2,542 research outputs found
Collagen biosynthesis.
Collagen is the major structural protein of the lung. At least five genetically distinct collagen types have been identified in lung tissue. However, the precise role of collagen in nonrespiratory lung function is not well understood, in part because of the difficulties inherent in studying lung collagen, regardless of the type of assay used. A major problem is the insolubility of lung collagen; generally less than 20% of total lung collagen can be solubilized as intact chains, even with harsh extraction procedures. Since such collagen may not be representative of total lung collagen, errors in quantitating collagen types, for example, may arise from using such material. Measurement of total lung collagen content may also pose problems, unless appropriate parameters of normalization are chosen. Biopsy dry weight, protein content, and DNA content, for example, may all change in certain disease states. Despite these difficulties, a number of changes in lung collagen have been documented in experimental pulmonary fibrosis, including increased collagen content, increased collagen synthesis rates, and changes in collagen type ratios. Many questions remain. For example, why do diverse toxic substances appear to cause essentially the same fibrotic response, even though initial sites of damage may vary? Conversely, why do similar toxic substances, such as ozone and NO2, cause diverse responses (fibrosis and emphysema, respectively)? Much work remains to be done to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the lung's choice of response
Real-time Loss Estimation for Instrumented Buildings
Motivation. A growing number of buildings have been instrumented to measure and record
earthquake motions and to transmit these records to seismic-network data centers to be archived and
disseminated for research purposes. At the same time, sensors are growing smaller, less expensive to
install, and capable of sensing and transmitting other environmental parameters in addition to
acceleration. Finally, recently developed performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies
employ structural-response information to estimate probabilistic repair costs, repair durations, and
other metrics of seismic performance. The opportunity presents itself therefore to combine these
developments into the capability to estimate automatically in near-real-time the probabilistic seismic
performance of an instrumented building, shortly after the cessation of strong motion. We refer to
this opportunity as (near-) real-time loss estimation (RTLE).
Methodology. This report presents a methodology for RTLE for instrumented buildings. Seismic
performance is to be measured in terms of probabilistic repair cost, precise location of likely physical
damage, operability, and life-safety. The methodology uses the instrument recordings and a Bayesian
state-estimation algorithm called a particle filter to estimate the probabilistic structural response of
the system, in terms of member forces and deformations. The structural response estimate is then
used as input to component fragility functions to estimate the probabilistic damage state of structural
and nonstructural components. The probabilistic damage state can be used to direct structural
engineers to likely locations of physical damage, even if they are concealed behind architectural
finishes. The damage state is used with construction cost-estimation principles to estimate
probabilistic repair cost. It is also used as input to a quantified, fuzzy-set version of the FEMA-356
performance-level descriptions to estimate probabilistic safety and operability levels.
CUREE demonstration building. The procedure for estimating damage locations, repair costs, and
post-earthquake safety and operability is illustrated in parallel demonstrations by CUREE and
Kajima research teams. The CUREE demonstration is performed using a real 1960s-era, 7-story, nonductile
reinforced-concrete moment-frame building located in Van Nuys, California. The building is
instrumented with 16 channels at five levels: ground level, floors 2, 3, 6, and the roof. We used the
records obtained after the 1994 Northridge earthquake to hindcast performance in that earthquake.
The building is analyzed in its condition prior to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. It is found that,
while hindcasting of the overall system performance level was excellent, prediction of detailed damage
locations was poor, implying that either actual conditions differed substantially from those shown on
the structural drawings, or inappropriate fragility functions were employed, or both. We also found
that Bayesian updating of the structural model using observed structural response above the base of
the building adds little information to the performance prediction. The reason is probably that
Real-Time Loss Estimation for Instrumented Buildings
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structural uncertainties have only secondary effect on performance uncertainty, compared with the
uncertainty in assembly damageability as quantified by their fragility functions. The implication is
that real-time loss estimation is not sensitive to structural uncertainties (saving costly multiple
simulations of structural response), and that real-time loss estimation does not benefit significantly
from installing measuring instruments other than those at the base of the building.
