of various land-cover types to the relative abundances of four mesocarnivores in the PPR: coyote Canis latrans, raccoon Procyon lotor, red fox Vulpes vulpes, and striped skunk Mephitis mephitis. We developed models for each species at multiple spatial resolutions (41.4 km2, 10.4 km2, and 2.6 km2) to address different ecological and management-related questions. Model results for each species were similar irrespective of resolution. We found that the amount of row-crop agriculture was nearly ubiquitous in our best models, exhibiting a positive relationship with relative abundance for each species. The amount of native grassland land-cover was positively associated with coyote and raccoon relative abundance, but generally absent from models for red fox and skunk. Red fox and skunk were positively associated with each other, suggesting potential niche overlap. We found no evidence that coyote abundance limited that of other mesocarnivore species, as might be expected under a hypothesis of mesopredator release. The relationships between relative abundance and land-cover types were similar across spatial resolutions. Our results indicated that mesocarnivores in the PPR are most likely to occur in portions of the landscape with large amounts of agricultural land-cover. Further, our results indicated that track-survey data can be used in a hierarchical framework to gain inferences regarding spatial patterns in animal relative abundance.

Using information theory to identify redundancy in common laboratory tests in the intensive care unit.

PubMed

Lee, Joon; Maslove, David M

2015-07-31

Clinical workflow is infused with large quantities of data, particularly in areas with enhanced monitoring such as the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Information theory can quantify the expected amounts of total and redundant information contained in a given clinical data type, and as such has the potential to inform clinicians on how to manage the vast volumes of data they are required to analyze in their daily practice. The objective of this proof-of-concept study was to quantify the amounts of redundant information associated with common ICU lab tests. We analyzed the information content of 11 laboratory test results from 29,149 adult ICU admissions in the MIMIC II database. Information theory was applied to quantify the expected amount of redundant information both between lab values from the same ICU day, and between consecutive ICU days. Most lab values showed a decreasing trend over time in the expected amount of novel information they contained. Platelet, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine measurements exhibited the most amount of redundant information on days 2 and 3 compared to the previous day. The creatinine-BUN and sodium-chloride pairs had the most redundancy. Information theory can help identify and discourage unnecessary testing and bloodwork, and can in general be a useful data analytic technique for many medical specialties that deal with information overload.

Pilot-Induced Oscillation Prediction With Three Levels of Simulation Motion Displacement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schroeder, Jeffery A.; Chung, William W. Y.; Tran, Duc T.; Laforce, Soren; Bengford, Norman J.

2001-01-01

Simulator motion platform characteristics were examined to determine if the amount of motion affects pilot-induced oscillation (PIO) prediction. Five test pilots evaluated how susceptible 18 different sets of pitch dynamics were to PIOs with three different levels of simulation motion platform displacement: large, small, and none. The pitch dynamics were those of a previous in-flight experiment, some of which elicited PIOs These in-flight results served as truth data for the simulation. As such, the in-flight experiment was replicated as much as possible. Objective and subjective data were collected and analyzed With large motion, PIO and handling qualities ratings matched the flight data more closely than did small motion or no motion. Also, regardless of the aircraft dynamics, large motion increased pilot confidence in assigning handling qualifies ratings, reduced safety pilot trips, and lowered touchdown velocities. While both large and small motion provided a pitch rate cue of high fidelity, only large motion presented the pilot with a high fidelity vertical acceleration cue.

Implementing Parquet equations using HPX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellar, Samuel; Wagle, Bibek; Yang, Shuxiang; Tam, Ka-Ming; Kaiser, Hartmut; Moreno, Juana; Jarrell, Mark

A new C++ runtime system (HPX) enables simulations of complex systems to run more efficiently on parallel and heterogeneous systems. This increased efficiency allows for solutions to larger simulations of the parquet approximation for a system with impurities. The relevancy of the parquet equations depends upon the ability to solve systems which require long runs and large amounts of memory. These limitations, in addition to numerical complications arising from stability of the solutions, necessitate running on large distributed systems. As the computational resources trend towards the exascale and the limitations arising from computational resources vanish efficiency of large scale simulations becomes a focus. HPX facilitates efficient simulations through intelligent overlapping of computation and communication. Simulations such as the parquet equations which require the transfer of large amounts of data should benefit from HPX implementations. Supported by the the NSF EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement No. EPS-1003897 with additional support from the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Microphysics of Pyrocumulonimbus Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jensen, Eric; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Fridlind, Ann

2004-01-01

The intense heat from forest fires can generate explosive deep convective cloud systems that inject pollutants to high altitudes. Both satellite and high-altitude aircraft measurements have documented cases in which these pyrocumulonimbus clouds inject large amounts of smoke well into the stratosphere (Fromm and Servranckx 2003; Jost et al. 2004). This smoke can remain in the stratosphere, be transported large distances, and affect lower stratospheric chemistry. In addition recent in situ measurements in pyrocumulus updrafts have shown that the high concentrations of smoke particles have significant impacts on cloud microphysical properties. Very high droplet number densities result in delayed precipitation and may enhance lightning (Andrew et al. 2004). Presumably, the smoke particles will also lead to changes in the properties of anvil cirrus produces by the deep convection, with resulting influences on cloud radiative forcing. In situ sampling near the tops of mature pyrocumulonimbus is difficult due to the high altitude and violence of the storms. In this study, we use large eddy simulations (LES) with size-resolved microphysics to elucidate physical processes in pyrocumulonimbus clouds.

Technologies and Concepts for Reducing the Fuel Burn of Subsonic Transport Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nickol, Craig L.

2012-01-01

There are many technologies under development that have the potential to enable large fuel burn reductions in the 2025 timeframe for subsonic transport aircraft relative to the current fleet. This paper identifies a potential technology suite and analyzes the fuel burn reduction potential of these technologies when integrated into advanced subsonic transport concepts. Advanced tube-and-wing concepts are developed in the single aisle and large twin aisle class, and a hybrid-wing-body concept is developed for the large twin aisle class. The resulting fuel burn reductions for the advanced tube-and-wing concepts range from a 42% reduction relative to the 777-200 to a 44% reduction relative to the 737-800. In addition, the hybrid-wingbody design resulted in a 47% fuel burn reduction relative to the 777-200. Of course, to achieve these fuel burn reduction levels, a significant amount of technology and concept maturation is required between now and 2025. A methodology for capturing and tracking concept maturity is also developed and presented in this paper.

[Man-made vitreous fibers: current state of knowledge].

PubMed

Chiappino, G

1999-01-01

Artificial vitreous fibres have been used as thermal insulation since the 1930's. Experimental studies on possible pathogenic, fibrogenic or carcinogenic effects did not produce any clear results until the 1970's, when Stanton demonstrated the carcinogenic effect of these and numerous other fibrous materials after direct inoculation in the pleural cavity. In subsequent years epidemiological and experimental studies multiplied: the epidemiological investigations did not show any evident pathogenic effects on very large cohorts of workers, and experimentally the carcinogenic effect was confirmed only by inoculation of high doses of fibres, while negative results were reported in inhalatory experiments. In view of the considerably long time that has elapsed since these materials were first used, the low biopersistence of the fibres and the now consolidated results of a large amount of reliable research, it is today possible to affirm that artificial vitreous fibres are not a hazard for the workers who produce and use them. Since current production in Europe involves mostly large diameter, non respirable fibres or fibres with extremely low biopersistence, in accordance with precise European Union recommendations, we may look to the future without undue concern.

Local Cloudiness Development Forecast Based on Simulation of Solid Phase Formation Processes in the Atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barodka, Siarhei; Kliutko, Yauhenia; Krasouski, Alexander; Papko, Iryna; Svetashev, Alexander; Turishev, Leonid

2013-04-01

Nowadays numerical simulation of thundercloud formation processes is of great interest as an actual problem from the practical point of view. Thunderclouds significantly affect airplane flights, and mesoscale weather forecast has much to contribute to facilitate the aviation forecast procedures. An accurate forecast can certainly help to avoid aviation accidents due to weather conditions. The present study focuses on modelling of the convective clouds development and thunder clouds detection on the basis of mesoscale atmospheric processes simulation, aiming at significantly improving the aeronautical forecast. In the analysis, the primary weather radar information has been used to be further adapted for mesoscale forecast systems. Two types of domains have been selected for modelling: an internal one (with radius of 8 km), and an external one (with radius of 300 km). The internal domain has been directly applied to study the local clouds development, and the external domain data has been treated as initial and final conditions for cloud cover formation. The domain height has been chosen according to the civil aviation forecast data (i.e. not exceeding 14 km). Simulations of weather conditions and local clouds development have been made within selected domains with the WRF modelling system. In several cases, thunderclouds are detected within the convective clouds. To specify the given category of clouds, we employ a simulation technique of solid phase formation processes in the atmosphere. Based on modelling results, we construct vertical profiles indicating the amount of solid phase in the atmosphere. Furthermore, we obtain profiles demonstrating the amount of ice particles and large particles (hailstones). While simulating the processes of solid phase formation, we investigate vertical and horizontal air flows. Consequently, we attempt to separate the total amount of solid phase into categories of small ice particles, large ice particles and hailstones. Also, we strive to reveal and differentiate the basic atmospheric parameters of sublimation and coagulation processes, aiming to predict ice particles precipitation. To analyze modelling results we apply the VAPOR three-dimensional visualization package. For the chosen domains, a diurnal synoptic situation has been simulated, including rain, sleet, ice pellets, and hail. As a result, we have obtained a large scope of data describing various atmospheric parameters: cloud cover, major wind components, basic levels of isobaric surfaces, and precipitation rate. Based on this data, we show both distinction in precipitation formation due to various heights and its differentiation of the ice particles. The relation between particle rise in the atmosphere and its size is analyzed: at 8-10 km altitude large ice particles, resulted from coagulation, dominate, while at 6-7 km altitude one can find snow and small ice particles formed by condensation growth. Also, mechanical trajectories of solid precipitation particles for various ice formation processes have been calculated.

Plasma issues associated with the use of electrodynamic tethers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hastings, D. E.

1986-01-01

The use of an electrodynamic tether to generate power or thrust on the space station raises important plasma issues associted with the current flow. In addition to the issue of current closure through the space station, high power tethers (equal to or greater than tens of kilowatts) require the use of plasma contactors to enhance the current flow. They will generate large amounts of electrostatic turbulence in the vicinity of the space station. This is because the contactors work best when a large amount of current driven turbulence is excited. Current work is reviewed and future directions suggested.

