SNAP-8 materials report for January - June 1965

Corrosion resistance of molybdenum-chromium steel in mercury forced convection corrosion loop for nuclear auxiliary power system component

SNAP-8 materials report for July - December 1965

Materials evaluation for components of SNAP-8 SYSTEM - design, development, fabrication, and testin

Elevated temperature instability of Stellite 6B

Metallographic and chemical analysis by X-ray diffraction, microscopic examination, and electron microprobes of elevated temperature instability effects on Stellite 6

Concentrations of potassium in the serum of selected patients with hay fever

This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityStudies in experimental animals and in human beings indicate a marked derangement ot the potassium balance during shock. The plasmapotassium content is found to increase when shock is produced by whatever means such as trauma, hemorrhage, visceral manipulation, drugs, or anaphylactic reactions. This increase in extracellular potassium has its origin in the diffusion of potassium ions from the cells. Moreover, excessive concentrations of potassium ions are injurious to cells and will thereby cause a further depletion of cellular potassium. The roles of potassium in metabolism seem to be: 1/ The chief intracellular base, playing the part within the cell that sodium does in the extracellular fluids; 2/ The maintenance of muscular tone by its balance against the effects of sodium and calcium ions; 3/ Antagonist to insulin and cholinesterase, and as an epinephrinc-like substance. The depletion of intracellular potassium following injury or excessive stimulation of cells makes further stimulation ineffective. However, if the medium surrounding the depleted cell contains available potassium ions, diffusion of this potassium back into the cell results in a recovery of the cell's ability to respond normally to new stimuli. On the basis of the relation of potassium to epinephrine and histamine reactions Rusk and Kenamore suggested the use of potassium salts in the treatment of urticaria. Their '"New Approach" consisted in the use of a high protein, low sodium, acid-ash diet, with the addition of potassium chloride. In 1938 Bloom reported successful palliative treatment of hay fever sufferers by the application of this "New Approach" of Rusk and Kenamore. Various other workers followed this original report with both corroborations and refutations of Bloom's claims. In no case had any of the investigators studied the variations if any, of the serum-potassium content of hay fever patients with reference to incidence of symptoms or type of treatment employed. Because of this dearth of data in regard to patients with hay fever it was deemed advisable to study a series of such people from the point of view of possible variations of the potassium level. The subjects in this series are for the great majority patients at the Allergy Clinic of the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals. To have comparable conditions, as far as possible, in the individual cases of the series, the study was limited to uncomplicated cases of ragweed hay fever. In this way one could time fairly definitely the onset of exposure to the allergic excitant by checking with the advent of the ragweed pollinating season. The analytical procedure employed is the chloroplatinate micro-method of Consolazio and Talbott. This method was chosen because of its combination of a high degree of precision with a minimal amount of intricate manipulative detail. All analyses were performed in duplicate and occasionally in triplicate or quadruplicate. The median level of potassium for the entire series of forty-one patients is 5.23 milliequivalents per liter (20.42 milligrams per 100 milliliters) of serum. Although this represents only a slight increase over the median for a group of normal controls, statistical analysis of the data shows a definite divergence from normal in the distribution of individual values through the series. Thus the allergic individuals show a greater dispersion of the values of serum-potassium content than that of the normal series, as shown by the greater extent of the Q1 — Q3 interval and by the higher value of the coefficient of dispersion. This tendency toward individual fluctuations is more marked during the ragweed-pollinating season than before the onset of pollination. It is suggested that this fluctuation may represent a relative instability of the mechanism of regulation of potassium balance in the allergic individual as compared to that of the normal. It may also be a manifestation of a subclinical reaction to contact with the atopic excitant

SNAP-8 materials report for January - June 1964. Volume II - Development of component material

System fluids, boiler materials, condenser tube to tube sheet joint, turbine rotor and nozzle materials, and mercury corrosion loop program - SNAP-

