Statement to Water Resources Subcommittee of House Committee on Public Works and Transportation for a Hearing, May 24 and 25, 1978, Washington, D.C. regarding Secondary Treatment Waivers and Ocean Outfalls

The principal technical reason for having a waiver provision for secondary treatment for municipal discharges is that for some outfall systems the dilution is so high that very good ambient water quality can be achieved with less than secondary treatment. Therefore, the criteria for a waiver of the secondary treatment requirement must give full consideration to the dilution obtained by the outfall system. In a high performance outfall diffuser, such as those used by major dischargers in California and Hawaii, initial dilutions are typically 100:1, and may range up to 1000:1 in very favorable circumstances

DNA waves and water

Some bacterial and viral DNA sequences have been found to induce low frequency electromagnetic waves in high aqueous dilutions. This phenomenon appears to be triggered by the ambient electromagnetic background of very low frequency. We discuss this phenomenon in the framework of quantum field theory. A scheme able to account for the observations is proposed. The reported phenomenon could allow to develop highly sensitive detection systems for chronic bacterial and viral infections.Comment: Invited talk at the DICE2010 Conference, Castiglioncello, Italy September 201

Generation of Lamprey Monoclonal Antibodies (Lampribodies) Using the Phage Display System.

The variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs) consist of leucine rich repeats (LRRs) and comprise the humoral antibodies produced by lampreys and hagfishes. The diversity of the molecules is generated by stepwise genomic rearrangements of LRR cassettes dispersed throughout the VLRB locus. Previously, target-specific monovalent VLRB antibodies were isolated from sea lamprey larvae after immunization with model antigens. Further, the cloned VLR cDNAs from activated lamprey leukocytes were transfected into human cell lines or yeast to select best binders. Here, we expand on the overall utility of the VLRB technology by introducing it into a filamentous phage display system. We first tested the efficacy of isolating phage into which known VLRB molecules were cloned after a series of dilutions. These experiments showed that targeted VLRB clones could easily be recovered even after extensive dilutions (1 to 109). We further utilized the system to isolate target-specific "lampribodies" from phage display libraries from immunized animals and observed an amplification of binders with relative high affinities by competitive binding. The lampribodies can be individually purified and ostensibly utilized for applications for which conventional monoclonal antibodies are employed

Non-perturbative JpdJ_{pd} model and ferromagnetism in dilute magnets

We calculate magnetic couplings in the $J_{pd}$ model for dilute magnets, in order both to identify the relevant parameters which control ferromagnetism and also to bridge the gap between first principle calculations and model approaches. The magnetic exchange interactions are calculated non-perturbatively and disorder in the configuration of impurities is treated exacly, allowing us to test the validity of effective medium theories. Results differ qualitatively from those of weak coupling. In contrast to mean field theory, increasing $J_{pd}$ may not favor high Curie temperatures: $T_C$ scales primarily with the bandwidth. High temperature ferromagnetism at small dilutions is associated with resonant structure in the p-band. Comparison to diluted magnetic semiconductors indicate that Ga(Mn)As has such a resonant structure and thus this material is already close to optimality.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figure

Droplet mixer based on siphon-induced flow discretization and phase shifting

We present a novel mixing principle for centrifugal microfluidic platforms. Siphon structures are designed to disrupt continuous flows in a controlled manner into a sequence of discrete droplets, displaying individual volumes as low as 60 nL. When discrete volumes of different liquids are alternately issued into a common reservoir, a striation pattern of alternating liquid layers is obtained. In this manner diffusion distances are drastically decreased and a fast and homogeneous mixing is achieved. Efficient mixing is demonstrated for a range of liquid combinations of varying fluid properties such as aqueous inks or saline solutions and human plasma. Volumes of 5 muL have been mixed in less than 20 s to a high mixing quality. One-step dilutions of plasma in a standard phosphate buffer solution up to 1:5 are also demonstrated

Statement Submitted to Environmental Protection Agency for the Public Meeting, February 22, 1978, San Francisco Regarding Modification of Secondary Treatment Requirements

The principal technical reason for having a waiver provision for secondary treatment for municipal discharges is that for some outfall systems the dilution is so high that very good ambient water quality can be achieved with less than secondary treatment. Therefore, the criteria for a waiver of the secondary treatment requirement must give full consideration to the dilution obtained by the outfall system. In a high performance outfall diffuser, such as those used by major dischargers in California and Hawaii, initial dilutions are typically 100:1, and may range up to 1000:1 in very favorable circumstances