Kajima demonstration building. The Kajima demonstration is performed using a real 1960s-era
office building in Kobe, Japan. The building, a 7-story reinforced-concrete shearwall building, was not
instrumented in the 1995 Kobe earthquake, so instrument recordings are simulated. The building is
analyzed in its condition prior to the earthquake. It is found that, while hindcasting of the overall
repair cost was excellent, prediction of detailed damage locations was poor, again implying either that
as-built conditions differ substantially from those shown on structural drawings, or that
inappropriate fragility functions were used, or both. We find that the parameters of the detailed
particle filter needed significant tuning, which would be impractical in actual application. Work is
needed to prescribe values of these parameters in general.
Opportunities for implementation and further research. Because much of the cost of applying
this RTLE algorithm results from the cost of instrumentation and the effort of setting up a structural
model, the readiest application would be to instrumented buildings whose structural models are
already available, and to apply the methodology to important facilities. It would be useful to study
under what conditions RTLE would be economically justified. Two other interesting possibilities for
further study are (1) to update performance using readily observable damage; and (2) to quantify the
value of information for expensive inspections, e.g., if one inspects a connection with a modeled 50%
failure probability and finds that the connect is undamaged, is it necessary to examine one with 10%
failure probability
Comparison of CT colonography, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy and faecal occult blood tests for the detection of advanced adenoma in an average risk population.
Chaos and the continuum limit in nonneutral plasmas and charged particle beams
This paper examines discreteness effects in nearly collisionless N-body
systems of charged particles interacting via an unscreened r^-2 force, allowing
for bulk potentials admitting both regular and chaotic orbits. Both for
ensembles and individual orbits, as N increases there is a smooth convergence
towards a continuum limit. Discreteness effects are well modeled by Gaussian
white noise with relaxation time t_R = const * (N/log L)t_D, with L the Coulomb
logarithm and t_D the dynamical time scale. Discreteness effects accelerate
emittance growth for initially localised clumps. However, even allowing for
discreteness effects one can distinguish between orbits which, in the continuum
limit, feel a regular potential, so that emittance grows as a power law in
time, and chaotic orbits, where emittance grows exponentially. For sufficiently
large N, one can distinguish two different `kinds' of chaos. Short range
microchaos, associated with close encounters between charges, is a generic
feature, yielding large positive Lyapunov exponents X_N which do not decrease
with increasing N even if the bulk potential is integrable. Alternatively,
there is the possibility of larger scale macrochaos, characterised by smaller
Lyapunov exponents X_S, which is present only if the bulk potential is chaotic.
Conventional computations of Lyapunov exponents probe X_N, leading to the
oxymoronic conclusion that N-body orbits which look nearly regular and have
sharply peaked Fourier spectra are `very chaotic.' However, the `range' of the
microchaos, set by the typical interparticle spacing, decreases as N increases,
so that, for large N, this microchaos, albeit very strong, is largely
irrelevant macroscopically. A more careful numerical analysis allows one to
estimate both X_N and X_S.Comment: 13 pages plus 17 figure
Bosonization of current-current interactions
We discuss a generalization of the conventional bosonization procedure to the
case of current-current interactions which get their natural representation in
terms of current instead of fermion number density operators. A consistent
bosonization procedure requires a geometrical quantization of the hamiltonian
action of on its coadjoint orbits. An integrable example of a
nontrivial realization of this symmetry is presented by the Calogero-Sutherland
model. For an illustrative nonintegrable example we consider transverse gauge
interactions and calculate the fermion Green function.Comment: 15 pages, TeX, C Version 3.0, Princeton preprin
Registration of Common Bacterial Blight, Rust and Bean Common Mosaic Resistant Great Northern Common Bean Germplasm Line ABC-Weihing
Great northern common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm line ABC-Weihing (Reg. No. GP-246, PI 647964) was developed by the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research Division in cooperation with USDA-ARS and released in 2006. This line, tested as NE1-05-4, was bred specifically for enhanced resistance to common bacterial blight (CBB), a major seed borne disease of common bean caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (Smith) Dye (Xcp). ABC-Weihing is a great northern BC5F3:6 line obtained from five backcrosses (‘Weihing’*5//‘Chase’/XAN 159). The first cross was made in spring 1997. Only BCnF1 plants resistant to Xcp isolates Dominican Republic DR-7 and Nebraska SC4A, as determined by multiple needle leaf inoculation tests in the greenhouse, were used for successive backcrossing. In addition to phenotypic selection for CBB resistance, marker-assisted selection for the resistant QTLlinked marker SU91 was conducted in the BC1F1, BC2F1, and ABC-Weihing. When inoculated with Nebraska Xcp strains in the field, ABC-Weihing exhibited resistance in both 2005 and 2006. ABC-Weihing has Ur-3 and Ur-6 genes for resistance to common bean rust and carries the single dominant hypersensitive I gene that provides resistance to all non-necrotic strains of the Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV). ABC-Weihing has bright white seed, blooms 45 d after planting, and is a midseason bean maturing 92 d after planting