Models of resource planning during formation of calendar construction plans for erection of high-rise buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pocebneva, Irina; Belousov, Vadim; Fateeva, Irina

2018-03-01

This article provides a methodical description of resource-time analysis for a wide range of requirements imposed for resource consumption processes in scheduling tasks during the construction of high-rise buildings and facilities. The core of the proposed approach and is the resource models being determined. The generalized network models are the elements of those models, the amount of which can be too large to carry out the analysis of each element. Therefore, the problem is to approximate the original resource model by simpler time models, when their amount is not very large.

Evaluation of Flush-Mounted, S-Duct Inlets with Large Amounts of Boundary Layer Ingestion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berrier, Bobby L.; Morehouse, Melissa B.

2003-01-01

A new high Reynolds number test capability for boundary layer ingesting inlets has been developed for the NASA Langley Research Center 0.3-Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel. Using this new capability, an experimental investigation of four S-duct inlet configurations with large amounts of boundary layer ingestion (nominal boundary layer thickness of about 40% of inlet height) was conducted at realistic operating conditions (high subsonic Mach numbers and full-scale Reynolds numbers). The objectives of this investigation were to 1) provide a database for CFD tool validation on boundary layer ingesting inlets operating at realistic conditions and 2) provide a baseline inlet for future inlet flow-control studies. Tests were conducted at Mach numbers from 0.25 to 0.83, Reynolds numbers (based on duct exit diameter) from 5.1 million to a full-scale value of 13.9 million, and inlet mass-flow ratios from 0.39 to 1.58 depending on Mach number. Results of this investigation indicate that inlet pressure recovery generally decreased and inlet distortion generally increased with increasing Mach number. Except at low Mach numbers, increasing inlet mass-flow increased pressure recovery and increased distortion. Increasing the amount of boundary layer ingestion (by decreasing inlet throat height) or ingesting a boundary layer with a distorted (adverse) profile decreased pressure recovery and increased distortion. Finally, increasing Reynolds number had almost no effect on inlet distortion but increased inlet recovery by about one-half percent at a Mach number near cruise.

Improvements in nanoscale zero-valent iron production by milling through the addition of alumina

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ribas, D.; Cernik, M.; Martí, V.; Benito, J. A.

2016-07-01

A new milling procedure for a cost-effective production of nanoscale zero-valent iron for environmental remediation is presented. Conventional ball milling of iron in an organic solvent as Mono Ethylene Glycol produces flattened iron particles that are unlikely to break even after very long milling times. With the aim of breaking down these iron flakes, in this new procedure, further milling is carried out by adding an amount of fine alumina powder to the previously milled solution. As the amount of added alumina increases from 9 to 54 g l-1, a progressive decrease of the presence of flakes is observed. In the latter case, the appearance of the particles formed by fragments of former flakes is rather homogeneous, with most of the final nanoparticles having an equivalent diameter well below 1 µm and with an average particle size in solution of around 400 nm. An additional increase of alumina content results in a highly viscous solution showing worse particle size distribution. Milled particles, in the case of alumina concentrations of 54 g l-1, have a fairly large specific surface area and high Fe(0) content. These new particles show a very good Cr(VI) removal efficiency compared with other commercial products available. This good reactivity is related to the absence of an oxide layer, the large amount of superficial irregularities generated by the repetitive fracture process during milling and the presence of a fine nanostructure within the iron nanoparticles.

[Injudicious and excessive use of antibiotics: public health and salmon aquaculture in Chile].

PubMed

Millanao B, Ana; Barrientos H, Marcela; Gómez C, Carolina; Tomova, Alexandra; Buschmann, Alejandro; Dölz, Humberto; Cabello, Felipe C

2011-01-01

Salmon aquaculture was one of the major growing and exporting industries in Chile. Its development was accompanied by an increasing and excessive use of large amounts of antimicrobials, such as quinolones, tetracyclines and florfenicol. The examination of the sanitary conditions in the industry as part of a more general investigation into the uncontrolled and extensive dissemination of the ISA virus epizootic in 2008, found numerous and wide-ranging shortcomings and limitations in management of preventive fish health. There was a growing industrial use of large amounts of antimicrobials as an attempt at prophylaxis of bacterial infections resulting from widespread unsanitary and unhealthy fish rearing conditions. As might be expected, these attempts were unsuccessful and this heavy antimicrobial use failed to prevent viral and parasitic epizootics. Comparative analysis of the amounts of antimicrobials, especially quinolones, consumed in salmon aquaculture and in human medicine in Chile robustly suggests that the most important selective pressure for antibiotic resistant bacteria in the country will be excessive antibiotic use in this industry. This excessive use will facilitate selection of resistant bacteria and resistance genes in water environments. The commonality of antibiotic resistance genes and the mobilome between environmental aquatic bacteria, fish pathogens and pathogens of terrestrial animals and humans suggests that horizontal gene transfer occurs between the resistome of these apparently independent and isolated bacterial populations. Thus, excessive antibiotic use in the marine environment in aquaculture is not innocuous and can potentially negatively affect therapy of bacterial infections of humans and terrestrial animals.

Rotor compound concept for designing an industrial HTS synchronous motor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashani, M.; Hosseina, M.; Sarrafan, K.; Darabi, A.

2013-06-01

Recently, producing power with smaller amount of losses become as a goal in our daily life. Today, large amount of energy waste in power networks all around the world. The main reason is “resistive electric equipments” of power networks. Since early 1980s, simultaneous with the development of high temperature superconductive (HTS) technology, superconductors gently attracted the mankind attentions. Using superconductive equipments instead of conventional resistive ones are result in salient electric loss reduction in power systems. Especially to reduce losses in power networks superconductive industrial rotating machines can potentially perform a significant role. In early recent century, first generation of HTS rotating machines was born. But unfortunately they have long way to penetrate the commercial markets yet. In HTS rotating machines the conventional copper made windings are replaced with the HTS superconductors. In this paper an industrial HTS synchronous motor with YBCO coated conductor field windings was designed. As a new approach, model was equipped with a compound rotor that includes both magnetic and non-magnetic materials. So, large amount of heavy iron made part was replaced by light non-magnetic material such as G-10 fiberglass. Furthermore, in this structure iron loss in rotor could be reduced to its lowest value. Also less weight and more air gap energy density were the additional advantages. Regarding zero electric loss production in field windings and less iron loss in rotor construction, this model potentially is more effective than the other iron made HTS motors.

Human-Machine Cooperation in Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval: A Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shirahama, Kimiaki; Grzegorzek, Marcin; Indurkhya, Bipin

2015-01-01

"Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval" (LSMR) is the task to fast analyze a large amount of multimedia data like images or videos and accurately find the ones relevant to a certain semantic meaning. Although LSMR has been investigated for more than two decades in the fields of multimedia processing and computer vision, a more…

Large Groups in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area - Their Numbers, Characteristics, and Impact

Treesearch

David W. Lime

1972-01-01

The impact of "large" parties in the BWCA is discussed in terms of their effect on the resource and on the experience of other visitors. The amount of use by large groups and the visitors most likely to be affected by a reduction in party size limit are described.

Large-scale retrieval for medical image analytics: A comprehensive review.

PubMed

Li, Zhongyu; Zhang, Xiaofan; Müller, Henning; Zhang, Shaoting

2018-01-01

Over the past decades, medical image analytics was greatly facilitated by the explosion of digital imaging techniques, where huge amounts of medical images were produced with ever-increasing quality and diversity. However, conventional methods for analyzing medical images have achieved limited success, as they are not capable to tackle the huge amount of image data. In this paper, we review state-of-the-art approaches for large-scale medical image analysis, which are mainly based on recent advances in computer vision, machine learning and information retrieval. Specifically, we first present the general pipeline of large-scale retrieval, summarize the challenges/opportunities of medical image analytics on a large-scale. Then, we provide a comprehensive review of algorithms and techniques relevant to major processes in the pipeline, including feature representation, feature indexing, searching, etc. On the basis of existing work, we introduce the evaluation protocols and multiple applications of large-scale medical image retrieval, with a variety of exploratory and diagnostic scenarios. Finally, we discuss future directions of large-scale retrieval, which can further improve the performance of medical image analysis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Natural killer cells attack tumor cells expressing high levels of sialyl Lewis x oligosaccharides

PubMed Central

Ohyama, Chikara; Kanto, Satoru; Kato, Kazunori; Nakano, Osamu; Arai, Yoichi; Kato, Tetsuro; Chen, Shihao; Fukuda, Michiko N.; Fukuda, Minoru

2002-01-01

Epithelial carcinoma and leukemia cells express sialyl Lewis x oligosaccharides as tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens. To determine the role of sialyl Lewis x oligosaccharides in tumor dissemination, human melanoma MeWo cells, which do not express sialyl Lewis x, were transfected with α1,3-fucosyltransferase III (FTIII), and cell lines expressing different amounts of sialyl Lewis x were isolated. When these cells were injected into the tail vein of nude mice, cells expressing moderate amounts of sialyl Lewis x (MeWo-FTIII⋅M) produced a significantly greater number of lung tumor foci than did parental MeWo cells. In contrast, cells expressing large amounts of sialyl Lewis x (MeWo-FTIII⋅H) produced few lung tumor foci in nude mice but were highly tumorigenic in beige mice, which have defective natural killer (NK) cells. In vitro assays demonstrated that MeWo-FTIII⋅H cells are much more sensitive to NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity than are MeWo-FTIII⋅M cells or parental MeWo cells and the susceptibility of MeWo-FTIII⋅H cells to NK cell-mediated cytolysis can be inhibited by preincubating MeWo-FTIII⋅H cells with anti-sialyl Lewis x antibody. Moreover, we discovered that NK cell-mediated cytolysis of MeWo-FTIII⋅H cells can be inhibited by the addition of an antibody against the NK cell receptor CD94 or sialyl Lewis x oligosaccharides. These results, combined with structural analysis of MeWo-FTIII⋅H cell carbohydrates, indicate that moderate amounts of sialyl Lewis x lead to tumor metastasis, whereas expression of high levels of sialyl Lewis x leads to an NK cell attack on tumor cells, demonstrating that expression of different amounts of sialyl Lewis x results in entirely different biological consequences. PMID:12370411

Atmospheric feedbacks in North Africa from an irrigated, afforested Sahara

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kemena, Tronje Peer; Matthes, Katja; Martin, Thomas; Wahl, Sebastian; Oschlies, Andreas

2017-09-01

Afforestation of the Sahara has been proposed as a climate engineering method to sequester a substantial amount of carbon dioxide, potentially effective to mitigate climate change. Earlier studies predicted changes in the atmospheric circulation system. These atmospheric feedbacks raise questions about the self-sustainability of such an intervention, but have not been investigated in detail. Here, we investigate changes in precipitation and circulation in response to Saharan large-scale afforestation and irrigation with NCAR's CESM-WACCM Earth system model. Our model results show a Saharan temperature reduction by 6 K and weak precipitation enhancement by 267 mm/year over the Sahara. Only 26% of the evapotranspirated water re-precipitates over the Saharan Desert, considerably large amounts are advected southward to the Sahel zone and enhance the West African monsoon (WAM). Different processes cause circulation and precipitation changes over North Africa. The increase in atmospheric moisture leads to radiative cooling above the Sahara and increased high-level cloud coverage as well as atmospheric warming above the Sahel zone. Both lead to a circulation anomaly with descending air over the Sahara and ascending air over the Sahel zone. Together with changes in the meridional temperature gradient, this results in a southward shift of the inner-tropical front. The strengthening of the Tropical easterly jet and the northward displacement of the African easterly jet is associated with a northward displacement and strengthening of the WAM precipitation. Our results suggest complex atmospheric circulation feedbacks, which reduce the precipitation potential over an afforested Sahara and enhance WAM precipitation.

