The Phylogeography of Rabies in Grenada, West Indies, and Implications for Control

In Grenada, West Indies, rabies is endemic, and is thought to be maintained in a wildlife host, the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) with occasional spillover into other hosts. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to improve understanding of rabies epidemiology in Grenada and to inform rabies control policy. Mongooses were trapped island-wide between April 2011 and March 2013 and examined for the presence of Rabies virus (RABV) antigen using the direct fluorescent antibody test (dFAT) and PCR, and for serum neutralizing antibodies (SNA) using the fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test (FAVN). An additional cohort of brain samples from clinical rabies suspects submitted between April 2011 and March 2014 were also investigated for the presence of virus. Two of the 171 (1.7%) live-trapped mongooses were RABV positive by FAT and PCR, and 20 (11.7%) had SNAs. Rabies was diagnosed in 31 of the submitted animals with suspicious clinical signs: 16 mongooses, 12 dogs, 2 cats and 1 goat. Our investigation has revealed that rabies infection spread from the northeast to the southwest of Grenada within the study period. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the viruses from Grenada formed a monophyletic clade within the cosmopolitan lineage with a common ancestor predicted to have occurred recently (6–23 years ago), and are distinct from those found in Cuba and Puerto Rico, where mongoose rabies is also endemic. These data suggest that it is likely that this specific strain of RABV was imported from European regions rather than the Americas. These data contribute essential information for any potential rabies control program in Grenada and demonstrate the importance of a sound evidence base for planning interventions

Protected air-cooled condenser for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant

The long term residual heat removal for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP) is accomplished through the use of three protected air-cooled condensers (PACC's) each rated at 15M/sub t/ following a normal or emergency shutdown of the reactor. Steam is condensed by forcing air over the finned and coiled condenser tubes located above the steam drums. The steam flow is by natural convection. It is drawn to the PACC tube bundle for the steam drum by the lower pressure region in the tube bundle created from the condensing action. The concept of the tube bundle employs a unique patented configuration which has been commercially available through CONSECO Inc. of Medfore, Wisconsin. The concept provides semi-parallel flow that minimizes subcooling and reduces steam/condensate flow instabilities that have been observed on other similar heat transfer equipment such as moisture separator reheaters (MSRS). The improved flow stability will reduce temperature cycling and associated mechanical fatigue. The PACC is being designed to operate during and following the design basis earthquake, depressurization from the design basis tornado and is housed in protective building enclosure which is also designed to withstand the above mentioned events

CRBRP decay heat removal systems

The Decay Heat Removal Systems for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP) are designed to adequately remove sensible and decay heat from the reactor following normal shutdown, operational occurrences, and postulated accidents on both a short term and a long term basis. The Decay Heat Removal Systems are composed of the Main Heat Transport System, the Main Condenser and Feedwater System, the Steam Generator Auxiliary Heat Removal System (SGAHRS), and the Direct Heat Removal Service (DHRS). The overall design of the CRBRP Decay Heat Removal Systems and the operation under normal and off-normal conditions is examined. The redundancies of the system design, such as the four decay heat removal paths, the emergency diesel power supplies, and the auxiliary feedwater pumps, and the diversities of the design such as forced circulation/natural circulation and AC Power/DC Power are presented. In addition to overall design and system capabilities, the detailed designs for the Protected Air Cooled Condensers (PACC) and the Air Blast Heat Exchangers (ABHX) are presented

