Quick actuating closure and handling system

A quick activating closure and handling system, which utilizes conical sections for locking, was developed to allow quick access to the combustor internal components of the 8 ft High Temperature Tunnel. These critical components include the existing methane spraybar, a transpiration cooled nozzle and the new liquid oxygen (LOX) injection system housed within the combustor. A substantial cost savings will be realized once the mechanism is installed since it will substantially reduce the access time and increase the time available for conducting wind tunnel tests. A need exists for more frequent inspections when the wind tunnel operates at the more severe conditions generated by using LOX in the combustor. A loads analysis and a structural (finite element) analysis were conducted to verify that the new closure system is compatible with the existing pressure shell. In addition, strain gages were placed on the pressure vessel to verify how the pressure shell reacts to transient pressure loads. A scale model of the new closure system was built to verify the operation of the conical sections in the locking mechanisms

Grasslands of the Great Plains: Their Nature and Use

This book is the result of a long-felt need by the authors and their students for a comprehensive survey of the numerous studies that have been made on plains grasslands. From southern Texas far into Saskatchewan the mid and short grasses form a magnificent prairie nearly 2,500 miles in length and approximately 400 miles wide. Kinds of communities, their composition, nature, significance and uses are fully described. Such information is of value not only to students, range technicians, and other professional conservationists, but also to ranchers and other land owners-in fact, to anyone interested in the economy of our midwestern grasslands. The damaging effects of drought on forage production in this unstable climate and the restoration of the plant cover are of such great importance that they have been given special attention. Climate, soils, and. the proper use of the forage for its sustained production are described. A third of a century of study and experimentation in plains grassland by the authors permits accurate description and interpretation. Important studies that have been made on the vegetation since the coming of the white man to the present day are reviewed. Early investigations have been recorded in papers, bulletins and books, many of which are now out of print or difficult of access. Therefore permission was asked and promptly given by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Duke University Press, Ecological Monographs, Ecology, and several other journals to re-use materials originally furnished by the authors. Such sources are carefully cited in the text. Only by such cooperation has this book been made possible. This great prairie land has been thoroughly examined as to its way of life both above ground and deep into the soil, which it has helped to build and so efficiently protects. Extensive, long-time investigations have elucidated many problems. The scope of the work has been broadened and deepened by the aid of a large number of advanced students who have sought graduate study in this field. To them, many of whom are today leaders in conservation of range management or in teaching a new generation of students the values of ecology in our economy, we are deeply grateful for their interest and cooperation. Two of them are so familiar with the grasslands of Texas and New Mexico, respectively, that each has contributed a chapter to this book. Both common and scientific names of grasses are according to Hitchcock and Chase (1950) revised Manual of the Grasses of the United States. Other scientific names follow Gleason\u27s New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora (1952) or Harrington\u27s Manual of the Plants of Colorado (1954). Common names are nearly all according to the second edition (1913) of Britton and Brown or the second edition of Standardized Plant Names (1942). 404 page

New York's Southern Tier Landowners' Management for Early Successional Forest Habitat: Attitudes, Barriers and Motivations

Click on the PDF for an Executive Summary and the full report. Visit the HDRU website for a complete listing of HDRU publications at: http://hdru.dnr.cornell.edu

Low-Tech Riparian and Wet Meadow Restoration Increases Vegetation Productivity and Resilience Across Semiarid Rangelands

Restoration of riparian and wet meadow ecosystems in semiarid rangelands of the western United States is a high priority given their ecological and hydrological importance in the region. However, traditional restoration approaches are often intensive and costly, limiting the extent over which they can be applied. Practitioners are increasingly trying new restoration techniques that are more cost‐effective, less intensive, and can more practically scale up to the scope of degradation. Unfortunately, practitioners typically lack resources to undertake outcome‐based evaluations necessary to judge the efficacy of these techniques. In this study, we use freely available, satellite remote sensing to explore changes in vegetation productivity (normalized difference vegetation index) of three distinct, low‐tech, riparian and wet meadow restoration projects. Case studies are presented that range in geographic location (Colorado, Oregon, and Nevada), restoration practice (Zeedyk structures, beaver dam analogs, and grazing management), and time since implementation. Restoration practices resulted in increased vegetation productivity of up to 25% and increased annual persistence of productive vegetation. Improvements in productivity with time since restoration suggest that elevated resilience may further enhance wildlife habitat and increase forage production. Long‐term, documented outcomes of conservation are rare; we hope our findings empower practitioners to further monitor and explore the use of low‐tech methods for restoration of ecohydrologic processes at meaningful spatial scales

Comparing computer-generated and pathologist-generated tumour segmentations for immunohistochemical scoring of breast tissue microarrays