Atmospheric feedbacks in North Africa from an irrigated, afforested Sahara

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kemena, Tronje Peer; Matthes, Katja; Martin, Thomas; Wahl, Sebastian; Oschlies, Andreas

2018-06-01

Afforestation of the Sahara has been proposed as a climate engineering method to sequester a substantial amount of carbon dioxide, potentially effective to mitigate climate change. Earlier studies predicted changes in the atmospheric circulation system. These atmospheric feedbacks raise questions about the self-sustainability of such an intervention, but have not been investigated in detail. Here, we investigate changes in precipitation and circulation in response to Saharan large-scale afforestation and irrigation with NCAR's CESM-WACCM Earth system model. Our model results show a Saharan temperature reduction by 6 K and weak precipitation enhancement by 267 mm/year over the Sahara. Only 26% of the evapotranspirated water re-precipitates over the Saharan Desert, considerably large amounts are advected southward to the Sahel zone and enhance the West African monsoon (WAM). Different processes cause circulation and precipitation changes over North Africa. The increase in atmospheric moisture leads to radiative cooling above the Sahara and increased high-level cloud coverage as well as atmospheric warming above the Sahel zone. Both lead to a circulation anomaly with descending air over the Sahara and ascending air over the Sahel zone. Together with changes in the meridional temperature gradient, this results in a southward shift of the inner-tropical front. The strengthening of the Tropical easterly jet and the northward displacement of the African easterly jet is associated with a northward displacement and strengthening of the WAM precipitation. Our results suggest complex atmospheric circulation feedbacks, which reduce the precipitation potential over an afforested Sahara and enhance WAM precipitation.

The algorithm study for using the back propagation neural network in CT image segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Peng; Liu, Jie; Chen, Chen; Li, Ying Qi

2017-01-01

Back propagation neural network(BP neural network) is a type of multi-layer feed forward network which spread positively, while the error spread backwardly. Since BP network has advantages in learning and storing the mapping between a large number of input and output layers without complex mathematical equations to describe the mapping relationship, it is most widely used. BP can iteratively compute the weight coefficients and thresholds of the network based on the training and back propagation of samples, which can minimize the error sum of squares of the network. Since the boundary of the computed tomography (CT) heart images is usually discontinuous, and it exist large changes in the volume and boundary of heart images, The conventional segmentation such as region growing and watershed algorithm can't achieve satisfactory results. Meanwhile, there are large differences between the diastolic and systolic images. The conventional methods can't accurately classify the two cases. In this paper, we introduced BP to handle the segmentation of heart images. We segmented a large amount of CT images artificially to obtain the samples, and the BP network was trained based on these samples. To acquire the appropriate BP network for the segmentation of heart images, we normalized the heart images, and extract the gray-level information of the heart. Then the boundary of the images was input into the network to compare the differences between the theoretical output and the actual output, and we reinput the errors into the BP network to modify the weight coefficients of layers. Through a large amount of training, the BP network tend to be stable, and the weight coefficients of layers can be determined, which means the relationship between the CT images and the boundary of heart.

75 FR 54059 - Extension of Filing Accommodation for Static Pool Information in Filings With Respect to Asset...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-03

... information could include a significant amount of statistical information that would be difficult to file... required static pool information. Given the large amount of statistical information involved, commentators....; and 18 U.S.C. 1350. * * * * * 2. Amend Sec. 232.312 paragraph (a) introductory text by removing...

Energy Storage Requirements for Achieving 50% Penetration of Solar Photovoltaic Energy in California

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

Denholm, Paul; Margolis, Robert

2016-09-01

We estimate the storage required to enable PV penetration up to 50% in California (with renewable penetration over 66%), and we quantify the complex relationships among storage, PV penetration, grid flexibility, and PV costs due to increased curtailment. We find that the storage needed depends strongly on the amount of other flexibility resources deployed. With very low-cost PV (three cents per kilowatt-hour) and a highly flexible electric power system, about 19 gigawatts of energy storage could enable 50% PV penetration with a marginal net PV levelized cost of energy (LCOE) comparable to the variable costs of future combined-cycle gas generatorsmore » under carbon constraints. This system requires extensive use of flexible generation, transmission, demand response, and electrifying one quarter of the vehicle fleet in California with largely optimized charging. A less flexible system, or more expensive PV would require significantly greater amounts of storage. The amount of storage needed to support very large amounts of PV might fit within a least-cost framework driven by declining storage costs and reduced storage-duration needs due to high PV penetration.« less

Energy Storage Requirements for Achieving 50% Solar Photovoltaic Energy Penetration in California

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

Denholm, Paul; Margolis, Robert

2016-08-01

We estimate the storage required to enable PV penetration up to 50% in California (with renewable penetration over 66%), and we quantify the complex relationships among storage, PV penetration, grid flexibility, and PV costs due to increased curtailment. We find that the storage needed depends strongly on the amount of other flexibility resources deployed. With very low-cost PV (three cents per kilowatt-hour) and a highly flexible electric power system, about 19 gigawatts of energy storage could enable 50% PV penetration with a marginal net PV levelized cost of energy (LCOE) comparable to the variable costs of future combined-cycle gas generatorsmore » under carbon constraints. This system requires extensive use of flexible generation, transmission, demand response, and electrifying one quarter of the vehicle fleet in California with largely optimized charging. A less flexible system, or more expensive PV would require significantly greater amounts of storage. The amount of storage needed to support very large amounts of PV might fit within a least-cost framework driven by declining storage costs and reduced storage-duration needs due to high PV penetration.« less

Effects of mass loading on dayside solar wind-magnetosphere interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, B.; Brambles, O.; Wiltberger, M. J.; Lyon, J.; Lotko, W.

2016-12-01

Satellite observations have shown that terrestrial-sourced plasmas mass load the dayside magnetopause and cause reductions in local reconnection rates. Whether the integrated dayside reconnection rate is affected by these local mass-loading processes is still an open question. Several mechanisms have been proposed to describe the control of dayside reconnection, including the local-control and global-control hypotheses. We have conducted a series of controlled numerical simulations to investigate the response of dayside solar wind-magnetopshere (SW-M) coupling to mass loading processes. Our simulation results show that the coupled SW-M system may exhibit both local and global control behaviors depending on the amount of mass loading. With a small amount of mass loading, the changes in the local reconnection rate does not affect magnetosheath properties and the geoeffective length in the upstream solar wind, resulting in the same integrated dayside reconnection rate. With a large amount of mass loading, the magnetosheath properties and the geoeffective length are significantly modified by slowing down the local reconnection rate, resulting in a significant reduction in the integrated dayside reconnection rate. The response of magnetosheath properties to mass loading is expected from the Cassak-Shay asymmetric reconnection theory through conservation of energy. The physical origin of the transition regime between local and global control is qualitatively explained. The parameters that determine the transition regime depend on the location, spatial extension and density of the mass loading process.

Factors that affect the willingness of residents to pay for solid waste management in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Yeung, Iris M H; Chung, William

2018-03-01

In Hong Kong, problems involving solid waste management have become an urgent matter in recent years. To solve these problems, the Hong Kong government proposed three policies, namely, waste charging, landfill extension, and development of new incinerators. In this study, a large sample questionnaire survey was conducted to examine the knowledge and attitude of residents on the three policies, the amount of their daily waste disposal, and their willingness to pay (WTP). Results reveal that only 22.7% of respondents are aware of the earliest time that one of the landfills will be sated, and more than half of respondents support the three policies. However, more than one third of residents (36.1%) are unwilling to pay the minimum waste charge amount of HK$30 estimated by the Council for Sustainable Development in Hong Kong. Logit model results indicate that five key factors affect WTP, namely, knowledge of residents on the timing of landfill fullness, degree of support in waste charge policy, amount of daily waste disposal, age, and income. These results suggest that strong and rigorous promotional and educational programs are needed to improve the knowledge and positive attitude of residents towards recycling methods and the three policies. However, subsidy should be provided to low-income groups who cannot afford to pay the waste charge.

Managing Materials and Wastes for Homeland Security Incidents

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

To provide information on waste management planning and preparedness before a homeland security incident, including preparing for the large amounts of waste that would need to be managed when an incident occurs, such as a large-scale natural disaster.

Reliability-based optimization design of geosynthetic reinforced road embankment.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-07-01

Road embankments are typically large earth structures, the construction of which requires for large amounts of competent fill soil. In order to limit costs, the utilization of geosynthetics in road embankments allows for construction of steep slopes ...

Characteristics of H2S emission from aged refuse after excavation exposure.

PubMed

Shen, Dong-Sheng; Du, Yao; Fang, Yuan; Hu, Li-Fang; Fang, Cheng-Ran; Long, Yu-Yang

2015-05-01

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S(g)) emission from landfills is a widespread problem, especially when aged refuse is excavated. H2S(g) emission from aged refuse exposed to air was investigated and the results showed that large amounts of H2S(g) can be released, especially in the first few hours after excavation, when H2S(g) concentrations in air near refuse could reach 2.00 mg m(-3). Initial exposure to air did not inhibit the emission of H2S(g), as is generally assumed, but actually promoted it. The amounts of H2S(g) emitted in the first 2 d after excavation can be very dangerous, and the risks associated with the emission of H2S(g) could decrease significantly with time. Unlike a large number of sulfide existed under anaerobic conditions, the sulfide in aged municipal solid waste can be oxidized chemically to elemental sulfur (but not sulfate) under aerobic conditions, and its conversion rate was higher than 80%. Only microorganisms can oxidize the reduced sulfur species to sulfate, and the conversion rate could reach about 50%. Using appropriate techniques to enhance these chemical and biological transformations could allow the potential health risks caused by H2S(g) after refuse excavation to be largely avoided. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparison of shoreline seines with fyke nets for sampling littoral fish communities in floodplain lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clark, S.J.; Jackson, J.R.; Lochmann, S.E.

