273 research outputs found
THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE WINDOWLESS INTERFACE FOR THE TRASCO-ADS PROJECT
TRASCO-ADS is a national funded program in which INFN, ENEA, and Italian industries work on the design of an accelerator driven subcritical system for nuclear waste transmutation. TRASCO is the Italian acronym for Transmutation (TRAsmutazione) of Waste (SCOrie). One of the most critical aspects in the design of an Accelerator Driven System is related to the interface region, which is the part of the beamline located between the accelerator, operating under UHV conditions, and the pressurized reactor vessel, consisting of a contained plenum of Pb-Bi eutectic (LBE). A so-called window could separate these two environments, but thermomechanical considerations and radioprotection issues point out that this component could be critical. In the windowless interface, no window is located between the linac and the spallation target. Only a suitable pumping and trapping system, for the gases and the vapors outcoming from LBE, divides the UHV accelerator and the spallation target vacuum. Vacuum gas dynamics theoretical considerations and calculations are presented in this article. The need for a validation of the theoretical models gave the motivation for an experimental work, whose results are also discussed. Scale-up of the experimental setup to the full system needs accurate analyses for a proper dimensioning of the system in the interface region
Computer simulation of soft matter at the growth front of a hard-matter phase: incorporation of polymers, formation of transient pits and growth arrest
Biochemical and immunohistochemical evidence that in cartilage an alkaline phosphatase is a Ca2+-binding glycoprotein.
Accreditation Standard Guideline Initiative for Tai Chi and Qigong Instructors and Training Institutions.
Evidence of the health and wellbeing benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong (TQ) have emerged in the past two decades, but TQ is underutilized in modern health care in Western countries due to lack of promotion and the availability of professionally qualified TQ instructors. To date, there are no government regulations for TQ instructors or for training institutions in China and Western countries, even though TQ is considered to be a part of Traditional Chinese medicine that has the potential to manage many chronic diseases. Based on an integrative health care approach, the accreditation standard guideline initiative for TQ instructors and training institutions was developed in collaboration with health professionals, integrative medicine academics, Tai Chi and Qigong master instructors and consumers including public safety officers from several countries, such as Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, Sweden and USA. In this paper, the rationale for organizing the Medical Tai Chi and Qigong Association (MTQA) is discussed and the accreditation standard guideline for TQ instructors and training institutions developed by the committee members of MTQA is presented. The MTQA acknowledges that the proposed guidelines are broad, so that the diversity of TQ instructors and training institutions can be integrated with recognition that these guidelines can be developed with further refinement. Additionally, these guidelines face challenges in understanding the complexity of TQ associated with different principles, philosophies and schools of thought. Nonetheless, these guidelines represent a necessary first step as primary resource to serve and guide health care professionals and consumers, as well as the TQ community
Perinatal factors associated with developmental defects of enamel in primary teeth: a case-control study
Characterization of Granulations of Calcium and Apatite in Serum as Pleomorphic Mineralo-Protein Complexes and as Precursors of Putative Nanobacteria
Calcium and apatite granulations are demonstrated here to form in both human and
fetal bovine serum in response to the simple addition of either calcium or
phosphate, or a combination of both. These granulations are shown to represent
precipitating complexes of protein and hydroxyapatite (HAP) that display marked
pleomorphism, appearing as round, laminated particles, spindles, and films.
These same complexes can be found in normal untreated serum, albeit at much
lower amounts, and appear to result from the progressive binding of serum
proteins with apatite until reaching saturation, upon which the mineralo-protein
complexes precipitate. Chemically and morphologically, these complexes are
virtually identical to the so-called nanobacteria (NB) implicated in numerous
diseases and considered unusual for their small size, pleomorphism, and the
presence of HAP. Like NB, serum granulations can seed particles upon transfer to
serum-free medium, and their main protein constituents include albumin,
complement components 3 and 4A, fetuin-A, and apolipoproteins A1 and B100, as
well as other calcium and apatite binding proteins found in the serum. However,
these serum mineralo-protein complexes are formed from the direct chemical
binding of inorganic and organic phases, bypassing the need for any biological
processes, including the long cultivation in cell culture conditions deemed
necessary for the demonstration of NB. Thus, these serum granulations may result
from physiologically inherent processes that become amplified with calcium
phosphate loading or when subjected to culturing in medium. They may be viewed
as simple mineralo-protein complexes formed from the deployment of
calcification-inhibitory pathways used by the body to cope with excess calcium
phosphate so as to prevent unwarranted calcification. Rather than representing
novel pathophysiological mechanisms or exotic lifeforms, these results indicate
that the entities described earlier as NB most likely originate from calcium and
apatite binding factors in the serum, presumably calcification inhibitors, that
upon saturation, form seeds for HAP deposition and growth. These calcium
granulations are similar to those found in organisms throughout nature and may
represent the products of more general calcium regulation pathways involved in
the control of calcium storage, retrieval, tissue deposition, and disposal
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