Multi-component measurements of the Jefferson Lab energy recovery linac electron beam using optical transition and diffraction radiation
High brightness electron accelerators, such as energy recovery linacs (ERL),
often have complex particle distributions that can create difficulties in beam
transport as well as matching to devices such as wigglers used to generate
radiation from the beam. Optical transition radiation (OTR), OTR interferometry
(OTRI) and optical diffraction-transition radiation interferometry (ODTRI) have
proven to be effective tools for diagnosing both the spatial and angular
distributions of charged particle beams. OTRI and ODTRI have been used to
measure rms divergences and optical transverse phase space mapping has been
demonstrated using OTRI. In this work we present the results of diagnostic
experiments using OTR and ODR conducted at the Jefferson Laboratory 115 MeV ERL
which show the presence of two separate components within the spatial and
angular distributions of the beam. By assuming a correlation between the
spatial and angular features we estimate an rms emittance value for each of the
two components.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in PRSTAB; minor
formatting errors correcte
Liver resection or combined chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation improve survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Background/ Aims: To evaluate the long-term outcome of surgical and non-surgical local treatments of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We stratified a cohort of 278 HCC patients using six independent predictors of survival according to the Vienna survival model for HCC (VISUM- HCC). Results: Prior to therapy, 224 HCC patients presented with VISUM stage 1 (median survival 18 months) while 29 patients were classified as VISUM stage 2 (median survival 4 months) and 25 patients as VISUM stage 3 (median survival 3 months). A highly significant (p < 0.001) improved survival time was observed in VISUM stage 1 patients treated with liver resection ( n = 52; median survival 37 months) or chemoembolization (TACE) and subsequent radiofrequency ablation ( RFA) ( n = 44; median survival 45 months) as compared to patients receiving chemoembolization alone (n = 107; median survival 13 months) or patients treated by tamoxifen only (n = 21; median survival 6 months). Chemoembolization alone significantly (p <= 0.004) improved survival time in VISUM stage 1 - 2 patients but not (p = 0.341) in VISUM stage 3 patients in comparison to those treated by tamoxifen. Conclusion: Both liver resection or combined chemoembolization and RFA improve markedly the survival of patients with HCC
Epistemic and social scripts in computer-supported collaborative learning
Collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments typically means that learners work on tasks together, discussing their individual perspectives via text-based media or videoconferencing, and consequently acquire knowledge. Collaborative learning, however, is often sub-optimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. One possibility to improve collaborative learning environments is to conceptualize epistemic scripts, which specify how learners work on a given task, and social scripts, which structure how learners interact with each other. In this contribution, two studies will be reported that investigated the effects of epistemic and social scripts in a text-based computer-supported learning environment and in a videoconferencing learning environment in order to foster the individual acquisition of knowledge. In each study the factors ‘epistemic script’ and ‘social script’ have been independently varied in a 2×2-factorial design. 182 university students of Educational Science participated in these two studies. Results of both studies show that social scripts can be substantially beneficial with respect to the individual acquisition of knowledge, whereas epistemic scripts apparently do not to lead to the expected effects
Theory of laser ion acceleration from a foil target of nanometers
A theory for laser ion acceleration is presented to evaluate the maximum ion
energy in the interaction of ultrahigh contrast (UHC) intense laser with a
nanometer-scale foil. In this regime the energy of ions may be directly related
to the laser intensity and subsequent electron dynamics. This leads to a simple
analytical expression for the ion energy gain under the laser irradiation of
thin targets. Significantly, higher energies for thin targets than for thicker
targets are predicted. Theory is concretized to the details of recent
experiments which may find its way to compare with these results.Comment: 22 pages 7 figures. will be submitted to NJ
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