2007-01-01

We compared shoreline seines with fyke nets in terms of their ability to sample fish species in the littoral zone of 22 floodplain lakes of the White River, Arkansas. Lakes ranged in size from less than 0.5 to 51.0 ha. Most contained large amounts of coarse woody debris within the littoral zone, thus making seining in shallow areas difficult. We sampled large lakes (>2 ha) using three fyke nets; small lakes (<2 ha) were sampled using two fyke nets. Fyke nets were set for 24 h. Large lakes were sampled with an average of 11 seine hauls/ lake and small lakes were sampled with an average of 3 seine hauls/lake, but exact shoreline seining effort varied among lakes depending on the amount of open shoreline. Fyke nets collected more fish and produced greater species richness and diversity measures than did seining. Species evenness was similar for the two gear types. Two species were unique to seine samples, whereas 13 species and 3 families were unique to fyke-net samples. Although fyke nets collected more fish and more species than did shoreline seines, neither gear collected all the species present in the littoral zone of floodplain lakes. These results confirm the need for a multiple-gear approach to fully characterize the littoral fish assemblages in floodplain lakes. ?? Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2007.

Serum Amylase in Bulimia Nervosa and Purging Disorder: Differentiating the Association with Binge Eating versus Purging Behavior

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Barbara E.; Jimerson, David C.; Smith, Adrian; Keel, Pamela K.

2011-01-01

Objective Elevated serum amylase levels in bulimia nervosa (BN), associated with increased salivary gland size and self-induced vomiting in some patients, provide a possible marker of symptom severity. The goal of this study was to assess whether serum hyperamylasemia in BN is more closely associated with binge eating episodes involving consumption of large amounts of food or with purging behavior. Method Participants included women with BN (n=26); women with “purging disorder” (PD), a subtype of EDNOS characterized by recurrent purging in the absence of objectively large binge eating episodes (n=14); and healthy non-eating disorder female controls (n=32). There were no significant differences in age or body mass index (BMI) across groups. The clinical groups reported similar frequency of self-induced vomiting behavior and were free of psychotropic medications. Serum samples were obtained after overnight fast and were assayed for alpha-amylase by enzymatic method. Results Serum amylase levels were significantly elevated in BN (60.7 ± 25.4 international units [IU]/liter, mean ± sd) in comparison to PD (44.7 ± 17.1 IU/L, p < 02) and to Controls (49.3 ± 15.8, p < .05). Conclusion These findings provide evidence to suggest that it is recurrent binge eating involving large amounts of food, rather than self-induced vomiting, which contributes to elevated serum amylase values in BN. PMID:21781981

Generation Expansion Planning With Large Amounts of Wind Power via Decision-Dependent Stochastic Programming

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

Zhan, Yiduo; Zheng, Qipeng P.; Wang, Jianhui

Power generation expansion planning needs to deal with future uncertainties carefully, given that the invested generation assets will be in operation for a long time. Many stochastic programming models have been proposed to tackle this challenge. However, most previous works assume predetermined future uncertainties (i.e., fixed random outcomes with given probabilities). In several recent studies of generation assets' planning (e.g., thermal versus renewable), new findings show that the investment decisions could affect the future uncertainties as well. To this end, this paper proposes a multistage decision-dependent stochastic optimization model for long-term large-scale generation expansion planning, where large amounts of windmore » power are involved. In the decision-dependent model, the future uncertainties are not only affecting but also affected by the current decisions. In particular, the probability distribution function is determined by not only input parameters but also decision variables. To deal with the nonlinear constraints in our model, a quasi-exact solution approach is then introduced to reformulate the multistage stochastic investment model to a mixed-integer linear programming model. The wind penetration, investment decisions, and the optimality of the decision-dependent model are evaluated in a series of multistage case studies. The results show that the proposed decision-dependent model provides effective optimization solutions for long-term generation expansion planning.« less

Large-scale production and isolation of Candida biofilm extracellular matrix.

PubMed

Zarnowski, Robert; Sanchez, Hiram; Andes, David R

2016-12-01

The extracellular matrix of biofilm is unique to the biofilm lifestyle, and it has key roles in community survival. A complete understanding of the biochemical nature of the matrix is integral to the understanding of the roles of matrix components. This knowledge is a first step toward the development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics to address persistent biofilm infections. Many of the assay methods needed for refined matrix composition analysis require milligram amounts of material that is separated from the cellular components of these complex communities. The protocol described here explains the large-scale production and isolation of the Candida biofilm extracellular matrix. To our knowledge, the proposed procedure is the only currently available approach in the field that yields milligram amounts of biofilm matrix. This procedure first requires biofilms to be seeded in large-surface-area roller bottles, followed by cell adhesion and biofilm maturation during continuous movement of the medium across the surface of the rotating bottle. The formed matrix is then separated from the entire biomass using sonication, which efficiently removes the matrix without perturbing the fungal cell wall. Subsequent filtration, dialysis and lyophilization steps result in a purified matrix product sufficient for biochemical, structural and functional assays. The overall protocol takes ∼11 d to complete. This protocol has been used for Candida species, but, using the troubleshooting guide provided, it could be adapted for other fungi or bacteria.

Genomics Portals: integrative web-platform for mining genomics data.

PubMed

Shinde, Kaustubh; Phatak, Mukta; Johannes, Freudenberg M; Chen, Jing; Li, Qian; Vineet, Joshi K; Hu, Zhen; Ghosh, Krishnendu; Meller, Jaroslaw; Medvedovic, Mario

2010-01-13

A large amount of experimental data generated by modern high-throughput technologies is available through various public repositories. Our knowledge about molecular interaction networks, functional biological pathways and transcriptional regulatory modules is rapidly expanding, and is being organized in lists of functionally related genes. Jointly, these two sources of information hold a tremendous potential for gaining new insights into functioning of living systems. Genomics Portals platform integrates access to an extensive knowledge base and a large database of human, mouse, and rat genomics data with basic analytical visualization tools. It provides the context for analyzing and interpreting new experimental data and the tool for effective mining of a large number of publicly available genomics datasets stored in the back-end databases. The uniqueness of this platform lies in the volume and the diversity of genomics data that can be accessed and analyzed (gene expression, ChIP-chip, ChIP-seq, epigenomics, computationally predicted binding sites, etc), and the integration with an extensive knowledge base that can be used in such analysis. The integrated access to primary genomics data, functional knowledge and analytical tools makes Genomics Portals platform a unique tool for interpreting results of new genomics experiments and for mining the vast amount of data stored in the Genomics Portals backend databases. Genomics Portals can be accessed and used freely at http://GenomicsPortals.org.

Local and Regional Determinants of an Uncommon Functional Group in Freshwater Lakes and Ponds

PubMed Central

McCann, Michael James

2015-01-01

A combination of local and regional factors and stochastic forces is expected to determine the occurrence of species and the structure of communities. However, in most cases, our understanding is incomplete, with large amounts of unexplained variation. Using functional groups rather than individual species may help explain the relationship between community composition and conditions. In this study, I used survey data from freshwater lakes and ponds to understand factors that determine the presence of the floating plant functional group in the northeast United States. Of the 176 water bodies surveyed, 104 (59.1%) did not contain any floating plant species. The occurrence of this functional group was largely determined by local abiotic conditions, which were spatially autocorrelated across the region. A model predicting the presence of the floating plant functional group performed similarly to the best species-specific models. Using a permutation test, I also found that the observed prevalence of floating plants is no different than expected by random assembly from a species pool of its size. These results suggest that the size of the species pool interacts with local conditions in determining the presence of a functional group. Nevertheless, a large amount of unexplained variation remains, attributable to either stochastic species occurrence or incomplete predictive models. The simple permutation approach in this study can be extended to test alternative models of community assembly. PMID:26121636

The impact of mesoscale convective systems on global precipitation: A modeling study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Wei-Kuo

2017-04-01

The importance of precipitating mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) has been quantified from TRMM precipitation radar and microwave imager retrievals. MCSs generate more than 50% of the rainfall in most tropical regions. Typical MCSs have horizontal scales of a few hundred kilometers (km); therefore, a large domain and high resolution are required for realistic simulations of MCSs in cloud-resolving models (CRMs). Almost all traditional global and climate models do not have adequate parameterizations to represent MCSs. Typical multi-scale modeling frameworks (MMFs) with 32 CRM grid points and 4 km grid spacing also might not have sufficient resolution and domain size for realistically simulating MCSs. In this study, the impact of MCSs on precipitation processes is examined by conducting numerical model simulations using the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model (GCE) and Goddard MMF (GMMF). The results indicate that both models can realistically simulate MCSs with more grid points (i.e., 128 and 256) and higher resolutions (1 or 2 km) compared to those simulations with less grid points (i.e., 32 and 64) and low resolution (4 km). The modeling results also show that the strengths of the Hadley circulations, mean zonal and regional vertical velocities, surface evaporation, and amount of surface rainfall are either weaker or reduced in the GMMF when using more CRM grid points and higher CRM resolution. In addition, the results indicate that large-scale surface evaporation and wind feed back are key processes for determining the surface rainfall amount in the GMMF. A sensitivity test with reduced sea surface temperatures (SSTs) is conducted and results in both reduced surface rainfall and evaporation.

Polymer Formulations for Cartilage Repair

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

Gutowska, Anna; Jasionowski, Marek; Morris, J. E.

2001-05-15

Regeneration of destroyed articular cartilage can be induced by transplantation of cartilage cells into a defect. The best results are obtained with the use of autologus cells. However, obtaining large amounts of autologus cartilage cells causes a problem of creating a large cartilage defect in a donor site. Techniques are currently being developed to harvest a small number of cells and propagate them in vitro. It is a challenging task, however, due to the fact that ordinarily, in a cell culture on flat surfaces, chondrocytes do not maintain their in vivo phenotype and irreversibly diminish or cease the synthesis ofmore » aggregating proteoglycans. Therefore, the research is continuing to develop culture conditions for chondrocytes with the preserved phenotype.« less

Simulation and analysis of main steam control system based on heat transfer calculation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Zhenqun; Li, Ruyan; Feng, Zhongbao; Wang, Songhan; Li, Wenbo; Cheng, Jiwei; Jin, Yingai

2018-05-01

In this paper, after thermal power plant 300MW boiler was studied, mat lab was used to write calculation program about heat transfer process between the main steam and boiler flue gas and amount of water was calculated to ensure the main steam temperature keeping in target temperature. Then heat transfer calculation program was introduced into Simulink simulation platform based on control system multiple models switching and heat transfer calculation. The results show that multiple models switching control system based on heat transfer calculation not only overcome the large inertia of main stream temperature, a large hysteresis characteristic of main stream temperature, but also adapted to the boiler load changing.