Co-expression module analysis reveals biological processes, genomic gain, and regulatory mechanisms associated with breast cancer progression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gene expression signatures are typically identified by correlating gene expression patterns to a disease phenotype of interest. However, individual gene-based signatures usually suffer from low reproducibility and interpretability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a novel algorithm Iterative Clique Enumeration (ICE) for identifying relatively independent maximal cliques as co-expression modules and a module-based approach to the analysis of gene expression data. Applying this approach on a public breast cancer dataset identified 19 modules whose expression levels were significantly correlated with tumor grade. The correlations were reproducible for 17 modules in an independent breast cancer dataset, and the reproducibility was considerably higher than that based on individual genes or modules identified by other algorithms. Sixteen out of the 17 modules showed significant enrichment in certain Gene Ontology (GO) categories. Specifically, modules related to cell proliferation and immune response were up-regulated in high-grade tumors while those related to cell adhesion was down-regulated. Further analyses showed that transcription factors NYFB, E2F1/E2F3, NRF1, and ELK1 were responsible for the up-regulation of the cell proliferation modules. IRF family and ETS family proteins were responsible for the up-regulation of the immune response modules. Moreover, inhibition of the PPARA signaling pathway may also play an important role in tumor progression. The module without GO enrichment was found to be associated with a potential genomic gain in 8q21-23 in high-grade tumors. The 17-module signature of breast tumor progression clustered patients into subgroups with significantly different relapse-free survival times. Namely, patients with lower cell proliferation and higher cell adhesion levels had significantly lower risk of recurrence, both for all patients (<it>p </it>= 0.004) and for those with grade 2 tumors (<it>p </it>= 0.017).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The ICE algorithm is effective in identifying relatively independent co-expression modules from gene co-expression networks and the module-based approach illustrated in this study provides a robust, interpretable, and mechanistic characterization of transcriptional changes.</p

Evaluation of tantalum for mercury containment in the SNAP-8 boiler

Corrosion testing of tantalum for mercury containment in SNAP 8 boile

MINT and IntAct contribute to the Second BioCreative challenge: serving the text-mining community with high quality molecular interaction data

In the absence of consolidated pipelines to archive biological data electronically, information dispersed in the literature must be captured by manual annotation. Unfortunately, manual annotation is time consuming and the coverage of published interaction data is therefore far from complete. The use of text-mining tools to identify relevant publications and to assist in the initial information extraction could help to improve the efficiency of the curation process and, as a consequence, the database coverage of data available in the literature. The 2006 BioCreative competition was aimed at evaluating text-mining procedures in comparison with manual annotation of protein-protein interactions

IntAct—open source resource for molecular interaction data

IntAct is an open source database and software suite for modeling, storing and analyzing molecular interaction data. The data available in the database originates entirely from published literature and is manually annotated by expert biologists to a high level of detail, including experimental methods, conditions and interacting domains. The database features over 126 000 binary interactions extracted from over 2100 scientific publications and makes extensive use of controlled vocabularies. The web site provides tools allowing users to search, visualize and download data from the repository. IntAct supports and encourages local installations as well as direct data submission and curation collaborations. IntAct source code and data are freely available from

Progress and experiences of implementing an integrated disease surveillance and response system in Somalia; 2016–2023

IntroductionIn 2021, a regional strategy for integrated disease surveillance was adopted by member states of the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region. But before then, member states including Somalia had made progress in integration of their disease surveillance systems. We report on the progress and experiences of implementing an integrated disease surveillance and response system in Somalia between 2016 and 2023.MethodsWe reviewed 20 operational documents and identified key integrated disease surveillance and response system (IDSRS) actions/processes implemented between 2016 and 2023. We verified these through an anonymized online survey. The survey respondents also assessed Somalia’s IDSRS implementation progress using a standard IDS monitoring framework Finally, we interviewed 8 key informants to explore factors to which the current IDSRS implementation progress is attributed.ResultsBetween 2016 and 2023, 7 key IDSRS actions/processes were implemented including: establishment of high-level commitment; development of a 3-year operational plan; development of a coordination mechanism; configuring the District Health Information Software to support implementation among others. IDSRS implementation progress ranged from 15% for financing to 78% for tools. Reasons for the progress were summarized under 6 thematic areas; understanding frustrations with the current surveillance system; the opportunity occasioned by COVID-19; mainstreaming IDSRS in strategic documents; establishment of an oversight mechanism; staggering implementation of key activities over a reasonable length of time and being flexible about pre-determined timelines.DiscussionFrom 2016 to 2023, Somalia registered significant progress towards implementation of IDSRS. The 15 years of EWARN implementation in Somalia (since 2008) provided a strong foundation for IDSRS implementation. If implemented comprehensively, IDSRS will accelerate country progress toward establishment of IHR core capacities. Sustainable funding is the major challenge towards IDSRS implementation in Somalia. Government and its partners need to exploit feasible options for sustainable investment in integrated disease surveillance and response