BACKGROUND: Tissue microarrays (TMAs) have become a valuable resource for biomarker expression in translational research. Immunohistochemical (IHC) assessment of TMAs is the principal method for analysing large numbers of patient samples, but manual IHC assessment of TMAs remains a challenging and laborious task. With advances in image analysis, computer-generated analyses of TMAs have the potential to lessen the burden of expert pathologist review. METHODS: In current commercial software computerised oestrogen receptor (ER) scoring relies on tumour localisation in the form of hand-drawn annotations. In this study, tumour localisation for ER scoring was evaluated comparing computer-generated segmentation masks with those of two specialist breast pathologists. Automatically and manually obtained segmentation masks were used to obtain IHC scores for thirty-two ER-stained invasive breast cancer TMA samples using FDA-approved IHC scoring software. RESULTS: Although pixel-level comparisons showed lower agreement between automated and manual segmentation masks (κ=0.81) than between pathologists' masks (κ=0.91), this had little impact on computed IHC scores (Allred; [Image: see text]=0.91, Quickscore; [Image: see text]=0.92). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automated system provides consistent measurements thus ensuring standardisation, and shows promise for increasing IHC analysis of nuclear staining in TMAs from large clinical trials

Preparing clinical-grade myeloid dendritic cells by electroporation-mediated transfection of in vitro amplified tumor-derived mRNA and safety testing in stage IV malignant melanoma

BACKGROUND: Dendritic cells (DCs) have been used as vaccines in clinical trials of immunotherapy of cancer and other diseases. Nonetheless, progress towards the use of DCs in the clinic has been slow due in part to the absence of standard methods for DC preparation and exposure to disease-associated antigens. Because different ex vivo exposure methods can affect DC phenotype and function differently, we studied whether electroporation-mediated transfection (electrotransfection) of myeloid DCs with in vitro expanded RNA isolated from tumor tissue might be feasible as a standard physical method in the preparation of clinical-grade DC vaccines. METHODS: We prepared immature DCs (IDCs) from CD14(+ )cells isolated from leukapheresis products and extracted total RNA from freshly resected melanoma tissue. We reversely transcribed the RNA while attaching a T7 promoter to the products that we subsequently amplified by PCR. We transcribed the amplified cDNA in vitro and introduced the expanded RNA into IDCs by electroporation followed by DC maturation and cryopreservation. Isolated and expanded mRNA was analyzed for the presence of melanoma-associated tumor antigens gp100, tyrosinase or MART1. To test product safety, we injected five million DCs subcutaneously at three-week intervals for up to four injections into six patients suffering from stage IV malignant melanoma. RESULTS: Three preparations contained all three transcripts, one isolate contained tyrosinase and gp100 and one contained none. Electrotransfection of DCs did not affect viability and phenotype of fresh mature DCs. However, post-thaw viability was lower (69 ± 12 percent) in comparison to non-electroporated cells (82 ± 12 percent; p = 0.001). No patient exhibited grade 3 or 4 toxicity upon DC injections. CONCLUSION: Standardized preparation of viable clinical-grade DCs transfected with tumor-derived and in vitro amplified mRNA is feasible and their administration is safe

Resonant nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atoms

In this article, we review the history, current status, physical mechanisms, experimental methods, and applications of nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atomic vapors. We begin by describing the pioneering work of Macaluso and Corbino over a century ago on linear magneto-optical effects (in which the properties of the medium do not depend on the light power) in the vicinity of atomic resonances, and contrast these effects with various nonlinear magneto-optical phenomena that have been studied both theoretically and experimentally since the late 1960s. In recent years, the field of nonlinear magneto-optics has experienced a revival of interest that has led to a number of developments, including the observation of ultra-narrow (1-Hz) magneto-optical resonances, applications in sensitive magnetometry, nonlinear magneto-optical tomography, and the possibility of a search for parity- and time-reversal-invariance violation in atoms.Comment: 51 pages, 23 figures, to appear in Rev. Mod. Phys. in Oct. 2002, Figure added, typos corrected, text edited for clarit

Carbonate-Templated Self-Assembly of an Alkylthiolate-Bridged Cadmium Macrocycle

In the presence of Cd(ClO4)2 and a base, a new mixed N,S-donor alkylthiolate ligand supported both carbonate formation from atmospheric CO2 and the self-assembly of a novel bicapped puckered (CdS)6 molecular wheel. The remarkable stability of the complex was demonstrated by slow intermolecular ligand exchange on the 2J(HH) and J(111/113Cd1H) time scales at elevated temperature. Both CO2 and the base were required to convert amorphous “CdLClO4” precipitated in the absence of air to the carbonate complex. The complex shares structural features with the ζ-carbonic anhydrase class associating cadmium(II) with the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and is the first structurally characterized carbonate complex of any metal involving an alkylthiolate ligand