Data-Rich Astronomy: Mining Sky Surveys with PhotoRApToR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavuoti, Stefano; Brescia, Massimo; Longo, Giuseppe

2014-05-01

In the last decade a new generation of telescopes and sensors has allowed the production of a very large amount of data and astronomy has become a data-rich science. New automatic methods largely based on machine learning are needed to cope with such data tsunami. We present some results in the fields of photometric redshifts and galaxy classification, obtained using the MLPQNA algorithm available in the DAMEWARE (Data Mining and Web Application Resource) for the SDSS galaxies (DR9 and DR10). We present PhotoRApToR (Photometric Research Application To Redshift): a Java based desktop application capable to solve regression and classification problems and specialized for photo-z estimation.

Expression and Purification of Rat Glucose Transporter 1 in Pichia pastoris.

PubMed

Venskutonytė, Raminta; Elbing, Karin; Lindkvist-Petersson, Karin

2018-01-01

Large amounts of pure and homogenous protein are a prerequisite for several biochemical and biophysical analyses, and in particular if aiming at resolving the three-dimensional protein structure. Here we describe the production of the rat glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), a membrane protein facilitating the transport of glucose in cells. The protein is recombinantly expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris. It is easily maintained and large-scale protein production in shaker flasks, as commonly performed in academic research laboratories, results in relatively high yields of membrane protein. The purification protocol describes all steps needed to obtain a pure and homogenous GLUT1 protein solution, including cell growth, membrane isolation, and chromatographic purification methods.

Carotenoids in floral parts of a narcissus, a daffodil and a tulip

PubMed Central

Valadon, L. R. G.; Mummery, Rosemary S.

1968-01-01

1. The qualitative and quantitative distribution of carotenoids of the floral parts of three monocotyledons, the narcissus Scarlet Elegance, the daffodil King Alfred and the tulip Golden Harvest, were studied. β-Carotene, lutein or epoxy-β-carotenes were usually the main pigments, depending on the floral part and on the flower. When β-carotene was the major pigment there were only small amounts of, or sometimes no, epoxycarotenes. 2. Anthers, stigmas and styles of the three flowers did not possess any specific carotenoids but in some cases contained appreciable amounts of epoxycarotenoids. The possibility that these take part in reproduction is discussed. 3. The generalization that yellow flowers contained large amounts of xanthophylls and only traces of carotenes, whereas deep-orange flowers seemed to be characterized by the presence of large amounts of one carotene, was not always the correct one. It is suggested that the floral parts are yellow or orange depending on what carotenoids are present, which is the major one and the amount of total carotenoids, and also on the presence of other non-carotenoid pigments. 4. Two new probable isomers of 5,6:5′,6′-diepoxy-β-carotene were isolated and found together in various floral parts of the tulip Golden Harvest. PMID:5637355

The Dynamics of Pheromone Gland Synthesis and Release: a Paradigm Shift for Understanding Sex Pheromone Quantity in Female Moths.

PubMed

Foster, Stephen P; Anderson, Karin G; Casas, Jérôme

2018-05-10

Moths are exemplars of chemical communication, especially with regard to specificity and the minute amounts they use. Yet, little is known about how females manage synthesis and storage of pheromone to maintain release rates attractive to conspecific males and why such small amounts are used. We developed, for the first time, a quantitative model, based on an extensive empirical data set, describing the dynamical relationship among synthesis, storage (titer) and release of pheromone over time in a moth (Heliothis virescens). The model is compartmental, with one major state variable (titer), one time-varying (synthesis), and two constant (catabolism and release) rates. The model was a good fit, suggesting it accounted for the major processes. Overall, we found the relatively small amounts of pheromone stored and released were largely a function of high catabolism rather than a low rate of synthesis. A paradigm shift may be necessary to understand the low amounts released by female moths, away from the small quantities synthesized to the (relatively) large amounts catabolized. Future research on pheromone quantity should focus on structural and physicochemical processes that limit storage and release rate quantities. To our knowledge, this is the first time that pheromone gland function has been modeled for any animal.

The evolution of the quasar continuum

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elvis, M.

1992-01-01

We now have in hand a large data base of Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT), optical, and IR complementary data. We are in the process of obtaining a large amount of the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) data for the same quasar sample. For our complementary sample at high redshifts, where the UV was redshifted into the optical, we have just had approved large amounts of observing time to cover the quasar continuum in the near-IR using the new Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) array spectrographs. Ten micron, optical, and VLA radio, data also have approved time. An ISO US key program was approved to extend this work into the far-IR, and the launch of ASTRO-D (early in 1993) promises to extend it to higher energy X-rays.

The NASA Lewis large wind turbine program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, R. L.; Baldwin, D. H.

1981-01-01

The program is directed toward development of the technology for safe, reliable, environmentally acceptable large wind turbines that have the potential to generate a significant amount of electricity at costs competitive with conventional electric generation systems. In addition, these large wind turbines must be fully compatible with electric utility operations and interface requirements. Advances are made by gaining a better understanding of the system design drivers, improvements in the analytical design tools, verification of design methods with operating field data, and the incorporation of new technology and innovative designs. An overview of the program activities is presented and includes results from the first and second generation field machines (Mod-OA, -1, and -2), the design phase of the third generation wind turbine (Mod-5) and the advanced technology projects. Also included is the status of the Department of Interior WTS-4 machine.

An evaluation of multi-probe locality sensitive hashing for computing similarities over web-scale query logs.

PubMed

Cormode, Graham; Dasgupta, Anirban; Goyal, Amit; Lee, Chi Hoon

2018-01-01

Many modern applications of AI such as web search, mobile browsing, image processing, and natural language processing rely on finding similar items from a large database of complex objects. Due to the very large scale of data involved (e.g., users' queries from commercial search engines), computing such near or nearest neighbors is a non-trivial task, as the computational cost grows significantly with the number of items. To address this challenge, we adopt Locality Sensitive Hashing (a.k.a, LSH) methods and evaluate four variants in a distributed computing environment (specifically, Hadoop). We identify several optimizations which improve performance, suitable for deployment in very large scale settings. The experimental results demonstrate our variants of LSH achieve the robust performance with better recall compared with "vanilla" LSH, even when using the same amount of space.

Two cases of exenteration of the brain from Brenneke shotgun slugs.

PubMed

Karger, B; Banaschak, S

1997-01-01

A case of extended suicide resulted in two fatalities due to craniocerebral gunshots from a 12-gauge shotgun firing Brenneke shotgun slugs. In each case, the gunshot shattered the skull and the brain and in one case, large parts of the brain including a complete hemisphere were ejected similar to a "Krönlein shot". The location of the trajectory close to the base of the skull, the muzzle gases and the ballistic characteristics of the missile contributed to this rare form of head injury. The high mass and the large diameter of the lead missile do not necessitate a high muzzle velocity to crush large amounts of tissue or to produce an explosive type of head injury. The wadding material and the metal screw attached to the Brenneke slug can be of forensic significance.

Medical Malpractice Damage Caps and Provider Reimbursement.

PubMed

Friedson, Andrew I

2017-01-01

A common state legislative maneuver to combat rising healthcare costs is to reform the tort system by implementing caps on noneconomic damages awardable in medical malpractice cases. Using the implementation of caps in several states and large database of private insurance claims, I estimate the effect of damage caps on the amount providers charge to insurance companies as well as the amount that insurance companies reimburse providers for medical services. The amount providers charge insurers is unresponsive to tort reform, but the amount that insurers reimburse providers decreases for some procedures. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A comparison of solute-transport solution techniques based on inverse modelling results

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mehl, S.; Hill, M.C.

2000-01-01

Five common numerical techniques (finite difference, predictor-corrector, total-variation-diminishing, method-of-characteristics, and modified-method-of-characteristics) were tested using simulations of a controlled conservative tracer-test experiment through a heterogeneous, two-dimensional sand tank. The experimental facility was constructed using randomly distributed homogeneous blocks of five sand types. This experimental model provides an outstanding opportunity to compare the solution techniques because of the heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity distribution of known structure, and the availability of detailed measurements with which to compare simulated concentrations. The present work uses this opportunity to investigate how three common types of results-simulated breakthrough curves, sensitivity analysis, and calibrated parameter values-change in this heterogeneous situation, given the different methods of simulating solute transport. The results show that simulated peak concentrations, even at very fine grid spacings, varied because of different amounts of numerical dispersion. Sensitivity analysis results were robust in that they were independent of the solution technique. They revealed extreme correlation between hydraulic conductivity and porosity, and that the breakthrough curve data did not provide enough information about the dispersivities to estimate individual values for the five sands. However, estimated hydraulic conductivity values are significantly influenced by both the large possible variations in model dispersion and the amount of numerical dispersion present in the solution technique.Five common numerical techniques (finite difference, predictor-corrector, total-variation-diminishing, method-of-characteristics, and modified-method-of-characteristics) were tested using simulations of a controlled conservative tracer-test experiment through a heterogeneous, two-dimensional sand tank. The experimental facility was constructed using randomly distributed homogeneous blocks of five sand types. This experimental model provides an outstanding opportunity to compare the solution techniques because of the heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity distribution of known structure, and the availability of detailed measurements with which to compare simulated concentrations. The present work uses this opportunity to investigate how three common types of results - simulated breakthrough curves, sensitivity analysis, and calibrated parameter values - change in this heterogeneous situation, given the different methods of simulating solute transport. The results show that simulated peak concentrations, even at very fine grid spacings, varied because of different amounts of numerical dispersion. Sensitivity analysis results were robust in that they were independent of the solution technique. They revealed extreme correlation between hydraulic conductivity and porosity, and that the breakthrough curve data did not provide enough information about the dispersivities to estimate individual values for the five sands. However, estimated hydraulic conductivity values are significantly influenced by both the large possible variations in model dispersion and the amount of numerical dispersion present in the solution technique.

A no-reference image and video visual quality metric based on machine learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frantc, Vladimir; Voronin, Viacheslav; Semenishchev, Evgenii; Minkin, Maxim; Delov, Aliy

2018-04-01

The paper presents a novel visual quality metric for lossy compressed video quality assessment. High degree of correlation with subjective estimations of quality is due to using of a convolutional neural network trained on a large amount of pairs video sequence-subjective quality score. We demonstrate how our predicted no-reference quality metric correlates with qualitative opinion in a human observer study. Results are shown on the EVVQ dataset with comparison existing approaches.

