Neurologic outcomes of toxic oil syndrome patients 18 years after the epidemic.

Toxic oil syndrome (TOS) resulted from consumption of rapeseed oil denatured with 2% aniline and affected more than 20,000 persons. Eighteen years after the epidemic, many patients continue to report neurologic symptoms that are difficult to evaluate using conventional techniques. We conducted an epidemiologic study to determine whether an exposure to toxic oil 18 years ago was associated with current adverse neurobehavioral effects. We studied a case group of 80 adults exposed to toxic oil 18 years ago and a referent group of 79 adult age- and sex-frequency-matched unexposed subjects. We interviewed subjects for demographics, health status, exposures to neurotoxicants, and responses to the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT), Programa Integrado de Exploracion Neuropsicologica (PIEN), and Goldberg depression questionnaires and administered quantitative neurobehavioral and neurophysiologic tests by computer or trained nurses. The groups did not differ with respect to educational background or other critical variables. We examined associations between case and referent groups and the neurobehavioral and neurophysiologic outcomes of interest. Decreased distal strength of the dominant and nondominant hands and increased vibrotactile thresholds of the fingers and toes were significantly associated with exposure to toxic oil. Finger tapping, simple reaction time latency, sequence B latency, symbol digit latency, and auditory digit span were also significantly associated with exposure. Case subjects also had statistically significantly more neuropsychologic symptoms compared with referents. Using quantitative neurologic tests, we found significant adverse central and peripheral neurologic effects in a group of TOS patients 18 years after exposure to toxic oil when compared with a nonexposed referent group. These effects were not documented by standard clinical examination and were found more frequently in women

Design, construction and initial testing of experimental test package for convective spray cooling in terrestrial gravity conditions

The design and construction of an apparatus for spray cooling tests was completed to better understand the effects of spray cooling with different geometries at varied flow rates and different spray orientations. Three different geometries were studied at four different spray volumetric flow rates varying from 9.3 GPH to 4.6 GPH. At each spray flow rate the heat flux of the small heated pedestal located in the spray chamber was increased from 5 W/cm2 to 32.24 W/cm2. During these tests the spray orientation was changed from a vertical downward spray to a horizontal spray. The convective heat transfer coefficient and preliminary flow visualizations were completed to evaluate the cooling efficiency of sprays

Pen Branch stream corridor and Delta Wetlands change assessment

Airborne multispectral scanner data from 1987 to 1991 covering the Pen Branch corridor and delta at SRS were utilized to provide a detailed change detection analysis. The multispectral data were geo-referenced to a Universal Transverse Mercator projection using finite element registration. Each year was then classified into eleven different landcover categories, and the yearly changes in each landcover category were analyzed. The decrease in operations of K Reactor in 1988 has resulted in drying of the corridor and delta. This has led to the decline of nonpersistent vegetation and the increase of persistent vegetation. Cattails, willow, and bottomland hardwoods, in particular, have grown to dominate the corridor and most of the delta

Quantifying particle sorting in microbubble streaming flows

This work seeks to characterize and model the size-dependent behaviour of microparticles in a bubble streaming flow. We show that in microchannels, the steady streaming flow generated by an ultrasonically driven semicylindrical microbubble can be combined with a Poiseuille flow to achieve tunable, high throughput, size-sensitive sorting and trapping of particles much smaller than the bubble itself. We propose a simple geometric mechanism, based on flow speeds and channel geometry, that reliably predicts the sorting behaviour seen in experiment. It is also shown that an asymptotic theory that incorporates the device geometry and superimposed channel flow accurately models key flow features such as peak speeds and particle trajectories. Finally, the forces acting on particles on oscillatory time scales are determined experimentally using a novel method in which the trajectories of small and large particles are compared. These forces are found to scale quadratically with both oscillatory flow speed and particle size. Simulations of particle trajectories are used to show that Saffman lift is not primarily responsible for these forces. Instead, a lubrication theory is proposed that is able to predict both the magnitude and dependence of forces on particles

Earth resources technology satellite. Volume 14 - Ground data handling system design

NASA Ground Data Handling system design for ERT

LANDSAT-1 and LANDSAT-2 flight evaluation report, 23 January - 23 April 1977

The LANDSAT operations from launch through orbital instrument observations are reviewed. Orbital parameters, power subsystem, attitude control subsystem, and command/clock subsystem are discussed. Other subsystems are also considered, such as telemetry, orbit adjust, electrical interface, thermal, wideband telemetry, multispectral scanner, and data collection