Low-energy fusion caused by an interference

Fusion of two deuterons of room temperature energy is studied. The nuclei are in vacuum with no connection to any external source (electric or magnetic field, illumination, surrounding matter, traps, etc.) which may accelerate them. The energy of the two nuclei is conserved and remains small during the motion through the Coulomb barrier. The penetration through this barrier, which is the main obstacle for low-energy fusion, strongly depends on a form of the incident flux on the Coulomb center at large distances from it. In contrast to the usual scattering, the incident wave is not a single plane wave but the certain superposition of plane waves of the same energy and various directions, for example, a convergent conical wave. As a result of interference, the wave function close to the Coulomb center is determined by a cusp caustic which is probed by de Broglie waves. The particle flux gets away from the cusp and moves to the Coulomb center providing a not small probability of fusion (cusp driven tunneling). Getting away from a caustic cusp also occurs in optics and acoustics

A new look at low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) research: a response to Shanahan

In his criticisms of the review article on LENR by Krivit and Marwan, Shanahan has raised a number of issues in the areas of calorimetry, heat after death, elemental transmutation, energetic particle detection using CR-39, and the temporal correlation between heat and helium-4. These issues are addressed by the researchers who conducted the original work that was discussed in the Krivit-Marwan (K&M) review paper

Footprint Reduction Process: Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies to Identify Non-Contaminated Land Parcels on the Oak Ridge Reservation National Priorities List Site

In 1989, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry evaluated the entire 35,000-acre U. S: Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR, located in Oak Ridge, TN) and placed it on the National Priorities List (NPL), making the ORR subject to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) regulations. Although much of the ORR has not been impacted by previous federal activities, without investigation it is difficult to discern which parcels of land are free of surface contamination. In 1996, the DOE Oak Ridge Environmental Management Program (EM) funded the Footprint Reduction Project to: 1) develop a process to study the large areas of the ORR that are believed to be free of surface contamination and 2) initiate the delisting of the "clean" areas from the NPL. Although this project's goals do not include the transfer of federal property to non-federal entities, the process development team aimed to provide a final product with multiple uses. Therefore, the process was developed to meet the requirements of NPL delisting and the transfer of non- contaminated federal lands to future land users. Section 120 (h) of the CERCLA law identifies the requirements for the transfer of federal property that is currently part of an NPL site. Reviews of historical information (including aerial photography), field inspections, and the recorded chain of title documents for the property are required for the delisting of property prior to transfer from the federal government. Despite the widespread availability of remote sensing and other digital geographic data and geographic information systems (GIS) for the analysis of such data, historical aerial photography is the only geographic data source required for review under the CERCLA 120 (h) process. However, since the ORR Environmental Management Program had an established Remote Sensing Program, the Footprint Reduction Project included the development and application of a methodology for integrating other existing geographic data sources into the CERCLA 120 (h) review of each study area. The process that was developed and initiated uses historical information, multiple remote sensing technologies, and GIS to identify areas of potential contamination within each study area. Non-intrusive field investigations are conducted to determine the causes of each area of potential contamination. Once the Footprint Reduction Process is complete for each study area, the clean areas within the study area are submitted to regulating agencies for approval and removal from the NPL

Feature integration in natural language concepts

Two experiments measured the joint influence of three key sets of semantic features on the frequency with which artifacts (Experiment 1) or plants and creatures (Experiment 2) were categorized in familiar categories. For artifacts, current function outweighed both originally intended function and current appearance. For biological kinds, appearance and behavior, an inner biological function, and appearance and behavior of offspring all had similarly strong effects on categorization. The data were analyzed to determine whether an independent cue model or an interactive model best accounted for how the effects of the three feature sets combined. Feature integration was found to be additive for artifacts but interactive for biological kinds. In keeping with this, membership in contrasting artifact categories tended to be superadditive, indicating overlapping categories, whereas for biological kinds, it was subadditive, indicating conceptual gaps between categories. It is argued that the results underline a key domain difference between artifact and biological concepts

Critical Review of Theoretical Models for Anomalous Effects (Cold Fusion) in Deuterated Metals

We briefly summarize the reported anomalous effects in deuterated metals at ambient temperature, commonly known as "Cold Fusion" (CF), with an emphasis on important experiments as well as the theoretical basis for the opposition to interpreting them as cold fusion. Then we critically examine more than 25 theoretical models for CF, including unusual nuclear and exotic chemical hypotheses. We conclude that they do not explain the data.Comment: 51 pages, 4 Figure

Modern microwave methods in solid state inorganic materials chemistry: from fundamentals to manufacturing

No abstract available

ALDH Activity Selectively Defines an Enhanced Tumor-Initiating Cell Population Relative to CD133 Expression in Human Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Multiple studies in recent years have identified highly tumorigenic populations of cells that drive tumor formation. These cancer stem cells (CSCs), or tumor-initiating cells (TICs), exhibit properties of normal stem cells and are associated with resistance to current therapies. As pancreatic adenocarcinoma is among the most resistant human cancers to chemo-radiation therapy, we sought to evaluate the presence of cell populations with tumor-initiating capacities in human pancreatic tumors. Understanding which pancreatic cancer cell populations possess tumor-initiating capabilities is critical to characterizing and understanding the biology of pancreatic CSCs towards therapeutic ends. cell populations were further examined for co-expression of CD44 and/or CD24. We demonstrate that unlike cell populations demonstrating low ALDH activity, as few as 100 cells enriched for high ALDH activity were capable of tumor formation, irrespective of CD133 expression. In direct xenograft tumors, the proportions of total tumor cells expressing ALDH and/or CD133 in xenograft tumors were unchanged through a minimum of two passages. We further demonstrate that ALDH expression among patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma is heterogeneous, but the expression is constant in serial generations of individual direct xenograft tumors established from bulk human pancreatic tumors in NOD/SCID mice. phenotypes do not appear to significantly contribute to tumor formation at low numbers of inoculated tumor cells. ALDH expression broadly varies among patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and the apparent expression is recapitulated in serial generations of direct xenograft tumors in NOD/SCID. We have thus identified a distinct population of TICs that should lead to identification of novel targets for pancreatic cancer therapy

Clinical profile, outcomes and improvement in symptoms and productivity in rhinitic patients in Karachi, Pakistan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rhinitis can cause a heavy toll on patients because of its bothersome effects on productivity. This retrospective study was conducted to explore the clinical profile, outcomes and improvement in the symptoms and productivity resulting from treatment of allergic rhinitis in Pakistan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We carried out a retrospective file review of all allergic rhinitis patients who presented to the Ear, Nose, Throat Consulting Clinic from January, 2006 to June, 2008 using a structured proforma especially designed for this purpose. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v. 16.0.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The charts of 169 patients were reviewed. The mean age of the patients was 35.2 ± 9.1 years. Sixty percent patients were male. Ninety eight patients (58%) reported allergy symptoms to be present at both home and work. One hundred and two patients (60.4%) had symptoms severe enough to cause absence from work or academic activities. Up to seventy one percent patients were spending between 1000 - 3000 Pakistani Rupees (1 US$= 83.3 Pakistani rupees) on the treatment of allergic rhinitis per year. One hundred and fifty one patients (89.3%) reported an improvement in rhinitic symptoms and productivity while 18 patients (10.7%) didn't. This improvement was significantly associated with satisfaction with treatment (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Allergic rhinitis, a ubiquitous disease, was seen to cause a strain on patients in the form of recurrent treatment-related expenses as well as absenteeism from work or other daily activities. Symptoms and productivity improved significantly after treatment.</p