The water quality of Sam Rayburn Reservoir, eastern Texas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rawson, Jack; Lansford, Myra W.

1971-01-01

Results of periodic surveys indicate that dissolved-oxygen concentrations at three sites in the 19-mile reach of the Angelina River downstream from Sam Rayburn Dam were low in late summer and early fall after periods of summer stagnation in the reservoir. Moreover, the amount of reaeration that occurred in the reach was insignificant. During periods when the dissolved-oxygen deficiency was large, the concentrations of iron and manganese at each of the three sites increased greatly.

Evaluation of high-level clouds in cloud resolving model simulations with ARM and KWAJEX observations

DOE PAGES

Liu, Zheng; Muhlbauer, Andreas; Ackerman, Thomas

2015-11-05

In this paper, we evaluate high-level clouds in a cloud resolving model during two convective cases, ARM9707 and KWAJEX. The simulated joint histograms of cloud occurrence and radar reflectivity compare well with cloud radar and satellite observations when using a two-moment microphysics scheme. However, simulations performed with a single moment microphysical scheme exhibit low biases of approximately 20 dB. During convective events, two-moment microphysical overestimate the amount of high-level cloud and one-moment microphysics precipitate too readily and underestimate the amount and height of high-level cloud. For ARM9707, persistent large positive biases in high-level cloud are found, which are not sensitivemore » to changes in ice particle fall velocity and ice nuclei number concentration in the two-moment microphysics. These biases are caused by biases in large-scale forcing and maintained by the periodic lateral boundary conditions. The combined effects include significant biases in high-level cloud amount, radiation, and high sensitivity of cloud amount to nudging time scale in both convective cases. The high sensitivity of high-level cloud amount to the thermodynamic nudging time scale suggests that thermodynamic nudging can be a powerful ‘‘tuning’’ parameter for the simulated cloud and radiation but should be applied with caution. The role of the periodic lateral boundary conditions in reinforcing the biases in cloud and radiation suggests that reducing the uncertainty in the large-scale forcing in high levels is important for similar convective cases and has far reaching implications for simulating high-level clouds in super-parameterized global climate models such as the multiscale modeling framework.« less

Development and Commissioning of an External Beam Facility in the Union College Ion Beam Analysis Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoskowitz, Joshua; Clark, Morgan; Labrake, Scott; Vineyard, Michael

2015-10-01

We have developed an external beam facility for the 1.1-MV tandem Pelletron accelerator in the Union College Ion Beam Analysis Laboratory. The beam is extracted from an aluminum pipe through a 1 / 4 ' ' diameter window with a 7.5- μm thick Kapton foil. This external beam facility allows us to perform ion beam analysis on samples that cannot be put under vacuum, including wet samples and samples too large to fit into the scattering chamber. We have commissioned the new facility by performing proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis of several samples of environmental interest. These include samples of artificial turf, running tracks, and a human tooth with an amalgam filling. A 1.7-MeV external proton beam was incident on the samples positioned 2 cm from the window. The resulting X-rays were measured using a silicon drift detector and were analyzed using GUPIX software to determine the concentrations of elements in the samples. The results on the human tooth indicate that while significant concentrations of Hg, Ag, and Sn are present in the amalgam filling, only trace amounts of Hg appear to have leached into the tooth. The artificial turf and running tracks show rather large concentrations of a broad range of elements and trace amounts of Pb in the turf infill.

Ensemble Semi-supervised Frame-work for Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Tissue Segmentation.

PubMed

Azmi, Reza; Pishgoo, Boshra; Norozi, Narges; Yeganeh, Samira

2013-04-01

Brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs) tissue segmentation is one of the most important parts of the clinical diagnostic tools. Pixel classification methods have been frequently used in the image segmentation with two supervised and unsupervised approaches up to now. Supervised segmentation methods lead to high accuracy, but they need a large amount of labeled data, which is hard, expensive, and slow to obtain. Moreover, they cannot use unlabeled data to train classifiers. On the other hand, unsupervised segmentation methods have no prior knowledge and lead to low level of performance. However, semi-supervised learning which uses a few labeled data together with a large amount of unlabeled data causes higher accuracy with less trouble. In this paper, we propose an ensemble semi-supervised frame-work for segmenting of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tissues that it has been used results of several semi-supervised classifiers simultaneously. Selecting appropriate classifiers has a significant role in the performance of this frame-work. Hence, in this paper, we present two semi-supervised algorithms expectation filtering maximization and MCo_Training that are improved versions of semi-supervised methods expectation maximization and Co_Training and increase segmentation accuracy. Afterward, we use these improved classifiers together with graph-based semi-supervised classifier as components of the ensemble frame-work. Experimental results show that performance of segmentation in this approach is higher than both supervised methods and the individual semi-supervised classifiers.

FISH Oracle 2: a web server for integrative visualization of genomic data in cancer research

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background A comprehensive view on all relevant genomic data is instrumental for understanding the complex patterns of molecular alterations typically found in cancer cells. One of the most effective ways to rapidly obtain an overview of genomic alterations in large amounts of genomic data is the integrative visualization of genomic events. Results We developed FISH Oracle 2, a web server for the interactive visualization of different kinds of downstream processed genomics data typically available in cancer research. A powerful search interface and a fast visualization engine provide a highly interactive visualization for such data. High quality image export enables the life scientist to easily communicate their results. A comprehensive data administration allows to keep track of the available data sets. We applied FISH Oracle 2 to published data and found evidence that, in colorectal cancer cells, the gene TTC28 may be inactivated in two different ways, a fact that has not been published before. Conclusions The interactive nature of FISH Oracle 2 and the possibility to store, select and visualize large amounts of downstream processed data support life scientists in generating hypotheses. The export of high quality images supports explanatory data visualization, simplifying the communication of new biological findings. A FISH Oracle 2 demo server and the software is available at http://www.zbh.uni-hamburg.de/fishoracle. PMID:24684958

Hydrophobic kenaf nanocrystalline cellulose for the binding of curcumin.

PubMed

Zainuddin, Norhidayu; Ahmad, Ishak; Kargarzadeh, Hanieh; Ramli, Suria

2017-05-01

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) extracted from lignocellulosic materials has been actively investigated as a drug delivery excipients due to its large surface area, high aspect ratio, and biodegradability. In this study, the hydrophobically modified NCC was used as a drug delivery excipient of hydrophobic drug curcumin. The modification of NCC with a cationic surfactant, cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used to modulate the loading of hydrophobic drugs that would not normally bind to NCC. The FTIR, Elemental analysis, XRD, TGA, and TEM were used to confirm the modification of NCC with CTAB. The effect of concentration of CTAB on the binding efficiency of hydrophobic drug curcumin was investigated. The amounts of curcumin bound onto the CTAB-NCC nanoparticles were analyzed by UV-vis Spectrophotometric. The result showed that the modified CTAB-NCC bound a significant amount of curcumin, in a range from 80% to 96% curcumin added. Nevertheless, at higher concentration of CTAB resulted in lower binding efficiency. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bayesian cloud detection for MERIS, AATSR, and their combination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hollstein, A.; Fischer, J.; Carbajal Henken, C.; Preusker, R.

2014-11-01

A broad range of different of Bayesian cloud detection schemes is applied to measurements from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR), and their combination. The cloud masks were designed to be numerically efficient and suited for the processing of large amounts of data. Results from the classical and naive approach to Bayesian cloud masking are discussed for MERIS and AATSR as well as for their combination. A sensitivity study on the resolution of multidimensional histograms, which were post-processed by Gaussian smoothing, shows how theoretically insufficient amounts of truth data can be used to set up accurate classical Bayesian cloud masks. Sets of exploited features from single and derived channels are numerically optimized and results for naive and classical Bayesian cloud masks are presented. The application of the Bayesian approach is discussed in terms of reproducing existing algorithms, enhancing existing algorithms, increasing the robustness of existing algorithms, and on setting up new classification schemes based on manually classified scenes.

Growth process optimization of ZnO thin film using atomic layer deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weng, Binbin; Wang, Jingyu; Larson, Preston; Liu, Yingtao

2016-12-01

The work reports experimental studies of ZnO thin films grown on Si(100) wafers using a customized thermal atomic layer deposition. The impact of growth parameters including H2O/DiethylZinc (DEZn) dose ratio, background pressure, and temperature are investigated. The imaging results of scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy reveal that the dose ratio is critical to the surface morphology. To achieve high uniformity, the H2O dose amount needs to be at least twice that of DEZn per each cycle. If the background pressure drops below 400 mTorr, a large amount of nanoflower-like ZnO grains would emerge and increase surface roughness significantly. In addition, the growth temperature range between 200 °C and 250 °C is found to be the optimal growth window. And the crystal structures and orientations are also strongly correlated to the temperature as proved by electron back-scattering diffraction and x-ray diffraction results.

Effects of endogenous small molecular compounds on the rheological properties, texture and microstructure of soymilk coagulum: Removal of phytate using ultrafiltration.

PubMed

Wang, Ruican; Guo, Shuntang

2016-11-15

This study aims to clarify the roles played by endogenous small molecular components in soymilk coagulation process and the properties of gels. Soymilk samples with decreasing levels of small molecules were prepared by ultrafiltration, to reduce the amount of phytate and salts. CaSO4-induced coagulation process was analyzed using rheological methods. Results showed that removal of free small molecules decreased the activation energy of protein coagulation, resulting in accelerated reaction and increased gel strength. However, too fast a reaction led to the drop in storage modulus (G'). Microscopic observation suggested that accelerated coagulation generated a coarse and non-uniform gel network with large pores. This network could not hold much water, leading to serious syneresis. Endogenous small molecules in soymilk were vital in the fine gel structure. Coagulation rate could be controlled by adjusting the amount of small molecules to obtain tofu products with the optimal texture. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increased plastic litter cover affects the foraging activity of the sandy intertidal gastropod Nassarius pullus.

PubMed

Aloy, Alexander B; Vallejo, Benjamin M; Juinio-Meñez, Marie Antonette

2011-08-01

This study analyzed the foraging behavior of the gastropod Nassarius pullus on garbage-impacted sandy shores of Talim Bay, Batangas, Philippines. The effect of different levels of plastic garbage cover on foraging efficiency was investigated. Controlled in situ baiting experiments were conducted to quantify aspects of foraging behavior as affected by the levels of plastic litter cover in the foraging area. The results of the study indicated that the gastropod's efficiency in locating and in moving towards a food item generally decreased as the level of plastic cover increased. Prolonged food searching time and increased self-burial in sand were highly correlated with increased plastic cover. The accuracy of orientation towards the actual position of the bait decreased significantly when the amount of plastic cover increased to 50%. These results are consistent with the significant decreases in the abundance of the gastropod observed during periods of deposition of large amounts of plastic and other debris on the shore. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Musical training, individual differences and the cocktail party problem.