High-temperature series for the bond-diluted Ising model in 3, 4 and 5 dimensions

In order to study the influence of quenched disorder on second-order phase transitions, high-temperature series expansions of the \sus and the free energy are obtained for the quenched bond-diluted Ising model in $d = 3$--5 dimensions. They are analysed using different extrapolation methods tailored to the expected singularity behaviours. In $d = 4$ and 5 dimensions we confirm that the critical behaviour is governed by the pure fixed point up to dilutions near the geometric bond percolation threshold. The existence and form of logarithmic corrections for the pure Ising model in $d = 4$ is confirmed and our results for the critical behaviour of the diluted system are in agreement with the type of singularity predicted by renormalization group considerations. In three dimensions we find large crossover effects between the pure Ising, percolation and random fixed point. We estimate the critical exponent of the \sus to be $\gamma =1.305(5)$ at the random fixed point.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

The Effect of Inkjet Ink Composition on Rheology And Jetting Behaviour

This work presents recent results on the way linear and non linear viscoelastic properties of the fluids affect the jetting mechanism. Recent progress on quantitative characterising both high frequency linear (LVE) and non-linear (NLVE) viscoelasticity of fluids allows fluids to be assessed for their jettability before using such materials in a DoD print head. In term of linear viscoelastic measurements, the Piezo Axial Vibrator (PAV) was used to probe the rheology of the fluids on a frequency range between 10Hz and 10000Hz. A filament stretching apparatus, called the “Cambridge Trimaster”, was used in combination with high speed cinematography, to characterize the fluids high speed stretching and break-up behaviour. The series of fluids investigated here consist in dilutions of mono disperse polystyrene with different molecular weight (110, 210, 306 and 488 kg/mol respectively) diluted in diethyl phthalate. The choice of polymer weights and concentrations were chosen to match both the complex viscosity and the LVE. However, non linear rheological data experiments exhibit differences in the fluid relaxation time and filament break-up mechanism. Ultra-high speed cinematography of DoD jetting events were correlated with filament break-up experiments and demonstrated that fluid rheology provides valuable information on the jetting quality of the fluids

Potency of marbofloxacin for pig pneumonia pathogens Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida: Comparison of growth media

Pharmacodynamic properties of marbofloxacin were established for six isolates each of the pig respiratory tract pathogens, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida. Three in vitro indices of potency were determined; Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Mutant Prevention Concentration (MPC). For MIC determination Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines were modified in three respects: (1) comparison was made between two growth media, an artificial broth and pig serum; (2) a high inoculum count was used to simulate heavy clinical bacteriological loads; and (3) five overlapping sets of two-fold dilutions were used to improve accuracy of determinations. Similar methods were used for MBC and MPC estimations. MIC and MPC serum:broth ratios for A. pleuropneumoniae were 0.79:1 and 0.99:1, respectively, and corresponding values for P. multocida were 1.12:1 and 1.32:1. Serum protein binding of marbofloxacin was 49%, so that fraction unbound (fu) serum MIC values were significantly lower than those predicted by correction for protein binding; fu serum:broth MIC ratios were 0.40:1 (A. pleuropneumoniae) and 0.50:1 (P. multocida). For broth, MPC:MIC ratios were 13.7:1 (A. pleuropneumoniae) and 14.2:1 (P. multocida). Corresponding ratios for serum were similar, 17.2:1 and 18.8:1, respectively. It is suggested that, for dose prediction purposes, serum data might be preferable to potency indices measured in broths

Detection of surface-adsorbed (lipo)proteins by means of a two-step enzyme-immunoassay: a study on the Vroman effect

In view of reports on the involvement of high-molecular-weight (HMW) kininogen and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the Vroman effect, we studied the adsorption of fibrinogen, HMW kininogen, HDL and several other proteins from pooled human plasma and congenitally HMW kininogen-deficient plasma onto glass and low-density polyethylene, both as a function of the plasma concentration and the contact time. Mixtures of purified (lipo)proteins were also included in the study. Protein adsorption was determined by means of a two-step enzyme-immunoassay. Our results support the hypothesis that HMW kininogen is involved in the displacement of fibrinogen, which is almost instantly adsorbed from normal plasma onto glass. On hydrophobic polymers like polyethylene, the low amounts of adsorbed fibrinogen and HMW kininogen from plasma and concentrated plasma solutions may be due to a preferential adsorption of HDL