Use of virtual reality for optimizing the life cycle of a fusion component

International audienceEfficient development of a complex system such as a fusion component needs a stringent integration of standard and new constraints. For example, compared to the previous fusion experimental devices, remote handling (RH) and safety requirements are in ITER key parameters which must be integrated since the earliest design. For optimizing such integration studies, CEA, IRFM decided in 2010 to implement the use of virtual reality (VR) tools during the life cycle (from design to operation) of a fusion component. This paper describes a first feedback of such use for fusion engineering purposes. After a short overview of the CEA, IRFM VR platform capabilities, three main uses will be described: design review, simulation of remote handling and hands-on operations, with man in the loop. The Design review mode was intensively used within the framework of a fruitful collaboration with ITER design Integration Team. This mode, fully compatible with CAD software, enables scale one data visualization with stereoscopic rendering. It improves the efficiency in detecting inconsistencies inside models and machine sub-system design optimization needs. Several accessibility cases of major Safety Important Components (SIC-1) were studied giving important requirements to the design at an early stage. CEA, IRFM, in close collaboration with expertise of CEA, LIST for VR simulation software, applies VR technologies for designing RH maintenance scenario for ITER Test Blanket System (TBS) and Ion cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) Port Plugs. RH compatibility studies using VR pointed out major design drivers while helping to propose credible solution. VR platform is intensively used in the design of WEST (Tungsten (W) Environment Steady-state Tokamak) components and assembly studies, providing important information about the feasibility of assembly processes, optimization of physical mock-ups and ergonomic posture and gestures of operator. Finally, new perspectives, as the integration of safety constraints (dose calculation) will be described, demonstrating the powerful of VR tools at different stages of the component lifecycle

Evaluation des éléments moteurs de l'implémentation

Ce document produit par Fixsen et al. (2018) permet d'évaluer la mise en oeuvre des éléments moteurs de l'implémentation qui sont au coeur de l'Active Implementation Frameworks.Ce document produit par Fixsen et al. (2018) permet d'évaluer la mise en oeuvre des éléments moteurs de l'implémentation qui sont au coeur de l'Active Implementation Frameworks

Development of liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen thrust chamber for the M-1 engine

Design and performance of liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen thrust chamber for M-1 engin

Robot Companion, an intelligent interactive robot coworker for the Industry 5.0

International audienceTo overcome the limitations of the so-called Industry 4.0 focusing on mass production and full automation, a novel paradigm was recently introduced, namely Industry 5.0, which aims at an increased collaboration between humans and machines, and particularly robots, instead of replacing the former with the latter. This challenge requires novel interactive intelligent robots able to perform complex tasks easily and efficiently and to collaborate on the fly with humans whenever required, be it for training or working. In this work, the Robot Companion, a novel demonstrator of this paradigm, is introduced. It combines robotics, Artificial Intelligence, software engineering and embedded systems technologies, and targets industrial assembly tasks. First tests show that this robot can efficiently assemble a representative gear system autonomously or in collaboration with human operators

An intelligent robotics modular architecture for easy adaptation to novel tasks and applications

International audienceIndustrial robots significantly contributed to the increase of quality and productivity in the industry. Still, their deployment and use remain complex and expensive, limiting their main market to mass production in large factories. This article introduces an intelligent robotics framework intended to solve this issue. It relies on a four-layer modular architecture associating a components-agnostic orchestrator coordinating software modules accessed through a standard middleware, and different hardware running the required functions. This architecture is implemented for performing various tasks in autonomy or in collaboration with a human operator, the different components being turned on and adapted on-demand according to the use-case requirements. We illustrate the proposed concept on four robotic sequences: the assembly of a representative gear unit with one arm, the same application with two robots, the Robothon® Grand Challenge and the insertion of deformable objects in a rail

Rabies in the Caribbean: A Situational Analysis and Historic Review

Rabies virus is the only Lyssavirus species found in the Americas. In discussions about rabies, Latin America and the Caribbean are often grouped together. Our study aimed to independently analyse the rabies situation in the Caribbean and examine changes in rabies spatiotemporal epidemiology. A questionnaire was administered to the 33 member countries and territories of the Caribbean Animal Health Network (CaribVET) to collect current data, which was collated with a literature review. Rabies was endemic in ten Caribbean localities, with the dog, mongoose, and vampire bat identified as enzootic reservoirs. The majority of animal cases occurred in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, while human cases only consistently occurred in the latter two areas. Rabies vaccination was conducted for high-risk animal populations with variable coverage, and rabies diagnostic capacities varied widely throughout the region. Illegal importation and natural migration of animals may facilitate the introduction of rabies virus variants into virus-naïve areas. Passive surveillance, together with enhanced methods and serological screening techniques, can therefore be of value. The insularity of the Caribbean makes it ideal for conducting pilot studies on reservoir host population management. Best practice guidelines developed for these reservoir hosts can be individually modified to the epidemiological status and available resources within each locality