PubMed

Swaminathan, Jayaganesh; Mason, Christine R; Streeter, Timothy M; Best, Virginia; Kidd, Gerald; Patel, Aniruddh D

2015-06-26

Are musicians better able to understand speech in noise than non-musicians? Recent findings have produced contradictory results. Here we addressed this question by asking musicians and non-musicians to understand target sentences masked by other sentences presented from different spatial locations, the classical 'cocktail party problem' in speech science. We found that musicians obtained a substantial benefit in this situation, with thresholds ~6 dB better than non-musicians. Large individual differences in performance were noted particularly for the non-musically trained group. Furthermore, in different conditions we manipulated the spatial location and intelligibility of the masking sentences, thus changing the amount of 'informational masking' (IM) while keeping the amount of 'energetic masking' (EM) relatively constant. When the maskers were unintelligible and spatially separated from the target (low in IM), musicians and non-musicians performed comparably. These results suggest that the characteristics of speech maskers and the amount of IM can influence the magnitude of the differences found between musicians and non-musicians in multiple-talker "cocktail party" environments. Furthermore, considering the task in terms of the EM-IM distinction provides a conceptual framework for future behavioral and neuroscientific studies which explore the underlying sensory and cognitive mechanisms contributing to enhanced "speech-in-noise" perception by musicians.

Musical training, individual differences and the cocktail party problem

PubMed Central

Swaminathan, Jayaganesh; Mason, Christine R.; Streeter, Timothy M.; Best, Virginia; Kidd, Jr, Gerald; Patel, Aniruddh D.

2015-01-01

Are musicians better able to understand speech in noise than non-musicians? Recent findings have produced contradictory results. Here we addressed this question by asking musicians and non-musicians to understand target sentences masked by other sentences presented from different spatial locations, the classical ‘cocktail party problem’ in speech science. We found that musicians obtained a substantial benefit in this situation, with thresholds ~6 dB better than non-musicians. Large individual differences in performance were noted particularly for the non-musically trained group. Furthermore, in different conditions we manipulated the spatial location and intelligibility of the masking sentences, thus changing the amount of ‘informational masking’ (IM) while keeping the amount of ‘energetic masking’ (EM) relatively constant. When the maskers were unintelligible and spatially separated from the target (low in IM), musicians and non-musicians performed comparably. These results suggest that the characteristics of speech maskers and the amount of IM can influence the magnitude of the differences found between musicians and non-musicians in multiple-talker “cocktail party” environments. Furthermore, considering the task in terms of the EM-IM distinction provides a conceptual framework for future behavioral and neuroscientific studies which explore the underlying sensory and cognitive mechanisms contributing to enhanced “speech-in-noise” perception by musicians. PMID:26112910

Influence of Diffused Solar Radiation on the Solar Concentrating System of a Plant Shoot Configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obara, Shin'ya

Investigation of a plant shoot configuration is used to obtain valuable information concerning the received light system. Additionally, analysis results concerning a plant shoot configuration interaction with direct solar radiation were taken from a past study. However, in order to consider a plant shoot as a received sunlight system, it is necessary to understand the received light characteristics of both direct solar radiation and diffused solar radiation. Under a clear sky, the ratio of direct solar radiation to diffused solar radiation is large. However, under a clouded sky, the amount of diffused solar radiation becomes larger. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the received light characteristics of a plant shoot configuration under the influence of diffused solar radiation. As a result, we clarify the relationship between the amount of diffused solar radiation and the amount of received light as a function of the characteristics of the plant shoot configuration. In order to obtain diffused solar radiation, it is necessary to correspond to the radiation of the multi-directions. In the analysis, the characteristic of the difference in arrangement of the top leaf and the other leaf was obtained. Therefore, in analysis, leaves other than the top were distributed in the wide range.

Enzymatic lignocellulose hydrolysis: Improved cellulase productivity by insoluble solids recycling

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background It is necessary to develop efficient methods to produce renewable fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. One of the main challenges to the industrialization of lignocellulose conversion processes is the large amount of cellulase enzymes used for the hydrolysis of cellulose. One method for decreasing the amount of enzyme used is to recycle the enzymes. In this study, the recycle of enzymes associated with the insoluble solid fraction after the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose was investigated for pretreated corn stover under a variety of recycling conditions. Results It was found that a significant amount of cellulase activity could be recovered by recycling the insoluble biomass fraction, and the enzyme dosage could be decreased by 30% to achieve the same glucose yields under the most favorable conditions. Enzyme productivity (g glucose produced/g enzyme applied) increased between 30 and 50% by the recycling, depending on the reaction conditions. While increasing the amount of solids recycled increased process performance, the methods applicability was limited by its positive correlation with increasing total solids concentrations, reaction volumes, and lignin content of the insoluble residue. However, increasing amounts of lignin rich residue during the recycle did not negatively impact glucose yields. Conclusions To take advantage of this effect, the amount of solids recycled should be maximized, based on a given processes ability to deal with higher solids concentrations and volumes. Recycling of enzymes by recycling the insoluble solids fraction was thus shown to be an effective method to decrease enzyme usage, and research should be continued for its industrial application. PMID:23336604

Particulate Organic Matter Composition in Stream Runoff Following Large Storms: Role of POM Sources, Particle Size, and Event Characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Erin R.; Inamdar, Shreeram; Kan, Jinjun; Vargas, Rodrigo

2018-02-01

Large storm events possess significant erosive energy capable of mobilizing large amounts of sediment and particulate organic matter (POM) into fluvial systems. This study investigated how stream POM composition varied as a function of the watershed POM source, particle size, storm event magnitude, and seasonal timing. POM composition was characterized for multiple watershed sources and for stream POM following storms in a second-order forested stream. Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) amount, C:N ratio and isotopic content (13C and 15N) were determined for solid phase POM, whereas dissolved organic C, total N concentrations, and fluorescence characteristics were determined for solution/extracted POM. Key findings from this study were the following: (1) Composition of POM varied greatly with watershed sources with forest floor litter being C and N rich and labile, while stream banks and bed were C and N poor and recalcitrant. (2) Summer storms mobilized more carbon and nitrogen-rich labile sources, while winter events mobilized more carbon- and nitrogen-poor refractory material from near-stream sources. (3) POM composition varied by size class, with the coarse POM showing more C and N rich and labile properties, while the fine POM displayed more degraded and refractory properties. If climate variability increases the magnitude and intensity of large storm events, our observations suggest that this will not only increase the inputs of POM to aquatic systems but also result in the delivery of coarser, C and N rich, and more bioavailable POM to the stream drainage network.

High-level production of L-threonine by recombinant Escherichia coli with combined feeding strategies

PubMed Central

Wang, Jian; Cheng, Li-Kun; Chen, Ning

2014-01-01

The process of L-threonine production using Escherichia coli TRFC was investigated, and the result showed that there was a large amount of acetic acid in the broth. The effects of acetic acid, which is a known inhibitory metabolite in E. coli cultivation, on L-threonine production by recombinant E. coli TRFC were evaluated, and the result indicated that the growth of E. coli TRFC and L-threonine formation were significantly inhibited in the presence of acetic acid. Two combined feeding strategies were applied to L-threonine fed-batch fermentation in order to investigate the effects of the feeding strategy on L-threonine fermentation. The results showed that using the combined feeding strategy of pseudo-exponential feeding and glucose-stat feeding resulted in high cell density (36.67 g L−1) and L-threonine production (124.57 g L−1) as well as low accumulation of by-products. This work provides a useful approach for large-scale production of L-threonine. PMID:26019535

Slicing of silicon into sheet material: Silicon sheet growth development for the large area silicon sheet task of the Low Cost Silicon Solar Array project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fleming, J. R.

1978-01-01

The limits of blade tolerance were defined. The standard blades are T-2 thickness tolerance. Good results were obtained by using a slurry fluid consisting of mineral oil and a lubricity additive. Adjustments of the formulation and fine tuning of the cutting process with the new fluid are necessary. Test results and consultation indicate that the blade breakage encountered with water based slurries is unavoidable. Two full capacity (974 wafer) runs were made on the large prototype saw. Both runs resulted in extremely low yield. However, the reasons for the low yield were lack of proper technique rather than problems with machine function. The test on the effect of amount of material etched off of an as-sawn wafer on solar cell efficiency were completed. The results agree with previous work at JPL in that the minimum material removed per side that gives maximum efficiency is on the order of 10 microns.

Characteristics of Alcian-blue Dye Adsorption of Natural Biofilm Matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurniawan, A.; Yamamoto, T.; Sukandar; Guntur

2018-01-01

In this study, natural biofilm matrices formed on stones have been used for the adsorption of Alcian blue dye. Alcian blue is a member of polyvalent basic dyes that largely used from laboratory until industrial dying purposes. The adsorption of the dye onto the biofilm matrix has been carried out at different experimental conditions such as adsorption isotherm and kinetic of adsorption. The electric charge properties of biofilm matrix and its changes related to the adsorption of Alcian blue have been also investigated. Moreover, the results of Alcian blue adsorption to the biofilm were compared to those onto the acidic and neutral resin. The kinetics of adsorption result showed that the adsorption of the Alcian blue dye reached to a maximum adsorption amount within 60 minutes. The adsorption amount of Alcian blue to biofilm increased monotonously, and the maximum adsorption amount was greater compared to the resins. On the contrary, Alcian blue did not attach to the neutral resin having no electric charge. It seems that Alcian blue attached to the acidic resins due to electrostatic attractive force, and the same seems to be the case for adsorption of Alcian blue to biofilm. The adsorption of Alcian blue to the biofilm and acidic resins fitted to Langmuir type indicates that the binding of Alcian blue to the biofilm and acidic resins occurred in a monolayer like form. The maximum adsorption amount of Alcian blue on the biofilm (0.24 mmol/dry-g) was greater than those of acidic resin (0.025 mmol/dry-g). This indicates that the biofilm has many more sites for Alcian blue attachment than acidic resins. According to the result of this study, the biofilm matrix can be a good adsorbent for dye such as Alcian blue or other dyes that causing hazards in nature.

Sidewall-box airlift pump provides large flows for aeration, CO2 stripping, and water rotation in large dual-drain circular tanks

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Conventional gas transfer technologies for aquaculture systems occupy a large amount of space, require a considerable capital investment, and can contribute to high electricity demand. In addition, diffused aeration in a circular culture tank can interfere with the hydrodynamics of water rotation a...

Trends in autumn rain of West China from 1961 to 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chi; Wang, Zunya; Zhou, Botao; Li, Yonghua; Tang, Hongyu; Xiang, Bo

2018-02-01

Autumn rain of West China is a typical climate phenomenon, which is characterized by continuous rainy days and large rainfall amounts and exerts profound impacts on the economic society. Based on daily precipitation data from 524 observation stations for the period of 1961-2014, this article comprehensively examined secular changes in autumn rain of West China, including its amount, frequency, intensity, and associated extremes. The results generally show a significant reduction of rainfall amount and rainy days and a significant enhancement of mean rainfall intensity for the average of West China during autumn (September-October) since 1961. Meanwhile, decreasing trends are consistently observed in the maximum daily rainfall, the longest consecutive rainy days, the greatest consecutive rainfall amount, and the frequencies of the extreme daily rainfall, consecutive rainfall, and consecutive rainfall process. Further analysis indicates that the decreases of autumn rainfall and related extremes in West China are associated with the decreases in both water vapor content and atmospheric unstable stratification during the past decades. On the regional scale, some differences exist in the changes of autumn rainfall between the eastern and western parts of West China. Besides, it is found that the autumn rainy season tends to start later and terminate earlier particularly in eastern West China.

Quality and loudness judgments for music subjected to compression limiting.

PubMed

Croghan, Naomi B H; Arehart, Kathryn H; Kates, James M

2012-08-01

Dynamic-range compression (DRC) is used in the music industry to maximize loudness. The amount of compression applied to commercial recordings has increased over time due to a motivating perspective that louder music is always preferred. In contrast to this viewpoint, artists and consumers have argued that using large amounts of DRC negatively affects the quality of music. However, little research evidence has supported the claims of either position. The present study investigated how DRC affects the perceived loudness and sound quality of recorded music. Rock and classical music samples were peak-normalized and then processed using different amounts of DRC. Normal-hearing listeners rated the processed and unprocessed samples on overall loudness, dynamic range, pleasantness, and preference, using a scaled paired-comparison procedure in two conditions: un-equalized, in which the loudness of the music samples varied, and loudness-equalized, in which loudness differences were minimized. Results indicated that a small amount of compression was preferred in the un-equalized condition, but the highest levels of compression were generally detrimental to quality, whether loudness was equalized or varied. These findings are contrary to the "louder is better" mentality in the music industry and suggest that more conservative use of DRC may be preferred for commercial music.

Transfer of blood urea nitrogen to cecal microbial nitrogen is increased by fructo-oligosaccharide feeding in guinea pigs.

PubMed

Kawasaki, Kiyonori; Min, Xiao; Li, Xiao; Hasegawa, Ena; Sakaguchi, Ei

2015-01-01

The present study was conducted to determine the mechanism by which nitrogen (N) availability is improved by fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) in guinea pigs. Adult male guinea pigs were fed a commercial pellet diet (50 g/day) with either 5% glucose or 5% FOS for 7 days in individual metabolism cages. After 7 days of feeding the diet, (15) N-urea was administered intravenously 1 h before slaughter under anesthesia. The amount and concentration of total, protein, bacterial, ammonia and urea N and the (15) N atom % excess were measured in blood, liver, gut contents and urine. The (15) N atom % excess of total and protein N, and the amount of total, protein and bacteria N and (15) N in the cecum were significantly increased by the consumption of FOS. Furthermore, the concentration and amount of short-chain fatty acids were significantly increased by the consumption of FOS. In contrast, the amount of urinary (15) N was significantly decreased by the consumption of FOS. These results suggest that consumption of FOS increases transfer of blood urea N into the large intestine for bacterial N synthesis, which is subsequently re-absorbed by cecotrophy, and contributes to the increase of N utilization in guinea pigs. © 2014 Japanese Society of Animal Science.

Nature and Properties of Lateritic Soils Derived from Different Parent Materials in Taiwan

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the physical, chemical, and mineralogical composition of lateritic soils in order to use these soils as potential commercial products for industrial application in the future. Five lateritic soils derived from various parent materials in Taiwan, including andesite, diluvium, shale stone, basalt, and Pleistocene deposit, were collected from the Bt1 level of soil samples. Based on the analyses, the Tungwei soil is an alfisol, whereas other lateritic soils are ultisol. Higher pH value of Tungwei is attributed to the large amounts of Ca2+ and Mg2+. Loupi and Pingchen soils would be the older lateritic soils because of the lower active iron ratio. For the iron minerals, the magnetic iron oxides such as major amounts of magnetite and maghemite were found for Tamshui and Tungwei lateritic soils, respectively. Lepidocrocite was only found in Soka soil and intermediate amounts of goethite were detected for Loupi and Pingchen soils. After Mg-saturated and K-saturated processes, major amounts of mixed layer were observed in Loupi and Soka soils, whereas the montmorillonite was only detected in Tungwei soil. The investigation results revealed that the parent materials would play an important role during soil weathering process and physical, chemical, and mineralogy compositions strongly affect the formation of lateritic soils. PMID:24883366

Nature and properties of lateritic soils derived from different parent materials in Taiwan.

PubMed

Ko, Tzu-Hsing

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the physical, chemical, and mineralogical composition of lateritic soils in order to use these soils as potential commercial products for industrial application in the future. Five lateritic soils derived from various parent materials in Taiwan, including andesite, diluvium, shale stone, basalt, and Pleistocene deposit, were collected from the Bt1 level of soil samples. Based on the analyses, the Tungwei soil is an alfisol, whereas other lateritic soils are ultisol. Higher pH value of Tungwei is attributed to the large amounts of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+). Loupi and Pingchen soils would be the older lateritic soils because of the lower active iron ratio. For the iron minerals, the magnetic iron oxides such as major amounts of magnetite and maghemite were found for Tamshui and Tungwei lateritic soils, respectively. Lepidocrocite was only found in Soka soil and intermediate amounts of goethite were detected for Loupi and Pingchen soils. After Mg-saturated and K-saturated processes, major amounts of mixed layer were observed in Loupi and Soka soils, whereas the montmorillonite was only detected in Tungwei soil. The investigation results revealed that the parent materials would play an important role during soil weathering process and physical, chemical, and mineralogy compositions strongly affect the formation of lateritic soils.

Assessing the uncertainty of soil moisture impacts on convective precipitation using a new ensemble approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henneberg, Olga; Ament, Felix; Grützun, Verena

2018-05-01

Soil moisture amount and distribution control evapotranspiration and thus impact the occurrence of convective precipitation. Many recent model studies demonstrate that changes in initial soil moisture content result in modified convective precipitation. However, to quantify the resulting precipitation changes, the chaotic behavior of the atmospheric system needs to be considered. Slight changes in the simulation setup, such as the chosen model domain, also result in modifications to the simulated precipitation field. This causes an uncertainty due to stochastic variability, which can be large compared to effects caused by soil moisture variations. By shifting the model domain, we estimate the uncertainty of the model results. Our novel uncertainty estimate includes 10 simulations with shifted model boundaries and is compared to the effects on precipitation caused by variations in soil moisture amount and local distribution. With this approach, the influence of soil moisture amount and distribution on convective precipitation is quantified. Deviations in simulated precipitation can only be attributed to soil moisture impacts if the systematic effects of soil moisture modifications are larger than the inherent simulation uncertainty at the convection-resolving scale. We performed seven experiments with modified soil moisture amount or distribution to address the effect of soil moisture on precipitation. Each of the experiments consists of 10 ensemble members using the deep convection-resolving COSMO model with a grid spacing of 2.8 km. Only in experiments with very strong modification in soil moisture do precipitation changes exceed the model spread in amplitude, location or structure. These changes are caused by a 50 % soil moisture increase in either the whole or part of the model domain or by drying the whole model domain. Increasing or decreasing soil moisture both predominantly results in reduced precipitation rates. Replacing the soil moisture with realistic fields from different days has an insignificant influence on precipitation. The findings of this study underline the need for uncertainty estimates in soil moisture studies based on convection-resolving models.

Preferential induction of Th17 cells in vitro and in vivo by Fucogalactan from Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi).

PubMed

Yoshida, Hideyuki; Suzuki, Mayu; Sakaguchi, Ryota; Tani, Ito; Kotani, Hitoshi; Shudo, Norimasa; Yoshimura, Akihiko

2012-05-25

The mushroom known as Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) has been used as an herbal medicine for tumor treatment and immune system activation. Because its effects on the differentiation of effector T helper cells have not yet been fully understood, we investigated the effects of Reishi and those of its principal ingredient, β-glucan, on the activation of dendritic cells and the differentiation of Th17 cells. Reishi extracts as well as purified β-glucan (Curdran) activated DCs and caused them to produce large amounts of IL-23. β-glucan also enhanced and sustained the transcription of IL-23p19. The MEK-ERK signaling pathway positively regulates IL-23p19 transcription in β-glucan-stimulated DCs. In a mixed leukocyte reaction, Reishi-stimulated DCs preferentially induced Th17 cells. Furthermore, orally-administrated Reishi increased the percentages of Th17 cells and the transcription levels of antimicrobial peptides. Our results show that Reishi and β-glucan activate DCs to produce large amounts of IL-23, which induces Th17 differentiation both in vitro and in vivo. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Design of Compressed Sensing Algorithm for Coal Mine IoT Moving Measurement Data Based on a Multi-Hop Network and Total Variation.

PubMed

Wang, Gang; Zhao, Zhikai; Ning, Yongjie

2018-05-28

As the application of a coal mine Internet of Things (IoT), mobile measurement devices, such as intelligent mine lamps, cause moving measurement data to be increased. How to transmit these large amounts of mobile measurement data effectively has become an urgent problem. This paper presents a compressed sensing algorithm for the large amount of coal mine IoT moving measurement data based on a multi-hop network and total variation. By taking gas data in mobile measurement data as an example, two network models for the transmission of gas data flow, namely single-hop and multi-hop transmission modes, are investigated in depth, and a gas data compressed sensing collection model is built based on a multi-hop network. To utilize the sparse characteristics of gas data, the concept of total variation is introduced and a high-efficiency gas data compression and reconstruction method based on Total Variation Sparsity based on Multi-Hop (TVS-MH) is proposed. According to the simulation results, by using the proposed method, the moving measurement data flow from an underground distributed mobile network can be acquired and transmitted efficiently.